“Want one of these?” Nick opened the small bar fridge and held up a beer.

“Nah. Had enough booze.” He heard the fridge door close and then the bed dipped under Nick’s weight as he sat beside him.

Silence settled around them. Tyler lifted his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Neck sore?” Nick asked.

“Hell yeah.”

“Roll over.”

Tyler turned away from Nick, face-down on the bed. Then Nick’s hands found his shoulders and started massaging the tight muscles. His strong fingers dug into rock-like muscles and Tyler groaned.

“You always store all your tension here.”

Tyler grunted a wordless response, his eyes closing. Then the bed shifted again and he felt Nick moving over him, straddling his ass, still kneading tight muscles, using his thumbs to work his way down his spine.

Tension seeped out of him. Some tension. But then a different kind of tension filled him at the feel of Nick’s hands on his body and his muscled thighs against his hips. Tyler’s dick swelled against the bed and he imagined Nick’s doing the same, thickening and lengthening in his pants where he now pressed against his ass. He let the moan pass through his lips.

“Feel good?” Nick’s hands kept moving on him—mesmerizing, sensual, arousing.

“Yeah.”

Nick moved away. “Take your clothes off.”

They both tossed off their clothes, and Tyler resumed his prone position, arms bent, and Nick straddled him again, this time bare skin to hot bare skin. Nick’s cock rubbed up and down the crease of Tyler’s ass as his hands moved up and down his back, over his tight shoulders. Every nerve ending in Tyler’s ass jumped at the feel of Nick’s cock sliding there, and his own dick hardened even more against the mattress.

Tyler jerked when Nick’s tongue licked up his back, when his teeth nipped a shoulder muscle. He lifted his head as fire streaked through him, and Nick’s hand slid over his forehead, pulling his head back even farther, and rubbed over his hair. Tyler groaned.

Nick bent low again, slid his hands beneath Tyler’s arms and gripped his fists, cock sliding up and down, sending a barrage of sparks over those sensitive nerves, his body rubbing over Tyler’s back, his face rubbing Tyler’s face. If Nick’s goal was to ease the tension in him, he’d succeeded, but fuck, he’d created a whole other kind of tension. Tyler’s balls tightened and pressure built.

Still stretched over Tyler’s back, Nick released Tyler’s hands and slid his hands into Tyler’s hair. He rubbed his nose against Tyler’s cheek, paused, then licked around his ear. Sensation poured through Tyler, thick and hot. Nick pressed his face to Tyler’s and they lay like that for a moment, the heat of Nick’s cheek seeping into his face, the roughness of Nick’s stubble scraping against his, the weight of Nick’s body pressing him into the mattress, the sound of Nick’s harsh breathing loud in his ear.

Tyler turned his head a fraction more and found Nick’s mouth with his own.

The kiss started off slow and warm, soon passed hot, and exploded into scorching. Their tongues met and tangled, mouths opening wider. Never one to be on the bottom, Tyler rolled Nick off him and arranged himself on top, taking Nick’s mouth again and again, holding his head with both hands. He wedged his thigh between Nick’s, nudged Nick’s cock, and Nick let out a long groan.

“You were horny before we even started this,” Nick whispered when Tyler moved his mouth away to rub his jaw against Nick’s, to kiss his neck.

“Yeah.” Nick knew him better than anyone. Although that comment Kaelin had made earlier had startled him with her scary insight.

“You want her,” Nick said, then gasped when Tyler nipped his jaw. “You wanted her then. And you want her now.”

“I want you,” Tyler growled.

Nick laughed. “I know.” He grabbed Tyler’s head and kissed him hard. “You’re so fucked-up.”

“So are you.” Tyler reached for Nick’s crotch, cupped his junk and squeezed another sharp breath out of him. “Wanna get fucked?”

Margot and Kaelin sat at the kitchen island drinking coffee the next morning. Margot had slept restlessly and her head throbbed this morning. She rubbed her temples.

“I’m not really into this spa thing,” Kaelin said to her. She glanced at her watch. “But Avery wants to do it for us.”

“It’ll be fun,” Margot said with a smile. “Just you girls. And you’ve worked so hard on the wedding plans, you deserve a day of relaxation. What time is Maddie coming?”

“About ten thirty. Our appointment is at eleven.”

Giving in to the pounding at her temples, Margot slid off the stool and moved to a cupboard where she shook a couple of pills out of a bottle and into her hand. She caught Kaelin’s eye. “Just a little headache,” she said with a smile. She washed the tablets down with coffee.

“I’m sorry again about the scene last night,” Kaelin said.

Margot bit her lip, tension zooming back at the memory. She’d so hoped that Tyler’s homecoming was going to be a reunion full of hugs and long talks about his life. It hadn’t worked out that way. He hadn’t even wanted to stay in their home, instead had gotten a hotel room. She’d hidden her deep disappointment with frantic efforts to serve drinks and food and make cheerful small talk with guests. And then Tyler had somehow managed to antagonize sweet little Kaelin.

She and Kaelin had spent a lot of time together the last few months, working on wedding plans, and a connection had built between them, an understanding that Margot suspected was one-sided. Over the years Margot had learned to hide her feelings deep inside her, to keep that careful, perfect façade in place at all times, so it wasn’t surprising that Kaelin wouldn’t know how she felt, but Kaelin was young and Margot easily recognized that same kind of restless yearning she herself kept hidden. She didn’t think anyone else saw that in Kaelin—she was a sweet girl, well liked at the law firm, loved by the seniors she visited with her little dog, regarded with affection by everyone in town. But for both of them, the wedding had been something in their lives out of the ordinary, something they could throw their energy and creativity into.

There was no shortage of money in the Wirth household, something Margot realized she had come to take for granted, especially when she thought the almost unthinkable thought of leaving her husband. She knew she’d tried to go overboard with the wedding plans. Avery was her only daughter, this was the only chance she was ever going to have to do this, and she wanted it to be so special for her baby. Tyler—would Tyler ever marry? The fact that he’d shown up with Nick in tow resurrected all those crazy doubts she’d had years ago. But Avery had invited Nick to the wedding, and he and Tyler were business partners now, so it wasn’t incongruous that he would be there too.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said now to Kaelin, though she felt how tight her lips were as she spoke. “Tyler has this way of getting under people’s skin.” She immediately felt disloyal, as if she should have defended her son, not blamed him, but Kaelin was sitting right there in front of her, clearly feeling awful about what had happened, and she wanted to make Kaelin feel better.

“That’s true,” Kaelin said quietly. She stared at her coffee.

Avery burst into the kitchen then, with her usual exuberance. “Oh, coffee, good! I need caffeine.” She poured herself a cup. “Isn’t Maddie here yet?”

At that moment the front doorbell rang and Avery popped out to answer it.

“Maddie seems very nice,” Margot said to Kaelin.

Kaelin gave a small smile. “Yes. She is.”

“Well, you girls go and enjoy your day.”

“What are you doing today?” Kaelin asked, rising from her stool and heading toward the dishwasher to put away her mug. Warmth expanded in Margot’s chest, that Kaelin felt enough at home there to do that. Kaelin hadn’t had an easy life, and since her parents had died, Margot had felt almost a responsibility, a maternal need to look after her.