Bound by Their Kisses (3 page)

He took another step back then turned and unlocked the door. When he turned around to close it behind him, he paused. She hadn’t moved an inch from where he’d left her. Her chest still heaved with her too-fast breaths.

“Come lock the door behind me, Tessa. I’m not leaving until I hear the locks,” he said.

She gave a jerky nod but still didn’t move. Tag sighed and closed the door, remaining right there until he heard her quick steps to the door and the grating of the deadbolt into place. The sound seemed to release him, and he was able to walk over to where he’d left his bike. Climbing on, Tag started the engine, backing up a few steps in order to turn around. He gave one last look at the shoddy apartments before riding out of the parking lot back toward the business section of town. He normally wore a helmet, but when Zander had called and told him Tessa was walking home, Tag hadn’t stopped to grab one, his only intent being to reach her before she’d gone too far on her own.

Now he allowed himself to enjoy the feel of the wind in his hair. With it tied back, it didn’t get in his face quite as much. He needed to settle down some before he crashed in on Zander at the bike shop. His friend was going to meet him there after closing Naked Ink down. The other man wasn’t going to be happy with how Tag had pushed Tessa tonight.

When he parked his bike outside the shop’s bay area in the back, Zander opened the door leading into the shop and waited on him to dismount and come inside.

“Did she let you give her a ride home, or did you have to walk the bike all the way behind her?” Zander asked with a grin.

“She rode,” he said, walking through the door into the break room behind the sales area. It closed behind him, automatically locking.

“And?” Zander probed.

“I probably pushed a little too hard,” he admitted. Tag walked over to the fridge and grabbed a couple of cold ones. He tossed one to Zander and popped the top on his.

“What the hell did you do? We talked about needing to go easy with her. She’s liable to run, Tag.” Zander opened his own beer and took a drink.

“I was just going to kiss her. Let her know we were interested in her, but fuck me, Zander. She tastes like pure sin. I lost it, man. I totally lost control. I never lose control.” He kicked the garbage can, knocking it against the wall.

“What happened?” Zander asked in a quiet voice.

Zander told him how she’d responded to him after the initial kiss, getting him so fucking turned on he thought he’d die if he didn’t get inside of her, but he’d backed away, knowing it was too soon. He told him how he’d as much as admitted that she was stealing his control.

“When she told me to leave her alone, that she’d never belong to anyone but herself, I lost it. I told her she was already ours, that we were tired of waiting for her. She said she wasn’t going to be anyone’s doormat, that she knew we were Doms. Like we would treat her like that. It went all over me.” Tag sighed and ran a hand over his face before taking another healthy swallow of the ice cold brew.

“What did you do, Tag?” Zander asked in a tired voice.

“I told her not to do something stupid. I could tell she was thinking about leaving. She said she already had when she got on the bike with me.” He drained the beer and threw the empty can at the garbage can. “Fuck!”

“Do you think she’s in the wind?” Zander asked.

“She won’t leave without telling Steve. He’ll warn us if she says anything. I don’t think she’s going to run yet, but she’s going to do her damndest to avoid us now,” Tag said.

“Maybe it’s for the best. We’ve let her get comfortable here and not really bothered her that much. It’s time we make our intentions known. You might have jumped the gun a bit, but not by much. We were going to approach her this weekend anyway, just maybe not as aggressively as you did,” Zander said.

“She said she’s not running from anyone, and I believe her on that, but she’s running from something. Something upset her enough to make her take the risk of being on her own like that. She was all but starving when she showed up here,” Tag pointed out.

“She’s awful worried about our being Doms and her getting treated poorly. I’d say someone’s done a number on her in the past, and that’s what this is all about.”

Tag nodded. “I agree. Getting her to the point that she’ll submit to us is going to take time and a whole lot of patience. I’m not sure how I’m going to stand up to that.”

“You don’t have a choice, Tag. Whatever she needs, we give her. If that means more time, then so be it. At least now we can openly approach her. The more time we spend around her, the more used to us she’ll become so that she doesn’t immediately bristle up.”

