Just One Spark (The Kingston Family 4)

Xander folded his arms across his chest. “Any chance I’ll have a houseful of people soon?” he asked, not sounding happy about it.

“You never know.” Dash couldn’t stop the grin lifting the corners of his mouth at Xander’s predictable reaction.

Dash had made it his life’s mission to drive his more solitary brother crazy by showing up uninvited all the time. Xander was uptight and could use a good shaking up. But despite it all, they were close.

Now that Xander lived with his fiancée, Dash had stopped using his key and rang the bell instead. Unless he knew he wouldn’t be interrupting them. Linc’s car in the driveaway had indicated he’d been safe to enter today. He had no desire to walk in on Xander and Sasha doing shit he didn’t need to see.

“Dash! I didn’t know you were here, too.” Sasha flowed into the kitchen because that’s what his brother’s fiancée did. She glided across a room like the actress she was. Good thing she was down-to-earth, too.

“Hello, beautiful.” He winked at her and caught Xander’s glare.

Dash had every reason to suck up to Sasha. He’d crossed a line with Cassidy, Sasha’s best friend and former personal assistant, despite both Xander and Sasha warning him against making a move. Things between them had escalated out of control after Sasha had been hurt by her stalker. Cassidy had needed a shoulder to cry on, and Dash had been admittedly struck dumb from the first time he’d laid eyes on her.

He’d acted with his dick and all his other body parts that were drawn to the California girl. Their one night had blown his mind, and even for a guy who’d had more than his share of women, that was a huge understatement.

He’d woken up as sober as when he’d slid into her the night before. No drunk excuses. Sunlight was streaming into the hotel room, illuminating her silky blond hair, porcelain skin, and delicate profile that would inspire songs in his future, and he’d freaked the fuck out. Instead of acting like a man, he’d dressed and disappeared before she woke up. Things had been awkward since.

“Knock, knock, we’re coming in!” Dash recognized his lead guitarist Jagger’s voice followed by footsteps, letting him know Mac, the bassist, and Axel, the new drummer, who happened to be Cassidy’s brother, were with him. And fuck no, Axel did not know what had happened between Dash and his sister.

“In the kitchen,” Dash called out.

“Really?” Xander asked, eyebrow raised in annoyance.

Sasha squeezed his shoulder. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not. What’s wrong with your house?” he asked Dash. “I love you but half the time it feels like you guys live here.”

Dash lifted his shoulders. “Our road manager came by, called a few friends…”

“There’s a party at his place,” Mac said as the guys filed into the kitchen dressed in bathing trunks and sneakers.

Sasha narrowed her gaze. “Where’s Cass?”

Cassidy used to be Sasha’s personal assistant until the band’s latest one quit. Xander, Sasha, and Harrison Dare, a movie star friend of hers, were creating a production company and had asked Cassidy to be their creative director. With her ad agency background prior to working for Sasha, she was a perfect fit.

But there was time before they’d need Cassidy to start work. Axel had convinced her to lend the band a hand. Again, because Axel had no idea that Dash had fucked his sister and walked out, making certain she understood what one and done meant. Because yeah, when Dash got feelings, he was that much of an asshole.

“She’s at the pool, keeping an eye on shit,” Axel said, wincing under Sasha’s pissed-off glare.

Normally Dash would get the brunt of her anger, but Axel had been the last guy to leave the house. And he was Cassidy’s brother.

“You left her there with your goddamn entourage and the groupies?” Sasha walked over and smacked Dash upside the head.

“Hey! I didn’t do it,” he muttered.

She shot him a look that let him know he’d done other things to earn him that swat, and he couldn’t deny he deserved it. Nor could he fight with her in front of the band.

“Overseeing your parties and babysitting your groupies isn’t part of her job description.” Sasha swiped a set of car keys that sat in a bowl on the counter.

“Where are you going?” Xander asked.

“To save my best friend.” She waved at Xander with a warm smile that Dash had to admit would make any man envious, ignored the rest of them, and strode out of the kitchen.

“Good job,” Xander muttered. “Way to piss her off.”

Dash ran a hand over his face. “Look, I have a lot on my mind!”

Xander looked at him, his jaw tight, and Dash didn’t say a word. Of his two brothers, he could read Xander better. And Xander wanted to give Dash the same lecture Linc had.