by Cat Johnson
Slade’s head whipped around to glare at Mustang. “What?”
Still staring at the television, Mustang didn’t react one bit to the harshness of Slade’s single growled word. “Jenna. I left her a ticket in the VIP section for tomorrow.”
“You called Jenna?”
Did Mustang have Jenna’s number all this time and Slade’s whole charade of pretending to throw it out was for nothing? Finally, Mustang met his gaze.
“Actually, Chase did.” And as Slade nearly choked on that, Mustang laughed. “Yeah, I thought you’d react like that.”
“Chase had Jenna’s phone number?”
“It was on his phone.” Mustang shrugged and went back to flipping channels.
Slade frowned, no longer in the mood for talking or much of anything else. He couldn’t get the thought out of his head, though. Jenna gave Chase her number. Shit.
———
Booty call.
That was the only term Jenna could come up with to describe the way Mustang and Slade had ignored her for months and then called her now that they were in New York. They wanted to sleep with her again.
And she had agreed to meet them. She let out a bitter laugh. What the hell did that say about her?
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Finally, she grabbed her cell phone, found the number Mustang had called from in her incoming call log and hit the send key.
When she heard the “hello” through the receiver, she laid into him. “Why did you wait so long to call me?”
“Huh? Who is this?”
That figured. He didn’t even know who she was. Though it was no wonder. Who knew how many girls called him day and night. She let out a loud, frustrated breath. “It’s Jenna.”
Jeez! He’d just talked to her.
“Jenna! Hey. This is Chase.”
“Chase?” Why the hell was Chase answering Mustang’s phone?
She heard him laugh. “Yup. It’s me. How are you?”
Now that she really listened, Jenna heard the difference in Chase’s voice compared to Mustang’s, something she hadn’t noticed before, during the start of her why haven’t you called me? hissy fit.
“Um, I’m well, thanks. And you?”
“Well, I’m wearing my Rookie of the Year buckle, I’m in New York City for the first time in my life and I’m riding tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. I’d say life is pretty good.”
“Yeah, it sounds like it.”
Chase’s youthful exuberance was infectious. Jenna couldn’t help but smile.
“So how did that super secret book you were researching in Tulsa turn out?”
“Really good actually.” Jenna didn’t go into the details, for so many reasons, but finishing on time and getting a contract definitely qualified as really good, considering how badly her first attempt at the cowboy book had gone.
“That’s great!”
Jenna could hear the smile in his voice and laughed. He really was excited for her. “Actually, I already started writing another one.”
“Is this one about bull riders, too?”
“Yes. It’s about a young rookie bull rider with a taste for older women.” Jenna felt herself blush and waited for Chase’s reaction.
“No way! Really?”
Jenna smiled. “Really.”
She heard Chase laugh. “Wow! That’s great! I’m gonna have to read that one.”
Of course he thought it was great. Chase could get enthused about pretty much anything. Compared to the stuck up, self-centered idiots she and Astrid had encountered online and on their last blind date, Chase was refreshing, to say the least. If only Jenna were ten, all right, maybe fifteen years younger…
“You? Reading a romance novel? That should go over well with the other bull riders,” she teased him.
“Eh, they won’t care. Especially when they hear I know you and that I kind of inspired it. I did, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.” Jenna laughed, flashing back to their make out session in the bar in Tulsa and feeling her cheeks heat. Speaking of Tulsa… “Um, Chase, why are you answering Mustang’s phone?”
That elicited another laugh from Chase. “Actually, Mustang called you on my phone. Mustang and Slade both don’t have cell phones.”
“What? Are you serious? Why not?”
“Well, the story from the old timers is that in the beginning, they weren’t making enough money riding to pay the phone bills. Then it became kind of a thing with them. Holding out and not getting one even though they could afford to if they wanted. Making fun of the rest of us for texting or being on our phones all the time. You know?”
Jenna shook her head. “Just like how they sleep in the trailer rather than in a hotel.”
