Unridden: A Studs in Spurs novel (13 page)

“They kind of have to be young to ride bulls. The oldest pro bull rider in competition is thirty-eight.”

Jenna glanced around and realized all eyes were upon her.

“How do you know all this?” Ann, also a city girl, asked.

“She’s writing a cowboy book,” Barb supplied.

Jenna nodded her head, thankful for Barb’s explanation. She’d finally confessed to Barb the contemporary she was writing was a cowboy theme but that was it. “Yup. I’ve been doing my research. You’d be amazed what you can find on the Internet.”

Megan nodded. “Oh yeah. You should see all the stuff I found on treatments for insanity during the Regency period in England.”

With that, the conversation turned to what it always did when authors got together, whatever books they were working on.

Jenna breathed a sigh of relief that the spotlight was off of her and took the time to look around the bar. Resigned to the fact that Slade and Mustang weren’t there, it somehow made her feel better that she could identify some of the riders from the competition.

Her eyes wandered, and she noted one pair trained on her. The cowboy caught her eye and before she could avert her gaze; he was smiling and heading her direction.

Wide-eyed, she watched as he made a beeline to their table, tipped his hat.

All conversation stopped again as the three romance authors, as eager for a good story in life as on paper, watched the action between Jenna and the young bull rider.

He gave her a, “Howdy, ma’am” that in any other situation would have charmed the pants off her. If, that is, he wasn’t a child and if she wasn’t already half in love with Slade and Mustang.

“Um, hi.”

“I recognized you from the stands and I just thought I’d say hey.”

Jenna glanced at the interested glances of her friends. “Um, I’m sorry. You must be mistaken.”

“Last night. You were seated with the riders wives and girlfriends…you know, right behind the chutes.”

“Um, no. Sorry. Must have been somebody else.”

Strangely, his face brightened. “Really? Hmm. Well, I apologize for the mistake and I’d like to ask you to dance.”

With another look at the women at the table, Jenna was torn what to do. Go with him to the dance floor so at least he was away from her friends and couldn’t out her? Or say no thank you and hope he went away.

Apparently she had no choice in the matter because her friends practically flung her from the table while at the same time the young bull rider grabbed her hand and led her out to the dance floor.

Before Jenna knew it, she was encased in his arms and spinning around the hardwood, exactly where she had been the night before but in Mustang’s embrace. When exactly had her life gotten so strange?

“So, I have to admit something to you. I’m glad I made a mistake about you being at the arena last night.”

Her writer’s curiosity raised, Jenna couldn’t help herself and asked, “Why is that?”

He grinned charmingly, his blue eyes twinkling. “Because if that had been you in the VIP section, that would mean you were with one of the other riders.”

Jenna sighed as she evaluated if this kid was old enough to legally even be in the bar and drink. “Listen, um, what was your name?”

“Chase.” He smiled again.

“Hi, Chase. I’m Jenna.”

Chase dipped his head once in greeting. “Jenna, that’s a beautiful name. It fits you perfectly. A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”

Damn, the kid had all the bar pick up lines down already. She ignored his flirting and got back to the issue at hand, the fact that Chase recognized her from the competition. What if he brought up again how he thought he’d seen her the night before and the other authors started to ask questions? He could expose her to her friends as a liar and a sneak, not to mention a slut if you added in the two cowboys she’d had sex with.

“Listen, Chase. I’m going to tell you a secret and I’m going to ask you not to tell anyone else. Can you do that?”

“Sure.” He looked tickled that she was willing to share a confidence with him.

“I was at the arena last night but I lied to my friends back there and told them I was somewhere else.”

Chase frowned and glanced back at the table full of women. “Why?”

Sighing, Jenna decided to try something new for a change and told him the truth...most of it anyway. “It’s kind of complicated, but long story short, I’m a writer.”

“Wow! Have I read anything you’ve written?”

“I doubt it, but the point is, it is an extremely competitive business and, for certain reasons, I didn’t want one particular author to know that I was at the competition last night researching my book.”

Chase nodded. “Because she might steal your idea.”

Jenna smiled. “Yeah, something like that. To keep her from knowing, I lied to all my friends about it. So you understand why I can’t let any of my friends back there know that you saw me last night?”

