Page 47 of The Wildest Ride

AJ grimaced. “You’re boring, but it doesn’t matter. You can ride. What about your parents?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it and he realized he’d touched a nerve. It was long enough before she finally responded that he had begun to think she wasn’t going to. “My mom died when I was young and took the secret of my paternity to the grave with her. For most of my life it was just Gran and Granddad and me.”

“How’d she die?” he asked, familiar with the pain of losing a parent young.

But instead of answering, her expression shuttered, the light in her eyes went dark, hidden behind a cold veil. “Sad and alone, but nobody wants to hear about all of that. Past is past. Besides, all it seems anyone with a mic and camera around here cares about is the kind of parts I’m equipped with and who I’m kissing.”

A deep blush stole over her face as soon as the words left her mouth. She’d obviously meant the comment to be a joke to change the subject but he knew she was thinking about the kiss they’d shared—and he’d be lying if he said that being the one she’d been kissing didn’t bring a sense of satisfaction with it. But she was clearly mortified by the slip of the tongue.

Giving her an uncharacteristic break, AJ asked, “You said you started young. How young was that?”

She smiled, not her move-space-and-time smile, but one that softened the lines of her face, drawing the eye to fanciful details about her, like how her eyelashes curled and that her lips, upon closer examination, were near purple-rose in duskiness, and even fuller than they appeared at first glance.

“I was a pest after my grandad, so he figured he might as well put me to work,” she said, jumping onto the questions like a lifeline. “I always say five, but I couldn’t have been older than preschool aged.”

That gave her a head start on AJ of a good decade or so, but the detail fit the packaging.

In the distance a bell sounded, signaling the end of the event. At the end of the night the caravan would be rearranged according to the new rankings.

Lil had beat AJ in three out of five events, which meant it was going to be him and Winnie for another stretch of the road.

At least until they got to Shamrock, Texas. Then things would change. He’d make sure of it.

Lil pushed away from the barn and held out a hand.

AJ reached out and took it, still mystified that such a small hand belonged to a rodeo pro, and was startled by the electric current that passed between them on contact.

“Well fought,” Lil said, grinning with a shine to her.

AJ smiled. “Well fought, though I think we both know the score...”

Like any good punk kid, she couldn’t hide the gloat in her voice. “There’s always next round...”

AJ snorted. “Just enjoy it while it lasts, shrimp—it never does.”

This time Lil snorted. “Spoken like a truerole model.”

They walked back to the ring together, laughing all the way.

13

Who had ever heard of a world record bonus?

Lil grumbled and groused mentally as she shoved clothes into her duffel bag, altogether ignoring the voice in her head that sounded like Gran and had a lot to say about this being exactly the kind of situation that proved it was a good idea to keep her things tidy.

Being more inclined to keep things strewn about, she was now scrambling to get things packed up just as frantically as the boys in the bullpens were.

Of course, they were reshuffling because twenty-five of them were going home tonight.

She just had to switch RVs with AJ.

Because of his completely made-up, out of the blue,world record bonus.

Standing next to each other on the stage earlier in the evening, Lil had been agonizingly aware of the incredible nearness of him, just as she’d been agonizingly aware of every second they’d been near each other over the past four days.

Now, untangling her bra from the comforter on her unmade bed and shoving it in the bag, she was mortified by the fact that AJ was going to be sleeping in her bed tonight. Or, rather, his bed. But what had started out as her bed. And all because of some random fine print.

Even though she had won by way of competition, AJ had set a world record in one of the few events where he beat her, and the Closed Circuit, desperate for attention as they were, had a world record points bonus for any cowboys who set records during the tour.

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