Black Horse (Breaking Black) (2 page)

Then there was the problem with Tim and Randy, though. Averi’s brothers could not know about Colton. If they did, they wouldn’t understand and a war would break out for sure this time. Colt respected Averi’s wishes and didn’t engage in any fights with her brothers, but if they shot first, Colton wouldn’t hesitate to take them down. He had to protect her, even from her own brothers. He had always looked out for her, from square one. While her brothers were too busy getting drunk and chasing tail around Oakeley, Colton was the one who actually watched her back. You couldn’t tell Tim and Randy that, though. Anytime they saw Averi and Colton together, the shit hit the fan. Averi was sick of the animosity between her brothers and Colton and she wanted to go public
with their relationship. It was an idea that she and Colton had batted around for years.

Averi shook herself from her deep thoughts and glanced at the patron in front of her. Wyatt Thompkins was a regular of the Monkey Bar. Wyatt slammed his empty glass on the surface of the bar with a far away look in his eyes.

“Another whiskey sour, Doll!” Wyatt barked in a raspy voice.

Averi eyed Wyatt speculatively. The old man had clearly had too much to drink.

“How about you and me sip on a pair of sweet teas, instead?” she suggested sweetly.

“I think I’d rather have the whiskey, darlin’,” Wyatt complained.

“C’mon, I’ll pour the tea and you can tell me a couple of your war stories. I bet all the girls loved you.”

The somber expression on Wyatt’s face softened. He knew Averi was looking out for him and she was too cute to say no to.

“Oh, sug…” he said with a sigh, “You pour, I’ll ramble…”

Averi smiled as she took away Wyatt’s empty tumbler and replaced it with a tall glass of sweet tea with a lemon.

The crack of a cue ball crashing against the 8 ball sounded loudly over the hum of chatter throughout the bar.

“Bullshit!” yelled Harvey Fisher as the 8 ball slid into the right corner pocket.

“Yeah! Pay up, sucka’,” yelled Jerry Cornish from across the pool table.

Harvey slammed a one hundred dollar bill on the table with an attitude. He grabbed his pack of smokes out of his shirt pocket and lit up as the stress from the day washed off of him.

“Rematch,” he said as his cigarette hung off his lip.

Behind them, a group of men had circled around the mechanical bull and were beginning to get rowdy. Someone cranked the juke box up as Rival Sons blared out over the crowd. It was your typical Saturday night at the Monkey Bar… until Colt McClain walked in. The son of Black Horse, himself. It was a name that was feared around these parts. His father was notorious for several reasons. Not only did he murder his wife and her lover, but he abandoned his own son Colton, and murdered Averi Ford’s parents and brother, too.

Colton McClain walked in like he owned the joint. He must’ve just come from the gym because he was freshly showered and pulsing with adrenaline. His gray hoodie was unzipped revealing a black t-shirt that stretched taut across his chest muscles and caused Averi’s thoughts to plunge into the gutter. She could barely make out his eyes under his hood, but the edge of his smile curved up sneakily in a cocky grin.

Women peered away from their dates and stared his way. It was a lost cause, though. Every woman in the place knew he only had eyes for one woman: Averi Ford. His best friend since childhood and the one girl he ever gave the time of day to. That didn’t stop them from trying, though.

“Oh, hi Colton!” shouted Debbie from the dance floor.

Colton ignored her not breaking his eye contact with Averi. He sauntered across the bar, weaving through the crowd effortlessly. Averi took him in, the intensity of his stare, all consuming. She couldn’t hear the beat of the bass, Johnny Doyle asking for a Miller Lite or Shelly calling her name. It was as if time stood still.

Colt removed his hoodie revealing his purposely messy hair that he literally just gelled and shook into place. It worked. It was incredibly sexy.
Colton took a seat down at the opposite end of the bar from where Averi stood on purpose. He knew she’d come to him. Averi lifted an eyebrow sassily as she shook her head. She would let him simmer for a while before she strut down the opposite end of the bar.

