My mouth fell open, and he held up his hands.
“You took so long in the bathroom, and I was wasting away to nothing out here. Plus, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what I chose.”
“You think you know me well enough to pick my food?” I rested my chin in my hand.
“I think so.” He nodded his head but looked unsure.
“How about a bet?”
His eyes flew to mine. “What kind of bet?”
“If it’s not what I would have ordered off the menu, then you have to do whatever I say. If you get it right, I have to do what you say.”
He stuck his hand out toward me. “Deal.”
“We haven’t even told each other the consequences of losing yet.”
“So? Isn’t life more fun that way?”
I went to slide my hand into his, but he pulled away.
“But you have to write your answer down on that napkin. I don’t trust you not to cheat.”
“Fine.” I chuckled then he shook my hand.
When our food finally arrived at our table, I cringed at the bar-b-que pork quesadilla, and Mason’s smile told me that he knew he had won without having to even read the napkin.
“Hand it over.” He wiggled his fingers in front of me, reaching for the napkin.
“This is unfair.” I tossed the napkin across the table before I picked up a piece of my quesadilla and took a bite. A delicious bite.
Mason just smiled as he unraveled the wad of napkin then he tucked it into his pocket.
“What? No gloating?” I took another bite of my food.
“Despite what you think, Staci. I’m actually a decent guy. I would never gloat.”
“That just means my consequence is going to be bad.”
His smile turned practically evil.
“What the hell are you going to make me do, Mason?”
“Patience, little one.” He mocked me. “You’ll see soon enough.”
We finished eating our food with me mostly narrowing my eyes at him and him grinning like he had won the damn lottery. But it wasn’t until Mason paid for our food and led me toward the very back of the restaurant that I became truly worried about what he was going to make me do.
“There is no way in hell.” I slammed to a stop as soon as I saw it.
“Oh, yes. There is. You lost, sweetheart.” He rubbed his hands together, and I looked around at all the people who were eating their food, yet looking up at us with interest.
I stared at the mechanical bull that looked three times my size before blowing out a deep breath.
“What kind of restaurant has a mechanical bull in the middle of the damn dining room?” I looked back at the way we came. If you didn’t walk around the wall that was separating that part of the restaurant from this one, you would never know it was here. “How did you even know this was here?”
He shrugged his shoulders before leaning against the railing that blocked off the bull from the rest of the restaurant. “Servers are chatty when they think you’re cute.”
I rolled my eyes and turned back toward the bull. Out of all the crazy shit I had done in my life, I had never ridden a mechanical bull. Especially not in a restaurant that was full of strangers to watch me.
The bull moved an inch and I cringed. A hand slapped my ass as I took a step toward it, and I looked over my shoulder at Mason.
“Go get ‘em, cowgirl.” He winked at me, and even though I could kill him for making me do this, I also felt desperate to press my mouth against his.
I climbed up onto the bull which was an effort, and I gripped the handle in front of me before I looked at the guy who was about to throw me from the damn thing.
“You can only use one hand, cheater,” Mason yelled across the restaurant, and I mean yelled. Anyone who wasn’t watching me before turned their attention toward me.
But I did what he said and took one hand off the handle and flipped him the bird right before the bull started moving.
Mason
I couldn’t control my laughter as the mechanical bull bucked beneath her. She looked so damn determined up there. Determined to hang on or to kill me once she got off, I wasn’t sure.
But fuck, she looked sexy as hell.
Her body rolled with each buck of the bull, her knees dug into its sides, and her hand was held up in the air. And my dick was instantly hard.
Hell, I was hard almost every second I was around her.
When she climbed on to the back of my bike, I almost groaned. When her body pressed up against mine, I had to close my eyes.
But I was willing to do whatever it took to get her to trust me. To trust me to be more than just her friend.
I wouldn’t survive this friendship with Staci. I already knew it.
It would either go the way I wanted it to or I would get hurt.
But for the first time, I knew that the girl was worth getting hurt over.
I looked around and saw every other man’s eyes on her, and instantly, I regretted my decision to make her ride that bull. They watched as her hips rolled back and forth. They stared as her chest shook with the force of the movement of the bull. I took a step toward the stand to tell the guy that it was time for it to be over, but then a smile broke across her face.
Not that damn fake smile that she so often used, but a real one, and it lit up her face.
She threw her head back and laughed as the bull started bucking harder. She started sliding to the left, but she was holding on for dear life. Her knees dug into the sides, and she gripped the handle harder.
The bull bucked several more times before she was finally slung off and onto the cushioned mat below. Her hair was covering her face and she just laid there in a fit of giggles.
After a few seconds, she finally stood and looked around at all the eyes that were watching her before she met mine. Then she leaned down and took a bow.
I joined the clapping and cheering that surrounded her, and when she jumped off the mat, I was right there to catch her.
“Today has been so much fun.” She smiled up at me, and I knew, I fucking knew in that moment, that I would do whatever it took to keep putting that look on her face.
“The day isn’t over yet.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her back out to my motorcycle.
Staci
I watched the dark grey clouds hover over us as we continued our ride through the mountains, and I leaned in to talk in Mason’s ear over the loud rumble of the motorcycle.
“Is it supposed to rain?”
Mason’s gaze darted up to the sky before quickly returning to the road, and I huffed as he shrugged his shoulders. He had told me it was supposed to be a pretty day.
I looked back up to the sky just as a raindrop hit my cheek.
We were nowhere near home. Hell, I had no clue where we even were, but I knew it was going to be a long drive to get home.
Mason took a sharp curve to the left and more raindrops fell from the sky.
“Mason,” I yelled at him, and the bike seemed to speed up just a touch.
There was basically nothing on the road we had been riding on for the last hour or so. I had seen a couple of gas stations and one restaurant along the way and that was it. I didn’t know where he was planning on taking us, but I did know that our options were slim.