11. Chapter 11
Chapter 11
KAT
H is jaw set tense and tucked against his chest, Bernie raked his spurs up the shoulders of Popsicle.
With a guttural snort, the appaloosa bucked. His nostrils flared, foam flying from his mouth as his hind end crashed back against the sand.
Veins popped in Bernie’s neck, his determination and raw strength matching the horse’s tenacity.
With an explosive grunt, Popsicle lunged forward, all four legs leaping from the ground and he threw his hind hooves high out behind him.
Like a powerful clap of thunder, Bernie’s heels slammed back into the horse’s shoulders.
There was no fluidness, no practiced rhythm to Bernie’s movements, yet he flawlessly controlled every whip of untamed chaos rising from Popsicle. His thighs, squeezing with unbelievable strength, seemed so much more rigid than his hips that rocked with each buck of the horse.
Sand sprayed .
Hooves flew wild.
In a dangerous dance, they roared like a storm in the desert, pounding through the arena.
Five seconds in, Popsicle flew to the left while Bernie swung to the right.
A gasp echoed through the stadium.
Another buck, yet his hand remained clinging to the handle as his thighs gripped even tighter.
With the next lunge, Bernie hoisted himself back to the center of Popsicle.
Seven seconds in.
“COME ON!” Josh suddenly bellowed beside me.
And I crashed backward off the rail.
With a buzz of pain snapping up my spine and tingling down toward my fingertips, I groaned. “What the hell, Josh?”
He clutched his stomach and laughed as the stars swirled above me and the buzzer went off. “FUCK YEAH!” Josh screamed, launching himself upright.
I pushed myself up, the sand grating against my palms, and scrambled back to the fence. “He made it?” I gasped.
Josh nodded and screamed in support again.
As loud as fireworks on the Fourth of July, the crowd erupted in cheers. I peered through the rails as one of the pick-up men dragged Bernie from an almost spent Popsicle. His tennis shoes smacked against the ground, a wicked grin widening on his handsome face as he scanned for and found Wyatt .
And flipped him off with both middle fingers.
Tipping my hat down, I hid my smile beneath the shadows as the most heartwarming sound pierced through the air. “Kat! Kat! Kaaat!” Emma shouted.
There was no time to analyze the warmth and unusual slickness between my legs at the sight of Bernie as I’d just been alerted to my best friend.
“Kat! Kat! Kaaat!” Emma yelled again.
Spinning around, I grinned widely as my best friend came sprinting toward me.
Blonde hair flew like a river behind her shoulders as she raced toward me, ducking around some cheering cowboys. When she reached me, her arms flew around my shoulders and wrapped me in a hug.
“You’re back!” I said, excitement racing through my veins hot like a steak straight off a grill.
“I missed you,” she replied, pulling away. Pushing some hair over her shoulder, she leaned up against the rail and brushed some dirt from her teal, satin tank top. “By the way, wasn’t that horse the one who broke that cowboy’s femur last year?” She tossed a thumb out to the arena.
Glancing away from her hazel eyes, I scanned the grounds. Inching my brows together, I searched for Bernie amongst the cowboys surrounding the chutes. Scoured the crowd for that set of green eyes and broad shoulders, yet he’d somehow disappeared within a few seconds.
“Uh, yeah,” I replied in a daze.
“And did you see that he was wearing tennis shoes? With spurs duct taped to them?” Her eyes widened as she snorted with a giggle.
“Yes, I saw that too,” I sheepishly muttered .
“Well, I’ve never seen anything quite like that. Must be those shoes or something that gave that cowboy luck, otherwise he would’ve been carried away in an ambulance,” Emma answered.
“Shit, no one’s ever had such little faith in me before,” Bernie replied, his voice booming with a chuckle behind me.
Spinning around, I locked sights with the very man who had some dirt smudged on his cheek. A single brow of his raised as his eyes twinkled with humor. Whatever strange dark aura that had surrounded him moments ago, was completely gone, and I couldn’t help but smile.
It took every ounce of self-control not to race toward him.
“You!” Emma gasped behind me. Her hand plunked on my shoulder and shoved me to the side. Raising a finger, she pointed at Bernie and snarled, “You owe Kat a fucking apology, and right now, you senseless asshole.”
Bernie stopped walking, tipped his head back, and smirked. “So, you must be Emma.”
“That’s all you have to say?” She shoved her hands on her hips as I bit back a giggle.
“Kit Kat, come rein in your friend, please.” Bernie glanced around Emma and narrowed his eyes.
“Kit Kat? Who’s Kit Kat?” Emma shrieked and spun around. “Is he talking about you?” Her brows raised.
I nodded. “You’ve missed quite a bit.”
“Clearly, since he’s already given you a nick—” Her mouth fell open as her hands slid away from her hips. The frustration fled from her figure, loosening into excitement .
My heart jumped to my throat as my cheeks burned bright red. A look crossed Emma’s face as if she’d just won the lottery, which only confused me. I kneaded my hands in front of me as she waltzed up to me and whispered in my ear, “He’s given you a nickname.”
“Yes?” I questioned, tipping my head. There was something about the tone of her voice I wasn’t ready to admit had my stomach churning with heat. And desire.