Chase laughed. “Yeah, just like that. Though they’re in a hotel here. They flew in. No good place to park the trailer this competition.”
“Hmmm. I guess not.” Jenna felt strangely sad at that. There was a special place in her heart for that trailer. Then she thought of something. “What hotel are you guys in?”
Chase told her the name. “Why? You wanna come over and visit?”
Jenna laughed. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Don’t be mad at Slade, Jenna.”
This kid was far too perceptive. “What makes you think I’m mad?”
“The way you laid into me when I answered the phone and you thought I was Mustang made me think you’re not too happy with him and Slade right now. But you shouldn’t be mad.”
“Okay, hypothetically, let’s assume I was mad. Why shouldn’t I be?”
“You didn’t hear this from me, but in answer to your hypothetical question, Mustang told me Slade lost your number. That’s why he didn’t call you.”
Jenna’s eyes blurred with tears of relief. Slade was a clumsy idiot for losing her number, but that was far better than the assumption she’d been going on for months now, that neither one of them wanted to ever talk to her again. “Oh. Thanks for telling me, Chase.”
“No problem. Just don’t tell them I told you.”
She smiled. “No problem.”
“So, I heard Mustang say you’re coming to watch us ride tomorrow night.”
Jenna cleared the emotion from her throat. “Yeah, that’s the plan.”
“Good. I’ll look for you in the stands and say hi.”
“I’d like that.”
“I hate to cut you short, Jenna, but the guys are outside waiting for me to catch a cab with them. We’re going to some seaport place.”
Jenna smiled. “South Street Seaport?”
“Yeah! That’s it.”
“Okay, but be careful and only use the yellow taxi cabs. Any other ones are unregulated. Don’t use those. Okay?” Those gypsy cab drivers would take one look at a bunch of sweet young cowboys and triple the price.
“Yellow cabs only. Got it. Thanks, Jenna. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yes, you will. Good night, Chase.”
“Night, Jenna!”
Jenna closed her cell phone and rubbed her eyes as she digested all she’d just learned.
They hadn’t given her their cell phone numbers because they didn’t own any. If she’d heard it from anyone besides Chase, who probably wouldn’t be able to tell a lie even if he tried, she wouldn’t have believed it.
Suddenly, Jenna had to rethink everything she’d felt over the last few months concerning Slade and Mustang. But first, she had something she needed to do. Jenna squatted down and pulled a box out from underneath her bed. From inside she grabbed a photocopy of her cowboy book.
Jenna drew in a big breath, letting it out again slowly as she ran a hand over the cover page. Her heart and soul were contained within those pages. Sending it to the boys would be equivalent to confessing everything she felt about them, about their time together, the hurt, the love, the sex…
She stayed frozen on her knees in front of the ream of paper for a long time.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Besi
des, being a writer, if it turned out they didn’t feel the same about her, she’d deny the whole thing and call it fiction.
“Chicken,” her subconscious yelled. “Protecting yourself,” the sissy side of her countered.
Let her self-doubt say whatever it wanted. Jenna grabbed her purse and her coat and headed for the door.
She paused, manuscript in hand. She could drive into the city and leave it at the hotel desk, but she was already shaking just from speaking with Mustang. She wasn’t about to fight the traffic on the bridge and in midtown Manhattan in this state of mind. Besides, she’d never be able to find a spot on the street near their hotel to park. Taking a train there and back would take forever. It would be really late by the time she got home.
Jenna glanced at her watch. The shipping place was still open. She’d overnight the package and the boys. It would be cheaper to ship it than pay for tolls and parking anyway.
They would have it in their hands by ten the next morning. Then, by the time she saw them at the Garden the next night… Jenna stopped, her hand still on the doorknob as she pulled it shut behind her.
Then what? She considered what she wanted out of this strange but wonderful relationship with the two cowboys.
Then we’ll deal with it, the three of us, together.
