The dresser seemed sad and lonely with just Max’s watch and keys sitting there. She wondered where Rye had spent the previous evening. She’d heard him come in after midnight, but he’d made himself scarce. He’d given them space for the last several days, just as he’d said he would.

Rachel shook off unsettling thoughts of her boyfriend’s twin brother. Grinning, she realized that Max really was her boyfriend. She couldn’t deny it. A woman didn’t get intimate and emotional over a short-term affair or a booty call. The mirror in front of her revealed something shocking. There was a lovely woman in the glass, and she was practically glowing. She wasn’t scared or worried. She just looked well loved.

She looked like a woman who knew what she wanted. Rachel winked at the woman she barely recognized as herself and decided that it was time to go get what she wanted. Without bothering with her clothes, she strode into the bathroom. It was a gorgeous monstrosity. There were three sinks before the long mirror and an oversized jetted tub, but what caught her attention was the man in the large glass shower. The heat from the water had steamed up the entire bathroom, but she could see his shadowy form through the opaque glass. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t see him clearly. She’d memorized every inch of that hot body of his, from his broad shoulders to his strong legs. Now it was time to greet the day properly, Rachel thought, her body heating up.

She quietly opened the shower door and slid in behind Max. He was facing away from her, his arms carefully soaping his muscular body. Rachel took in the sight of his toned backside for a moment before cuddling up behind him. She pressed her breasts against his back and wound her arms around his waist.

“Good morning, gorgeous.” She let her hands wander down. She grasped his cock and was not surprised to discover it was already hard and long. It seemed to be his permanent state. “Is this for me?”

“God, yes,” he said.

His cock swelled in her hand, and she could feel the heat in his skin.

“Rachel,” he groaned as she stroked him from bulb to base.

“Hush, let me take care of you this morning,” she whispered, trailing little kisses along his strong spine. She let her tongue find his skin. She loved the taste of him. “You took care of me last night.”

He had. Four times. She fully intended to pay him back, with interest. She had hours and hours until she was due at the diner. There was no reason at all they couldn’t spend those hours in bed.

Max’s hand went out to steady himself against the wall of the shower. “Rachel, you have to stop.”

“Not until I get what I want.” Rachel slowly cupped his balls. “I’m going to put my mouth on you. I’m going to suck your cock until that moment just before you explode, and then I’m going to bend over and let you fuck me from behind.”

“Rachel, please stop.” There was a desperate quality to his voice.

She felt his cock pulse in her hands. “Not on your life, Max.”

“I’m Rye,” he choked out.

Rachel nearly fell over as she jumped away from him.

Rye turned and steadied her. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. You were asleep, and there’s no hot water in the guest room. Max is out in the pasture working with some of the horses.”

Rachel stumbled out of the shower, looking for a towel. She hit the marble of the floor and quickly found herself on her ass.

Rye rushed to help her. He reached out and pulled her up. “Are you okay?”

She closed her eyes. “No, I’m not. You’re naked.”

“It’s how I shower,” Rye explained academically.

She opened one eye. He was so gorgeous. His broad shoulders gave way to a lean, ripped chest and a six-pack that made her mouth water. “And do you always shower with a raging hard-on?” He’d been rock hard before she’d gotten her hands around him. She knew just from the feel of him that he and Max were perfectly identical twins.

He shrugged and blushed. “Lately, yeah.”

Rachel caught him looking down at her breasts. “Stop.”

He looked away. “I’m sorry, Rachel. You’re just so fucking beautiful, I can’t help it. I’ll get you a towel.” He turned and treated Rachel to a view of his perfect ass. It was just lovely. He grabbed a big white towel and wrapped it around her. “I’m sorry.”

She backed up. “You keep saying that, Rye, but you’re still naked.” She pulled the towel around her and stalked back out into the bedroom so she would stop ogling her boyfriend’s brother.

Rye followed. “Well, you took my towel.”

But he already had another one in his hands, and he wrapped it around his lean waist. Rachel shook her head. Covering up didn’t make him any less delicious. Rachel looked around the room for her clothes. She opened a drawer and pulled out a T-shirt. She thought it must be Max’s. The dresser was loaded with T-shirts and sweatpants.

