Austin (American Extreme Bull Riders Tour Book 7)

by Jeannie Watt

  The stirring behind her brought her crashing back to earth. She wasn’t flying over the valley. She was in the valley, in the bed of a pickup truck, the crisp April air nipping at her.

  With a bull rider snuggled up against her rear end.

  She was half afraid to look over her shoulder at Austin, who would, no doubt, be the picture of early morning male sexiness. She wasn’t yet ready to face such a thing.

  She had no choice.

  “Finally,” Austin murmured as if it were approaching noon. Since the sun hadn’t yet cleared the horizon, she didn’t believe that was the case.

  “What time are we leaving?”

  “Right after coffee.” He smiled a little, his eyes crinkling at the corners as if she amused him.

  “What are you smiling at?”

  “You look kind of good all rumpled.”

  “Rumpled. Thank you.”

  “It was a compliment.” He didn’t smile, but his voice was low and intimate. Warm and seductive. Kristen barely kept herself from swallowing.

  Right. A compliment.

  He put a hand on her shoulder then and drew her back down, so that they were once again face to face, as they’d been the night before, only now she could see his face clearly. His eyes were so damned blue—blue with white streaks that made them seem even bluer. And his mouth…she allowed her gaze to slide down and hold on his perfectly carved lips.

  She needed to think of something else. Immediately.

  “Those things I said last night—”

  He put his fingertips on her lips, startling her into silence.

  “Don’t backslide on me, Kristen.”

  “Hey, you guys! Coffee!”

  Kristen let out an audible breath at Ellie’s yell and Austin scowled…as if he honestly wanted to continue the conversation. Why?

  She wanted to ask him, but the words froze in her throat. Thankfully, Ellie gave another shout from the house.

  “We’d better move,” she said.

  “Yeah.” His expression told her that he thought she was engaging in avoidance tactics. She saw it differently. What she was avoiding was none of his business, and she felt massively self-conscious…no…she felt vulnerable about the things she’d said yesterday. This morning. She’d revealed her weak spots.

  Austin rolled his bedroll while Kristen folded her borrowed blankets and carried them back to the house.

  Ellie smiled at Kristen. “I hope you weren’t too uncomfortable last night. I don’t usually make my guests sleep in the truck.”

  “Actually, it was very comfortable.” Except for the ways in which it wasn’t, which had nothing to do with the sleeping arrangements. She was still marveling at the things she’d told Austin. Half regretting them. It’d been the darkness and the intimate setting and the fact that there was something inherently seductive about Austin. That ‘something’ had threatened her back in the day when she’d found him so tempting that she had to make certain he kept his distance, and it was threatening her now.

  It was also making her very, very curious about a lot of things she had no business being curious about.

  *

  It was still early when she and Austin drove north to I80, the sun stretching its rays across the pale blue and lavender desert, and glinting off the sagebrush on Kristen’s side of the truck. It was a beautiful morning—one of those rare mornings where she actually felt a small stirring of hope. She’d had a good time yesterday. Better than she could have imagined. For a short period of time she’d forgotten about all the crap in her life and simply existed in the moment.

  A rare occurrence for her.

  “You seemed to hit it off well with Ellie.”

  “I like her.” Ellie had an easy way about her that made Kristen feel as if she’d known her for years. Clinton was the same. How was it that intense Austin had such laid-back friends?

  “What happens when we hit Salt Lake City?” Austin reached out to take his sunglasses off the dash and put them on one-handed as they turned onto the freeway and started driving into the sun.

  She’d been wondering the same thing. She imagined that she could talk Austin into letting her bunk with him for the night and then beg Whitney to forgive her and drive down to get her. It was a seven-hour drive, so they’d have to spend the night, and it really wasn’t fair of her to ask that of her sister under the circumstances—

  “I have a proposition for you.”

  She gave him a slow look, doing her best to ignore the mental picture that the word “proposition” inspired. “What’s that?” she asked in a remarkably normal voice. She was getting better at this.

  “If you would like to stay with me until after the event, I’ll give you a ride to Marietta.”

  Red flags started waving wildly. “Why would you do that?”

  “I have two weeks off after this event. I have a few commitments the second week, but I figured I could visit my brother on the Forty-Six Ranch the first few days off.”

  She was immediately cognizant of a strange mixture of relief and disappointment. “So this has nothing to do with me.”

  He glanced over at her, tipping down the sunglasses with one hand so that she could see the very serious expression in his very blue eyes. “It has everything to do with you.”

  Her heart stuttered.

  “How?” Her voice sounded nowhere near normal now.

  He brought his gaze back to the road. “The choice is entirely yours. I’m just offering you this opportunity.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  He glanced back at her, but she could no longer read his expression because the sunglasses were once again in place. “You told me you wanted to break free. I’m giving you the opportunity to do something different.”

  Kristen’s back stiffened. Yes. One of the things she’d said under cover of darkness that she now regretted. “It’s not your job to help me do that.”

  “Agreed.”

  And that was all he said, which was way more effective than an argument. His offer was…nuts. And tempting. Her carved-in-stone strategies were no longer working. She needed to be flexible, but she was afraid to be flexible. He knew that. He also knew that she was competitive.

