Page 99 of Untamed
A bull rider who enters a competition and then decides to forfeit his entry fees and not compete for reasons other than injury has "turned out" of the competition. If an injury forces a bull rider to opt out of competition, the bull rider doctor releases him from competition and is not required to forfeit his entry fee. 25th PBR: Unleash the Beast riders are not allowed to turn out of competition or they will face strict fines. This rule ensures that the world's best bull riders are featured at every 25th PBR: Unleash the Beast event.
I shouldn’t have said those things to her. I want her in my life, but not if it means risking my career and the future I’m trying to secure for Wyatt.
I’ve taken plenty of risks in my life. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. But I can’t risk the championship like that again. She’s so young and looking for someone to give her heart to and I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. The possibility of her giving it to me terrifies me.
It was always going to end. Today, or a month, or six months from now when she realized there’s an entire world out there that has nothing to do with me. I should’ve pulled away sooner. But she was so . . . her. And I was a selfish fucking idiot who wanted to get lost in her untamed desire for more.
Ty comes out of his room in a pair of shorts, looking for food. He looks around. “Where’s your girlfriend?”
I don’t like the way he says girlfriend. She’s not. I hate that term anyway. Saying she’s my girlfriend puts an official title on our relationship and I don’t want to admit there’s anything official about the way she gets in my fucking head.
But I don’t explain any of that to Ty. He wouldn’t listen to me anyway. “In Haylee’s truck. I broke it off with her.” I want to knock my own teeth out for what I said to her. Running a shaking hand through my hair, I tug hard, the pain giving me focus. What the fuck was I thinking? Goddamn this shit. It’s my fault. I invited her. I broke her because I couldn’t handle it.
Ty looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, because I clearly have. “Why’d you do that?”
Regret gnaws at me, sending my heart sinking into the pit of my stomach. “She’s a kid, man. She should be out living her life and not following someone like me around. She should go to college, do something with her life besides spreading her legs for me.”
Ty isn’t sure what to make of my blurted confession. In fact, he stares at me like I’ve lost my goddamn mind. I totally have.
It’s when his eyes drift over my shoulder and I know what I’ve done. I don’t have to turn around to know who heard me. She was standing there. I know for sure when I hear the door slam shut.
Kill me. Just fucking shoot me in the head for saying that. My stomach knots and the bile rises.
What have I done?
