Untamed

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Untamed Page 24

by Shey Stahl


  When the chute gate opens on the right side (to the bull rider's right).

  We stayed in a hotel last night and Grayer refused to have sex with me. He said we needed to wait until we got to his place, but it was also because we were all in the same room.

  Sure, we did make out, and it was kind of nice to make out with someone and it not go further than that.

  Grayer and Ty insist Haylee and I experience New Orleans so we made a slight detour. Grayer tells me, “Wanderlust and city dust,” suit me well and wraps his arm around my shoulder. Heading into the French Quarter, he kisses me, our backdrop beautiful old balconied buildings.

  They take us to Café du Monde because you can’t not experience a beignet. I’d never had one, neither had Haylee, and I have to admit, it’s heaven. Humid air sticks to my cheeks, the smells of sugar-fried pastries so good.

  Grayer bets Ty he can’t snort the powdered sugar up his nose for a hundred bucks. He takes the bet, because he never ever turns them down. So Grayer says. It ends in Ty crying tears, and coughing and laughing.

  We stop for gas and food in Bunkie, Louisiana. As the sun sets, colors smearing over the Southern skyline, blending into the dark of the night, my stare catches Grayer’s occasionally. He’s a fairly quiet road-trip partner. Probably because most of his life is spent on the highway and it becomes a place where he thinks.

  The drive is quiet alongside flat dry land. There’s not a taillight in sight as we head back to Texas, but it’s nice that Grayer’s truck has air conditioning.

  Haylee must have driven in her usual attire of bra and underwear because they haven’t been behind us for over an hour.

  Grayer looks over at me, his eyes dancing over my legs propped up by my bare feet on his dash and then my face and lips. “Come a little closer.”

  Raising the center console in his Ford truck, I slide over the bench seat, my body pressing into his side. I definitely don’t need much of an invitation when it comes to him. Nods work. Winks work, but when he says come closer, I do that too.

  Grayer surprises me when his arm moves around my shoulders and pulls me even closer. Raising my right hand, I hold his hand that’s dangling over my shoulder. He’s holding me. Never making an attempt to do more.

  It’s perfect.

  His body shifts, the motion giving me a wave of his scent. Breathing in deeply, I want that smell forever with me. In a simple gesture, a tender one, a sweet and endearing one, he kisses my temple, lips lingering as a sigh escapes him.

  At that moment, I desperately want to know what he’s thinking. He sings “The Beaches of Cheyenne” in my ear, and I worry, because the songs about a bull rider dying. I don’t like the feeling of dread in my bones. This sport, what he does for a living, it could kill him.

  He tells me, “I don’t know my fate outside the gate.”

  Poetic as usual for him. Who the hell is this guy?

  When I see the sign for Decatur, I get a little excited. I’m curious to see where he lives, but I don’t want to appear too excited. I know one thing. I can already tell I love Texas. It reminds me a lot of Ellensburg with the flat land, but it’s also ninety degrees at night. Completely unlike the chilly nights in the north.

  There’s not much said between us when we get to his house. Like a gentleman, he opens my door for me and helps me out of the truck. Hand in hand, he leads me up to the door, unlocking it. It’s completely dark and I wonder if Haylee and Ty will ever make it back.

  Grayer smiles. “Ty sent me a text that they’d be another hour . . . or so.” I try not to grin when he pulls my hand and brings me to his chest. “How about I show you my bedroom?”

  “I think I’d like that.”

  He reaches over, his hand cupping my cheek and then drops it to my hand to pull me forward. The house is a lot like any other home in South Texas, surrounded by a few trees and wide-open land.

  When we get inside, it’s clear that a pair of cowboys live here. Grayer doesn’t give me a chance to look around before he’s picking me up and taking me down the hall to what I suspect is his bedroom.

  He sets me down in front of a bed that’s just a mattress on the floor. I don’t even care at that point. “It’s not much.” He rips his shirt off and tosses it on the floor. Then he goes to take off his boots. “But I don’t think it matters at this point.” When he’s barefoot and just in his jeans, he takes a step toward me, his hands on my hips. “Does it?”

