Page 83 of Claiming Their Omega

“Uh huh.” I knew he’d done the circuit for a while, but I never knew why he stopped, or exactly when. I just put it down to something about running the ranch, and chalked it up to yet another thing I didn’t know about because I was away from home for so long, out of touch.

“Well, one day during an event… I choked.”

That’s the last thing I expected to hear. “You—you choked?”

“Yup.” Hendrix’s face is tight. “It was bad enough that I choked at all, but in front of a crowd—and on a horse? I’m lucky I was the one who got hurt and not the animal.”

“Were you badly hurt?” I didn’t see any evidence of it when we were having sex. I saw some scars, but they were all small, the sort of things I’d expect a rancher to have.

“No, through sheer dumb luck.” He shakes his head. “I should’ve been but I wasn’t. After that I walked away. The first time I got on a horse after that disaster, I was terrified of fucking it up and hurting both the animal and myself.”

I glance over at the motorcycle, remembering how Hendrix has been pointing out all day that the motorcycle isn’t an animal, it’s not alive. I realize now that must’ve been a comfort to him. If he messed up riding his motorcycle, the only person who’d get hurt is him, not an animal that you have to put down as a mercy if it breaks a leg.

Because Hendrix is a good man. Of course he’d feel a responsibility and care about the horse too, almost more than himself.

“Have you thought about going back to it?”

“I’ve practiced,” he admits. “Done some trial runs. Just for the fun of it, to see if I still have some of the right stuff. But I haven’t ever gone back to a rodeo.”

His tone is wistful. I think I already know the answer when I ask, “Do you miss it?”

“Honestly?” Hendrix gives a melancholy, breathless laugh. “Every day.”

My heart aches for him. “You know… if I’m brave enough to get on that bike, then I know you’re brave enough to get back on the horse. If you want to.”

Hendrix gives me a smile that’s achingly fond and leans in, kissing me softly. “Speaking of getting back on the bike…”

I laugh and groan at the same time, but let him haul me to my feet. “Okay, okay.”

This time, when we get on, I drive and I let myself fully feel the exhilaration of it. My heart and blood race, and the wind in my face makes me feel alive. My fear finally dissipates, especially with the warmth of Hendrix around me, hands on my thighs, chest against my back, ready to guide me if I should make a mistake.

Yeah. I can see why he and Cade love this so much.

Chapter 28

Grace

A couple days later, I find myself on the sofa, alone in the living room.

In my hands is my story from high school. The one that Hendrix saved.

My heart thuds as I stare down at it. I haven’t read this since I threw it in the trash that fateful day so long ago. I didn’t even let myself think about it afterward. I threw the knowledge of it into the back of my mind just like I threw the literal story in the can.

But now Hendrix has given it back to me from where he saved it in a drawer with some other prized possessions, and I feel I have an obligation to read it. If only so I can appreciate the gesture that he made. Clearly this story means a lot to him.

Personally I think it’s because I wrote it. I was a teenager when I wrote this story, it can’t be all that good. But it’s sweet that because I was the author, Hendrix values it.

I take a deep breath, open it, and read.

Oh man. I remember the inspiration for this story.

It was my crush on Jesse, and my determination to go up to him as soon as I was eighteen and ask him to take my virginity. The story was a fictionalized version of how I hoped things would go.

I hadn’t intended to write just plain smut when I was a teenager. I’d tried to go for more of a women’s magazine feel, something literary—exploring what it felt like to give one’s self over to another person that way. The trust involved. The rite of passage into adulthood.

Reading it now as an adult, I can see the parts where it’s very clearly written by a teenager. The sex parts make me cringe and I’m glad I didn’t try to go into too much detail. And yet…

Maybe I’m crazy. But my heart races as I consider that this story might be better than I thought it was. Maybe there is some hidden potential in here.

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