by Amanda Boone
I held my hand over my heart and pressed my body tight against the fence. “This is crazy.”
In the distance I saw Justin climb over the cage and settle himself on top of the bull’s back. I grabbed Avery’s arm and shook my head. “Oh, god. This isn’t okay. He’s going to get hurt!”
“No, he’s not. He’s good at what he does, Sara. Just keep your eyes on him. Eight seconds is a lot faster out here than it is on that thing.”
The announcers were shouting something and the crowd went wild. The air seemed to still, and then the cage door was snapped open. Beast reared out of the cage.
13.
My heart stopped beating as I watched the bull throw its body in every direction. It kicked out its back legs over and over again while jerking its head around, trying its best to get Justin off.
I couldn’t look away. Justin held on to the bull with one hand while his other arm stayed in the air, flying all over the place. The crowd had faded from my awareness, as had the announcers. All I could hear was a white noise that blared in my ears.
My vision tunneled until all I could see was Justin being slung about. My lungs contracted painfully and I sucked in a sharp breath. “How much longer?!”
Justin’s grip was loosening. I could see that the bull was about to kick him off. I screamed in time with the buzzer as Justin flew through the air and landed on his knees in the dirt.
He jumped to his feet and ran to the fence to climb out of reach just in time. The bull rammed into the fence below his feet and paced about, right behind him.
“He pissed that bull off!” Avery’s excited voice reached me, and I could hear how pumped he was.
I looked over at him and Devon and watched as they high fived and did a weird handshake. My heart had started back up in a painful rhythm. I became fully aware of the crowd around us in a flash. Screams were erupting from everywhere. Everyone was as excited as Avery and Devon. I, on the other hand, felt like I’d just watched someone cheat death, and I just wanted to touch Justin to make sure he was okay.
“Here he comes, Sara.”
I followed Avery’s eyes and watched as Justin trotted over to our side of the fence. He’d taken his helmet off and his dark hair was matted to his head, but I’d never seen him look better.
Justin climbed over the fence in a beat and was standing in front of me. He ignored the cheers and pats on the back he was getting. Instead, his eyes were on me. “You’re here.”
I gave him a shaky smile and nodded. I couldn’t speak. Up close, he was a force. His body seemed even more masculine in his gear. He was too hot for me to be able to function.
“You okay?” He took a step closer and grinned down at me.
I shook my head.
“What’s wrong?”
I pressed my chest against him. “You aren’t kissing me yet.”
He grabbed me and slammed his mouth down on mine. It wasn’t a sweet kiss. He was giving me everything he had. I’d missed him, and I did my best to show him exactly how much. His hands slid down to my ass and grabbed it before jerking me up. I wrapped my legs around him the best I could in my dress and held on tight.
“Seems Justin Steele has a special lady in his life. Sorry, ladies. I know you all came out hoping for a chance at the stud, but it looks as if he’s taken.” The announcer’s voice cut through my lust-induced fog.
I pulled back and laughed as Justin threw his arm in the air, not unlike the way he had on the bull. I slapped his chest and then kissed him again. “Three weeks are over.”
His eyes turned serious and he put me down. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “Whose house are we going to tonight?”
Avery’s face appeared in between us. “Sorry to interrupt your plans for screwing, but you still have the rest of the show to do, Justin.”
Justin punched Avery in the arm and kissed my forehead. “He’s right. I still have two more rides and a speech to give. Are you done with the bake sale?”
I nodded. “Sold out.”
He let me slide down his body and groaned. “I’ve never ridden with a boner before. This should be interesting. Stay and watch?”
I couldn’t move. I was frozen in my spot. “Of course.”
He kissed me once more before climbing back over the fence and running across the small arena.
I watched him go and then made a small squeaking sound. I had been so excited to get to the point of seeing him again that I hadn’t fully processed what it all meant.
“You okay, Sara?” Avery’s voice cut in and he gently shook my shoulders. “You’re kind of pale.”
