“Dallas,” she says, shaking my shoulder. “You… You’re the winner.”
But all I can see is her. “Yeah. I am. But only if you marry me.”
“Yes,” she says. “Yes.” The crowd is cheering, and we’re up on the screen, so I’m not even really sure if they’re cheering me being the champion, or us getting engaged. And I don’t care which. I know what I’m cheering. I know what matters to me. The money matters, because I know that I’m going to be able to take care of her. Give her whatever she wants.
Be whatever she wants.
But I’ve been at peace with myself ever since I found her. I don’t need a win, a ride, an award to make me whole.
It’s just her.
I put the ring on her finger, and then I pick her up in my arms and kiss her as I take my hat off my head and put it on hers. Her arms wrap around me as I twirl her in a circle, my chest so full I feel like my heart might just burst.
She’s mine. My girl. My Sarah.
Always. Forever.
This is just the beginning.
I don’t have a death wish. I have a beautiful life to live.
Check out the rest of The Bull Riders series! And read on for the bonus novella, Imagine Me and You!
Imagine Me and You
For the readers - those who have been here since the beginning, and those who are here now. You’re the reason for all these books. Thank you.
Chapter One
“I’m literally out in the cold, Jace. I need you.”
Jace Colter looked at his best friend Samantha Parker, who was indeed on his porch and freezing her small, perfectly round butt off. Which was a damn shame in his opinion. Because it was a perfect butt. Completely perfect. Not that he’d noticed. At least not that he should have noticed, but he had.
And then he looked down at her companion. Not too far down. Even sitting, Poppy was one big-ass dog. A giant mound of hair and drool that, Samantha was always quick to point out, was a purebred Newfoundland. As if that somehow excused the drool.
It didn’t. Not in his opinion.
He and Poppy had a tentative truce when he was over at Samantha’s place, but the idea of letting her, and her huge paws, inhishouse onhiscouch was enough to make it feel like his skin was itching. Like he already had dog hair embedded into his clothes. Dog hair he would never, ever get out.
“Start at the beginning.”
“Can we come in?” she asked, hazel eyes huge, her red hair creating a ginger halo around her head thanks to the porch light. As if on cue, snowflakes started falling behind her. She looked like a pitiful angel.
“Yes,” he growled, standing to the side and letting Samantha hop over the threshold.
Poppy followed, no encouragement needed, as she tended to do. Poppy was as insistent as she was shaggy. She always wanted him to pet her. Stroke her. Things he could never, ever get away with doing to her owner. Not that he would try. Samantha was his friend and this sudden surge of lust, whatever it was, that had crept up on him over the past couple of months was just damned annoying. And completely impractical. And not something he could do anything about.
Ever.
Samantha bent down and started taking her boots off. She knew him well.
Jace had no problem getting his hands dirty working his ranch, but he didn’t track that dirt inside his house. His operation was an organized one: a place for everything and everything in its place.
He had a major outfit here with horses and cattle, and letting loose ends hang could result in devastating consequences. Jace didn’t allow loose ends, and he didn’t screw up. Ever.
“Let me get a towel for your dog. And then you can explain to me why you’re standing here looking like a dramatic reenactment of the Little Match Girl.”
Jace stalked off to the laundry room and took a towel from the dryer, then walked back into the entryway, where the dog was currently dripping onhis wooden floor. He tossed the towel to Samantha, who bent and started working on Poppy’s massive paws.
