Flanked

by Cat Johnson

  “Hmm. Good to know.” She pushed the button for their floor.

  As the elevator began to move, Garret stood alternating between looking at her and glancing at the numbers of the floors they passed. “So…”

  “So,” Silver repeated.

  “So…so much for my rule.” He let out a short huff of breath.

  Silver wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “It’s really more of a guideline anyway.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, guess so. See you at breakfast tomorrow morning?”

  “Yup. See you in your truck again tomorrow night?”

  His chin dropped—defeat obvious in his expression—before he raised his gaze and made eye contact with Silver. “Yeah.”

  The elevator door opened and she stepped out first.

  “Good.” She smiled. “Night, Garret.”

  “Night, Silver.” He turned toward his door. Before he slid the key card inside, he glanced back at her and shook his head. She knew exactly what he was thinking. He didn’t want to want her, but he did.

  She opened her own door and heard Aaron’s snores. He’d never even know she’d left.

  God she loved men. Such predictable creatures.

  Chapter Six

  “You have to act normal.” Silver’s gaze bore into him and there was no mistaking from her whispered tone that she was not happy.

  “I am.”

  But the two of them hanging back by the breakfast buffet and whispering sure as hell was not normal since they’d only met last night, so Garret wished she’d quit it.

  “You didn’t say two words during breakfast.”

  His eyes opened wide. “And that’s normal. I’m not a morning person.” To emphasize the point, he turned back toward the coffee urn and refilled his paper cup. He snapped a lid on the cup and glanced at Aaron and Skeeter. “Come on, before they get suspicious.”

  Aaron stood in the doorway looking antsy. “Rider meeting is in half an hour. We should get going.”

  Skeeter laughed. “You know Garret doesn’t go anywhere until he’s had at least two cups of coffee. Three’s even better.”

  “You know it.” Garret raised his cup and sent a meaningful look in Silver’s direction. That would teach her to question him about being normal.

  Her brows rose before she turned back to her brother. “So I’m going to go do a little shopping while you guys are in your meeting.”

  “You taking the bike?”

  Garret hid his smile as Silver rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m taking the bike. What else do I have to take?”

  “Well, Skeeter and I can squeeze into the front seat of Garret’s truck and you could use mine.”

  “Fine.”

  Great, so now Aaron would be sitting right where Garret had fucked his sister while he’d slept. Aaron really was overprotective when it came to Silver, which meant it was really extra stupid that Garret had done what he did with her last night. But what man could have resisted her outright offer. And that piercing—holy crap.

  Damn, he couldn’t even think of it without his dick getting hard. There was no way he would have let her go and wake up Skeeter to take care of her needs, and she would have done it too. Silver was a no-nonsense kind of chick. That was more than obvious. No games. She knew what she wanted and wasn’t shy about getting it—on the stairs, in his truck…

  Forget about all that shit about his liking a challenge. This was damn nice compared to the usual girls he was around. It was also a hell of a turn on. But it was bad—so bad—because this incredible woman was the sister of one of his best friends.

  Thoughts and regrets about last night, followed by thoughts and plans for a repeat tonight, occupied Garret the entire drive to the meeting. And once there, seated in his chair between Skeeter and Aaron, he didn’t hear a word said during it.

  Someone slapped Garret’s arm and startled him out of his thoughts. He glanced to his right as Aaron leaned closer.

  “I forgot when I gave my truck to Silver that I’ll need to get to that thing for my sponsor right after this.” Aaron kept his voice down as the rider meeting went on around them.

  “No worries. I’ll drive you.” It was the least Garret could do after having his mouth on Silver’s clit.

  “It’s just a signing at the sporting goods store down the road, but it might take an hour or two.”

  “Fine. I’ll hang out with you.” Garret nodded as the speaker droned on in front of the seated group of riders.

  “Thanks, buddy.”

  Garret glanced sideways at Aaron. “No problem.”

