Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
“I sell his semen to ranchers to breed bulls for the rodeo industry. Bucking bulls are worth a lot of money.”
“How, um, do you do that? Do you bring cows here and let him dirty talk them into a little fun?”
He grinned. “It’s not as sexy as all that. I take him to a collection center in Bozeman. The semen’s put into little pipettes and frozen, and that’s what I sell. I’m headed to a rodeo in Missoula soon to work my old connections. Gotta fix my trailer’s axle before I go, but yeah.”
Clio’s gaze shifted to my white trailer that was on the back side of the stable beside Charlie’s big one.
“You can make a living off of one bull?”
I glanced out at Lucifer, happily grazing. “It’s possible if the bull’s got good bloodlines, which Lucifer has. I haven’t been doing much to develop sales, but now… it’s time to pick things up. Make more deals, get another bull. I’ve got some land of my own where I’ll put them. Soon.”
“That’s impressive.”
I heard the kids laughing and turned toward the sound. Clio followed too, and we watched the kids for a moment before heading back.
“It’s a start, but it’s time to make it into something more.”
We got near the fort which was a split in the base of a big cottonwood tree. JT was helping Remy drag a giant branch over to make it bigger or do something with it only seen in a child’s imagination. The size of the branch was big enough that no human child could handle it.
“Oh, God.” Clio tensed again. “He shouldn’t–” She stopped herself from saying more.
Shouldn’t what? Shouldn’t reveal his shifter strength like that?
“They’re fine,” I assured her. “Remy’s crazy strong and agile. From what I’ve seen of JT’s climbing, he is, too. I don’t think those two could hurt themselves or each other.”
Clio shot me a long, inscrutable look, but all she said was, “Thanks for thinking about JT.”
“Of course. He’s great.” Time to do some fishing. “So…is his dad a part of his life?”
“No,” Clio answered immediately, closed up, then didn’t say more.
Fuck. I didn’t want to pry about her past because it was just that, in her past. I doubted she wanted to know about the females I’d been with before I met her. Except one male in her past had been a shifter, and Rob wanted me to learn about him.
I definitely didn’t want to put a wedge between us when her walls were so firmly in place. I was slowly, so very, very slowly, making a dent in her no-strings rule. Or I hoped. Still, I had to obey my alpha’s word.
What would a human want to know about the situation?
“I hope he at least pays child support.”
Cleo took in a breath and held it. Then slowly let it out. “He doesn’t know about JT. He was one of the drivers on the IndyCar team I worked on.”
An IndyCar driver. That tracked. High risk jobs were a great fit for shifters. He would survive a majority of car crashes, and it would allow him to be fearless with his racing. Same reason I was fearless riding a bucking bronc. Sure, I could break my neck as my mother always wailed, but barring that, there wasn’t much danger to any of the other injuries I sustained.
An IndyCar driver probably made good money. I wanted to ask why she hadn’t at least gone after child support, but I’d already pried too much for the moment. I returned to safer territory.
“How did you get into the racing industry?”
“I was born into it. My dad worked IndyCar pit crews my entire life. He made me a screw and nail board just like JT’s when I was four. Then I moved up to helping bring tools and parts while he worked on the racecars before a race. I even had a little chair I sat in during races in the pit. Then, when I was ten, I started helping in the pit myself.”
“So you’ve got motor oil in your blood.”
I laughed. “Sure do. I worked with him on a crew until he retired to Costa Rica before JT was born.”
That also tracked. “Impressive.”
She tilted her head to meet my eyes for a moment. “How so?”
“You do what you love. What your father handed down to you, you’re handing down to JT. You seem like someone who has lived and breathed your job. Like it’s a part of who you are.”
She smiled, and to my complete fucking surprise, her fingers tangled with mine on the bench between our legs where the kids couldn’t see. It was such a small gesture, but from her it felt huge. I somehow had put a crack into one of her walls.
“It seems like working with the animals is the same for you. Ernie says you’re a big rodeo star.”