Rodeo Riders (6 page)

Nothing mattered except the tender and intimate gesture. These were her lover’s lips, the breath of a man unlike any she’d ever known, barriers knocked away, honest and vulnerable.

Then animal need slammed into her.

Growling, she sat up. He slapped her breasts with a stinging blow that fed the animal. Teeth clenched, she pressed her pelvis against him as if she could power through him to the bed. His teeth bared, he grabbed her nipples. Fighting and yet not fighting his control, she growled again. He started pumping into her, but it wasn’t enough! His relentless hold on her nipples added to the volcano boiling out of her.

Twice more he pulled her down so their bodies fused. By turns she struggled for freedom and wrapped herself around him. She sobbed and gasped, sounds she’d never before made exploding from her. Twice more his grip slackened enough to allow her to straighten. When she did, she pressed her palms against his chest while he did the same to her thighs.

And they fucked. Fucked until her every muscle screamed and darkness invaded.

She came, yelling out her joy. He thrust and pressed and pressured until, shuddering and sobbing, she came again.

The lights went back on. She’d started to be aware of more than her pussy when he rolled her over onto her side and then onto her back. Straddling her with his hands fisted in her hair, he relentlessly slammed her. His face turned red. He shoved, held the position, exploded.

So did she.

“I’m not going to be worth anything today,” Cougar said. At the moment, he was standing in the doorway between bath and bedroom with his hair dripping and a towel dangling from his fingers as if modesty was the last thing on his mind.

Still in bed where her beaten and rewarded body insisted on staying, she stared at him. A small, round scar on his right knee spoke of arthroscopic surgery. A long, thin streak of white on his left forearm looked like something left over from a battle with barbed wire. He’d gotten stitches just below his collarbone. She debated asking him to turn around so she could take a complete inventory but wasn’t sure she could count higher than five.

“I can’t move,” she admitted.

Lifting his muscular arms, he toweled his hair and dried his face. Hot damn, but he was put together like every woman’s idea of a stud. “Seriously?” He threw the towel at her.

“Seriously.”

“Then get some sleep. I’ll check on you later and make sure you get ready in time—if you’re going to compete.”

Compete. Close the door on the world I’ve been in since I first saw you here. Face the Brahma that has taken up what might be permanent residence in my mind.

She could tell Cougar she’d changed her mind but he hadn’t run away from what surely had given him nightmares. True, he no longer risked getting killed by bull riding, but his life revolved around the beasts. A careless move could place him too close to those deadly horns and hooves. No matter how careful he was, there was no way he could anticipate every danger.

“Think about it,” he said. Walking proud and naked over to her, he leaned down and kissed her. Just kissed.

“Go,” she finally managed. “You have to get to work.”

“What you have to do is more important.”

“Sleep? That’s hardly—”

“No.” He placed a finger over her mouth. “I don’t think you’re going to do much of that. Whatever you decide, I’ll support it.”

Will you? Can you? If I can’t face my demons, will that destroy what we’ve started?

Chapter Eight

Rampage and the other bulls were in the corral Cougar and his men had unloaded them into the other night. She’d overheard a couple of the hands talking about the tight time frame to get the stock to the next rodeo and how their boss had decided to go to town for supplies now so they’d be ready to roll. Good, because she needed to be alone with the damn Brahma.

“How do you like living on the road?” she asked Rampage as she peered through the fence at the dozing bull. “Do you ever wish you were doing something else? Maybe looking forward to grinding cowboys into the dirt makes up for any inconvenience.”

If Rampage heard, he gave no indication. The longer she studied the massive but unmoving body, the harder it was to realize this hay burner was hardwired to attack—and, if possible, kill.

Pushing her hair off her neck, she went around to the far side of the corral to get closer to her nemesis. When she was as close as she could get without wriggling under the fence, she placed her arms on the railing and rested her chin on the back of her hand.

“You look bigger than you did a minute ago,” she informed Rampage. “Pretty much the biggest creature I’ve ever seen. Do you remember me?”

Another Brahma headed her way. If it came much closer, she’d back away. Instead, after snorting at her, it turned toward Rampage. When maybe ten feet separated the two, Rampage’s heavy head swung up. The bulls regarded each other, making her wonder about their brain capacities. They lived together. Surely they were familiar with each other.

Familiar but not friendly, as witnessed by the mutual ground pawing and bellowing. Cougar wouldn’t keep them together if there was real danger of their attacking one another, but watching the bulls circle each other brought home the reality of their capacity for destruction.

“They’re something else, aren’t they?”

Startled by the woman’s voice, she turned. Her fellow barrel racer Crystal was standing behind her.

“I do a little calf roping,” Crystal said. “Throwing a calf to the ground and tying it is as close as I want to get to the big boys. I don’t care how many times I see them.” She indicated the Brahmas. “They scare the hell out of me. What are
you
doing?”

“Watching.” Deciding to get it all out in the open, she pointed at Rampage. “He’s the one who got to me.”

“No shit.” Crystal joined her at the fence. “He could have killed you.”

“I know.”

