Ride Me Cowboy #2 (The Cowboy Romance Series - Book #2) (6 page)

“Hey, Mark! How’d an ugly cowboy like you get such a
pretty lady to join you for dinner?” It was a guy named Rusty who I had known
since I was a kid and who had taught me a lot about rodeo and bull riding.

“I paid her,” I told him. I glanced at Lexi and she
had an eyebrow cocked and a hand on her hip.

Rusty is a big guy. He’s about six foot four and
two-hundred plus pounds. He grabbed me in a hug and nearly smashed the life out
of me. When he let me go, I looked at him. Rusty was the kind of guy that never
aged. He was perpetually thirty years old. He had rust-colored red hair and
freckles. The only thing different about him from the last time I’d seen him
was about twenty pounds. “How the
hell are
you?” he
asked me.

“I’m good,” I said. “Lexi this is Rusty Williams.
You’ll have to forgive his manners. He was born and raised in a barn. Rusty,
this is my friend, Lexi.”

Rusty took Lexi’s hand and shook it firmly. “He’s
telling the truth, I’ve spent most of my life in a barn, but so has he. The
only difference between him and me is that I clean up better. So, if you want
to be seen with a better looking man…I’m available.”

I rolled my eyes and Lexi laughed. I was glad to see
that she didn’t correct me about being my “friend.” I’m not sure why. I just
wasn’t ready to give up hope that someday she would be more
than
my stepsister
, as stupid as I knew that was.
“Nice to
meet you, Rusty.”

“It’s a pleasure, little lady,” he said. “Will y’all
be at the dance tonight?”

“We’re thinking about it,” I told him.

“Good, I’m sure the little lady will need a real man
to dance at least one or two dances with.”

I laughed. “Hopefully she’ll be able to find one.
I’m starving. Rusty, it was as good to see you as ever…which is not very.” He
threw his red head back and laughed that deep, boisterous laugh of his as we
walked away.

We got into the food line and when we reached the
food tables I was surprised to hear Lexi tell the man carving the tri-tip that
she’d take two pieces. They were large chunks and I couldn’t imagine how she’d
be able to eat all of that. She looked at my face and said, “What? I’m hungry,
too.”

I shrugged. “That’s perfectly fine with me. Hell, I
don’t care if you eat the whole tri-tip. You just don’t look like you eat that
much.” Before I realized it, my eyes ran across her body again. I saw her
shiver and wondered if there was any possibility that she’d been thinking about
me the same way I’d been thinking about her.

He laid two thick slices on her plate. It looked
delicious with the edges darkly crusted with rubbed spices and the juice
running out of the pinkish center onto her plate. At the next table we got our
baked beans and cornbread and salad. She followed me over to a table where
there were a couple of empty seats where we could sit down to enjoy our meal.

CHAPTER
NINE

LEXI

I was impressed by how Mark maneuvered us through
the crowd, pausing long enough to say hello to people he knew and introducing
me. Then he moved us along until we were finally near the front of the food
line. While we had waited, I looked around and took in the scene. The place was
filled to capacity and if I’d been observing it from overhead, I bet I would
have seen nothing but the tops of big, felt cowboy hats. Everyone seemed to be
talking to someone and although this was an event that people were likely to
have come from all over the state and further for, none of them acted like
strangers. It was a far cry from an event of this size in the city where people
tried to avoid eye contact in most instances.

While we ate, a guy named Tuck and his wife sat with
us and I listened to him and Mark talk about the bulls that would be at this
rodeo. I couldn’t help but enjoy watching Mark talk about it. He had so much
passion in his eyes and that coupled with the fact he was already drop-dead gorgeous…well,
none of it was helping my resolve not to want him. Tuck also asked him how the
ranch was holding up in the drought.

“The river on our property is fed by a reservoir
from upstream. So far they haven’t taken it away from us, so we’ve had plenty.
We have water year round,” Mark said.

“You are lucky,” Tuck told him. “Our rivers are
nothing but dry sand beds. We’re begging the state for water.”

Tuck and Mark talked for a good half hour and when
he and his wife finally left, Mark said, “I’m sorry. I’m sure that wasn’t fun
for you.”

“You know, I’ve been on the ranch for a couple of
weeks so far and all I really know about it is what’s right there around the
house. I wouldn’t mind knowing more.” I surprised myself, but it was true. Besides,
whether Mark believed he was a rancher at heart or not, he got almost the same
passion in his eyes when he talked about the land as he did the rodeo. I liked
it.

“You really ought to let me take you on a ride up to
the foothills while you’re here. It’s green and lush and dotted with the
prettiest old oak trees you’ve ever seen.”

“What about animals? Are there wild animals up
there?”

“Some. Every so often I see coyotes and a bobcat
here and there. There are lots of little ones like possums and rabbits…the
occasional snake.”

“Snakes?
Poison ones?”

He laughed.
“Yeah, rattlers
mostly.”

“And you want to take me up there?”

“You would be on horseback. The horses know to watch
out for them.”

“Hmm, I’m not so sure about all that,” I said.

“Well, the rattlesnakes are a really small part of
ranch life as a whole. In the fall, the calves are born and in the spring they
get branded and go out to pasture. The ones that aren’t hearty enough to make
it out there get sold at auction. Then there are the sick babies that get taken
up to the barn, like the ones your mom bottle feeds, and there are the pigs
that she loves taking care of,” he said with a smile.

“You and my mom are really close, aren’t you?” I
asked.

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t say close. We’re still
feeling each other out a bit. I think she feels sorry for me.” He laughed, but
there didn’t seem to be any humor in it.

“Why would she feel sorry for you?”

“She thinks my dad is too hard on me.”

