Page 41 of Tethered

“Oh baby, you haven’t heard nothing yet,” he murmurs against my ear. His rough hand slides up my ribs to my breast, his thumb gliding over my nipple, which my lightly padded bra does nothing to hide.

“Ever fucked in the back of a car? It’s a rite of passage.”

No, but I fucked the sheriff in the front seat of one.

“I was in prison, remember? I missed out on a lot of rites of passage.”

“Then let me show you what the fuss is all about.”

I sigh. “Austin.”

Hearing the tone of my voice, he takes a deep breath and reluctantly pulls back, not much, but enough for me to breathe without my chest brushing against his. With the distance between us, it’s impossible not to see how hard he is and how big. I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry.

“The package. I mean, it’s not that big. I can handle it on my own. Shit, that sounded even worse out loud.”

He grabs my hand and places it on his hard cock. “Trust me, Cece, my package is anything but small.”

“You’re making it hard to think. Just…not here. Not now.”

“Then when?”

“I don’t know, Austin. This is not a good idea, surely you know that.”

“Perhaps. Now ask me if I care?”

“Well, of course you don’t care. It’s my fucking heart on the line,” I hiss.

“Is that what you think? That I won’t get hurt? You really have no fucking clue what you do to me, do you?” He searches my eyes before cursing. “Fuck me.”

Nope. Bad idea. I ignore the image of us doing just that and turn away before I have a stroke and keel over. I mean, I’m not sure I even like this guy, so how I’ve gone from wanting to choke him with my ovaries to imagining him—nope. Do not go there.

Maybe I’m sick. I touch my hand to my forehead. I do feel warm. And my cheeks are definitely hot. Oh, thank god, I’m just sick. For one scary moment, I thought I might be addicted to dick.

He grins. “I’m sure there are worse things to be addicted to, but I can promise you here and now that’s one addiction I’ll never try to cure you of.”

My mouth drops open. “I said that out loud.”

“You did. Glad to know this isn’t one-sided. You’re fucking with my head too. There are dozens of other women out there who make more sense than you and me.”

I narrow my eyes at the motherfucker because that was unnecessary. He didn’t need to make me sound like a hideous troll.

“But I don’t want them. I want you. I’ve always wanted you, even when it was illegal.”

“Pervert.”

“I can’t help it. You bring out the worst in me.”

“Yay me,” I deadpan.

Whatever he might have said next is cut off by the sound of a door opening.

“To be continued...”

I’ll be sure to hide out on the ranch for the next fifty years or so. It’s the only place I know I’ll be safe from his penis, mostly because I’ll have Riggs’s penis doing penis-y things to me.

Dear god, woman, stop thinking about penises.

“Calliope?”