But Eric, for all his faults, hadn’t deserved to be shot near the spine and paralyzed, either. Still . . . Tyler wondered, if he agreed to Eric’s request, how would his pal truly feel tomorrow about the fact that his best friend had fucked his wife?

“I’ve never asked you for anything this important,” Eric pleaded. “I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now. I need this, Ty.”

Damn it. Eric had been thinking about this sober? The guy had never pleaded for anything, not even his life when the asshole who’d shot him stood over him with a gun and threatened to do it again. Tyler wanted to do what was best for everyone . . . but his thoughts were complicated by the undeniable fact that he wanted to grab Del, strip her, lay her flat, and get his cock inside her ASAP.

Still, he hesitated. “I don’t know, man . . .”

Eric’s face closed up. “I’m asking too much, aren’t I? Sorry. ’S okay. I’ll ask Jim Becker. He’ll do it.”

Yeah, because Becker the Pecker would fuck anything that moved. And he stared at Del like a piece of meat every time she walked in the precinct. Eric knew that. Tyler’s chest tightened at the thought of Del in the creep’s clutches.

“Fuck no! Becker wouldn’t be good to Del. He won’t care about her experience or treat her like she’s special.”

“Maybe . . . maybe not.” Eric shrugged. “I have to hope for the best. You’re my first choice, but if you’re not able . . .”

Tyler shook his head. Not able? He snorted. Right now, he felt like he could fuck Del ten times without pausing. “Dude, are you really sure this is what you want? And you, angel?”

“I want whatever is going to bring Eric and me closer together,” Del whispered, eyes tearing up. “The last three months have been . . .”

Awful. He knew. She had to have felt like she’d awakened to a never-ending nightmare. Nothing in her life was the same anymore, least of all her husband.

“Yeah.” Eric nodded emphatically. “I don’t mean the idea to sound kinky. I just need to feel like a man again. I need something good.”

How about an ice cream cone?

Once upon a time, Eric would have been too self-assured to make this request, no matter how drunk. Tonight showed just how desperate he’d become. How the hell was he supposed to turn down this plea?

Tyler palmed the back of his neck, then decided to shoot straight. “Dude, you know me. You know my reputation.”

“Yeah. You love ’em and leave ’em. I don’t think for one second that you’d try to stake any claim on my wife.”

Eric had him there. He wasn’t the forever type. His mother had been saying it since he was a kid. Hell, he, Eric, and Del had even joked that he usually didn’t stay more than five minutes post-orgasm. But he respected Del too much to fuck and run. Where did that leave him?

“If I do this, you need to understand that I’m gonna be thorough and make sure she enjoys every minute, because your wife is hot. I’ll definitely enjoy it, too.

“I know.” Eric nodded. “I want her to enjoy it. She probably needs the release. I don’t even think she’s spent any time with her battery-operated boyfriends lately.”

“Eric!” She batted his shoulder playfully.

The thought of Del masturbating just got Tyler hotter. Fuck, he wanted her bad.

“Will you do it?” That pleading note was back in his buddy’s voice.

Did he really have a choice?

Taking a deep breath and hoping they didn’t all regret this, Tyler nodded. “I’d do anything for you, man. You know it.”

He also hoped to God that after he thoroughly enjoyed fucking his best friend’s wife, he could live with the guilt.

Eric beamed, then shook his hand. “Thanks, man.”

“Um, any boundaries?”

“Nah. I trust you to do what’s right.”

A bad choice on Eric’s part. Tyler feared he’d be unable to stop himself from unleashing a whole bunch of naughty fantasies on Del and pushing every one of her limits.

Eric grabbed her and pulled her in for a quick kiss before snagging the wine bottle and taking another long swig. Then he turned to Tyler. “You gonna kiss her?”

Fuck, he wanted to. At the suggestion, need surged through his body, settling into his inflamed cock. How would she feel against him? Around him? Curiosity was eating him alive.