“Will you tell me why the bull riders do what they do? We women, we’re smart enough not to jump in front of a charging locomotive. But not a man. Give them a challenge to their manhood, and they lose what brains they have.”

“You really think so?”

“Not all men, but what other explanation is there?” Lips pressed together, Crystal shook her head. “Do you see women standing in line to climb on the back of these dung-caked beasts? Hell no. We’ve got more sense.”

Rampage and the other bull butted heads, backed off and glared at each other.

Crystal gave her a rueful glance. “Basically we know enough to be scared shitless.”

She hated spying on Cougar, but what Crystal had said compelled Jordan to study him as he and several other men moved the bulls to the rear of the bucking stalls in preparation for the evening’s event. She’d seen this done before, but the potential for danger still tightened her chest. True, the bulls had spent the day doing next to nothing instead of hell-bent to dislodge the idiot trying to ride them, but how could the handlers be sure something wouldn’t set them off?

Cougar, astride his stallion, watched his bulls, his expression alert but calm. Even when someone spoke to him, he didn’t turn his attention from the beasts. His quiet strength seeped into her.

This was a man who knew what he wanted to do with his life and had found a way to do it. In the wake of his own accident, he’d gone through a complex decision-making process. Instead of lamenting his lost youth, he’d acknowledged that the life of a bull rider was no longer for him and had embraced the future.

And he deserved a woman who had also gotten her act together, not one incapable of being able to get the damn monkey off her back.

Shaking her head, she tried to convince herself that their relationship was too new for her to be thinking about spending the rest of her life with him, but she wanted to be bedded by and bed him. That wasn’t all. There was a little thing called the future. Her plans and goals, whatever they were.

Her boots thudded on the packed dirt behind the arena, the sound seeming to echo what her heart was doing. But although she might risk giving herself a heart attack, she kept going. She knew this world of strong men and leather, of horses and ten-gallon hats and couldn’t imagine any other existence.

Was this why she’d decided to do this insane thing, because she didn’t know how to be anything else?

No, damn it! She
had
to adjust and adapt, just as Cougar had. She just wanted it to be her decision and not something fear had forced her into.

She climbed to the top of the wooden fencing and looked down at the bulls. Unlike the spacious corral they’d been in earlier, this enclosure kept the Brahmas closely bunched. They were restless and short-tempered, maybe because they knew what was coming. She became part of them, a small life-form caught in their current.

“You think you’re pretty damn tough, don’t you?” she told Rampage. His heavy head swung up, and he stared at her. His small eyes were wet and reddened, his horns impossibly large. “You’d love nothing more than to kick this cowgirl’s butt again, wouldn’t you? You’ve got her shaking in her boots and messing with her mind when she should be thinking about—about her future and a certain cowboy.”

Feeling a tug on her ankle, she turned and acknowledged Cougar. The sounds, sights and smells of the rodeo faded away. Even Rampage no longer mattered.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Ah, talking to an old friend.”

Climbing effortlessly, he joined her. The time might come when her skin didn’t heat when he came close, but that was far from the case now. She needed to feel his fingers on her, his damp breath between her breasts. He’d changed into his show outfit, which only added to the impact.

He indicated her own outfit consisting of bright-blue jeans and shirt, a silver belt and buckle, and a silver band in her blue hat. “You’re going to compete tonight, aren’t you?”

“Old habits die—” she started, then stopped herself. “Yeah, I am.”

“Will you be able to go full-out? Or will memories get the better of you?”

A loud snort spun her head back toward the bulls. Rampage was closer, his head high and his horns pointed at her. “I hope not. I need to replace those memories with something new. Something better.”

He blanketed her hand with his. “Like what? Your fastest time ever?”

“No. I want to ride Rampage.”

Nine hundred and ninety-nine people out of a thousand would call her a fool. Instead, Cougar studied her with his midnight eyes. “A lot of cowboys have tried. Most have failed.”

“I know. Believe me, I know. Cougar, I don’t mean I want to try to ride to the bell. I don’t have a death wish. But if I could sit on him while he’s squeezed into a chute, if I could accomplish that simple thing…”

He lightly kissed her fingertips. “I understand.”

Of course he did. He’d been down the same road. “You’ll help me?”

“I’ll make it happen. As for whether it’ll help, only you can determine that.”

A few minutes later, Rampage had been loaded into one of the bucking chutes. Although several cowboys had shaken their heads, they hadn’t said anything. If they’d asked her why she was doing this right before the night’s events began, she would have explained that what she had in mind wasn’t going to take long—but the ramifications would last the rest of her life.

“There’s no cinch on him,” Cougar explained. “He’ll be less agitated without that pressing against his gonads.”

“I know. I just want— Hell, I don’t know how to explain it.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

From her perch above Rampage’s back, she struggled to remind herself that she wasn’t looking at some supernatural beast, but she’d never been this close to her nemesis. She knew what the Brahma was capable of, knew that no one, least of all his owner, trusted him.

“Whenever you’re ready. He’s not going to be able to move around much, but that won’t stop him from trying to climb out of here. It’s one of his favorite tricks.”

