by Renee Rose
I spun about, ready to tell him off, shoving my finger in his chest. Instead, since he’d been bent down to speak, when I turned, his face was right there. Our noses bumped, our mouths almost brushed. He smelled of a hint of soap, no aftershave for him, and the tang of beer.
Maybe it was the shot of tequila or his closeness, but it was suddenly hot in the bar. “I… I didn’t know that,” I replied, unsure of what to say. I couldn’t back up, or I’d bump people behind me. If I moved forward, I’d be kissing Boyd.
No kissing Boyd! I had no idea where those lips had been since yesterday and between my thighs. Oh shit, now I was thinking of those lips on me. There.
A shrill whoop cut through the crowd, and we turned to look where it had come from. Over the heads of the crowd, Becky was riding on what appeared to be a bull. Her arm was flung over her head, and her long hair flew out behind her. No wonder I hadn’t seen her, I’d been looking the wrong way.
“There’s a mechanical bull?” I asked, staring at my friend. Somehow, I’d missed the bull before now, perhaps because it was in the back of the bar, and no one had been on it. With Becky sitting on top of it, she could be easily seen over everyone’s heads. I’d had no idea my friend could ride a bull. At least a fake one.
“Sure is. You want to try?” Boyd had stood to his full height and settled a hand on my shoulder.
“Faster!” Becky shouted and the bull’s pace picked up. She whipped about, then after about two seconds, fell off. I couldn’t see her through the crowd, but I assumed there were big pads for her to land upon.
“Come on, let’s check it out.”
Boyd steered me through the throng to the low rail that separated the mechanical bull from the main bar area.
Becky was pushing herself to her feet on the thick padding that circled the mechanical bull, smiling and laughing. She gave me a wave then headed toward the bar. She had to be fairly buzzed to climb on that thing in the first place. I knew I wouldn’t see her again tonight, playing wingman by staying away from me and Boyd.
Whatever. I focused on the now empty machine.
“No horns,” I observed, and Boyd laughed.
“No horns,” he repeated, rubbing a hand over the spot where he’d been bleeding just the other day. “But it’s still one hell of a ride.” He gave an ear-splitting whistle. “Russell, she’s up next.”
I glanced up at Boyd, who was looking across the cordoned off area to, I assumed, Russell, who was running the controls for the bull. I lifted my gaze and saw he was pointing down at my head.
“What? No way. I can’t go on that thing.” Nervously, I tucked my hair behind my ears.
“Sure, you can.”
I shook my head. “No, Boyd. I can’t.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
His light eyes held mine. He wasn’t joking with me, he seriously didn’t understand.
“I’ll go, Boyd.” A pretty young thing came up to the rail and gave Boyd a I’ll ride the mechanical bull now and show you my moves so I can ride you later look. She was tall, thin, big boobed and left nothing to hide beneath her clothing choice. Painted on jeans. A plaid button up that was missing half the buttons and tied in a neat little bow over her bare belly. A belly that should have a label like cottage cheese that said Fat Free!
“You know I’m good for a wild ride,” she added, as she kicked one leg over the fence. She straddled it, paused and winked—gag!—then flung her other over and made her way up and onto the bull. I could have sworn Boyd growled, but it was hidden a little by my hatred by little Miss Perfect and Slutty. She winked, not at Boyd, but at me.
Yeah, I hated her.
She signaled and the bull started up. She moved with the machine’s forward and backward motion. She’d done this before, but I knew that. She was not a virgin at anything.
People lined the rail to clap and cheer but also to probably watch and see if her breasts popped from the limited confines of her shirt. The ride lasted longer than eight seconds and so did the button dexterity on her top. She climbed down and sauntered our way. Yes, sauntered.
“That’s how it’s done.”
Yeah. Total bitch.
“Want to go for our own ride now, Boyd?” she purred.
Boyd looked to me and shook his head. “Nope. I’ve got what I want right here.”
