Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

THOR

A fter a kiss hot enough to make his cock try to push its way out of his jeans through sheer force, Thor knew he had to back off, or he’d end up dragging Debbie off to his trailer now and using up all the energy he had built up before his event even started. He would have never thought he’d even be tempted to do such a thing.

Women always came second to competing.

Especially women he'd just met. Why he wanted to make an exception for Debbie, he had no idea.

Smells good. The happy thought and contented sigh from his buck were more than a little disturbing. There was no way Debbie was his mate, right? He would have known immediately. Thankfully, his stag was happy to clear that up. Not mate.

For whatever reason, his stag just really liked the way she smelled. Thor liked the way she looked… and her sassy mouth. He’d always had a thing for mouthy women.

“Hungry?" he asked. He really should get a little something to eat. There were only a few more hours before the bull riding started, so it was now or never.

“Starving.” The glint in Debbie’s dark eyes went along with her smirk.

Double entendres for the win. Or the loss, really, since he couldn’t do anything about it right now, but he still appreciated it.

Pretending he hadn’t caught the second meaning, even though he could tell she wasn’t buying his act, Thor escorted her out of the stadium and to the food aisle of the carnival. There was everything from turkey legs to funnel cakes, and Thor had to laugh when Debbie went straight for the Sugar Shack with all the enthusiasm of a five-year-old kid.

Of course, the line was long as hell.

“I’m going to go grab something more substantial. I’ll meet you back here?" he asked.

“Sure, whatever,” she said, her eyes glued to the sign above the cashiers, displaying everything the Sugar Shack had to offer.

Thor was tempted to feel insulted at how quickly he’d been replaced in her thoughts by funnel cake, but he doubted it would do him any good. Shaking his head, he ambled over to the BarbecuePit stall across the aisle. He had just finished ordering his double cheeseburger and onion rings when a deep voice behind him said his name.

“Thor?”

Turning his head, Thor found himself looking straight into the golden eyes of Maddox Courtland. In human form, the big bull shifter was still intimidating as hell—several inches taller than Thor’s six feet and muscled like his animal half. The wide grin on his face was full of challenge, and Thor’s lips automatically stretched to match it.

Everyone around them seemed to quiet, realizing there was some kind of showdown going on, even if they didn’t know who Thor and Maddox were. The vast majority of the crowd clearly recognized them though, as their names were whispered over again over again by those drawn into the upcoming spectacle.

“Mad,” Thor drawled the nickname, making it sound almost like an insult.

“Looking forward to eating dirt later, deer?” Maddox jeered, obviously not realizing it almost sounded like he was using an endearment.

Well, no one had ever claimed the bull was big on brains, just brawn.

Am buck ! Stag. The attempted insult had hit home in one spot, although Thor’s animal had always been a little picky about what he was called. Thor ignored his stag’s affront; as an animal, it never really understood trash talk.

“Looking forward to losing your streak, sweetheart?” Thor asked.

The big bull snorted and frowned, trying to figure out why Thor had just called him sweetheart. Most of the people in the crowd around them snickered. Out of the corner of his eye, Thor could see several of them were already filming.

They were going to be disappointed if they thought things were going to get out of hand. Trash talk before an event was not just expected, it was encouraged, but anything more than that could get them kicked out of the rodeo circuit altogether.

“I’m undefeated,” Maddox sneered, rocking back on his heels and thrusting his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans. Every line in his body was full of arrogant swagger. “You can’t say the same.”

Thor shrugged, grinning, and thickened his Southern drawl. “Just means it’s a matter of time, darlin’, and your clock has done run out.”

Debbie

If she wasn’t going to get an orgasm until tonight, sugar was going to have to tide her over. Hmmm, so much sugary fried goodness—funnel cake, fried Oreos, fried Twinkies, fried butter... wait, seriously? Fried butter?

She might have to rethink that one.

Definitely fried Oreos, those were a must. Hmmm, fried snickers...yeah, those sounded good, too.

Cousins, her honey badger warned her, scenting them coming up on her. Debbie wasn’t worried. While they might like to sneak up on each other for practical joke purposes, no one was going to mess with each other when fried food was to be had.

“Hey, Debs!” Natra said, sidling up to her and throwing her arm around Debbie’s shoulder, simultaneously flashing a smile at the couple in line behind Debbie, trying to make it look like Debbie had been waiting for her the whole time. Windy squeezed in next to Natra, silently looking up at the display of offerings and letting Natra do the work. “So, what are we getting? Mmm, fried Twinkies, definitely.”

Shaking her head at her cousin’s antics—either everyone believed Natra and Windy were with her or because no one wanted to mess with honey badgers—Debbie let them come along for the ride. They’d let her do the same if the situation was reversed. Sure, they messed with each other a lot, but not over important things.

Like fried sugar.

“So, where’s tall, blond, and studly?” Windy asked once they’d put in their order.

“I don’t know,” Debbie said, shrugging nonchalantly. “He said he’d meet me back here.”

She was fairly certain he hadn’t ditched her. Not with how badly he wanted to get into her pants—unless she was miscalculating his desire for her. Her honey badger snorted its disdain at the very idea. Although if he did ditch her, he’d find out just how well honey badgers handled being ghosted. “Not well” was a bit of an understatement.

Debbie wasn’t the number one hacker in their little group, that was her cousin Cara, but she was a close second. A smirk twisted her lips. The line from the movie Wedding Crashers always echoed in her head at moments like this— ’Cuz I’ll find you …’

“If you don’t want him, I’ll take him,” Natra offered.

