Wild Ride: A Bad Boy Romance Read Online Free Page A

called a
locksmith and asked him to come immediately to change the locks.
    “I won’t be
here when you get here, so just let yourself in. Install one of those digital
locks and make the code 8837. OK?”
    “OK,” said the
locksmith.
    I hung up the
phone.
    I grabbed my
pocket book with all my stuff.
    I didn’t even
go home to change my clothes.
    I drove my car
like a maniac.
    Where could I
go at this hour to blow off some steam?
    I had no idea.
    I saw a sign
for a bar. It was a big cheesy neon sign, showing a cowboy lassoing a naked
woman.
    What the hell,
I thought to myself. I could use a drink. And a laugh. I had never taken these
rodeo guys seriously…and maybe this was some kind of titty bar where naked
women pranced around.
    Maybe it would
be good to blow off some steam…have a few laughs and a couple drinks…and better
yet, no one would recognize me here.
    If I went to a regular
high-class bar, I was bound to run into a past or future client. The word would
get out that the wedding planner was drinking in the middle of the day. That
really wouldn’t be good for business. No, it was better to drink in the middle
of the day in some cheap place where I’d never run into anyone I knew.

6. COLTON

 
    Colton walked
into the dingy bar. It was dimly lit. This was where he felt he belonged. He was
still doing well in the rodeos. He was still a good rider, if not a better one
than he had been. He was a little older now…a little more beat up. He had more
injuries. But he also knew more. His brain had adapted over time to the event.
    He knew how the
bulls moved. He had an instinct...of course, he had always had one for bulls.
But this was different. Colton was becoming wiser…and he was only in his late
twenties.
    But while he
was still doing well at the rodeo shows, the media at large wasn’t paying him
the least bit of attention. Rodeo was still to be a minor corner of the sports
world, one that no one paid much attention to.
    That didn’t
mean he couldn’t get a new woman every night. But it meant his manager was
hounding him all the time. It meant a lot less money. It meant staying in
crappy hotels. It meant he wasn’t sleeping with celebrities…just over-enthusiastic
rodeo fans.
    It meant he had
to buy cheaper liquor.
    The thing he
hated most of all was having to do these events…a few years ago he had been on
TV programs, he had been on talk shows. Now he was here in a strip club signing
autographs.
    A few years
ago, it had seemed like he was going to become a real celebrity, a real star.
It had seemed like people would soon know him outside the rodeo world. But that
had all vanished.
    He ducked
quickly as a pool ball went flying right at his head.
    “Holy shit,” he
said.
    He looked
around.
    A fight at the
pool table had broken out.
    Two huge men
were facing each other, about to bump chests. They had their hands in fists at
their sides. One of them had apparently thrown a pool ball at the other’s head.
It had missed, and that’s when it had gone whizzing by Colton’s head.
    “You’re finally
here,” said Colton’s manager. He was a short man, who was always rushing
around, flapping papers and opening and closing his briefcase. He was the type
of man who would have always been on his cell phone, had he had important
enough clients. But his cell phone stayed sadly in its holster on his belt,
practically unused since Colton’s fame had taken a turn for the worse. “Where
the hell have you been?”
    “I slept in,”
said Colton.
    “You slept in?
It’s practically the middle of the afternoon. Jesus Christ, we’ve got to figure
out what to do with you. You know, I’m doing these shows for you. This is for
your career. You think I’m having fun doing this either?”
    “Couldn’t you
have gotten us a better gig?” said Colton, eyeing the crummy bar with a look of
disdain on his face.
    “Look, Colton,”
said the manager, an even more unpleasant expression growing on his face. “This
is