Eight Seconds (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  Eight Seconds

  Danielle Mallory hates rodeos, especially bull riders. Funny how life has ways of making people eat their words. She learns that lesson well when she comes face-to-face with the bull rider J.C. Evans that her heart still beats for.

  J.C. Evans, a nationally ranked bull rider, has a hell of a reputation with women. His only regret: breaking Danielle's heart. Now he's determined to win her heart again, but it proves to be no easy task.

  Danielle is quick-witted and sassy. Their sexual banter and teasing is fun but only fans the flames they have even more.

  Realizing that life may never be the same, Danielle opens her heart and more to experience passion, sensually erotic sex, and most importantly the love she always wanted.

  Genre: Contemporary, Western/Cowboys

  Length: 62,192 words

  EIGHT SECONDS

  Hennessee Andrews

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

  EIGHT SECONDS

  Copyright © 2012 by Hennessee Andrews

  E-book ISBN: 1-61926-541-9

  First E-book Publication: April 2012

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Eight Seconds by Hennessee Andrews from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Hennessee Andrews’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Andrews’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  To my family. You’re the best. Thanks for believing in me and not stroking out when I told you what I enjoyed writing.

  To Siren. Thank you for making my dream come true.

  EIGHT SECONDS

  HENNESSEE ANDREWS

  Copyright © 2012

  Chapter One

  The present

  University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma

  Graduation day…it had finally arrived. Danielle had spent the last four years dreaming of this day, sure it would never come. She stood in front of a mirror in her dorm room donning her cap and gown, smiling. Her straight blonde hair pooled around her shoulders over the black gown. Tears welled up in her deep chestnut eyes as the tassel swung and tickled her cheek. No tears, not going to do it, not now.

  Her cell phone rang, and she picked it up while sucking in a ragged breath.

  “Hello, Stacy,” Danielle answered with a wide grin, the call replacing her melancholy mood. Stacy, her cousin, was like a sister. They were closer than any two sisters could hope to be.

  “Hey, girl, congrats,” Stacy squealed into the phone.

  Danielle smiled, her unshed tears pushed back by happiness now. Tears would come again later. She was sure of it. “Hi, Stacy, are y’all here yet?”

  “Now really, where else would I be?” Stacy blurted sarcastically into the phone.

  “Great, wow…I can’t wait until this is all over with,” Danielle said as her nervousness grew. She dabbed a tissue at her eye that threatened to spill again.

  “We are here for you, and just think, we have a summer full of fun ahead of us. Gosh, I have missed you,” Stacy said.

  The two had been inseparable all their lives. They had pulled every prank known and caused exponential trouble and major amounts of gray hairs for their parents together. To say they were sisters didn’t quite cover the relationship. They were best friends as well.

  “Oh, man, it’s already five.” Danielle gasped and made rounds in her room searching for her purse and camera.

  “Girl, you got to calm down,” Stacy screeched. The stress had caused Danielle to hit panic mode.

  “I’m good,” Danielle said in a rush. “I have what I need. I’m out of here.”

  “I’ll see you after the ceremony,” Stacy said. “Oh, and don’t forget to breathe.”

  Danielle laughed. “Bye.” Don’t forget to breathe? Just then she gasped and sucked in a large breath. Right, breathe.

  Four long years had led Danielle to this moment. Once upon a time, the journey had almost felt impossible, but now, the impossible had happened. Nursing, her chosen field, had challenged her every step of the way. Long hours studying and a lack of a social life summed up Danielle’s life over the years. Her only reprieve had been her trips home. Summer, by far, was the best time for her, an entire summer to relax her brain from the stresses of nursing school.

  Danielle gathered the last few items she needed and headed out of her dorm bound for a crowd of family and friends. Nervousness set in when she joined the group of graduates she had spent the last four years with. Life was changing, and it was happening in a hurry. It didn’t seem that long ago she entered the university a small town country girl. Now she’d be exiting with a degree and honors as a registered nurse.

  Commencement ended after a very long and dull two hours. The graduating class numbered close to one hundred and thirty. When their black caps flew into the air, it resembled a Rorschach test. The audience was cheering with the graduates. Danielle glanced up as her cap flew with a hundred and twenty others and exhaled.

  The sea of people began to disperse, and Danielle looked around for signs of her family. The task of finding a needle in a haystack seemed more of an obtainable goal.

