Nathan had ended up going home with one of Mick’s aunts for a sleepover with her and her husband’s two teenage boys, since they’d pretty much hung out nonstop at the bar anyway talking football and some online video game that they were probably going to stay up all night and play. Tara was thrilled he’d found some friends, so she’d been fine with it.

But Mick had spent the entire night at the bar watching Tara, touching her but not really touching her, breathing her in and wishing he could do what he wanted to do with her. Instead, he’d had to be content with holding her hand and the occasional kiss, and that just wasn’t cutting it.

He finally threw on his shorts, grabbed a couple condoms, and as quietly as he could, opened the bedroom door. The house was quiet, no TV noise or movement from downstairs, which meant everyone had gone to bed. He crept down the hall to Tara’s room. He didn’t want to knock because he didn’t want to wake his parents, but he also didn’t want to scare the hell out of Tara by just walking into her bedroom, either.

He decided to risk it, turned the knob, and opened the door.

“Tara?” he whispered.

“I’m awake. Come in.”

Thank God. He slipped in and shut the door, locked it for good measure.

She was sitting up, the pillows propped up behind her. She had the shutters open, moonlight spilling in and shining on her as she sat there and watched him approach.

She wore his team T-shirt. It swallowed her up, but damn if she didn’t look sexy as hell in it. It was worn and threadbare, one he’d gotten when he first joined the team. She’d snatched it from him and said it was soft and comfortable and she intended to sleep in it. It made him hard just thinking about her breasts brushing against it, her skin against something he owned.

It made him feel possessive of her, and a rush of heat tightened his groin.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I was hoping you’d find a way to come in here.”

He dragged her into his arms. “I couldn’t stand not touching you for one more night.”

“Good, because I was only going to give you about another half hour, then I was coming to you.”

His mouth came down on hers with a hunger that he’d held in for too long. He was afraid he wasn’t going to be able to hold back, that he would hurt her, but she seemed as needy as he was. She climbed onto his lap and slid her fingers into his hair.

“It’s been a long, dry weekend,” she said, brushing her lips against his.

He kissed her, and it only made the heat explode inside him.

He lifted her T-shirt and saw she wasn’t wearing panties. His cock rocketed against his shorts, his need to fuck her driving him insane.

He lifted his gaze to hers, saw the heat flare in her eyes.

“I need you, Mick. No preliminaries. All I’ve been able to think about is you inside me. I’m wet and I’m hot and I need you. Fuck me now.”

He swept his hand over her back, over the front of his T-shirt, pressing his team logo over her breasts. He slid his thumbs over her nipples. They were hard pebbles, and he needed to fill his hands with her. He slid his hands under the shirt to massage her breasts, to feel her nipples, then grabbed her waist and flung her onto the bed, dropped his shorts, and grabbed a condom from the pocket. He put it on in record time and lifted her hips, bent over, and shoved his cock inside her.

She gasped, grabbed his arms, and held on while he fucked her, pouring everything he’d been holding back for all these days.

“I’ve needed you,” he whispered. “I’ve been thinking about fucking you, about kissing you. I’ve missed your mouth.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, needing her tongue alongside his while her pussy tightened around him.

She licked at his lips, her gaze so clear, so filled with emotion, it was almost hard to look at her. “I missed you, too, Mick. It’s hard to sleep without your body next to me at night, without your hands on me, without you inside me. It’s all I can think about.”

To know she felt the same desperate need he did calmed him down somehow, and he slowed the pace, wanting to make sure she came, that it was good for her. He’d been ready to go off the second he slid inside her. She was hot and tight, and this was all he’d been thinking about for days. It seemed like he couldn’t get enough of her.

And when he lifted and she reached down to rub her clit, it rocked him.

“Yeah. Make yourself come. Let me see it.”

He leaned back, pulled his cock partway out, and eased in slowly, letting her set the pace.

“You tell me what you want, how you want me to do this. And I’ll make it good for you. Because I’m ready to come in you when you’re ready.”

She held on to his wrist with one hand, lifted her butt, and strummed her clit faster. Her golden hair spilled over the sheets, her body naked and open to him as he pressed in and out of her while she took herself to the edge with her fingers, naked desire tightening her features.

“Come on,” he said, shoving his cock deep inside her. “Come on, honey.”