If you knew this, why didn’t you warn me?

Because you believe I need this.

She’d seen enough bulls jump straight up in the small enclosures. If a cowboy was on its back when that happened, the cowboy either rode out the explosion or bailed by diving for the fence. She didn’t want to do either.

“Jordan?”

“What?” With an effort, she took her attention off the bull.

Cougar’s gaze left no doubt that he was looking beneath her surface. Perhaps he could see all the way to her heart and nerves. She loved him. Just like that, she understood the meaning of the word in ways she never had.

“Something is happening between us.” He caressed the side of her neck, leaving electric sparks in his wake. “Something that goes beyond some incredible sex.”

“Yes.”

“I want to explore the possibilities and believe you do too.”

“Yes, I do.”
If I can deal with this head trip of mine.

“Take all the time you need.” Leaning over the highest railing, he grabbed Rampage’s horn and shook it—at least he tried to. When Rampage didn’t so much as twitch, he gave her a rueful smile, then winked.

The wink helped. A lot.

She swung a leg over the top of the corral. No matter how far she stretched, she couldn’t get it over Rampage’s back, so she kicked off and let go of the railing at the same time. Her butt landed on a hard spine, and her inner thighs made contact with pure muscle. She had nothing to hold on to. Nothing to do except think about the incredible thing she’d just done.

Rampage, under her. Rampage, squeezed into an enclosure designed to immobilize him, but still deadly.

She, her heart pounding like a jackhammer. She, scared and excited, and in awe of the monster.

The bull’s thick skin shuddered, putting her in mind of a horse trying to dislodge a fly. Rampage pawed the ground.

“Do you know who I am?” She tapped Rampage’s shoulder. “Maybe not. You have so many grudges against so many humans.”

Rampage snorted, the sound rumbling up from deep inside his great chest. She thought of thunder rolling through the night.

“I’m impressed. Got it. I’m impressed. You’re an amazing creature.”

On the tail of his second bellow, Rampage flung back his head. Because she sensed what he was about to do, she’d leaned away, evading the horns.
Shit! Shit.

“All right,” she whispered once she’d remembered how to breathe. “Duly noted. I won’t take anything for granted.”

Yet another bellow rolled through him. The sound seemed to press against her. She wondered if an avalanche felt and sounded like this. What would it be like to try to outrun tons of deadly free-falling snow?

“Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent, big boy.”

Her legs were starting to ache from being forced into a near split, but she barely paid attention. Rampage’s heat was soaking through her jeans and imprinting her with the reality of his great heart.

“Maybe you’re all instinct. Sleeping, eating, fucking, attacking what you don’t like. Does that sum it up?”

Once again, a subtle tightening of his neck muscles alerted her. This time when he flung back his head, his horns came so close she could have grabbed them. She thought of the centuries his kind had been on earth. Someday there might be no more rodeos, but Rampage’s children and grandchildren would still be here—oblivious to man’s self-importance.

“I envy you. I never thought I’d say that, but I do. No one’s ever going to push you around. You are what you are. You exist, simply exist.”

Rampage repeatedly pawed the ground. His muscles and skin rolled under her. This was real life—heart, muscle, bone, a brain that wanted nothing to do with humans. The moment the bulls were free of this man-made prison they became aggressors, and sometimes killing machines.

“I’m thinking too much. Hard to believe, given the need to concentrate, isn’t it? I’d like to be like you, the neighborhood bully. Feed you and leave you alone, and you’re a happy camper. Mess with you, and you take no prisoners.”

Still pawing, Rampage started rocking from side to side, perhaps trying to smash her legs against the boards. She rested them along the back of his neck, which compromised her balance.

“End of the ride, old buddy.” With that, she dove for the railing. Just as her hands closed around it, Rampage reared, his front hooves inches from her. His bellow made her ears ring.

Strong hands gripped her and pulled her out of the way. Her belly dragged over the railing, and she kicked to help propel herself forward. Her boots struck Rampage, but she didn’t stick around to discover where she’d landed a pathetic blow.

“Had enough?” Cougar asked. With one hand, he clung to the railing. The other held her against him.

“Oh yeah. Quite enough.”

A few feet away, Rampage pounded the ground. She’d sat on him! Sat and talked and felt. Discovered.

“Thank you,” she whispered and rested her head against Cougar’s chest.

“You learned what you needed to?”

Straightening, she looked into the eyes of maybe the one man on earth who understood. “Yes.”

“Now what?”

“Now I get ready to ride.”

There was more than one kind of ride. The first had occurred earlier, when she’d ridden Trixie to a second-place finish, secure in the belief that she could coax an even faster time out of her mare during tomorrow night’s final.

As for the second—

“Jordan?”

Cougar’s voice turned her around. The bridle she held started to slide out of her hand, prompting her to clutch it. Believing she wouldn’t see him until after the show was over, she’d bedded Trixie down but had taken the bridle with her so she could work some lubricant into the leather. Instead of going to her place, however, she’d wandered back toward the arena. Although the fans had left, most of the participants were around the concession stand, dissecting each other’s performances.