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Ride Me Cowboy #5 (The Cowboy Romance Series - Book #5) Page 5
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I started stripping as fast as I could. Meanwhile, I saw her spread a towel on the counter and turn backwards and lift herself up so her butt was sitting on the towel and her beautiful naked body was facing the mirror. Once I was undressed, she crooked her finger at me. I stepped forward and put my hands on her waist and kissed her. She ran her hands down my back and the heat from her skin and the heat from the kiss erased the slight chill of the cold tile room.
I pressed myself between her parted knees while we kissed. Her hands made it down my back and now she was gripping my butt cheeks and squeezing them. I shuddered. God, I love the way she touches me. A simple touch from her causes pleasure to coil in the pit of my stomach and moans to fall freely from my lips. I could get lost in her kiss and her touch, and I craved nothing more than for our bodies to be joined together. I didn’t wait for any foreplay tonight. Tonight was about two people becoming one. I pressed myself in on her and buried my now throbbing cock deep inside of her as we continued to kiss. Just that one thrust caused my head to feel like it might explode and the thrill of ecstasy flooded my body at once. Lexi moaned into my mouth. I love it when she does that because I can both hear and feel how much she’s enjoying it.
She broke our kiss and suddenly her mouth was against my ear again and she was whispering my name. I decided that this must be what it felt like to do drugs. I don’t think that anything could feel better than this, but I could already see that I was addicted and I would need more and more of her to sustain me.
She began to roll her sexy hips forward as I plunged in and out of her. I put my mouth down on her neck and covered it and her shoulder with kisses. She wrapped her long, sexy legs around my waist and pulled me in deeper. I loved the way her skin felt. She’s so soft, so sweet, so perfect.
As she locked her feet behind my back, I braced my hands on the counter beside her. When I pushed back, our chests separated and for a second, I was cold. Then I saw her looking behind us in the mirror, watching me move in and out of her. I looked down between us at the place where we were connected and felt my cock swell even more. I wasn’t cold anymore, and I had to grab her hips to brace her because suddenly my movements were urgent and frantic. I no longer wanted her…I needed her. She was a craving and the only way to satisfy that craving was by having her like this – just her and I with nothing between us and our future stretched out ahead. Each thrust of my hips brought a delicious surge of energy that would shoot through my veins. I looked into her sexy eyes as I pounded into her. What I saw there was love…and fire. She had her eyes locked into mine for a long time, but then I saw her glance at us in the mirror again. When she did, I looked down at her gorgeous breasts and watched for a second how they bounced as I drove into her. I bent forward and suckled one into my mouth, flicking the nipple hard with my tongue. I moved over and did the same to the other and then brought my face back up to look at her.
Lexi had closed her eyes and arched her back. She let her body slide to the edge of the counter and ground into me with her hips. I could feel the current beginning to build in my stomach. Her sweet, full lips were parted and she was panting. I ran my tongue along her bottom lip and she moaned and reached up to grab my hair. She used it to pull me in for a deep, sexy kiss. I felt the orgasm coming now, like a freight train barreling through me. I groaned and dug my fingers into her hips, pulling her harder into me as it washed over, turning everything inside of me into liquid euphoria. Lexi tensed at the same time and threw her pretty head back and let out a long, sexy moan. I collapsed forward into her and could feel her body shudder and shake. I loved that I did that to her. I fucking loved everything about being with her. My body was still jerking and shaking and trying to come down from the high she put me on. She still had her legs around me. I scooped my arms underneath her bottom and lifted her up. She put her arms around my shoulders and folded into my chest. I turned towards the mirror and saw us like that and felt the twitch of my cock begin again. I kissed the side of her face and carried her into the bedroom and lay her down on the bed. She scooted over and I climbed in next to her. Tomorrow I had to head for Utah. Tonight, I was going to forget that anything existed…even time…and I was going to hold and love this woman who would be in my life from now until forever. It was an incredible feeling to know that.