That resolved, Jenna headed for the elevator. She’d get the package mailed and then she had to get home and figure out what to wear to a bull ride in Manhattan. That was a hell of a fashion dichotomy. Good thing Jenna enjoyed a challenge. She must. She was about to take on two cowboy playboys.
Chapter Twenty-five
His gear bag held in one hand, Slade walked into Madison Square Garden and took in the enormity of the cavernous arena.
It didn’t matter that he was far from being a rookie anymore, or that he had ridden there many times before, it still hit him each and every time he entered exactly how huge it was for a kid who grew up poor in Texas to be riding in one of the most famous arenas in the country.
Slade rubbed a spot located somewhere between the bottom of his ribcage and his belt buckle, trying to will away the fluttering there. Why the hell was he nervous? He knew; he just didn’t want to admit it.
Dammit. Slade was exactly where he wanted to be. Riding in the pros. Ranked number two in the world. Supporting himself doing what he loved and, God willing, he’d stay healthy enough to continue to do so. He should be on the top of the world, and yet, he had never felt more uncertain about things in his life. All because of one brown-haired, hazel-eyed city girl and her book about falling for two cowboys.
Mustang, jogging up next to him, interrupted Slade’s reverie. “I just checked. The box office has Jenna’s ticket held for her so we’re good to go.”
Good to go. Yeah, right.
Slade glanced at the empty stands, eyeing the section where last year, before he had ever heard the name Jenna Block, his teammates’ girlfriends and wives were seated.
He and Mustang had arrived early, so the stands were still empty, but soon amid thousands of fans would be Jenna, sitting somewhere in that VIP section. No doubt she’d be in the front row in a seat directly behind the chute. There she would be as distracting as possible, thanks to the ticket Mustang had left for her. After Chase had called her.
There were far too many men in Jenna’s life for Slade’s liking. Mustang. Chase. And those were only the ones he knew about. Who knew how many more were chasing after her in New York. But Jenna wasn’t his, so how could Slade be mad at anything Mustang, or Chase, or any other man did regarding her?
Slade’s hand moved up to rub a spot on the left side of his chest as he considered that. He thought about the ending of the book where the main character can’t choose between the two cowboys and asks them both to be with her. How much of Jenna was in that book and how much was made up? The question had been eating him up since he’d read it. His hand moved down to rub his aching gut.
“What’s up with you tonight?”
Slade turned to Mustang, who was watching him. “Nothing’s up. Why?”
“You’re nervous. I can see it on your face. Hell, it’s written all over your body. You’re acting like…I don’t know, some virgin bride on her wedding night.”
Slade cocked one brow at that comparison. “I haven’t been a virgin in a very long time, Mustang.”
“Maybe your dick hasn’t been, but your heart still is.”
In no mood for Mustang’s philosophical riddles right now, Slade shook his head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
One brow rose up. “Think about it.”
Slade let out a sigh. “I don’t have time for word games. I gotta rosin up my rope.”
“Yeah, I have to do that too.” Mustang moved to follow Slade and then stopped. “You want to be alone or can I come?”
Slade frowned. “What the hell are you talking about now? Why would I need to be alone to get my rope ready?”
Mustang shrugged. “I don’t know. Just asking. You’ve been acting so strangely lately, I thought maybe you’d want privacy or something.”
“You keep this weird shit up and I might.” Slade scowled and headed for the locker room to drop his bag and get himself ready, mentally and physically, before Jenna arrived and shot his concentration all to hell.
Mustang being an idiot Slade could ignore, he’d had enough practice doing it, but seeing Jenna again for the first time in months, that was going to be harder for Slade to put out of his mind.
Time never passed so slowly as when you were waiting for something. Slade checked the clock more times than he could count. He prepped his rope for far longer than necessary. He even checked out the bulls back in the stock pens, something he hadn’t done since before he began riding pro, back when he had no idea what kind of bull he’d get in the draw.
