Chapter 25
B eau and Frankie helped me get dressed the following night for the gala. They’d sent Dylan over to Branch and Beau’s hotel room, wanting that rom-com moment when they see me for the first time and realize I’m just not the nerdy art geek, but really a beautiful woman.
It would help if I had any damn idea how to do makeup, but I Youtubed a tutorial for easy makeup, bought everything the girl suggested and then applied it as per her direction.
Except eyeliner. Fuck that shit. I’d poked myself in the eye twice and realized that I shook like a recovering alcoholic. It just did not work. But luckily nature had blessed me with thick, long eyelashes and with a bit of mascara applied twice, you wouldn’t even know.
I put leave in conditioner in my hair and loosely braided it diagonally down my head, pulling out some wispy bits so it looked something like a professional hair do.
Honestly, I envied men. Like, what did they have to do?
They both would be wearing hats, so they didn’t have to do more than comb their hair and spray on some cologne.
Voila. Done. Total bullshit. I put on lip liner and then some bright red lipstick as per the Youtubers instructions.
Apparently red lipstick was like armor for women.
I needed all the armor I could get tonight.
I put on my strapless bra to keep the girls contained, and a gstring which wasn’t much more than gossamer floss. Couldn’t have visible panty lines apparently.
So many damn rules. I stepped out into the room in my underwear and Frankie groaned. Beau whispered, “Fuck me.”
He walked toward me in two big steps, but when he went to grab me, I slapped away his hands and pointed to my face. “No, this took me a stupidly long time to put on. I refuse to let you smear it off, Beau Larkin.”
He grinned at me, but he reached out, trailing a finger between my breasts down, along my stomach and over my pubic bone. “This should be illegal. Now I’m going to know that you’re at that party and the only thing protecting your modesty is a tiny strip of mosquito net and some dental floss.”
Frankie laughed, walking over with my dress. “And a silk dress. Your gown, minha rainha.” I frowned because I didn’t know that one. “My queen,” he translated and I flushed.
Beau muttered that speaking a sex language was cheating, and I grinned as I took the dress from the hanger and stepped into it. It was cool against my skin, and floated around my body like a cloud. I loved it.
“I swear on the bible, you look prettier in that today than you did even three days ago. I’m going to have a hard on for the rest of the night,” Beau whined, and Frankie slapped him on the back.
“Don’t look at me. I don’t swing that way.”
I let them rib each other as I straightened my dress, and Frankie slid the zipper up with deft fingers. I sat on the bed, floofing my dress around me. Beau slid my feet into a pair of white converses. “Even I know you don’t want boot polish on silk, Nugget. These will work just as well.”
I lifted my shoeless foot and rubbed it over his bare chest, flicking my big toe over his nipple.
He nipped at it with his teeth, before capturing it with his hands and sliding it into a shoe.
“If you start that, I’ll bury my head beneath this pretty dress like I’m seriously dying to do.
” He moved to the other foot before rocking back on his heels.
“Cinderella is ready for the ball,” he teased as he pulled me to my feet.
“You’re the prettiest girl in the whole wide world, Tessa May Everett. ”
I kissed his cheek, leaving a big red lipstick mark on it. “You are the sweetest human on the planet.” And I love you. The words didn't pass my lips but they hung in the air anyway. “We better go. My dates await.”
Frankie kissed the place between my shoulder blades. “I’m so jealous right now, but at least you are coming home to sleep beside me and Beau.”
My heart tripped over his words. How he happily added Beau to the equation. He was really on board with the whole poly thing and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could be.
I just needed one stubborn ass to admit that it was the perfect solution. Speaking of whom, there was a light knock at the door and Frankie moved away from me so they got the full impact. Beau pulled out his phone and then threw open the door.
He snapped away at the awestruck look on Branch and Dylan’s faces and I grinned.
“Wow, Baby Girl, you look… wow,” Dylan breathed.
Branch swallowed hard. “You look like a dream.”
Gah. I was going to cry and this mascara wasn’t waterproof. “You guys scrub up nice too.”
It wasn’t a lie. They were both in formal black tuxes and they looked like sex. Dylan had even forgone the black stetson, instead his hair was styled into an impressive coiff. He must have gone and got a haircut at some point today.
