
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 😍
Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back
She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.
Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.
Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.
Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,
"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"
When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.
Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.
No more soft-heartedness.
No more groveling.
Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.
Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.
And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.
Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.
My Benchwarmer Boyfriend's Secret
As the team's benchwarmer, Marco practices harder than anyone, though few seems to notice. There's something about his quiet determination that draws me in, and I find myself falling for the underdog.
But when Marco's true story starts unraveling—about that first night, about who he really is, about the future he's destined for—I realize I might have gotten in way over my head.
And there's another problem: this was always meant to be temporary. His training program has an end date, and we're both fighting against a reality that seems determined to pull us apart.
When everything is on the line, how far are we willing to go for love?
The mafia princess return
Survival Island
Zane, a powerful vampire and the island's owner, has spent centuries unable to feel desire for any woman. But when he notices Zara's intelligence, resilience, and determination to survive, she awakens something in him that no one ever has. For the first time in his vampire life, he is interested in a female, and his member is also starting to come to life. Who is this woman and why does he suddenly crave her and not just for her blood?
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."
First Taste in a Century
But Lysander’s arrival spells disaster. In a clumsy accident, he doesn't just ruin dinner; he obliterates her state-of-the-art scientific instruments. With her life’s work destroyed and her synthetic supply cut off, the scent of his living blood overwhelms her engineered senses. Forced to break a century-long abstinence, she takes what she needs, only to find herself addicted not just to his taste, but to the man himself.
Using the equipment as a flimsy excuse to lure him back, Vivienne battles a terrifying new obsession. She craves his body despite believing he’s taken, despising her own weakness. Meanwhile, Lysander’s initial terror curdles into a forbidden fascination. Can a relationship survive when one person feels everything, and the other only hungers?
After One Night with the Alpha
I thought I was waiting for love. Instead, I got fucked by a beast.
My world was supposed to bloom at the Moonshade Bay Full Moon Festival—champagne buzzing in my veins, a hotel room booked for Jason and me to finally cross that line after two years. I’d slipped into lacy lingerie, left the door unlocked, and lay on the bed, heart pounding with nervous excitement.
But the man who climbed into my bed wasn’t Jason.
In the pitch-black room, drowned in a heady, spicy scent that made my head spin, I felt hands—urgent, scorching—searing my skin. His thick, pulsing cock pressed against my dripping cunt, and before I could gasp, he thrust hard, tearing through my innocence with ruthless force. Pain burned, my walls clenching as I clawed at his iron shoulders, stifling sobs. Wet, slick sounds echoed with every brutal stroke, his body unrelenting until he shuddered, spilling hot and deep inside me.
"That was amazing, Jason," I managed to say.
"Who the fuck is Jason?"
My blood turned to ice. Light slashed across his face—Brad Rayne, Alpha of Moonshade Pack, a werewolf, not my boyfriend. Horror choked me as I realized what I’d done.
I ran away for my life!
But weeks later, I woke up pregnant with his heir!
They say my heterochromatic eyes mark me as a rare true mate. But I’m no wolf. I’m just Elle, a nobody from the human district, now trapped in Brad's world.
Brad’s cold gaze pins me: “You carry my blood. You’re mine.”
There is no other choice for me but to chose this cage. My body also betrays me, craving the beast who ruined me.
WARNING: Mature Readers Only
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate
He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.
Cursed Fates
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)
For centuries, she has been on the run, helping the supernatural community under the cloak of anonymity while she works to clear her name and save the very people after her from destruction.
Enemies are closing in, but an unexpected complication befalls her when she realises she’s been fated to someone who wants her species exterminated. After all, an evil chance seldom comes alone.
A Queen Among Darkness is the 4th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.
Books in the series in order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation Coming Soon)












