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So she screamed, "Ride 'em, Ty!"
And he did. For the first time in far too long, Ty took over. He stopped being a comfortable passenger on the back of a bull, and he became the driver. With the strength of his arm, he held himself right where he needed to be. His legs were running up the side of the bull, both keeping him steady and earning him points. Even better, the harder he rode, the more this bull gave.
"Yes!" I roared as the buzzer went off.
But the dismount wasn't pretty. Ty's bull didn't know when to quit. Just as he released the end of his tail, that beast gave an impressive leap into the air, sending Ty down hard. I watched as he hit the ground on his back, but Isaac was there, jumping over him to give him a shield. Tanner was all over the bull, luring it away while Jorge shifted to make sure it couldn't double back.
Ty took a second, but he made it to his knees and crawled a pace before he could find his feet. Thankfully, once he did, he hauled his ass right back into the open chute and halfway up the rails, smiling when he saw Cody right in front of him.
"And that is how it's done!" the announcer was yelling. "Let's take another look at that ride."
"That," Cody told him, pointing back to the big screen with the replay, "was amazing."
Still hanging there on the side, Ty turned to watch. One hand popped the straps on his helmet, then pulled it off. The whole time, his ride was played back in slow motion, letting the audience get a second chance to see just how it was done.
"Which has earned him a score of 90.25!" the announcer said. "Let's hear it for Ty McBride!"
"Fuck yeah!" Ty roared, punching out at the air before stepping all the way over.
Then he grabbed Cody and spun her around. She laughed, almost as excited as he was, but it didn't go unnoticed. The cameras were on him, so Ty turned to me and slapped the shit out of my arm just as Tanner made his way into the chute.
"Ty!" he called, lifting up Ty's rope.
Ty leaned down to take it. "Thanks, man. Good save."
"Damned good ride," Tanner told him.
The pair shared a fist bump with Cody grinning at both in excitement, and the scoreboard moved Ty up to the number one spot. That was how I'd been trying to tell him to ride. It was how he'd give me a damned run for my money. There was just one problem with all of this.
Standing a few chutes down, looking like he was getting ready for his own ride, Austin was glaring at us like he was plotting murder.
Chapter20
From ninth to first,there was a bit of a lull. The three of us tried our best to stay out of the way, but Cheyenne wasn't really set up the way I was used to. The chutes didn't attach to the seating area. Nope, that was on the other side of the race track. At the sides were the good seats, but the only way to get there from here was to walk at the edge of the paneled-off arena area.
In other words, we bull riders were all packed into a very narrow walkway that let people pass between the chutes. It was twice as wide as usual, which meant we weren't all colliding, but the number of us wanting to watch made it pretty damned crowded. Soon enough, Ty said he was going to take his stuff back. Since he was currently sitting in first place, it sounded like there was a chance he'd get pulled down into the arena for the closing ceremony.
I waved him off, promising that I'd take care of J.D. Ty smirked at me, pointing out the other way my words could be taken, then headed for the stairs. On my other side, J.D. was just staring out into the arena. Following his eyes, I found Tanner's purple jersey.
"Subtle," I teased. "Real subtle, J.D."
"You ever watched him before?" he asked, glancing over at me.
So I matched J.D.'s pose against the back side, and focused on the man who was technically my boyfriend. Tanner was cute. He wasn't stunning or distractingly sexy. He was cute, but in that way I liked. Where J.D. was lean, being nothing but ripcords of muscle, Tanner was a bit broader. His chest was muscular and his legs were nice and thick. I only knew that because I'd seen him in a pair of jeans, though. Well, and naked.
For just a moment, my mind went back to that night. The way Tanner had rolled me onto my back, kissing me until I was sure I couldn't breathe. How easily he'd shifted between my legs. The feel of him pressed up against my back that first time. His confidence, and how he'd taken complete control in the darkness, without ever being brutal or rough about it.
"You're smiling like a girl with a crush," J.D. warned me
"Fuck off," I grumbled.
"Looks good on ya," J.D. promised. "You two are cute."
But from the way he caught my eye, I knew he didn't necessarily just mean as a couple. He was saying he thought each of us was cute. Biting my lower lip, my eyes dropped to the ground, but I didn't have a single thing to say back. At least not that wouldn't make problems if someone else heard.
Then J.D. bumped my arm. "That," he said, pointing.
A rider had just hit the dirt, and Tanner was right in there. The man had no fear of the bulls, and the way he worked them proved it. When the beast turned back to make his rider pay, Tanner darted across. That was when I realized it was always Tanner first.
