The Billionaire Bull Rider

by Kate Pearce

  She shrugged. “As I keep telling you, that’s what friends are for.”

  “I was still out of line.”

  “Okay. Apology accepted.” She nodded and flashed him a brief smile. “I’ve got to get on.”

  She already had her back to him before he could get out another coherent sentence. He had to break through the wall he’d created, and he knew just how to do it. The first time he’d asked her out, he’d made an ass of himself, and he was more than willing to do it again.

  “Is this what you meant about loving someone, and wanting to smack them over the head at the same time?” Rio asked.

  “What?” She swung back around to confront him.

  He shrugged. “You know, how you’re feeling about me right now.”

  “Smacking you over the head with my best cast-iron pan? Hugely appealing. You telling me how I’m feeling? Not cool at all.”

  “You didn’t address something I said.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Wow, you are feeling brave, aren’t you? Can you hang around while I go get that pan?”

  “I hate getting angry,” Rio said quietly. “It reminds me of when I was a kid, so when I do lose my temper I don’t know what to do with it—stuff it back inside me, ride it out on a bull, shout at the wrong person . . .” Rio gathered his courage. “You’re the first person I’ve ever truly felt comfortable showing that side of myself to.”

  “So what?”

  “So I realized something important this morning.” He took a deep breath. “I love you. I love that I can finally be myself with you, because you make me feel safe.”

  “So you’re saying I have to put up with all your crap just because you love me?”

  He met her gaze. “You do, if you love me back, and apparently I’m a good guy most of the time. Someone special told me that recently.”

  She still wasn’t buying it. He held out his hand to her.

  “What can I do to show you that I’m sincere?” Rio asked. “That I love you, and want to spend the rest of my life with you?”

  She regarded him for so long that he almost forgot how to breathe before she replied.

  “We can’t be friends anymore.”

  Rio stared at her in stunned silence before clearing his throat. “Why not? I love you. I want to make things right. What can I do? There must be something.”

  “Go away.”

  The bottom dropped out of his world, and he struggled not to fall to his knees and start begging.

  “You want me to leave?” He nodded, his throat tight. “Okay, I guess I deserve that—”

  Her green eyes sparkled. “I want you to leave, and do your stupid bull-riding thing, and then I want you to keep coming back whenever you have the opportunity.”

  “To see you?” he asked cautiously.

  She dipped her head. “Duh.”

  “And what will that accomplish?” he said, still feeling his way.

  She shrugged. “It will prove to me that you really mean it.”

  “That I love you?”

  “Yes.”

  He considered that for a long moment. “You’ll be here?”

  “I’m not planning on going anywhere else.”

  “Waiting for me?” Rio said hopefully.

  She snorted. “I’m hardly going to be sitting around waiting, because I’m a busy woman, but—”

  “You’d like to see me.” Rio smiled for the first time in ages as a chorus of heavenly angels sang through his heart. “So you do love me back, and that’s why you think we can’t be friends.”

  “Wow, you’re quick today,” she said approvingly. “I thought you weren’t going to work it out there for a moment.”

  “You’ll have to forgive me, English not being my first language and everything.” He moved toward her and pinned her against the door before cupping her cheek. “Te amo, querida.”

  She sighed and leaned into him, her body relaxing into his arms.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? That’s all I’m getting?” Rio kissed her.

  “Yes, because you need to prove yourself to me.”

  “Just like your bread dough, because you really ‘need’ me?”

  With a groan, she went on tiptoe and nipped his lip. “Stop it.”

  With her mouth firmly over his, he was quite happy to stop talking and focus on far more exciting ways to convince her that he was the only man for her. He’d come back to her, and they’d work everything out. She drew him like a lodestar, and she deserved every ounce of devotion he would offer to convince her he’d never walk away like that idiot Paul Giresse.

  Knowing Yvonne, it would probably take him a lifetime to persuade her he was good enough. But that was okay. They’d share that journey together, and he’d enjoy every single moment of it.

  Epilogue

  “He did it!”

  Yvonne grabbed hold of Isabelle, Josie, and HW, and they all screamed and jumped up and down as Rio finished his last ride at the T-Mobile Arena with the highest score yet and clinched his second world championship. Pandemonium broke out in the arena as the jumbotron focused in on Rio’s grinning face while he gathered his rope, and waved to the crowd.

