Ride Me Cowboy #5 (The Cowboy Romance Series - Book #5) (4 page)

I was learning more about rodeo every day. Just before
I came up here to sit and wait with Mom, Mark told me he drew a bull named
Wildfire. The bulls are ranked like the cowboys and Wildfire was ranked number
three in the United States. He’d never been ridden for more than seven seconds.
That meant that every cowboy who had ever been on his back had been beaten by
him. If Mark was able to beat him today, that would mean a really high score.
It would likely mean a big money win here for him and a better chance when he
got to the NFR. I was keeping my fingers crossed, but I knew in my heart that
he didn’t need luck. He was awesome at what he did and every time I had the
pleasure of watching him, I was more proud to be a part of it.

When it was finally time, Mom and I clasped hands and
held our breath. The announcer called out Wildfire’s name and read off his
stats first. Then he announced that Mark was the rider and announced his
impressive stats, as well. I couldn’t see Mark or the bull in the chute, but
when it was pulled open, they both looked determined. Mark had his left hand
tied on again. His right one still wasn’t ready after his injury. I closed my
eyes and said a silent prayer. When I opened them, Wildfire was pitching forward,
trying to throw Mark off over his head. Mark held on…and actually made it look
easy. I focused on that right fist held above his head. His wrist had to hurt
still, but he never complained. Sometimes I thought he was tough and other
times stupid, but I loved him nonetheless.

Wildfire was spinning now, first to the left and then
to the right. I watched Mark move with him. It was a fluid movement, like Mark
had anticipated what the bull was going to do ahead of time. He’s amazing. The
crowd was getting louder the closer the clock got to eight seconds. It’s
amazing how long those eight seconds can seem. Wildfire came up off of all four
feet. The crowd was deafening and my mother was squeezing my hand so tightly it
hurt – the buzzer rang and Mark slid, effortlessly, it looked, to his feet.
Wildfire wasn’t done with him yet. I gasped and jumped to my feet as the
two-thousand pound bull charged. Mark dodged and ran and the rodeo clowns who
looked like two guys playing with their pet monster, chased Wildfire out of the
arena.

I looked back at Mark who was holding his hat up at
the still screaming and clapping crowd. He looked in our direction. He bent his
arm at the elbow, kissed his fingers and threw me a kiss. I caught it and threw
one back. I couldn’t wait to taste his sexy lips for real.

Mark, Mom, and I went out to dinner to celebrate that
night. He took second place behind a guy who got just one tenth of a point
better score than him. Mark thinks it’s because his form is a little bit
awkward from using his left hand. He was tickled with second place and the
fifty-thousand dollars he won. I didn’t care about the money, but I thought
he’d ridden much
better
than the winner, so I wanted
to complain.

“
It’s
fine, baby.” Mark told
me when I whined about it at dinner. “I’m happy with second. I’m still in the
running for the NFR, so it’s all good.”

“So, Mark,” Mom asked. “Where do you go from here?”

“South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Florida, and Arizona,”
he said. “Oh, and Utah.”

Mom looked at me to gauge my reaction. Mark had
already filled me in that this was the busiest part of the season, and he would
be constantly traveling from now until December. I smiled at her and said, “I’m
going to go with him to as many as I can until school starts again.”

 
“Well, when you
go to the finals, I will definitely be there. Now though, I need to go home and
get my life back in order,” she told Mark.

“Home?” I asked her. I thought she meant “home” to
Rob. My stomach clenched at the thought.

She smiled. “I sublet my place in the city, remember?
Clarisse, the woman who sublet it understands my situation because she’s been
through it herself. I’m going to move back in and I told her she could stay
until she found another, suitable place.”

“I’m so happy about that,” I told her. “I thought you
sold the apartment to her. I’ve been so worried about where you would live.”

“I’m sorry that I worried you, honey. I honestly
thought you knew about the apartment situation.”

“I didn’t, but you know why?”

“Why?” she asked with a furrowed brow.