Finally, Slade forced himself to sit down and try to relax, until he heard the typical noises of the crowd starting to fill the arena. Then relaxing was out of the question.
Not long now. Elbows braced on his knees, Slade buried his face in his hands and tried to scrub away the tension.
“I knew she’d come.”
Slade looked up and found Mustang standing in front of him, grinning.
“Jenna’s here?”
Mustang nodded. “Yup. Come on. Let’s say hello.”
Slade swallowed and his heart rate doubled. “We aren’t supposed to go out before we’ve been introduced during the big opening.”
Mustang bent down and started unbuckling his chaps. He took off his vest and pulled his hat down low over his eyes. “There. Now no one will know who I am.”
Mustang waited for Slade to do the same.
Drawing in a big breath, and letting it out very slowly, Slade stood. He stripped off anything that had a sponsor logo on it, wiped the sweat from his palms onto his jeans and then said, “Okay. Let’s go.”
The “virgin bride” comment kept running through Slade’s head as he realized his hands were trembling. Shit.
If he’d read into that book correctly, Jenna was telling them that she was theirs for the taking, both of them if they wanted. What the hell did he want? Slade considered that as they drew closer to Jenna.
Then, before he knew it, Mustang had grabbed Jenna’s hand and was pulling her out of her seat. There was no more time for Slade’s agonizing over what he did or didn’t want, because the object of his ponderings was right in front of him, melting him from the inside with one glance.
“Mustang. Slade.” Jenna smiled and set Slade’s stomach fluttering.
“Shh. We’re incognito, darlin’. Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
Mustang grinned down at her, then at Slade. “Someplace where we can say a proper hello.”
Slade swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry as he anticipated Jenna’s lips beneath his, his hands on her body. Mustang led the pack, dragging Jenna by the hand behind him, and Slade followed willingly, wondering where they were going but not caring all that much as l
ong as they got there, and alone, fast.
With a glance over his shoulder, Mustang pushed through a door marked No Admittance and the three found themselves in a long and, thankfully, empty hall.
“Damn, I’ve missed you.” Mustang shook his head and smiled at her. “You look better than I remember.”
Jenna’s eyes shot to Slade and then back to Mustang. “I’ve missed both of you too. A lot.”
His eyes still on Jenna, Mustang said, “Slade, come on over here and give Jenna a proper hello.”
Mustang angled himself and made room, and Slade took a step forward. He somehow found his voice. “Hi.”
Jenna peered up at him with the same look in her eyes he last saw that night in her hotel room when she’d picked up the green condom and pretty much dared him to use it.
Next to him, Mustang ran a hand up and down the arm of Jenna’s black sweater. “Darlin’, I hope you don’t think me rude, but if I don’t kiss you this minute, I think I may die.”
Glancing quickly at Slade, she laughed before answering Mustang. “I know exactly how you feel.”
Mustang lowered his head. “Good to hear.”
Then his mouth covered hers as Slade watched, envious, wanting, until Jenna’s hand reached out and grabbed a fistful of his shirt. She reeled him in, broke from Mustang’s mouth and leaned up to touch her lips to Slade’s.
He sank into her kiss, feeling like he’d come home.
When she pulled away, he had only one thing to say. “Jenna.”
She smiled. “I heard you have a hotel room this time. I hope it’s close.”
Next to him, Mustang laughed. “Close enough.”
“Good. But we better get out of here before we get in trouble.” Jenna turned toward the door then stopped. “You do have condoms in your hotel room, I hope. If not, one of you better stop somewhere after the competition.”
Mustang’s laugh echoed off the walls of the empty hall as they followed her toward the door. “Don’t worry, darlin’. I got it covered.”
Slade let out a long slow breath as Jenna pushed through the door ahead of them. “Wow.”
Mustang laughed. “You can say that again.”
———
Slade stood, one boot up on the rail, the other on the ground, and huffed out a breath.