BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (50 page)

After all, I did kill my father. Whether
the court saw it that way or not, whether I did it on purpose or not, wasn’t
the point. That was all technicality. The fact remained that if it wasn’t for
me, driving that car at that time, down that road, my father would still be
alive and therefore, I killed him.

I certainly didn’t need any kind of report
with another father-figure.

However, as I realized that I was too
close and began to turn around, I was met by a fist to the face.

It didn’t really hurt, despite the obvious
intent, but it did catch me off guard. I stumbled backwards.

I caught my attacker just as he barreled
into me during my misstep, which caused me to hit the ground. But once I had a
solid hold on him, I was able to easily push him off of me.

“Dude, what that fuck?” I screamed, moving
toward him, but stopped short when I realized that this was Ashley’s father.
“Get the fuck away from me,” I warned, trying to once again resist the urge to
beat his face in.

“You took everything from me, you dirty
bastard!” Ashley’s father screamed.

I couldn’t help but rear back and glare at
him. “What are you talking about? I didn’t take anything from you. You did it
to yourself.”

With a growl and a plunge forward, my
former stepfather ran at me again in a fit of rage, but I just turned away from
him and watched as he lost his balance on the sand.

When he was finished with his tumble, he
turned around and spat, “I’ll tell you what I’m talking about you
good-for-nothing little shit! You took my daughter away and then your whore of
a mother left me for some beach bum…She’s living it up somewhere other than my
beach house, just screwing her brains out, while I sit here and rot!”

“Well, if it’s any fucking consolation, at
least she isn’t screwing her brains out with some beach bum in your beach
house, because that’s what she did to the other assholes she married,” I
answered, trying not to snicker. I knew I was being insensitive, but he was
still a major dick and I really didn’t give a shit whether his feelings were
hurt or not.

“What is wrong with you people?” he
screamed, now on his knees, looking completely beaten. He glowered up at me
with a hateful look in his eye, but I didn’t care. He could hate me all he
wanted.

“I’m not my mother. Believe it or not, I
love your daughter and I am going to be able to provide for her and help her
better than your sorry ass could,” I answered sharply. “Sure, you’ve got money,
but that’s all you’ve fucking got. I don’t know what you were like when your
wife was alive, but shit, ever since she died, all you have ever cared about is
yourself. Your daughter needed you, in her teenage years as well as this summer
and you always had something else on your fucking mind.”

Once I got started, I was on a roll. As I
was speaking, I realized the truth in everything I was saying and in a way,
felt very bad for Ashley; but on the other, I was proud of myself for being
able to be the one on this side of the argument, the man that she wanted, not
the man she was tired of being disappointed by. “So, I didn’t take shit from
you. Ashley was done with you long before I came along and my mother is her own
person. She’s a bitch and I do believe every word you said, but in my opinion,
it is exactly what you deserve.” I narrowed my eyes at him and answered, “And
if you ever fucking touch me again, I will call the police. We’re two grown men
and out of the two of us, I’m not the one who really should know better.”

At this, I turned my back on the man. He
seemed broken enough and if he did touch me again, I promised myself that a
police report was not the only thing that was going to fuck up this guy’s
life…even more than it was already.

I just walked away, until I heard Ashley’s
father call to me, “Tyler?” in a small and careful voice.

I turned around to face him. “What the
hell do you want now?”

He sighed and actually looked fairly
humble, before he answered, “You’re right. I’m sorry. Do you think you could
get Ashley to sit down and talk to me?”

“I can’t get Ashley to do shit,” I
answered honestly and when he looked up at me with question, I added, “I don’t
control her and I certainly can’t predict what she is going to say about your
ass, especially after this…”

“I’m sorry!” he said again. “Please, could
you maybe exclude what happened and just tell her that I would like to see
her?”

I thought about this for a long moment and
made a conscious effort not to tell him to fuck off. Yet, when I spoke again, I
was sure that I would be able to focus on what was right, instead of sinking
down to his level. I had made a lot of progress rising above such petty shit
and I didn’t want Ashley’s father, of all people, the worthless sack of shit
that he was, to be the catalyst that shook me off of the right path. Therefore,
I nodded and answered, “I will tell her. What she does with that information,”
I shrugged, “none of my fucking business and honestly, it shouldn’t be any of
yours either.”

