Page 1 of A Lot Like Love
Chapter 1
Chloe knew she was being a hypocrite. Only months ago she was on campus campaigning for animal rights, and now here she was sitting front and center at a rodeo, and loving every minute of it.
She raised her beer and took a sip, laughing when her friend grabbed the hat off the guy next to them and dropped it onto her head.
“Yee-haw!” Shelly giggled.
Chloe smiled her apology and gave the hat back, wishing she was drunk. Shelly had always been able to drink her under the table when they were at college together, but these days Chloe wasn’t even close to keeping up with her. The last thing she wanted was to face work with a thumping headache, so she’d been nursing the same beer for over an hour.
“Who isthat?”
She looked up and followed Shelly’s gaze. They were standing near where the riders were waiting, and had ogled plenty of the Wrangler-clad cowboys, but this guy was… Chloe gulped as he glanced over at them. His bright blue eyes locked on hers through the crowd. It was impossible to look away. He raised his hat, slowly, still watching her, a lazy grin kicking the corners of his mouth into a smile that almost turned her to liquid.
“Is he looking straight at you?” Shelly hissed.
“Um,” Chloe murmured, tongue darting out to moisten lips that had turned as dry as the dirt beneath her boots. “Yeah. I think he is.” She knew he was, because he still hadn’t looked away.
The cowboy touched the corner of his hat, with the barest hint of a nod, before he looped his thumbs into his jeans and strode off. Chloe blew out a breath and laughed when Shelly fanned at her face with her hand.
“Is it hot out here or is it just me?”
“Hot,” Chloe replied, sipping her now lukewarm beer for something to do. “So freaking hot.”
It may as well have been one hundred degrees—her whole body felt clammy, and her skin flushed from the burning intensity of the cowboy who was now climbing over the metal railings, brushing some powder onto his hands, and settling onto the back of a huge black bull. She watched as he joked with the guys gathered around, settling himself in the seconds before they opened the gate.
“And getting even hotter with that bucking bull between his thighs,” Shelly said with a grin. “Hot, hot, hot.”
“Our next rider is competing to retain the title belt.” The speakers crackled, the voice fading, then audible again. “Give a round of applause for our current title holder, Ryder King!”
King.She knew that name. Then the penny dropped. She might not have grown up in Texas, but she’d heard about the King family, had met a couple of the brothers in the bar she worked at. But she definitely hadn’t met this brother. The other guys had been handsome, but this one…damn. His dark brown hair had been messy before he’d put his hat on, eyes as bright as the ocean on a summer’s day, and the way his jeans hung low on his hips, muscled forearms on show with his shirt rolled to his elbows, was enough to make her heart beat overtime.
“We need more beer.”
Chloe ignored Shelly. She couldn’t take her eyes off the bull rider, and besides, she wasn’t interested in drinking anything other than soda for the rest of the afternoon. The massive beast was charging around the ring, head down, and Ryder was holding on with one hand, the other flung out in the air behind him as he rode out each buck, body jerking one way, then the other. Until one big buck in the middle of 180-degree spin sent him flying through the air.
Shit!
Chloe’s heart was pounding as she pushed through the crowd, grabbing hold of the fence and trying to see where he’d fallen, if he was okay. She searched the ring frantically, and cringed as the furious bull careened in her direction then charged off toward the center of the ring again. That’s when she saw Ryder, stumbling backward, fast, and launching himself up on the railings, a grin on his face so wide it made her furious.
“Damn idiot could have killed himself,” she muttered.
“What was that, darlin’?”
She glanced at a man standing beside her, only noticing him now that she wasn’t in tunnel-vision mode over Ryder. She must have practically knocked him over to get past.
“Nothing, sorry.”
Chloe dragged her eyes from the ring and headed back to wait for Shelly.Stupid cowboy.She didn’t know if it was the frenzied crowd or the burning hot sun, but something was making her crazy enough to even look at the cowboy like he was someone she could be interested in.
“You looked thirsty,” Shelly said, laughing as she passed her a cold beer and banged the bottles together.
Chloe jumped back but still managed to get sprayed with beer foam. Her friend was starting to get so drunk she wouldn’t even notice if Chloe nursed the beer without drinking it.
“Damn.” She wiped at her jeans before giving up. They’d dry and it wasn’t like it mattered—they were almost ready to leave. Which meant it was almost time for her shift at Joe’s.
“You know that guy we were watching? Absolute idiot,” she muttered to Shelly. “I mean, he jumped on that crazy big beast, fell off and just about got his head stomped in, then the next minute he was laughing and everyone’s clapping like he’s a…”
“Chlo,” Shelly said, interrupting her.“Chloe.”Louder this time.