  Buddy. Yeah, hell of a friend he was. Garret scowled. Although what Silver had said at one point last night, sometime before he had his fingers all over her hood piercing and his tongue in her mouth, had stuck with Garret. If she was going to have sex with someone, better him, a friend of her brother, than a stranger she picked up in some bar. He wondered if Aaron would feel the same.

  Doubtful.

  At least she’d been safe with him. They used protection and he’d seen her back to her hotel room door afterward. He held on tightly to that notion as he swallowed his guilt.

  There was a flutter of activity around them. Riders began to get up and head for the exit. He’d sat through the entire meeting and couldn’t say what the hell had been discussed should someone ask him.

  Women were distracting. Even women you weren’t involved with except for some itch-scratching sex apparently.

  It had been really good sex though, and she wanted a repeat tonight. He led Aaron and Skeeter to the truck and tried to bury his mixed emotions. Excitement, horniness and shame all spun through him and had him getting hard when he definitely should not be considering he was standing next to Aaron and was on his way to a fan event.

  Yup, women were distracting as hell…and totally worth it. His cock settled into a semi-hard state of anticipation as he put the key into the ignition and prepared for a long day. Aaron’s sponsor appearance, followed by some food, then a night of bull riding, then as soon as Skeeter and Aaron were asleep again, a night with Silver. Garret’s mouth went dry just at the thought.

  For the first time in his career, he would be willing to skip riding in a competition, the thing that was most important to him at this stage of his life, just to get to the part of the night where he’d be with her again—and he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that scared the hell out of him.

  The crowds had never bothered Garret before.

  Hell, he’d ridden in Las Vegas at the most important event of the season. He’d ridden in front of the huge crowd and television cameras at Madison Square Garden in New York City and not blinked an eye. But today, Garret was nervous. It had nothing to do with the audience packing the arena, or the rank bull he’d drawn, or that he was nearly a thousand points behind the Brazilian rider who was leading the world standings. It had everything to do with one violet-eyed woman sitting in the VIP seats pretending that she didn’t know him.

  She knew him all right, just as he knew her. Knew exactly how she looked and sounded when she came. Knew she loved that piercing tugged and the feel of his teeth on her clit because she enjoyed a bit of pain with her sex. Knew she’d held back last night rather than give in fully to the pleasure he could have given her when he’d worked her G-spot until she was writhing beneath him. If he’d had her alone, in a bed and in private, far from any prying ears or eyes… Oh yeah, he would have had her screaming.

  Crap. Now he was hard as a rock. Not a good situation when surrounded by people and cameras. A worse situation since he was about to jump on the back of a ton of bucking bovine.

  The announcers were already in the booth and the entertainer was in the arena working the crowd. It was nearly show time and Garret needed to get his head in the game. He ran his gloved hand down his bull rope, working the rosin into the fibers, making it sticky for a better grip when it was wrapped around his hand during his ride. Good thing he could do this in his sleep, because he sure as shit couldn’t concentrate. Not with S
ilver sitting right there above the chutes. He glanced over his shoulder one more time and found she was watching him.

  A smile bowed his lips. At least it wasn’t one sided. If he was going to be obsessed with a girl, there was some small consolation in knowing she was feeling the attraction too.

  “Hey.”

  Chase startled Garret out of his thoughts. “Hey. You get Leesa settled?”

  “Yup. I pointed out Aaron’s sister to her and told her to sit next to her.”

  “Great.” Cozy. Wonderful. Now maybe Silver and Leesa could chit chat about him. Maybe Leesa would even tell Silver all about the drunken prank he’d played on her and Chase last year. Garret smothered a sigh. Chase had no way of knowing Aaron’s sister was also the girl he’d spent a considerable amount of time getting to know in the biblical manner last night.

  Garret glanced up again. Yup, there they were, sitting side by side and chatting. It was strange, kind of like his and Chase’s girlfriends were up there together. Silver was not his girlfriend. He didn’t have a girlfriend and he didn’t want one. At least he hadn’t thought so.

  See you in your truck tomorrow night.

