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The Sagebrush Arena was absolutely packed for the rodeo finals on Sunday night. Dani had to squeeze her way to the front of the crowd, finding it a much more difficult task without Kelsey to bulldoze a path for her.
“Has Weston Stroh gone yet?” Dani asked a middle aged man as she pushed past him and squeezed into an empty space to his right.
The man shook his head. “Nah, I think he’s goin’ last. Charlie Lowry’s up now.”
Dani looked up at the big L.E.D. scoreboard. Sure enough, Alexis’ pet cowboy’s name was emblazoned across the screen and Dani could see him perched above the chute, gingerly trying to position himself atop a madly thrashing bull. It was so much bigger and meaner-looking than the bulls in the semi-finals.
“What the hell is that?” Dani asked her neighbor.
The middle aged man stared at her. “It’s a bull, lady. Haven’t you ever seen a bull before?”
“Well, I watched the other night but—”
“Bull riding’s the most dangerous event, right?” the man explained.
Dani nodded, and without the other girls there, paid more attention to the rules.
The man continued, explaining that a rider needed to stay on the bull for eight seconds, or their ride would end if they fell off, if their hand came out of the rope, or if their free hand touched the bull.
“Then they get a score on that,” the man finished. “And hopefully, they do it without getting stepped on.”
“Stepped on?!” Dani needed the man to explain what exactly he meant by that, but the crowd rose in a collective roar as Charlie Lowry’s bull was released from the chute.
The bull twisted and bucked, doing its absolute best to dislodge Charlie from his perch on the beast’s back.
“Six! Seven! Eight!” the crowd counted down in unison. Charlie had made it, he’d passed eight seconds, now he’d be eligible for a score.
Charlie’s hand was stuck in the ropes as he tried to dismount, but finally managed to release it as the panic-stricken animal let out one enormous buck that tossed its rider onto the ground against the arena railing.
A clown came tearing across the ring, waving his arms and shouting madly to the bull, who was intent on Charlie’s prone figure.
“Now what?” Dani whispered to her neighbor, the middle aged man.
“Now we hope the clown gets that bulls attention,” the man said, but his hopes didn’t come true.
With a violent lunge, the furious bull charged at Charlie. The animal twisted and continued to kick, connecting with Charlie’s ribs which were partially protected by his vest. He spun back to buck again, but this time the clown caught its attention and the bull dashed across the arena in pursuit of this newly, brightly colored target.
The crowd was silent as an EMT raced to Charlie’s side and carried him out of the arena on a stretcher. At the last possible second, Charlie lifted up one arm and waved weakly at the audience. The crowd went wild.
“Thank god,” Dani exhaled a breath she wasn’t even aware that she was holding.
The loudspeaker crackled. “With a final score of ninety-one, Charlie Lowry is in the lead, even if he’s in the hospital.”
The crowded arena laughed at this feeble attempt at humor. Dani frowned up at the loudspeaker. How could the announcer find any of this funny?
The loudspeaker blared again. “Next in the ring, we have our final rider of the night—”
“Oh no,” Dani muttered. She’d been so eager to get back here to see Weston ride, and now she was horrified. For some reason, tonight’s event seemed so much more dangerous than Friday’s. What was going to happen to Weston?
“—give a warm welcome to Sagebrush’s own, Weston Stroh!”
The crowd roared to life, leaping to their feet and screaming for Weston, who was perched above the chute at the far end, waving to his fans as he tried to mount his bull. Dani couldn’t quite see his expression from this distance, but he looked subdued somehow, sad.
“Weston!” she screamed, waving her arms, desperate to be noticed in the sea of people. She was sitting where she’d sat the previous two nights, but why would Weston look over here? He thought she’d gone.
“Weston!” Dani screamed again and this time, he looked right at her.
From all the way across the arena, Dani could feel his bright blue eyes burning into her. He smiled, she could tell, gave her a quick nod in his helmet, then settled onto his bull.
The buzzer sounded and Weston exploded out of the chute on his bull as the animal twisted and thrashed beneath him, angry and determined to unseat the man strapped to its back.