  Several days with Austin Harding. Did she dare?

  She’d spent so much of her life not daring and what had it gotten her?

  Austin eventually broke the silence as they started across the Bonneville Salt Flats, where the earth shone startlingly white in contrast with the ultra-blue sky. “You were different yesterday. And this morning.”

  “I felt different,” she conceded. “And I felt comfortable with your friends.”

  “I think you should work toward feeling that way all the time.” His voice dropped ever so slightly. “Unless you want to settle for safety?”

  She studied his profile. “It sounds like you’re drawing a line in the sand.”

  “You seem to do well with lines.”

  Yes, but she tended to box herself in with them instead of crossing them. “So essentially you’re—”

  “Challenging you to hang out with me until after my ride? I am. Then I’ll drive you to Marietta.”

  “Will we share a room?”

  “Yes.”

  “But not a bed.” She needed to clear that up. She wasn’t ready to share a bed with the man, even though she essentially already had.

  He looked at her in a way that made a small tremor ripple through her midsection. “Not unless both parties are agreeable.”

  It was kind of hard to find her voice after that.

  “Two beds,” he clarified when she didn’t respond. “Because I know I make you jumpy.” One corner of his mouth tilted up as he quoted her. “What do you say?”

  Tough choice. She had the option of heading home to her safety net or she could take a short walk on the wild side. She was due. She was with a guy whom she could now talk to without freezing up. Maybe she could discover a few things about herself.

  Maybe it
wouldn’t hurt her one bit to take a short vacay from reality.

  She told her sane inner self, who was now shouting her head off, to shut up. She’d eventually go home. Confess. Take her medicine.

  But first…she would hang with a bull rider and see what she was made of.

  Her heart beat just a little faster as, for once in her life, she stepped off into the deep end.

  “I accept.”

  Chapter Seven

  Kristen didn’t say much as Austin drove through the snarled Salt Lake City traffic to the hotel he’d booked, but he had a pretty good idea of what was going on in her head. Had she made a mistake? Should she stay with him? Shouldn’t she? Which was why, after he parked in the long valet line, he turned to her and asked, “Still okay with this?”

  “Yes.” Her chin tilted up and she was making a brave attempt to look certain in her decision, but he could almost see the mental battle continuing. He’d expected as much. He made her jumpy after all.

  And he wanted to know why.

  “Why did you decide to give me a ride home?” she asked as he inched the truck forward.

  He took the rig out of gear. The valet line was long and slow-moving. “You mean what do I get out of it?”

  “Yes.”

  He debated degrees of honesty, then decided on the whole truth. “I guess I kind of want to see the real you.” Her eyebrows drew together in a slow frown. “You know…the person I woke up with this morning? No barriers?”

  “Why?” The word came out on a husky note.

  He gave a casual shrug. “I had this theory about the ‘real’ you back in high school. Of course, you blew it all to hell, but I’m beginning to wonder if I was right after all.” When he glanced over at her, she was staring at him.

  “You’re doing research on me?”

  He laughed and then reached out to touch her, even though he’d promised not to, lightly brushing the hair away from her cheek. For once she didn’t jump or jerk away. “I want to satisfy my curiosity.” His expression softened. “I want to get to know you. That’s all.”

  “All right.”

  Kristen intrigued him. She always had, and despite everything, or maybe because of everything, she still did. And maybe he needed to be honest about that with both of them.

  “You’re free to call your sister at any time to come rescue you. I’ll pay for the gas.”

  “Or I can stay for the event and then you can run me home, as promised.”

  He smiled a little, then moved the truck forward again. “You’re saying you’re up for a little research?”

  “As long as we take it slow.”

  “Honey,” he said with a lift of his eyebrows, “I’m a master at taking it slow.”

  Her lips parted as the meaning of his comment became clear to her and the air slowly eased out of his lungs as he focused in on her soft, lush mouth. A horn honked behind him and they both jumped. He put the truck in gear moved forward into the two empty car lengths ahead of them. A few minutes later they’d reached the front of the line. He surrendered his keys and hefted Kristen’s suitcases and his gear over the side of the truck. A bellman loaded it on a cart, then followed them into the swanky lobby.

  Austin checked in and, since he’d won a good chunk of change in Reno, he splurged and got a premier room—two queen beds. View of the mountains. High floor. Rooms were in demand due to the bull riders being in town and the prices were jacked up accordingly, but he figured this was kind of a vacation for Kris, and he didn’t mind plush digs one bit.

  He went back to where Kristen was now standing, hand shading her eyes as she studied the mountains through the tinted window. She dropped her arm as he approached and handed her a keycard.

  “Hope you aren’t afraid of heights. We’re on an upper floor.”

  “Good. I like looking at the mountains.” She met his eyes, her expression serene. Too serene. Faking-it serene. Which meant he’d rattled her in the truck and she was making an effort to cover—but she hadn’t crawled back into her shell. She hadn’t gone cold.