She climbed off Eric’s lap, then drew in a deep breath that lifted her pretty, pert breasts. Her nipples were already hard, but she stared up at him through her dark lashes, her blue gaze surprisingly shy. She bit her lip.

“Del?” Tyler held out his hand to her. His own shook.

After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded, then curled her fingers around his.

Desire jolted its way up his arm, short-circuiting his brain. More blood rushed south. Tyler swallowed. Go slow. If you don’t calm the fuck down, you’re going to inhale her. Scare her. Hurt her.

Apparently, Del mistook his pause for reluctance. She stepped against him, grabbed his face with both hands, and jammed her mouth against his in a desperate kiss.

That was all it took to unleash his hormones off the chain. His conscience quickly followed.

He fisted both hands into her long hair and yanked her head back, arching her body against his. With his lips, he shoved her own apart. He didn’t just kiss her; he violated her mouth, plunging inside, dying to taste her completely. Possess her.

She moaned, rubbing that lithe little body of hers against him, accepting everything he gave her. Her flavor detonated like a bomb in his system, setting fire to his skin, dropping hot lava into his veins. As she wrapped her arms around his neck, desire settled with relentless insistence in his iron shaft, his heavy balls.

“That’s it.” Eric hissed the words. “God, that’s hot.”

Tyler jumped back as if he’d been scalded. He breathed like he’d run a fucking marathon, his lungs pumping hard and fast. A gorgeous flush stained Del’s cheeks. Her mouth, always full, now looked downright red and swollen. She swiped the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip inquisitively, as if trying to taste his kiss all over again. The sight grabbed him by the cock and yanked hard.

“Don’t stop now, babe.” Eric wheeled close enough to caress her waist, her breast, then tugged at her shirt. “Take this off. And your bra. Remind me what gorgeous tits you have. Show Tyler.”

She gave Eric a shaky nod but turned to him for confirmation. Insecurity crawled across her face. She bit her lip again, turning an even rosier red. Did she think for a second that he didn’t want her? Probably. Whatever attraction he’d felt for her had been one-sided, and he’d done his best to bury it. After all, the concept of sex between them had never been even a whisper until five minutes ago.

With Eric watching, Tyler stepped into Del’s personal space and cupped her breast through the red silk. He dragged his thumb across her nipple. It drew up tight and needy at his touch. She whimpered. Del was welcoming him? Oh hell, that turned him on. She probably did it for Eric’s sake, but Tyler pushed that fact aside. Tonight, she’d let him fuck her. Suddenly, he couldn’t think of anyone he wanted more.

He snagged her gaze, held it as he thumbed her nipple again. “Take it off, Del. Show me your breasts.”

Her breath caught. She licked dry lips, sending another spark of desire through Tyler. Then she crossed her arms at her waist, grabbed the hem of the tank, and whipped it over her head.

Tyler blinked, stared. Del was . . . utopia. She’d been a contemporary dancer for years, and it showed in the firm lines of her delicate shoulders and arms. Her stomach was flat, the long, lean line of her abdominals visible under flawless skin. Her low-rise shorts clung to slender hips. But her gorgeous breasts had him stuttering. All natural, a perfect mouthful, they were beyond arousing. He wondered how he’d ever look at her again and not see her this way, tentative but flushed, her breathing almost as hard as her nipples, so pretty through the white lace.

Tyler swallowed. “The bra, Del. Off. Now.”

Aw, hell. He couldn’t even form complete sentences. But she understood exactly what he meant. Holding his gaze, she reached behind her back and released the hooks. A second later, the underwire contraption with the wispy lace slithered to the floor.

Fuck. Me. He almost swallowed his tongue. The palest skin of her body surrounded the most succulent pinkish brown nipples he’d ever seen. Wide, hard, drawn up so tightly, as if begging for a warm mouth to cradle them. Tyler was more than happy to oblige.

“Pretty, isn’t she?” Eric said proudly.

The stuff of wet dreams. “Yeah.”

