Page 68 of Tethered

“Almost makes me wish there was a two-way mirror in here.” I smirk as he frees his cock and strokes it before pressing inside me.

“You like the idea of someone watching us, Poppy?”

“I like the idea of Mr. Black and White becoming a dirty shade of gray.”

He thrusts into me as his hand wraps around my hip, anchoring me in place. I hook my leg around his thigh and grip his shoulders as he fucks me hard, letting my head fall back so he can kiss his way up the column of my throat.

“I’m starting to find I’m incapable of telling you no.”

I moan loudly, probably deafening the poor guy, as I feel the rush of my orgasm racing toward me. “And yet I’m the one ready to shout yes, yes, god yes.”

I feel him grin against me as he picks up speed. His hand snakes between us so he can play with my clit, stroking and flicking it when I gasp and shudder against him. Just when I think I can’t take any more, he pinches it hard enough for me to scream his name. He comes with me, both of us wrapped around each other as we ride out the storm, ignoring the chaos outside this room.

While our breathing slows to normal, he kisses me, this time keeping it soft and light until the little aftershocks have worn off. Reluctantly, he pulls back and tucks himself away before dipping his fingers inside me and swirling them around in our combined cum. He smears it over my pussy and into the skin around my thighs, leaving me a hot, sticky mess that stinks of sex.

“The fascination you three have with cum would be disturbing if it weren’t so damn hot.”

He grins against my mouth, covering my pussy once more with the lace. “It’s a man thing.”

“Bullshit. I think it’s because there are three of you, and this is the equivalent of peeing in a circle around me.

“And yet I don’t see you complaining.”

“This is me complaining.”

“Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. You fucking love wearing each of us on your skin. You like that your soaked panties remind you every time you move that each of us has come inside you, claiming you in the most primitive of ways. I bet if we were anywhere but here, you’d close your eyes and relive the moment as you slipped your fingers inside yourself and fucked my cum back into you.”

My breath stutters at his words, my womb spasming at the thought. I want to tell him he’s wrong, but we’d both know it was a lie, and I don’t want to give the smug bastard the satisfaction.

“You know what else I think, Poppy?” he murmurs, pushing me to lie back so he can slide my T-shirt up, exposing my stomach. “I think you might have a breeding kink. I think you like the idea of us all fucking you and filling you until it’s almost painful. You’d swell with our child, and you wouldn’t know which of us was the father. That shouldn’t turn you on, of course, but it does. A little game of eenie meenie miney mo—the paternity edition,” he teases. Though I make a sound of protest, I feel how wet I am, and it has nothing to do with his cum this time.

“The kicker is, none of us would care either. Seeing you round with our baby would be such a fucking turn on, watching your tits fill with milk that drips as they bounce on each of our cocks…” He ends on a growl, and I feel how hard he is once more. Seems like I’m not the only one with a breeding kink. “We’d keep getting you pregnant, of course. How could we resist?”

“And you really wouldn’t care who they were biologically related to?”

“They’d be all of ours. Love trumps blood every damn time. Could you imagine how protected they’d be with a crook, a cowboy, and a cop looking out for them?”

“You need to work on your labels,” I tease to deflect, liking the image he’s painting just a little too much. “We have more than one crook, you’re all a bunch of cowboys, and I think there is far more to you than just being a cop.”

“Only because of you.” I shake my head, but he tugs me up and cups my jaw. “I made being sheriff my whole identity. You’re the one who reminded me that there is more to life than just work. I spent so long hoping to make a bunch of ghosts happy that I was living half a life myself. I’ve never craved anything more than I do you, but only an idiot wouldn’t notice the shadows in your eyes.”

I still at his words. I should have known he’d notice. He might be the most moral of all of us, but I’d bet he’s seen as much ugliness as the rest of us, perhaps more. And yet every day he gets up, puts on his badge, and does it all over again. He leaves parts of himself with every family he tells that their loved one isn’t coming home, or he makes an arrest and knows they’ll be out and hurting someone else before he’s even finished his paperwork. He does his job because in people’s worst times, he is their shield against it all.

“I’m proud to be your girlfriend, you know.”

He blinks at the wordgirlfriend. I have to marvel at how easy it comes to me after I’ve broken the seal by saying it to Riggs.

“What you do…I couldn’t do it. Neither could Riggs nor Austin. I know you think I have more in common with them than you, and perhaps that’s true to an extent, but you stabilize us. It’s so much easier to slip into those shadows you noticed because the world doesn’t see us there. It doesn’t judge us, set expectations for us, or ask anything of us. It’s far harder to be a good person these days than to be an asshole.”

He snickers at that but doesn’t argue.

“You, Dawn, and Hannah— you’re my Jiminy Crickets. You make me think before I react. I’m not sure I like it sometimes,” I admit, making him grin. “But I appreciate it.”

Before I can carry on, the door slams open and in struts Jen. She looks us up and down before she folds her arms, cocks her perfectly arched brow, and taps the toe of her red-bottomed shoe. “I’m sorry,” she drawls. “Should I come back?”

Shepard nods, “Yes.” As I tell her no and slap his chest with a huff. He helps me straighten my clothes before lifting me to my feet. “I’ll leave you two ladies to it. I’ll be in my office when you’re done.”

“Is my client under arrest, Sheriff?” Jen asks.