Bullheaded by Catt Ford Page B

grumbled. “You’re lucky I didn’t tell him Sloan’s already an idiot and wearing a helmet wasn’t going to help him get any smarter.”
    “Yeah, you are a sweetie, baby.” With a sudden laugh, Cody added, “Bobby Blue not only reminds me of me, he reminds me of some of the guys I used to hook up with on the road. He’s a good-looking kid. Wouldn’t surprise me if he scored a lot of tail on tour.”
    “You think he’s good-looking?” Johnny seemed genuinely surprised.
    “Almost as good-looking as me. Not as sexy, though.” Cody stuck his head under the faucet and rubbed at his hair.
    “And what guys were these you used to hook up with? You went to gay bars on the road?”
    “Never went in a gay bar after college. Never had to.” Cody’s grin turned smug. “Sometimes when I’m in the ready room getting set to ride, it’s like a walk down memory lane, looking at some of the guys I used to do.”
    Looking stunned, Johnny blinked and shook his head a little. “Say what again?”
    “It’s all supply and demand, baby.” Cody kept grinning. Maybe he was feeling a little too pleased with himself, but he couldn’t help it.
    “You were fucking bull riders?”
    “Not that they’re gay or anything, but it can be lonely driving from town to town, being away from home for months. Sometimes a guy needs a little fast relief. Hand job, quick blowjob. It wasn’t like a romance or anything.”
    “Some of those guys are married!”
    “Now. Not then.” Cody shrugged.
    “Was Dub one of them?”
    Cody sensed a tinge of jealousy and smirked. He didn’t want to hurt Johnny, but he liked that hint of possessiveness. “Nope, never was. Never wanted to. He’s a friend.”
    “So if you wanted to do, I don’t know, Bobby Blue, you’re saying you could get him?”
    “Not that I’d want him, but sure. You just fuck with their heads a little, you know, male friendship, remember the Spartans, that kind of crap. Get them thinking with junior, you know?”
    “No, I don’t know.”
    “Guys have needs and sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. It wasn’t ever serious but I got my rocks off and they got theirs.”
    “Holy fuck, you are blowing my mind. Don’t you ever worry one of those guys is going to, I don’t know, tell about you?”
    “No, because he’d be telling about himself too, wouldn’t he?”
    “Not if he said he heard it or witnessed it or something like that. You know, if he was pissed because you keep pounding him into the ground on tour.”
    “I don’t know. I never gave it much thought. You going to wash up?” It always made his knees melt when he looked at Johnny without a shirt. Those lean abs!
    “Yeah.”

Chapter 5:
Val Loves Johnny

    A FTER lunch, Johnny walked out to the mailbox by the road to put out his letter for pickup. He dawdled on the way back, in no hurry to rejoin the class in the ring.
    After the morning teaching session, Johnny was short on patience, both with the boys and Cody. He wasn’t sure if it made him madder to find out about Cody’s sordid cowboys-with-benefits past, or the fact he thought that mouthy Bobby Blue was good-looking. The boys’ ignorance he could overlook; learning the theory behind the riding was important, but nothing would move you forward better than actual experience. It was their disdain for Cajun Spice that got to him. Aside from Zane, they didn’t seem to grasp why Cody was making them ride a horse.
    You could get hurt falling off a horse, but you could get hurt much worse falling off a bull. Bobby Blue, Aubrey, and Tommy appeared to think once they got on a bull’s back, it would all magically come together, but the bulls they’d been riding in the touring division were nothing compared to the higher-ranked bulls.
    “That’s some rainy-day face, Johnny.”
    He glanced up and smiled at Val. Her hat was hanging down her back by the lariat, and her hair gleamed silver in the sunlight as she sat on the railing of the log