Mated To The Mountain Lion Read online

  “You broke your record! How does that feel?”

  “Is this your official declaration of coming back to the sport, Dallas?”

  “That was a hell of a ride, buddy! Way to go!”

  The people chanted behind me in the stadium as I walked through the white hallways of the horse stalls and bullpens, and every time I rounded a corner, someone wanted to shake my hand. People thrusted microphones into my face and tape recorders to my mouth, all wanting a statement confirming that I was coming back to bull riding full-time.

  But I had no intentions of coming back to the sport full-time; I just needed a ride every so often to get my rush of adrenaline.

  “Mr. Dallas, is it true? Are you back?”

  That’s the thing with the media-- if you don’t give them an answer, they just make up one to get you to confirm or deny it. I enjoyed owning the animals I had, especially the horses and bulls. I had a couple of dogs (friendly and used to me, thank goodness) that helped me run around and field the few chickens I had, but my main animals were the rough stock for the rodeos I used to ride in. I’d had a few close calls in my time, and although it never stopped me from riding, I also knew that I didn’t wanna die with the last thing I saw being some bull’s balls in my face.

  Who the hell wants to die with balls in their face?

  So, I took to raising rough stock and training new riders. I took on horse riders and bull riders, and trained them on the same rough stock they would then use in the rodeos and roping contests. Some people tried to challenge and say that it was illegal, like giving a member of a baseball team the chance to play with their competitors before the actual game. But all I did to navigate around that was enter different livestock animals than the ones they trained on during the off-season.

  Problem solved, plus I got to keep my lucrative business.

  I didn’t make a ton, but I made enough to keep myself and the ranch afloat. A man like me didn’t need fancy vacations or nice-looking clothes all the time. Who the hell is gonna feed the chickens in a three-piece suit?

  I looked at the woman staring at me with her blonde hair and blue eyes. All of a sudden, I wanted to get back my trailer.

  “Well? Are you, Mr. Rawlings?” she asked eagerly.

  “No, ma’am. I ain’t coming back to the rodeo. Just wanted to remember what it felt like to be in the ring again.”

  “Will you ever let us see you ride again?” another reporter asked.

  “Will you ever reconsider?” the blonde asked. Her skin was silky smooth, like ice cream in a milkshake, and her eyes burned with the ferocity of a dedicated fan. She reminded me of someone I desperately wanted to forget…

  Abruptly, anger surged within my gut, which certainly wasn’t a good thing. I had learned long ago that strong unchecked emotion, especially unpleasant ones, was often the culprit of unplanned shifting. And considering I had just had the bull ride of my life, I was already a bit hyped up.

  “I’m happy training and owning my animals. Now, if you’ll excuse me, ma’am.”

  I turned my back on her and walked away as memories of that night flashed behind my eyes. Memories of Autumn tangled up in my sheets and the sounds our skin made slapping against one another. Memories of the way her eyes rolled into the back of her head and how her wet, silky pussy felt tightening around my cock. The night before she left me was the first night I’d really felt like I’d understood how emotions played into sex, and I knew I’d want to bury myself into her for the rest of my days if she’d let me.

  I sighed a deep breath of relief when my trailer came into view. I ripped the door open before leaping up and pulling it closed behind me. The sounds of the stadium were swallowed by the metal frame of the moving home, and I flopped myself down onto the couch before I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. Even today, I could still conjure the way her legs felt shaking around my head, and it made my vision tremble just thinking about it. I groaned and put my elbows on my knees and started my deep breaths, trying to rid myself of the anger in the pit of my stomach, the aching to shift in my bones, as well as the tension growing behind my pants.

  It was enraging how the memory of her could shake me to my core while still churning the fire in my gut.

  The truth was, there had been no one like her since. Her big bold eyes carried a certain independence that every farm girl around here seemed to carry, but her long blonde hair and apple cheeks always lent her a face that seemed a bit younger than she really was. She had all the curves a farm girl developed: thick muscular thighs from riding horses bareback, a strong back and broad shoulders from throwing hay on the backs of trucks, and a tapered waist from twisting and heaving an ax through the air before bringing it down onto part of the trunk of a tree.