  “It’s perfect.” I mean that on so many levels and I think he sees that.

  With strong hands, he lifts my dress over my head when I slip off my boots. My bra’s next, panties, all of it, and then he’s laying me gently on the bed, only he still has his damn jeans on.

  “Take those off,” I say, wrapping my legs around his.

  He grinds his hips into me, staring into my eyes intently. “I said I’d make it up to you and I meant that.”

  Oh. That’s all my brain is able to register as he slides down my body. Believe it or not, I’ve never had anyone go down on me. Probably because it was always Joel I was messing around with and it was always his pleasure he was concerned about. Not mine. And I think Jamie and I were too young to know what we were doing. I lost my virginity to him, but we didn’t know what the heck we were doing before that.

  Grayer is different. He’s a man and knows exactly what he’s doing.

  As he makes his way down my body, his hands splayed over my hips, he looks up at me and waits for my reaction. I have no reaction, but a stunned look on my face.

  He settles on the mattress, his head between my legs. “Has anyone ever done this to you, Maesyn?”

  He must have sensed by my look that I have never trusted someone to. “No.”

  He smiles, his hands moving to my thighs as he lowers his face. With one last look, he licks his lips and then kisses my inner thigh, softly.

  The moment his kiss touches my center, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. The pleasure, the sensations of losing control with someone in this way makes me glad I never let anyone do that before. I’d never want to be this vulnerable.

  Because that’s what I am. Completely vulnerable for him.

  With each pass of his tongue, I’m left weak. With every groan he gives me and the way he grips my thighs so tightly, I know he’s just as helpless. He doesn’t spare anything while doing this, his fingers and tongue working together to give me exactly what I’d been dying for. My desperate pleas for him to never stop are greeted with his just as needy grunts and growls.

  “Jesus, Christ,” he growls against my skin.

  I throw my hands over my head, arching my back as the wave hits me all at once, like a punch to the gut. When I’m moving around too much, he puts his hands on my hips, pinning me to the mattress. I look down at him, his shoulders flexing as he grips me so tightly I think I’ll have bruises. I don’t care. I’ll take anything he gives.

  When I’m finished shaking, he moves up my body, his buckle digging into my sensitive center. I laugh, squirming away from him.

  He does the same and then moves back down the mattress to remove his jeans. “I’d say, hang on, baby, but I think maybe I should hang on?” He’s looking into my eyes, seeing how much I want him.

  I nod. “I think you better.” I grab him by the shoulders and twist him so he’s lying on the mattress. It’s my turn for a ride.

  I straddle him, much like the other night. My stare drifts to his, he’s beautiful. The way he watches me, that makes him even more beautiful.

  “Condom?” I ask before easing myself on him. “I think I have some in my bag.”

  “That’s okay.” He urges me forward. “I don’t think I can ever go back after feeling you the other night.”

  He pulls me forward, needing my kiss and I don’t deny him. I need it just as bad. So bad that I don’t care that I taste myself on his lips. It’s completely fine with me if it means I get his lips on mine. His hands move from the mattress over my back and then thread in my hair, deep
ening the kiss and giving me his tongue.

  I move my hand between us and position his erection at my entrance and then ease him inside me. We both moan at the sensation.

  Drawing back, I move so I’m sitting up on him. His hands glide to my hips, rocking me back and forth. His head tips back against the pillow and the tendons in his neck strain. I watch the muscles in his chest and arms flexing while his body tenses and then relaxes when the pleasure courses through him. I love that I’m doing this to him.

  It’s sometime after my second orgasm when Grayer takes hold of my hips. “I had to stare at your ass for days in that barn.” And then he sits up, making me move to my knees. “I’m dying to see it.”

  Oh. Again. My mind is so blank when it comes to him.