  A squealing and screaming Stacy bounded up and threw her arms around Dan
ielle. “Congratulations, Danielle.”

  Danielle wobbled trying to keep her balance. Stacy was always overly enthusiastic and also a hugger. “Thanks, Stace.”

  Stacy beamed as she loosened her grip. “You are so mine for the summer.” Her short blonde bob swung in excitement while her crystal-blue eyes glimmered in the sun.

  Danielle nodded and smiled as her parents approached. Hello, tears.

  “Sweetie, I’m so proud of you,” her mother, Gabby, said as she hugged her daughter sweetly.

  Danielle looked up at her father, Dean. His blue eyes were rimmed in red with a hint of mist glazing over them.

  “Sweet pea, I knew you could do it,” her father choked out, fighting his emotions once again.

  Although it was Danielle’s big day, she wasn’t one for emotional scenes. Seeing her father cry tore at her heart, and her own eyes welled up again. Dean was wonderful, a dad who had always been there for her and had always been behind her. But in her twenty-three years, she had never seen him cry. If he shed tears at her graduation, she wondered how emotional he would become if she ever got married.

  Danielle quickly shrugged away that thought. It was too soon to think of such nonsense. First, she needed a job, and then she needed to settle into life. It was amazing to realize that one chapter was closing and another was opening. How would she begin her next chapter?

  Too much, it was far too much to think of right now. Reality was at hand. No longer was she a student—today she was a graduate. She smiled inwardly and quoted part of Scarlett O’Hara’s words from Gone with the Wind, “I will think about that tomorrow…after all…tomorrow is another day.”

  Danielle left out the part concerning the man, Mr. Ashley Wilkes, that Scarlett wanted to get back. She never understood why Scarlett wanted Ashley to begin with. Rhett Butler was the stud of that movie.

  Although she smiled when she thought about it all, she had her own want for a man but quickly dismissed his image before it could materialize. Memories and regrets…Danielle had just one, and he was a tall, strapping cowboy that could steal her breath away with a smile. Damn him.

  Danielle refocused her attention, grabbed her parents by the arms, and tugged them toward the parking lot. Gabby was dabbing her eyes with tissues, and Dean stood straight as an arrow while trying to maintain emotional control. If she didn’t get her parents safely into their truck and on their way home soon, Danielle feared she’d break down into an emotional puddle as well.

  “Okay, Mom, Dad…I love you both, but you need to get on the road. Stacy will ride with me back, and I’ll see you at home later,” Danielle said sweetly. Her parents were great, but being the only child, and a daughter at that, seemed to bring out the tears in her mother’s eyes when any milestone was reached. The sweet sixteen party, ugh, let’s not get started on that.

  “Sweetie, are you sure you don’t need help loading your things?” Dean asked. His blue eyes were framed by laugh lines, and his dark-brown hair was peppered with gray. No doubt Danielle had a hand in each and every one of those glistening grays. Her father smiled weakly as he looked at her.

  “Dad, no, I don’t need any help. I loaded most everything earlier today. There are only a couple of things left,” Danielle said, then gave her dad a big hug.

  “Bye, Mom, see you later,” Danielle said and waved as her mom closed the door.

  Her Father patted her on the back and reluctantly got into his truck.

  The truck disappeared down the road, and Danielle sighed. “All right, they’re taken care of.” She breathed in a calming breath and looked at Stacy.

  “Let’s get your stuff and get on the road too. This is damn depressing all of a sudden.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Danielle offered with a chuckle as she began to walk.

  With the last of her belongings loaded into her truck, Danielle turned and looked back at the university. It had been home for the last four years while she worked toward her nursing degree. Now she was leaving as Danielle Mallory, RN.

  There were a lot of great memories here, she thought as she wiped a tear that escaped. Now it was back to her hometown for the summer like always to work on the farm with her father. Come fall, she hoped to be settled at a large hospital. She had plenty of applications sent out but was unsure where she might end up. Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Norman, any of the three would suit her just fine. She just wanted to remain within state lines.

  Danielle’s mother hoped she would take a position at the small county hospital near home so she would be close, but Danielle had dismissed the idea. She was afraid the wages wouldn’t be enough for her to live on along with other reasons she didn’t want to think about right now.

  “Yo, girl. You here?” Stacy said as she patted Danielle on the back.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Danielle said with a renewed vigor. Standing around reminiscing about the past and what might be was silly and accomplished nothing.

