Bound by Their Kisses (12 page)

“What in the hell just happened?” Tag demanded, staring down at her, his face pale and drawn.

“Look at her face, Tag. She’s scared to death,” Zander told the other man.

“Tessa. Tell us what’s wrong,” Tag pleaded.

“I can’t do this. I t–told you it wouldn’t work.” Tessa turned her head away as hot tears fell from her eyes to roll down her cheeks.

“Baby, we don’t understand. We haven’t done anything yet. You know we’d never hurt you.” Tag sounded as desperate as Zander had looked.

“Y–you’ve already s–started taking over. Telling me I can’t say no to you, and then you brought me d–down here. It’s a basement,” she cried, sniffing and hiccupping as she tried to get them to see why she was so upset.

“Oh fuck, Tag. He kept her in a basement back then,” Zander said in a near whisper.

Tag took a step back from the bed and pulled on his hair. “We’re not him! We’d never hurt her or lock her up down here.”

Tessa could hear the disbelief in Tag’s snarling words. She knew she’d hurt both of them by losing it over them carrying her down to the basement, but maybe if they hadn’t surprised her with it…

“Tessa, honey, look at me.” Zander kneeled next to the bed and ran his fingers lightly over her cheek. “It never dawned on me or Tag that coming down here would upset you. I’m so sorry, but you have to know that we’d never lock you up down here, or anywhere for that matter. We’d never do anything to hurt you like that.”

She swallowed around the tightness in her throat and looked at him. “But you’ve already started trying to control me. Tag’s mad at me because I don’t want you buying me things. He said I just have to get used to it, like I have no say in anything. I can’t live like that again, Zander. If you take away all of my freedom, I’ll die inside.”

“Oh, kitten. We aren’t trying to take away your freedom or anything else, but you’ve got to understand that we need the freedom to be ourselves just like you do. If we can’t express how we feel or what we want to do, then we’re just as bound as you feel like you are.” Zander ran his hand over his bare head and sighed.

“Z, we pushed too much. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have jumped the gun before we’d all had time to get to know each other and talk things out.” Tag didn’t look at her. He kept his head down while he talked. “I don’t think either of us really understood the seriousness of what Tessa went through. We’re upset and righteously pissed about it, but we hadn’t really thought about what it meant to be locked up so she couldn’t go anywhere and separated from having anyone to talk to. Like she said, he’d taken her over. While we both know we don’t plan on doing that, the fact that I just laid into her that she’d have to deal with us taking her shopping whether she liked it or not essentially took away her ability to say no.”

Tag looked up at Tessa now, his face void of all expression except for the shiny glint in his eyes telling her where his emotions were. He opened his mouth as if to tell her something then closed it again and turned away.

“I’m going back to the shop and work for a while. I’ll be back later.”

Tessa heard the sound of his boots crossing the floor before they disappeared up the stairs and the door above closed. She’d hurt him just as much as she was hurting. Why couldn’t she get anything right? Why hadn’t she resisted them and stuck to her plan of not getting involved? Look where it had landed the three of them.

“Tessa. Don’t cry, honey. I can’t stand to see you like this.” Zander crawled up on the bed and wrapped his big body around her, pulling her into his arms where she cried over how screwed up she was inside.

* * * *

The smell of oil, leather, and gasoline soothed him some. Tearing apart the busted up bike that had come in earlier that week soothed him even more. He couldn’t believe they’d been so stupid and jumped right into the fire with their Tessa. Instead of taking things slow and easing her into a relationship with them, they’d insisted that she move in with them right then and then started making demands of her as if they’d never heard how her life had been with her ex.

He snorted. Mostly it had been him. Zander had a little better handle on women’s emotions than he did. He never would have insisted that she let them take her shopping or started the punishment scenario and carried her down to the basement if he hadn’t initiated it all. How did his friend put up with him? It was always his fault when things blew up. He had a hair-trigger temper and always jumped to conclusions.