CHAPTER TEN
LAS VEGAS NEVADA—THREE MONTHS LATER
LEXI
I was so excited when we got to Las Vegas that I could barely contain myself. We were staying at the Thomas & Mack Center where the finals would be held. Mom stayed at Treasure Island because Thomas & Mack was so booked, she couldn’t get a room. I‘m here for Mark and he’s here for the National Finals Rodeo, but you can’t really be here and not be here for Las Vegas. I’d heard so much about it my whole life. I’d seen it on television and in movies. I’d read about it in books…but nothing does Vegas justice like seeing Vegas.
The funny thing to me was how genuine rodeo people were as opposed to how plastic Las Vegas was on the surface. I thought it a strange place to hold the finals, and I was looking forward to seeing how the rodeo people connected with such a strange city. When our plane landed at the McLaren International Airport, rodeo was already apparent. There were cowboys and cowgirls everywhere. Mark had opted to leave Sarge behind this trip and take the plane. He said he wouldn’t have time to spend with the horse and he didn’t want to leave him sitting in a pen all weekend. But with or without a horse, most of the people milling around the airport looked like they should be living in another world. A world of campfires and cattle drives…one far removed from the bright neon lights I could already see out the window.
In the cab ride on the way to the hotel, I saw them again – cowboys, rodeo people, everywhere. It was like the old west under giant, fake, neon palm trees. It was strange to see the wealth of the rodeo crowd. It was something that Rob gave Mark such a hard time about, earning money. But these people were playing slots and drinking in the bars and eating in the restaurants. They wore boots and jeans, but other than that, they weren’t much different from any of the other tourists on the strip. Even Starbucks was overflowing with them.
That first night, we just ordered room service and stayed in. Our plane arrived late and we were tired so we all turned in early. The next day, we had a light breakfast and then we all went out to lunch at the Hard Rock Café. After that, we walked through some of the massive hotels and casinos on the strip and ended up at Mom’s hotel, buying tickets for a Cirque de Soleil show. It was another place laden with rodeo folk. I’d never seen one of their shows before. Mark told me I would love it, and he was right. It was amazing. The other amazing thing was that here I was, thinking I was Miss Big City, yet Mark was the one who knew where the good shows and the best entertainment was here.
After the show, Mom wanted to do some gambling and Mark and I checked out the strip. He’d been there more than several times, but he said seeing it through my eyes was more fun than the first time he saw it for himself. I guess I was a little bit over the top, but Las Vegas is an incredible place. I’m not much of a gambler, but we stopped and put a few dollars in a machine here and there. It was fun, even though we didn’t win anything. Mark and I watched the indoor storm and then a fashion show at the Bellagio hotel and then we took a cab to Circus Circus and caught a midway show. We saw the white tigers at the Mirage and rode the roller coaster that goes through the New York New York hotel. I was like a kid at Disneyland.
We met back up with Mom that evening for dinner at The Venetian and after dinner we took a Gondola ride and a walk through Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. We got silly and took lots of pictures with our favorite wax celebrities. We stopped for a drink at Señor Frogs and by the time we got back to our own hotel that night, I was exhausted, but giddy. Mark ordered a bottle of champagne from room service and we sat out on our hotel balcony and enjoyed the crisp night air and toasted each other.
I finally had to ask him, “I have every faith in you, but since we both know thi
ngs happen…if you don’t win tomorrow, will you regret that you’re giving it up?”
He looked like he was thinking about how to phrase it and then he said, “Of course, I want to go out on top. With the life that you and I have planned, the only thing that could make it better would be to have the experience and the benefits of winning this.”
If Mark wins, the prize money is over a million dollars. He says that we’re going to use it to build a house anywhere in the world I wanted. I didn’t tell Mark yet, but I was thinking about how nice it would be to raise our children in the country, maybe on a ranch surround by horses and cattle and rolling green hills…
I nodded. “I just don’t ever want you to have any regrets.” He took my hands in his and looked into my eyes.
I believed him with everything in me when he said, “I will never regret anything I’ve done since the first day we met…to be with you.”
