Page 76 of Rough Ride

“The most expensive liquor here, and he’s tossing it down like water,” Eli muttered.

“Not bad.” Sawyer put the glass down and tapped a calloused finger next to it. “I’ll take another. For sipping.”

“I’m not paying for the second one,” Johnny said.

“The fuck you aren’t,” Sawyer growled as I refilled the glass. He patted the sleeve of throwing knives hanging from his belt. “I’ll be over by the ax-throwing targets if you want to buy me a third.”

Eli watched him walk away, then shook his head. “The way he’s moping around, you’d think he came inlastplace.”

“I think he’s got his eyes on the Bull Riding event,” I said.

“Itishis best event,” Johnny agreed while swirling the whiskey around in the glass. “And after getting third place tonight, he’s got a shot of winning the whole rodeo.”

“Especially since Applecrack didn’t getanypoints tonight,” Eli agreed. Then he shocked me by changing subjects. “You thought anymore about our offer?”

“What offer?” I said, then realized what he meant.

The threesome.

Johnny looked just as surprised by the topic, but Eli was grinning like he’d told a joke.

“I still can’t decide if you’re serious, or just fooling around,” I said while pouring a beer from the tap for another customer.

“Why wouldn’t we be serious?” Eli asked. He furrowed his brow. “We areextremelyserious people.”

I snorted. “Nowthat’sa funny joke.”

“You’ve done a good job of avoiding the question,” Eli said smoothly. “Have you thought about it? I think you have.”

He was right. In fact, I had thought about very littleexceptthe idea of having a threesome with the two rugged cowboys. Wedged between their hot, hard bodies. Two sets of searching hands, two mouths planting wet kisses all over my body…

I gave myself a shake and said, “I think y’all are too competitive to share a woman.”

“Hell,” Eli replied, “we’re sharing you right now.”

“I mean at the same time,” I clarified. “I don’t think your egos could handle it.”

“Maybe,” Eli admitted. “Only one way to find out for sure.”

Johnny had remained quiet the whole time, watching me. Searching my face for something. I got the impression he was curious, like he had implied last night, but wanted to make sure I was interested before he committed.

It was, more or less, the exact same way I felt.

Somebody over by the entrance let out a cheer, and then two other women took it up. Eli and Johnny twisted on their stools.

“What’s the commotion?” I asked, standing up a little taller to try to see over all the heads.

Johnny turned back and hung his head. “God fucking damnit.”

“It’s him,” Eli muttered, taking a long sip of his expensive whiskey.

Before I could ask who, the crowd parted and I got a perfect view. He was a few inches taller than me, wearing a designer cowboy hat that was far too expensive to have ever seen real use on a ranch. A perfectly-curated smile was glued to his face as he walked through the crowd, shaking hands and taking selfies. I felt my heart race, but not in a good way.

Chris Appleton.

Liz leaned toward me. “Is that your…”

“Yes,” I groaned. “Unfortunately.”

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