Now, eight years later, stupid Branch Watson stood between me and my dream. I stepped around him, but he caught me by my waist. “The ring is no place for a woman. Turn that cute ass around and head back to the stands. You don’t belong here.” If he’d sounded smug or condescending, I’d have elbowed him in the balls and then stomped his pretty face. But his voice was full of concern, and that stilled my temper, just a little.

I gritted my teeth and jerked away hard, but Branch was strong. You had to be, to be a bull rider. He wrenched me back and not-so-gently slammed me into the wall of the pit beside me, pressing his whole body right along mine to keep me still. He may only have been 18 to my 17, but he had raw strength that I lacked, and I’d be damned if that didn’t make me mad as hell.

It was better to be mad than the other emotion that was flowing through my veins right now. Fire burned in my belly that had nothing to do with my rage and everything to do with the fact that Branch Watson had his delicious body pressed against mine.

I didn’t even have the good sense that God gave me to be fearful of the fact that a much larger, much stronger man had me trapped. Because I knew him as well as I knew myself. Branch was many things; arrogant, cocksure and sometimes a bit of a bully, but he would never raise a hand in violence to a woman, and especially not to me. His mother would castrate him publicly, his own father would kick his ass and mine would finish the job.

“If Daddy catches you pressed against me like this, me wanting to ride will be the last thing on his mind.” My voice was unintentionally husky, and I watched Branch’s eyes hood. This was no longer Branch, the gapped toothed kid who’d chase me around with sticks when we were kids. No, this was Branch the man, and I wanted to simultaneously climb him like the tree he was named after, and run away screaming.

“Branch! Leeroy is callin’ for you. You’re almost up,” someone yelled, and I subtly hid myself behind Branch’s shoulders. If anyone else knew I was down here to ride, they’d share Branch’s opinion on the matter. His eyes didn’t leave mine, their normal sparkling blue now as dark and ominous as the sea. The look didn’t scare me. I quirked an eyebrow at him and he made a frustrated sound deep in his throat.

Then he kissed me. A hard, punishing kind of kiss. No tenderness, just a shit load of frustration. He whirled away on his boots and left, striding down the path between the pens. I stood there gaping after him like a catfish out of water.