“Because that was happening during my selfish stage.
In case
your
selective memory about my terrible
behavior fails you, that was the stage that lasted from age twelve to
twenty-one. I’m sorry, Mom. I don’t know how you’ve put up with me.”

She hugged me with tears in her eyes. When she drew
back, she held me by my shoulders and said, “I never thought you were
selfish…ever! You had so much on your plate for so long – of course it was
difficult for you. I love you so much, Lexi. I’m so proud of the woman you’ve
become.” I was selfish. She was just so amazing that she didn’t notice.

That night when Mark and I lay in bed, he asked, “Are
you sad that your Mom is leaving?”

I shrugged. I didn’t expect her to finish out the
summer going to rodeos, but I did have to admit that I was going to miss her…a
lot. “I’m happy she has a place to go. I’ll miss her, but I am looking forward
to going on the road with you for a while until school starts again. It’ll be
fun, just you and me.”

He pulled me in close and kissed my forehead. “I can’t
even begin to tell you how happy that makes me.” He moved his lips down to mine
and kissed me, sliding his sexy tongue into my mouth and exploring to the
furthest recesses of it. When we came up for air he said, "Touch me,
baby,” then he slid his hands up under my t-shirt. I wasn’t wearing a bra, and
he cupped by breasts in his hands and just held them. I did the same to him,
running my hands up underneath his shirt and letting them glide across the hard
lines of his chest.

He pulled my shirt up over my head and off, tossing it
aside. I love the way the breath caught in his throat every single time he
looked at me naked. It was like he was seeing me for the first time and he
thought that I was beautiful. He cupped my breasts again and this time he
squeezed and massaged them before scooting down in the bed and sucking one of
them into his mouth. He used his tongue to assault my nipple as he sucked. “Oh,
baby…that feels so good.” I had my hands in his curly hair and I was
practically whimpering. Nothing felt as good as being this close to him,
touching and being touched. He sucked on that breast for a while and then moved
to the other one and gave it the same attention. “Baby…don’t stop, I love
that.” He was so good. Sometimes I almost came just from him sucking and
licking my nipples.

I felt his hand on my stomach. The skin to skin
contact was so hot sometimes that it nearly burned me. I felt him bring the
other one down and tug at my shorts. He didn’t break his suction as he started
pushing them down with my underwear, too. I reached down to help him and when
they got to my knees, I wriggled out of them. He pulled his head up then and
looked at me. “God, baby, you’re beautiful. I love you.”

I smiled. “You’re beautiful, too. And I love you, too.
I’m more naked than you, though.” He looked down and as if he just noticed he
was still wearing his own shorts, he grabbed the waistband and worked them off.
I felt his beautiful hard cock brush against my thigh, and I shuddered in
anticipation of what was to come.

He brought his lips back up to my mouth and kissed me.
I melted against him. The kisses were another time where each one felt like the
first. I love kissing him. I could do it all night and come away completely
satisfied. I let my hand slide down and took his hard cock in my hand. While we
kissed, I stroked. He moaned into my mouth. It was so sexy.

“Oh my God, Lexi…that feels so good, baby. Yeah, just
like that. You know what I like.” His moans and accelerated breathing let me
know what he liked and I loved it. He was so responsive to my every touch, and
it made me want to touch him over and over again. “Jesus…fuck…oh, baby!”

He lifted his hips up off the bed and held himself
there while I stroked. He used one hand to steady himself and the other to play
with my nipples. He twirled, pinched, pulled as I writhed, groaned, tried to
concentrate on the task in my hand. Suddenly, he pulled free and I felt his
tongue on my hot skin as he traveled down my stomach and towards my pussy. I
held my breath as I watched him. When he reached my mound, he used his hands to
push my thighs apart and let out a soft growl. “Gorgeous,” he said. He used two
of his fingers and spread my lips apart and then he leaned in and took a long
taste. I was writhing again. It felt so good. Either he was an expert or we
were just really good together. I preferred the latter, myself. I whimpered and
pressed my pussy harder into his face while he tasted me. Then he started
flicking my clit with his tongue and I nearly passed out because it felt so
good. “God, Mark, you kill me. It feels so damned good.” He smiled against my
flesh and then he went back to sucking, licking, and every so often, nibbling
on my pussy. It wasn’t long before I was headed for another explosive orgasm, especially
when I felt him slide a finger inside of me and begin moving it in and out
while he flicked my clit back and forth quickly.

