They found a rhythm and moved together, rocking into her in seductive, sensuous slides, and that coil of heat inside her twisted and tightened again, building, higher, higher. It kept building so high it almost scared her, she’d never been that high before, reaching for that incredible sharp point of almost painful ecstasy. The pressure of Tyler’s damp body from behind and Nick’s body on her clit gave her the final stimulation she needed to send her flying. Sparks exploded in front of her eyes, fire raced through her veins and she lost all awareness of what was happening, other than the feelings rocketing through her body.

Only vague awareness teased the edges of her consciousness when Nick and Tyler came too, shouting and groaning their own pleasure, pulsing inside her in heavy jerks, pressing their bodies so tightly to her, squeezing her between them, the three of them joined like that in an incredible, intimate connection. The completion of it, the perfect grace and beauty and generosity of it, touched her soul. Her heart turned over in her chest and she knew she was utterly lost, all of her, her body, her heart, her soul, lost to them—both of them.

“Damn. Coffee’s cold.” Nick put on a pout.

Kaelin huffed out a laugh and snuggled under the covers.

“You can’t stay in bed all day,” Tyler said. After that powerful, draining orgasm, he’d crashed again in a short nap, but now felt full of energy, practically vibrating with it. “Come on, get up. I’ll make more coffee.”

Kaelin opened one eye to peek at Nick, who met her gaze and smiled lazily.

Tyler watched them, a hot softness expanding in his chest. There were going to be some growing pains as they all learned about each other and figured things out. But he could handle it.

With an exaggerated stretch and yawn, Kaelin got out of bed. “Damn,” she said. “My bag is still in my car. I don’t have anything to wear.”

“You looked good in that shirt of mine,” Tyler said with a wicked grin.

“Better than good,” Nick added, patting her naked butt as he walked past her.

She grabbed his shirt again and slipped it on, this time finding her panties too. She followed him to their small kitchen where he started making coffee, and climbed up onto a stool at the counter.

“How long can you stay?” he asked, pouring the dregs of the last pot into the sink.

“Well. I’m on vacation for two weeks, but I can’t leave Taz for very long.”

“Is he home alone?” Tyler frowned, his hand pausing with a scoop of coffee in it.

“No! Of course not! He’s having sleepovers at the neighbors’.”

“Ah.”

“I miss him,” she said, looking down, and his heart tightened a little.

“We can have pets here,” he said casually.

Her eyes brightened. “Really?”

He nodded, chest tightening a little more. “Yeah. Cats and small dogs. And you know what else?”

“What?”

“Some of the best law schools in the country are here in Chicago.”

“That is true.” They shared a long, smiling moment.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yeah.” She tipped her head to one side. “I feel like pancakes.”

He shot her an amused glance. “Really.”

Her saucy smile tightened his heart in his chest and he reached out to cup her cheek with gentle reverence. Christ. How the hell had he gotten so lucky?

The knock on the apartment door made them both jump. Their eyes met in a silent question. Tyler shrugged, but headed to the door, wearing only his unbuttoned jeans, but Nick beat him there, dressed in a pair of shorts he’d retrieved from his own room. The door opened to reveal—

“Mom.”

Feeling as if the air had been sucked out of his lungs, Tyler stared at his mother.

Her smile was uncertain, hesitant, tremulous. “Hi, Tyler.”

He frowned, standing there just behind Nick. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you. I’m sorry to barge in. I’m on my way to the airport.”

“Airport? Where are you going? And where’s Dad?”

“He’s at home.” Sadness dimmed her smile. “I’m on my way to Italy.”

“Italy! Jesus Christ.” He gaped at her then shoved a hand in his hair. “Uh. Well. Come in.” And then he remembered Kaelin sitting at the counter separating living room from small kitchen, wearing only his shirt with one button done up and a tiny pair of panties.

Mom saw her at that moment, too, stopped and went very still. “Kaelin.”

Kaelin’s eyes shifted from one person to the other and back again but she put on a brave smile. “Hi, Mrs. Wirth.”

Mom walked farther into the living room, clutching her purse to her. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” Then she smiled, warmly, genuinely. “But I’m happy to see you here.”

Huh? There wasn’t much doubt about what was going on, given Kaelin’s skimpy attire and his own half-dressed state, and what she made of Nick being in on all this, he had no idea. His mind was still reeling from seeing her there.

“I’m just making coffee,” he told his mom, freaked out at how normal and polite and host-like his comment was. “Want some?”

“Yes. That would be nice.”

His chest clenched as he poured fresh coffee into mugs. Sticky silence hovered around them.

“So. What’s going on?” he asked his mom.

She smiled, looking strangely more at ease now she’d seen Kaelin there.

“Well. Like I said, I’m on my way to Italy.”

“Why?”

“I’ve always wanted to go there. I’m going on a cooking holiday. I’ll be staying in a little apartment and taking cooking lessons, and touring olive groves and wineries.”

“Uh. Wow.” She’d always liked to cook, but…wow.

She looked down at her coffee, then back up. “I’ve been trying to convince your father to travel with me, maybe even retire, but he’s not interested in that. So I’ve decided to go myself.” She bit her lip briefly.

“Mom. Are you and Dad splitting up?” A rock materialized in Tyler’s gut.

“Well. Not exactly. But I think some time apart will be good for us.” Her eyelashes drifted down. “I haven’t been entirely happy for some time and I think we need to do this. Figure things out. Last weekend was…difficult. But in a way, it finally got some things out in the open that needed to be said.” She looked at up him sadly. “I just wanted to keep our family together.”

“Jesus, Mom.”

“I still love him,” she said. “I just need to figure out what I want my life to be. You know, when you’ve been married thirty years you start to take things for granted. Maybe some time apart will help that.”

Tyler had a feeling there was a lot more to it than that. He appreciated that his mom wasn’t there bad-mouthing his dad or blaming him for whatever had happened, but he sensed her unhappiness with his dad, remembering last weekend, when he’d tried to talk to them, the tension between them, remembering how for the first time in his life they hadn’t been a united front against him.

“But that’s not really why I’m here,” Mom said. “Well, I wanted you to know that, but mostly I wanted to apologize.” She sighed and lifted her cup to her lips. After taking a sip, she continued. “I’m so sorry about last weekend. I’m so sorry about…everything.” She lifted her blue eyes to meet his. “I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know that you thought I believed you would rape someone. Truly, Tyler, I never really believed it.”

“Then why did you kick me out?” he said, disturbed at how low and shaky his voice was.

“It was still an incredibly stupid thing to do,” she admonished him. “Putting yourself in that position. Clearly something happened that night. Even though I believed you never forced that girl into anything, it was mortifying to have her parents contacting us and accusing you of that, and then having to give them money to keep it quiet.”

“That was your choice.”

“Yes.” She nodded. “It was. Oh, Tyler. You were only seventeen years old and you were doing crazy things like that! Tying a girl up! Naked! You were getting wilder and wilder and I thought…” She paused. “It seemed like we needed to take drastic measures. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Then she made a face. “Maybe. To this day I wonder if it was the right choice. I never imagined it would turn into ten years without seeing you.” She waved a hand. “But we can’t go back and change things. All I can do is tell you how sorry I am. And last weekend, yes, I know we overreacted about that rumor. I don’t want to blame your father, because lord knows I haven’t been without blame in this whole thing, but this time we really did have a…difference of opinion about how that was handled. I knew he was furious, and I was going to try to smooth things over but I didn’t really get a chance. I really don’t care if you took ten hookers up to your room.” She shot an apologetic glance at Kaelin. “I don’t mean you, dear.”