Suddenly, the lights over the mechanical bull came to life. Music began to pump as the bull bucked and roared. They called her Bessie, and she was a fickle bitch. She loved to throw her riders off her back the first chance she got. Another part of the job that Averi didn’t like was riding the bull. It’s not that she was bad at it… She was actually one of the best bull riders they had. It was the attention she got. It immediately put Colt in a bad mood.

A voice over the loudspeaker spoke, “Alright, fellas! You know what time it is!”

Before the voice on the loudspeaker could complete his sentence, he was drowned out by a sea of shouts. No one was happier that it was bull night than Jimmy Hearns.

“Alright, baby! Git on up there!” Jimmy yelled earning him an evil glare from Colt.

Averi gave Colt an apologetic look, but instead of looking annoyed, he gave her a sly wink, basically telling her, “Do you
r thing, girl… I’ll be right over here.”

Averi slapped a smile on her face and weaved through the crowd.  She egged the crowd on as she approached the bull waving her hands in the air and sashaying towards Bessie. Colt had his tongue in his cheek as he watched his girl taunt the men. He found great satisfaction knowing that they all got off from her little show, but only he got to take her home.

There was nothing risqué about what she was doing… nothing X-rated… but the cat calls that came from the men suggested otherwise. Jimmy, calling the loudest, begged for her to mount the bull.

She climbed onto the bull as Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” began to crank from the jukebox. The men’s eyes wandered up her long legs whistling for the bull to start.

The bull came to life swinging Averi around, bucking and breaking, but she held on tight as can be. The men stared at her curves as they whipped around, her breasts threatening to pop from her purposely tiny work shirt. Averi hated the outfits they had to wear. Some of the men panted for the moment that she would be tossed from the bull, hoping to see a bit of flesh that they hadn’t been allowed thus far. They wouldn’t get their wish though. She held on, riding the wave, grinding against the saddle as the mechanical bull throttled her back and forth and all around. Averi Ford knew a thing or two about how to hold on through a vicious storm. After three minutes of non-stop thrashing, the bull stopped. Averi climbed up on the bull’s saddle and tipped her cowboy hat to the crowd, then jumped down in victory as the men’s calls turned to a deafening roar.

“117th Saturday in a row that Averi has bested that heifer! Let’s give Averi a round of applause.”

Averi waved and laughed at the response. Secretly, it annoyed her, but she played a good sport because the tips more than made up for her animosity towards bull night.

Averi made her way out of the bull pen, but someone blocked her path. Suddenly Jimmy Hearns was in her face, staring at her with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.  He hadn’t noticed Colton’s arrival at the bar and he suddenly had some liquid courage in him.

“Back so soon, Jim?” Averi asked.

“Yeah. I got a proposition for you…”

“A proposition, huh?” Averi could feel the heat of Colton’s stare from the opposite end of the bar.

“You. Me. My place. Tonight.”

Averi gave a sideways glance at Colt as she bit her lower lip. She flipped her dark brown hair behind her shoulder before answering him.

“No can do, Jimmy.”

“Why?”

“You know I’m spoken for…”

Jimmy grabbed Averi’s hand. Averi snatched it out of his grasp.

“Stop being such a fucking tease!”

Before Averi could reply, she heard the heavy weight of a beer mug hit the surface of the bar. Colt was waiting in the wings, as he always did. Jimmy wasn’t taking no for an answer, though. With anger, rage and lust in his eyes, Jimmy grabbed her again, only this time hard on her upper arms. His knuckles turned white as he squeezed tight. Unable to move her arms, she did the only thing she could. Averi spit in Jimmy’s face as she tried to break free. Only pissed off further, Jimmy lifted Averi over the fence that caged the mechanical bull, sitting her ass on top of the fence as he got a better look at her.

“Should somebody call security?” Wyatt asked Shelly.

“Don’t bother, hon… It’s under control,” Shelly said as she watched Colt go on the rampage.

Jimmy’s lip snarled as he spoke.
 

“Now I’m gonna tell you one more time. You’re coming wit me,” he said to
Averi in a threatening tone.

