Page 32 of Eight Seconds to Fly

I would never tell Branch he was right, that Jack had been high off his face and that I’d had to get Daddy to come and pick me up after the worst date ever. The next day I’d pretended like I was floating on cloud nine, just to rub it in Branch and Beau’s faces.

I wouldn’t admit it now either, because I was stubborn as Branch implied. “Probably not my finest moment.”

Branch snorted, and we rocked back and forth in silence for a while, just listening to the twang of a country guitar song. I looked toward our table, and both Beau and Dylan were back there, beer bottles tilted to their lips. Beau’s face looked hopelessly earnest, and I couldn’t understand it. Did he still want me to choose Branch? Did he want me to choose him? Right now, I wasn’t convinced I was going to pick anyone, but I was stubborn and I never shied from a challenge.

Finally, it got to be too much for me. “What do you think about this whole group dating thing? I can’t imagine you’re happy to share.”

Branch twirled me, and then pulled me back tighter to his chest. “I think you’d be surprised what I’m willing to share,” he said, the smile on his face no more than a flash of teeth and dimples. He raised an eyebrow and I blinked as the words slowly filtered into my brain. Sharing… me? Like on dates? Or did he mean…?

The breath whooshed from my lungs at the thought of being trapped between the bodies of Beau and Branch. Always Beau and Branch. Even in my brain, even when it came to sex, they were a pair. “Do you mean you and Beau like to have sex with the same woman?” I almost swallowed my tongue.

Branch’s answering grin was pure sex and it went straight to my throbbing core. He leaned down, and he planted a kiss behind my ear. “Once or twice. But it was always meant to be you between us, Tessa May. Always you.”

With that, he let me go and strode off the dancefloor back toward our table while I gaped after him like a fish.

What the fuck was happening right now?

11

Ididn’t think shit could get weirder after our group date the other night, but I’d been wrong. I mean, after Branch’s revelations on the dance floor, it had been a fun night. We drank some more, I rode the mechanical bull much to the delight of the crowd and the disgruntlement of the operator. They’d walked me back to my hotel room, kissed me on the cheek and then said goodnight. It was actually really damn nice. I’d crawled into bed beside a sleepy Frankie, who’d big-spooned me like the champion he was, and I’d had happy dreams of ridingBushwhackerand having orgies.

I could get used to the whole group dating thing. It was nice.

I should have known better.

At the rodeo grounds the following day, a hand had grabbed me from nowhere and pulled me behind a tent selling belt buckles. I’d almost screamed until I realized it was Dylan.

“Are you crazy? I almost nailed you in the nuts,” I’d hissed.

He grinned down at me, pushing my hat back from my head. “It would have been worth it for this,” and then he had kissed the ever loving shit out of me. Honestly, I had been panting by the end of it, pressed between a security fence and his hard body.

I’d barely recovered from that when a serious-faced Beau had asked to see me about my thigh injury in the med tent, marching me into his treatment room and then kissing me until my lips were swollen and my hair was a mess. Thank god for hats. Was it hat hair? Was it sex hair? The viewers at home will never know.

When I’d walked past Branch on the way to the chutes, his fingers had brushed mine on the way past and he’d winked. Butterflies had gone off in my chest.

It was like they’d combined together to make sure my head was as messed up as my panties.

I climbed up on the rail of the chute, and tried to get my head back into the game. The only male in my life right in this moment was snorting snot, but damn he was buff.Pile Driverwas a pretty rank bull, and he was going to make me work for it. I breathed deeply as I climbed over and jammed myself into the chute, the ropeman passing my rope tail so I could rub my glove up and down it to make it tacky.

I vaguely heard someone say, “Looks like she’s done that before.” Yeah, hee-fucking-haw asshole. But I ignored the barbs. This was a boys’ club, and there was only one way that I could prove my right to be here and that was on the back of a bull. I looked up at the ropeman, a young guy about twenty-two, and he just rolled his eyes. I grinned beneath my helmet. Yeah, they weren’t all fucking pigs.

I grabbed my rope, did the simple yet intricate tie that was meant to keep me in place while I was being tossed about with the g-force of a jet plane. I took a deep breath, prayed to any deity that would listen, and nodded to the gate guy.

The gate flung open and I can’t describe the rush. It was like my body just knew that this was right. My legs were right, my arms right, I moved with the bull like I was a part of it. I didn’t try to be flashy. I just rode the damn bull and when the whistle blew, I leapt off.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins as the bullfighters ushered the bull out of the ring. I ripped off my hemet and tossed it into the air.

“YES!” This time, there were a few whoops from the crowd, and the steady thrum of applause. I smiled at them all like I was a fucking beauty queen because right now, I was a damn Queen!

I walked out of the ring, riding high. Calypso was out the back, her grin as wide as mine. “T.M.! That was a great ride. I think you’re settling in well, how are you feeling?”

I grinned and hugged her, the rush settling like a high over my skin. “I feel like I’m flying high, Caly. Like I’m exactly where I need to be.”

“And what do you say to the people who are calling for you to withdraw from the competition?”

My smile fell into something far less pleasant. “I say to them, get used to seeing my damn face, because as long as I can ride those bulls, I am going to be here.”

Calypso grinned, and turned to the camera. “You heard her Doug. Get used to seeing her around the arenas because she’s here to stay. I for one am excited to see how far she can go.”

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