One Wicked Night (8 page)

“Are you going to be okay?” Kaelin asked Scott, worry creasing her forehead.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. He aimed a kiss at her forehead and ended up bumping her temple, then started taking off his clothes. Tyler frowned and set his hands on Kaelin’s small shoulders, turning her away from Scott and toward the door.

“I’m in room 405,” he told Scott. “Call if you need anything.”

“Sure, man, thanks. Sorry about tonight.”

“Don’t apologize to me. Save that for Avery tomorrow.” He was going to need to suck up big time. Hoo boy.

They left Scott in his room, and Nick and Tyler rode down the elevator with Kaelin and strolled across the empty lobby with her. Tyler stopped in front of one of the couches arranged around the fireplace, still burning with a warm glow, and pulled Kaelin down to sit beside him.

Nick paused, looked at him, then sat down too, on the other side of her.

Tyler blew out a long breath. “Wow. That turned out to be a crazy night.” He leaned back into the couch.

“No kidding,” Kaelin said. “I can’t believe that happened.”

“Thank you again, Kaelin.” Tyler took her hand.

After a short pause, she said, “It wasn’t your fault, was it?”

“I am fully willing to take the blame if it will save Scott’s ass,” Tyler said carefully. He shot her a wary glance. She smiled. Such a sweet smile, the curve of her mouth so appealing.

“Trouble just seems to follow you around.”

Nick laughed and she turned to look at him. Tyler watched them, the wordless connection between them, watched as Nick took her other hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Something shifted inside Tyler. It wasn’t jealousy. He
liked
it that they liked each other. He always had. In some ways, Nick and Kaelin were so much alike—steady, dependable. So unlike him. Probably Cop Boy was like that too—he was an officer of the law. He had to be serious and responsible too. Irritation rubbed inside Tyler.

Okay,
that
was jealousy.

Thinking about Kaelin with that guy bugged the hell out of him.

“How’s your eye, bud?” Nick asked him.

He focused his attention back on Kaelin and Nick, now both looking at him.

“I’m okay.”

“What happened?” Kaelin waited for his response, eyes clear, not judgmental or critical.

He rolled his eyes. “I tried to stop Scott from getting in the fire truck. He got a little carried away and accidentally knocked his elbow into my eye.”

Kaelin licked her lips, her little tongue dragging over the bottom lip in a gesture so sexy Tyler’s body heated.

“Oh, Tyler. Were you really trying to stop him?”

One corner of his mouth kicked up. “Yeah. I really was.”

“He really was,” Nick added.

She slowly shook her head from side to side.

Thick heat built around them, and his heart started thudding in his chest. He felt like his lungs were burning when he dragged air into them and there was no way he could resist touching her, her silky hair, the soft skin of her cheek and jaw, his thumb trailing over her velvety bottom lip.

Their eyes met and held in a stretched-out connection.

She didn’t move away from his touch, although she was sitting with both her hands captured by his and Nick’s, sandwiched between them, but she wasn’t trying to get away, and he let his hand drift to her shoulder.

“You’re so sweet, Kaelin,” he said hoarsely. “You put the whole wedding together for Avery. You bailed out Scott. Even my mom loves you.”

A tiny huff of laughter escaped her at that.

Tyler looked at Nick, who also gazed at Kaelin’s face with a look of admiration and yes, hunger.

Nick wanted her too.

As if sensing Tyler’s gaze on him, Nick looked away from Kaelin, and his and Tyler’s gazes locked. Unspoken questions passed between them.

Tyler closed his eyes. It was futile to even let ideas like that tease the edges of his mind. Kaelin was a good girl, the best kind of good girl, sweet and innocent and no doubt as vanilla as soft-serve ice cream. He’d had to take drastic measures the last time he’d started having outrageous, inappropriate thoughts like that about her, and this could be no different.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, big brown eyes focused on him when he opened his.

His mouth twisted. “Nothing.” He lifted the hand he still held and kissed her fingers. Her pupils went wide, eyes dark as she watched him. Hell. “You’re just so nice, Kaelin. Such a good girl.”

She went very still, sitting there on the couch between him and Nick.

“Really,” he continued. “Brent seemed like a nice guy too. You’d make a good couple.”

“Oh for Chrissakes!” The words exploded out of her mouth and she yanked her hands out of their grip. “I’m not that nice!”

