Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3)

by Snyder, Jennifer

  Her hand came up to cover her mouth, and for a split second, I questioned whether she was about to cry or fly off the handle. Callie had always been a fairly calm and quiet person, but I had learned early on in life that it was the quiet ones you had to worry about. They were generally the most unpredictable when upset or angry. My adopted father was a testament to that rule.

  “I just can’t believe this,” she whispered against her fingertips. “Does Kace know?”

  “No.” I shook my head.

  “Good, can we just keep this between us for the time being, please?”

  “Sure,” I agreed. It was the least I could do.

  “I want to have a little time to talk with my mom about this first, before everyone else finds out,” she said, her fingers still pressed against her lips.

  Binks sauntered into the room and jumped up on the table directly in front of Callie. He meowed lazily and brushed against her forearm.

  “Looks like you’ve made a new best friend. I’m jealous. My cat likes you more than me.” I chuckled as I attempted to joke and lighten the mood a little.

  Callie reached out with both hands and scratched the sides of Binks’s face gently. A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Aww, he’s such a cutie.”

  My cell phone went off from somewhere deep inside my beach bag. I jumped up to grab the bag and began rummaging through its contents to answer it. I finally found it on what had to be the sixth ring. It was my mom.

  “Hey, Mom,” I answered.

  “Hi, honey, how are you?” she asked.

  “I’m good. Callie and I have been enjoying our Saturday hanging out at the beach,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at Callie. I mouthed that I’d be just a minute, and then exited through the back door for some privacy. I figured we both might need it at the moment.

  “Good, I’m glad you two are hanging out. I really liked her. She’s such a sweet girl.”

  “That she is,” I said. “So, how are things at home?”

  We talked for roughly twenty minutes, in which she probably said I love you fifteen times, and then we hung up. The panic that used to always be present in her voice every time she called was now completely gone. I noticed that it had disappeared after her visit a few weeks ago. Something had clicked during that visit; it was like she no longer saw me as a little six-year-old, asking her to play tea party, and instead, she finally viewed me as what I was, an adult capable of making my own decisions.

  When I walked back into the kitchen, Callie was still sitting at the corner table with a blank look on her face. Binks was no longer in front of her, and her sweet tea was gone. I walked back to my chair, noticing how lost in thought she appeared to be, and my stomach sank to my toes.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She shifted her eyes to me and nodded. “Yeah, I’m all right. I just can’t believe my mother has been paying the Van Rooyens to put spells on my new best friend.”

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know why I said the words. They didn’t help rectify the situation. I guess it was simply because I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  “Don’t be. It's not your fault,” she insisted. “It’s just that…what the hell was she thinking?”

  Callie’s cheeks tinted to a pink color. It was the first time I’d ever witnessed her cheeks that color and it not be because she was blushing over something she felt embarrassed by. No, this time, her cheeks were pink because she was pissed.

  “I think I should go,” she said, standing. “I really need to talk with her.”

  My stomach rolled as I wondered if Susan would have words with me afterward for telling her daughter what she’d done. I hoped not, but I couldn’t take back the words I’d spoken to Callie. What was said was said. Deep down, I felt like I’d done the right thing. Callie deserved to know.

  “All right, call me later?” I asked.

  She nodded and grabbed her beach bag and wet bathing suit off the counter before heading out the door, her face tight and her jaw clenched.

  The heavy emotions from telling her lingered around me long after she’d left. I attempted to pick up the novel I’d been reading, but had to reread the first paragraph three times before I finally understood what it was saying. My head just wasn’t in it.

  Instead, I walked through the house, picking up and rearranging things as I went. I’d never understood growing up why my mom always cleaned the house when she was stressed—until now. Keeping your hands busy when your mind was seemed to be common sense.

  I grabbed the container of Lysol wipes from beneath the sink in the kitchen, and felt a recognizable stirring of warmth slide through my veins. Wetting my lips, I closed my eyes as I stood up, knowing who was nearby and praying my body would listen to my mind while I was in his presence. A soft knock sounded across the window of the back door. My heart danced a happy beat, one my mind tried to remind me was wrong.

  I started toward the door to find out what Theo wanted, and was hit with a sudden sensation of pain in the back of my throat. I swallowed hard as nausea began to overtake me.

  Were these my emotions? Or were they ours combined? I couldn’t be sure. A blurred line was forming. In Theo’s presence, I could no longer distinguish which emotions belonged to whom.

  I picked at my bottom lip as I opened the door wide. “Hey.”

  Theo stood at the door, his face contorted in anguish. He didn’t speak. He just continued to stare at me with those hauntingly glorious caramel-colored eyes.

  “I’d invite you in, but I don’t think you should be here,” I said in a hushed tone.

  His hands clenched into fists at his sides, and his dark eyebrows drew together. “I don’t think I should be here either.”

  “Then why are you?”

  “I don’t know.” His face softened as he met my stare again. “I’m finding it hard to stay away from you lately.”

  I understood him completely. It was the worst type of obsession, fixation, whatever you wanted to label it, that I had ever felt.