That night was spent just holding each other. I wanted him to be well-rested, and I was really nervous myself. I’d recently made the terrible mistake of reading an article about Lane Frost. He was a young cowboy like Mark who achieved his dream of riding in the NFR. At that event, after he had an almost perfect ride, he was gored to death by the bull. It’s hard to imagine since I’d only known Mark for six months at this point, but I don’t think I’d know how to go on without him.
The morning of the event, we got up early and Mom met us at the restaurant downstairs. The whole place was filled with nervous and excited cowboys and cowgirls. The energy in the place was electric and contagious. Mark seemed to be confident and calm, and I was trying to convince myself to be the same.
The coolest part of our trip to Vegas so far was that somehow, probably because he was the number two cowboy at the event, Mark scored us VIP backstage tour packages. He left us at the long tunnel with a pretty blonde girl dressed from head to toe in cowboy garb. She introduced herself as Brittney and said she’d be our guide. I watched Mark disappear through the tunnel in front of us and when the other two people in our tour group arrived, Brittney looked at us and said, “Y’all ready for this?” Mom and I smiled and told her we were. The married couple whose son was riding broncs today also said they were, too.
We followed Brittney down a dirt-packed tunnel. It was kind of cool the way they turned this beautiful hotel into a giant, authentic rodeo arena for ten days out of the year. Horses and their riders made their way past us and we had to be careful not to step in the piles they left behind. The air in the tunnel was warm and the walls pulsed slightly from the loud music playing above us in the parking lot outside.
“The crowd is expected to be more than twenty-thousand people,” Brittney said. I was in awe of that. Someone that I not only knew, but was in a relationship with, would be performing his talent in front of twenty thousand people tonight live and millions more on television. That was some kind of pressure.
Brittney led us past determined-looking cowboys on their giant, muscular horses and ones who walked by with a slightly hitched gait that says they’ve been doing this way too long. They all wore gigantic belt buckles and carried things like rope and saddles and vests and helmets. The left side of the tunnel was a gigantic holding pen filled with steer that don’t look overly happy to be here. The odor that emanated from them was less offensive to me than it was exciting because it was authentic.
The atmosphere here was like it had been earlier in the restaurant…cheerful with an electric energy that you couldn’t help but feel and get excited about. When we came to the end of the tunnel, Brittney led us out into a wide open room that was connected to about ten different hallways. We went down one long one where most of the doors were opened into rooms where trainers and masseuses worked with jean-clad cowboys.
“Oh, Allen B. in the flesh,” Brittany said, stopping next to a middle-aged man wearing a pair of cut-off overalls, long socks, and a shirt that had seen better days.
“Ladies and gentlemen this is Allen B. He is one of the most famous rodeo clowns in history.” Allen B. was sans make-up, but otherwise, I could see it. Mark told me that the “clowns” were actually wranglers at heart. They were tough guys and so far, I’d watched them save Mark’s butt more than once. The cowboys all had a lot of respect for them and when you watched a rodeo, it was easy to see why.
“Y’all enjoy your rodeo,” he told us before continuing on down the hall. From there, Brittney took us into a big area that looked like an airline hangar. It was filled with men and women warming up their horses.
At that point, she asked us which event we were here to watch. The older couple said the saddle broncs. Their son had been doing it for eight years. This was his first trip to the NFR. Mom and I told her, bull-riding. Brittney smiled and said, “Well then I hope you are all patient people. It is a long, excruciating wait for both events. But of course the bull riding always comes last. I know y’all are probably a little bit anxious about your loved ones being out there, but try and enjoy the rest of it. There are some amazing talents in all of the events.”
After an hour long tour, she left us at the entrance of the grand arena. Mom and I walked in and looked around at the packed crowd. Women were dressed in skin-tight jeans and knee-high cowboy boots. There were lots of beaded shawls and hats. Turquoise was the most abundant stone and glitter seemed to abound.
The men had on big-brimmed cowboy hats and many faces were adorned with big mustaches. They wore vests and neckerchiefs and jackets with fringe. Some of the fancier guys wore the long dusters adorned with silver Conchos. Mom and I had worn our jeans and boots, but somehow in this crowd, I still felt very city.
