One Night With a Cowboy by Cat Johnson Read Free Book Online

pick her up and throw her onto the bed. No problem.
    She watched the cup press against his lips as he took a sip and then frowned at the
     dark liquid and ice cubes she could see through the plastic. She glanced at Jace’s
     cup, and it, too, contained the same colored drink.
    “That’s not beer,” Becca accused.
    He swallowed and then smiled. “No, ma’am. It’s pop.” She couldn’t help smiling, too,
     at how Tucker called soda pop, as he continued, “I admit I’ll ride hung over, I won’t lie to you and say I haven’t,
     but I’m not crazy enough to drink before I sit my butt on a bull.”
    “A bull?” Her eyes opened wide at his revelation. “That’s what you ride?”
    Next to Tucker, Jace laughed. “Yup. What did you think we did?”
    “I don’t know. I mean I saw the bulls over there, but I guess I thought you rode horses
     or something. Or maybe you, like, herded the bulls and roped them.” Becca shot Emma
     a glance and saw her laughing and shaking her head.
    “I told you bull riding was one of the events. I read the entire schedule to you right
     off the rodeo web page the day we booked our flights. Remember?”
    Becca remembered the day. She just tended not to listen too closely when Emma started
     talking incessantly about things that didn’t really interest her. Though she sure
     found Tucker interesting—and now he was smiling at her.
    “Roping bulls.” Tuck grinned wide as he captured her in his gaze. “You’re absolutely
     adorable.”
    “Um, thanks.” Her cheeks heated at the compliment.
    Um, thanks? She stifled a groan at her reply. Dammit, Emma was right. She couldn’t
     flirt for anything. She took another sip of beer.
    “And to be fair to your sister, Miss Emma”—Jace tipped his head in Emma’s direction—“Tuck
     and I do occasionally ride horses and do some roping, too. We rope calves, or steers.
     Not bulls.”
    “You do?” Becca asked.
    Emma’s attention turned to Jace now. Becca was happy to see her sister wasn’t exactly
     immune to cowboy charm, either. “Calves and steers? That’s really interesting.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” Tucker dipped his head in agreement. “Jace and I competed in team roping
     for a few years once upon a time.”
    “Until someone backed out on me.” Jace shot Tucker a look.
    Tucker’s brows rose in response. “Circumstances beyond my control and you know it.
     And you could have found another header if you wanted to.”
    “Yeah, yeah. Like just any other header would do.” Jace scowled at Tucker and then
     glanced at Becca and Emma. “I’m a heeler, you see.”
    “Ah, of course.” Becca nodded and tried to look as if the entire conversation about
     headers and heelers hadn’t gone right over her head. She knew about headers and footers
     and other document formatting–type lingo, but this rodeo reference was totally new
     to her.
    Tucker laughed, deep and low. A sound that went right through her core.
    “I’ll explain the different events to you while we watch.” He shook his head, still
     grinning. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had to explain rodeo to a city girl.”
    She got a twisting of irrational jealousy in her belly, not that she’d ever assumed
     she was the first woman this cowboy had charmed. “Oh, really? Have you had to explain
     this stuff to a lot of city girls?”
    That elicited another hearty chuckle from Tucker. He leaned lower, closer to her ear.
     “Never one as cute as you.”
    He straightened again right after he spoke, but the warmth where his breath had wafted
     across her skin remained. It intensified and spread through her. Becca swallowed hard.
     She glanced at Emma, who luckily was getting a lecture from Jace about something rodeo
     related, judging by how he was pointing out things to her in the arena. Good. She
     didn’t need Emma watching her. She knew there was no hiding from her sister the blush
     creeping across her cheeks. After the big serial killer stranger-danger rant