Emma clicked her tongue and exhaled. “You and I are going to have some girl time later,” she muttered and whipped back around. “Bernie is it?”
He nodded once as she extended her hand and marched directly up to him. Standing maybe an inch shorter than he was, she offered him a polite smile. Bernie wrapped his palm around hers, giving it a firm shake and drawing my attention. My breath quickened as I traced the veins running like rivers across the back of his hand and up his arm.
Fingers that had only so briefly brushed against my chin released Emma’s hand, rushing my core warm with a pull to have him touch me again. How foolish I’d been to step out of his hold before.
Unable to pry my thoughts away from the shackle he had on them, time became inconsequential, flowing like the endless sky as slowly, my gaze drifted up his body, across his hard-set jawline to meet his mossy-colored eyes.
There was something more rugged and handsome about him than I’d noticed before. Something that cried out at me to throw my arms around his neck, and toss all caution to the wind like a wave against the shoreline .
But I needed to decide if the pain that would inevitably come from this man was worth it. There was no doubt, he’d just proven he was a wild soul. Not one to set roots down anywhere.
But were roots what I wanted?
“That was pretty impressive,” I finally said.
The swirls in his eyes twinkled beneath the stars as a gentle smile softened his face. He opened his mouth, ready to speak.
“And absolutely reckless.” Someone else shouted first. Bernie pulled his lips together, knotting his jaw as I sighed.
His mom.
Pain flitted briefly across his expression before he winked and walked around me. I turned as his mom snatched his ear lobe and jerked him sideways, dragging him into the shadows away from the crowd.
“Go easy on him,” I whispered after the ghost of their figures. “He did it for me.”
Closing my eyes, I shook my head. How immature it had been for me to be upset at him. Though I was still going to give him a very short-lived tongue-lashing for jumping into a fight he wasn’t needed in, I couldn’t help but see the sweet nature of it.
“Soooooo,” Emma said, snapping me out of the haze I floated in. “Someone’s got a crush.” She flung her arm around my shoulders.
I rolled my eyes. “He’s just…” A friend? An acquaintance? I wasn’t even sure what he was, and I hated to admit that I knew what I wanted him to be.
“He’s just someone I know,” I quickly finished .
“Someone who gave you googly eyes and totally has the hots for you,” Emma explained, letting her arm fall from my shoulders.
“Those googly eyes were made at you, obviously,” I replied, facing my best friend.
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “I’m very accustomed to when men give me that look. He’s not into me.”
“I barely know him.”
“And? Get to know him. Fuck him. Do something. He’s hot and clearly very confident in himself.”
“And in the military.” I raised my shoulders up to my ears.
“Oh,” Emma muttered. She crossed her arms and hung her head. “That complicates things.”
“Yeah,” I quietly replied and ripped my gaze away from Emma. I hadn’t expected how hard it would hit me when I finally spoke that out loud to someone else. Biting back tears, my bottom lip trembled, but I refused to let some guy get to me. “It doesn’t matter anyway. One, Wyatt. But more so, it’s not like he actually likes me. He’s not flirting with me. He hasn’t flirted with me.”
The lies cut like a guillotine, slicing across my tongue, but denying the fact that I knew better was easier than admitting there would never be anything between us.
“He’s given you a nickname, Kat. I can guarantee he’s flirted. How’d he come up with that anyway?” Emma asked, her voice softening with sympathy.
Wiping the back of my hand across my nose, I bit the inside of my cheek. “He helped castrate. His first time around cattle ever apparently. Poor guy slipped on shit.” I giggled lightly and looked back at my friend with a strained smile. “I offered to pay him with a candy bar and a clean shirt after. He said his favorite is a Kit Kat.”
Her brows tightened and she tipped her head. “That’s it?”
I nodded and then paused. “Actually, explain this to me. Later when he reminded me I owed him a Kit Kat I told him I didn’t actually have one and he goes—” I cleared my throat, lowering my voice to mimic Bernie the best I could, and continued, “I wasn’t talking about the candy bar.”
A smirk rose on Emma’s face and she bit down on her bottom lip. “By this point, had he been calling you Kit Kat?” she asked.
“Yes? But that doesn’t matter.” I waved a hand at her, dismissing her comment so I could finish my story. “Anyway, I reminded him that a Kit Kat is a candy bar, and he says, and I quote, ‘I can’t fuck an actual candy bar.’ Please tell me what he meant, because I’m so lost and haven’t been able to let it go since he said that.”
Emma’s mouth flew open, her eyes widening as a sharp squeal escaped her lips.
I stumbled backward.
“Kat, you are the most stubborn and wonderful and clueless girl I have ever met,” she gushed, her cheeks turning red.
My heart raced, pounding against my ribcage as she shrieked again and danced in a little circle. “Oh my goodness!” she squealed and then immediately paused. Her hazel eyes narrowed, and she shot a steely glare at me. “Hold on, does he know? ”
Raising my brows, I shrugged my shoulders. “Does he know what? Emma, I don’t know why you’re freaking out like you are because I still don’t understand what he meant.”
“Does he know you’re a virgin? Because he, in not-so-subtle terms, told you he wants to fuck you,” she bluntly stated, and I slapped a hand over my mouth as every muscle in my body went as rigid as concrete.
He wanted to what?