A Wild Ride Read Free Page A

Ryan had danced with a girl, she kept pressing her bosoms against him and she wore way too much perfume. He swore he smelled like flowers for three days. “See, I told you,” Jacky said, looking toward the back of the bar.
    “Told me what?” Ryan asked, looking around and following Jack’s gaze.
    “You’re the center of attention.” Jacky inclined his head toward a small, slight man playing pool at one of the tables. “He keeps looking over here at you between shots. And the girl with the man in the corner, she keeps glancing over here too.”
    “That doesn’t mean anything,” Ryan said, but he glanced toward the pool table and saw the man looking at him. Their eyes met for a few seconds, and then the other man looked away and went back to his shot. “He could have been looking at anyone over here, even you.” Ryan couldn’t help teasing, and when Jacky’s mouth fell open, Ryan laughed and then jumped when Jacky kicked him under the table.
    Ryan drank his beer as the bar continued to fill with people, most of them in western wear.
    “See the guy talking to the girl with the big boobs at the bar?” Jacky asked, and Ryan nodded. “He’s a bull rider. I think I’ve seen him a couple times at some of the rodeos.” Jacky squinted and could barely sit still, but Ryan wasn’t paying much attention. The man in the back was definitely watching him. “Go on. Walk back there and ask him if he’d like to shoot a game with you. Break the ice and see what happens.”
    “Come on. He’s just watching,” Ryan said before taking a gulp from his glass. Then he took another and emptied it. Jacky signaled a waitress, and she brought him another. Ryan downed half of that beer before getting up the nerve to stand up and make his way back. He skirted the dance floor and was almost at the pool table when another guy approached the man and they began to talk. Ryan wasn’t sure what he should do and he didn’t want to be too obvious in a place like this, so he went over to the other table, placing money in the slot for a game. Ryan caught Jacky’s eye, but Jacky was pointedly ignoring him, so Ryan racked the balls and wondered what the hell he should do next. He’d look stupid playing by himself.
    “Are you all alone?” a rich voice asked, and Ryan jumped slightly before turning around. The man who’d been watching him looked back at him. He had to be nearly a foot shorter than Ryan, and thin, but with corded muscles on his arms.
    “Yeah,” Ryan answered after he swallowed. “Would you like to play?”
    The man moved the tiniest bit closer. “I certainly would.” His cologne, surprisingly subtle, mixed with the man’s natural scent, reaching Ryan’s nose, and he had to stop himself from inhaling deeply to get more of it. “I love to play.” He smiled devilishly before adding in a rather low voice, “Pool.”
    Ryan finished racking the balls and pulled away the frame, his hand shaking slightly for a second, but he forced it still again. “You can break if you like,” Ryan offered, and the other man simply stared at him.
    “I may bend, but I rarely break,” he said with a wink that had Ryan’s heart pounding in his chest. He glanced over at Jacky, who was talking to a tall man in full cowboy regalia. Jacky glanced over and nodded slightly before smiling and turning back to his companion. This hardly seemed like the kind of place where guys went to meet other guys, but maybe it was. Or maybe they were both damned lucky. “I’m Dante,” the man added before reaching for a cue. Ryan noticed that Dante hadn’t taken his eyes off him for a second, which was just fine.
    “Ryan,” he said, getting his own cue. Ryan extended his hand, and Dante shook it, his rough hand firm and strong. “Go ahead—let’s see just how bendy you can get without breaking.” Two could play this game, and Ryan saw Dante pause, then lift an eyebrow suggestively. Ryan met the steely, electrically charged gaze with one of his