Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 102903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
I stare at the beast, and even though it’s not alive, it might as well be mocking me. My heart thuds as the reality hits—I’ve never ridden a bull in my life, and now I’m about to let this robotic monster toss me around in front of Dom. What the hell am I doing?
I glance over at Dom, and his confidence is nothing short of effortless. It radiates from every part of him—from his casual lean against the gate to his warm and easy smile. When his eyes meet mine, that smile grows big and inviting, making me feel like I can take on the world. Like I can finally step into the version of Hannah I’ve always wanted to be.
And the way he kissed me earlier—possessive, lingering, like he was staking his claim—sent a thrill through me I still can’t shake. It made me want to be his. Fully. Completely.
“Ready to ride?” Beard’s voice breaks through my thoughts, and I snap my gaze back to the bull, forcing myself to focus.
Looks like I’m first. Gah.
I nod and stride toward the mechanical beast, doing my best to look like a girl who knows what she’s doing, even if my insides are quaking. Before I hop on the bull with the bearded dude’s help, I jog back over to the side of the gate, where Dom stands watching me with a smile on his face, and toss his cowboy hat back to him.
“You don’t want it for luck?” Dom calls out, his voice dripping with amusement. Something about the way he looks at me—like I’m the only thing in the room worth noticing—makes my inner flirt come alive.
With a playful wink, I blow him a kiss. “I don’t need luck, cowboy!”
Dom chuckles as he pretends to snag the kiss from the air, and I refocus my mind on trying to stay on the big robotic bull for eight seconds.
“You ever rode a bull before?” Beard asks me, and I shake my head, my teeth digging into my bottom lip at the same time.
“Nope. But I need to stay on for eight seconds.”
“That’s a big ask, darlin’.” He chuckles. “But here’s a few tips. Grip this leather strap here with this hand,” he instructs me, moving my right hand to the strap behind the bull’s neck. “The trick is to keep a good, strong grip but keep your other arm and your torso loose.”
“All right.” I nod, trying like hell to make his instructions make sense in my mind. “Got any other tips?”
“If the bull’s head goes down, lean your body back. If the bull’s head moves up, lift your hips and lean forward as far as you can so you don’t slide off the back.”
“You say that like it’s all real easy, but I have a feeling it’s not at all, is it?”
He shakes his head and grins. “I’ll be shocked if you stay on for more than three seconds.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks for the confidence.”
“Prove me wrong, sweetheart,” he says and heads back to the partition he sits behind. “You ready?” he calls out toward me, and all I can do is nod.
And swallow hard.
The bull jerks, startling me into action, and I try to follow Beard’s instructions, mentally chanting his words in my mind.
Strong grip. Loose torso. If the bull moves forward, you lean back. If the bull moves upward, you . . . shit . . . what the hell do I do?
The bull jerks some more, each movement getting more erratic and difficult for me to anticipate, and all the instructions that Beard gave me go straight out the flipping window when my body is catapulted forward as the bull’s big robotic head looks toward the ground.
I stay on him for a hot second, even though gravity wants to pull me to the ground, but the big bastard pulls a fast one on me and yanks his head straight up and then to the right and the left, and my body gives its best impression of a rag doll as I’m tossed in the air, straight off the bull’s back and toward the padded ground.
And when I look at the clock, I see the number four staring back at me in bright-red letters.
Four seconds? That was only four seconds? It felt like a freaking hour!
Dom jumps over the gate in one smooth motion and heads over to help me stand, and when his eyes lock with mine, all I see is a combination of worry and care sitting beneath the deep pools of blue and green. “You okay?”
I nod, my hands shaking with adrenaline and my legs acting like those of a newborn foal as I try to figure out how to walk again.
“You sure?”
I nod again, but this time, a peal of exhilarated laughter escapes my lungs. “That was incredible!”