  He’d replayed Silver’s promise in his head a good hundred times today. Maybe there was something to be said for knowing there was a hot chick waiting for you at the end of a long hard day. Maybe Chase and Mustang and Slade and Luke and all the other riders who’d become serious and monogamous lately weren’t so crazy after all.

  And maybe Garret was just thinking with his dick.

  Wouldn’t be the first time. He shook thoughts of monogamy and women out of his head and focused on something he actually knew something about. Bull riding. “I’m gonna need to get a new bull rope soon.”

  Chase looked up from his preparation. “I love mine. I can give you the name of the guy who made it for me if you want.”

  Garret nodded. “That’d be good. Thanks.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, if I can have your attention on the shark cage in the center of the arena, please.”

  Frowning, Garret swung to look where the amplified arena announcer had instructed—the round, raised platform in the center of the dirt. The television station’s sideline reporter Annie Grant was up there along with her cameraman, Carl, and veteran rider Luke Carpenter. “What do you think’s going on there?”

  Chase shrugged. “No clue. Maybe Annie’s gonna do a live interview with Luke.”

  “I guess.” Garret was about to go back to his prep work when Luke got down on one knee. That stopped Garret’s hand in mid-stroke on his rope.

  Unless he was strapping on his spurs, or praying, there was only one other reason for a man to get down on one knee. “Holy shit, he’s gonna propose.”

  “What?” Chase’s eyes opened wide and he swung his gaze to the center of the arena. “Crap, I think you’re right.”

  “Annie Grant…” Luke’s voice echoed throughout the arena as the initial chatter of the crowd was replaced by a hush.

  Annie covered her mouth with one hand as Luke held the other. One look at the close-up of her face on the big screen showed Garret the pure shock in her expression.

  “She had no idea.” Putting himself in Luke’s position, Garret’s heart rate sped. “What if she says no? In front of all these people.”

  What a nightmare. A guy might never recover from something like that. Garret would gladly face the rankest bull in the pen rather than what Luke was facing now.

  “She’s not saying no. No way.” Chase watched the screen too.

  “Would you make me the happiest man on earth and do me the honor of becoming my wife?” Luke finished the proposal—microphone, crowd, cameras and all.

  Annie made her living speaking on camera, but it seemed she didn’t have any words now. She didn’t say anything as Garret waited for the answer, along with the thousands of others. As her eyes filled with tears, she nodded. She bent down and wrapped her arms around Luke where he still kneeled in front of her. The arena exploded in cheers and applause and Garret finally felt the relief that Luke must be feeling ten-fold.

  “Jeez, that was nerve-wracking.” Garret blew out a slow breath. “There should be a rule or something that they have to answer with a clear yes or no within eight seconds of being asked.”

  Chase stared at him and laughed. “Oh man, it’s pretty obvious you don’t have a girlfriend. Women never do what we want them to, and you sure as hell can’t give them rules.”

  Garret made a face at both Chase and his new and annoying know-it-all attitude about women now that he had Leesa as a girlfriend. He went back to focusing on his rope. Well, not solely on his rope. Garret glanced over his shoulder at Silver one more time. He could imagine she for one didn’t follow rules well, if at all, and he didn’t need Chase to tell him that. Her piercings and tattoos told him plenty, not to mention their out-of-the-blue sex.

  Garret knew a lot more about women—and this one particular woman—than Chase would ever know.

  Chapter Seven

  “Wow.” Silver watched the action in the center of the arena. She was shocked, and the bull-riding competition hadn’t even begun yet.

  “Yeah, wow is right.” Next to her, Chase Reese’s girlfriend, Leesa, let out a short laugh.

  She glanced at Leesa and saw her wiping her eyes, her attention still on the larger-than-life image on the big screen of the happy couple as they hugged and accepted congratulations from well-wishers.

  “Do you know them well?”

  Leesa shrugged. “We’ve only met a couple of times, but I hear Chase talk about Luke and Annie all the time.”