I moved my frantic eyes to him and made a scared face. “I just realized something.”
“What?”
“I’m a virgin.”
His eyes went huge, and I thought they might bug out of his head. “You just realized that?! Holy shit!”
I slapped my hand over my mouth. I did not just tell Avery that. I knew I was bright red, and it was all I could do to not run away.
“How did you just realize that?” He wasn’t screaming anymore, so that was a plus.
“I mean, I knew. It’s not like I forgot I’ve never had sex. I just hadn’t thought about it. I think I just realized that Justin doesn’t know that and that we’re going to have sex tonight.”
Avery’s face contorted into one of disgust. “I do not want to think of Justin having sex with you, especially not first-time sex.”
I slapped his arm. “What should I do?”
He rolled his eyes and shrugged. “I don’t know, Sara. Don’t you have girlfriends to talk about this with?”
“They don’t know I’m a virgin. You and god are the only ones now.”
He laughed and slapped the fence. “You hate me, don’t you? I’m not good at this shit. I don’t know what you should do.”
“You have to know something! What if a girl you were about to sleep with was a virgin? What would you do?”
He looked down at me with sadness in his eyes and shook his head. Instead of replying, he stared out at the men dressed as clowns in the arena. When he did look back at me, it was with a look so gut-wrenching that I took a step back.
“Avery?”
“I’d want her to tell me so I could make it special. Because that’s what she is. Special.” He shook his head and then blinked a few times like he was clearing his thoughts. When he looked back at me, he was the same old Avery. “I can’t believe it. You’re such a baby, Sara.”
My palms grew sweaty and I nodded roughly. I shook my own head to clear the weirdness that had just happened with him. I hoped it didn’t mean what I thought it did, that he had feelings for me, but either way I ignored it. “I am a baby. Okay. So, I’ll tell him. Before it happens.”
He laughed. “Yeah. Preferably.”
I spent the rest of the night watching the rodeo, stealing kisses from Justin when I could, and trying to remain calm. The bull riding was never as scary as it was when Justin did it. He’d made it eight seconds every time he’d ridden. It was no wonder he was a champion.
By the time the rodeo was about to end, I was a bundle of nerves. I couldn’t stop thinking about when I was going to tell Justin that I was a virgin. I had a horrible fear that it would freak him out and he’d just walk away.
The show was over but Justin had been called into the arena one last time. He ran over and picked me up so he could drag me to the center of the arena with him.
I couldn’t calm down with all the eyes on us. Everyone was watching us, and I was close to hyperventilating. I didn’t know why I was so nervous. It just felt like a big deal. Justin was basically a manwhore and I was an inexperienced blob.
Before I could insult myself more than I already had, the announcer joined Justin and I. They began talking about something but I couldn’t pay attention.
I just had to do it. I just had to tell Justin and see how he reacted. I glanced out into the audience and saw Avery’s face. He was making a slashing motion across his neck and shaking his hea
d. I would’ve laughed if I hadn’t felt like throwing up.
“Justin, I’m a virgin.”
I expected my whispered confession to just be heard by Justin, but the announcer had moved the mic over to Justin at just the perfect time, so instead of a whisper, it was broadcasted over the speaker system.
The audience laughed, and I looked up at Justin with a hand clamped over my mouth. I’d never been so embarrassed in my entire life. I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped that when I opened them I was somewhere else.
Of course I wasn’t that lucky. When I opened my eyes, Justin was still standing in front of me with his mouth hanging open. I groaned. “Sorry. I just panicked. I didn’t mean to tell everyone.”
He pushed the mic away and pulled me into his arms. “We can wait—”
“No! I don’t want to wait. I want this. Now.”
He grinned and kissed me. “Let’s get this rodeo over with then.”
The announcer was laughing when I looked back at him. “All right, folks. Justin’s got plans tonight, so we’d better hurry.”