The crowd counted up to the eight second mark, and it was the longest eight seconds of Dani’s life. With each buck and kick, she was positive that Weston would be unseated and tossed to his imminent death.
But he stayed on.
He grasped the sides of the bull with his strong thighs, spurred it with his heels and finally, when the crowd reached eight, the beast sent him flying with a particularly high buck, he sailed off its back, landing gracefully in a crouch, poised to run away from the charging animal.
The clowns, however, did their job and kept the bull away from the exhausted rider.
Weston was bent double in the middle of the arena, breathing heavily and grinning up at the roaring crowd.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer burst onto the crackling loudspeaker. “With a score of ninety-five, Weston Stroh has just clinched a first place finish in bull riding finals, making him our Cowboy Days Bull Riding Champion!”
The crowd screamed its approval and Dani, unable to restrain herself any longer, threw herself over the railing and sprinted toward her cowboy.
“Weston!” she shouted as she ran into his arms. “Weston!”
In front of the crowd, in front of hundreds of people, Weston Stroh dipped Dani in his arms and kissed her, long and hard.
“I think the crowd is going to have a heart attack,” Dani whispered when he’d finally lifted her back up on her feet.
“I think you’re right,” Weston grinned.
The announcer was jogging across the arena toward them, toting a wireless microphone. “Weston!” he called, puffing slightly as he reached them. “Weston Stroh, you just won the Cowboy Days Bull Riding Championship. What’s next for you?”
“Well,” Weston began, leaning into the microphone then he paused, looking at Dani for help. “I’m not sure actually.”
Dani held out her hand for the microphone. “May I?” she asked Weston softly.
He nodded.
“Hello!” Dani spoke into the mic, and was shocked to hear her own voice reverberating through the cavernous event center.
“Hello!” shouted several people from the audience. Dani laughed.
“My name is Danica Douglas and I represent InNovate Marketing in Chicago, Illinois.”
“Dani, what are you doing?” Weston whispered, looking confused, but Dani just waved him off.
“My firm represents Mad Cow Energy Drink and I’d like to take this opportunity to offer Mr. Stroh a full corporate sponsorship.”
“What?” Weston’s mouth gaped open. “Dani, what are you talking about?”
Dani smiled at him but spoke into the mic again. “This sponsorship will allow Mr. Stroh to compete on the national circuit and, hopefully, bring a National Championship home to Sagebrush!”
The crowd went wild as Dani and Weston embraced in the middle of the arena.
“You don’t have to answer me now, Weston,” Dani whispered in his ear. “There are a ton of details to go over and—”
“Dani, you know I can’t leave the ranch,” Weston said, sliding his arm around her so they could both wave to the crowd. He was smiling but his voice was tense. “I appreciate what you’ve done, but—”
“The sponsorship will pay for you to staff the ranch,” she said simply.
“What?”
Dani turned to him and smiled. “They’ll pay for you to staff the ranch, Weston. They’ll pay for you to travel, they’ll pay for you to do pretty much anything you want. Weston, Mad Cow Energy Drink is giving you so much money.”
Weston pulled Dani toward him, hugging her tightly to his side as he led her out of the arena and away from the adoring crowd.
They didn’t go back to the ranch house and they didn’t go to Carl’s. Instead, Weston steered his pickup truck up a dusty, rutted road until they were parked at the very edge of a mesa, overlooking the small cluster of lights that was Sagebrush.
“I used to come here when I was a kid,” Weston explained, leading Dani around to the back of the truck so they could sit on the tailgate. “Then I kept coming up here when I was a teenager and I guess I never really stopped. I used to think this view of Sagebrush was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, but now I know I’m wrong.”
“Why’s that?” Dani asked.
Weston smiled. “Because you came to town and showed me that there is something even more beautiful in this world.”
Dani started to speak, but Weston gently pressed a finger against her lips. “Shh,” he insisted. “You’re beautiful and you know it. Let me have this, Dani.”
Weston gently laid Dani back into the bed of the truck, hiking her skirt up over her thighs. “This afternoon, I thought I’d never see you again, Danica,” he whispered as his hands slid over her smooth, brown skin. “And then you came back, baby. You came back to me.”