  But my favorite part of her body was the paunch of fat she had sitting right behind her belly button. She always complained about that damn piece of fat, but I absolutely adored it. It fit the curve of my hand just right, and there was something about a hard-working woman with an appetite to match that set my pelvis roaring to life. She’d always shrug me off, but when I got her naked every single evening I could, I’d suck marks right onto that little bit of jiggle while she writhed and bucked underneath me just so she’d know exactly how much I loved it.

  Yet another thing about Autumn that drew me to her was her inability to keep control in the sack. She’d buck and drop just like every other animal I’d ridden on, and my practice with bulls in the ring helped me to ride with her instead of delaying her pleasure by making her stay still. That was one of the things that simultaneously turned on the man I was on the outside, and the creature lurking within me on the inside. See, most men can’t handle a vocal woman whose body lost control like that. They think a woman’s supposed to lay there and make cute little squeaks before doting on how big his dick was. But I wasn’t most men, and Autumn certainly wasn’t most women.

  Autumn’s tongue was sharp and her words were dirty, and her body would shake shimmy, and rock just as hard as mine in the bed. Sex with her was primal, like two animals stalking each other in heat. Autumn knew what she wanted, she knew how to get it, and she let her body take control in order to see it through to the end.

  A knock at my trailer door ripped me from my thoughts, and all I could do was groan before I leaned back into the couch. Some fucking reporter was still trying to get a statement from me. Naturally, my mind automatically went back to the reporter with the blonde hair and the blue eyes. Damn it, she looked just like Autumn and something told me that’s exactly who was banging down my door. The knock started soft, but slowly grew in volume. I knew that if I really wanted to be left alone, I’d have to get up and answer it.

  “Just a sec!” I called out.

  I heaved myself up from the couch and winced as a pressure descended between my legs. My pelvis was aching and my bulging dick strained against my chaps, so I figured I needed to go ahead and remove them if I was going to situate myself before throwing my trailer door open to someone. I ripped my chaps off as I ran through different things I could say to the woman, and then jammed my hands down into my pants to pull my chub up against my body before sighing in relief.

  That’s when the knocking became harder and more persistent.

  “Jesus, can y’all hold on a second!?”

  I was gonna play nice, but the knocking was getting on my nerves. I heard the muffled sounds of the stadium roaring, meaning it was probably some other person who’d been thrown from a bull or something.

  See, there are three kinds of noises a stadium watching bull riding competitions makes. There’s the winner’s cheer, the ‘Oh!’ of someone falling off a bull, and the shocked gasp when someone is about to get hurt.

  I’d heard the winner’s cheer and the shocked gasp, but the sound the crowd was making now told me someone was falling off their bull.

  And then that damn knock turned right into a fucking police-fist bang. By that time, I’d had it with whoever was at my door.

  “
Now, I told you very nicely to hold on, and all you got to give me in return is-”

  I ripped the door open and felt the breath leave my lungs. It was like someone had slapped me right across the face with a baseball bat full of nails. I clenched my jaw, and my fist bared down on the handle of the trailer as I studied the honey blonde hair and big blue eyes in front of me. My mind suddenly went blank.

  It’s wasn’t a reporter and it wasn’t a fan. It wasn’t the bull inspector or a student. It wasn’t even an assistant offering me another chance to ride for the crowd.

  It was Autumn.

  Autumn fucking August.

  “Hey there, slugger,” she said with a smirk.

  And all I could do was stare.

  Chapter 4: Autumn

  The shock on his face was evident, and I really couldn’t blame him. The butterflies were flying so hard through my stomach that I thought I was gonna heave all over him, but when I saw the advertisement for the rodeo, I just knew he would be here. Some of the advertisements showcased the fact he was riding, but some of them were just handouts, and before I even knew he was riding, I just knew I had to come.