  On the road, Danielle settled in for the long one hundred thirty-mile drive home. She wasn’t surprised Stacy was blabbing at supersonic speed because she usually did. When Danielle glanced over at Stacy, she beamed silently for a moment then began to chatter again.

  “Okay, funk over. I’m not riding in this truck a minute longer in total silence. I’m turning on the radio.” Stacy smiled as she twisted the knob for the volume.

  Danielle smiled. That was the Stacy she knew. The girl couldn’t sit still or stay quiet if her life depended on it. She began to feel awful. She wasn’t exactly good company right now and couldn’t understand her downer mood. And she knew Stacy sensed it as well.

  Danielle felt she should be elated today, excited, and partying into the wee hours of the morning. Instead, a melancholy mood had settled in. Maybe all the years of school and the finality of it all was to blame. Another year older, youth flying by, college over, ugh, now she had to find a job and settle into life.

  Weird. How does one all of a sudden switch gears and change courses so abruptly? Maybe it was something else. Who knew? Right now, she needed to shake off her bad disposition and enjoy the fact she had her first accomplishment under her belt. She looked over at Stacy again. Stacy sat quietly looking out the window while tapping her fingers on her leg in time to the music.

  Danielle let out a bloodcurdling scream while jerking the steering wheel abruptly and scaring the daylights out of Stacy.

  Stacy screamed in terror as her head thumped off the window in her fright to escape.

  Danielle laughed so hard she cried. There was something so funny about scaring people, especially Stacy.

  “Why in the hell did you do that?” Stacy complained as she rubbed her forehead.

  “I…” Danielle tried to speak but couldn’t quit laughing. “Sorry...it…it’s just sooo funny,” she squealed out and wiped the tears from her cheeks and tried to regain control of her truck.

  “Heifer.” Stacy smiled. “Paybacks. Them paybacks are a bitch. Remember that.”

  Danielle regained her composure somewhat and giggled sporadically every time she looked at Stacy.

  “Sorry, it was too easy to pass up,” Danielle said and laughed again.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Stacy muttered. Danielle knew Stacy would have done the same if the tables were turned.

  “Is there a mark?” Stacy asked and turned her head around for Danielle to see.

  “Nope, no mark.” Danielle laughed again. “I guess you will be paying me back?”

  “You’re darn right.”

  Danielle cranked up the radio hearing a Hank Williams Jr. tune come on. “All my rowdy friends are coming over tonight.” She sang loudly and off key while Stacy laughed and joined in.

  When the song ended, both giggled and reminisced about all the fun times they had shared.

  “Man, I have missed you,” Stacy said with a wide smile and sparkling blue eyes.

  “I have missed you, too, girl. It’s been a long year. I’m ready for fun, just fun,” Danielle said then turned her eyes back to the road.


  “Men, you forgot to mention men,” Stacy chimed in.

  Stacy had always been boy crazy, and it seemed that not much had changed.

  “So, whom have you been sleeping with anyway?” Stacy questioned with a grin on her face. “Oh, I picked up your favorite snack for our drive.” She pulled the package of licorice out of her bag and opened it.

  Danielle choked at the question then cleared her voice. “Unlike you, sweetie, I don’t base my day-to-day living around a man. I don’t just fall into bed with random guys,” she stated flatly. She reached for the bag and pulled out a piece, taking a bite in a matter-of-fact manner.

  “Ugh, you make it sound like a bad thing.” Stacy frowned. “You didn’t even get laid once this year, did you?”

  Danielle blushed. “No, I um…I didn’t, but that’s not me. I just don’t require sex like you do. Sex is really overrated anyway.”

  “Says the girl getting no action,” Stacy said, blasting her.

  “Ha, ha.” Danielle smiled. Deep down, she had wanted sex, and badly at times, but she wanted it with someone that meant something to her, someone she was in love with—not just in lust with. School had left her little time for a social life anyway, but she hadn’t minded too much…until now.

  “You’re too uptight, Danielle. Sex is great, awesome. Gee, I would have sex every day if I could,” Stacy stated with a serious look on her face. Her blonde hair swayed back and forth as she tried to keep rhythm with a song on the radio.

  Danielle gasped and looked at her. “You are such a slut, Stacy.”

  “No, I’m not. I just know what I like. I like men, so sue me.” Stacy shrugged innocently.