Page 26 of Rough

I made my way onto the padding, careful not to flash anyone. Fortunately, my skirt hit just a few inches above my knee, not the tiny Band-Aid sized ones some ladies were wearing. When I stood beside the bull, I looked over my shoulder. I had no idea how to get on it. There was no way to toss my leg over, not unless I wanted to chuck my modesty right along with it.

Boyd swung himself over the rail and climbed up beside me. He leaned down and cupped his hands together to make a step. “Put your left foot here, then swing your right over.”

People were shouting and hollering for me to hop on, but Boyd didn’t pay them any attention. I looked at him for a second, then at his clasped hands. He wasn’t making fun of me. He was helping. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to do this for him or for myself. I knew I was doing this for myself, not Boyd. I wasn’t going to feel less than Total Bitch. I might fall off the stupid fake animal, but at least I tried. And as long as my skirt didn’t ride up to my waist when I did it, I’d be able to remain in town instead of moving to a different state.

I set my foot in his hold and followed his instructions and was sitting astride the mechanical bull before I could say thanks. Even though my skirt only drifted up to mid-thigh, I tugged at the hem, then looked around and had a full view of the entire bar. It was higher up than it seemed from the other side of the railing.

“Good girl,” Boyd said, smiling at me. This smile wasn’t sly. It wasn’t sexy. It was… warm, as if it was a new kind—just for me. “You got this?”

Even though he’d practically goaded me up here, he wasn’t going to make me go through with it. I nodded though. Now that I was sitting on the bull, I wanted to do it. I even heard Becky holler, “Way to go, Audrey! Ride that bull.”

“Nice and slow,” I instructed Boyd. I wasn’t going to pretend I could ride like Total Bitch.

“Yeah, nice and slow is just right.”

He wasn’t talking about bull riding.

His big hand slid down my thigh, from the top half covered in the jean skirt to lower down where the material had ridden up. I felt the callouses, the warmth. In that moment, Boyd wasn’t a cocky rodeo champ. He was Boyd, the man who had eyes only for me.

I took a deep breath and took off my glasses and handed them to him. Besides not wanting them to break, it was probably better not being able to see anything, or anyone.

He stepped back. Only when he was back over the rail did the bull kick in, just like my racing heart. I just had to hope it wouldn’t break when I fell, and I didn’t mean off the bull.

13

BOYD

I gaveRussell a look that threateneddon’t hurt my woman. He saw it, clenched his jaw and nodded. The bull started up, so slow that it was like Audrey was on the kiddie horse that cost a penny to ride at the grocery store. When someone to my left shouted to speed it up, I whipped my head his way and glared, throwing off all the wolf energy I had, even though he was human. The guy turned and walked away from the rail.The fucker.

The bar was packed. People walked by and slapped me on the shoulder in greeting. I paid them no attention. I could only see Audrey. Hell, if a fight broke out behind me, I doubt I’d know. I certainly wouldn’t care.

Audrey’s bare knees tightened on the bull’s sides, and her knuckles went white around the handhold. The bull’s pace increased, but it was a slow adjustment, and she seemed to be doing okay. When it moved a little faster, her motions became awkward.

“Go with it. Relax. Lift your free arm up in the air to counteract the motion,” I instructed, and she did as I said, her movement improving. Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty. She wasn’t going to stay on going much faster though. I could see it in every line of her body—and I was watching every single curvy line—and the way she was tiring.

It didn’t look like strenuous work hanging on for only eight seconds, but Audrey had been on for much longer, and the mechanical bull’s faux leather was pretty fucking slippery. I doubted I’d be able to stay on if I had to wear a dang skirt and ride the thing.

I sliced my hand back and forth across my throat, indicating to Russell to shut ‘er down. The bull immediately slowed, then came to a stop. I didn’t hop the rail like I wanted but let her carefully kick a leg over then slide down and off on her own. She stumbled when the soft mat gave beneath her feet and put a hand on the side of the bull to steady herself.

When she came over to the rail, I flipped opened the sides of her glasses and carefully set them over her ears. “You did it, darlin’. In a skirt, no less.”

Relief must’ve made her a little punch drunk because she let out a breathy laugh. “I did, didn’t I? Not quite as good as—”

“Better,” I interrupted. I knew she was comparing herself with Karen, the show-off who went before her, but the truth was, there was no comparing. Karen was a backwoods shifter from one of the families living up in the mountains. She’d moved to town when she was eighteen, probably in hopes of snagging one of the Wolf brothers as a mate, but obviously that never took. Rob wasn’t interested in any woman. He wasn’t gay, but he hadn’t met his mate yet. He’d have to soon. I was starting to feel the itch of moon madness, and I was the youngest of the three of us. I’d think he was slowly losing his shit right about now. Not that he’d let on. As for Colton, he was in the military out in North Carolina. I hadn’t seen him in years although not because I avoided him. His leave and my breaks from the rodeo rarely coincided. Karen wasn’t going to ever have luck with him unless she hopped a plane east.

As for me? Not happening. Never had, never would. I knew who I wanted. Who my wolf wanted, and she was standing right in front of me.

I needed to show Audrey exactly how superior she was to every female here. I also needed to somehow prove to her she wasn’t another notch on my bedpost as she thought. She definitely had me filed in the player category.

The trouble was, there wasn’t much evidence against that theory at this point. When she’d walked in, I’d been flanked by four women, all eager to get in my pants. A previous night, I’d have taken any one of them up on her offer. If she asked around, everyone in town who knew me would attest that I was a one-and-done kind of guy.

Dammit. It wasn’t because I wasn’t into the long haul with one woman, I just had never come across her before. I was no monk, so the women I’d slept with in the past had been fun. And that was it.

But now… fuck. I’d screwed up. Big time. I needed to get off the distract-her-with-sex train and get to know her. All of her, not just that beautiful, curvy body. To be her best friend. Not because Rob ordered me to but because that’s what mates were. Everything to each other.

Why did that suddenly make me feel like she was out of my league?

Because she was smart—a doctor—and here I hadn’t even been to college. I practically burned rubber getting off the ranch at eighteen to join the rodeo circuit, and I never looked back. Up until now, I’d relied heavily on my physical prowess and my ability to charm the panties off every female in a three-mile radius. I’d had no skin in the game in the past. I’d been having fun, spreading orgasms across the country. I hadn’t been trying to make anyone fall in love with me. I hadn’t found my mate.