Page 92 of The Wildest Ride

The male’s rear left foot looked to be stuck. The female mooed anxiously at his side.

Lil was relieved. The female was probably the male’s mother and when he’d gotten stuck, she’d stopped in her tracks and sent off the distress call, causing a mini traffic jam.

Lil sat back and watched as AJ circled the two cows, deciding what to do next.

The rest of the herd had recoalesced behind Lil, who had them clustered and relatively still. They grazed patiently, now that they felt safe.

AJ circled his duo one more time, and Lil wondered if she should ride out and help him. She hesitated. The cows behind her would be easy to spook again, and twice spooked was twice as hard to calm back down.

But AJ looked like he needed help.

Resolved, she began turning her horse to ride his way only to see he didn’t need her help after all.

His lasso floated through the air like it was weightless itself to gracefully land around the male’s neck.

Lil kept her eyes glued on AJ. His roping was so smooth, you’d think he’d been born and bred on a ranch.

He tightened his end of the rope and gave it an experimental tug with his arms. The cow budged, but didn’t come free.

Holding the rope still, he twisted around to face forward in the saddle and wrapped the rope around the pommel a few times, then spurred his horse forward.

The horse pressed forward only to stutter into a sidestep, not expecting the resistance of the cow’s weight. Then the horse’s instinct to pull kicked in and it surged forward, this time prepared for its load.

The cow came free with a distressed moo, then proceeded to try to buck and kick itself free from AJ’s hold. After a handful of halfhearted attempts, the freed cow resigned himself to the rope around his neck, thereby allowing AJ close enough to release it from its bondage.

There was a metaphor there, but Lil was more interested in the way AJ’s muscles bulged as he freed the cow. He coiled his rope back up with grace, his movements economical and practiced, and watching made her heart pound. Her very own private show from the world’s greatest rodeo cowboy. She’d come a long way from the ranch.

In fact, they were both a long way away from everything. Just the two of them, a herd of cows, and the open range all around. Heat rushed to unmentionable places and she sucked in a deep breath.

Not again. As much as the idea burned in her gut, it could never happen again.

A magical, once-in-a-lifetime moment beneath the stars was one thing, a clandestine affair was something else entirely. Something she didn’t do.

Just like you don’t do cowboys, an unrepentant internal voice sneered in reminder.

But she could be harsh and ruthless too, and she shoved it down. She had broken rules around AJ, but she wouldn’t continue.

He was her competition and, besides that, he was a rodeo cowboy through and through. Being the world’s greatest only made him more so.

Infinitely more so.

Which meant no future, no second time around, and absolutely no to the longing pulsing in her heart.

She wrested her attention back to the cows.

Heifer and son were nearly caught up to the rest of the herd and AJ nearly back to the rear flank, where he should have been the whole time and where she knew he wouldn’t stop now.

Sure enough, he didn’t.

Returning to his place at her side, he exuded everything that was male, exhilarated, and satisfied.

She cut off his nonsense before it could start: “Pretty bold to come right back to the place you got in trouble.”

“That was amazing. You were right. I knew how to do everything.”

His grin flashed and her stomach flipped.

The man was too much.