BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (42 page)

The man looked over at me and said
smoothly, “Come on, Ashley. Let’s get out of here.” He smiled at me, but I
pulled away.

“No thank you,” I said politely and began
to walk away from them both, feeling far more nervous than I tried to let on.

However, just as I turned away, I felt the
man’s hand curb around my arm and pull me back. “Come on, Sweetheart. Finish
your drink, at least.”

“No!” I insisted and moved to pull my arm
out of his grasp, but he just clamped onto me tighter.

“Let go of her, now!” Tyler boomed, his
eyes aglow with fury.

“You stay out of this,” the man answered,
but barely got the statement out of his mouth before Tyler balled up his fist
and punched the man so hard that he instantly fell to the ground.

As he fell, Tyler grabbed me and
effortlessly put me behind him, before he pulled the man up by his collar until
his feet could no longer touch the ground.

“I swear to God, if I ever hear that you
even looked in Ashley’s direction, I will hunt you down and kill you, you fucking
piece of shit. Leave her alone! I won’t ask you again.”

At that, he threw the man back, toppling
over the table. This caused a slight disturbance from the rest of the people in
the bar, but most didn’t even notice.

As I looked at Tyler, who simply turned
around and walked out of the bar, I couldn’t help but think about how
impressive and attractive he was to me at that very moment. I could barely
stand the feelings of allure that were welling up inside of me.

I followed him closely, now slightly fearful
of what the man might do once he untangled himself from the table and chairs
that he was thrown into.

Once we got outside and onto the street, I
moved next to Tyler and grasped his arm.

“Are you okay?” he demanded, in something
of an angry tone.

“Yes,” I answered, lowering my eyes to the
ground, slightly ashamed of what I had almost done. “I’m sorry.”

“Whatever,” he answered quickly. “I don’t
give a shit that you’re moving on, but at least do me a favor and pick men who
aren’t just trying to specifically steal you away from me. It’s degrading to
you and pisses me the fuck off.”

“I didn’t know,” I answered. “He just came
up to me, and we were talking…He bought me a drink. Who was that guy anyway?”

“Some asshole I beat the shit out of at
the gym a little while ago.” Before I could say anything, he explained, “He
called me out. He challenged me. I warned him. I won.”

Putting it together, I answered, “So, he
thought he could come in there and…Oh…Sorry.”

He shrugged. “You didn’t know and you’re a
free woman. You can fuck whoever you like, but if I see them, I might kill
them. Just keep that in mind.” He smiled at this, but in his eye, I could still
see a flame of passion and anger ignited.

“I’m sorry,” I said again, feeling
terrible for what had happened.

“Stop fucking apologizing,” he demanded
and then he shrugged. “Go enjoy the rest of your night. If you need me, call
me, okay?”

I nodded and watched as he turned his back
on me and quickened his step, as though he was serious about leaving me alone.

I knew that I couldn’t have that and so,
before I could overthink what I was about to do, I called, “Tyler?”

He turned around and as he did, I ran up
to him, threw my arms around his neck, took his mouth unto my own and kissed
him passionately.

Chapter
36

Tyler

The kiss didn’t amount to much, but she
did come back home with me. The two of us talked for a little while and I
decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask her to help me train for the competition.

I felt like such a fuckin pussy for being
happy when she said yes, but I also couldn’t deny that she was one of the best
trainers I ever had; not that there were many. I basically trained myself for
the majority of my competitions, but for me to stay with her and allow her to
help me, beyond just working toward the goal myself was a big damn deal for me.

Usually, the only person that I
considered, especially when I was training, was myself.

However, for the next two weeks, Ashley
stayed by my side. Every morning, without fail, we were both up at
four-fucking-thirty and running down the beach by five.

Once we ran, which was more of a light jog
for me, but a real workout for Ashley, we made our way toward the gym, where my
actual workout began.

I would lift weights and do pretty much
whatever I could to improve myself, both physically and mentally, while Ashley
kept tabs on my progress.

Finally, a few days before the
competition, on our way back from the gym, dead tired and ready to return home
just to fall into bed, I felt like I should say something to her. She had
worked so hard to get me into shape.

“Hey, Ashley, thanks for being there for
me.”

She smiled back at me. “It’s been fun and
you are far less moody when you’re working out…” She shrugged in a teasing way
and answered, “You talk less too, which is really nice.”

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” I barked before I added,
“I’m trying to be fucking nice to you.”

“Yeah, well, you suck at it,” she teased
back and I shoved her playfully.

She giggled and moved forward with all her
might, trying to plow into me, in order to move me the same amount that I had
moved her, or at all, but she just hit me and stopped.

I chuckled as I grasped her arm so that
she didn’t fall down. “Uh…I didn’t think I had to tell you this, but you
shouldn’t do that. I am a brick fucking wall. There is nothing that is going to
get past this shit,” I said in a cocky way as I smacked my perfectly formed abs
with my large hand.

I was proud of my body and throughout the
training, I had actually grown in my ability, more than I had in years, which I
was sure would give me even more of an advantage.

“No, you’ve been doing really well!”
Ashley exclaimed.

We hadn’t heard any more of that asshole
who had tried to take Ashley from me and I was glad, but the experience had
made her a lot more comfortable around me. In a strange way, I thought that
shit had brought us closer together. It was weird, but I wasn’t complaining.