  I didn’t respond to his words. Instead, I continued to stare directly into the depths of his eyes. It was the longest and most serious staring contest I’d ever been a part of, because I knew exactly where my eyes would drift the second I blinked—his lips—and I couldn’t let that happen. If I did, then I might not be able to control my hands—or my lips—and that would be a serious problem.

  As the silence splayed out between us, I became acutely aware of my heartbeat and the warmth that flooded me once I’d opened the door for him.

  “I think I finally understood it all when I saw you at the beach,” he said.

  His tongue snaked out and licked his plump lips, causing my eyes to leave his and follow the motion. Even though his tongue had been nowhere near me, it still stroked against every nerve ending in my body as though it had been sliding along my skin. Shifting on my feet, I tore my eyes away from him to glance at the little patch of green grass that made up my backyard behind him instead.

  “And?” I prompted in a whisper. “Aren’t you going to explain it to me?”

  He leaned against the doorframe, which brought him closer to me. I could feel the heat emanating off him and soaking into my pores. My body shivered at the sensation of it, as though it were the drug of choice I had been craving and now it was finally within reach.

  “I’m sickened with myself when you’re not around, because you’re all I’m constantly thinking about. It’s taken a lot of willpower to stay away as long as I have, Addison.” He sighed heavily, and his hot breath slid across my face. I understood then what he meant about willpower, because I had to use every ounce of mine to keep from reaching out to him. “And then, when I finally saw you earlier, I was fine. The burning need to be around you was quiet. It’s trying to pull us together, drawing us closer to one another, because that’s what it’s for. The tether is getting stronger for a reason; something is coming. It has to be. Whatever the tether was put in place for is about to happen.�
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  I shook my head and took a step back, uncomfortable with the way my body wanted to behave due to his closeness.

  “It doesn’t matter.” I paused, catching how breathy my voice sounded, and cleared my throat. “Because I’ve decided to become initiated.”

  My eyes dropped to my purple painted toenails, and I felt a release lift off my shoulders at having finally told someone else my intentions.

  “What? No,” Theo insisted. His voice was loud. It echoed through the tiny kitchen and made my heart bounce up to my throat. “You can’t do that. You don’t need to. Not now, not when everything is finally coming to a point on its own. You need to wait.”

  His level of concern floored me. Was he really that distressed about my becoming initiated? Or was it just the tether talking, mingling with emotions he wouldn’t have in regards to me otherwise?

  One thing was certain—I was over not being able to tell who was being genuine with me and who wasn’t. This was another reason I added to the list of pros to the initiation in my mind.

  “Who knows how long that will take,” I said without looking at him. “The initiation is in two nights, if you include tonight, and that’s long enough to wait for this to be over with between us, Theo.”

  He stepped closer to me, crowding me and making it harder for me to keep my hands to myself. He let out another long breath, as though he was frustrated with me beyond comprehension, but I knew he wasn’t. Sure, that emotion was there, lingering in the distance, but it wasn’t his main emotion right now. Not even close. Want was. Theo wanted me just as much—if not more—as I wanted him.

  His breath eased over my skin again and my legs locked, unable to move away like my mind begged them to. He took another small step closer, and then froze. His solid, exposed chest was now within a whisper's reach. He stayed that way, pressed against me, with his hands clenched at his sides. Curiosity over what I would find swirling within the rich color of his eyes made me lift mine to meet his. What I found was just as intense and dangerously dark as every part of Theo himself. Their light caramel color had deepened to a near coffee black as his pupils had overtaken them. If I weren't able to feel his dominant emotion at the moment, I would have thought he was pure evil and run the other way.

  The simple fact of the matter was, I could feel his main emotion, and that emotion alone was the reason my two feet were rooted in place.

  Focusing on him and the emotions flickering between us, I came to realize the many layers he felt in the moment. It wasn’t just lust with him. It was a passion so strong I could taste it. It snaked through the air between us, caressing my skin delicately while sweeping into my nostrils and down my throat, where it coated the inside of my mouth. My magick rushed to my lips, tainting them with a sweetness I’d never tasted before.

  “You think I don’t know what you’re trying to get away from?” he asked. “The feeling of your body not being your own when we’re around each other, like you have no control over your own movements. I get it, because I feel it too.”

  “Then why don’t you want me to go through with the initiation?” I asked, my voice catching in my throat. “It would make it all go away.” Why was I even asking him that? Why did his opinion matter to me? It shouldn’t.

  Theo tucked his lips in and inhaled deeply before answering. “I’ve told you this. I don’t like the situation you’re about to put yourself in. Don’t let the tether push you into their hands any more than you already are, Addison. Wait it out and leave when you get the chance.”

  There was a sense of desperation, infusing the air between us, that I didn’t understand. Theo’s hands came up and brushed against his shaved head. His elbows slid lightly against my shoulders in the process, sending goose bumps across my skin from the brief touch.

  “Please, just trust me,” he begged.

  “Why should I trust you? Deep down you don’t even like me. You hardly even know me,” I said, unsure where the words had come from or when they’d even decided to fly from my lips.

  “Not true,” he said firmly.

