The hairs on the back of his neck were standing at attention, as he watched the way she moved. She was hot as hell and sexy as all get out, but that wasn't all of what was getting under his skin. Truth be told, it wasn't even most of it. What was eating at him was that he was starting to think he might have underestimated this chick. Something told him that this confident, sexy woman was going to be trouble for him. It had been several years since he had seen her last, and in that time, she had really come into her own. She was a woman now, and a fine one at that. Except noticing things like that was something he didn't have any time for. Not when the chance of getting a major new sponsor was on the line. The bad boy act might have come easily to him, but that's not what Nate needed to be now. He needed to be well-loved to make it to the big time—and nothing would piss off the people of his hometown like the idea that he was trifling with everyone’s favorite girl next door. He was just going to have to keep his head down, his hands to himself, and hope that the allure of Athena would wear off before he did something stupid.
2
Athena stood in the middle of the field, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her sweater. She was the first one to arrive for the day's festivities, and she was glad. She could do with a little calm before the storm in light of what the day held. She needed to make sure she had her head on straight before coming up against Nate again.
It had been two days since that stunt he'd pulled, showing up unannounced and getting her girls all riled up. Two days and she still couldn't quite shake the unrest seeing him again had caused inside of her. Today was the day he was supposed to have shown up, however, and she was bound and determined to behave professionally. She was going to show him that he wasn't the only one who could play this stupid PR game if it was the last thing she did.
If Athena had it her way, Nate would never have returned to her life. It wasn't that she had anything against him on a personal level—there had been a bit of a rivalry between them when they were teenagers, but it had been a friendly rivalry, with no hard feelings on either side. It was only that he'd already attained the kind of recognition in the rodeo circuit that she wanted but had never been able to chase. Not with her limited resources. Not with her mother depending on her.
Athena’s mother had never been great at making ends meet. She had never been able to hold down a job for more than a month at a time during most of Athena’s childhood—and what little money she did make back then was likely to go towards the purchasing of a bottle. When Athena grew up enough to be able to contribute, it had been up to her to take on the role of provider, assuring that her dreams were just that: dreams. It was impossible for her not to look at him and be attracted to that success, almost as attracted as she was envious.
Then there was the sheer physicality of the man, which was simply undeniable. It seemed like the more she tried not to think about it, the more images of Nate in his element kept flooding her head. She didn't even have to close her eyes to conjure up the image of him riding, his considerable muscles rippling with each and every move he made. She could see his grin, utterly contagious, see the way his blue eyes sparkled with mischief and good cheer. Normally she wasn't attracted to men as cocky as Nate, but there was something about him she couldn't shake.
“Stop it, girl,” she hissed to herself, “you cut it out right now.”
Because she had to shake it. She had too much going on to let her head get turned by some good-looking cowboy who was going to blow back out of town almost as quickly as he had blown in. It might look to most people like Nate had come home for Strawberry Fest to help the town, but Athena knew he was benefiting from it too. There were rumors that he was courting a sponsorship deal, and it made sense that he was playing up the “good country boy” image with this visit. There was the PR stunt with her girls, something she had agreed to grudgingly after realizing that saying no would be plain stupid. His little break from the circuit was then supposed to culminate with a competition with the best rider in the tri-state area.
“Which could be you,” she reminded herself, “you never know.”
It was true that she had participated in the battle for the title of best rider. It was also true that the winner of said battle had not yet been announced. It would still be another week before the winner was crowned and the competition with Nate could move forward, and Athena knew she would be on pins and needles until that happened. It was a stiff competition, indeed, and being her town's rodeo darling wouldn't be enough to get her the crown. If she missed out on this, she didn’t know when she would ever get another chance at the big stage. She loved giving lessons, but the program barely managed to scrape by on the fees the girls paid—and she wasn’t about to charge them more, wanting to keep the program accessible to everyone. It meant, though, that there wasn’t enough funding to cover a salary for her, so she had to keep her day job running the local gym. Between the gym and the lessons, there was precious little time, energy, and resources left at the end of the day for her to put toward her own riding. If she could take Nate down, she might actually be able to start making money on her riding and her riding alone.
As for his part, she didn't think Nate had any idea she'd even competed for the title. As per the rules of her entry, she wasn't allowed to discuss it with anybody. She'd even been made to sign a non-disclosure. The competition with Nate was being backed by big corporate funding, and apparently, that came with big contracts. She could only imagine what Nate's reaction would be if his competitor was finally revealed and it turned out to be her. Something told her he wouldn't love the idea of going up against a woman, which made her want to be his rival all the more.
“Hello, there, Athena! Just couldn’t wait to get started with us, huh?”
“Speak of the devil,” Athena muttered to herself at the sound of Nate’s voice. She could hear her girls trailing along behind him, already hyped up to the max by the activities awaiting them for the day. Athena sucked in a deep breath, rolled her shoulders in a futile attempt to release some of the tension building there, and turned to face the group.
