Page 71 of Rough Ride

“Just somethin’ to think about,” Eli said casually. “In my experience, four hands are better than two. And I’mreallygood at sharing.”

He winked at me, then put some money down on the bar. “I’m gonna see if I can hustle some locals at the billiards table.”

Johnny and I watched him go. Then we looked at each other. There was a curious sparkle in his eye, like he was picturing something in his mind.

“He’s probably joking,” I said.

“Probably.” Johnny finished his beer. “But just in case he’s not, I could be talked into… things. But not tonight. I need my sleep before the Steer Wrestling tomorrow.”

Then he was gone too, leaving me to suffer the flirts of the other customers alone.

But their comments swirled around in my head until my shift ended, and didn’t disappear even after I got home and crawled into bed.

Do they… want to have a threesome with me?

32

Johnny

Would she want to have a threesome with us?

Eli’s casual offer was the last thing I thought about when I said goodnight to Dusty in my trailer, and it was the first thing to pop into my mind when I took him for a walk the next morning. I’d known Eli for a few years. He joked about a lot of things. That was his nature.

But something told me he wasn’t joking about this.

I had never had a threesome before. Not the two-women variety, and certainly not the kind with two men and one woman. I wasn’t against it, I just had never been presented with the opportunity. It had never been a real enough possibility for me to give it a good think.

Was that what this was, though? A real possibility?

I pushed it out of my mind as I prepared for the second big rodeo event, the Steer Wrestling competition. My horse was saddled in the stalls underneath the arena, but I kept compulsively checking and rechecking the leather straps. I couldn’t let anything go wrong today. Not after I had fallen on my ass in the first event. Tonight I needed to score some realpoints if I wanted to stay in the competition. This was more than just the rodeo—my job depended on my performance.

Above me came the muted roar of the crowd, followed by another muffled groan of disappointment. I wondered which cowboy that was, and what they had done to earn that reaction. Hopefully they weren’t injured.

Steer Wrestling was a relatively quick event, lasting anywhere between three and ten seconds. A steer was released into the arena, followed immediately by a cowboy on horseback. The competitor had to leap from horseback onto the steer, then wrestle it into submission. They were only allowed to grab onto the steer’s horns, and scoring was based on how quickly you could make it submit.

Nine cowboys had already performed, and the current best time was 4.13 seconds. That was a solid time, but definitely beatable.

“Come on, Buttercup,” came a voice in the hall outside the stalls. “We’re up next.”

I patted my own horse and stepped out of the stall. Eli held his horse by the reins and was walking it toward the ramp that led up into the arena. When he saw me, he flashed a smile.

“You still waitin’ for your turn?” he asked.

“I’m after you and Sawyer,” I replied. “Hope you’ve got your hundred bucks ready.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded bill. “Got it right here. Honestly, I’m kinda hopin’ you crush it tonight.”

I blinked at him. “Now, why’s that?”

“Because you’re the best chance of keeping Christina Applefuck from winning first place,” he replied bluntly. “I don’t mind you beating me, as long as you beat him, too.”

“What if I beat you,” I said, “but lose to Appleton?”

“That’s what we call alose-losesituation,” Eli replied, reaching up to scratch his horse behind the ear. “Knock ‘em dead, cowboy.”

He started to walk away.

“Wait!” I said. “Were you serious about what you said last night?”

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