“Bull time,” she says, pulling me by my shirt.
“Cami, you could get hurt,” I say.
“Don’t be a Debbie Downer, Smith. It’s perfectly safe,” she says as another woman gets flung from the bull. The woman’s ass hits the mat and her skirt rides up, showing her panties to the crowd. I rumble with frustration. I don’t want anyone here to see her in a compromising position.
I glare at her and she shrugs. We wait in line for a few minutes. It seems that the man who operates the machine is selective of who stays on the bull longer and how much he makes it shake. When it’s Cami’s turn, she walks up to the bull, and I take the time to get the conductor’s attention.
“She gets hurt, so do you,” I tell him menacingly and pointing at him, he gulps and nods his head.
I immediately regret threatening the man as soon as the bull starts. It’s so slow and seductive. Her strong, sleek thighs grip the bull as she leans forward. Her tight abdominal muscles clench as she keeps herself upright. She smiles widely and holds her cowboy hat in place, her flawless brown skin shines under the spotlight. She’s so beautiful it makes my chest ache.
The bull suddenly spins, and I hear her loud giggle ricocheting throughout the room. The sadistic fuck makes the bull stutter which makes Cami’s thick, full ass jiggle forward. The way she looks in those tiny jean shorts should be illegal. I should have bought her a velvet track suit instead of this outfit. But instead, I’m in the middle of some rodeo dive bar with my dick hard as stone inside of my jeans.
Groaning, I make adjustments to compose myself. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, it does. One of the male workers jumps up and joins Cami on the bull. He’s holding on to a rope that swings from the rafters. His crotch is nearly in her face as he stands on top of the bull near her. Cami is laughing, so I don’t run in there to push him off.
He grabs her hand and helps her stand up on top of the bull. My stomach is in my ass at this point. If she falls off, she could totally sprain an ankle or injure herself. I’m honestly about to hop this fence and tell her to get her perfect ass down. And maybe push this little prick flat on his ass. He’s lucky he is a Beta and not mucking her up with a scent.
That is, until I see her beaming smile. The man next to her holds a microphone to her face.
“What’s your name, darlin’?”
“Hallie Mae!” she screams into the microphone and I can’t help but smile. Out of all the fake names she could have gone with, she chose that?
“What brings you to Rita’s Rodeo?” he asks, his hand holding on a little too tightly around her waist for my liking.
“Just havin’ some fun,” she says in a slightly country accent that I’ve never heard her use.
“Tell us, Hallie Mae, do any of these guys or gals have a chance with you here tonight?”
“Buy me a drink and see what happens,” she says, giggling frantically as the man helps her off the bull. I swear to God if she lets any of these assholes touch her at this bar tonight, I’ll lose it.
The operator leans over. “We good, man?” he asks. Clearly, he took my threat seriously.
“Yeah, we’re good.”
Cami walks over to me when the bartender hands her another shot and points to some fuckwit in the bar’s corner. She holds her shot up to toast him and smiles. She takes it without a chaser and walks over to me. Her pupils are huge, and it’s clear she took too many shots too quickly. I think she might already be slightly drunk.
“That was so fun,” she turns her face, but one of her fists is tightly clenching my shirt. “Oh my God, come on, I love this song,” she says, pulling me by the shirt to the dance floor.
It’s a rendition of ‘I Walk The Line’ by Halsey I hadn’t heard before. Her arms don’t completely reach around my neck, so she holds my shoulders as she sways and swings her hips to the music. I’ve never seen her so carefree and happy.
She looks up at me and smiles. “You have a beautiful smile, Smith. You should do it more often.”
“What can I say? You make me smile.”
“This is the most fun I’ve had in forever. Thank you for this,” she says, pushing her face against my chest.
I bend over so she can hear me. “You deserve it, Hallie Mae.”
She laughs and pulls back slightly so we are both looking at each other. Our laughter stops at the same time and our faces get closer.
I’m not even considering any of the consequences of the position we’re in right now. With her small body in my arms and her telling me how happy I make her, all I want is to kiss her. Forget the fact that it would never work out. I want her so badly, I need to give her everything. Her scent takes over my senses, and it’s like I don’t have a working brain cell.
Cami is on her tippy toes and our mouths are so close, I can almost taste her full, perfect lips. That’s when the same guy who jumped on the bull with her screams her name through a foghorn. “Hallie Mae! It’s time for the bar dance!”
Cami takes a step back and shakes her head.
“I think they’re calling you,” I say, shaking out the moment. We were so close to crossing a line that couldn’t be taken back. We’ve been drinking and I’ve been scent marking her. It was a deadly combination that I won’t let happen again. I need this job and she needs more than I alone could give her.