  I had to see him again.

  I stared at him for a long time and couldn’t help but notice how wonderful age looked on him. His dark brown hair held the very first hints of gray at his temples, and his green eyes still sparkled with that independence I never could figure out how to wrangle. He had been impressive on the back of that bull, and I knew when he trotted off behind the stadium that I had to find him.

  I had to talk to him.

  “Come on in, Autumn,” he said slowly in a low voice. For the briefest moment, I thought I saw a shadow of something unusual flash across his face, but it was gone instantly, making me know that I had just imagined the whole thing. Then again, he had always been like that. I supposed that was one of the things that had intrigued me about him so much. There was some kind of mystery to him that I could never put my finger on, and it had always driven me crazy, in a good way.

  He stepped aside, and when I brushed passed him, I couldn’t help but relish in the warmth his body temporarily provided. I eyed the couch and decided I’d sit there, hoping that maybe he’d sit down beside me. But when he shut the trailer door and turned around, all he did was stand on the steps.

  The silence hung heavily in the air, impregnated with so many unanswered questions. I knew I personally owed him a lot of answers, and there was no doubt that he had probably been wishing for those answers for years. What I’d done to him in college was wrong, but I knew if I would’ve told him about the job in Paris, he would’ve figured out a way to make me stay. A guy like him didn’t belong in a city like Paris, and a woman like me didn’t belong in a town like this. I knew I would have never been able to get him to understand that, and he would have tried to talk me into staying, being by his side and working in one of the boutiques in town. Maybe he would’ve encouraged me to open a shop and sell my own fashion line for the rest of my life, but I wanted something else.

  Something bigger.

  Something more.

  I knew if I had told him about the offer, he would have talked me out of it, and worse, I would have let him. I would have given up on my dreams for him, and deep down, I probably would have never forgiven myself for it. So I knew back then that I couldn’t allow myself to do that. I couldn’t have done like my mother had, giving up a dream for a man.

  I eyed Dallas carefully and watched him looking back at me. He’d always been a good- looking boy, but what was now in front of me was a burly and handsome man. The stubble on his cheek burned the inside of my thighs, and his sea foam eyes raged with the confusion he was probably feeling. He had been a lanky boy in college but riding bulls and raising his own animals had now etched his body well. His broad shoulders now held a rigid and chiseled chest that my fingertips wanted to sink into. His hips were strong, and his legs were taut. I felt my entire body begin to shiver on the couch.

  My god, he’d filled out his body well, and it took all the energy I could muster not to stare.

  “What’re you doing here, Autumn?” he asked with a guarded tone to his voice.

  “Well, uh…I’m visiting my family, and I saw the advertisements for the rodeo,” I answered lightly.

  “Having fun?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “You guess?” he asked.

  “Well, I just…was really hoping I could see you.”

  “Mission accomplished.”

  I nodded my head and swallowed hard. For the first time since I’d sat on that couch, he darted his eyes away from me and looked around the trailer. I knew all the questions flying through his head, and I wished he would just ask them. He deserved to know the answers, and I honestly wanted to give them to him. I’d built up a decent career for myself after the fashion scene in Paris took me under its wing, and I was being offered the chance to create my own fashion line to debut this year at fashion week. I wanted to tell him all about it--about the dresses and the pant suits and the flamboyant shirts. I wanted to tell him that I was bringing cowgirl-chic to the streets of the biggest fashion city in the world, and I wanted him to tell me he was proud of me.

  I wanted Dallas to be proud of what I’d accomplished.

  “How long you in town?” he asked.

  “A week.”

  “A week...”

  “Yeah…” I sighed. “Do you, um…do you still ride often? That was a hell of an impressive turn you did out there.”

  “Nah. First time I’ve been on a bull in years,” he murmured.

  “Really? That’s impressive. Why did you stop?”