And she grabbed Tyler’s head, yanked him toward her and kissed him hard.

Too stunned to even kiss her back, his head reeled as she shoved him away, but that was nothing compared to the bolt of lightning that struck him when she turned to Nick, grabbed him and kissed him too.

Chapter Six

Kaelin dragged air into her lungs, her heart racing, her skin hot. Pressure inside her made her feel as if she was going to explode, burst right out of her skin. She was so goddamn
sick
of hearing what a good girl she was.

“I’m not that good,” she said, panting as she looked from Nick to Tyler. Their faces wore identical expressions of shocked arousal. She knew they were attracted to her. Of course, she knew! She’d known from the moment she walked into the Wirth home yesterday and their eyes had met. She’d known ten years ago.

Ten years ago she’d had fantasies about Nick and Tyler that she’d admitted to no one, barely even to herself. After that day she’d seen them naked together with another girl, those fantasies had taken on a new life, become even wilder. Where before she’d had dreams of being with them one at a time, after that she had shocking, wicked dreams of being with them both. At the same time. Fantasies she’d never in a million years act on, because…dear lord, they were bad, so bad, and she was a good girl.

She was sick of being a good girl. Sick of being the dutiful daughter who looked after her poor brain-injured dad, who gave up her dreams to come home and care for him when her mom died, who volunteered to work at charity events, who organized a wedding for her best friend, who did everything for everyone else and never for herself.

She wanted so much to be bad, just once, just one incredible wild time, to see what it felt like, to know if that’s what was missing from her life.

And what could be badder than a threesome with two sexy guys?

“Kaelin,” Tyler’s voice rasped. “What the hell.”

She slid her arm around his neck and pulled him to her again, kissed him again, and this time he kissed her back, his mouth so hot and delicious, opening wide on hers, his tongue sliding in, stroking over hers. She moaned, let her fingers slide into his hair, holding the back of his skull, so big and solid. Tyler’s body radiated heat and a fine trembling and she longed to climb onto him and press up against him, her breasts aching, her pussy throbbing.

Nick’s body on the other side of her was even bigger and just as hot, burning against her hip and she dragged her mouth away from Tyler’s and turned back to him. She met his eyes, his silvery-gray eyes usually cool and calm, now blazing with heat. It was different with him, she couldn’t say exactly comfortable, because she still felt that ache, that flutter low down inside, but it wasn’t as intense and scary as with Tyler.

And when she leaned toward him, he lifted a hand and cupped her cheek, his mouth on hers not as demanding, gentler and slower, his lips not as full. She moaned softly, heard Tyler’s sharply drawn breath, felt his excitement as much as she felt Nick’s.

“Fuck,” Tyler whispered beside her. “Kaelin, what the fuck are you doing?”

Power rushed through her like an electrical surge and she pulled away from Nick and smiled.

“I want to be bad,” she said.

“What are you saying?” Desperation edged Tyler’s voice. His eyes looked searchingly into hers. “Christ, Kaelin, I thought you were the sober one.”

“I am sober.”

“You can’t do this, sweetheart.” He closed his eyes and looked as if someone had kneed him the nuts.

“Why not?” Her insides tightened. He wasn’t going to turn her down, was he? She was going way out on a limb here, she knew it, risking a lot, something she never, ever did, and if they rejected her, she wasn’t sure she’d survive the humiliation. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Fuck,” he groaned again and looked at Nick pleadingly.

“Kaelin,” Nick began, but she cut him off before he could be all rational and sane and talk her out of it.

“You’ve done it before,” she said challengingly. She looked back and forth between them as if daring them to deny it. And how could they? They all knew what had happened that night and what she’d seen.

“Oh Jesus.” Tyler looked as if he was in even more pain.

“Well, you have, haven’t you? You can’t deny it. I saw you. And that’s not the only time you’ve ever done that.” She paused. “Is it?”

Nick and Tyler looked at each other again.

“That’s not the point, honey,” Nick said, his voice gentle. He stroked her shoulder. “This is about you.”

“Yes! Exactly!” She sat up straighter. “This is about me! And I want this.”

“Both of us,” Tyler spoke.

“Yes.” She again looked back and forth between them, uncertainty starting to get the better of her, rising up inside her, overpowering this uncharacteristic recklessness. She fought it down, swallowed hard. “Yes.”

Tyler glanced around the empty lobby. “This probably isn’t the place for this conversation.”

