Page 104 of Stockman's Showdown

‘Pfft.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Everybody wants to be a bull rider until it’s time to be a bull rider.’

‘Sweetheart,’ he said in that rumbling tone, ‘I’m willing to bet on it.’ Ryder leaned in close with his eyes a warm, toasted hazelnut—which was such a contradiction for a man with ice in his veins. Yet, she’d seen behind that ice curtain, and it was changing.

‘Not with me.’

‘You make bets with my brother all the time.’

‘You have nothing I want.’ He couldn’t buy her.

‘Aww, that hurt.’ He grinned, patting his hand over his heart, but there was a definite mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

Who was this man? It was a whole new side of Ryder she’d never seen before—he was beingplayful.

‘If I ride a bull for the full eight seconds, we stop hiding from Charlie.’

‘You told your brothers about us, didn’t you?’ She narrowed her eyes at him, playing that game of question for question, and no answers. ‘Did you plaster it all over a billboard? Or did you pay your cousin, Monet, to do some skywriting in her little red plane?’

‘They guessed.’ But Ryder’s lips twitched into a quick grin as he rubbed his jaw as if trying to keep a lid on his full wattage smile. ‘But I’ll take my shot on a bull ride.’

‘Why? When you’re the type of man who only knows about bull trading markets. Get in your lane.’ She frowned and turned away.

But again, Ryder grabbed her arm, stopping her. ‘Because your grandfather was a bull rider, and your mate Cowboy Craig is a bull rider.’ He pointed to Craig in his rodeo leathers. ‘Did Finn ride the bulls, too?’

‘Yeah, Charlie taught him.’ Then the penny dropped. Her eyes flared open as she spun around. ‘No. Don’t do it.’ Because he was doing this to prove himself to Charlie. ‘You’ll get hurt.’

He stepped back, his voice deepening to match his frown. ‘Don’t you think I can do it?’

‘It’s dangerous.’ She put down her beers at the nearest table to grab his arm, hoping to talk sense into the stubborn man. ‘You should see the scars on Charlie’s body after what that bull did to him. And Craig has had his own close call to never ride bulls again. Bucking bulls are—’

‘If I win, we go public.’

‘And if you lose, you’ll end up in a pile of—’

‘I have medical insurance. Have faith I can do this.’

‘What is with you? You don’t need to prove yourself to me.’

His smile ripped wide.

O-oh!She did not just admit that to Ryder, but also to herself that she cared way too much for this tall, hot and broody man, with his neatly trimmed beard highlighting his chiselled jaw, and lips good enough to bite—if this dark warrior-king wasn’t acting like some child.

‘Do we have a bet?’

‘No.’ She crossed her arms.

‘You can’t tell me what to do.’

The a-hole was now using her own words against her! ‘You don’t do spur-of-the-moment things.’

‘Like you?’

She scowled at him. ‘There’s only room for one rebel in this family.’

‘I’m not like Dex.

‘No. You’re thoughtful, dependable, and cautious even.’ Traits she liked about him. ‘You’re that rock wall that stops someone from doing dumb things. And this is dumb. I can’t believe I’m saying this, when it’s usually me doing the dumb things. Not you.’

‘Look, Bree…’ He gently held her upper arms, lowering himself to meet her eyes. ‘You have bets with Dex all the time. And you bet on him for his illegal fights while selling your gin.’

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