I couldn’t see her around Boyd’s body, but I heard her huff.
“Don’t you want to go off with her?” I asked.
He frowned down at me, didn’t even look Total Bitch’s way when she stomped off.
“Why would I want to do that?” he asked.
“Um, because she’s gorgeous and is way more skilled than I am.” I wasn’t just talking about riding a bull.
“Oh, when you get going, you’re pretty wild yourself,” he countered, reaching up and stroking my cheek.
I narrowed my eyes at the simple gesture. “Yeah, well. Me, yesterday. Her, today. It’s fine.”
I started to turn away, but he spun me back with a gentle grip on my upper arm. “No, it’s not fine. I think I’ve been pretty clear that I want you. Only you. What makes you think I’m into bed hopping?”
I pushed my glasses up my face and stared at him. “Um, because you do. Bed hop, I mean.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced away. “Okay, in the past. But that was then. This is now.”
“You’re reformed? What, did you hit your head when you fell off that bull?” I wondered.
“When a guy meets the right girl.” He looked over his shoulder and signaled to Russell. “Your turn. I want to see what you’ve got.”
“Boyd, I can’t.”
“Audrey, you can.”
“Boyd, I’m wearing a skirt.”
He looked down. Stared at my skirt. My legs. And stared some more. “Yes, you are.”
“Boyd—” I began, then saw Total Bitch leaning against the rail, smirking. She wasn’t right behind Boyd but close enough that I knew she was waiting for her chance to pounce.
Fine. I couldn’t turn into a supermodel, but I could get on the back of a mechanical bull and show her I had some moves of my own. False pride, for sure. But a woman had to do what a woman had to do.
Maybe Boyd saw the shift in me, the determination, because he set his hands on my hips and lifted me up and over the rail as if I weighed nothing. I stared down the bull as if it were real and not mechanical.
“Climb up there,” Boyd instructed.
I made my way onto the padding, careful not to flash anyone. Fortunately, my skirt hit just a few inches above my knee, not the tiny Band-Aid sized ones some ladies were wearing. When I stood beside the bull, I looked over my shoulder. I had no idea how to get on it. There was no way to toss my leg over, not unless I wanted to chuck my modesty right along with it.
Boyd swung himself over the rail and climbed up beside me. He leaned down and cupped his hands together to make a step. “Put your left foot here, then swing your right over.”
People were shouting and hollering for me to hop on, but Boyd didn’t pay them any attention. I looked at him for a second, then at his clasped hands. He wasn’t making fun of me. He was helping. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to do this for him or for myself. I knew I was doing this for myself, not Boyd. I wasn’t going to feel less than Total Bitch. I might fall off the stupid fake animal, but at least I tried. And as long as my skirt didn’t ride up to my waist when I did it, I’d be able to remain in town instead of moving to a different state.
I set my foot in his hold and followed his instructions and was sitting astride the mechanical bull before I could say thanks. Even though my skirt only drifted up to mid-thigh, I tugged at the hem, then looked around and had a full view of the entire bar. It was higher up than it seemed from the other side of the railing.
“Good girl,” Boyd said, smiling at me. This smile wasn’t sly. It wasn’t sexy. It was… warm, as if it was a new kind—just for me. “You got this?”
Even though he’d practically
goaded me up here, he wasn’t going to make me go through with it. I nodded though. Now that I was sitting on the bull, I wanted to do it. I even heard Becky holler, “Way to go, Audrey! Ride that bull.”
“Nice and slow,” I instructed Boyd. I wasn’t going to pretend I could ride like Total Bitch.
“Yeah, nice and slow is just right.”
He wasn’t talking about bull riding.
His big hand slid down my thigh, from the top half covered in the jean skirt to lower down where the material had ridden up. I felt the callouses, the warmth. In that moment, Boyd wasn’t a cocky rodeo champ. He was Boyd, the man who had eyes only for me.
