Ride Me Cowboy #2 (The Cowboy Romance Series - Book #2) (7 page)

Guy had tears rolling down his face now as he picked
up the story. “Mark decided that a hasty retreat was what he should do. He
failed to realize there was a four inch piece of metal stuck in the ground in
the path he chose for his escape.
Bam!”
Gus slammed
his hand to his forehead and continued to laugh. The other guys were laughing,
too.

Mark looked embarrassed. “With a two inch gash to my
forehead, I got back on him after he was tied to the chute. He thrashed around
and tried to crush my legs and ankles before we even got out of the chute.
Meanwhile, Guy and the other guys were trying to get my bull rope strapped
around the evil bastard. It took quite some time and I was already tired out.
Guy hollered out at me, ‘Are you ready?’”

“He nodded.”

“I did not nod. My head was bleeding. I was trying
to wipe the blood out of my eyes. I just all of a sudden heard the clank of the
door being pulled open and that evil damned brute exploded out of that chamber.
I didn’t have time to get my form in place.”

Guy was howling with laughter. “He didn’t have
no
form. He was grabbing on with both hands and crying for
his mama.”

“That’s not the way I remember it,” Mark said.

“Well then, do you remember the great trampling?”

“It wasn’t all that great,” Mark said. I was trying
not to laugh, but Guy’s laugh was infectious and seeing Mark so embarrassed was
cute as hell.

“You got trampled?” I asked.

“I was acquainted with the full thrust of the evil
creature’s two back hooves, yes.”

“He kicked him full-on in the chest.”

“My rodeo clowns weren’t doing their job,” Mark
said. “After he kicked me in the chest, he stepped on the inner part of my
thigh and almost ensured that I would never have to procreate.”

“That bull was celebrating, too, you remember?”

“Yeah Guy, I remember. The little bastard stomped
around the ring
like
he was Muhammad Ali after a
knock-out. I was trying to get to the fence while he was preoccupied with all
of that and he charged at me again.”

“Oh wow! Did he get you?” I asked.

“He was that close,” Mark said, putting his thumb
and forefinger together. Guy was practically rolling as he said,

“Tell her about your pants.”

“I think that is enough for now.”

Laughing, I said, “Oh no! I want to hear about the
pants.” Mark was shaking his head and Guy said,

“They
was
split from belly
to ass and God and this boy only know why but…”

“Guy, so help me God if you say it…”

“He was commando!” Guy was laughing so hard he could
hardly get the words out and so were all of the other guys. Mark’s face was
bright red from his neck up, but he was smiling. I was amazed at how
good-natured he is once again.

When we got back to the hotel later that night, I
had to admit I’d had the best time I remembered having in a long time. “That
was so much fun,” I told him when he walked me to my door. “Thank you.” He was
looking at me
like
he wanted to kiss me and as badly
as I hate to admit it, I wanted him to.

He leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek and
said, “Thank you. Sleep well, Lexi.” I let myself into the hotel room and stood
with my back to the door. My heart was slamming against my chest and my
breathing was erratic. Damn! What was I going to do?

CHAPTER
TEN

MARK

I left Lexi at that door of her hotel room and every
step on the way back to my own was forced. My hands were shaking, my chest was
working overtime trying to suck in enough air, and my heart physically hurt in
my chest. I wanted her so bad that I could taste it and I had no idea if I
could keep walking away… I spent a restless night, tossing and turning and
dreaming about ravishing her gorgeous body. At dawn, I pulled my tired ass up
and into the cold shower because my parts south had been painfully alert all
night. It took some doing, but I got him to lay down before I had to get ready
to go face a bull and hope to get a decent enough score to move on to the next
round. I knocked on Lexi’s door at six a.m. I didn’t really expect her to be
up, so I was surprised when she opened the door looking like she just stepped
out of the pages of a women’s western wear catalog. Once again, she was nothing
but hotness, and that fire in my belly flared up all over again.

“Hey! Good morning. I wasn’t sure if you would be up
yet.”

She smiled. “I didn’t sleep very well.”

“I’m sorry. Was the bed uncomfortable?”

“No,” she looked embarrassed and I wondered if I could
dare to hope she’d experienced the same things I had. “I guess it was just
being in a strange place. Is it time to go?”