Everyone laughed even more, and I hoped no bulls were around to charge at my blaringly red face. I listened as the announcer spoke this time and felt myself growing unsteady.
“Justin and his family decided to hold this rodeo and donate the money it raised to a charity. You’ve already done your normal charity rodeo this year, Justin, so this time you got to choose whatever charity you wanted to donate the money to, right?”
He nodded. “We wanted to do something more local. We had a lot of ideas in the running until we saw the signs that Sara Jane had posted around town.”
I jerked my head up and opened my mouth to speak, but nothing happened.
“I heard you already bought the land she had her eye on.”
“What?”
Justin grinned and ran a hand over his damp hair. “Yeah. And with the money she’s going to get tonight, she should be able to get a head start on putting her no-kill shelter into action.”
The announcer chuckled. “I think she’s in shock, folks.”
I felt myself start to cry but couldn’t stop the tears. I wrapped my arms around Justin’s waist and buried my face against his vest. “You did this?”
He pulled back and nodded. “I wanted to help with your dream. You could’ve, and would’ve, done it by yourself, but I wanted to be a part of it.”
I realized in that moment that I was falling for him. It hadn’t been very long, I’d been avoiding him for weeks, he’d slept with half the town—there were so many reasons why it didn’t make sense for me to fall for him, but I was. I grabbed his head and pulled him down so I could kiss him.
In that moment I wasn’t nervous. I knew that I wanted him to be my first, and I wanted it right then. “Can we go?”
Justin picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. “Oh, yeah. Thanks for coming and donating everyone! You can still donate to the shelter after tonight. Talk to Avery about it!”
14.
Justin rushed us past a grinning crowd and to his truck. He put me down in the passenger seat and buckled my seat belt for me.
“My car!”
“We’ll get it later.”
He ran around to the driver’s side and jumped in. Before I could say anything else, he was speeding away from the rodeo. He turned toward my house and glanced over at me. “This okay with you? I’d like to avoid my family tonight.”
“Yeah. Where’s Mason?”
“With my parents. They took a trip to Six Flags this weekend. Mason doesn’t like watching me ride anymore.”
I couldn’t blame Mason. It was scary. “What you did tonight…”
Justin slid the truck to a stop in front of my house and rushed around to my side. “What I did tonight was a pathetic attempt to bribe you into feeling for me what I feel for you—not that I don’t care about the strays of Martinsville.”
I laughed. “Really?”
“Not fully. I wanted you to be able to do what you dreamed of. I wanted to show you that I care. I know that people talk about me and the way I’ve slept around. I don’t want you to think you’re the same.”
I dragged him up the walkway to my house and unlocked the door. “I’m not?”
He pinned me to the door and shook his head. “Not hardly. I knew you were different right away. You barely looked at me. You were so focused on being miserable at that date. I wanted to distract you, but you wouldn’t have it. Then when I saw you at the carnival, you ran from me.”
“I didn’t run from you. I was running from my mother.”
He grinned. “You weren’t excited to see me, though. Then I watched you with Mason. He hasn’t bonded with a woman like that since his mother. You’re so caring. You have the biggest heart. I want a piece of it.”
Little did he know I was pretty sure he had the whole thing. “Do you want to come in?”
He grinned and nodded. “So polite of you to ask.”
I pushed the door open and we stumbled in. “Haven’t you heard? I’m really polite and virtuous.”
He laughed. “The whole town heard that last part.”
I walked backward, trailing him along. “That was not how I wanted to tell you. I just freaked out and wanted to get it out. I wasn’t saving it for marriage or anything. I just…I never found anyone that did it for me. You definitely do, though.”
He stalked toward me, taking one step for every two of mine. “I’m glad you told me. I don’t want to hurt you.”
I reached up and undid the top of my dress. “You’re not going to hurt me, Justin.”
His eyes darkened as they traveled down my body. He reached for me and pulled the dress down, slowly revealing my bra and panties. He licked his lips and groaned. “Damn, Sara. Is this for me?”