“I’m close, Mick. Oh, God, I’m coming right now.”

He felt it as she said it, felt her pussy constrict around his dick. He shoved inside her and took her mouth and tongue in a long, searing kiss as he emptied inside her, wishing he could shout, because it was so goddamn good he felt the orgasm shoot through him until his knees went weak.

When she stopped shaking, he rolled them over on their sides and pulled Tara against him, kissing her and stroking her body.

He waited, figuring she’d fall asleep, but she rolled over to look at him, the moonlight bathing her face. She looked worried about something, had tugged her bottom lip with her teeth.

He smoothed her hair back. “What’s wrong?”

“I want to tell you who I am, where I came from.”

He shoved to a sitting position and took her with him, pushing the pillow up so they were comfortable. “Okay. Want me to turn the light on?”

“No, this is fine. Probably easier for me this way.”

He could still see her, but if this was how she wanted it, he’d give her anything she needed. “Fine. Go ahead.”

“As you’ve probably figured out, I don’t have brothers or sisters. I was an only child and my parents both worked, so I had a lot of alone time as a kid. I walked to and from school, let myself in the house, and it was my responsibility to make sure I ate something. My mom was a waitress, and she often worked at night. My dad worked construction so I tried to make sure to fix something for him to eat, otherwise he wouldn’t eat anything.”

“How old were you?”

“Eight or nine, I think. I don’t really remember all that well.”

Jesus. She was a kid. They were supposed to be taking care of her, not the other way around.

“Anyway, I would do my homework, and the dinner dishes, and go to my room. Dad would sit in the living room and watch TV. The thing is, Mick—he drank. And when my mom got off work, she’d join him. And late at night, things between them would get loud. They’d argue a lot when they were drunk.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. A rock plummeted into his stomach and sat there.

Her fingers were twisted so tightly together her knuckles were turning white. He slipped his hand in between and took her hand in his. “You don’t have to talk about this. I can tell it hurts you.”

She lifted her gaze to his. “No, it’s okay. I want to. It’s important to me that you know this.”

“Okay.” He laid her hand in the palm of his, then rubbed his thumb over the top of hers, trying to calm her as she talked. She was trembling now, and he hated that bringing all this back freaked her out so badly. He wanted to take the hurt away, to make it never have happened, but it was part of her, had made her who she was today, and she was right—he needed to hear it.

“The fights between them escalated over the years, as their drinking escalated. It got to the point where I just didn’t want to be around it.”

“Did they hurt you?”

She shrugged. “They’d yell at me about stupid stuff, but mostly they just got ticked at each other. I learned to stay out of the way, holed up in my room listening to music. The louder the music and the TV, the less of them I had to hear. When I got old enough, I’d go out with my friends at night just so I wouldn’t have to be around them.”

He nodded. There was nothing worse than being around a surly drunk. He understood that better than anyone.

“When I was fourteen and started high school, I met some new friends. Not great friends, either. A pretty rough crowd. Big drinkers, drug users, and partiers, but they stayed out late, and anything that kept me away from drunk central was okay by me. They let me crash at their place as much as I wanted, and that suited me. All my old friends drifted by the wayside because they were the good kids, the kids that did their homework and went to bed early. But I couldn’t stay at their house, couldn’t face them knowing how fucked up my home life had become. The other kids—my new friends—they understood and didn’t judge me.

“There was this guy—he’d dropped out of high school a couple years earlier and had his own apartment. He was nineteen and I was fifteen. We’d all hang out at his place to party. By then I was drinking, doing a few drugs, too, anything to numb the pain, you know?”

He nodded, swallowing past the lump in his throat. He knew. God, how he knew.

“Anyway, he liked me. Really liked me. And I liked anyone who would give me attention. I realize now it was because I had gotten so little love and attention at home. We started having sex pretty regularly. He used a condom, but they’re not 100 percent effective. And you know, when you’re drunk or on drugs, who knows if he remembered to even use one. I got pregnant. That was the end of him wanting anything to do with me. He freaked out, said the baby wasn’t his. I hadn’t been with anyone else, so I knew it was his baby.”

“What a bastard.”

She smiled. “Yeah, he pretty much was, but you know, I had to own it. I made the dumb choice to have sex with him.”

He tipped her chin with his thumb. “You were fifteen, Tara. A child. He wasn’t a kid. He should have known better.”

