Chapter 24
I was off my game that weekend. Two consecutive buck-offs in under four seconds. I cursed myself out, even though it was useless now. That was bull riding, learning to take the failures with the same grace as the wins.
The week had been too much, but that was the way I was.
One hundred percent foot on the gas. Life was too short to play it safe.
Time was the only thing that was uncertain in life.
You could work to make more money. You could learn to love again.
You could grieve and heal. But when your time was up, it was up and that meant running at life head on.
But sometimes, just sometimes, I wished I had a little more patience. Maybe I’d rushed Branch. Hell, maybe I’d rushed them all. Maybe in three months time, when we weren’t all stuck on the circuit, they’d realize they’d made a mistake.
We’d headed off cross country to Lexington, the next rodeo, with nothing resolved.
We’d stopped for a couple of nights in Kansas City because Lexington had the Sponsorship Gala.
Well, that's what we called it. It was the annual charity gala, where they invited all the riders and the major sponsors. But it meant I needed a dress.
I walked around the mall with Beau and Frankie looking for dresses in the boutiques. Dylan and Branch were off at some famous outfitter, looking at a new range of vests. Apparently they were lighter and ex-military tech. You could be run over by a tank and it would tickle.
It was also expensive as hell, but Daddy had always said that you don’t buy the best gear you can afford, but buy the best gear there is. If you can’t afford the best, then you can’t afford to be a bull rider.
“What about that one?” Beau pointed to a red gown, sequined and with a huge slit up the side.
I screwed up my nose. “I’d look like an electrocuted Jessica Rabbit,” I said, pointing to my curly hair which was even wilder with the humidity today.
He nuzzled my hair. “Exactly.”
I rolled my eyes, but walked into the boutique anyway. The girl behind the counter looked at me in my dusty boots and Wranglers and visibly screwed up her nose. Then her eyes caught on Frankie and Beau, and her smile was wide and welcoming.
“Well, hello there. What can I do for you?”
“I need a dress,” I said in the same fake falsetto.
She laughed like I said something hilarious. “Well, you came to the right place. Do you need help with sizing? I’m sure we have something that will fit.” Her voice said she was sceptical.
Was she messing with me right now? I balled my fist, my teeth grinding. Beau, bless him, stepped in. “Oh no, we are fine. We’ll just have a look around, Ma’am.”
He pulled out that good old boy southern charm and Miss 5’9 and size 0 visibly preened. Beau steered me away towards the racks.
“Hey Nugget, you remember that time you punched Samantha whats-her-name in the nose in ninth grade?”
Yeah I remembered. “She was spreading a rumor that you and Branch were gay and thats why neither of you would date the cheerleaders and that you were diseased and going to hell.”
Beau raised both eyebrows. “Really? That’s what it was over?” I nodded. “We aren’t, you know. We were, I mean are, just close. Branch decided that I was his family, and he took the poor motherless ranch brat under his wing when we were two.”
I rolled my eyes in his direction as I flicked through the racks.
“Duh, Beau. I knew you guys better than I knew myself. I knew you weren’t gay, not that I would have given a flying cats ass if you were.
For a while, until you turned into hormone-ridden assholes, you were my best friends.
That was why I punched Samantha. How dare she take something so sacred as your friendship and try to sully it? She deserved the broken nose.”
It didn’t hurt that I’d seen her kissing Branch the week before.
Beau shook his head, pulling me to his side.
“I forgot how amazing you are for a moment. Anyway, I was there the day you hit her, and I remember the indignation on your face. Your wild fury. I was pretty sure that was the moment I regretted letting Branch call dibs on you when we were barely old enough to know what we were calling dibs on. But I had nothing but my word, and I held to it. Until a month ago.”
My heart fluttered in my chest. “What does that have to do with today?”
Beau grinned. “I just think that jealous Tessa May is damn beautiful.”
I slapped his arm and stomped off, Frankie following along behind me laughing. Every now and then he’d grab a dress off the rack until he had an armful and I had nothing. “Come on. You can try these on and Beau will tell you that you are the prettiest girl he’s ever seen in every single one.”
He kissed my head and I could feel the shop girl's eyes burning into my back as we made our way back to the changing rooms. Frankie hung the dresses and ushered me in.
