Page 61 of Eight Seconds to Fly

“Who are you wearing tonight?” one photographer asked, and I screwed up my face. “No idea. Not Wrangler anyway?”

There was a bit of laughter and Branch and Dylan finally caught up, fielding a few questions of their own, surprisingly enough one of those questions wasn’t what brand their suits were.

Finally, a doorman opened the double doors to the ballroom and I squared my shoulders.

Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly.

Those words had never resonated so hard with me as they did tonight.

Four hours,six glasses of champagne and about a hundred little canape things later, my feet ached and my body was exhausted. I wanted to go home. As expected, I got a lot of interest in my riding, about me being the first female rider in the WBRP, but no offers of sponsorship. As one old guy said, “Sure, we wanna be seen as progressive, but you die in the arena? We are the company that supported a little lady right to her coffin.”

I was frustrated enough to scream, but I didn’t disturb the guys who were talking to two separate groups of old dudes. I leaned against the bar, propping it up.

“These events are always like this. Dull and filled with barely veiled chest beating.”

I turned and a smile lit my face. “Calypso. You look radiant.”

She waved a hand like she got dressed up like this every other day. “Girl, you look like a wet dream wrapped in tissue paper. Screw sponsorship, I’d be prepared for a few offers of marriage before the nights out. And please, call me Caly.”

I laughed and tipped my glass at her. “Caly it is. Unfortunately, I’m taken.” Very taken.

Caly made a little O with her mouth. “Yeah, I heard rumors of that. You know what the circuit is like; they gossip more than a quilting circle. Branch Watson? I know you guys have some kind of history and girl he is fine with a capital F-Me-Please.”

I eyed her and she laughed. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t date inside the WBRP. And I definitely don’t date riders.”

I sighed. I remembered when I had that ideology. Don’t date bull riders. Ha, I blew that one right out of the water.

“Though I’ve also heard rumors that you are with Dylan Montaigne and if anyone could tempt a girl away from her morals, it's that one. Though the Brazilians all say you’re with that hottie bullfighter. And there's rumors that you came out of the med tent all flushed with Branch’s best friend Beau the other day. See, gossip. I guess it was to be expected when you are the only woman rider. I’m dying to know which rumor is actually true.”

My cheeks flushed scarlet. Caly watched me shoot my whiskey with narrowed eyes that went comically wide. “All of them? T.M.!”

Ugh. “Call me Tessa.”

She waved a hand. “Tessa. Okay, but don’t dodge the question,” she almost screeched. “All of them?”

I tried to judge if I could trust Caly. She gave me good feelings, and I trusted my gut. But if I was going to be in a relationship with all four guys, I was going to have to get used to conversations like this. I could use this as a test run. “It’s not like that. I’m not sleeping around. I’m, uh, in a committed relationship with all four of them.” Well, Branch was touch and go, but that was my business.

Caly’s mouth flopped open like a cod fish. “They know? About each other?” I nodded. “And they are cool with it?”

“Yeah. I mean it's new, but we are working it out. We are keeping it quiet though.”

Caly was shaking her head like I just told her that Santa was real and knew just how naughty she’d been. “Obviously I’ll keep my mouth shut, but how does that even work? Do they see other people?”

I shook my head. “Nope just me. I don’t understand it either, but I’m not fighting it.”

Caly downed her drink and waved at the bartender for two more. She slapped my arm. “Obviously you wouldn’t fight it, you lucky bitch. Four hot guys who want just you? Jesus, when do you have time to breathe? It must be a sausage party all the time. Oh my god? Do you have orgies?” She screeched that bit a little louder, and I flushed when the bartender looked between me and Caly with surprise. Whoops. He placed two drinks on the bar top. He was kind of cute, wearing a button down with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of suspenders and a bow tie.

He raised an eyebrow and looked between us one more time, his grin getting wide and full of mischievousness. Calypso looked him over once, and made a small satisfied hum. “Don’t look at her, she’s got her hands full. Actually not just her hands,” she teased with a wink in my direction. She looked up at the bartender with heat in her eyes. “When do you get off?”

The bartender leaned forward. “Whenever you let me, Ma’am.” The light in Caly’s eyes got almost predatory. They hooded and she leaned forward, whispering something in his ear. His Adam's apple bobbed and he nodded once. He stood, picking up the bar rag and walked away, but not before throwing a wink in our direction.

He kinda had a nice ass too. Caly turned so he couldn’t see her and fanned her face. “Hole-y shit.”

An arm slid around my waist, and I looked over to see Branch behind me. I couldn’t help the goofy expression on my face when I looked at him. Caly snorted and sipped her drink.

“You getting into trouble, Nugget? Don’t let this one lead you astray.” He lifted a chin toward Calypso, whose look of mock outrage was ruined by the laughter in her eyes. “Moi?No way. If anyone is getting led astray here, it's me. Tessa and I were just having a little girl talk. It was well and truly overdue. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a very pressing engagement.” She waggled her eyebrows at me and sashayed off like she was under a spotlight and every eye in the room was on her. Which it kind of was. It was hard not to watch Caly, because she pulled your gaze to her like a magnet. Probably why she went into show business.

I turned to Branch, keeping a respectable distance between our bodies even though I wanted to curl into him like a cat in heat. The look he gave me almost made me moan and abandon my respectability. “I’m ready to leave,” he growled in a low voice that hit me straight in my lady bits.

---