“Yeah.
I was going to get some breakfast downstairs first,” I told her. “Are you
hungry?”

“Famished,” she said. God, she turned me on. We went
down to the little café and had breakfast and once again, she put the groceries
away. I loved that she ate like that and she didn’t pick at things
like
other girls did sometimes. After we finished, we headed
over to the arena. She stayed with me while I got
Sarge
out and saddled him up and then she asked, “Where’s the best place for me to
sit?” It was early yet, so she had her pick. I pointed up in the stands and
said,

“See there about five rows below the announcer’s
booth?”

“Yep.”

“That’ll give you the best view.”

She shocked the hell out of me then and kissed my
cheek. “Good luck,” she said, “and don’t split your pants.” God, she was
killing me.

Luckily I stayed busy for the next few hours getting
things set up. I went over to check on her before everything started and she
had made friends with a couple of the girlfriends of the other cowboys. She
looked happy and it made me happy to see her that way. I went back to my
business, reluctantly. Every time I was close to her…I wanted to be closer.

The barrel racing events were first and then the
mutton busting and the rodeo queen coronation. The bronc riding came after that
and then the calf roping and team roping. They waited until the end of the day
for the bull riding. I checked on her a few more times and even sat with her in
the stands and ate crap with her from the snack bar for lunch. I was falling
for her – hard. This was more than just a sexual attraction and that made it
that much worse. When it was time for my ride, I had to picture my dad naked to
get her out of my head so that I could concentrate. Jeez, I was a mess.

My draw for the day was a nasty, scrappy 1,700 pound
Brahma named Hurricane. He was one of three bulls in the event that had never
been ridden. Hurricane had been around for as long as I’d been riding bulls. He
and I had met up once before and I’d gone just under seven seconds before he
tossed me about six feet into the fence and tried to charge me while I was on
the ground. It had been good that I had a hell of a rodeo clown that night or
the big ass bull may have killed me. Today, I hope he was ready because I
intended to ride the bastard.

Hurricane was arrogant enough to stand stock still
while they tied the bull rope on him and I slid down onto his back. I’d just
taken hold of the rope when the chute flung open. Hurricane was ready. He
pitched forward violently, trying to take me off right there. I held on,
staying centered with my fist held above my head. I kept my eyes fixed on the
top of the bull’s head. I never looked into the stands while I rode or around
at the other cowboys. No distractions. It was just
me and him
.
Hurricane spun around to the right. I leaned into it and stayed put. He
realized it hadn’t worked so he spun a few more times. I held on tight,
slipping just a little, but righting myself as fast as I could. I wasn’t
looking at the crowd, but I could hear them screaming and yelling. It was so
loud that it was deafening.

I knew I was riding him. To the people in the stands
it might look like he had me, but I knew I had him. I felt invincible and if
the bull
was
looking at me, I would have spit in his
eye. I just held on and waited for the whistle…and waited. I never heard it,
but all of a sudden I saw the clown and I knew I had done it. I slid off of him
while the clowns
wrangled
him and I fell to my knees
and pulled off my hat and held it up to the cheering crowd. When I stood up and
looked up, that’s when I saw Lexi. She was jumping up and down and cheering for
me. I lost my head. I’d told her to sit right behind the front gate of the
arena. The clowns had the bull at the back so I ran up and jumped on the fence.
She was already standing up. I grabbed her, dipped her to the side and kissed
the hell out of her. The crowd loved it. When I let her go, her eyes were as
big as saucers. I grinned. I would take my licks later if necessary. I tipped
my hat to the crowd again and ran back to get the hell out of the arena before
the next ride began.

********

Another two hours passed between the time I rode Hurricane
and kissed Lexi before it was over and I got to go see her and find out if she
was mad. She smiled as soon as she saw me, so it was safe for me to doubt it.
When I got close, she threw her arms around me and squeezed. “I’m so proud of
you! I have no idea why you got third. Everyone in the stands said you should
have taken first. That was amazing!” My heart was slamming against my chest.
Not only was I extremely attracted to her,
but
I
wasn’t used to having someone get so excited over anything I did. I grabbed her
and hugged her again. My impulses were all over the place. My adrenaline was
still surging.