  “Really?” I attempted to scoff, but it came out sounding all wrong—too breathy and low and too much like a desperate question instead of a jab.

  A muscle in his jaw tightened. “I know you better than you think and I like you more than you know.”

  Had he not been so close, and had I been able to gain better control over the emotions spiraling through me and the magick pulsating at my lips, I would have laughed at his statement. He didn’t know me, and he damn sure didn’t like me. What was he saying?

  Glancing down at the tiled floor, I hooked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “Look, I’ve made up my mind about—” I didn’t get to finish my sentence, because Theo bent down and pressed his lips to mine.

  My eyes closed as his soft lips slanted across my mouth, consuming the gasp that escaped me and overtaking my thoughts. I responded eagerly and without hesitation. The sweetness of my magick, which had played across my lips moments before, burst free and filled my mouth, shocking my taste buds. Theo’s hands came up to cup the sides of my face. The contact scorched my skin as my magick rushed to meet with his touch. His tongue slid softly against my bottom lip, urging me to open my mouth farther. When I did, our tongues met and my mind shut down. All rational thought left me, and I became submerged in Theo and nothing more.

  His kisses were gentle and tender. They were a contradiction with the way he held himself all the time. To say I was surprised by this would have been an understatement. It was as though he didn’t want to devour or consume me like Kace did, but instead, he merely wanted to savor me, treating the moment as though it were delicate and fragile.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he whispered in a harsh tone as his lips released mine for a moment.

  My knees weakened at the sound of his torn voice. “Me either.”

  “I don’t want to stop,” he admitted, and his hands left the sides of my face to graze over the skin along my neck.

  I dug my fingers into the muscles of his back, letting him know I didn’t want to stop either. Theo’s fingertips skated over the skin of my shoulders as his tongue urged my mouth open again. His fingers splayed against my back and trailed down, sending flames licking at my skin in their wake. He nipped at my lower lip, and then sucked it into the recesses of his mouth. Dragging it through his teeth, he made my insides spasm from the sensation.

  Perspiration beaded across my forehead as my body heated more with every graze of his skin against mine. My tank top clung to my lower back, and the skirt I wore stuck to my upper thighs. The feel of my magick flowing through me had never been this strong before.

  A calm, warm wind caressed my skin as Theo’s lips made their way down the side of my throat. His hands came to rest on my hips, and he hooked his thumbs underneath the waistband of my skirt. I slid my hands across his bare back, feeling every ripple and valley of his muscles beneath my fingertips as they tensed and tightened. His lips brushed against the sensitive area where my neck met with my shoulder, and his hand came up to pull my tank top strap down so he could continue his trail of kisses across my bare skin. I hung my head back, lost in the blissful sensation of the moment, as the anticipation over where it would lead overcame me.

  My cell phone rang.

  The loud harshness of the tone bouncing through the quiet kitchen was enough to startle us both into releasing one another. My magick still pulsated beneath my skin, and the sweetness I’d tasted still lingered on the tip of my tongue, but a fog had cleared from my mind and now I could finally think again. The ramifications of what I’d just done pounded through my brain like nails driven in by a hammer.

  Holy shit, I’d just cheated on Kace!

  My fingertips met with my lips as though I could wipe away the moment Theo’s lips had first pressed against them, but I knew that was an impossible feat. My breathing became restricted, and I couldn’t be sure if it was a side effect of my emotions regarding the situation or somethin
g stemming from Theo.

  The phone continued to ring, but I didn’t move a single inch to answer it. I couldn’t. I was too dumbfounded by what had taken place between us. My eyes met with Theo’s, and I watched as he raised his hands to his head and grazed his palms against his shaved hair.

  I can’t believe that just happened.

  The words seemed to stream through my mind. They were spoken in Theo’s seductive, velvety, Southern voice, but his lips had never moved.

  Nausea sloshed through my stomach, causing saliva to pool in my mouth. I took a small step back and bent over at the waist. A chilled sensation spread across my skin just as my cell finally stopped ringing.

  Why in the hell did I let it go that far?

  The words floated through my head in Theo’s voice.

  I was going to vomit. Not only had I cheated on my boyfriend, but now I could hear Theo’s thoughts in my head. My life had just gone from bad to worse in thirty-five seconds flat.

  What have we done? The words rippled through my mind on repeat as I struggled to catch my breath and calm the sickness churning in my stomach.

  Theo’s hands fell from his head, and his eyes snapped to me. “Fuck, it made it stronger!”

  I swallowed hard and forced myself to take in another deep breath. Standing up straighter, I made direct eye contact with him. “Don’t visit me again. Don’t worry about me becoming initiated, because like it or not, it’s going to happen. Especially now. And get the hell out of my house.”

  I’d meant for the words to come out sounding strong with a heavy dose of anger laced within them, but they hadn’t. Instead, they’d sounded more like a frightened little girl, unsure of what she should do, and I hated it. That was not the person I wanted to be in this moment.

  Theo narrowed his eyes at me. “All you feel right now is anger. Focus on where it’s coming from.”

  You, I projected to him mentally.

  “Wrong,” he insisted, his jaw tense. “I’m not the one who’s angry, you are.”