  Once they were in the room and the bellman had been tipped, Kristen went to the window and took another long look at the mountains. Marshaling her defenses? Or admiring the view? When she turned back, Austin said, “Want to set some ground rules?”

  She nodded. “Probably a good idea.”

  “I’ll go first.” He folded his arms over his chest. “No hogging the bathroom.”

  She smiled a little. “No gratuitous nudity.”

  His eyebrows lifted. “I’ll keep my clothes on if you do the same.”

  “I appreciate it. My roommate’s previous boyfriend never wore clothes.” She cleared her throat. “I…uh…got tired of being startled all the time.”

  “Understandable.” And he couldn’t say he liked the idea of a naked guy wandering around her apartment.

  “He was a nice guy,” Kristen offered. “Just…very comfortable with his body.”

  “Wasn’t trying to get a three-way going?”

  After a moment’s thought, Kristen said, “No. I really don’t think so.” She met his gaze. “Ice princess, remember?”

  “Some guys like a challenge.”

  He saw her throat move as she swallowed. “Like you?”

  “Yeah. Like me.” He dropped his arms. “Any other rules other than bathroom hogging and nudity?”

  “I can’t think of any. You?”

  He took a step forward as he spoke, peeling his watch off his arm and dropping it on the desk. Kristen held her ground, because there were still yards of carpet between them, but he had the feeling she wanted to step back. “Just one. Honesty.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that we talk honestly about what we want and don’t want so this doesn’t turn into the vacation from hell for you. Or me.”

  “That’s a good rule,” she murmured.

  “Can you do it? Be honest with me and not clam up?”

  Her chin tilted up. “I can try.”

  He nodded. “Good. Because I’m going to call you on it if you don’t.”

  “What’s your schedule?”

  “I’ll be working out. Seeing a trainer and doing my physical therapy. I have a sponsor’s event on Thursday. Prelims on Friday and finals on Saturday.”

  “We go home on Sunday.”

  “That we do.”

  Kristen sank down on the edge of the bed closest to the window. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you going home to?”

  Reasonable question, since his family had literally lost the farm when he was a teen and after he’d graduated high school, his parents had moved to Arizona. He had no home in Marietta, but he had a brother living on the Forty-Six Ranch with his new bride.

  “My brother has a trailer on the ranch that he lets me use.”

  “So, no home.”

  “Nope.”

  “You have no home at all?”

  The idea seemed to perplex her. “I’m a drifter.”

  “What do you do during the off-season?”

  “You mean October to December? Those three months? I find a place to train. Usually down south. Oklahoma or Texas.”

  “No home.”

  He gave a shrug. “What can I say? I don’t need one yet.”

  “But you will someday.” When he didn’t answer, she added, “You can’t drift forever…right?”

  “Probably not.” But the days of him not drifting were in the distant future. In the meantime, he banked as much money as possible, paid some crazy insurance rates for catastrophic care with a super high deductible. A lot of guys didn’t have any insurance at all, but he didn’t want to completely drain his savings if he had a run of bad luck.

  “What will you do after bull riding?”

  “Another good question.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, as if suspecting that he was putting her on. He wasn’t, and after a moment, she said, “You have no plans?”

  “When I need a plan, I’ll come up with o
ne.”

  “Wow.” He half expected a lecture, but instead she rose to her feet and said, “You are the antithesis of me.”

  He almost said, “Opposites attract?” but didn’t want to push things. “Want to grab dinner tonight?”

  “About that. I’m going to pay you back for my half of this vacation from reality.”

  “You think?” He issued the words as a soft challenge.

  Kristen met it head on. “I know.”

  *

  Austin headed to the gym while Kristen unpacked her suitcase. She’d overstuffed the bag and hated leaving things all crammed together and wrinkled. Austin had assured her that she could have the entire wardrobe, and she took him at his word, filling the drawers and hanging her blouses and jackets.

  One suitcase didn’t carry that much, so her wardrobe would be limited for the next few days, but if she really got desperate, she could wear her interview suit. She smiled at the thought. After unpacking, she paced the room, glancing first at the panoramic view of the mountains, then at Austin’s bed. Was she crazy to do this?

  If so, then why did it feel so right? And why did she feel so different? Her short time on the Callahan Ranch had been so radically different from her ‘real’ life that she’d acted like a different person. Especially after eating dirt while trying to catch the renegade poodle.

  It’d been the lack of expectations from the people there, she’d decided on the tail end of the drive to Salt Lake, after she’d told Austin that she’d stay with him. They didn’t know her or expect her to be perfect, so she could be…not perfect.

  It had felt like being on the Marvell Ranch with her cousins…except that Austin didn’t feel like a cousin. Far from it.

  She sat on the edge of her bed, staring out over the mountains that towered over the city. It honestly felt right being here. She hoped it still felt right in the coming days. And if it didn’t, she could go home.

  She didn’t see that happening.

  Reaching over to the nightstand, she unplugged her phone from the charger and dialed up Whitney. It was late afternoon, so she was probably working her shift at FlintWorks, but at least she would see that her sister had called and wouldn’t be able to accuse her of keeping her uninformed. But to Kristen’s surprise, her twin answered.