While he would never lose his temper and hurt a woman, he would go off like a rocket and say things he shouldn’t. The thing about it was that at his age, changing wasn’t going to come easy. It was how he was wired, and no amount of wishing it weren’t was going to make a difference. He’d try to change for her sake, but it wasn’t going to be easy and it wouldn’t happen overnight. He just prayed she could ignore it for now.

Maybe if they’d gone slow with her, she would have adjusted to his gruffness and learned when to pretend to agree with him and when to stand up to him. Now, though, he was afraid she’d refuse to stay with them even if he tried to change.

Tag roared out his frustration and threw the bolt he’d finally managed to get off across the garage where it bounced off the metal bay door before rolling across the concrete floor. He’d be lucky if he ever found the bastard again.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, wishing he could go back to that morning and change the way things had progressed. What would he do without her? If she left them, it would hurt and he’d have a hell of a time dealing with it. But how could he stand it if she left Perkins City. Just disappeared. It was a real possibility.

Hell. I don’t deserve her. She needs someone more like Zander as the other man in her life. I should just tell Zander that I’m moving out and let him take care of her.
Zander would treat her right and wouldn’t fuck things up like Tag had. Then she’d stick around town and he’d know she was safe and happy. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it was better than never seeing her again.

Tag spent the next hour completely taking apart the pile of junk, discarding what wasn’t salvageable while labeling and cleaning the parts he could use off the junker. The longer he worked, the less tense he grew and the more certain he felt that walking away was the best thing he could do for all of them. The hard part was convincing his heart to let go and his mouth to say the words.

She’d felt so good in his arms. Everything just seemed to fall into place with her. He could see building a family around her and growing old with her between them. He’d never felt that way about another person in his life. Hell, he’d never even wanted just to shack up with a woman before. They were too much trouble, but he didn’t feel that way about Tessa. She could do no wrong. He, on the other hand, could do plenty wrong and had. That was why he was sitting on his ass in the middle of a pile of junk instead of holding Tessa in his arms.

What was he going to do? Leave or stay? Tag wished he knew. Right then, he didn’t have the answer. His heart said stay. His head said go before he ran her clear out of the state. He’d never thought of himself as a weak man, but when it came to doing the right thing, Tag was weaker than a brand new foal trying to stand on its feet. He guessed he wouldn’t know what he was going to do until he stood face-to-face with her and it came out of his mouth. After all, that was what had gotten him in this mess in the first place, his uncensored mouth.

It was nearly nine when Tessa heard the rumble of a motorcycle outside the house. Tag had finally come back. She’d been so scared he wouldn’t. He still had his apartment over the shop that he hadn’t completely moved out of yet. Everything had happened so fast. That was the entire problem. They’d rushed into the relationship instead of going slow. While she’d been avoiding them and trying to keep her mind off of how sexy they were, they’d been actively pursuing her, trying to break through her defenses. To them, she’d been theirs for nearly a year. That was how things had gone to hell so fast. They were ready for the next step when she hadn’t even taken the first one yet.

Tessa looked over where Zander sat on the couch. They’d talked some, but both of them felt like Tag needed to be there before they talked more. First, though, she needed to apologize to Tag and get things between them straight. She stood up from the couch and looked down at Zander.

“It’s late. Let’s talk more tomorrow. I’ve got to go to work in the morning and so do you two. Let me talk to Tag for a few minutes and then we’ll come to bed, okay?” She hoped he’d understand and not feel left out. Damn she didn’t know how to handle this.

Zander smiled and stood up. Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her then released her. His smile eased the worry inside her chest that he’d be upset.

“Everything is going to be fine, Tessa. You and Tag clear things up and then come to bed. I’ll be waiting on you,” he said.

“Thanks, Zander.”

“For what?” He frowned.

“For understanding that Tag and I needed to do this. For taking care of me earlier,” she said.

He ran one finger down the side of her face. “Kitten. I’ll always take care of you and there’s nothing to understand about Tag. We’re all going to have issues at times and need separate times to make up. I’m fine. Now go see about the big guy.”