  “Come on.” Josie took Yvonne’s hand again, and started towing her down toward the barrier. “Let’s go see him.”

  By the time they reached the front of the crowd, Rio was fending off fellow competitors and backslapping fans, his gaze scanning the bucking chutes.

  “Yvonne!”

  He saw her and beckoned for them to come forward, before finally striding over himself and getting the security guy to let them through. He was dressed in his usual black, his safety vest buckled over his chest with his number on his back. He hugged Isabelle and Josie, and then picked Yvonne up and spun her around in a circle.

  “Querida.”

  He smelled like hot, sexy man with just a hint of leather and cattle to send her wild. After a month away from him while he focused on his preparations for the finals, she buried her face in the heat of his throat and drank him in.

  He finally put her down, and she grinned at him.

  “You were awesome.”

  “Thanks.” He kissed her fingers and kept hold of her hand. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  Turning to one side, he grabbed one of the TV commentators waiting to interview him, and nodded.

  “Okay, shoot.”

  The guy launched into a series of questions about the last ride and the finals and all kinds of bull-riding stuff that Yvonne had made herself learn for Rio’s sake, but couldn’t really say turned her on. She tried to ease away, but Rio kept her locked to his side.

  “Anything else you’d like to say to the fans, Rio?” the interviewer asked.

  “Just a couple of things.” Rio cleared his throat. “Firstly, thanks to all my sponsors, my fellow competitors, and every single one of you who has supported me through the last few years. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  He waited until the crowd finished applauding and then continued. “Secondly, this seems a great moment to announce that I am retiring from the PBR. It’s best to go out at the very top, right?”

  The crowd groaned, and he pressed his fist to his heart and thumped his chest.

  Yvonne blinked at him. Sure, he’d talked about retiring, but her old insecurities had made her wonder whether winning again would change his mind. He’d been working with his father on and off during the last year, but hadn’t made any firm commitment to rejoin Howatch International as Graham had recovered sufficiently to regain most of his control.

  They both knew Graham’s long-term prospects weren’t good, but to his credit, Graham hadn’t forced the issue. He’d been enjoying spending time with Isabelle, of all people, and willingly taken Josie into the company to work as Rio’s assistant.

  Thanks to Rio’s new influence with Howatch International, Tasty Treats had agreed to slow down the proposal to shoot a reality show in her café until she’d finished doubling the size of her store. Sh
e’d arranged with Chase to rent Margery’s former space after the shaken Realtor had left to live near her son in San Diego.

  Yvonne glanced longingly at the exit as the guy with the microphone asked one last question. Right now, she’d much rather be celebrating with her world champion in a far more up close and personal manner. . . .

  “If you’re going to retire, what comes next for you, Rio?”

  “This.” She jumped as he went down on one knee and looked up into her eyes. “Yvonne Payet, will you marry me?”

  His hand was shaking as much as hers and the crowd went wild. Did he really think she was going to turn him down flat in front of all these people, and the thousands of people watching on TV at home?

  She smiled and his eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare,” he breathed.

  “Yes.”

  “Really?” Rio croaked.

  She nodded again, and he came back to his feet and wrapped her in his arms.

  “I love you, Aurelio Fatima Maria Martinez Howatch,” she murmured.

  “It’s about time, too,” he said, and kissed the living daylights out of her.

  Flourless Sin Cake for Ruth

  (Recipe courtesy of Angela Ollivett Smith from Sweet Eatz LLC)

  12 oz. semisweet chocolate

  4 oz. unsweetened chocolate

  2 cups butter

  1 cup espresso

  1 cup brown sugar

  8 eggs, beaten

  • Set oven to 350 degrees F.

  • Grease and line a 9-inch springform tin—wrap outside in foil.

  • Boil butter, espresso, and sugar.

  • Pour over chocolate and whisk until smooth.

  • Whisk in eggs.

  • Pour into pan.

  • Bake until just set in the center, about 30 minutes.

  • Cool and then chill overnight.

  • Unmold.

  • Glaze with chocolate glaze. (1 cup chocolate chips, 1½ cups of heavy cream—simmer and whisk smooth; pour over cake.)