Deep End: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (29 page)

Only one or two people had gone over to see Colton Smith.

He was sitting there on his own, staring dismally into his beer. His short, fat, and balding manager was standing nervously near by him, a little behind him. The manager wore a suit and was fidgeting. Occasionally, he leaned over and whispered something to Colton, who just shrugged whatever
it
was off.

I took a closer look at Colton…I thought maybe I had seen him on TV once a couple years ago, but I couldn’t have been sure.

If it had been him, he had looked a lot younger in that he had been fresh faced, a young and enthusiastic athlete,
the
world at his fingertips.

Now he wasn’t that much older in years. But he looked
more world-weary
. He looked like he had had some problems, some issues in his life. No doubt he had, if he had ended up here at this strip club, trying to sign autographs for men who were only here to jerk off under the table to hot busty Mexican strippers.

He had bags under his eyes. Frankly, he looked hung over.

He looked beat up too. He had bruises around his neck and around one of his eyes.
Probably from falling off a bull.
Didn’t they always fall off, or at least most of the time?

He had some tattoos visible…he wore a western style shirt that buttoned down the front. He had the sleeves rolled up casually, as if he hadn’t cared at all what he looked like.

He wore a bolo tie around his neck…two strings with beads on them…it was a style that had never caught on all over the country…more of a regional thing.

I couldn’t tell what the tattoos were exactly. They were only black in color, some kind of complicated design, some lettering that I couldn’t make out.

He was bulky but athlete looking.

“Another drink,” I said, to the bartender.

I took the gin and tonic, and downed it in one gulp.

“Impressive, lady,” said the bartender.

“Not interested,” I said.

“I wasn’t…”

“Save it for someone else,” I said. “I know you were interested. I have a special sense for these things.”

He didn’t open his mouth again. Instead, he withdrew to another corner of the bar, by the small refrigerator where they kept the limes.

I wasn’t normally like that. Normally I was polite and reserved.

But then again I didn’t normally drink.

But I did have a good understand of men and when they were hitting on me…it hadn’t happened naturally. It was just a skill. A skill like any other, one that you needed to practice, needed to slowly develop.

I made a snap decision. I was going to get this guy…this rodeo champion, or whoever he was.

I slammed my empty glass down on the bar. And, making quite a clatter, I got up from my stool.

I must have been a little bit drunker than I’d thought, because somehow I managed to topple the stool over as I got up.

But I didn’t care.

I set my sights directly on Colton. I had him in my cross hairs. I was staring at his chest, the side-view of his sexy plump ass in those worn out looking jeans…those cowboy boots that he now had perched up on the card table.

“How you doing, there, cowboy?” I said, in my most seductive voice. Again, I must have been drunk, because I didn’t usually talk like that. Anyway, I never had much need to really try to go out and get laid. Going to at least a wedding every week would do that to a woman.

“Hi…” said Colton the cowboy, without looking up. “Would you like an autograph?” He said in a bored robotic voice, as if nothing in the world mattered.

“Sure,” I said. “But I’d like you to autograph my…” I was about to say “tits,” in order to be (for me) super provocative. But then I remembered I was in a titty bar, a strip club, where there were naked breasts wiggling all over the place. “…
pussy
,” I finished, surprising even myself.

Colton nearly fell out of his chair. His cowboy boots fell with a clatter to the floor, as he straightened all of a sudden up in his chair, looking at me for the first time.

“Seriously?” he said.

“I’ve never been more serious in my life.”

I didn’t know what had come over me. I really wasn’t like
this…believe
me…I was used to the men hitting on me.

“Well take your pants off then, honey,” said Colton. I could see him looking me up and down, eyeing me from my breasts to my waist, where his eyes settled on my crotch. I could tell he was imaging what was underneath my pants.

“You like what you see?” I said.

“Of course, baby,” said Colton.

I couldn’t believe I’d gotten his attention. After all there were topless women all over the place.

“Well, what are you waiting for,” said Colton. “Let me sign it.”

“I don’t think we can do that here,” I said.

“It’s a strip club,” said Colton. “No one will mind.”

His manager shuffled nervously over. Evidently he had overheard our little coquettish conversation.

“Colton, as your manager I would advise you not too…”

“Shut up,” said Colton, snapping at him. “For once in your life, shut up. You got me this horrible gig. Why are you trying to stop the one good thing that’s happening here.
”

“But the fans…” said the manager. “Part of the problem is you’re too much of a wild card, Colton. I didn’t want to tell you earlier, but that’s one of the reasons they don’t want you on TV. All this sleeping with young women…all the boozing and destroying hotel rooms…there’s even a picture of you riding a motorcycle shirtless…this kind of thing may be good in some areas as publicity. But the rodeo is still old fashioned…you can’t be such a rebel here…well, they want rebels, but they want clean rebels. It’s a hard image to maintain.”

“To hell with my image,” said Colton. “I can ride, can’t I?
Practically better than anyone else, right?
I mean, what’s my rank right now in the country?”

“Number 1,” said the manager, looking down at his feet, as if he really didn’t want to admit this piece of information, as if it was something shameful.

“What!” said Colton, seemingly growing
outraged.
He took his beer bottle in his hand and brandished it like a weapon at the manager. I couldn’t help but admire his bulging muscles as he did so, and his tattoos as his biceps flexed.

I could see one of the tattoos clearly now. It was a man riding a horse, with a bull goring the man and the horse at the same time…it was quite gruesome for a tattoo.

I also couldn’t help find myself even more attracted to Colton…
surprisingly,
it was something about his rage. It just seemed so manly.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me I was ranked #1?” said Colton, practically screaming with rage.

The rest of the strip club stopped completely. They had heard the volume and rage of his voice. The strippers froze in place. Somehow, the music stopped…
.even
though it wasn’t a live band, like in the movies.

