
Tether Me Softly
chinemerem osakwe · Ongoing · 90.3k Words
Introduction
Forced to live under the same roof, Abby and Kevin fight a losing battle against their desire, stealing kisses and moments that could destroy both families. When Abby’s best friend falls for Kevin and the truth threatens to unravel, they’re caught between duty and forbidden love, tethered to each other by a passion too strong to deny.
Chapter 1
Abby’s POV
“Are you even listening to yourself, Dad?” My voice cracked as the words shot out of me, trembling with anger I had bitten back for weeks. Maybe months. It wasn’t weakness, it was rage. The kind that burned my throat raw and pressed tears against the corners of my eyes. “Five years since Mom’s death, and now you’re telling me you want to marry someone else? Just like that?”
The living room felt colder, as though her absence still lived in its walls, and hearing him talk about filling that empty space with another woman—with Nina Stone—was unbearable.
Dad let out a weary sigh, his hand dragging over his face the way it always did when he was tired of fighting me. His shoulders looked heavier than they had this morning, weighed down by too many responsibilities I never asked him to carry. “It’s not just like that, Abby. The company is drowning, and Nina Stone—”
“Don’t say her name,” I cut in, sharper than I intended. My arms folded tightly across my chest, more to hold myself together than to look defiant. “You’re replacing Mom with a business deal. That’s what this is. A contract dressed up in vows.”
His voice softened but carried that steel I hated—the tone that always left me cornered. “I loved your mother. I still do. But I have to protect what she helped me build. If merging with Nina saves Anderson Enterprise, then I’ll do it.”
His words were supposed to sound noble, maybe even romantic in his head. But all I heard was betrayal. My chest heaved as if I couldn’t get enough air in this house anymore. “So you’d marry a stranger for the company, but you’d ignore what this does to me?”
Dad’s eyes softened with guilt, the kind that always chipped at me because I knew he did care—just not enough to stop. His shoulders sagged as though the fight was draining him too. “I thought you wanted me happy.”
A laugh burst out of me, bitter, hollow. “Happy? Or powerful?” The word burned on my tongue. I grabbed my purse off the sofa, fingers trembling so much I nearly dropped it. “I can’t do this right now. I need air.”
“Abby—”
The sound of the door slamming shut behind me cut off the plea in his voice. For a split second, I imagined Mom standing there, arms folded, glaring at him for even daring to think of someone else. But she wasn’t here. She hadn’t been for years.
---
By the time I reached the club, the fury had twisted into something darker, something hollow. Music pounded against my chest the moment I stepped in, drowning out everything except the throb of bass and bodies moving like shadows under colored lights. The air smelled like alcohol and smoke, sweet perfume tangled with sweat.
I pressed through the crowd, my heels clicking against the sticky floor, and ordered the strongest drink I could think of. The first burn of liquor clawed down my throat, leaving behind the faint illusion that it could cauterize the ache in my chest. The second sip made me dizzy enough to pretend it might work.
Mom’s face still found me in flashes. Her soft hands in mine. The smell of her perfume. Then Dad’s voice barged in, dragging reality back like broken glass—Protect the company. Protect the legacy.
I hated it. God, I hated it. Hated the golden cage my last name trapped me in, hated that my life was always tied to balance sheets and board meetings I never asked for. Tonight, I didn’t want to be Richard Anderson’s daughter. Tonight, I wanted to burn.
“Bad night?”
The voice brushed against me, deep and smooth, close enough that it curled under my skin. I turned my head, and the rest of the world slipped out of focus.
He stood there like he belonged to another life entirely—messy dark hair that looked like he’d run his hands through it a hundred times, a sharp jaw that could’ve been carved by shadows, and eyes that made me feel like he could see straight through every wall I had built.
For the first time all night, my anger wavered. My lips twitched into something like a smirk, though it came out shakier than I wanted. “What gave it away?”
“The way you’re drinking like the glass owes you money,” he said easily, leaning on the bar beside me. His grin was maddeningly casual, as though this conversation was inevitable. “Or maybe the way you’re pretending you don’t want anyone to notice you.”
I raised a brow at him, trying to summon my usual sharpness, but curiosity tugged at me anyway. “And you? Do you just walk around analyzing strangers?”
His grin deepened. “Only the ones I can’t stop looking at.”
That shouldn’t have made my pulse race the way it did. It was cliché, stupid even, but when he said it, something in me snapped awake. My heart skipped. My skin hummed.