“Talk about blue balls. Just looking at her is already torture. Spending time with her without getting too physical is going to be like walking on hot coals. All the burn while we’re walking across, but no relief when we step back on cool ground.”

“Man, you come up with some of the weirdest fucking shit I’ve ever heard.” Zander finished his beer and tossed the empty into the can without the force behind it that Tag had.

“That’s because I read something other than skin and biker mags in my spare time,” Tag joked. “You should try it sometime. Keep a couple of intelligent books in your bathroom for a change.”

“Screw you, Tag. Reading
Cosmopolitan
didn’t do you much good with Tessa, now did it?”

“Is the house ready?” Tag asked to change the subject. They’d gone in together and started building one when they’d agreed that Tessa was the one for them.

Despite knowing they were in for a fight to convince her they loved and cared about her, they’d gone ahead and built the house that would be their home. They were confident that she would eventually give in and admit her attraction to them. It was easy to see how she felt when she first caught sight of them before she had time to mask her expressions. Even their friends commented on her obvious interest. She wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all them.

Why she was so afraid to act on those feelings, he wasn’t sure, but they would find out and figure out how to work around the problem. If there was one thing he and Zander knew how to do, it was how to solve problems others couldn’t. Now they were so close to having what they wanted, a family with Tessa. The house had been the final step in the plan once she’d started relaxing some around them.

Zander had moved into the place when it was nearly finished to do some of the detail work himself. Tag still lived in the tiny apartment above his garage. He didn’t want to move in until they had Tessa with them. A tiny part of him still didn’t believe she would go for being shared by the two of them. As much as he wanted to believe it could work, even with the other ménage families in town, Tag was still skeptical that he and Zander could manage it.

It wasn’t that he thought a triad relationship wasn’t really for him. He knew in his heart it was, but Tessa’s deep need for independence was going to put a strain on their closeness since he was by nature a controlling man. He knew it and could temper it to some extent, but deep down, Tag liked to be in control. Zander’s natural tendency for compromise when it came to women was Tag’s only chance at making it work with Tessa. He needed the other man’s flexible, laidback temperament to dampen his intenseness.

“Pretty much. It needs more furniture and color, but Tessa will be the one to decide on those things,” Zander said. “I’ve finished all the detail work, and the basement is completely set up.”

“I’m tired of waiting, Z.”

“Yeah, me, too. We start wearing her down this weekend. Agreed?” Zander asked.

“Agreed.”

* * * *

Tessa slowly backed away from the door once she heard the last rumble of Tag’s bike fade away. What was she going to do? They weren’t going to go away, and she didn’t have the willpower to stand up to them for much longer. She had to convince them to back off. If she couldn’t do that, she’d have to leave.

She didn’t want to leave Perkins City. It was the perfect place for her. Even though she wasn’t into the whole BDSM way of life, it provided her with a sense of security since most of the men in town believed in treating women like prized possessions to be coddled and kept safe. If she so much as screamed, men from all over town would run to check on her.

Well, maybe not on this side of town, but still. She didn’t want to leave. She could see herself spending the rest of her life in the tiny Texas town. She hoped that one day she would be able to afford a nicer place to live. Steve paid well, but it took time to save up enough money to move across town. She’d thought about getting a second job, but she had put it off since it would mean walking home after dark. The town was too small to have a taxi service, so walking was her only option.

Taylor Rizzoli was spending less time at her coffee shop, Rizzoli’s, and had advertised for more help. If Tessa could figure out a way to get home safely, she could probably get on there. But, as it was, she didn’t want to risk her life by walking at night.

After warming up some soup and making a grilled cheese sandwich to go with it, Tessa settled at the small bar and ate, letting her thoughts wander. She enjoyed working at Heavy Trinkets. The shop had so many different things that she wasn’t bored in the least. It handled everything from erotic romance books to custom leather clothes, cuffs, toys, and body jewelry. Steve even sold the specialized ropes that riggers and those who enjoyed shibari preferred.

