Free BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance by Alycia Taylor, Claire Adams Page A

dark hair, tanned skin, and toned physique—even if he was
arrogant as hell. The last thing he deserved was my attention.
    If anyone
deserved that, it was Mark. He’d been the one person, besides Emily, who had
been there through everything I’d ever had to endure. He made me soup when I got
food poisoning, he let me vent when I was frustrated or on the rare occasions
when I’d fight with my parents, and he even helped me nurse my self-esteem back
from every heartbreak I’d suffered from the jerks I’d dated. While I stood
there in the shower, washing over the flower Emily had drawn on my arm in
Sharpie before I left, it dawned on me just how difficult that must’ve been for
him. After what he told me—that he had been head over heels for me for quite
some time—that meant hearing me cry over other guys couldn’t have been easy,
and he never once complained. I bet Noah
wouldn’t do that. I shook my head to rid my thoughts of the still unwelcome
invasion.
    I quickly
rinsed the soap from my body and turned off the water. I dried off in record
time and wrapped the towel around myself, then walked back to my room and slid
into my pajamas before twisting the towel around my hair so it formed a
make-shift turban. I suddenly felt tired—probably because I never took that nap
I wanted during the day. Too many things on my mind. So, I lay down, pulling
the covers all the way up to my chin. With a satisfied sigh, I drifted off into
a deep, dreamless sleep.

 
    BUCKED #2
    Chapter Eight - Noah

 
    I had to
admit, I was a little surprised. For the most part, I’m pretty good at waking
up early. Traveling on the circuits has wired my internal clock to have me up
and at ‘em around six o’clock every day, unless I’m sick. Jackson, however, was up before me. We usually keep our front
door unlocked— there’s really no reason to lock it when we live in the middle
of nowhere—and Jackson is well-aware of that. They probably don’t lock their
doors, either. Thing is, when I’m asleep,
I’m gone. I’m a hard sleeper, so the creak of my bedroom door didn’t even cause
me to flinch. What did was the sensation that something was crawling on the
back of my neck. Now, it’s not uncommon for feathers to slip out of my down
pillow and float around on occasion. Which is exactly what my half asleep brain
assumed was happening. I yanked my hand out from under my pillow and wiped it
across my neck, then shifted my head so I was facing toward my window instead
of the door.
    Then, I
felt it again. My eyes flew open, trying to adjust to the dimly lit room, and I
turned instantly to see Jackson’s face hovering inches away from mine. I
grunted. “Jack, what in heaven’s name are you doing in here?”
    “What are
you doing in your underwear?” Jackson retorted.
    I rolled
over so I was on my back and covered myself with the sheet before I answered.
“It’s too hot to wear clothes to bed, for your information.”
    “You’re
weird.”
    “Says the
kid who’s standing over his half-naked neighbor while he’s asleep in his bed.
Now…what are you doing in here?”
    “Well, you
said that you were gonna start my bull riding lessons today, so here I am.”
    I picked
up my phone from my nightstand and looked at the time. “At five-thirty in the
morning?”
    “Mom said
that bull riders are used to getting up early, so I figured I might as well
start getting used to it now.”
    “Well,
you’re not wrong there,” I told him, stretching and yawning. “Okay, how about
you go downstairs and hit the power button on the coffee maker, and I’ll get
dressed and come make us breakfast.”
    “I know
how to make coffee! My mom’s pretty much addicted to it.”
    “That’s
alright, it’s already ready. All you have to do is turn the thing on.”
    “If you
insist,” he said with a shrug, then turned and clomped down the stairs. I sat
up and pressed the balls of my hands into my eyes hard, then ran my hands
through my hair, thinking