She shrugged. “Anyway, that was the end of partying for me. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I straightened up. No more drugs or alcohol. I quit hanging with that crowd, and I went home and told my parents.”

“What happened?”

She laughed, tears brimming in her eyes. “They called me a whore and kicked me out of the house. Said I was irresponsible and should know better. Said they, quote, unquote, raised me better than that.” She swiped at the tears. “Isn’t that the funniest thing?”

The tears fell down her cheeks, and Mick’s gut tore up inside. “Good God. How could they do that to you?”

“They didn’t care about me, Mick. They cared about their own lives. I was just an inconvenience to them. They barely even remembered having a kid, and sure as hell didn’t want to be responsible for me, let alone the child I was going to bring into the world.”

“So what did you do?”

“I called Social Services. I knew at fifteen the state at least had to be responsible for me. I told them I was pregnant and my parents were kicking me out, and that they were drunk and abusive.”

Mick leaned back and regarded her. “You are a rock star, Tara. I’m proud of you for not taking what they dished out.”

She laughed, swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “I was pissed and afraid for my baby.”

“So what happened?

“They removed me from the home and found me a nice place for unwed mothers where I got to be with other teens having babies. I got to attend school, the state paid for my prenatal care, and I had Nathan. I was always good in school, so I started studying again. They helped me with child care so I could graduate, and eventually I found an apartment and started college. And it got me out of that hellhole I lived in with my parents because I filed for emancipation and it was granted on the grounds I was self-sufficient, had no other living relatives to care for me, and the state thought it in my best interests not to be returned to that environment.”

Mick couldn’t believe what Tara had gone through growing up, what it must have been like for her to feel so alone, and what she’d done on behalf of Nathan.

“It must have been scary for you, just a kid being on your own.”

Her gaze caught his, and he saw nothing but love in her eyes. “I’d have done anything to protect Nathan. That’s why I found Damon—who’d been arrested for drug dealing—and made sure he signed off, giving up parental rights, even though he still insisted he wasn’t Nathan’s father. He had no problem signing that paper, and I was relieved to get him out of our lives. I wanted to make sure none of my mistakes would ever come back to haunt my son.”

“How much of this does Nathan know?”

“Everything. I don’t keep secrets from him.”

“Has he ever wanted to see his father?”

“No. He doesn’t have that curiosity. I told him about the mistakes I made, and told him someday maybe I’d marry a man who’d be a decent father to him, but Damon was a sperm donor and nothing else. And it had nothing to do with Nathan, and everything to do with the bad choices I made when I was young and stupid.”

“I admire your honesty, both with yourself and with your son. Does he know about your parents?”

“Yes. He knows everything, Mick. I’ll never hold anything back from him. He deserves the truth. He had to know why my parents aren’t in his life.”

“Thank you for telling me all this. It explains a lot about who you are, why you’re so strong, so driven. I admire the hell out of you, Tara.”

She bent her head. “Don’t. I’m no hero, Mick. I was stupid and irresponsible, and my child had to pay for my mistakes.”

He forced her chin up, made her look at him. “Are you kidding me? You’re amazing. Look what you went through, what you endured. To be where you are today after the kind of childhood you had? What you could have ended up like? Instead, you have a great career, a wonderful kid, and you’re one of the most remarkable women I’ve ever met.”

“I’m not perfect.”

“I never said you were. But you’re one of the most hardworking women I’ve ever known. And you’ve overcome more than most women ever will. I—”

He’d almost said something. Something he wasn’t sure he was ready to say.

“What?”

“I admire you.”

She laughed. “Stop admiring me. I just did what I had to do. For Nathan. If I hadn’t gotten pregnant with him, who knew what kind of self-destruction spiral I would have continued on. Trust me, I was doing my best to ruin my life.”

“Sometimes we’re our own worst enemies.”

“Please. You have the perfect family and the perfect life. I doubt you’ve ever done anything to fuck your life up.”

He pulled her against him and laid them down, the truth hovering on the tip of his tongue, ready to spill. But he didn’t think tonight would be the right time, not after what Tara had told him about her past.

And maybe he was just a coward.

He had some thinking to do.

How was he ever going to tell her the truth about himself after she’d been so honest with him about her past last night? Last night would have been overkill. It had been her night. And now...

