RODEO MAN - from the anthology THE COWBOY
by Genie Davis writing as NIKKI ALTON
ISBN: 0758215282
Publisher: Kensington Aphrodisia
Release Date: August 2006
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LA Magazine writer Anna Hartley is on assignment in
Wyoming when she meets champion rodeo rider Grant
Olson. Lean, blonde, rugged, and sexy, he's enough to
make a city girl trade in her high heels for a wild
ride, Western style.
While this excerpt is for readers of all ages, the book is intended for adult audiences...
The summer twilight, blue, rose, and orange, lasts a long
time before sinking fast into the dark that is the outline of the Absaroka Mountains. In Cody, Wyoming in August, night falls late but moves quick, and with the last fading color of the sun, the heat of the day fades too.
Anna Hartley found herself shivering, tugging her jeans skirt lower over her bare knees as she sat in the Stampede bleachers waiting for the rodeo to start.
She scored a good seat above the loading chute when she showed her press pass. The woman at the ticket window told her the loading chute was where the cowboys climbed on the bucking bronc or bull they were going to ride. The outdoor arena was packed, and there were scores of little kids lined up outside in the parking lot posing for photographs on the back of a well-tethered, sleepy eyed old Brahma bull; bigger kids were riding a mechanical bull surrounded by inflatable air cushions.
Food stands sold hot dogs and peanuts and cotton candy and soda, all cheap; Anna wanted a beer but they didn't sell any, which was sort of the way her entire day had gone so far.
The magazine she worked for had flown her from LA to Jackson to review a new spa hotel. It was a plum assignment, one she supposed she'd been thrust into only because her boss was too
pregnant to fly herself. Considered the junior writer at the LA office, despite past experience covering hard news for a suburban daily, Anna was usually relegated to stories along the lines of diet and exercise, stuff like the pros and cons of spinning classes.
So, Anna took the assignment eagerly, as a step up from her usual fare. Besides, it would feel good to get out of town for a day or two. Her boyfriend was pushing for an engagement and she was down to holding him off with “I'm just not quite ready.” The truth was that the longer she and Steve were together, the less ready she felt. There was something missing, and when she thought about it, that something was passion. Whether passion was that important in a relationship, or just something they talked about in magazines like hers, she wasn't entirely sure.
She'd been thinking about that just this morning, in her enormous, gorgeous, frighteningly sterile black marble and grey field stone suite. She was undergoing the subtle torture of shiatsu and a goat butter and lavender wrap that made her sneeze when her cell phone rang.
She saw it was Steve, her boyfriend, exhibiting his usual bad timing.
“Steve, look, this just isn't the time to talk.” She rattled off an abbreviated version of her firing and tried to sound upbeat about it. “I'm sure there's other things I can do with my life that'll be a lot more interesting than -”
“We have to talk now,” he said. “You can't keep putting me off.”
Steve's voice had an edge to it that made her sigh impatiently. She was wrapped in a towel and covered with goo.
“You've made it clear that you're not ready to commit. And if what you mean is you're not ready to commit to me, then let's just come out and say so.”
“Where are you?” it finally occurred to her to ask.
“I'm at - I'm with -” he was struggling. “I'm seeing someone else,” Steve managed to get out.
“Since when?” Anna kept her voice cool and even, but the phone was shaking in her hand.
“Since the last time you told me you weren't sure - you weren't ready - I guess two months ago.”
“And now, the other girl wants you to be sure about her,” Anna sounded remarkably calm even to her own ears. But inside she was seething, furious, and she wanted to cry.
“I love you,” he said, his voice anguished.
Boy, she really doubted that one.
“But you do understand - I have to make a move. If there's no real chance for us -”
“There's no chance now,” she said, and she hung up.
She showered and threw her over night bag and the lap top in her rented car in less than five minutes, screw the resort review. She booked right out of Jackson without paying much attention to the direction in which she was going.
She should've taken the 89A South and headed for the 15 and Salt Lake and that night's Jet Blue flight back home. But instead she was going North, into Grand Teton National Park. Well, she'd always wanted to see it. She had no real reason to drive to Salt Lake, catch that particular plane, go home. She had no office to go into tomorrow. Eventually she'd have to go in and pick up her check, if she still got one, because she wasn't going to write that last story. At least not today, not tonight. She could always say she did and that the e-mail got lost. And Steve certainly wasn't going to be picking her up at Burbank.
She paid the park entrance fee, and she kept driving. Hot tears stung her eyes. She wasn't sure why she was crying. For her hurt pride, maybe. When she came right down to it, she wasn't going to miss her job or Steve, not all that much. When she came right down to it she hadn't particularly liked the way her life was going at all. She desperately needed a change in direction. She needed to find that missing passion. It was just that she wasn't entirely sure which direction she should go or how she would go about finding it, or even if she would recognize it if she did.
4 ½ hearts -
RODEO MAN is by Nikki Alton. This story has to be the
naughtiest one of the bunch! Ms. Alton used every
conceivable sexual situation to heat this baby into
hedonistic heaven. This reviewer loved the ending of
this tale of sexual heat between two totally different
individuals that find that they might just be the
perfect fit. - Love Romances
4 ½
Kisses - Rodeo Man made me feel like a fly on the wall as I
read page after page of this realistic and moving
story. Nikki Alton weaves this tale using excellent
use of language, making the telling almost hypnotic
and poetic. The reader can't help but become involved
and enthralled in the characters almost to the point
it feels voyeuristic. Rodeo Man is a ride that lasts
more than eight seconds but I imagine is just as
thrilling, you definitely won't be disappointed. - Romance Divas
...captivating and lip-smacking good. Ms. Alton instills believable characters in a tale that mesmerizes. Cherokee - Coffee Time Romance, Karen Find Out About New Books
Put THE COWBOY at the top of your erotic reading list! This reviewer will reread her copy over and over again -- it is that hot and exceptionally well written. RODEO MAN is... the naughtiest one of the bunch!... hedonistic heaven.
Janalee - Love Romances
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