BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (44 page)

All of this, having a relationship that I
cared about, as well as another person to take into consideration when I get
all crazy, was something that I wasn’t sure I wanted, but still didn’t want to
let go of.

I had to admit, I was having fucking fun
with her and I was curious on where our life would take us. So, I kept the
relationship going and stayed faithful, even though I had no guarantees that was
what I even wanted.

I wasn’t the least bit nervous, but the
time of registration and all of the other bullshit that needed to take place
before the competition could commence went faster than normal.

I supposed I just wanted to get out there
and start showing this little beach town what a real strong man looked like;
and when I got a glimpse of the competition, I did my best not to laugh.

It was actually worse than anything I had
imagined. The men in the competition were seriously worthless.

I’ll
be surprised if any of these fuckers could even participate in the
competitions, much less actually compete.
I thought to
myself and remembered what Ashley had said about challenging myself before
anyone else.
Today, it looks like I am
going to be competing with myself after everyone else. These losers are
laughable.

Then, as soon as the competition started,
I was assured that things were definitely going to go my way.

The first competition, squatting, I won by
a mile, or rather about a hundred pounds. It was so bad I almost fucking felt
sorry for them.

Then, the next competition was loading,
which I also aced, far among the rest of the other contestants.

Still, it was a hot day and I was breaking
a very fluid sweat, but I wasn’t about to let that bring me down, seeing as all
I had to do now was beat my own record. The gold in this competition was
already mine.

A few more competitions were battled out,
with myself staying in the fucking lead, far ahead of all the other piss-heads
and wannabes. Eventually, they knew as well as I did that they were competing
for second at the very least, but I didn’t allow the assurance of a win to
break my stride.

I continued to work through the events one
at a time, putting the maximum amount of effort into it, while keeping a keen eye
on Ashley, who had managed a front row seat and cheered me on constantly.

Once again, I had to admit that it was
pretty fucking awesome to have a woman who was continuously trying to help me
to succeed. I definitely didn’t want to lose the shit I had going for me now. I
couldn’t imagine the sense of disappointment I would feel if I lost the
connection that Ashley and I had now.

Therefore, I vowed to try my best to
continue to make it work.

Chapter
39

Ashley

Even though it felt like I had spent the
entirety of my life throughout the last two weeks trying to help Tyler train
for the competition, once it actually started, I realized I still had little to
no knowledge of what was going on.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that
I had forgotten to ask what I now thought would be some of the most basic
questions, such as how the competition was scored and what to look for in
people with talent.

So, instead of trying to figure it out, I
just cheered for Tyler and hoped for the best.

It was clear though, that Tyler knew what
he was doing, while everyone else seemed to just be winging it. He was
definitely the most toned person there and his understanding of how it all
worked was obvious.

Throughout the whole competition, Tyler
didn’t lose his smile, or his cocky showmanship, but I knew that wasn’t really
an indication of whether he was doing well or coming in dead last. I was almost
positive, even though I had never seen him fail at anything, that to keep up
appearances, no matter how badly he might have been doing, he still would never
allow that smile to be wiped off of his face.

After all, if there was one thing I had
learned about Tyler through the entirety of the time we had spent together was
that he never, under any circumstances took no for an answer.

In a way I admired that about him, but in
another way completely, I found that part of him to be a total pain in the ass.

When it came to the deadweight
competition, I held my breath and hoped that he was winning the competition.
Once again, his form was better than anyone else’s, but I did know that there
was more to what was going on besides just form. I knew that there was some
kind of scoring system, but I realized that no matter what happened with him,
others in the crowd continued to cheer him on.

In a way, even though I wasn’t completely
sure what to be proud of, I still felt an immense sense of pride
toward
his work in general. I knew how hard he had trained for this and therefore, win
or lose, I was going to be thrilled.

At the very end there was the pulling
challenge, which had each contestant pull a truck with just their body weight
and strength. Once again, I was sure that Tyler had done magnificently, but I
couldn’t be completely sure until the winner was announced.

When the competition was over, the judges
deliberated for a little while until finally, they came out with a first,
second and third place.

Of course, they waited to reveal first
place until last and as they carefully laid out the winners of the first two
places, I held my breath, both hoping to hear Tyler’s name among the winners,
but slightly more hopeful that he didn’t get called until the very end.

After a long lead-in, in order to add to
the already mounting anticipation that had taken over the area, the announcer
made it official. Tyler won and I could barely contain my excitement. I jumped
up and down and screamed at the top of my lungs as he moved up to receive his
prize.

Yet, I noticed with a sense of happiness
that it wasn’t exactly the prize that Tyler had his eye on now; it was me.

Tyler flashed me a wink and I felt my
heart flutter while I watched him strut up to be front and center.

The whole crowd was going wild, but I knew
that he was looking at me and for the first time in a really long time, I was
happy for someone that was actually close to me, besides just a friend. I don’t
think that I had ever been prouder of anyone.

In a way, with all of the help that I had
tried to provide and the amount of emotion that I held for him, whether I
wanted to or not at this point, I was also proud of myself. I felt as though I
had done something significant in order for the win to have been attributed to
Tyler.