“Come here, babe.” Eric crooked a finger at her. “I want to touch you.”

She complied, and Tyler had to bite back a protest. But Del wasn’t his, so he stood silently and watched as his buddy placed a soft kiss on her lips, then ran his knuckles across one of her nipples. “Don’t forget to look at me. I want to see your eyes. I want you to think of me.”

Hell no. That was Tyler’s first instinct. He kept the words in. He was doing a favor for a buddy, not greedily fucking the guy’s wife for his own pleasure. His head—both of them actually—needed to get on board with the plan.

Del gave Eric a tremulous smile full of devotion. Tyler wanted one of those with an ache that didn’t make sense. He’d never have it from her. The thought was a stab in the chest.

But he’d have her body tonight, and he planned to devour every inch he could.

Tyler grabbed Del’s arm and pulled, yanking her into his embrace. With an insistent grip, he clutched her nape, pulled her flush against him, and devoured her mouth again. Those sweet berry lips, her shy tongue stroking and retreating, her little catches of breath as he grabbed her firm little ass and hoisted her against him, notching her pussy right against his cock.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” Eric murmured.

He liked what he saw? There was way more coming. Tyler vowed that he wasn’t letting go of Del until she was completely sated. If he had his way, she’d stay under him until she was wrung out, sore, and smiling from ear to ear.

He tore at the fastenings of her shorts, undoing them and shoving down the denim, along with her little lace thong, in one swipe of his big hands. Once they reached her knees, he stomped them down with his foot, his mouth fastened to hers hungrily as he savored her taste.

Del didn’t hesitate or back away. She clutched his shoulders, rubbing herself against his body. The second her shorts hit the ground, she shoved his T-shirt up his torso and over his head.

“Tyler . . .” She skimmed her palms over his chest, dragging her fingertips across his sensitive nipples. “Are you sure? I mean, if you don’t want . . .”

Her? At this point, only an army could drag him away from Del. Maybe. If they were really insistent.

“I’m good. Are you sure?” he croaked out.

Nodding, she explored his skin again so lightly that goose bumps rose all over his chest. He sucked in a deep breath at the feel of Del’s hands on him. God, that was spec-fucking-tacular. They’d barely started, and already Tyler wanted to beg for more.

He couldn’t wait to get his cock deep inside her sweet pussy. And it would be sweet, he could already tell, as he swiped his fingers across her smooth flesh there. Eric had told him once that she waxed down south, and Tyler appreciated a bare cunt. Correction: bare, wet cunt. Hers was perfect. Fuck, he could get lost there.

He tripped a finger across her clit. Hmm, already getting hard. But her appeal went beyond the way she looked or felt. Del had held his hand in the emergency room once after he’d tangoed with a perp’s knife and needed twenty-three stitches near his kidney and hip. She’d shown him how to cook more than frozen meals. Last year, after her parents’ deaths, she’d clung to him during the funeral as Eric and the other pallbearers carried the caskets to the graves.

Tyler loved her openness. Del was totally, completely real. No plastic smiles, no silicone, no artificial bullshit designed to impress. Every emotion, every expression she laid bare. No hiding, no fronting. Just beautiful honesty. That took guts he didn’t always have. And he admired her for it.

“That feel good?” He rubbed her clit again.

She gasped, and her head fell back as she melted under his touch. “Yes . . .”

“You’ll have to get her off manually, and it’ll take time,” Eric coached. “And she doesn’t usually come during sex.”

Yeah? Tyler stared down into Del’s face. She flushed, averting her gaze. Eric had embarrassed her. Did she think for a second that not climaxing was her fault? Tyler loved the guy like a brother, but if he wasn’t manning up to Del’s lack of orgasm during sex . . . well, Tyler would be more than happy to show Eric that he was wrong.

In fact, impatience clawed at Tyler. Everything about her body said that she was hungry. For him or just for sex? Whatever. He’d gladly feed her need.