I stuffed everything in my bag and waited for Frankie to do the same. I know the guys all thought me and Frankie were a couple, but even if they did see him fucking buckle bunnies no one said anything to me. I didn’t mind, and I didn’t dissuade the notion. It offered me a little bit of protection, because although they were all respectful of me, they were even more respectful because I was someone else’s girl.

Fucking knuckledraggers.

I talked shop with a couple of the guys while I waited, talking about their rides, the crowds, all that other crap. After about twelve months, the majority stopped seeing the blonde curls and the boobs and instead saw another person with the same passion they had.

“Cover your dicks boys, the piranha is here,” a crude voice yodelled and I grimaced. Most. Not all. Junior was the son of rodeo royalty. His father, grandfather, and uncles had all been pro riders. Junior sucked but got by on the legacy of his name. But he was a fucking dickcheese of a human being. The guy beside me, a part timer who worked a normal construction job most months, grimaced and went to stand. We were still in the South and I was still a woman, even if I did like to climb on the top of bulls. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back down, shaking my head. I stood and gave Junior a derisive look. “I don’t see you covering yours, Junior. Is that because you don’t have one?”

Someone snickered, and Junior’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe you chewed it off,” he growled. I made a truly disgusted face that I didn’t have to fake in the least.

“I wouldn’t go near your dick for a million dollars. Hell, I wouldn’t touch it even if they offered me the chance to ride in the World Finals.”

Junior growled and stepped forward, and suddenly Frankie was there. “Ready to go, Querida?”

Frankie didn’t follow Luiz into bull riding because he was way too tall. Easily 6”4, he didn’t have the center of gravity to be a bull rider. But he was big, muscled and athletic as hell. There was a reason he pulled the buckle bunnies.

Junior, however, was scrappy and I wasn’t sure who’d win in a fight. No, wait I was. Frankie. Junior was a little bitch who was all bark and no bite.

Frankie led me from the room and I flipped Junior the bird on the way out the door. Asshole.