I took a deep breath and took off my glasses and handed them to him. Besides not wanting them to break, it was probably better not being able to see anything, or anyone.
He stepped back. Only when he was back over the rail did the bull kick in, just like my racing heart. I just had to hope it wouldn’t break when I fell, and I didn’t mean off the bull.
13
BOYD
I gave Russell a look that threatened don’t hurt my woman. He saw it, clenched his jaw and nodded. The bull started up, so slow that it was like Audrey was on the kiddie horse that cost a penny to ride at the grocery store. When someone to my left shouted to speed it up, I whipped my head his way and glared, throwing off all the wolf energy I had, even though he was human. The guy turned and walked away from the rail. The fucker.
The bar was packed. People walked by and slapped me on the shoulder in greeting. I paid them no attention. I could only see Audrey. Hell, if a fight broke out behind me, I doubt I’d know. I certainly wouldn’t care.
Audrey’s bare knees tightened on the bull’s sides, and her knuckles went white around the handhold. The bull’s pace increased, but it was a slow adjustment, and she seemed to be doing okay. When it moved a little faster, her motions became awkward.
“Go with it. Relax. Lift your free arm up in the air to counteract the motion,” I instructed, and she did as I said, her movement improving. Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty. She wasn’t going to stay on going much faster though. I could see it in every line of her body—and I was watching every single curvy line—and the way she was tiring.
It didn’t look like strenuous work hanging on for only eight seconds, but Audrey had been on for much longer, and the mechanical bull’s faux leather was pretty fucking slippery. I doubted I’d be able to stay on if I had to wear a dang skirt and ride the thing.
I sliced my hand back and forth across my throat, indicating to Russell to shut ‘er down. The bull immediately slowed, then came to a stop. I didn’t hop the rail like I wanted but let her carefully kick a leg over then slide down and off on her own. She stumbled when the soft mat gave beneath her feet and put a hand on the side of the bull to steady herself.
When she came over to the rail, I flipped opened the sides of her glasses and carefully set them over her ears. “You did it, darlin’. In a skirt, no less.”
Relief must’ve made her a little punch drunk because she let out a breathy laugh. “I did, didn’t I? Not quite as good as—”
“Better,” I interrupted. I knew she was comparing herself with Karen, the show-off who went before her, but the truth was, there was no comparing. Karen was a backwoods shifter from one of the families living up in the mountains. She’d moved to town when she was eighteen, probably in hopes of snagging one of the Wolf brothers as a mate, but obviously that never took. Rob wasn’t interested in any woman. He wasn’t gay, but he hadn’t met his mate yet. He’d have to soon. I was starting to feel the itch of moon madness, and I was the youngest of the three of us. I’d think he was slowly losing his shit right about now. Not that he’d let on. As for Colton, he was in the military out in North Carolina. I hadn’t seen him in years although not because I avoided him. His leave and my breaks from the rodeo rarely coincided. Karen wasn’t going to ever have luck with him unless she hopped a plane east.
As for me? Not happening. Never had, never would. I knew who I wanted. Who my wolf wanted, and she was standing right in front of me.
I needed to show Audrey exactly how superior she was to every female here. I also needed to somehow prove to her she wasn’t another notch on my bedpost as she thought. She definitely had me filed in the player category.
The trouble was, there wasn’t much evidence against that theory at this point. When she’d walked in, I’d been flanked by four women, all eager to get in my pants. A previous night, I’d have taken any one of them up on her offer. If she asked around, everyone in town who knew me would attest that I was a one-and-done kind of guy.
Dammit. It wasn’t because I wasn’t into the long haul with one woman, I just had never come across her before. I was no monk, so the women I’d slept with in the past had been fun. And that was it.
But now… fuck. I’d screwed up. Big time. I needed to get off the distract-her-with-sex train and get to know her. All of her, not just that beautiful, curvy body. To be her best friend. Not because Rob ordered me to but because that’s what mates were. Everything to each other.
Why did that suddenly make me feel like she was out of my league?
