COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1) by Amanda Boone, Amber Duval Page A

whisper, it was broadcasted over the speaker system.
    The audience laughed, and I looked up at Justin with a hand clamped over my mouth. I’d never been so embarrassed in my entire life. I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped that when I opened them I was somewhere else.
    Of course I wasn’t that lucky. When I opened my eyes, Justin was still standing in front of me with his mouth hanging open. I groaned. “Sorry. I just panicked. I didn’t mean to tell everyone.”
    He pushed the mic away and pulled me into his arms. “We can wait—”
    “No! I don’t want to wait. I want this. Now.”
    He grinned and kissed me. “Let’s get this rodeo over with then.”
    The announcer was laughing when I looked back at him. “All right, folks. Justin’s got plans tonight, so we’d better hurry.”
    Everyone laughed even more, and I hoped no bulls were around to charge at my blaringly red face. I listened as the announcer spoke this time and felt myself growing unsteady.
    “Justin and his family decided to hold this rodeo and donate the money it raised to a charity. You’ve already done your normal charity rodeo this year, Justin, so this time you got to choose whatever charity you wanted to donate the money to, right?”
    He nodded. “We wanted to do something more local. We had a lot of ideas in the running until we saw the signs that Sara Jane had posted around town.”
    I jerked my head up and opened my mouth to speak, but nothing happened.
    “I heard you already bought the land she had her eye on.”
    “What?”
    Justin grinned and ran a hand over his damp hair. “Yeah. And with the money she’s going to get tonight, she should be able to get a head start on putting her no-kill shelter into action.”
    The announcer chuckled. “I think she’s in shock, folks.”
    I felt myself start to cry but couldn’t stop the tears. I wrapped my arms around Justin’s waist and buried my face against his vest. “You did this?”
    He pulled back and nodded. “I wanted to help with your dream. You could’ve, and would’ve, done it by yourself, but I wanted to be a part of it.”
    I realized in that moment that I was falling for him. It hadn’t been very long, I’d been avoiding him for weeks, he’d slept with half the town—there were so many reasons why it didn’t make sense for me to fall for him, but I was. I grabbed his head and pulled him down so I could kiss him.
    In that moment I wasn’t nervous. I knew that I wanted him to be my first, and I wanted it right then. “Can we go?”
    Justin picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. “Oh, yeah. Thanks for coming and donating everyone! You can still donate to the shelter after tonight. Talk to Avery about it!”

14.
    Justin rushed us past a grinning crowd and to his truck. He put me down in the passenger seat and buckled my seat belt for me.
    “My car!”
    “We’ll get it later.”
    He ran around to the driver’s side and jumped in. Before I could say anything else, he was speeding away from the rodeo. He turned toward my house and glanced over at me. “This okay with you? I’d like to avoid my family tonight.”
    “Yeah. Where’s Mason?”
    “With my parents. They took a trip to Six Flags this weekend. Mason doesn’t like watching me ride anymore.”
    I couldn’t blame Mason. It was scary. “What you did tonight…”
    Justin slid the truck to a stop in front of my house and rushed around to my side. “What I did tonight was a pathetic attempt to bribe you into feeling for me what I feel for you—not that I don’t care about the strays of Martinsville.”
    I laughed. “Really?”
    “Not fully. I wanted you to be able to do what you dreamed of. I wanted to show you that I care. I know that people talk about me and the way I’ve slept around. I don’t want you to think you’re the same.”
    I dragged him up the walkway to my house and unlocked the door. “I’m not?”
    He pinned me to the door and shook his head. “Not hardly. I knew you were