  “My heart just isn’t in it anymore. Not since college,” he admitted. “Now, I raise the rough stock for the rodeos and train new riders who have the same fire. If they ain’t got that fire, I don’t train them. People get killed when they don’t have that fire.”

  “Not… since college?” I asked.

  “Yeah. The heart hasn’t been in it since then.”

  “But you were riding after-”

  I watched his flaring eyes pan towards me, and every single fear I was hoping didn’t exist was confirmed. He’d stopped riding after graduation, after I left him that morning for Paris. Bull riding was his passion, the one thing he was doing to help pay for his college. And he was damn good, too. There wasn’t a session he rode that was under six seconds, and he was the only rider in the entire state who never had to do a re-ride because of faulty equipment. Hell, even when the equipment did fail, he still held on and completed his ride.

  If there was any human being on this planet that was born for bull riding, it was Dallas.

  And he’d given it up when I left.

  “Oh, Dallas, I’m so sorry…”

  I put my head in my hands, feeling tears crest my eyes. I had never meant for him to stop, and I had never meant for him to get hurt. I knew how badly I panicked over him riding and knew that it got on his nerves, and I figured he would just continue riding without some woman worrying over him in a trailer.

  “I never thought you would’ve stopped riding,” I said.

  My palms caught my tears and my neck flushed, all the embarrassment of showing up at this damn rodeo to see him flooding to the forefront. I felt like an idiot for thinking I could see him. For thinking he would just listen to the answers I had for him and that everything would be all right.

  I was an idiot to come here.

  Before I could get off the couch, it dipped down beside me and a warm sensation began to trickle over my knee. I sniffed and lowered my hands, seeing Dallas’s hand sprawled out on my skin. My jaw began to tremble before I felt something underneath it. My face turned sideways, my puffy red eyes connecting with his emerald green ones, while tears ricocheted down my cheeks. Through my blurred vision, I thought I saw it again, that flash of something mysterious lurking beneath his expression.

  “I’m so sorry, Dallas,” I apologized once again. “I never meant-”

 
“I know,” he said, cutting my apology short.

  I sighed heavily, a piece of hair falling into my face. Dallas brushed it across my cheek before tucking it slowly behind my ear. My body hummed with electricity while my eyes watched him, his gaze connecting with mine. Unable to stop myself, I looked down to his lips. They were slightly chapped, just as I remember them, and they started traveling closer to me before I felt his body weight shift.

  I closed my eyes and braced for impact, and when those familiar lips I’d dreamt about for years encapsulated mine, I knew right then and there that I’d made the right decision back in college.

  How easily my body yielded to his. How wanton it was to sink into him…

  He pushed his body towards mine, sinking me into the couch. My legs fell off to the sides, wholly accepting his thick frame before his tongue raked across my lips. I gladly allowed him entrance and moaned when his tongue brushed against mine. His hands braced beside my head before he pulled back and looked me square in my eyes. There was a look of pure greed and hunger, slightly dangerous, in his eyes that made me want to shiver from head to toe, but increased my yearning nonetheless.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he reared up onto the couch, throwing my body onto his lap before he stood to his feet. My legs latched onto his waist and my lips peppered his neck with kisses. Before I knew it, I was descending onto a bed. His lips crashed onto mine and his hands pawed at my body. I rolled him over before latching my lips onto his neck. I raked my teeth across his pulse point and felt his hips buck up into me. Quickly losing control, my entire body began to warm.

  His hands flew up my dress and gripped hard onto my hips. He lurched my body forward and I slammed my knees beside his head. I felt his hot breath pulsating on my pussy, and when his fingers hooked into the fabric of my panties, I leaned forward and braced my hands onto the headboard of the bed. I trembled with every kiss he placed between my legs, his stubble causing me to twitch before he slowly lowered me onto his succulent lips. His tongue parted my folds, and my juices ran along his nose. I couldn’t help but rip my dress over my head while my hips bucked into the stubble on his face. Oh god, how I missed this with him.