I drank my beer as I stood to the side of the room, tapping my toe to the music streaming from an old school jukebox. Frankie was across the room talking to a pretty redhead in a silk camisole with legs that went on for forever. He’d occasionally shoot a look in my direction to check I was okay, but then he’d turn back to the conquest of the night. On cue, his dark eyes shot to me, and I tilted my beer at him.

“You seem too pretty to be here by yourself,” a smooth voice said from beside me, and I looked over at a rider. Not one that I knew personally, although his face was familiar. No, it was his cocky swagger that told me he was a rider, and his shiny buckle just confirmed it.

His eyes sparkled with friendly mirth, but he didn’t give me a bad feeling, so I grinned and tilted my beer at him. “The rumor is that I devoured the last guy who approached me at a bar praying mantis style, so guys give me a wide berth. Especially ones who are looking to get laid.” I raised my eyebrows in his direction.

He looked down at me and laughed. “I bite back,” he said in a low, growling voice that almost had me abandoning my principles and dragging him out the back. As if he knew the direction of my thoughts, his eyes got hot. They were a pretty shade of blue, dark like violets. “I’ll take my chances, I think. Let me buy you another beer?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I have to drive. But I’ll take a bottle of water if you’re feeling chivalrous.”

He strode to the bar and I got a good look at him. Yeah, he had that lean muscle thing going on that made me weak in the knees. Short dark hair hidden under his hat. Wide shoulders that rippled with muscle.

Down girl. Down. I’d made it a rule not to date within the circuit. Don’t shit where you eat. Words to live by. Mostly, if I needed to scratch an itch, there was always a local boy at one of the stops who wouldn’t mind getting into the back of my truck with me. I never took them back to my hotel room, and Frankie never took his conquests back there either. We respected each other.

But this guy, he was real pretty and I was really happy and it was making it super hard to remember why I didn’t date on the circuit.

“So, you a rider? Did you ride at today's rodeo?” I asked, and he tilted his head.

“I ride bulls, but I was down for some sponsorship thing today. Didn’t ride. I’m in the WBRP.”

Living the dream then. I tried to pick his face better, but still, I had nothing.