However, after everything that had gone on
during this summer, I didn’t feel bad or think that I didn’t deserve this. I
had worked hard and so had Tyler. For once in a very long time, I felt as
though I deserved every bit of the sensation that I had coursing through my
body.

When everything had calmed down and I was
able to meet up with him, I was still ecstatic. I felt as though my whole life
had a meaning and a purpose that I had never quite been able to contemplate
before. It was fantastic and I was ready to take every inch of that pride for
myself.

I had the distinct feeling that it wasn’t
just me and it wasn’t just him and I anymore; we had achieved something
together and that meant a lot to me.

So, as soon as I saw him in the crowd, I
was overwhelmed with emotion and excitement. I was happy to see that Tyler also
moved with a sense of excitement as I grew closer to him.

When we were within arm’s length of one
another, we embraced and, without even thinking, as I was completely
overwhelmed by the passion and excitement running through my body from the
adrenaline of the win, I leaned up and pressed my mouth against Tyler’s
zealously and comfortably.

For the moment, we were the only two
people that mattered in the world. There might be a whole crowd surrounding us,
but all we saw and all we felt was one another.

The now familiar taste of him was inviting
and alluring. Forgetting the world that surrounded us, he grasped onto me and
pulled me closer to him.

The moment, for the short period of time
that it lasted, was incredibly powerful. I had never felt such an amazing
experience coming unto me before, especially in public. All I really wanted to
do was tear his clothes off and make love to him right then and there.

However, the moment of such wild, careless
desire was short-lived, when I heard my father’s voice booming out to me, loudly
and completely shocked.

“Ashley! What the hell are you doing?” he
demanded, just before I felt his hand grasp my arm and yank me backwards.

Tyler instinctively moved toward the man
who was pulling me backward, but stopped short when he saw that it was my
father. “What are you doing here?” He sounded stunned.

“I came to watch you compete,” my father
answered heatedly. “But I certainly saw more than I bargained for…”

I looked at my father, who glared between
the two of us with a red face, full of fury. I knew that the only reason he
wasn’t completely going off on us was simply because he was too shocked to
rationalize his words.

Just like us, he couldn’t seem to
understand the full extent of what was going on. The world now seemed to be
spinning on around us, while we were completely oblivious to it, but for a
different reason.

I felt sick to my stomach.

“Come on, Ashley, we are going home,” my
father said sternly.

I glanced at him and thought of saying
something to the contrary, but figured this wouldn’t be the time. I just nodded
and left with him, without saying a word.

Chapter
40

Tyler

“Fuck!” I muttered to myself as I made my
way back to where the winners were supposed to meet up for a group photo.

I knew that I was distracted and that had
made the whole competition a shit-ton harder for me, but I had been just as
happy.

I enjoyed the idea of having someone to
cheer for me, but now, her father had gone and fucked everything up.

I sighed, trying to let some of the
aggravated tension I had built up in me go, before I just shook my head and
looked down at the ground. I couldn’t believe my rotten luck. I was just
starting to figure things out.

I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that we
would never get caught, but I figured it wouldn’t be at a time like that.

Since
when does he give a fuck about my life?
I thought with seething
anger as I kicked a rock through the crowd and then ran the other way so the
person that it hit wouldn’t figure out it was me.

I wasn’t afraid of them, though. I just
didn’t want a confrontation, because I felt like I would end up doing something
that I regretted and that was the last thing I needed. So, I just shook my head
again and grumbled as I made my way into the middle of the losers who thought
they were hot shit, just because they made it to a place that was deemed the
‘winners’ circle.

I had come in first and in my mind, that
was the only place that really mattered. Second and beyond were all beat by
someone, usually me and that’s all there was to it. I had always maintained the
mentality that if I wasn’t first, I was last, because no one but myself usually
gave a shit anyway; so I might as well try to be hard on myself. Normally, it
would make me feel all tingly and cocky, being surrounded by losers, taking the
gold; after all, I had worked pretty damn hard. But this didn’t make me feel
anything except disappointment right now. I didn’t have any will to even take
the trophy, because I didn’t feel like I had won anything.

Even though I had done what I came to do,
I had unexpectedly lost something far more valuable to me and that was
surprisingly bothersome.

The look in Ashley’s eyes when she walked
away with her father was haunting.

To me, it meant that the fun we had was
likely over, which sucked because on top of the fact that our relationship had
always made me work for something, I felt that it was also making me a better
person.

I had no interest in straying from Ashley.
We were having fun together and for once, I was beginning to feel a connection
to another person, instead of the selfish, conceited air that I had become
accustomed to.

Now, it was all fucking over.

After we took the pictures, which were
probably going to be in the paper the next day, or something for the town, I
took my prize and left.

Instead of going back to the beach house
right away though, I went down by the ocean and began to run. I figured it
might be good to give everyone some space, including myself.

So I forced myself to focus on everything
about my stride, the feel of the air entering and exiting my lungs and the
soreness of my muscles, which were really feeling the pressure after having
completed the competition, instead of worrying about what was going on back at
the house.