Inside her head, Debbie’s honey badger snarled, claws and teeth out in a display of possessiveness that was a little disturbing, considering she barely knew the guy. Yeah, she planned on banging him, but she didn’t get possessive about her bed buddies. Then again, she’d never met one who got her honey badger all riled up the way Thor did. Truth be told, she didn’t like the idea of him hooking up with one of her cousins either.

“Find your own cowboy to ride.” She tried to keep her tone casual, but it had more snap to it than she’d intended. Both Natra and Windy looked at her contemplatively. Whoops let out a little more of her emotions than she’d meant to.

“Order up for Debbie!”

The sugar distraction was exactly what she needed to relax. The three of them descended on the plates of fried, sugary goodness and big ass cups of lemonade. Juggling the cup, Oreos, and funnel cake, Debbie looked around to see if Thor had come back yet.

“Ooh, what’s happening over there?” Windy asked, jerking her chin at the small crowd gathered across the aisle in front of the Barbecue Pit. The wall of backs and shoulders didn’t afford them much of a view, but Debbie caught a flash of Thor’s cowboy hat. At least, she was pretty sure it was his.

Narrowing her eyes, she strode forward to the outskirts of the crowd, Natra and Windy right behind her. Going up on her tiptoes, while keeping a firm grip on her sugar rush, she could see it definitely was Thor. Despite the chuckles and murmurs of the crowd around her, she could tell he was smack-talking to the absolutely massive guy in front of him.

So, he’d gotten caught up with that, instead of coming back to meet her? Well, that was disappointing. Debbie was already rethinking her bet with him when Natra started questioning the guys standing next to them.

“Hey, what’s going on? Are they gonna fight?” Unlike Debbie, Natra sounded excited about the prospect. Not that Debbie didn’t enjoy a good fight, usually. She just preferred to think she was more important than getting into one.

Much more important , her honey badger muttered darkly, already plotting revenge. Stick him with pointy thing.

“Nah, they’ll get kicked out of the competition later if they do,” one of the guys said, barely glancing at Natra. “There’s no way they’ll risk that. They’re just gonna slap each other around a bit until later.”

“It’s a clash of the titans,” said his friend enthusiastically. “Mad Maddox, the undefeated, versus Thor, the only rider who anyone thinks even has a chance of breaking that streak. It’s gonna be fucking epic .”

Oh. Thor was smack-talking the guy he was competing against later. It sounded like it they were entertaining the masses and building up the event. Okay, Debbie could deal with that. It was his job, after all.

No pointy stick? Her honey badger was still unsure.

Probably not, but she wasn’t going to rule anything out completely yet.

Intriguingly, it sounded like Thor’s boasting was more than just his ego talking. Especially interesting that he’d made the bet with her when he knew he was riding a bull who was undefeated. Was he that sure of himself? Although it wasn’t like he really lost either way.

She took a big bite of Oreo while she contemplated his win-win scenario. Yum. Damn, that was good—perfectly fried, then mushy chocolate and cream inside. Debbie moaned.

As if he’d heard her, Thor’s head lifted, and his gaze scanned over the crowd, finding her in only a few seconds even though she was several rows back from the inside of the circle where he was standing. His eyes lit up. When he turned away from the other cowboy—who was still mid-sentence—the bull shifter let out an insulted bellow.

“I’ve got better things to do than stand around talking to you, Mad.” Thor tossed the insulting words over his shoulder. “I’ll see you in the arena.”

The bull shifter huffed and stomped off in the other direction, taking a trail of the audience with him, all of them eager to see what he’d do next. The rest watched Thor, clearly curious about his ‘better things to do.’

“Sorry darlin’,” he drawled as soon as he reached her, sliding his arm around her waist to tuck her into his side. Debbie’s honey badger, who had apparently already forgotten about its desire to stick him with something pointy, happily snuggled right in. Since she was currently placated with sugar, she decided to allow it. “Got caught up with work.”

A murmur went up. Everyone who’d stayed to watch him was now watching her with curious eyes. Several of the women looked like they were choking on jealousy. She didn’t blame them. A man who dropped everything to come to her side, and he apologized?

That was unexpected.

“Oreo?” she asked, lifting up the tray where there were only four left.

Natra and Windy both sucked in shocked breaths. Honey badgers rarely shared food. It wasn’t a rule or anything, just the way things were. But right now, she would be willing to share with him.

For a second, she thought he was going to say no, but he seemed to realize the importance of the moment.

“Thanks, baby,” he said, plucking one up and taking a small bite. Then he held the rest to her lips, his gaze steady on hers. Debbie took a big bite, flicking her tongue over his thumb and nipping his fingers. Heat flared in his eyes.

A blonde came running up to them, catching Debbie’s attention, and she almost snarled at the woman, who was looking up at Thor with wide, eager eyes.

“Thor, I have your order,” the woman said breathlessly.

“Thanks,” Thor said, barely glancing at her as he took the tray before turning his attention back to Debbie. The blonde looked so disappointed, Debbie almost felt sorry for her—almost, but not quite. Back off. Her honey badger was definitely not conflicted. Thor only had eyes for Debbie, though. “Let’s go find a place to sit down and eat.”

That was when Debbie realized she didn’t just want to knock boots with him, she might actually like the guy.

Well, that was unexpected.