Because she was smart—a doctor—and here I hadn’t even been to college. I practically burned rubber getting off the ranch at eighteen to join the rodeo circuit, and I never looked back. Up until now, I’d relied heavily on my physical prowess and my ability to charm the panties off every female in a three-mile radius. I’d had no skin in the game in the past. I’d been having fun, spreading orgasms across the country. I hadn’t been trying to make anyone fall in love with me. I hadn’t found my mate.
Now I was face-to-beautiful-face with her.
“Are you going to ride it?” she asked, her eyes glassy as she stared up at me through her sexy-as-fuck glasses. She was slightly tipsy, which I loved, but it made my job of proving I was into more than just pounding between those sweet thighs of hers even harder.
“Me? No.” I grinned.
“Oh, right. Of course not. You’re still hurt, right?” Her palm brushed over my side, like she was seeking the wound, so I flinched away. I couldn’t have her discovering there was no injury. In fact, I should probably put a bandage on the area next time I was with her. Especially since I was hoping we’d be naked and horizontal for that reunion.
“You want another drink?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. I’m driving. Have to sober up.”
“I’ll get you a bottle of water, then. Stay here.” I started to leave her, then turned back. “On second thought, I don’t trust Markle not to bother you.” I took her hand. “Come with me, darlin’.”
Her laugh was low and throaty. A normal human probably wouldn’t have been able to hear it over the music, but I did. It sounded like warm summer rain. A full moon run. Sunset on the back of a horse.
I elbowed my way in at the bar and charmed a female out of her stool before she realized it was for another woman. Then I picked my sweet doctor up by the waist, lifted her, and plopped her down on the stool. I shifted slightly so my thigh was between her knees.
Yeah, I might’ve been showing off my strength more than I should. But she was tipsy from the one shot of tequila, and I guessed not tremendously experienced with men. I didn’t think she’d notice or remember how easily I could manage her weight.
I ordered two bottles of water and slid my body closer to hers, the heat from her inner thighs on mine, my hand at her lower back. “How’d you end up in Cooper Valley, Doc?”
The bartender returned with the drinks, and I cracked open a lid on one and handed it to her. She drank a few sips, then rubbed her full lips together. “I always wanted to live somewhere this beautiful. I love the mountains. And the sky. It’s so big here in Montana.”
I smiled. Big Sky Country was certainly Montana’s motto, but she’d said it with reverence that I suddenly saw the area through her eyes. It was true, the expanse of open blue sky against the rugged mountains made this a magnificent plac
e to live. Sometimes I forgot how lucky I had it having a place, a home… a fucking pack, to return to.
“Where are you from?”
“I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. But I moved from Chicago, where I did my residency.”
“What’s your area of expertise?”
“I’m an ObGyn.”
Oh yes. I should have remembered that from a comment she made when we met. “You deliver babies?”
“Among other responsibilities.”
“You picked the right field.”
“How so?”
I leaned on my elbow to consider my words. It seemed important I get this right, and I was out of my element. “I imagine you bring a lot of joy into this world.”
Her smile burst open like a blooming flower, and my chest warmed. She leaned forward, and the intense pleasure I experienced at having her full attention made it easy not to succumb to the temptation of looking down at her sweet cleavage. “That’s exactly why I love my job. Every baby is a tiny miracle. I feel so honored to help usher them into the world.”
I reached for her hand and squeezed it. “It was probably best that the rodeo guys you helped didn’t know you treat pregnant women and deliver babies. Might hurt their big egos.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say because her smile dimmed, and she pulled her hand back. I tried to figure out what I’d said wrong, but it then became apparent.
“Remember, you can’t go back to the rodeo until you’ve had a full physical.” She drew a breath like she was going to continue on her lecture, but I interrupted.
“I may not go back.” I scratched the back of my neck, eyed the guy who was riding the mechanical bull, then looked back at her. “I’m, ah, hoping I find a reason to stay.”