  Silver’s brow rose as she wondered what was absent in her own DNA that watching two perfect strangers get engaged didn’t reduce her to tears. She didn’t cry at weddings either. There must be some sort of crucial female hormones or something she was missing. Silver’s gaze hit on Garret, looking hotter than hell. His leather chaps framed his tight denim-clad ass as he planted one booted foot on the bottom rail of the fence and bent to adjust his spur. She got a flutter between her legs.

  It seemed she had plenty of other female hormones, at least of the sexual variety. Given a choice, she’d take sex hormones over sappy hormones any day.

  “So is this your first time?”

  “First time?” Silver glanced at Leesa. First time for what? Having sex with a virtual stranger in a parking lot? Sneaking around with one of her brother’s best friends while he slept?

  “Watching Aaron ride live,” Leesa elaborated and Silver breathed in relief.

  She really had nothing to worry about. No one could possibly know she and Garret had fucked like bunnies in his truck last night, where they’d likely be again tonight if she had anything to do with it.

  “Uh, I’ve seen him ride in a few local rodeos when he was in school, but never at this level.” Silver swept a hand to encompass the huge, packed arena.

  “I know what you mean. The size of the crowd, the sold-out venues, it does make it all seem a little surreal. Especially when the girls hang out afterward, waiting for Chase to sign their programs…or breasts.” Leesa pursed her lips and gazed down at a row of girls wearing tiny shirts and even tighter jeans as they hung on the railing trying to get the attention of the riders behind the chutes.

  Silver nodded. “So I’ve noticed. I suppose I’m putting a cramp in Aaron’s girl plans for the weekend staying in his room, huh?”

  Leesa cocked a brow. “I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you. One weekend off from buckle bunnies won’t kill any of those boys.”

  Silver let out a short laugh. “I’m sure you’re right.”

  So Chase’s girlfriend wasn’t happy about the hordes of female fans hanging around her man. Silver couldn’t say she blamed the girl. Leesa and Chase looked as if they were pretty serious about each other. The matching gold rings that looked suspiciously like wedding bands, except that the couple wore them on their right rather than left hands, was one clue things were serious. So was how attentive
Chase was with Leesa, constantly checking on her, live or by text message, making sure she was okay. These two only had eyes for each other. It was kind of sweet, in a better-you-than-me kind of way.

  Silver saw Garret take a marker from a fan who proceeded to point to the spot just above her breast on her T-shirt where she wanted him to sign. His gaze cut up to Silver, seated just above them in what she was told were very good seats. Oh, they were good all right. Good enough she could see the girl’s nipples. Garret scrawled some semblance of a signature and backed away from the fan, but not before he shot Silver another quick, guilt-filled glance.

  How should she feel about knowing Garret could—probably would—have anything he wanted from nipple girl if Silver weren’t there for the weekend putting claims on his time with guaranteed truck sex? She considered that. They weren’t dating, but if Garret decided to call off their little date tonight and go off with a fan, Silver sure as hell would be pissed.

  Was that jealousy? Who knew? She’d had boyfriends, but she could never say she’d really been in love. She and Garret scratching each other’s itches sexually last night couldn’t be considered anything close to dating, forget about love.

  She sighed. It was too much to think about. All she wanted was an hour or two alone with Garret, to enjoy his body and not think about anything. Silver’s gaze found nipple girl again, still hanging out by the railing and staring in Garret’s direction. That girl better find another object for her obsession, because that particular bull rider was Silver’s, at least for tonight, and she made a habit of always finding a way to get what she wanted.

  “They’re loading the bulls for the first flight.” Leesa’s announcement drew Silver’s attention back to what she was supposedly here for—watching the bull riding, not watching the bull riders while thinking about riding them later.

  “Um, okay.” Silver nodded and wondered what exactly Leesa meant.

  The chestnut-haired woman next to her laughed. “That means the first few bulls have been loaded into the chutes. The first five riders will go as soon as the opening ceremony is done. They’ll introduce the riders and there will be the singing of the national anthem, a prayer and then it’s show time.”