“I can’t believe I ever thought of leaving, Weston,” Dani said. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know what I was—”
Dani gasped. Weston tugged her down to the edge of the pickup’s bed so that her ass was lined up with the very edge of the tailgate.
“Legs, please,” he ordered politely and Dani obeyed, wrapping her legs around Weston’s tapered waist. He fumbled with his belt buckle for a moment, then his jeans fell to the ground, pooling around his ankles and leaving him exposed.
“Did you not wear underwear when you rode that bull?” Dani couldn’t believe it.
Weston shrugged. “I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention when I got dressed today, baby. Turns out, it was a lucky mistake.”
He reached back up under Dani’s skirt and, with a swift tug, ripped her flimsy lace panties clean off.
“Danica,” Weston warned, taking his cock in hand and lining it up with her entrance. “I’ve got to warn you, I was right desperate when I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I know,” Dani whispered, bucking her hips up, encouraging Weston’s cock toward her entrance.
“And now you’re back with me, baby,” he continued, gripping one brown thigh with his strong, tanned hand. “And I’m not sure I can be gentle with you tonight.”
“Weston,” Dani smiled up at him, his beautiful face backed by a star-filled sky. “I don’t need you to be gentle. I need you to ride me, cowboy.”
He thrust into her then, filling her so fast that Dani lost her breath. She rose to meet him, canting her hips up to optimize the angle of penetration, to grind the thick base of his cock against her greedy clit.
The pace was brutal and Dani took every single thrust, then bucking her hips into him, giving as good as she got.
The cool night wind danced over their sweat-covered skin, but neither Dani nor Weston backed off their pace, fucking into one another harder and faster with every stroke.
Dani forgot where Weston ended and she began, she looked up into the night sky and found it impossible to think that she hadn’t always been here, in this desolate, lovely place with this beautiful, rugged man who loved her.
“I love you,” Dani moaned as her orgasm ripped through her, as her thighs pulled Weston even more deeply into her.
Weston gasped, then trembled. “Say that again, baby.”
“I love you,” she repeated, lost in ecstasy as waves of pleasure rolled over her body. “I love you, Weston!”
With those words, Weston stiffened and cried out, collapsing on top of Dani, trembling with his own release.
They lay there for hours, letting the sky and stars move past them overhead.
Finally, Weston spoke. “When can I see you again?”
Dani rolled over, propping herself on one elbow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Weston rolled his eyes. “When can I see you again? Can I come to Chicago? Or do you want to come visit me while I’m on the road? I mean, I’ve got to look at the schedule to see where the circuit goes, but—”
“Weston, we don’t have to decide this tonight.”
“But I want to,” Weston protested. “And I need to start planning, saving up for plane tickets and stuff like that.”
Dani cocked one eyebrow. “Baby. Once you sign this deal with Mad Cow, you’re never going to have to worry about money again.”
“Money’s great, Dani,” Weston replied. “But I don’t think Mad Cow Energy Drink can give me what I really want.”
“And what’s that, Weston Stroh?” Dani asked.
“You,” he said simply.
Dani paused, then smiled back up at him. “I forgot to mention this: there’s a rider to your contract.”
“There is?” Weston asked.
“Yep,” Dani answered. “Since you’re new to corporate sponsorship, my firm thought it might be good to have someone on the road with you, a representative of sorts, making sure you get to your PR appointments and things like that.”
Weston grinned down at her. “And who might this representative be?”
Dani shrugged. “I figured, since I already knew you and all...” She paused. “Is that okay? Do you mind?”
“Mind?” Weston kissed her, quickly but intensely. “It’s everything I ever wanted, Dani. And it’s all thanks to you.”
“You’re going to get so sick of me, Weston,” Dani warned. “I’m going to be following you around, using my big marking words, making you give interviews and talk to the press. It’s going to be pretty grueling.”
Weston laughed and pulled Dani on top of him, gazing up at her with star-filled blue eyes. “As long as you’re with me, Danica Douglas, I know I can do anything.”
THE END