"Hi girls!" she exclaimed, holding out both of her palms so that each girl, in turn, could come and give her a high five. Nate hung back until each of them was done, then sauntered up to her with two cups of coffee in his hands.
“What? No greeting for me?” he asked, his voice full of mock-hurt that made her skin prickle, “If you’re not careful, Athena, I’m going to start thinking you don’t like me.”
“I like you just fine, Nate, I’ve just been waiting a while, that’s all.”
“So what’d you go and get here so early for?” he asked, his face breaking open with his signature wide grin. She felt herself softening and lifted her chin defiantly. There was no way she was going to be one of those girls who melted into a puddle when presented with Nate’s charming smile. Not if she could help it.
"You're right, Nate, I did get here a little early, but you're also, like, fifteen minutes late. Not a great example to set for the girls."
“Hey, come on now,” he laughed, falling into step beside her as they hurried to catch up to the running, laughing girls, “that’s not so late. And you’ve gotta give me a little credit, I think.”
“Credit?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and shooting him a sideways glance that only made him laugh again, “Credit for what, pray tell?”
She was pretty sure she knew the answer without having to be told. Truthfully, she had been one hundred percent sure that Nate was going to screw this up. It had been the idea of his publicist to have the girls gather in the training barn so Nate could bring them to the field. He had gone on and on about what a good photo op it would be, like it was the most ingenious idea in the world. It had been all Athena could do not to show her revulsion on her face.
“Shit, for getting them here at all. You may not know this about me, but I don’t have a ton of experience with kids. Count yourself lucky that everyone got here in one piece.”
"Okay, fine,"
she relented, "we're lucky. A word of advice, though. Try not to use that kind of language in front of the girls. Little kids have big ears, and they like to repeat the things they hear."
"Yes ma'am," he answered, raising his hand to his forehead in a little salute. She rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help smiling a little. It was proving much easier to fall into a rhythm with him than she would have thought, given how different their lives were from one another's. There was a familiarity, a holdover from the time they had spent together when they were young, perhaps, or maybe just the connection forged by their mutual love for the rodeo. She needed to be careful. She needed to remember what she was doing here, as well as why Nate had really come home.
"Okay, girls," Athena said a little louder than was strictly necessary, "unfortunately, it turns out we've got some time to kill before Nate can get started with you. Apparently, there's a bake sale for the Strawberry Fest, and it's got to get going before we can begin. It's part of the kick-off for everything."
The girls started groaning, and Athena sighed. A group of children and blocks of time when there was nothing constructive for them to do didn't exactly mix well. She was not looking forward to trying to keep them together and in a reasonably good mood until they got the go-ahead for Nate to officially start working with them. Before she could even get an idea going, however, Nate stepped forward and tossed an oversized gym bag on the ground.
“Hey, girls, before you get to bellyaching, I’ve got an idea,” he said, surveying the group of girls as if he were looking over his troops.
“Hold on, Nate,” Athena started to say, warning bells going off inside her head. It was true that he’d done okay with the kids so far, but that was just for snapshots of time. Athena didn’t think it had been long enough for him to truly learn how to deal with kids when he didn’t have any real experience with them. Moreover, it didn’t involve him making any kind of decisions for them. If he didn’t know better than to spit out profanity in front of them, her confidence in his ability to think up suitable pastimes was next to nothing.
“Don’t worry, Athena,” he said, brushing her off without bothering to look at her as he bent to rummage through his bag, “I’ve got this in the bag. Ha! Literally. Here, catch.”
If she had blinked, it would have hit her in the face. As it was, she caught the football through sheer dumb luck, much to the amusement of the girls. They had stopped their complaining now, each of them caught up in their curiosity over what Nate had in mind. Like it or not, Athena was a little curious, too. When he stood, fistfuls of colorful belts and flags in his hands, she finally understood.
“Where did you even get this?” she asked, peering at the bag’s contents dubiously.
“I used to own this field, Moore,” he answered with a grin, “I haven’t forgotten its ins and outs.”
“Meaning…?”
“I led the girls to the old equipment shed on our way here, thought they might want to see it. It was always full of stuff like this in my day. Thought I’d check it out and I got lucky. Hit the jackpot.”
“Really, Nate? Do you think that’s the best idea?”
“Come on!” he exclaimed, “It’ll be fun! You and I can be the team captains, each take a team. A little friendly competition never hurt anybody, right? Unless you’re afraid of a little pigskin, that is.”
"Afraid? You're joking, right?" she scoffed, tugging at her ponytail so she could put it right back into place. On some level, she understood that he was baiting her. She knew that taking his bait was what he wanted and was, therefore, last thing on the planet she should do. The problem was, her competitive streak was too deeply ingrained for her to let a comment like that fly. She gripped the ball tighter and fixed on her most intimidating smile.
“I’m not joking, no,” Nate said, “if you don’t think you can handle it—”
“Believe me, buddy, I can handle it. It’s just like my girls here like to say; anything you can do, I can do better.”