I tried to focus back on my glass, the melting ice clinking as I tipped it toward my lips. “And what do you see when you look at me?”
He leaned in then, so close that his breath tickled my ear. My body froze, betraying me, waiting for his answer like it was oxygen.
“Someone who wants to be touched,” he murmured. “But won’t admit it.”
The words sank into me, heat flooding my cheeks, spilling down my throat. My fingers tightened around the glass until I thought it might shatter. I should have walked away. I should’ve scoffed, rolled my eyes, pretended I wasn’t affected.
But instead, I looked right back at him, into eyes that felt both dangerous and safe. “And if I do admit it?”
His grin stretched slow, knowing, almost wicked. “Then I’ll be the one who touches you.”
The music around us pulsed louder, brighter, like the world was daring me to follow through. The crowd melted into a blur, strangers becoming shadows, and for the first time all day, maybe for the first time in months, I felt alive.
I don’t remember how his hand found mine, only that the second it did, my body reacted before my mind could catch up. One moment we were at the bar, staring at each other like there was no one else in the room, and the next I was following him through the crowd, the heat of his palm tethering me to something reckless and alive.
I should’ve cared. I should’ve pulled back, reminded myself he was just a stranger with a cocky grin and eyes that had no right to look at me the way they did. But I didn’t. God help me, I didn’t. Tonight I didn’t want to be Richard Anderson’s daughter. I didn’t want to be the grieving girl still living in her mother’s shadow. I wanted to be someone wild. Someone who chose sin without hesitation.
We stumbled into a dark corner room at the back of the club, the door clicking shut behind us like the world had been locked out. My breath caught when he pressed me against the wall, his chest firm against mine, his scent all warm spice and danger.
His lips hovered just a breath away. “Still want me to touch you?”
A shiver crawled down my spine, my body answering faster than my voice. “Yes.” It came out broken, needy, more honest than anything I’d said in months.
He didn’t wait. His mouth crushed against mine, and I melted into him with a hunger I didn’t know I had left. It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t careful. It was the kind of kiss that stole air, that made me forget where I ended and he began. My fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer, greedy for more.
Every brush of his hands lit fire on my skin. My blouse slipped off my shoulders like it had been waiting to be discarded. His mouth trailed down my neck, each kiss branding me, erasing the last traces of anger and grief.
I thought about my mother for half a second, about how disappointed she would be if she could see me giving myself to a stranger in a club. But the thought was swallowed by the sheer ache in my chest—the need to feel wanted, to feel alive, to feel something.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispered against my skin, though his hands never stilled.
I didn’t. I couldn’t. My nails dug into his back, pulling him closer, desperate, as if keeping him there would keep the rest of the world away. “Don’t you dare stop.”
Clothes became nothing more than obstacles, falling away piece by piece until there was nothing left between us but heat and bare skin. Every touch, every kiss, every ragged breath felt like surrender. My body trembled beneath his, but not from fear. From release. From finally letting go of the anger I’d carried like armor.
When he moved inside me, the world tilted. My breath hitched, breaking into moans I couldn’t hold back. His rhythm was demanding, then gentle, then demanding again, as though he too couldn’t decide whether this was supposed to be about lust or something far more dangerous.
I closed my eyes and let it consume me. The music outside was a muffled echo, but in here, there was only us—two strangers who didn’t know each other’s names, clinging like we’d been searching for each other all our lives.
His hand found mine above my head, our fingers lacing together. The intimacy of it wrecked me more than the heat, more than the pleasure. It was the way he held me like he wasn’t just taking my body, but the broken pieces of me I didn’t show anyone.
The sound of his voice in my ear, low and ragged, unraveled me completely. I let go—of grief, of anger, of every wall I had spent years holding up. My release tore through me, leaving me shaking and clinging to him as though he were the only thing tethering me to the earth.
After, the room was quiet except for our uneven breathing. His forehead rested against mine, his hand still entwined with mine, as though letting go would undo everything we’d just shared.
I should have felt guilt. I should have felt shame. Instead, I felt… full. Alive in a way I hadn’t in years. Like for one night, I had escaped everything—my father, the company, the suffocating expectations.
I didn’t ask his name. He didn’t ask mine. Maybe that was the point. This wasn’t meant to be remembered in daylight.
