40 - Sophie
40
Sophie
I had been having a fantastic time with Johnny and Eli. They were earnest, and fun, and caring. Oh, and they were ridiculously sexy, too.
But Sawyer was a man in a way that neither of them were.
Quiet and dangerous.
It turned me on in a totally different way.
I was so glad he responded the way he did to my… sexual request. Anal sex was something I had always enjoyed, but was difficult for me to outright ask for in bed. I was always afraid my partner would judge me for wanting something so dirty .
Chris Appleton certainly had. When I’d suggested it to him when we were together one night, he outright laughed at me. And when he realized I was serious, he made more than one unkind comment about my sexual appetite. I should’ve known he was an asshole then.
But Sawyer didn’t judge me. If anything, he seemed to love that I was so forward about it. That boosted my self-esteem in bed, making me feel sexy and confident. I was still basking in the afterglow of our raunchy morning together in bed. I could have stayed in that hotel room all day.
Then he got that phone call.
“They’re kicking you out?” I asked. “Of, like, the entire rodeo?”
He stood, fully nude, and paced the room while tapping on his phone. “Yeah.”
“Can they even do that?”
He didn’t respond—he just kept pacing while focusing on his phone. After a few moments he glanced over at me like he had forgotten I was even in the room.
“I don’t want to be a dick, but I have to make some phone calls. You’d better leave.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked.
He shook his head, then put his phone to his ear. “Callahan. It’s Sawyer. I need a lawyer.”
My heart was racing for him. I wanted to stay, to help in any way I could—even if it meant just being a comforting presence nearby. But it was obvious that Sawyer was an independent man who wanted to handle this himself. If I pushed, he would push back.
I quietly got dressed while Sawyer shouted at whoever was on the other end of the call. He was completely ignoring me, now. I began wondering if he blamed me for what had happened; I was the reason he’d gotten into a fight with Appleton, after all.
As I walked toward the door, Sawyer lowered the phone and held out his arm to block me. “Hey. Sorry it ended like this, but… this was really great.”
“Yeah. It was.”
He slid an arm around my waist and pulled me into a kiss, quick but full of passion, then returned to his phone call. “No, not you. This is anything but fucking great , Callahan. When can you get down here?”
I felt guilty as I drove home. This was happening because he had chosen to defend me last night. If I had kissed Appleton, or defused the situation some other way, all of this could have been avoided.
When I pulled into my apartment parking garage, I had a text. It was an unknown number, but it was easy to tell who it had come from based on the context.
Sawyer : Stop it.
Me : ???
Sawyer : You’re probably blaming yourself for all of this. Don’t. For one thing, I’m a grown-ass man who chose to fight Appleton. I’d do it again, even knowing how things turned out. And for another thing, it’s not your fault. You didn’t choose to get harassed by that tiny-dicked asshole last night. You’re the fucking victim here. Don’t you DARE feel guilty. Okay?
Me : I’ll try not to. Thanks. Your text fixed my mood.
Sawyer : I’m a fucking delight.
Me : Yes, but not sarcastically. Genuinely.
I still felt bad, but his text did help.
And beyond all of that drama, I had a deeper sense of sexual liberation. Not just from Sawyer—but from Eli, and Johnny before him.
After my failed relationship with Trent—and the awful affair with Appleton—I’d fallen into a rut. Not outright depression, but close to it. I’d stopped going out with Liz on my free nights, holing up at home. Keeping to myself. I was damaged from those relationships, if not broken. The fallout from them made me afraid to get close to any guy, even if it was just meaningless sex.
But I had crawled out of that hole in the past two weeks, and it felt so good . I had been missing out on a deeper satisfaction in life. When sex was good, it was the best thing in the world. And sex with these three guys wasn’t just good. It was amazing .
I didn’t want to think about what would happen when the rodeo ended. When they eventually left.
After showering and changing clothes at home, I still had an hour until my scheduled Uber window, so I drove to the rodeo camp. Fortunately, Eli and Johnny were there, standing outside their trailers and chatting.
“Sawyer was kicked out of the rodeo!” I immediately told them.
Johnny shook his head and held up his phone. “We just found out.”
“It’s fucking unbelievable ,” Eli shouted, angrier than I had ever seen him. “That piece of shit was practically assaultin’ you behind the bar, yet they swing the ban-hammer on Sawyer? Shit doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” Johnny murmured, “if you remember that Chris Appleton is the face of the rodeo. They can’t let anything happen to him.”