  Before I know it, he’s entering me from behind. I don’t mind this position. I think it’s erotic because you can’t see the other person’s face and it leaves something to the imagination. I also love how deep he can go and the pleasure of him driving himself into me.

  I turn my head to look over my shoulder. “Is it what you were imagining?”

  His head falls forward and denies me his eyes. “Not even close. So much better.” He grunts, driving into me again, this time hard enough that I feel him hitting my cervix. “I’m gonna come,” he breathes, just before his entire body strains, his cock pulsing inside me, and then his movements still completely. No words are uttered, but the growl that emits from his chest is so fucking good.

  My body relaxes as he slumps forward on me. He collapses on top of me, pinning me to the mattress. I love the weight of him on top of me like this. But I can’t breathe, and I think he realizes it when I attempt to and only wheeze.

  “Sorry.” He rolls off me and to the side, pulling out as he does so. “Was the bed worth it?” He presses his lips to my shoulder. I savor the scrape of his jaw against my skin and the way his arms wrap around me.

  “Definitely.”

  The PBR Ring of Honor, similar to many sports' hall-of-fame honors, is reserved for select bull riders whose contributions to the sport of bull riding last beyond their success in the competitive arena. The award, symbolized by a custom-made, gold-and-diamond ring engraved with the honoree's name and the PBR logo, is bestowed upon its recipients each year during a ceremony at the 25th PBR: Unleash the Beast World Finals.

  “I want to show you something,” Grayer says to me the next morning after he asked me to go for a drive with him. Britany’s bringing Wyatt over tonight, and I’m not sure what to make of it or how it will go, but I guess I’m about to find out.

  We’re driving down an old country road with weeds grown up over the road by a river. We go about another mile and turn again onto a dirt road.

  That’s when I see it. A house still under construction tucked away behind trees in a clearing. His house?

  It’s different out here, but I love it. I can see why he likes it here. Why he’d want to build a house here. “Is that your house?”

  I scan the land. It’s vast with overgrown grass but you can tell it’s a work in progress for him.

  Grayer nods to my question and I see a bit of tension in his eyes. “I started building it about a year ago,” he says, moving his hands from the steering wheel and then to his lap and back to the steering wheel, fidgeting, as though showing me this is making him vulnerable.

  We both get out at the same time. When we meet in front of the truck, he reaches for my hand and walks me up to the door. It’s still in the framing stage and no roof. “I’ve done most of it myself when I can.”

  “When do you have time?” I laugh.

  He shrugs, leaning on a wooden frame in what he says will be the family room eventually. “I have some time, just, not a lot. I need to leave on Wednesday for Tulsa, but I always have at least a couple days at home here and there.”

  The thought of him leaving, or me leaving, whatever it is gives my heart a jump. A reminder that the longer I’m around him, the more this guy gets to me. Makes me believe love can be found even when you think it’s gone forever.

  “Will Ty live with you?” I ask, looking around. Grayer follows me, his boots scraping against the wooden floor behind me.

  “He might. We just rent that house right now. Reid used to live with us, but when he and Britany got together they bought a house about five miles away.” Clouds roll in, the sky peppered with blue and gray, some dark, some lighter as a mist of rain falls. It’s accenting every detail of this country road and the overgrown grass. “It’s about to pour on us. We should probably go.”

  He reaches for my hand again and I smile. “Nothing like sex in the rain,” I say, trying to tease him a little. Though we did it two more times this morning, I can’t get enough of him.

  He draws in a whistled breath, watching me get into the truck. I sit down on the bench seat as he gets in, shaking his head with his eyebrows raised, as if to say, I’m screwed. “You shouldn’t say those things to me.”

  “Why?” I ask, giggling.

  “Because I have no control when it comes to you. No goddamn control at all.” His hand goes to my bare thigh and higher until it reaches the edge of my jean shorts. “I can’t deny you no matter how hard I try.”

  “Oh, please.” I laugh. “Love at first sight is totally a thing, you know,” I blurt, wanting to slap my hand over my mouth.