He wagged his head up and down as though
eternally grateful. “I know…I know…Yes. Of course. Thank you.”

I turned and started to walk away from him
again.

“You’re a good man,” Ashley’s father
called out carefully, as though trying to make amends with everything that had
happened.

I stopped short but didn’t turn around.
Instead, I sighed and nodded my head once before I answered solidly, “Thanks to
your daughter, I know that I am,” but as I started to run again, I thought,
doesn’t mean shit coming from you, though.

Chapter
49

Ashley

Tyler had been gone for a fairly long
time. I knew that sometimes he took long runs in order to accurately clear his
head, but tonight, something seemed different, wrong.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but
since I had finished what I was supposed to do completely and was now just
waiting for Tyler to get back, I grew more worried by the second.

I tried to call his phone, only to find
that it was still right here on the table. I thought it was strange that he
would leave it, but then again, that was just the way Tyler was. He left things
basically everywhere and hardly ever had them when he needed them.

In a way, it made me feel better that he
didn’t have anything with him, because despite everything that had gone on and
all the plans that we made, I was still a little concerned about his sincerity
when it came to sticking around.

I had never thought that our relationship,
even when I was having a moral crisis over whether it was right or not for me
to be dating my stepbrother, would actually pan out to be anything real.

Now that it was, though, there was a part
of me that was terrified that he was just going to decide one day that he made
a mistake; plenty of men did it, after all. It wouldn’t be so uncommon.

In fact, it would probably make more
sense, at least in my head, because why would a man like Tyler want me?

However, slowly I was beginning to trust
him implicitly. There was just something about the way he made me feel and the
pleasure I received from having him in my life that made all the difference. I
didn’t want to be without him and even though I wasn’t completely sure, I had a
sneaking suspicion that even though I would probably never get him to admit it
fully, he liked having me in his life as well.

I got the feeling that he wasn’t
exaggerating when he told me that I was literally the only one in his life that
has ever truly cared for him. As sad as that was and regardless of how much I
knew Tyler was willing to bend the truth in order to get what he wanted, there
was something about the way he admitted this to me that made me absolutely sure
that he was telling the truth.

Plus, if he wasn’t, I couldn’t understand
why he would have stuck around with me so long. We had already had sex and it
wasn’t like I was bringing any money to the relationship; I was relying on me.
Therefore, I concluded that he must actually like being around me, which was
good news for me, but still seemed somewhat strange, considering the kind of
man he was when I had met him.

That’s also why it didn’t make any sense
to me when he had not returned.

After fending off the worry for a little
while longer, I felt a nauseous pang rumbling in the pit of my stomach.

Maybe
something is wrong…
I thought, but still tried my best not to
go there. I knew that if I went there, I would be calling the hospitals in no
time and then he really would know I was crazy.
What am I doing?
I thought to myself as I paced around the hotel
room.
What should I do? Why are you
thinking the worst?
I looked at the clock and realized that it wasn’t
nearly as late as I had thought it was to begin with and tried to tell myself
that he probably just went for a longer run than usual.

God,
a few weeks ago, you would have been ecstatic if you had found out that he
didn’t come home. He would disappear for a day or so and you wouldn’t think
twice about it, but now…Now he’s gone a few hours and you’re trying to resist
the urge to start calling hospitals.
I laughed at myself,
realizing the absurdity of it all.

After all, I had cared about him then and
I had resisted the urge to worry.
So, why
am I freaking out now?

Just then, I heard a knock at the door
that interrupted my pacing and caused me to jump. When I landed back squarely
on my feet, however, I ran to the door and threw it open. To my utter relief,
Tyler was standing there, staring at me as though he thought I was genuinely
crazy. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, I’m just glad you’re back.” I smiled
at him as my eyes passed over his body. Immediately, I noticed that he had
blood on his face. My eyes narrowed in on it and my hand came up to the corner
of his mouth as I said, “What’s this?”

Instinctively, Tyler moved away from me
and covered his face with his hand. “What? What the hell is wrong?”

I continued to peer at him, even though
most of his face was covered by his hand as I answered, “Did you cut yourself?
I see blood on the corner of your mouth.”

“Yeah,” he answered without delay, just
before he brushed his fingers down his face in an attempt to clean it off. “I
cut it shaving this morning…Damn cheap-ass razors…I must have opened it up again
while I was running and didn’t notice.”

