Corralled (Blacktop Cowboys 1)

“You been with other women since you and Lainie hooked up?”

Hank shook his head. “You?”

“Nope.”

“That’s a f**kin’ surprise.”

“Why?”

“ ’Cause I know you.”

Kyle’s back straightened. “No, you don’t. I ain’t the horndog I used to be.”

Hank snorted. “Right.”

“Did you ask me about screwing other women so you could run and tell her that she was just another meaningless tumble for me, while she was special to you?”

Heat rose up Hank’s neck. Kyle had nailed his response and he knew it, which was what made this situation doubly hard.

Thick silence descended.

“Hell, Hank, maybe Mel—Lainie—has the right idea. Maybe we all oughta walk away from this.”

He practically snarled, “I don’t wanna walk away from her.”

“Me neither.” Kyle drained his beer and rattled the paper sack, reaching for another.

Hank finished his Bud and grabbed a second. “I’m open to suggestions as to what to do.”

“Beats me. Ain’t shit like this usually settled with fists?”

“You saw how she reacted when we got into a shoving match. Made it worse. That ain’t gonna work.” He sent Kyle a tight-lipped smile. “One of us could be a gentleman and bow out.”

“Go for it,” Kyle said, flashing his teeth at Hank in a nonsmile.

Hank laughed. “Not a chance.”

“I ain’t bowing out; you ain’t bowing out. Then we’re back to square one.”

“Appears that way.”

Another bout of quiet stretched between them. Normally Kyle would fill the void with chatter, jokes, and bullshit, but tonight he was unnerved. For the first time in a long time he’d found a woman who invoked real feelings in him. Lainie wasn’t his usual she’s-hot-and-she-fucks-like-a dream type of woman, who he’d happily bang until he got sick of her. No, from the moment Kyle met her, he’d known she was different.

Immediately after rejoining the EBS, Kyle learned from the other fifty-nine guys on the tour that Mel did not fraternize with cowboys. Ever. Given her tragic family history, he understood her need to detach herself, especially from bull riders. Given the fact she was the only woman on the sports medicine team, he understood her need to keep a professional distance and reputation.

Everything changed the night Kyle landed hard enough on his riding arm that he feared he’d cracked his elbow, which sent him straight to the sports med room. Lainie had slapped a sling on him, never losing her good humor during the drive to the closest hospital for X-rays.

When he admitted to the attending doctor at the ER that he thought he might’ve cracked his tailbone too, Lainie’s professional edge sharpened—as did her words. She asked if Kyle had neglected to tell her the full extent of his injuries in the sports med room because of her gender—or because she wasn’t a doctor.

Kyle confessed he had a problem sticking his ass in the air for a woman. She’d snapped back that if it bothered him, she’d scratch her crotch, refuse to shower, and walk around with a ball-swaying swagger so he’d think of her as a guy.

From that point on, he’d become smitten with the oh-so-feminine yet ballsy woman called by a man’s name. Kyle knew the attraction wasn’t one-sided, no matter how many times she’d denied it. No matter how many times she’d told him she didn’t mess around with bull riders. Period. But he’d worn her down with a mixture of charm and luck.

They’d ended up f**king in a restaurant bathroom ten minutes into their first date. Sexually, they meshed. Kyle proved her fears of locker room stories were unfounded, as evidenced by the fact that no one on the EBS tour caught wind of their raunchy rendezvous.

Now that he’d found a woman worth fighting for, Kyle wasn’t giving her up without a fight.

Even to the point that you’ll lose a good friend?

Maybe.

“Think it’ll be hard with us both bein’ on this circuit?” Hank asked.

“Probably. It ain’t like I’m planning to get the shit kicked out of me just so she’ll put her hands on me.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve had her hands on me. It might actually be worth getting stomped.”

Kyle punched Hank in the arm. “It’s a damn cryin’ shame we can’t just share her until she makes up her mind which one of us she likes better.”

Hank’s beer bottle stopped halfway to his mouth. “You know, that ain’t a half-bad idea.”

“I was kiddin’.”

“I’m not.”

“Seriously? Like I’d get her Friday night and you’d get her Saturday night? Hank. Buddy. You know that’d never work. Especially when we’d be in the same town, knowing exactly what’s goin’ on behind closed motel room doors. Maybe in the motel room right next door.”

“True. But what if . . . ?”

Now he’d piqued Kyle’s curiosity. “What if . . . ?”

“What if we were both with her? At the same time. Think she’d go for that?” Hank asked.

Kyle froze. Maybe it was irony or fate or some such shit, but he and Lainie had once discussed that very thing. “One time we were watching  p**n  in a hotel room and she admitted girl-on-girl action didn’t appeal to her. But two guys taking care of her sexual needs? She said to sign her up.”