Chase glanced back at the table of women, who were no doubt still watching them like hawks, then leaned in conspiratorially. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”

He didn’t lean back after the whisper, but stayed with his head pressed against hers. He was taller than her, but with his head tipped down, Chase’s sandy curls tickled her face.

She might have been tempted, in another lifetime where she was ten years younger and not still sore from a night of having sex with not one, but two of this kid’s fellow bull riders. But as things stood, Jenna was old and, in spite of last night’s threesome, not a loose enough woman to sleep her way through the ranks of the top bull riders, even though Chase was absolutely adorable and obviously interested in her.

It was up to Jenna to lean her head back so she could point the obvious issue out to him. “Chase. How old are you?”

He grinned proudly. “Twenty-one today, ma’am.”

Twenty-one.
Jeez
. Jenna stifled a groan at that revelation.

He should only know that the constant ma’am-ing was not helping his case with her one bit. “Chase. Listen. I am way too old for you.”

“Heck no, you’re not. I like women a few years older than me.”

A few!
She controlled a burst of bitter laughter at his description of her. But it did explain why he was bothering with her and not one of the young girls scattered around the bar giving Jenna the evil eye for dancing with Chase. She allowed herself another glance at them, and if they were old enough to legally drink, she’d eat Chase’s hat.

Jenna directed her focus back onto Chase, who was obviously having a little younger-man-older-woman-Mrs.-Robinson fantasy for himself, so the age issue wasn’t going to dissuade him. She’d have to try another tactic.

“I’m not exactly available, Chase.” That wasn’t really a lie either. No, she wasn’t dating Slade or Mustang by any stretch of the imagination, but they were the only ones she was interested in at the moment, hence, that made her unavailable.

Even if they were probably with some other woman. The resurgence of that thought twisted her gut nicely.

“Is he here with you now?” Chase looked around the bar, knowing full well she’d walked in with three women and no men since the entire bar had turned to watch their entrance.

“No.” Unfortunately.

She hated the thought of where they were and what they were doing.

Chase smiled sweetly. “Then don’t worry about it. It’s just a dance, Jenna. Make a cowboy happy on his birthday and give him just one dance. Okay?”

Feeling a bit relieved, Jenna returned his smile. “Okay.”

As Chase steered her expertly around the dance floor to the strains of some broken-heart country song, she let herself relax and enjoy the dance and the attention. Who knew when she’d get such unfailing male devotion again once she left Tulsa?

Where were these kind of guys when she was growing up? Certainly not in the suburbs of New York. Apparently, she should have come to Tulsa years ago.

“In case I don’t get a chance later, I just wanted to thank you for the dance, Jenna.”

“You’re welcome. It is the least I can do for your twenty-first birthday.” She smothered a cringe at the number she hadn’t been able to claim in a long, long time.

“Then maybe I can get just one little kiss? You know, for my birthday.” Chase raised his brow expectantly and treated Jenna to a sweetly naughty, cherubic grin that only made her laugh.

“Don’t push it, cowboy.” Jenna’s warning probably held less weight considering she was trying not to laugh at his creative tactics while she said it.

Chase smiled. “We’ll see. I think you’ll come around to my way of thinking.”

Now, Jenna did laugh at him. “Oh boy, you are a persistent one.”

“You have to be persistent in this business. Hey! Do you know that I’m up for Rookie of the Year? There’s a good chance I’ll get it too, as long as I make both my rides tomorrow night.”

Jenna realized she’d been hanging around this environment too much when she heard herself ask, “Rookie of the Year. Do you get a buckle for that?”

Chase grinned wider. “Yes, ma’am. I do. You’re interested in buckles, are you?”

Obviously the term
Buckle Bunny
was familiar to even the younger riders and her interest in his pending buckle had gotten Chase’s hopes up even further. Jenna laughed again at the ridiculousness of the entire situation but still didn’t have it in her to totally crush his hopes.

“I’m interested in lots of things. It’s one of the side-effects of being a writer.”