“What do you think?” Before he had a chance to
answer it was announced overhead that the “Dance
Under
the Stars” was beginning.

“You ready for that dancing?” he said.

“Sure.” Why not?

We cleaned up our table and headed outside. There
was a stage set up and lights strung around a temporary dance floor. A country
music band was already playing and there was a long bar on one side of the
dance floor with tables set up all around it. We found a table and Mark asked,
“Do you want a drink?” I remembered what happened last time we were alone
together and I drank.

“Just some water, please.” He raised an eyebrow at
me, knowing what I was thinking, I’m sure. As hot as this guy makes me sober, I
needed to avoid being drunk around him at all costs. While he was gone, a young
guy who was probably not even twenty yet came up to the table. I could tell
that he’d already had a considerable amount to drink.

“Hi there.”

“Hello.”

“I’m Blaine.”

“Hi.
Lexi.”

“You sure are pretty, Lexi.”

“Thank you.”

“You want to dance with me?”

“No thanks.”

He looked perplexed. The word “No” was obviously one
he wasn’t used to. He had on a hat so it was hard to see his hair, but from
what I could see it was a sandy blond color. His eyes were a pretty shade of
light green and he was built like a quarterback. I could see why he wasn’t used
to it, but I wasn’t interested. He grinned then, showing a mouth full of teeth
that probably cost his parents tens of thousands. “Come on pretty lady.
Just one dance.”

“I think she said no already.” Mark was standing
behind the kid. He spun around, but as soon as he saw Mark, his posture went
from aggressive to practically submissive. It was a sight to behold.

“Hey, is she with you?” When Mark nodded, the kid
turned back to me and said, “I’m real sorry, Miss. I didn’t mean
no
harm.”

“It’s okay.”

He turned back to Mark then and said, “Are you
riding in the morning?”

“Yep.”

“Good luck!”

“Thanks Blaine, you too.”

Blaine scurried away and looking amused once more,
Mark sat down with me and handed me my water. “Wow! Was he that afraid you
would kick his ass?”

He laughed. “No, it’s a respect thing. This is his
first year on the circuit. He’s looking for tips and tricks to pick up all the
time. He doesn’t want to get on the bad side of anyone he thinks may be able to
help.”

I got the feeling Mark was taking less credit than
he deserved. What I saw in that kid’s eyes was more than respect, it was
adoration. “You’re just drinking water, too?” I asked him, noticing he had the
same as me.

“Yeah, I don’t drink the night before a ride. It
bloats me up too much.” I strangely was hoping that he wasn’t drinking because
he didn’t trust himself with me any more than I trusted myself with him. I knew
that was messed up since neither of us should be thinking about the other one
that way, but my thoughts were all over the place where he was concerned. The
band struck up a loud, fast song and the dance floor began to fill up. “You
know how to two-step?” he asked me.

“Um…no.”

He grinned. “Come on,” he said, putting his hand out
to me. “I’ll teach you.” I had no desire to two-step, but I had every desire to
touch his hand, so I did. He led me out to the dance floor and we stood in a
line while he talked me through the dance. “Okay, two forward…to the
side…back…to the other side…forward…there you go!” I was tripping over my own
feet, and sometimes his, but I was surprised to see how much I was really
enjoying it. When the two-step was over, the band went immediately into a slow
song. Instead of going back to our table, Mark pulled me into his arms and with
one hand out and the other on my
waist,
he began to
lead me in a slow dance. We were an appropriate distance from touching anything
private, but damn if it wasn’t all aching. I had to physically hold myself back
from letting my breasts crush into his chest. This is ridiculous…I have to
stop. It’s sad though, because I really don’t want to.

After our dance, Mark introduced me to a lot of his
rodeo friends and I got to hear stories about him. That was fun. It helped me
get to know him better. Unfortunately, just about everything I learned about
him, I liked, so it didn’t help my problems much. One guy named Guy ironically
asked me if Mark ever told me the story of his “first bull.” I looked at Mark
and he was trying to shake his head at Guy to get him to stop. It made me want
to hear it more.

“No, he’s never told me. I’d love to hear about it.”

“I doubt you’d be interested…”

“He rode a little steer with a couple of nubs for
horns named Satan.”

“Satan, huh?”

“He’s not telling it right already,” Mark said.

“Then you go on and tell it,” Guy told him.

“He wasn’t that little and he was a maniac.” Mark’s
eyes got big just talking about it, it was cute.

“How old were you?”

“Thirteen,” he said.

Guy laughed. “He was two days away from his fourteenth
birthday, but he likes to act like he was barely a teenager.”

“I thought I was telling the story,” Mark said,
good-naturedly.

“Go on ahead.”

Mark shot him a look and continued, “He was crazy.
He wasn’t doing well in the chute. He thought he was
goin
’
to slaughter and was out of his mind. These guys thought it was funny that the
little bastard thought I was the angel of death. He kept trying to turn around
in the chute while I was trying to tie myself onto his heaving backside.”

“Remember how he liked to stand on his hind legs?”
Guy said with
a
 
laugh
.

Mark made a face at him again. “Um…yeah, I remember.
It kind of impeded my securement on his back. And then there was the point to
where I was already on his back and he decided to rise up.”

Guy was cracking up now. “Tell her what you did on
that occasion.”

“I did what anyone with sense would do. I stood on
the rails so I didn’t fall off underneath the half-ton crazy animal. Guy here,
with all of his empathy told me I was ‘All the way in, or all the way out.’”

“You know it was good advice,” Guy said with a
chuckle.

“You should have given it to Satan.”

“Come on, get to the best part.”

Mark looked at me and said, “Remember, I was barely
a teenager…”