“Need a hand getting your clothes off?” he murmured suggestively and I bit my lower lip.
Mmm. I have a flash of Frankie and Beau in the changing room with me, pressed between their bodies, trying to be quiet as they fuck me senseless.
Blood rushed to my face. “Uh, I’ll be fine.”
The devilish sparkle in Frankie’s eyes told me that he knew exactly what I was thinking. I closed the velvet curtain between us before he got any more ideas. I stripped out of my boots and Wranglers, and peeled off my shirt.
I looked at the first dress. It was white, with a lace overlay that buttoned right up my back. Luckily, it also had a concealed zipper up the side. It flared slightly at my knees, but otherwise hugged my body tightly. I zipped it up the side and stared at myself stunned. I looked…
“Show us!” Beau called.
I swallowed hard and stepped out of the curtain, and if I hadn’t been so stunned, I would have enjoyed the looks on their faces.
Beau shook his head. “You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.” I laughed, but he looked like he genuinely meant it.
The love shining back at me from Frankie had a huge ball of emotion lodging in my chest. “You look like a bride, Tessa May. So beautiful.”
“Tessa May,” Beau called, and I looked over at him as he snapped a picture on his phone.
His fingers worked across the screen. “Sending this to Branch. If you looking like that doesn’t kick him in the ass, nothing will.
I’ll send it to Dylan too, just so he has something to spank the monkey over while we are out. ”
I rolled my eyes. “Not this one.”
They both shook their heads. “No, not that one. That one is just for us.”
I went back into the change room and flicked through the options on the hangers. “Try the green one,” Frankie called and I found the one he meant. I pulled it out, and its light satin fabric flashed in the down lights.
I undid my bra and let it slip to the floor.
It wouldn’t work with one of those. I slipped it over my thighs and hips, settled it over my arms. It was an off the shoulder gown, fitted in the bodice and hips and flaring gently from my upper thigh to pool around my feet in a small train.
It was… perfect. “Can someone help me zip it up?”
I heard a faint, “rock, paper, scissors” and then someone cursing. But soon, Frankie was there, his eyes alight with lust he was no longer even trying to conceal.
“ Deus. You are a vision.” His fingers skimmed down my exposed back. He gently tugged the tab of the zipper, and I didn’t know that someone dressing me could be as arousing as someone undressing me.
When I was tucked in, I looked in the mirror. The neckline hit just above my cleavage, highlighting my collarbones. My riotous hair somehow looked magical instead of insane. Frankie kissed the curve of my shoulder. “I am so damn lucky.”
Then he ducked out of the change room. I straightened and blew out an overheated breath.
I stood on my tip toes as I walked out of the changing rooms, trying to get the lines right.
I knew this was the dress, but if I had any doubts, the look on Beau’s face would have chased them away.
He looked at me like I was some kind of vision.
“That one,” he said. “You steal my breath, Sweetheart.”
I smiled and twirled a little. Perfect. It went all the way to the floor, so I could even wear my boots under it.
I turned back to the change room and Beau was on his feet. “I’ll come and unzip you.”
Frankie pouted, which was gloriously tempting with his full lips.
Beau followed me into the cubicle, and at first, I thought he was just helping me unzip my dress.
His fingers slowly dragged the zip and somehow he made it erotic.
His fingers slid inside the dress and around the front of my body.
His work roughened fingertips ran along the underside of my breast, while his other hand slipped the bodice from my shoulder until it folded over at the waist. I met his eyes in the dressing room mirror as his hand moved up to cup my breast, his thumb gently brushing over my nipple.
He swept my hair from my back and over my shoulder so he could kiss the curve of my neck.
His fingers gripped my hips, thumbs slipping beneath the fabric, and a gentle tug had it pooling on the floor at my feet.
I stood there, my eyes locked on Beau’s as his hands traveled down over my body.
They brushed along the edges of my panties and I sucked in a breath.
I pressed back against him, feeling the hard length of his erection pressing against my ass.
“Do you need any help in there?” The sales assistants voice cut through the moment and I groaned.
“The zipper got stuck but I managed to work it free,” Beau said lightly, before planting a little kiss just behind my ear. My pale skin was flushed. “So fucking beautiful.”