“Have her home by ten,” Beau chastised.
“And no funny business,” Frankie added, a grin on his face.
Dylan bit his lip as he looked me up and down, his eyes filled with primal heat. “I make no promises about either of those.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him. I fended him off with my ninja moves. “Not the face. It's gotta stay like this for at least an hour.”
Branch rolled his eyes and held out an arm.
“Let’s go, Nugget. Our chariot awaits.” A taxi idled in the parking lot.
I looked over my shoulder and blew the other two pieces of my heart a kiss.
Beau was still snapping pictures like a Prom Mom, and I shook my head.
I slid into the cab, and Dylan and Branch sat on either side of me even though it squished us all.
Dylan folded my dress neatly into my lap. “It's only a short drive but don’t want you to crease.”
I tucked a stray piece of hair back into his coiff. “You are looking very handsome.”
He gave me that panty-dropping grin, the one that attracted me to him that very first night. “Thank ya, ma’am.”
We talked about the sponsors who were going to be there, and who they wanted to mingle with.
Dylan was looking to pick up one of the big sponsors.
Unlike me and Branch, he didn’t have the family money to fall back on.
His parents weren’t well-off and had a dozen kids, so Dylan had to make his own money, and if he wasn’t winning, he needed sponsorship deals.
I had no doubt he’d pick up another one tonight though.
He was like the poster boy for the WbrP.
Handsome enough to woo the wives, and talented enough to impress the husbands.
Me on the other hand? I stood no chance.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to schmooze my very hardest. I had all my hopes pinned on the tech lady in Fresno though.
We pulled up to the ritziest hotel I’ve ever been to, one with an actual ballroom, and Branch paid the cab driver.
Then came the awkward moment when I had to choose whose arm to go in on.
Branch shook his head. “You aren’t arm candy tonight, Tessa May. You stride in there so when everyone’s heads turn, they are looking at you and only you.”
Dylan nodded. But he held out his elbow toward Branch. “Shall we? Which one of us is the arm candy though?”
Branch snorted, muttering something about Dylan being too pretty for his own good and smacking away his elbow.
I laughed, grinning at them. Then I did what they said, I strode in there like I owned the hotel. There were a few paparazzi around the door, and I stood still as they snapped photos and asked my name. I could spot the moment when they realized I was “that woman bull rider” and snapped a few more.
“Who are you wearing tonight?” one photographer asked, and I screwed up my face. “No idea. Not Wrangler anyway?”
There was a bit of laughter and Branch and Dylan finally caught up, fielding a few questions of their own, surprisingly enough one of those questions wasn’t what brand their suits were.
Finally, a doorman opened the double doors to the ballroom and I squared my shoulders.
Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly.
Those words had never resonated so hard with me as they did tonight.
Four hours, six glasses of champagne and about a hundred little canape things later, my feet ached and my body was exhausted.
I wanted to go home. As expected, I got a lot of interest in my riding, about me being the first female rider in the WbrP, but no offers of sponsorship.
As one old guy said, “Sure, we wanna be seen as progressive, but you die in the arena? We are the company that supported a little lady right to her coffin.”
I was frustrated enough to scream, but I didn’t disturb the guys who were talking to two separate groups of old dudes. I leaned against the bar, propping it up.
“These events are always like this. Dull and filled with barely veiled chest beating.”
I turned and a smile lit my face. “Calypso. You look radiant.”
She waved a hand like she got dressed up like this every other day. “Girl, you look like a wet dream wrapped in tissue paper. Screw sponsorship, I’d be prepared for a few offers of marriage before the nights out. And please, call me Caly.”
I laughed and tipped my glass at her. “Caly it is. Unfortunately, I’m taken.” Very taken.
Caly made a little O with her mouth. “Yeah, I heard rumors of that. You know what the circuit is like; they gossip more than a quilting circle. Branch Watson? I know you guys have some kind of history and girl he is fine with a capital F-Me-Please.”
I eyed her and she laughed. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t date inside the WbrP. And I definitely don’t date riders.”
I sighed. I remembered when I had that ideology. Don’t date bull riders. Ha, I blew that one right out of the water.