Everyone was staring at Colton and the manager, and I also felt their eyes on me…it made me feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t used to being so close to the spotlight. I was used to standing in the back of my weddings.

“Didn’t want it to get to your head. You have to focus on your image,” mumbled the manager.

“What!” roared
Colton.
“And what the hell am I doing in this dump if I’m the #1 rodeo champion in the whole country. You’re really that bad of a manager that you couldn’t get a better gig?”

“I don’t know…rodeo…not that…bad boy image,” muttered the manager, refusing to look Colton in the face. He was now instead just staring at Colton’s battered hat.”

“You’re fired!” said Colton, still angry, but his voice lowering in volume.

“But…Colton…” squeaked the little manager, ruffling his suit. He looked like a little lost bird…a nervous penguin.

“You heard me,” said Colton. “Get the hell out of here.”

The manager slunk off to the dark recessed of the strip club, perhaps to try to gather his forces again. He didn’t seem like a man without a plan…he seemed too conniving. I was pretty sure the whole submissive thing during the argument had been little more than an act on his part. He was used to playing Colton, or trying to play him. But this seemed like the first time Colton had actually fired him.

“So where were we, pretty little lady?” said Colton, turning to me.

“We were just...” I didn’t know what to say. I was lost for words for a moment.

“You wanted me to sign something,” said Colton, giving me a big wink. It was amazing how fast he’d turned off the anger, how fast he’d changed tracks.

“Oh yeah,” I said, regaining my composure. “You want me to take my pants off here, so you can sign it?” I gave him my own big wink, hoping I seemed flirty enough.

“I don’t think they let you do that here,” said Colton, looking around.

The music had started back up, and the strippers were dancing once again. I felt like the spotlight was off of us, and I felt a little more relaxed. But just for a moment. I immediately began to feel nervous…nervous because of Colton. But it was that good type of
nerves, that pleasurable type of anxiety…I
felt like anything might happen. I felt some spark deep within my chest. I felt something…and I looked Colton right in the eye and was pretty sure he felt it too.

“They let them take their tops off,” I said. “There’s a rule against ladies taking their pants off in bars like this. At least here in Texas, that is.”

“Well then why don’t we find a place that has more relaxed rules? I just don’t want to leave a fan like you disappointed. You really deserve my autograph, coming all they out here to a place like this.”

I knew he knew I wasn’t a fan. I knew he knew I’d never heard of him. For one thing, I was about ten years older than the 18-year-old rodeo fans
who
threw themselves at him. I felt anxious about my body, just thinking about that…I was practically an old woman compared to these young kids…would my body be desirable for a man like Colton? Surely he had had the most beautiful of the beautiful, the youngest and hottest from all around.

But I gathered myself together. “Somewhere private,” I said. “Why don’t we go back to your hotel room?”

“I thought you’d never mention it,” said Colton, smiling. “Come on, let’s get out of this place.”

“What about your autographs?” I said. “And your manager.”

“To hell with the manager and the autographs. There are no fans here anyway. I can’t believe what a gutter level manager he is. Pure trash. I just can’t believe it. I was young and stupid when I signed up for him. You can hardly blame me.”

“I don’t think you I could ever consider you stupid,” I said.

Colton took his big arm and put it around me, getting up from his chair.

We walked like that, with his arm around me, out of the bar, leaving the card table and the manager behind.

We got to his hotel room. I don’t know what I was expecting from a rodeo champion who was too much of a rebel to keep good ratings, no matter how skilled he was. But his room was an absolute disaster.

There were alcohol bottles everywhere.
Most of them empty.

The bed was unmade, of course. That I could have expected.

But what I didn’t expect was there’d still be a woman in there from the night before.

“Colton,” said the young woman, who couldn’t have been over 20 years old…although she was certainly over 18. She was completely naked, her curvy body spread out over the bed, on top of the sheets and covers.

“Colton,” said the woman. “I’m glad you’re back so early…
.hey
! Who the hell is she?”

“This is…”

“Katy,” I said, finishing his sentence.

Colton didn’t seem the least bit put off or embarrassed by the situation.

“And Katy,” said Colton. “Let me present to you…”

“Laura,” said the woman, her face turning into a pout. “I thought we were going to do it again,” said Laura. “That’s why I was waiting for you here.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, kid,” said Colton. “But it’s time to get out of here.”

We waited in silence as the woman dressed herself quickly.

She had big juicy breasts, very plump, that I got quite the eyeful of as I watched her dress.

Colton was watching her too, taking in every inch of her body.

I felt some jealousy rolling through me…I wanted him to myself…I felt like he was already my man…my feelings were taking over my head. What were my chances of having him to myself if this was the way he treated the woman from the night before, kicking her out like this? But his presence and body were overriding my rational mind…I was just experiencing lust…pure lust…and desire.

The door slammed behind her as she left the hotel room.

“Now let’s get down to business,” I said.

“No problem,” said Colton. He walked over to me slowly. He reached out and seized me by the waist.

“Oh, Colton,” I said, moaning, despite myself.

Colton reached up and ran his hands through my thick hair. It seemed to get stuck for a moment, but he was so strong it didn’t matter. He could do anything he wanted. He could do anything he wanted to me. He could do anything he wanted in life…I had a sense about these kinds of things…about people.

Somehow I knew, or thought I knew, intuitively what everyone else was capable…never myself, though, or at least very rarely. I had had a flash of insight right before opening my own business with my friend Sara. Before going into the wedding planning business I had been unaware of my own potential and simply working at a grocery store as a check out clerk and part time bagger. It hadn’t been much fun, and I hadn’t liked it at all.

“I wanted you from the moment I saw you,” said Colton, breathing lightly into my ear.