“You should have told me who you were the minute I stepped into the shower with you,” Rachel complained, shoving the blue T-shirt over her head.

Rye ran a frustrated hand through his wet hair. It was so much longer wet. “I couldn’t breathe enough to talk, Rachel. I’m so sorry. I should have locked the door. I should have just skipped the damn shower. Hell, I should have spent the night somewhere else. I knew something like this would happen.”

Rachel was confused. She calmed down as she noticed Rye looked a little tormented. “Rye, we didn’t do anything we shouldn’t have. It was a mistake. I’m sure this isn’t the first time a woman got twin brothers confused and ended up seeing more than she should. It’s your house. I’m the one who should be more careful.”

Rye turned away from her. He placed both hands on the dresser. His head fell forward as though he was very tired. “We’ve shared a room all of our lives until a year ago. Even after our parents were gone and we could have, probably should have, taken our own rooms, we didn’t. We just moved in here and, when we had the money, renovated to suit our needs. We built this room and that bathroom for the future. I don’t know, Rachel. I just always expected him to be there.”

“I am not trying to take your brother away from you,” Rachel said quietly. She wondered if all the drama was worth it. Her heart hurt a little at the thought, but sooner or later, she would have to move on. Until Tommy was caught, she was in danger and so was everyone around her.

Rye sighed. “Oh, Rachel, I’m not jealous of you.” He turned to her, and the intensity in his blue eyes made her heart speed up. “I’m gut-churningly jealous of Max. All of our lives, I’ve been the one to find our women. He’s a charmless bastard who just went along for the ride. I’m the one who wanted to get married. I’m the one who wanted to have kids. He just wanted to fuck. Now, he’s the one who finds you? How the hell is that fair?”

Rachel stood there, watching him at war with himself. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and soothe him, but she didn’t have the right. From everything she knew, Max had decided to go straight. He wanted a normal one-on-one relationship. He would probably be very upset if he knew how attracted she was to Rye.

Rye just shook his head. “I’m leaving tonight. I’ll pack a couple of things and stay at Stefan’s until I can find an apartment.”

“Don’t.” Rachel was horrified at the thought. “I’ll leave. This is your home. I never meant to cause so much trouble.”

Rye smiled slightly, but it was a sad thing. “I can’t watch you and Max, Rachel. I’ll get to the point where I can be friendly, and we can pretend to be some sort of normal family, but I’ll never stop wanting you. I can’t live in the same house and watch you settle in with my brother. Do you understand the relationship I want?”

Rachel nodded. “You want to share me with Max.” The statement came out in a low, breathy voice. She had meant to sound matter-of-fact, not sultry.

“I want you between us, Rachel. I want you to be our wife and our lover and the mother of our children. I want you to sleep in between us. I want you screaming your pleasure when we take you at the same time. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand.” Her mouth was dry as she thought about it. She could have both of them. Two gorgeous men, loving her, wanting her. It was the fantasy of a lifetime.

“Max doesn’t want that anymore. I have to choose between pursuing the woman I think I was meant to be with and honoring the brother I’ve shared a life with from the moment we were conceived. Know this, Rach, if he weren’t already madly in love with you, if you hadn’t already chosen him, I would be all over you. That’s why I have to leave.”

“Rye,” she started, but couldn’t think of anything else to say.

He turned. His chest was still slick from the shower. “And change, Rachel. That’s my shirt. Max won’t like you running around in my shirt. He keeps his extra T-shirts on the right side of the dresser.”

He started to leave, but all of a sudden, he stumbled. His knees hit the wood of the floor, and he gasped. Rachel hurried to his side to try to help him up. He was shaking. His hands trembled slightly as he held his head.

“It’s Max,” he said in obvious distress. “Oh God, Rachel, he’s hurt.”

* * *

Max breathed in the early morning air, aware of a sense of contentment he’d never felt before. Rachel was still asleep in their bed. Her sweet, soft body was curled up under the quilts. He’d slept wrapped around that body. Their arms and legs had tangled in the night, and when he woke up, her hair was all over his face. He’d grinned and managed to find his way out of the web her strawberry blonde hair had woven around him. He’d watched her sleep for a while, then rose quietly to get his work for the morning done.