Were they going to send her home? She gazed anxiously at them, arousal and excitement tangling with fear and caution.

Again Tyler and Nick shared a glance and she saw understanding pass between them.

“We’ll go up to our room,” Nick said, standing. He held out a hand and pulled her up, and Tyler rose too.

“You’re sharing a room?” she asked, walking across the carpeted lobby between them.

“Yeah.”

Okay. Whatever. She was pretty sure Avery had told her they shared an apartment in Chicago. They rode in silence up the elevator again, this time electricity sizzling in the air instead of alcohol fumes. Tyler pulled his wallet out and fished out the keycard, opened the door and let Kaelin precede him into the room.

They’d left a lamp on, a floor lamp by the desk. The rooms in the Red Maple Inn were nice, the nicest hotel in Mapleglen, but nothing special, so she didn’t pay much attention to the room or the décor, just clasped her shaking hands together and turned to face the two men.

She must have gone insane. How else could she explain this? She couldn’t blame intoxication—she’d only had a couple of glasses of wine at dinner, hours ago. Perhaps a mini stroke? Something that had damaged her frontal lobe or whatever, the part of her brain that knew right from wrong, good from bad, the part that controlled inhibition, like what had happened with her dad.

They stood there looking at her as if she were a bomb about to explode, sending each other sideways glances. They wanted it too, they had to, or they would have hustled her out the front door of the hotel. But they were being…gentlemen.

A smile tugged her lips. Never in a million years would she have thought to use that word to describe Tyler. Badass, troublemaker, devil—never a gentleman.

And yet, it didn’t seem inappropriate. He’d pushed her buttons, teased her and tormented her, but he’d never done anything to her that would make her truly fear him. The fear she felt was of her own reactions to him, the way he made her feel—inadequate, unsophisticated…aroused.

“What’s so funny?” Tyler demanded hoarsely.

“You are.”

He lifted one eyebrow, clearly unused to being the object of amusement.

“I thought you were such a bad boy,” she continued, moving toward them where they stood side by side. “What are you afraid of?”

He shook his head, a reluctant smile tipping up the corners of his mouth. His beautiful, sexy mouth. She wanted to lick his mouth. “That won’t work, sweetheart.”

Her own smile deepened. “I’m not trying to manipulate you.”

“Yes, you are. I’m just not sure why. Or where this is coming from. Or what happened to the real Kaelin Daume.”

She gave a soft laugh and came to a stop just in front of them. She laid a hand on Tyler’s chest and one on Nick’s. Nick covered her hand with his, Tyler reached out and rested a hand on her hip.

“I want one night of bad,” she said. “Is that so hard to understand?” She looked from Nick to Tyler. “You guys are leaving on Sunday. I have to stay here in Mapleglen for the rest of my life. Nothing like this will ever happen to me again.”

She saw the surrender in Tyler’s eyes, followed immediately by a flare of heat.

“Are you sure, Kaelin?” Nick asked quietly.

She held his gaze and nodded.

“Because we’re both too horny to say no to you,” Nick continued wryly, moving around behind her. “But
you
can stop this any time.” She held his gaze, turning to look over her shoulder as he moved. He set his hands on her waist and bent to rub his face on her hair. “Any time. Just say no. Right, Tyler?”

“Right.” The word sounded strangled.

“I trust you both,” she said. “There’s no one else I’d do this with.”

Tyler snorted and moved closer, pressing his hips against her. Pressing his erection against her. “You got that right,” he said enigmatically. What did that mean? But her thought got lost as he bent his head to kiss her again, heat washing through her like a molten river, and her head went empty as she turned herself over to sensation.

Nick pressed against her back, against her ass, hands on her hips, pulling her back against him, his mouth seeking and finding the side of her neck. His lips and his breath sent shivers cascading over her skin. Nerves had her shaking inside, excitement swelled up huge and potent. And Tyler kissed her mouth.

She’d grabbed him and kissed him earlier but she’d been so incensed and frustrated, she hadn’t had time to really enjoy it. The second kiss had been better. But this one…this time she lost herself in it, her hands on Tyler’s shoulders, all big bones and muscles, his tongue sliding into her mouth again and again in an erotic rhythm that had her blood pounding through her veins. His thumb on her chin pressed her mouth open wider for him, and she moaned as she opened to him, tasted him.