  He turns his head and he looks out the windshield. “I suppose it is.” He waits, and then asks, “Do you really believe that?”

  “In love at first sight?” I’m stalling because I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to answer that. Do I? When I said it to him, I was teasing, making light of the situation.

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah, I think I do.” I watch his face when I say, “I think you meet a person and you just know. You’re comfortable with them and feel like you’ve known them your entire life. I think that’s love. Maybe not necessarily romantic love, but love nonetheless.”

  He nods, understanding exactly what I meant by that. “You loved Jamie, right?”

  “I did.” The corners of my mouth tug into a half smile thinking of that feeling I got when I knew I loved Jamie. The scary part is, I knew that feeling so well because it’s what I feel now. “But I also knew him since I was a child. I fell slowly, over time, and then it was consuming. Like I couldn’t breathe without knowing he felt the same way about me.”

  He takes my confession better than I anticipate he will. He has to have known I loved Jamie. Everyone knew.

  “I know you guys aren’t together, but do you ever think about it now, making it work with Britany for the sake of Wyatt?”

  “No. I think we’re raising him just fine. She catches a lot of shit from fans and even reporters when they find out about our situation but she’s happy with Reid. It’s clear to see he’s the better man for her. Me and her together, we were a disaster in the making.”

  “Does that make you sad?” I turn in the seat to face him now. “I mean . . . is it hard to see her with Reid and Wyatt with him?”

  His right hand moves from the steering wheel to my thigh. “I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s hard that he’s there with Wyatt at times when I’m not, experiencing some of his firsts that I miss out on, but it’s not as often as you’d think, and Reid’s never stepped on my duties as a dad. He’s always asked for my input or how I felt about things before he stepped in. Even when they started dating, he asked me if he could ask her out.” He swallows and watches me. “When she found out she was pregnant, I knew she was at a point in her life where she wanted to settle down and get married, and I asked her if she wanted that and I think she laughed in my face.” He chuckles. “She’s three years older than me and I was nineteen at the time. I didn’t want those same things. At the time, I could have seen myself marrying her, to make it work, but again, I was nineteen and a professional bull rider. I didn’t want to get married and she knew that. She didn’t love me either. Not in that way at least.”

  “Do you ever see yours
elf getting married? I bet that’s a hard concept for someone with your lifestyle.” I wave my hand around. “You know, being on the road all the time.”

  “Someday.” He winks at me. “I think about it more now than I did then, but it’s hard with bull riding. You never know when your last ride will be and that’s not easy for a woman.”

  “But Reid does it.”

  “Reid’s better at it.” His hand moves higher. “I’m no good at that kind of thing.”

  I have no idea what he means by that, he seems so good at everything.

  “Now that you’re not in school, what are you planning to do?” he asks, looking out the windshield at the rain, his hand still on my upper thigh as if he doesn’t want to move it even for a moment.

  “Haylee wants me to go to school in Austin with her. She has it all planned, but I’m afraid since she met Ty, maybe that plan’s changed.” I laugh, thinking about the two of them and the fact that they haven’t emerged from his room since they arrived this morning.

  Grayer laughs lightly, raising his hand to scratch the underside of his jaw. “Yeah, they hit it off pretty well.” And then he looks at me. “What do you want to go to school for?”

  “I want to be a veterinary assistant.”

  “Why not a veterinarian?”

  “I’m not interested in all that. I’m more interested in helping the animals and making them feel comfortable. I don’t want to perform surgeries.”

  He smiles at the song that comes on the radio, giving my shoulder a nudge and when my eyes catch his, I feel like I’m drowning in them, or wanting to. “Wanna dance?”

  “What?” I laugh, looking around, thankful for the subject change nonetheless and unsure where he’s referring to. “It’s raining.”

  “Oh, please. When has the weather ever stopped a girl like you? It didn’t stop you the night I met you.” He places one hand on the door handle and extends the other to me, nodding to the bed of his truck. “Come with me.”

 

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