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Truth be told, I’m not used to eating food in this fashion. I’m used to my dining room etiquette, digging my fork and knife into whatever’s on my plate. A sausage on a stick, coated in cornbread and deep fried?
It’s delicious.
“Come on!” Bella grabs my hand and leads me through the fair.
A giant Ferris wheel twirls gradually in the distance. Dozens of people play at the game booths lined with thousands of stuffed animal prizes. Bella only cares about the bull riding, though.
It’s a mess of bodies to try and get to a pair of seats, but Bella’s confident shoulders lead us through like the expert she is. I like the way her hand clenches around mine as we move through the crowd together.
The giddy smile she sends me once we’re settled into our seats makes my heart flutter.
A wave of screams jolts my attention to the center of the ring, where a man mounts an angered bull. The animal thrashes him around, doing everything in its power to hurl him over its back. I flinch, amazed by the man who lasts around twenty seconds before being catapulted off.
A man in a cowboy hat waves to the crowd, putting up a show before he mounts the bull.
“Why do people willingly do this to themselves?” I ask.
“For the cash prize,” she replies. “A thousand dollars can go a long way for someone’s family in these parts. Also, there are the medical bills.”
With the way she’s leaning in, I can smell the fragrance in her hair and the lotion on her skin. The hairs on my arms stand on end.
“Ah, right. Where a trip to the hospital is treated like a trip to McDonald’s. I guess this is why.”
“Maybe. Who knows. We’re not all alike, people in the same country.”
“I know. Like those people. They’re insane. And how about you? Would you mount that bull for a thousand dollars?”
Bella snorts. “No. Lily would kill me if she found out I endangered my life for some cash.”
All she’d have to do is ask me, anyway. I’m so charmed by her that it would be hard to imagine saying no to anything she asked of me.
I’m suddenly thrown back into the moment as this man is also thrown off the bull. Competition helpers drag him out of the ring before the bull gets too crazy. He lasted forty-seven seconds, which is an impressively long tenure on the back of a bull.
One man is thrown off in all of five seconds.
“Are you having fun?” Bella yells over the boisterous crowd.
I nod, moving my body ever closer to hers, pressing my legs against her. “This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
She returns her attention to the competition, but I can’t tear my eyes away from her that quickly.
She’s beautiful. I wish she knew how fast my heart beats whenever I’m around her. If she asked me to ride one of those bulls, I’d do it for free. Just to please her.
18
ISABELLA
“That was really fun, Bella,” Alex says as he pulls up in front of my house.
“It was.”
Back at the fairgrounds, there was a moment when he let his hand trail down to my lower back as we walked through the crowds. For some reason, I didn’t want to pull away. Instead, I leaned in a little closer, basking in his attention and subtle touches against my skin.
In the car, he snuck in a few more touches. I saw him make a wrong turn when he got distracted. And I think he liked getting caught.
He gets out and comes around to my side, then he opens my door.
“Thank you, your highness.” I give him a little smirk. “Do you want to stay for dinner?”