Well, not now. It just wasn’t the time. Now he was just going to sit back and enjoy his coffee alone.

“Well, don’t you look all broody and moody this morning.”

Or so he thought. He lifted his gaze to Jenna, who’d slipped in through the back door. “What are you doing here? I thought you were a vampire and didn’t get up till like noon or something.”

“I know you guys are leaving today. Figured I’d drag my sorry ass out of bed early so I could say good-bye.”

“Really.” He watched as she moved around the kitchen, grabbing a cup and filling it with coffee, then adding enough cream and sugar so that it really wasn’t coffee when she was finished with it. She pulled up a chair next to him.

“You don’t come home all that often anymore, and we didn’t get much time to talk last night.”

Uh-oh. Jenna was not the warm and fuzzy sisterly type. Which meant something was up. “Something on your mind you want to talk about?”

She palmed the cup and lifted it to her lips, took a sip, and raised her gaze to his. “It’s Mom and Dad.”

His heart stumbled, his mind already swirling with the possibilities, none of them good. “What about them?”

“Their fortieth anniversary is coming up.”

“Oh. Crap. I didn’t even know.”

“Of course you didn’t. You’re a guy, and guys pay no attention to stuff like that. Anyway, I think we should throw them a party.”

“Okay. When and where?”

She took out her phone, clicked to her calendar, and slid it between them. “Their anniversary is on the fifteenth. Gavin’s in town again on the weekend of the eleventh for a game series. He has a day game on Saturday the twelfth, which means we could do something that night. I pulled him aside last night and hit him up, asked him if he’d be around that Saturday night, and he said he would be.”

“I can be here, for sure.”

“Great. Now all we need is someone to put a big party together for them.”

She pushed her phone aside and stared at him.

“What? Why can’t we just do it at the bar?”

She gave him a look. “Oh, right. You know how that’ll turn out. We throw a party for them at the bar, and Mom and Dad both will end up working all night long. Is that really the way we want them celebrating their anniversary?”

He laid his head in his hand. “You’re right. We can’t do it at the bar. So what are we going to do?”

“Don’t look at me. I bartend. I’m not a party planner.”

“But I am.”

Mick turned to see Tara standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She walked in.

“Hey. Morning,” Jenna said.

“Good morning,” Tara said. “Mind if I help myself to some coffee?”

“Of course.” Mick watched her grab a cup and fill it with coffee. She looked gorgeous in her sweats and tank top.

She grabbed a seat. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on the two of you. I just happened to hear part of your conversation when I was walking down the hall. You’re planning a party?”

“Yes,” Jenna said. “Our parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary in a few weeks.”

“Oh, how lovely. I can help. It’s what I do for a living.”

“Of course,” Jenna said, laying her hand on top of Tara’s. “Would you? I mean, I know you don’t live here, so maybe you only do local stuff out there in California.”

“I can do anything, anywhere. I’d be happy to plan the event. Eventually I want to expand my business nationally.” She turned to Mick. “Not that I want to butt in. I’m sure I could help you find someone local, which would probably be easier for you.”

“Are you kidding? I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have organize this party. You’re serious about this? You’d coordinate everything?”

Her eyes shone with warmth. “I’d love to, Mick. Your entire family has been wonderful to me this weekend. I can’t think of any event I’d love to plan more than your parents’ anniversary party. So when is it?”

Jenna showed her the dates.

“Okay, that’s Nathan’s birthday weekend, but I’ll work around it.”

“No,” Mick said. “You don’t put your kid second.”

She laid her hand over his and offered up a warm smile. “I never put Nathan second. But I imagine for game tickets, he’d love to spend his birthday out here. And he loves your family. Unless you see that as a problem.”

He kissed her forehead. “Spending time with you and Nathan isn’t a problem.”

He caught the look Jenna gave him, but he didn’t care what she thought. He was having a hard enough time wrapping his head around his feelings for Tara and what it all meant. He sure as hell wasn’t going to try to explain them to Jenna.

Tara turned to Jenna. “Jenna can help me on this end, and it’ll be a breeze.”

Jenna nodded and picked up her coffee. “Done deal, then. We’re on for the twelfth. I’ll shoot a text message to Gavin and let him know.”

Little by little, his life was becoming more and more entwined with Tara’s. And the knot in his throat was growing.