A man in the trailer spot across the aisle poked his head out. “It’s even worse when you realize Appleton got into a bar fight a few years back. All they did was slap him with a warning. The rules are different if you’re a big name, I guess.”
“Isn’t there something we can do?” I asked. “We were all witnesses.”
“We gave our statements to the police,” Johnny said. “That didn’t stop them from slapping aggravated assault charges on Sawyer.”
“The cop I talked to didn’t look like he was listening to what I said,” Eli grumbled. “I told him Sawyer never touched his knives or threatened to use ‘em, but he just rolled his eyes.”
“Salmon’s got a lot of power in this town. He was there when I bailed Sawyer out of jail. He said they’d drop the charges if Sawyer took a dive in the Bull Riding event.”
“I fuckin’ knew it was rigged!” Eli exclaimed, turning away and pacing. “Fuck!”
“What if we organize some kind of protest?” I suggested. “If there’s enough participants, especially among the rodeo competitors, they’ll have to let Sawyer compete. They don’t want any bad publicity.”
Johnny removed his hat and stabbed his fingers into his yellow hair. “Not a bad idea. Not bad at all. I can make some calls.”
Dusty scratched at the door to the trailer, and a soft whine drifted out. Eli was already over there, so he opened the door for the dog. He came leaping out and immediately ran up to me, wiggling his entire body between my legs.
“She makes me feel that way too, Dusterino,” Eli said. Then he turned to Johnny. “I’ve been parked alongside your trailer for a lot of rodeos. I’ve never seen him act so happy around someone other than you.”
“He’s a good judge of character,” Johnny grinned at me.
Eli’s smile faded into deeper thought. “Hey. How’d you find out about Sawyer so quick?”
“I was with him when he got the call, at his…” I trailed off.
Both men looked at me.
“Oh,” Johnny said.
Eli scratched the back of his neck. “So you two, uh…”
“We did,” I admitted. “How… how does that make you both feel?”
They looked at each other.
“Kinda jealous,” Eli said with a smirk. “Now I wish I’d been the one to bury my fist into Applecock’s stupid face. I’ve never had thanks-for-defending-me sex before.”
“If anyone can pierce Sawyer’s armor, it’s a girl like you, Sky Eyes,” Johnny said.
It was a weird compliment to give, but it warmed my heart.
“Just so long as we’re still fooling around.” Johnny pointed back and forth between me and him.
“I have no intention to change anything between us,” I said. “Or us,” I added, glancing at Eli.
“Good,” Eli chimed in. “Because I don’t know about you, but I’m havin’ way too much fun to stop.” He shook his head. “Fuck. I should’ve punched Appleton.”
“If you had, then you would’ve spent the night in jail and gotten kicked out of the rodeo,” I reminded him.
Eli gave me a smirk like he was already laughing at the punchline. “Yeah, but counter-point: it would’ve felt really fucking good.”
The three of us laughed. It felt good to find humor in the situation, just when things seemed the darkest.
“I know a reporter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram,” I told them. “I’ll make some calls and see if they can help us get some attention on Sawyer’s ban. I’ll take off work on Thursday night so we can all talk it over.”
“You sure?” Johnny asked.
“I never take a sick day, and my manager Jessica already told me to take any time I need to recover from last night’s drama. Besides, Thursday’s a slow night. I won’t miss out on many tips.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Johnny said.
Eli glanced at his watch. “You know, I don’t have a practice slot at the arena for another hour. If you want to hang out and blow off some steam…” He winked at me.
God, it was tempting. Even after all the fun I’d had with Sawyer, my sex drive was like a sleeping giant that had been awakened. And the way Eli was smiling at me lustily…
“As much as I want to, I’m actually too sore to do anything today,” I said.
“Too sore…” Eli sighed. “Damnit. He’s all quiet and brooding, and he has a big dick?”
“Your words,” I said sweetly. “Not mine.”
Eli shook his head at Johnny. “Some guys have all the luck.”
“Not sure I’d call getting kicked out of the rodeo luck ,” he replied.
Eli turned back to me and held his flat palms out in front of him, like he was judging size. “Tell me when to stop.” He slowly moved his hands farther apart. “This big? This big?”
I said nothing, but raised an eyebrow at him.
“No way. I’ve seen the size of his boots, so I know you’re jokin’.” Eli squinted at me. “You are jokin’, right?”
“Focus on recruiting other cowboys into your protest,” I said as I walked away.
Eli asked Johnny, “ You’re not bigger than me, are you?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.” Johnny placed his booted foot next to Eli’s for comparison.
The last thing I heard was Eli muttering, “Fuck!”