“Thank you,” I told her. “Third is good though, and
deserving. The other two bulls were unridden, too and both of them were better
rides. I’m stoked. You ready to go get something to eat?”

“I’m starving,” she said. I laughed. That seemed to
be the theme with her. She waited while I loaded up
Sarge
and we went to a steakhouse I’d been to before when the rodeo was in town. It
was packed because of all of the other rodeo goers there. We had to wait for
forty-five minutes for a table, but the PBR was on the big screen and Lexi was
really getting into it.

“Oh man! Why did he only get a 77? That was an
awesome ride!”

“The bull’s hooves never left the ground. He only
spun once and his buck is not that high.”

“That’s not the cowboy’s fault!”

I laughed. “True. Unfortunately, he’s the one that
gets dinged for it.”

“That’s just not fair at all!” She was righteously
indignant about it. I wanted to kiss her again…so badly. Luckily we were called
for our table at that moment.

The server handed us menus and I said, “I don’t need
it, thanks. I’m
gonna
have the short ribs.”

“Mm, that sounds good,” Lexi said, “I’ll have the
same.” We both ordered a beer and a few minutes later it was served with our
salads. We talked a lot, but it was all fun, light conversation. I told her
more stories like the one that Guy had told her – ones where I looked a little
less like a dork. She told me about her classes at school. I still got the
feeling that she wasn’t telling me something important for her past, but that
was okay. I sort of had the feeling that she would tell me when she was ready.
Maybe I was being delusional, but I really felt us bonding.

We both stopped at one beer and then we drank water.
We shared a chocolate volcano dessert that was intoxicating in
itself
and then drove back to the hotel. I had every intention
of dropping her off
like
I had the night before and
keeping my date with my right hand. But tonight, she was different. She was
happy, almost giddy and she didn’t seem to want the night to end any more than
I did.

“Do you want to come in and have a drink with me?”
she asked.

“Sure.” I didn’t want a drink, but I wasn’t going to
pass up the opportunity to be alone with her, even if all it amounted to was
just that. She let me inside and we opened the mini-bar. There were some tiny
little beers in there so we both took two and settled down next to each other
on the bed. She lifted hers and looked me in the eyes.

“To riding Hurricane,” she said. I clanked my little
bottle to hers and drank. After I downed the four ounces or whatever it was, I
realized she was staring into my eyes again with that look that made me want to
lay her out right there. Instead, I stood up off the bed and looked down at
her. She was still looking at me, but now she looked disappointed.

“We can’t do this again if it’s going to be the same
as last time,” I told her. She stood up and took a few steps from the bed and
then turned around and looked at me. She had one piece of that sexy hair
hanging down over her eyes and I wanted to reach out and touch it, twist my
fingers up in it, but I stayed put and waited.

In a voice that sounded almost breathless and only
made me want her that much more she said, “I’m not playing with you, Mark. This
is just so damned complicated, but I feel…I feel so…” I could see it in her
eyes. She felt what I was feeling and I had the same problem trying to describe
it. I finally just said the hell with it and I closed the foot between us and grabbed
her around the waist, pulling her up against me. The heat from her body was
enough to cause the fire already burning in my core to flare up and the rise
and fall of her breath and the rhythmic beating of her heart against my chest
was all too much. I let my hands slide up her back underneath her blouse, and I
could feel the goosebumps rise along her flesh as I did. Her eyes were hooded
and her hands on my chest. I didn’t know if she was going to lean in and kiss
me or push me away. I brought my hands up and rested them against the sides of
her neck and let my thumbs swipe the sides of her face slowly. I looked at her
lips and told her, “If you don’t stop me now, I won’t be able to stop myself.”
She moaned as I brought my lips down next to hers, and I could feel the heat
and vibrations from her breath. I grabbed two fistfuls of hair and tilted her
head back, letting my lips brush against her earlobe. She moaned again, louder
this time. Then I let them trail down along the side of her face to her
shoulder where I licked and nipped with my teeth. She pressed harder into my
chest with her breasts, and I finally claimed her mouth. There was no
resistance left in either one of us. We were doing this and there was no going
back now. I found her tongue and tangled it up in mine as I guided her around
so that her legs were against the bed. I tried to lower her slowly, but we were
both way too excited. She tumbled backwards and landed on her back against the
bed.