Now she was looking at him like he had horns growing out of his head. “Are you crazy? I’m a paramedic. I’ve seen people screw themselves up royally falling off a curb. There’s no way in hell you’ll get me on that thing.”
He chuckled. “Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. They’re not nearly as hard to ride as the real thing. The operator will put the thing on slow if you tell him you’re a newbie.”
Lexi’s eyes widened. “You’ve ridden real bulls?”
He nodded. “I’ve ridden in quite a few rodeos, including some charity DF&R events. Trust me when I say mechanical bulls are easier.”
She eyed the mechanical contraption doubtfully, but Dane could see curiosity warring with her better judgement.
“I’d never be able to stay on that thing, no matter how slowly it was moving,” she said.
He swigged some water. “If you want to give it a go, you could always ride with me.”
Lexi blinked. “We can do that? I mean, they’d let us?”
“Sure. They don’t care.”
She still seemed doubtful, but finally nodded. “I’ll be mad at myself tomorrow if I don’t, so let’s do this.” She gave him a stern look. “But if we fall off and get hurt, you’re going to be the one to explain to Captain Stewart how it happened.”
Dane chuckled. “Deal. But don’t worry. If we fall off, I’ll make sure you come down on top of me so you don’t get hurt.”
There were three women waiting in line to ride ahead of them, but they all chickened out. For a second, Dane thought Lexi was going to bail, too, but she took a deep breath, kicked off her shoes, and stomped across the squishy mats.
Dane handed the operator a twenty. “There’s another twenty in it if you don’t kill us.”
The man nodded his head and tipped his beat-up cowboy hat. Dane figured that was about as good as he was going to get.
The thing didn’t look much like a bull but more like something you’d see on a carousel—if it was a demented carousel for really disturbed kids. The body was a basic barrel shape with no legs and a barely recognizable head with floppy ears instead of horns. But there was a simple saddle to sit on, with a wide strap at the top to hold onto.
“How the heck do I even get on this thing?” she asked, staring at the high back in alarm.
Dane could have suggested several different ways, but finally decided to reach out and pick her up by the waist, sitting her on the forward part of the saddle.
She smiled at him. “Thanks.”
Lexi adjusted her dress, pulling it up a bit here and there to get comfortable, flashing a lot of thigh in the process. Damn, she had nice legs.
Dane hopped up behind her before he could think too much about her legs—and what it would feel like if they were wrapped around him instead of a stupid fake bull. Riding a mechanical bull with a hard-on might or might not be legal in Texas—it was a weird state like that—but it wouldn’t be very comfortable.
He reached past her hip and grabbed the strap positioned between her legs. He really had to think hard about what he was doing so the fact that his hand was inches from her pussy didn’t distract him too much.
Wrapping his free hand around her, he pulled her even more tightly against him, which made the junction of her thighs press enticingly against the hand he was using to hold onto the strap and his hard-on nestle temptingly against her ass. The hard-on he wasn’t supposed to have at the moment—yeah, that one.
“I think I understand why you wanted to ride this thing,” she murmured over her shoulder. “It definitely has the potential to be interesting.”
That was an understatement if he’d ever heard one.
“Ready?” the operator called.
Dane nodded at the man, and the bull began to move.
Riding a bull, whether a real one or a mechanical beast, wasn’t about guessing what the creature would do. It wasn’t even about holding on tight. It was about relaxing and feeling the flow of the movement.
At first, Lexi was stiff as a board, trying clench her legs tight to the bull’s sides like she thought that would keep her on the thing. It wouldn’t, but she didn’t know that. Dane kept his body loose and balanced, holding on for the both of them and hoping she relaxed enough to enjoy this.
She did, shocking him at how quickly she got into the bull’s rhythm and began moving as one with him.
The bull operator earned his money, setting up a routine of mostly simple turns and rolling waves with enough change of direction to keep it interesting. It was the slow, ocean-like wave motion that got to Dane first, as Lexi’s ass began to move against his hard-on in the most erotic motion. There was no way Lexi wasn’t feeling the hard shaft of his cock moving against her ass, because he sure as hell was.
