Page 29 of Rainwater
He turned around, but she persisted. “You said you were in the hospital. What for?”
He stopped and looked over his shoulder.
“Please, Corey, I’m a really good listener.” She put all the pleading and beseeching she could muster into her voice, into her eyes, into the very air around them.
He released a ragged breath and sat down.
She sat across from him and curled her hands around her mug to keep from touching him. “You said you were in the hospital,” she prompted.
He surprised her by smiling that sweet boyish smile she liked so much, but then there wasn’t much about this man she disliked.
“I…I was a rodeo rider. A damn good one. I was…at the top, winning just about every rodeo for about ten years. Then I drew Widowmaker.”
Widowmaker. The blood seemed to stop flowing in her veins. A cold icy dread filled her. She knew about Widowmaker. He was one of the meanest, orneriest bulls to ever hit the circuit. “I heard they were going to remove him from the circuit.”
“They haven’t. Anyway, I drew him. I’ve ridden him before to the buzzer, except this time…my hand slipped. He moved tothe left unexpectedly and I found myself eating dirt.” His eyes dropped to the table and he refused to look at her.
“And…what happened?”
“At first, I was dazed from the wild dizzying ride. I expected the rodeo clown to take care of the bull, but he didn’t. Widowmaker just ignored him. He came after me instead.”
“Oh, my God!”
“I scrambled out of the way. He charged and caught me along the ribs. It was just a scratch, but then he whirled and stood there, pushing up dirt with his foreleg. I think everyone in that arena stopped breathing; the silence was so absolute, like the calm before the storm. It was surreal, like something out of a movie. I didn’t know what to do. I knew if I ran, he would catch me before I could make it to the fence. The clown tried to get the bull’s attention off me, but Widowmaker was focused on me. It was almost as if he wanted me and only me. He charged again and I barely managed to get out of the way. He gored me…in the hip so close to my…groin. Anyway, he tossed me up in the air like I was a rag doll. The clown opened the gate and he finally went through. I ended up in the hospital.”
“And what else?”
“You want it all, don’t you?”
“I want to know what you’re running from.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“I break out in a cold sweat even thinking about the rodeo. It’s not an option anymore.”
“Bull riding is not the only competition.”
“I can’t even be in the ring again without losing it, Jennifer. The first few times I tried bronc riding, I fell off because I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t find my rhythm. Something happened to me. I lost something that I can’t get back.” He wasshocked that he was telling her this shameful story that he had never told anyone. “I’ve got to go,” he said abruptly.
“Corey, please don’t. Stay and tell me more.”
She got up and came around the table, unable to stand the pain and fear on his face. She put her arms around him and he closed his eyes, pressing his face into the hollow of her breasts. She knew that in that arena, in front of all those people, he’d lost himself. His pride, his sense of worth. He’d lost his nerve. But she felt that there was something else driving him besides the loss of his pride. Something she wasn’t even sure he was aware of. It was, she was certain, a temporary thing if only he could stop long enough to face his fear.
He struggled out of her hold and stood up, readying himself to leave. “I haven’t got anything to give you.”
Her eyes searched his deeply before she looked down, following the smooth, lean, muscular line of his body all the way to his groin where evidence of his arousal pressed solidly against his jeans. Her gaze lingered there. “Looks like you have more than enough.”
His groan was deep and long as his head dropped back. “You do know how to play with fire, but even a woman with backbone and sass can still get burned.”
He dropped back into the chair and leaned his elbows on the table, letting his head fall forward. A black silky curtain of hair covered his ravaged face.
Tenderness and the need to console him rose in her. She leaned forward, bracing herself on the edge of the chair. The nape of his neck was partially exposed and she brushed the rest of the silky black hair away and placed her mouth on his sensitive skin. He smelled so good, male, musky. A heady virile scent that made her dizzy.
He moaned softly and twisted his head and Jennifer suspected he was going to tell her to stop.
But she didn’t stop. Her tongue came out and flicked against his hot skin like a lick of flame, and with a growl deep in his throat, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her across his lap.