We took our seats in the third row, center, just down from the announcer’s booth. At precisely seven p.m. a huge explosion rocked the arena and lights began to dance off the walls as fire shot up out of holes in the dirt floor below us. Our seats are great ones. We’ll be able to see all of the action, but the guy next to us had an umbrella that he said was “for the dirt.” Apparently by the end of the night, we would be showered with it according to him.
As the flames die down, cowboys gallop out and ride in rings around the arena, holding flags from their respective states. Heavy metal rock music screeched in the background then as a chute is pulled open and the first bareback bronc rider and his horse, come flying out. I like the bareback bronc riding. It’s like bull-riding, only somehow it seems even more savage to me. The horses look like they’ve been shocked with a thousand volts of electricity and their bodies buck and twist and catapult around the arena as the cowboy lies nearly flat down on top of him. The have to hold on with only one hand like the bull-riders and they also have to stay on for eight seconds. You have to wonder how their backs don’t just break while they’re up there. The other amazing part is that this is the first night of a ten day rodeo. How sore would you have to be after ten days of that?
The steer wrestling came after the broncs. This event is not one of my favorites. It’s a fast paced event where a steer is let out of his shoot and a cowboy chases him on his horse and then hurls themselves down onto it. They flip the steer on his back, if they’re lucky, and body slam him. I hated that and I felt bad for the steer. I knew I could never do it, even though the steer usually trots off looking unaffected by the whole thing. The steer wrestling prize tonight for the best time is eighteen thousand plus dollars. When I hear that, I think maybe I could do it just once….
In between each event, ladies in satin cowgirl outfits gallop beautiful horses around the arena and hold up streamers with the names of Las Vegas casinos on banners that float out behind them. After the steer wrestling, we sat through the calf-roping, both individual and team. It’s another event that I don’t care much for, but the packed crowd seemed to love it. Then came the saddle bronc riding. I wonder if the older couple we had our tour with are as nervous as I’m going to be when it’s Mark’s turn. Saddle bronc riding seems almost like cheating to me after you watch the bareback, but who am I to judge? Mom leaned in and said w
e should have asked the people what their son’s name was so we could root for him. I guess that would have been the polite thing to do, but this was all a little bit overwhelming.
After that came tie-down roping, and I had to take that opportunity for a bathroom break. It hurts my heart to watch them tie down those calves with the big, doe eyes. When I came back, Mom was having a conversation with a handsome, suede hat-clad gentleman who was sitting in front of us. I wiggled my eyebrows at her and she blushed.
There was an intermission right after that, I guess I could have waited to pee… Then there came barrel racing. I tried not to be the jealous type and look at all of the pretty girls on their horses and think about Mark traveling from place to place with them. He loves me – that’s what’s important. Besides, this will be his last rodeo. I watched as the girls came flying into the arena at breakneck speed and maneuvering their horses in tight turns around three barrels. Then they would spring out again at lightning speed. After the winner of that event was announced, the rodeo clown we met earlier came out. He was fully made-up now and he had a friend…or foe…in the arena with him. It was a 2,000 pound bull named Mike. Mike didn’t look happy and Allen B. had to chase him out of the arena with the help of another make-up clad cowboy.
At last, it was the event we’d been waiting for: the bull-riding. There were fifteen bull-riders. Mark was number seven. The first guy was on a bull named Tigger. I wondered about the name, until I saw the way he bounced across the dirt. The rider was on for less than five seconds when one of Tigger’s bounces sent him pin-wheeling into the dirt.
It still amazes me how much I have come to like this. It’s fast and loud and wild, which are things that I’ve always loved. Being in the crowd was like being at a club on a Saturday night in a way, people were just dressed differently. The crowd is always so happy to be there and people seem proud to be a part of this. I can understand that. I’m proud to be a part of it, as well. Mark was definitely right when he first described it to me – the rodeo is not just an event, it’s not just a job, it’s a way of life.