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"Tryharder," he said. "And the next time your dick starts hurting because she's riding someone else's? Yeah, you think about how those girls felt when you kicked 'em outta your room. You stop for just a second and consider that you, Ty McBride, might not be the gift to women you think you are. Maybe, just maybe, you're more like a curse."
"Low blow," I warned.
"Didn't say I was no better," he promised. "Kinda why I'm still sittin' on the sidelines, get me?"
The craziest part of that was that I did. I honestly could see where he was coming from. I also didn't want to continue this conversation, so I snagged my rope, my helmet, and my glove, then turned and left. Nope, I didn't bother saying a thing. Clearly, this little discussion had already reached its end.
And none of it was what I'd signed up for. There were a million beautiful women in this country. Hundreds of them at each event. Cody wasn't special because she was pretty. Fuck, if I was honest, the girl from the bar Wednesday night had been better-looking.
Nope, Cody was special because she had steel in her core. She was special because as soft and sweet and gentle as she was, that girl could also hold her own. That was what had me even considering this insanity that J.D. seemed to be organizing. This girl was fucking special enough to make me start thinking about next week and the one after, and I wasn't used to how that felt.
The real question was if she felt the same. Sure, she seemed to like my company well enough - at least for now. Granted, so did most women. I'd worked hard for my reputation, and I knew the right things to say. Although, when I said them to Cody, they weren't lines of bullshit.
She was also a taken girl.
Maybe it had started out as a ruse. Sadly, it hadn't stayed that way very long. Cody had agreed to date Tanner to keep Austin from outing him, and now she was fucking the guy. I was pretty sure she liked him, judging by the way she got those cute doe eyes around him. The ones she should be turning on me.
And the truth was that sometimes a guy just lost out. Someone was faster, a girl wasn't into him, or the timing just didn't work. Sometimes, a girl just changed her mind or found something better. I knew that too well. Hell, I'd used that line myself a few times to kick women out of my hotel room. "If only we'd met in a different place," I'd tell her, or maybe, "I'll be back this way next year." My problem was that with Cody, I was starting to wonder if those things might be true - but for me.
Poly, she'd said. Yeah, but polyamory meant we all got to sleep around, and I was damned sure Cody wouldn't be ok with me finding another date. This? It was more like her getting to have her cake and eat it too. At first, I'd hoped that maybe getting her a little experience in bed would have her bringing it all back to me. Even us up a bit, or something. Since I'd fucked a few dozen - or hundreds - of women, if her "body count" got high enough, it wouldn't be something she could throw in my face.
That was shit of me. I knew it. I honestly did, but that didn't mean I felt any different. When I imagined being with Cody, I thought about taking her back home to meet my parents and siblings. I could imagine her riding in Calgary and showing my little brother up. In my mind, I saw us riding horses out on the back pasture, checking fences or some other made-up excuse so we could make out in the tall grass.
This? How would I be able to tell my mother that my girlfriend had a couple extra boyfriends? How many of these guys would laugh at me and ask when I'd passed my balls over to her? And while it might be kinda fun to tag-team her with J.D., I wasn't sure Tanner was into that sort of thing. He seemed too nice for it.
I blew out a breath hard enough to puff my cheeks and kept walking towards the chutes. I sure as shit wasn't a prude. I definitely wasn't about to judge her for how many men she fucked - or the fact that she wanted to fuck them. Nope. I'd be the first one standing up to defend her right to do it. Equality and all that. I just kinda wanted her to be mine just a little bit at the same time.
I made it to the top of the chutes to see her hanging out with the Brazilian riders. Emilio and Gustavo were both pointing out at the arena, gesturing like they were warning her about something. My feet paused, and for a second, I just let myself look her over.
Her boots were trimmed in green. Her jeans were black. Her chaps were mostly black, with big pink swirls down the sides and bottoms, plenty of neon pink fringe, and green rhinestone conchos up the sides. Her black shirt with the pink and green letters on her arms, and that massive pink Fierce Denim logo on her vest? Yeah, she was impossible to miss.
The colors were dramatic. Her posture was strong, just like all the men around her. Combined with that blonde braid and her black Resistol? The woman took my damned breath away. She made my heart beat just a little harder, like it had decided to finally wake the fuck up. Somehow, Cody Jennings managed to both look like she belonged here perfectly, and as if she was some angel who'd paused for a moment to wish us well.
When a hand slapped up against my back, I realized I was smiling at her stupidly. "So, you ain't given up on that bitch yet?"
The voice belonged to Austin Chambers. This same idiot had already managed to grab her tits and get thirteen stitches when J.D. had cut him open with a broken bottle for it. Clearly, he hadn't learned a damned thing.
"Why do you care?" I asked, looking over at him.
He grinned, but his crazy lacked something after talking to J.D. "Because if she keeps riding, you know they're gonna start changing up the rules to make it easy for her. Next thing you know, she'll be riding two-handed, or we'll all have to suffer through weak-ass bulls so no one gets a boo-boo."
"And she's outriding your ass," I pointed out. "Pretty sure she doesn't need easy mode."
"She outrode you too," he reminded me.
I just shrugged. "Difference is that I'm not worried about it. J.D. outrides me too. Don't hear you whining about him none."
"Fuck," he grumbled. "J.D.'s a guy. Her? Yeah, this sport is for the toughestmenon dirt, Ty. These girls think they can just come in and fuck up everything? First Boy Scouts, then they had to get their own baseball, basketball, and a version of every other sport. Now this? Nah, I'm not interested in kissing my career goodbye because that chick can't keep up."
"Sheiskeeping up," I said. "You aren't."
"Yeah, so you still stupid over her or something?" he asked.
"Still willing to chase her," I told him. "She says we're friends. I say that eventually Tanner's gonna screw up and get dumped."
He laughed. "Yeah, kinda what I thought," he said. "Just make sure she gets a clue before Iowa. Maybe she's a publicity stunt. Maybe she thinks she can hack it." He leaned closer and lowered his voice. "She can't, and I know how to make sure she never comes back. So you'd better hurry up and get your dick in her."
"Try something with her," I warned, "and I'll be the one with the bottle." I looked over to meet his eyes, making it clear I wasn't kidding around. "I don't care whose dick she's on. You fuck with that girl and I'll make sure you regret it. This is the only warning you'll get."