This was met with a resounding chorus of cheers from the eavesdropping girls and a raised eyebrow from Nate. Looking at that, Athena couldn’t help it; she burst out laughing. It was the good kind of laugh, too, the kind that made your stomach hurt before it started to subside. After a moment or two, Nate began to chuckle as well.
“Looks like we’ve got a game, then,” he said before handing over half of the belts.
The game of flag football turned out to be the perfect idea for keeping the kids occupied. Athena split them into teams to ensure that both her and Nate's groups of girls were evenly matched. It was true that she was competitive and had a strong drive to win, but when it came to the kids, she wasn't going to win unfairly. She wanted the teams to be evenly matched, to help her girls learn from a young age that they were capable of anything. It was such an important lesson to learn and one she wanted to reinforce before her girls became teenagers, with all the self-doubt and insecurity that high school delivered.
Overall, the game went off without a hitch. The girls were just the right amount of engaged to keep them singularly occupied without getting so drawn in that they got angry or mean. There was only one thing about the impromptu game that struck Athena as odd, and it had to do with her, not the kids.
More to the point, it had to do with her and Nate. Because he wouldn’t touch her. It wasn’t like she expected him to put his hands all over her or anything, it was only flag football, but he wouldn’t touch her at all. Before too much time had passed, Athena started to get the impression that Nate was going out of his way not to touch her.
It got to be so that it was a side game for her, to see how she could test her theory. The closer she got to him, the more reckless she became, the clearer it was. Nate was avoiding any skin-on-skin contact with her like the plague. His unwillingness to make any contact at all was funny, but it also made for an awkward game, seeing as taking the flag off of someone was the whole point.
“What is his deal?” she whispered to herself, half annoyed and half amused as she made a move that made it all but impossible for him not to try and take her flag.
He didn't take the bait. In fact, he seemed so bent on staying away from her that he was practically fleeing from her. The last straw for Athena was when she got too close, and Nate made a crazy jerking move, almost barreling over one of the kids in the process. He would rather tackle a kid than get close to touching her, and that was something she just couldn't leave alone.
“Oh, come on, buddy, why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?” she said with a laugh as she rushed forward.
Flag football or no, she tackled him. She knew she probably shouldn’t do it as she was tackling him, but she couldn’t help herself. He just seemed so afraid of her! Like they were little kids again, younger than her class, and he was back to being afraid of cooties.
"Whoa!" he hollered, losing his footing on the damp grass. His arms cartwheeled, then shot forward, grabbing for the closest thing to anchor him and keep him from falling backward. Unfortunately for Athena, that closest thing happened to be her. He locked onto the front of her sweatshirt, only succeeding in bringing her down with him. He landed on his back in the mud and she landed squarely on top of him.
"Christ, are you okay?" Nate gasped, his hands sliding from the front of her sweatshirt to the sides of her waist. Both of them were breathing hard, him on his back and her straddling him in the middle of the field. If she had wanted to force contact between the two of them, she had certainly succeeded.
"I... I'm fine," she answered, her face growing hot despite the chill in the early morning air. All at once, she was painfully aware of the feeling of their two bodies connecting. The heat from his skin seemed to be seeping into her own, and her stomach did a delicious little flip of anticipation. Whether she liked it or not, whether she condoned it or not, her body wanted him.
"Miss Athena?" one of her students called uncertainly, while a handful of the others started to snicker. The sound of the laughter was enough to
break the spell of physicality that had come over her, and she hopped up, brushing her hands off on her jeans.
“Yes, girls,” she answered hastily, unable to make eye contact with anyone, least of all Nate, “everything’s good. Now, where were we?”
Athena walked away from Nate quickly, not daring to look over her shoulder to see what kind of expression he might be wearing. She had in no way expected the contact between the two of them to be so intense. It was most definitely something she was not prepared to handle.
Because one thing was for sure. There was absolutely no room for attraction in their competition.
3
Nate was more than a little relieved when the game of flag football was over. It was true that he had suggested it, but he hadn’t anticipated his reaction to it. No, scratch that. Not to it, but to her. It wasn’t very far into the game that he’d realized his mistake. He had to have been out of his mind to think that he wouldn’t get distracted while playing a game that involved grabbing at her.
Then again, he hadn't allowed himself to recognize how attracted he was to her until they were already playing, and by then it was too late. He had done his best to keep from touching her at all, but then she'd gone and launched herself at him. And then she’d been on top of him, her legs on either side of him and her face so close to his they were breathing the same air. He would hardly have needed to move to kiss her and God, did he ever want to do that. He could only imagine how she tasted. He would bet money that she was as sweet as she looked.
Suffice it to say, he was relieved when the game was over, and he could put a little distance between Athena and himself. Touching her was a bad idea. If he started touching her, he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to make himself stop, and getting it on with the local rodeo darling could ruin everything.
The Cowboy’s Rodeo Rival: Grant Brothers Series Book Three Page 2