She smiled and walked toward the kitchen just as she heard the back door open then close. When she walked in, Tag was just coming through the doorway from the laundry room. He stopped when he saw her, quickly focusing on some point over her head. Tessa could almost feel the tension pour off of him in waves. She’d done this to him. She’d upset him and made him feel uncomfortable with her. That she had that much power of someone like him, big, alpha, and normally so self-confident amazed her. It frightened her a bit, too.

“I was worried about you. I’m glad you’re home,” she said as a greeting.

Neither one of them moved from their spots across the room from each other. Tessa figured she needed to make the first move. She’d been the one to freak out. She’d overreacted and could admit it now that she’d thought about it. Maybe not about the basement thing, but that was an entirely different conversation that all three of them needed to have.

“Tag. I’m sorry,” she said, taking a step toward him.

His head jerked down so that he met her eyes at last. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, baby girl. I came on way too strong. I knew better, but having you here in our home, one we built with you in mind, went to my head. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

“What? You built this house while you knew me?” she asked, blown away by the idea.

“Yeah, I guess we forgot to mention that, just like we forgot to talk about everything else. Zander and I drew up the plans and went to an architect to get it perfect for you.” He moved closer until his body was only inches from hers. “We knew you were for us the first time we saw you, Tessa. It just took you some time to figure out that we were all yours. And we are.”

“I–I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe that you built this place expecting me to move in with you and we weren’t even seeing each other at the time,” she said, her head still reeling.

“But we were, baby. We saw you most every day, making sure you were safe and drinking in your beauty. We could tell by the way you were around us and other men that you’d been hurt in the past. We just didn’t know the particulars. I guess we should have asked before we built the damn playroom in the basement,” he said with his signature half grin. “But we can change that.”

“Don’t,” she said. “I mean you don’t have to change where it is. It really isn’t going to make that much difference in the long run. I’m the one who has to change, or at least get a handle on my reactions.”

Tag cupped her face between his hands and leaned down to kiss her. She relished the feel of his lips as they brushed hers then pressed harder for a deeper kiss. Tessa relaxed into him and opened her mouth, accepting his tongue as he tentatively, almost shyly tested his welcome. God, he could kiss. He knew just how to tease her into pressing closer to him. A moan surprised her when she realized it had come from her.

When he slowly pulled back, she had to gasp for air. To her surprise, he was breathing just as heavily in an effort to catch his breath. The most amazing thing happened. He smiled, really smiled. Both sides of his mouth curved up for a brief moment before he pulled her fully into his arms to squeeze her.

“No more jumping the gun. We take things slow and easy. I can’t stand seeing that look on your face again, baby girl. It broke something inside of me because I knew it was my fault you had it.”

“Tag—” she began

“Shh, Tessa. It’s behind us now.” He shifted and suddenly she was in his arms. “Let’s go to bed. I’ll bet you twenty dollars Zander is pacing in the bedroom and is going to try and dive into the bed when he hears us.”

Tessa could just see the bald tattooed hunk doing just that. She giggled. “I’m not taking that bet ‘cause you’d win.”

“Don’t make a sound. We’ll catch him at it,” Tag whispered as he carried her out of the kitchen.

He eased down the hall, making sure to stay as quiet as possible. When they reached the doors to the master bedroom, Tag carefully set her down and held one finger to his lips for her to remain quiet. She smiled, enjoying this playful side of Tag she hadn’t seen before.

The big man carefully eased the door open and they both peeked inside to find Zander standing in the middle of the room with his back to them. The sight of his naked body had Tessa’s hormones kicking up. When he started pacing, she nearly gasped at the way the muscles in his ass tightened and released. She actually caught herself with her mouth open starting to drool. Snapping it shut, she looked up to see Tag smirk down at her. Then he held up two fingers and nodded. They were going in on the count of two.

She barely had time to prepare herself before he shoved the doors wide, catching Zander in midturn as he headed for the big bed. He made a flying leap, landing face-first on top of the mattress where he’d already turned back the covers. Tessa couldn’t hold back her laughter at the site of him trying to climb under the covers. It was obvious that he hadn’t realized they were already in the room when he’d made his swan dive.