Selfish as it felt, she was really enjoying the attention. It made her disappointment about Slade and Mustang’s absence, and her worries over where they were and who they were with, fade a bit. The song ended and Jenna took the opportunity to disengage herself from the arms of the kid young enough to be her biological child in certain third world countries. “Thanks for the dance, Chase. I enjoyed it, but I better get back to my friends now.”

Chase glanced back at the table and grinned. “Okay, but I think they’re doing just fine without you.”

Jenna followed his gaze and couldn’t believe what she saw.

What was going on?

Their table was totally swamped with bull riders, and by the looks on the faces of her friends, they loved it. “How did that happen?”

Chase laughed. “What can I say? We’re a welcoming group. Come on, I’ll walk you back to the table.”

They hadn’t even gotten all the way back to the corner yet when one of the bull riders spotted them. “Hey, Chase! Did you know these women all write romance novels?”

True to the cowboy gentleman stereotype, the cowboy who’d spoken abandoned the chair he occupied and swung it behind Jenna so she could sit. Jenna couldn’t remember the last time a man had given her his seat back in New York.

“That’s my friend, Garret.” Chase informed her, then raised a brow. “Romances, huh? You said you were a writer but you didn’t say romance.”

Jenna found herself not only seated, but also with a cup of beer. It mysteriously appeared and was shoved in her hand. Taking a gulp for lack of anything else to drink, she let the cold foam slide down her suddenly dry throat.

She looked up at Chase above her and shrugged. “Eh, you know, I like to remain mysterious.”

Chase squatted down next to the chair and tipped his hat back so he could look up at her.

He laughed. “You are that, Jenna. You definitely are that. Mysterious and beautiful.”

Jenna shook her head at him. “And you, Chase, are a flatterer and a flirt.”

She watched another smile curve his lips and sighed while trying to ignore how good the attention felt. She wrote it off to her thirty-five-year-old psyche enjoying the attentions of a younger, okay,
much
younger man. But a little innocent flattery couldn’t hurt anyone, could it?

Around her, the other three authors had never looked happier, each flanked by at least one cowboy. The one next to Barb, Garret, Chase had called him, grabbed the now empty pitcher and as he left to go refill it at the bar, Barb leaned over close to Jenna. “Oh, my God! These are real cowboys!”

Jenna laughed and whispered back, “Yeah, I know.”

“I mean
real
, not just guys who like to wear boots and hats,” Barb amended.

Yeah, she’d noticed that distinction herself. Still laughing, Jenna raised her voice. “Barbara, this is Chase. He’s competing in the bull riding finals and he’s up for Rookie of the Year.”

Chase stood and tipped his hat to Barb. “Ma’am.”

Jenna couldn’t help but smile at Barb’s raised brow as she looked from Jenna to Chase and back to Jenna again. If that look didn’t insinuate that Jenna should go for it, she didn’t know what it did say.

If only Barb knew Jenna had already gotten herself a cowboy, two in fact. That thought had Jenna glancing around the bar once more, looking for the two missing men.

Chase got pushed further back behind her when the other cowboy returned with another two full pitchers of beer and put them on the table. Barb took that opportunity to lean in again. “Chase is adorable.”

“Yeah, adorable, just like a puppy.” Jenna rolled her eyes.

Barb shrugged. “So he’s young. Big deal. It’s not like you’re going to marry him. I think you’d get more out of one night with him than that conference session you took about writing hotter sex.”

“Oh my God, Barb! You are so bad!” Jenna hissed and felt her face heat. She dared a glance in Chase’s direction and saw him watching her and smiling. Yeah, odds were good he knew he was the subject of the conversation, which had Jenna’s cheeks reddening even further, she was sure.

“When else can you be bad, Jenna? Come on. What happens at the romance writers’ convention in Tulsa, stays at the romance writers’ convention in Tulsa.”

Jenna seriously doubted that was true, considering the notorious gossips attending the conference.

Barb’s cowboy finally finished pouring beer for the table, including Jenna, she noted as she glanced at her almost overflowing cup. Jenna was happy when he then went back to focusing on Barb, which meant that Barb didn’t have the time to focus on Jenna’s sex life any further.

She felt a hand on her shoulder right before she felt a warm breath of air tickle her ear. “You sure are cute when you blush.”