I nodded. I’d imagined my first time to be scary and spent trying to cover my body, but I felt nothing but sexy in front of Justin. I kept walking backward until I got to my bedroom. “It’s for you. All for you.”
He opened his vest and shoved it off. “You are so fucking sexy. I’ve been thinking about this since I saw you at dinner that night.”
I reached for his hands as they moved to the buttons on his shirt. “Let me.”
I slowly undid each button before pulling his shirt from his pants and pushing it off his shoulders. His chest was naked in front of me for the first time, and I sighed happily. He was beautiful. A star was tattooed over his chest, and I pressed my lips to it. I pressed my lips everywhere I could reach.
He pushed me onto the bed and smiled down at me as he started pulling clothes off. “I want to take my time, but I don’t know if I can.”
I sat up on my knees and watched as he lost his cowboy boots and then his chaps. When he pushed his pants down he took his underwear with them, and suddenly Justin was naked in front of me. I stared at him with wide eyes. “No wonder women were fighting to get to you.”
He shrugged. “Take your bra off.”
I couldn’t. I was too focused on staring at Justin’s naked body. He was solid muscle. His thighs were thick and strong from riding and covered in a light dusting of hair. The most arresting thing was his member, standing proud and huge.
“Bra. Off.” Justin moved closer to me, and I slowly moved my eyes up his body.
His amber eyes were darkened and focused as he watched me. “Do I need to do it?”
I shook my head as I reached behind me and unhooked the offending thing. When I let it fall away, Justin sucked in a sharp breath.
He moved so fast that I barely registered it until he was in the bed, on top of me. “Perfect.”
I threw my head back and moaned as his mouth closed over my nipple and sucked. I ran my hands down his back and then between us. My fingers brushed over his cock and he grunted.
He moved up to my mouth and kissed me while his hand trailed down to my core. When I opened my mouth to cry out as his fingers brushed over me, he deepened the kiss. His tongue teased me as his fingers gently explore
d.
I moaned and spread my legs wider for him. “Why did I wait so long for this?”
He pushed another finger into me and growled. “Because I was meant to do this. I’m going to be the first one here.”
My body reacted, and I felt a flood of warmth pool at my core. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held his gaze. “Can we do that now?”
“I just want to make sure you’re ready.”
I grinned up at him. “I’ve been ready.”
Justin kissed my lips, my chin, and then lower until he was right above my panties. He pressed his mouth over the lacey material, and I could feel his hot tongue against my clit. Added with the texture of the lace, I was near the edge already. “I just want to be sure. I want to make this memorable for you, Sara.”
I sat up a bit and gestured a hand down my body. “This has been a very memorable experience already. I promise you that I’ll never forget it. Nor will I let this be the last time. If you just come up here and fuck me, I’ll let you have all the foreplay in the world later.”
He bit the top of my panties and slowly pulled them off before kissing his way back up to my center. Ignoring me, he hooked my legs over his shoulders and then buried his face against me. While his tongue replaced his fingers, his nose nudged my clit.
I dug my fingers into the mattress and cried out for him. I’d never felt anything like what he was doing to me. I’d masturbated plenty, but nothing compared to Justin.
When I couldn’t take anymore, I begged him to make me come. Once again he ignored me and moved his open-mouth kisses up to my stomach and then my chest. When he kissed my mouth again I gripped his hair and pulled his head away.
“Please, fuck me.”
His dimples flashed. “Every time you swear, it sends a jolt of pleasure to my dick.”
I locked my legs around him and rocked my hips against his. “I don’t swear.”
Instead of answering, he reached over and grabbed a condom from his pants. I watched as he sat back and rolled it on. He moved back between my legs and positioned himself at my opening.
“You ready?”
I nodded and rested my hands on his shoulders. When Justin slowly entered me, I moaned and tipped my head back. It wasn’t painful, just incredibly full feeling. A pressure built in my lower stomach, and I dug my nails into his skin.