Last Chapters
#64 Chapter 64 A Nervous Wreck
Last Updated: 2/1/2026#63 Chapter 63 A Fog of Confusion
Last Updated: 2/1/2026#62 Chapter 62 His Family
Last Updated: 2/1/2026#61 Chapter 61 A Soft Landing
Last Updated: 2/1/2026#60 Chapter 60 The Only Way
Last Updated: 2/1/2026#59 Chapter 59 The Final Thread
Last Updated: 1/31/2026#58 Chapter 58 It's Goodbye
Last Updated: 1/31/2026#57 Chapter 57 Pregnant With His Child
Last Updated: 1/31/2026#56 Chapter 56 Like A Fair Deal
Last Updated: 1/31/2026#55 Chapter 55 To Disappear
Last Updated: 1/31/2026
You Might Like 😍
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha
Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because My husband Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.
Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?
Offside Temptation
Ethan Ryder was a disaster waiting to happen. Hot-headed, reckless, and constantly one bad decision away from ruining his career. I was supposed to hate him. Instead, I memorized him. I learned exactly how to push his buttons on the ice just to see the fire in his eyes.
When he grabbed my jersey in that locker room and kissed me in front of twenty cameras, it wasn't a mistake. It was the moment the line between hatred and obsession finally snapped. The media called it a scandal. They called us a divorced couple. But they didn't see the way Ethan trembled when I cornered him in the hallway afterward.
"You're staring again," he whispered, his back hitting the wall.
"You're still here," I replied calmly, stepping close enough to feel his erratic pulse.
He thought I was cold. He thought I was controlled. He didn't realize that every time he looked at me, I was fighting the urge to completely destroy the distance between us.
Now, the league is forcing us to live together, train together, and smile for the cameras to fix our public image. But the more time we spend alone in my apartment, the harder it is to pretend I just want to play hockey...
Bella and Her Beast
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?
.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
Where The Ice Gives Way
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)
Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
Tempted By The Enemy
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
Ignition And Ice; A Racer's Forbidden Blueprint
The first? Becoming an architect worthy of finally making her mark.
The second?
Convincing herself that one day, Hayes Gallagher–NHL superstar, lifelong best friend, and the man she’s secretly loved for years–will finally see her as more than the girl who’s always there when he needs her.
He doesn’t.
So when Hayes abandons her for yet another girl, Merritt decides she’s done waiting.
One reckless night later, she ends up in the arms of a stranger whose touch makes forgetting Hayes dangerously easy.
She never expects to see him again. Until that stranger turns out to be Stellan Mercer.
Formula One’s most infamous golden boy. And Hayes’s stepbrother who is the one man Hayes would rather destroy than share a room with.
When Stellan uses his influence to make Merritt lead designer on his luxury penthouse project, staying away from him becomes impossible.
Working behind closed doors quickly turns into a secret neither of them can afford. Because the more Merritt falls for the man she was never supposed to touch… the more Hayes realizes he may have lost the only girl who ever truly loved him.
And when jealousy, family rivalry, and the spotlight collide, Merritt will have to decide which dream she’s willing to lose.
Her career, her heart. Or both.
Omega Bound
Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life.
Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
Invincible Upon Release: The Strongest Mage
Her family looked down on him, and even she herself said coldly: “You’re not worthy of being my husband.”
Everyone thought this newly released good-for-nothing was just a poor fool who’d taken the fall for his brother.
Thorne said nothing.
He merely raised his hand, gently pressing his bride’s forehead.
In an instant, the chaos in her eyes faded. Holy light surged from beneath the church, shooting into the sky.
The world’s only candidate for the Saintess, blessed with holy power, slowly opened her clear eyes before him.
Oops. My Boss Was Seventeen
The Execution: Perfect. I brought him coffee, cheered at his games, and basically operated as his unpaid teenage executive assistant. He’s totally buying it.
The Problem: I was trying to network my way into the C-suite. I think I just networked my way into his bed.
The Billoniare's Fake Husband
Quin is wealthy, controlling, and desperate to keep his inheritance, so he offers Tyler a deal: stay married until he clicks thirty and get paid. Tyler doesn’t trust him, but he needs the money Quin was offering, so he agrees.
What starts as a fake marriage soon turns into something messy and real. Feelings begin to get involved and walls start to crack. Suddenly Tyler is risking his heart for a man he swore to hate.
Now, with secrets coming out and time running out, they both have to decide—is this just a mistake… or something worth fighting for?