I was beginning to feel closer to Ashley
then I had felt to anyone in a long time. Even though we had our arguments and
neither one of us was completely sure what we were to one another, I was still
enjoying that journey, wherever the hell it might lead.

The night where I had to beat the shit out
of the asshole had proved to me that I could be decent and that there were a
lot of men who were worse than I was. That, in a strange way, gave me hope that
I could end up not being such a dickhead.

Just
don’t fucking kill her and you should be good,
I
thought whenever I would contemplate where our relationship was going. This
thought haunted me, but there was no way in hell, even as close as Ashley and I
had gotten, that I would share something like that with her.

I hadn’t pressed to have sex with her,
because I knew that might only make her uncomfortable. However, for once, I
realized that just spending time with her was enough, at least for now.

Over the past two weeks, my mother and her
father had pretty much left us alone; once again extremely happy that they
didn’t have to entertain us in any way. They could go and fuck to their hearts’
content and they wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.

“Your carrying has improved a lot and if
you could just get your deadlifting flawless, your performance would truly be
unbeatable.”

“Shit, my performance is unbeatable now.
There is no way any of these dick-less pussies in this beach town know anything
about a strong man competition.” Even though I bragged, I knew that she was
right.

Another thing that I liked was that she
was taking the time to learn what it was like to be me. She didn’t stop at the
exterior and run away; she was really getting into what I was into and learning
more about the man behind the curse words and muscles than anyone had ever
either cared or had a chance to learn.

Even in the short time that we were
hanging out, I wasn’t even sure my own mother had looked past my act of
defiance, and although it was new to me, I was quickly learning that it meant a
great deal.

She laughed and answered, “All right.
That’s fine, but you aren’t competing to beat them, you are competing to beat
yourself and so you need to always be getting better. You can’t just be some
complacent lump on a log.”

“Excuse me?” I demanded. “Do I look
fucking complacent to you?”

“No, but you also had better never get
that way.” She smiled at me and I rolled my eyes.

“Complacent my ass…” I grumbled.

“Just remember, even if you beat the whole
world, internally, you will still have to strive to beat your own best.”

“You sound like a fucking sports shrink.
Don’t give me that pansy sports pep talk. You’re a trainer, not a cheerleader.”
I glanced over her body and allowed my eyes to rest on her breasts, before I
picked my head up and answered, “Even though you might look the part.”

“Eat your heart out,” she spat back,
glaring playfully at me.

“That’s not the only thing I’d like to eat
out…” I said under my breath, just loud enough for her to hear.

I watched with pleasure as her face grew
slightly horrified. This time, she really did throw herself into me enough so
that I stumbled a few inches to the side.

When I recovered, I laughed outright and
answered, “I’m sorry, was that not fucking romantic enough for you? It’s not
like we’re…”

She glared at me now and smacked my arm. I
stopped speaking, realizing that we were in the middle of a town where
virtually everyone knew who she was, if not who both of us were, and I would
really hate to get caught just by something that I said; especially if I wasn’t
even getting any at the present moment.

So, I just chuckled at her extreme
reaction and continued toward the beach house.

Chapter
37

Ashley

When we arrived back at the house, it
didn’t take me long to realize that, not only was I no longer the least bit
tired, but I was also feeling extremely horny.

The teasing, along with the week of being
so close to such a perfect, manly specimen without taking more than the
occasional kiss from him, when all I really wanted to do was rip the remainder
of his clothes off and have my way with him had really taken its toll.

Honestly, I had tried to be good. For two
weeks we had hung out constantly, from the moment we woke up until the moment
we went to bed and maintained what was basically a platonic relationship.

However, now, with the invitation that
presented itself by the fact that neither one of our parents were home and we
had the house to ourselves made me want to take advantage of him.

As much as I hated to admit it, Tyler was
right. His lovemaking was the absolute best and even though I tried my best to
stay away from it, I would think about the night we shared together constantly.
And now, that was legitimately the only thing that kept popping up inside my
mind.

Therefore, when we locked the doors and
plopped ourselves in front of the television, without either of us turning it
on, I looked over at him just to see if he was also staring at me.

He smiled at me and raised his eyebrows,
but made no other advancement.

“So….” I said as I scooted toward him,
knowing exactly what I was doing, but trying to make it seem as though I was
doing it subconsciously.

“So…” he answered carefully, but did not
make any attempt to move closer to me.

Was
he trying to be respectful?
I wondered, but did not dwell on it,
considering I really, really wanted him. I smiled in a way that I intended to
be suggestive, but I wasn’t sure if he got it, so I locked my eyes on his and
made sure that our gaze explained everything that I was feeling.

It didn’t take long after that, for his
eyes portrayed the question to the answer in my gaze.

It happened so quickly, I was never quite
sure who even made the first move. It just seemed like suddenly, the two of us
went from gazing to one another, sprawled out on opposite sides of the couch,
to becoming wrapped in one another’s arms, interlocking our lips and wandering
tongues with a passion that my body was aching to feel again.

I groaned behind Tyler’s hard-pressed,
evoking mouth as I felt my already heated body begin to sizzle to an even
higher temperature. Tyler pressed his hand firmly against my head and began
directing me into a deeper, more fulfilling kiss.

My hands moved over his large, roping
muscles, exploring every inch of him. I felt my hands ride easily over the
mountainous terrain of his arms, before sliding back up, only to tumble down
his washboard abs.