Page 58 of Tethered

“Yeah. I won’t be long. You can just all talk amongst yourselves.” I hurry to the door, then turn back briefly. “No killing each other.”

Austin sighs. “Always stealing my fun.”

I flip him off and keep walking, ignoring his laughter as I walk out of the house and down to my old workshop. I open the door and close it behind me, before collapsing against it.

“Okay, what was that, Calliope?” I ask myself. But I have no clue.

I’ve spent time with these guys individually. Though they get me hot and bothered, I can usually hold my own. In there, though, surrounded by all that hotness, it’s almost too much for me to handle.

I move into the room, and the lamps come on automatically. I give a mental thanks to the house, which seems amused by my mini-meltdown.

It’s clean in here now that most of the stuff is upstairs in my new workshop. The bags of soil and pots for seedlings are the exception. They’re all stacked neatly against the far wall. The only thing that’s out of place is the large coil of rope sitting on the otherwise empty worktop, which I used to corral one of the new rescue horses into the stable the other day.

I lean against the worktop and take a deep, steadying breath. “Get your shit together, woman.”

A few deep breaths later, and I’m calmer. That is, until I hear the door creak open behind me. I freeze, knowing who it is when the house doesn’t react.

“So this is where the magic happens?” Austin says, moving farther into the room.

“It used to be. Riggs built me a workshop in the house, using the bones of my father’s old office.”

He snorts. “Oh, I bet he’d have loved that.” I feel my heart thundering in my chest as he moves up behind me, his body pressing against mine. “You seem on edge, Cece.”

I shake my head as he moves away. “No, I’m good. Where are the others?” I ask as he picks up the rope from the worktop.

Before he can answer, the house alerts me to their approach. I spin around just as the door opens, and both men slip inside.

“You hiding from us, Opie?”

“What? No, of course not. I was just fetching the…” I look around, hurrying to think of something when I spot the rope in Austin’s hands. “Rope. I was looking for rope.”

I blink as my brain processes what I just said. There is seriously something wrong with me. There has to be. Even the house is laughing in my head.

Shepard grins wildly, while Riggs shakes his head.

“This rope?” Austin asks, moving to stand beside me as the others draw nearer.

“Um, yeah.”

“And what did you need it for so urgently?”

I open my mouth and then close it again, because I’ve got nothing.

“I’ve got an idea what we can use it for,” Riggs says with a smirk.

Austin tosses it to him. Riggs’s hands move quickly as he makes a lasso. Shepard moves out of the way as Riggs spins it around like he’s done it a million times.

“You wanna play cowboys, Opie?”

I lick my lips, but before I can answer, the rope shoots out, the loop dropping around me, wrapping around my chest for a moment before Riggs yanks me to him. I gasp, which he takes as an invitation, closing his mouth over mine as he kisses me with a determination that makes my core tighten in anticipation.

When he pulls back, my lips feel swollen. But then Shepard is there kissing me too, his tongue dancing with mine as I try to remember how to stay upright. When he pulls away, I look for Austin, but he doesn’t approach. Instead, he hops up onto the edge of the workbench and crooks his finger at me. Chewing my lip, I walk over slowly, the rope still pinning my arms to my sides.

“I like you like this. At our mercy.”

He spins me around and pins me between his legs as Riggs and Shepard move closer. They remind me of wolves, sneaking toward their prey, ready to strike. Austin presses his lips to my ear. “I want to watch them make you come.”

I whimper, rubbing my legs together.