Even though she didn’t want that sort of relationship with anyone, Tessa enjoyed reading about it. She just didn’t think she could ever trust someone enough to allow them to control any part of her life. Not after the nightmare she’d endured over five years ago. Some memories never fade. Unfortunately, it was usually the bad ones.

At twenty-one, nearly twenty-two years old, Tessa had met Paul in one of her college classes. He’d been sweet and kind, undeterred by her plus-size body or her shyness. Looking back, Tessa knew that was what had attracted him in the first place. She fit his victim profile perfectly. Being shy and uncomfortable with herself because of her body, Tessa was ripe for the picking, vulnerable and susceptible to the right words and actions. Someone like her ate up the attention he lavished on her at first.

Once he had her completely dependent on him emotionally, he went in for the kill, slowly and subtly chipping away at her self-esteem even more. He moved in with her, letting her take over all the bills, one at a time, then encouraging her to postpone the rest of her education while he finished his. Then he could support her while she completed her degree. Someone needed to work to pay their bills. Ha,
his
bills.

Tessa shook it all away, determined not to dwell on the past. Instead, she had a future ahead of her here in Perkins City. All she had to do was resist Tag and Zander. That was going to be easier said than done considering how her body reacted to them anytime they were around.

Aw hell. Who am I kidding? I think about them all the time, especially at night.

They were the objects of her fantasies no matter how hard she tried to substitute some random guy she’d seen or a movie star she liked. Like her monthly rent, they kept showing up despite her wishes otherwise, dominating her dreams until she was waking up wet with her fingers between the folds of her pussy.

Why was she so attracted to them in particular? Yes, they had great bodies, but Zander was bald and she’d never gone for bald men before. Plus, she was sure he had body piercings all over, something she’d never been attracted to in the past. Tag’s long black hair was attractive, but his facial features were hard and unyielding. She had a hard time seeing him as capable of being gentle. Yet his gruff ways and nasty talk excited her instead of sending her running in the opposite direction. Truth be told, Tessa had to make herself refuse their attentions and avoid them as much as possible.

It seemed the more she denied herself, the harder it became. Still, that part of herself that screamed in self-preservation warned that they would take over her life, consume her, and squash any dreams or aspirations she might have to better herself. They would want a submissive who looked to them for everything to the point that she would sink into nothingness, her individuality molded to their wishes.

Again she shook off those useless thoughts and washed up her dishes before heading to the bathroom for a shower. It was past time for her to be in bed so she could get up the next morning to get ready for work.

Please let the hot water actually work tonight.

When she turned on the water and adjusted it to suit her, the pipes moaned and rattled. Tessa held out her hand to test the temperature and sighed in relief. No cold shower tonight. She stepped in and quickly soaped her body, knowing that her good luck could change at any second. Sure enough, as soon as she had soaped her entire body, the pipes groaned and the water slowly began to lose heat. Tessa rushed to rinse off before she had to endure nothing but cold water. Just as she finished, an icy cascade replaced the lukewarm shower of before.

Tessa jumped out so fast she nearly fell, scraping her foot on the track that held the sliding shower door and banging her hip into the vanity in the process.

“Damn!” She held on to the vanity with an iron grip until she got past the pain to her hip and foot.

What more could possibly go wrong? No, she thought, don’t say that.
You know it can always get worse.
Tessa turned off the shower, wiped up the water she’d tracked on the floor, and realized her foot was bleeding. See, that was why she should never utter those treacherous words.

The cut didn’t seem to be very deep, but it was going to be sore for a few days. In the meantime, being on her feet wasn’t going to be fun. Tessa cleaned it and bandaged it, praying it didn’t become infected. Though she kept everything as clean as possible, it was hard to clean old crap that should have been replaced a long time ago.

Her bed consisted of a mattress on the floor, and her nightstand was a milk crate with a wind-up alarm clock. She set the alarm for six and quickly pulled on her nightshirt before slipping beneath the sheet. Since she couldn’t run the overhead ceiling fan without leaving on the light, Tessa had a box fan to stir the air. Though it wasn’t exactly hot in the apartment, it was stuffy.