The sound of a pair of boots beating against the hardwood floor sounded from the far side of the room.

“Get a life, Jimmy! This is how you get girls to come home with you?!” Averi screamed, her eyes burning into his skull.

Jimmy could feel someone approach him from behind.

“Back off, Black Horse… I ain’t in the mood for your shit!”

Colt’s jaw muscle flexed impatiently as he glared at the back of Jimmy’s head.

In a voice as cold as steel, Colton said, “The name’s Colt. Black Horse is my father. You wanna remove your hands from the lady?”

“Lady. Back off, Black Horse. This ain’t none of your business!” Jimmy said as he reached around grabbing Averi’s ass.

Colton’s patience, notoriously a thing of fiction, snapped. Averi beat him to the punch though. She grabbed Debbie’s martini that was sitting on a nearby table and splashed the alcohol in Jimmy’s face.

“What the
fuck
?!”

“I said get off of me.”

Jimmy didn’t remove his hands though.

“What the fuck does he have that I don’t?”

Averi laughed. She knew what was coming.

Colton grabbed the back of Jimmy’s shirt and turned him around to face him. He backed him up until he was within an inch of his face.

“How about a pair of balls, you piece of shit. Touch my girl again… See what the fuck happens!”

With that, Colton’s upper cut collided with Jimmy Hearn’s jaw sending him flying backwards over the bar. As the mayhem broke out, Averi grabbed Shelly’s hand and ran for the back room. As she turned around, she could see Jimmy’s buddies, Frank and Earl, try to take him down but old Wyatt sent a pair of whiskey bottles flying their way.

“When you gonna marry that boy?” Shelly asked as they dodged flying beer bottles on their dash to the back office.

“The friggin’ second he asks!” Averi yelled.

***

Jimmy Hearns stumbled out of the bar with Tony and Fred behind him. The guys at the pool table asked Colton if they could buy him a beer, but he waved them off.

“Gotta take a leak…” he said as he removed his now tattered black fitted tee. With it, he wiped the sweat from his brow and tossed it in the trash.

He mo
sied down the hall towards the men’s room, but as he was just about to turn into the bathroom, he felt a tug on the waist band of his jeans. Before he knew it, he was being pulled into the back office by Averi, her lips tracing the firm line of his jaw and her teeth biting into his neck. Before he could let out his breath, her tongue was dancing with his. He pushed her back gently, clearing the desk of its contents and sitting her on top.

“You’re gonna be the death of me, girl…” he said as he ravaged her neck and slid his tongue towards her ear.

Averi slid her hands across the firm expanse of his chest, feeling the hard muscles underneath.

“Shut up… You love it.”

Colton smirked slyly.

“Fighting for you? It never gets old.”

Grabbing her hair hard, he twisted it in his grasp and pulled Averi towards him and he let his heart take over. He kissed her hard, his unbridled passion building with intensity.

“We can’t keep this a secret much longer…” Colt said to Averi with a concerned look on his face. It looked foreign when combined with his cocky half-smile and rugged five o’ clock shadow. Averi pursed her lips and smiled, “Sure we can… You can be my dirty little secret.”

“Trust me, girl… There isn’t anything little about me,” remarked Colton as a smoldering smile escaped his sexy mouth.

Before Averi’s gasp could release from her pouty lips, Colton took her. Right there on the desk. He tore off her shirt, ripping it straight off her body. The fabric screeched as Colt mauled it and threw it on the floor. He buried his face in her breasts as she threw her head back in ecstasy. He lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his body, pulling her into a smoking hot kiss. She couldn’t catch her breath, he was moving so fast. He swung her around the room, sending her crashing into the wall. Their hands rushed, as if they couldn’t get enough of each other. Until finally, Colt found what he was looking for. The buckle on her belt. As her shorts dropped, her hoisted her against the wall and plunged inside her, making her feel every
inch of his desire. As their passions heated beyond the boiling point, Averi melted into his arms and sealed their exchange with a final kiss.