My body shook convulsively as the orgasm flooded my
system. He kept fingering me and lightly sucking on my clit until I was
finished. Then he pulled his head up and grinned.

“Come up here,” I told him. He moved up and put his
mouth over mine. He kissed me hard and deep as he slid his cock inside of me.
We both sucked in a hard breath. “Oh, baby…oh yeah…”

He kissed me again as he slammed his hips forward and
buried himself all the way inside of me. He pulled back a few inches and
pressed back into me. I reached my legs up and wrapped them tightly around his
waist, pulling him in with my calf muscles each time he pulled back. I was also
bucking my hips up to meet him stroke for stroke. It was pure ecstasy, and I
wanted it to last all night. Mark captured my lips again with his own and
kissed me while he pulled out almost to the very tip of his cock and then
slammed back into me. He captured my cries with his mouth and that was a good
thing because as he sped up, I was crying out for more. I wanted harder and
faster and if his mouth hadn’t been in place, the entire hotel probably would
have known. I pressed my body up tight into his and dug my fingers into his
back while he plunged in and out of me until suddenly I felt his muscles tense
and his already throbbing cock grow even more inside of me. He grunted loudly
as I brought my hips up and clamped my muscles down and held onto him as he
climaxed.

Wyoming…christened.
Bring on South Dakota.

CHAPTER
SIX

MARK

I was having the best time of my life, traveling with
Lexi. She had never really been anywhere, so after each rodeo we spent time
exploring the cities where they took place. If we had time, and I tried hard to
make it, we would stop at any of the more notable or interesting places we came
to. The only regret I had was that time was passing quickly. She had to be back
in the city by the end of August to start her next semester in school. Her
friend Samantha wanted her boyfriend to move in with her. Since the apartment
was technically hers, Lexi couldn’t say no. She didn’t want to live with the
two of them together, though, she thought it would be awkward. I didn’t blame
her. I offered to rent her a place and she laughed.

“I’m not going to be a kept woman!” she told me,
playfully.

“Not even if I really, really want to keep you.”

She laughed again. “You can keep me, but not like
that. I’ll figure something out.”

 
I could tell
that Lexi was sad about losing her roommate. She was her good friend, as well,
and it was different when your best friend was in a serious relationship, even
for guys. She eventually told her mother what was going on and Lydia told her
that she was welcome to stay with her and they would fix up the third room for
me to stay in when I was home. I thought that was amazing, considering Lydia
didn’t owe me a thing.

For the most part, I was doing great. I was taking
first or second in every rodeo and scoring in the high eighties. I was making
money, which was always good. The last time I saw the rankings, I was number
two in the U.S. I don’t know how to describe that feeling. Being ranked high
enough to be included in the National Finals had been what I was working towards
since the age of eight. Now that I was so close to realizing my dream, my head
was spinning through a whole gamut of emotions. Of course I as happy and I was
proud…and I was excited at the prospect of riding in that huge arena on
National TV in the company of cowboys I had worshipped my entire life. Then,
there was the anxiety and all of the “what ifs?” What if I got hurt before I
made it there? What if I went through a slump between now and then…could I
still hold onto my ranking? My main concern was that I was riding high as long
as I knew Lexi was in the audience and that I’d be holding her in my arms in a
few hours – what happened when she had to go back to school? Would I be too
distracted missing her to concentrate? I’ve never been in love before, but I
was rapidly discovering that being away from her was like having a part of me
missing for an indeterminate amount of time.