I nodded, having no reason not to believe
him and so, I let the matter go. “Oh, okay.”

He pushed past me and moved into the small
bathroom that we shared.

I waited for him to talk to me when he got
out of the bathroom, as was our nightly ritual, but what he had to say tonight,
I certainly didn’t expect.

“So…” he began as he made his way into the
bed, pulling the sheets up and laying them across his side, “you’ll never guess
who I ran into today.”

Even though his voice did not seem to be
the least bit daunting, I could just tell that I wasn’t going to like what he
had to say.

“Who?” I demanded, trying to remain calm,
even though I realized how harsh it had come out just after I had said it.

Still, that didn’t dissuade him at all.
“Your father,” he said with a smile.

I glowered at him, unsure of how he could
possibly find any humor or happiness in that statement.

“Oh?” I asked, trying to sound at least
somewhat interested in what he had to say, for Tyler’s sake, not my father’s.

“Yeah,” he continued. “And I have good
news…” He stopped and I saw his eyelids drop, as though he was about to
reconsider, before he added, “Well, good news for us, not so good news for my
mom and your dad.”

“What is it?” I asked causally.

“They’re getting a divorce!” When I looked
at him he beamed at me, as though our love life was truly the only thing that
mattered to him.

Not so long ago, I would have been
appalled by his lack of empathy, but right now, I just beamed and asked him,
“Are you serious?”

“Serious as a fucking heart attack!” He
leaned over and kissed me passionately. I felt the familiarity of his taste,
but as the news sunk in, there was a difference in the way it made me feel.
When we broke away, he answered, “We’re not step-siblings anymore! I told you
that marriage was a crock of shit from the beginning!”

I beamed. “Oh thank God!” I answered him,
wanting to experience that new feeling of what I could only describe as true
freedom on my lips once again. I leaned over, wrapped my arms around his neck
and pulled him in close, before taking his lips onto mine again and slipping my
tongue between his teeth.

We continued to kiss for quite a while
before finally, we moved apart, stared at one another and laughed.

I tilted my head as I gazed into his eyes.
“You know, part of me knows that I should be angry, or feel some other emotion,
but right now, all I feel is happiness.”

He smiled down at me, almost sweetly.
“Ashley, they were never really in love. Everything that they did, it was all
for show.” He shook his head
before he pulled away and
added in a much more morose tone, “Unfortunately, it’s all my mother’s fault.”

At this, I squinted my eyes and asked him,
even though I was slightly afraid that he would be too upset to say anything
more, considering the drastic change in his thought process since he had first
said the words. “What do you mean?” I played with his hair, running it through
my fingers in an effort to be comforting.

“She cheated on your father,” he answered
and pulled back, breaking the connection my hands had with his hair. Tyler let
out a deep sigh before he added, “Just like my fucking mother. She couldn’t
keep a relationship together if her life depended on it. She just opens her
damn legs for anything that moves.” He scuffed another sigh and looked away
from me with sadness in his eyes. “It sucks that she will never be able to do
anything right and I think that maybe, it might be too late for me.”

When he said the last part, he looked over
in my direction with large, almost apologetic eyes and I knew that this went
far deeper than just having regrets over his mother’s lack of sexual
discretion.

However, I didn’t want to come to any
conclusions and so I asked, “What do you mean by that, Tyler? Do you not want
to be with me anymore? Are you having second thoughts?”

“No!” he exclaimed quickly, before he once
again rolled his eyes downward so that he was no longer looking at me. “It’s
not that. I don’t
want
to leave you.
I’m just afraid…” He willingly cut himself off there.

“Afraid of what?”

I could see that he probably wished he
didn’t bring this up, but now he had no choice but to explain it to me.

Yet, for a moment, I wasn’t sure if he was
going to say anything else. He just stared awkwardly down at the hotel sheets, with
his eyes bearing into them angrily, as though he wished to set them ablaze so
that he wouldn’t have to talk about anything that he didn’t want to anymore.

Thankfully, he failed in the pursuit that
I dreamed up for him and so, he finally rolled his eyes back toward me before
he bore his gaze down upon me and spoke in a serious tone. “Don’t you
understand, Ashley? I’m fucking afraid to lose you!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I assured him
easily, trying to rest my hand on his arm, but he flung himself out of my
grasp.