Rancher Dragon, Terry Bolryder [acx book reading TXT] 📗

didn’t need to know that. “I mean out with other folk. Not alone.”

“Well, I used to come to these alone. But I have to admit it’s nice to come with someone I like.” She flushed.

“I think we’re far past the likin’ part,” he said low so no one else could hear, and she giggled in response.

They were interrupted by a host of titters and gasps, and Beck looked up to see Clancy strutting into the barn, dressed to the nines in his nicest western apparel. Clancy looked out over the crowd as all eyes that weren’t dancing in the line seemed to go to him. Then his green eyes fell on Beck and Sierra.

Clancy tipped his hat, then winked directly at Beck before moving toward a small group of women that were already fawning and looking ready to faint at any moment.

Beck felt the beer in his hand crack, and he set it down before he shattered the damn thing and made a fool out of himself.

“Does he show up to these often?” Beck asked with a grimace. He didn’t know what had gotten into him lately. Clancy was his friend.

But whenever he was near Sierra, it was like Beck’s dragon didn’t remember that fact.

“Once in a while, I think I’ve seen him,” Sierra said. “But we were never introduced.”

Beck growled.

Of course Clancy was out strutting around like a peacock, probably breaking women’s hearts wherever he went.

But that wasn’t fair, he realized. It was Clancy’s choice to do whatever he wanted. Just because Beck was a monster didn’t mean he wasn’t jealous of the ease with which his longtime friend dealt with people.

Kinda like TJ.

The music started to slow. Then the song stopped as the room clapped for an encore. There was a pause, and then a new song immediately started, a little faster and livelier than the last.

Sierra leaped to her feet, gaze full of excitement, and she grabbed both of Beck’s hands in hers.

“Come dance with me. I know this one!”

“I… I don’t,” he replied, watching as the most confident dancers were already forming a small square in the circle, starting to move to the rhythm of the line dance. As they moved, others hopped in from the sides, and the group got bigger.

“It’s easy. I’ll show you.”

Beck imagined himself out there on the line, a full foot taller than most of the other people in the room, huge boots probably shaking the ground as he stomped and scared everyone off. The idea would have been comical if it were someone else.

As it stood, the picture in his brain was horrifying.

Mountain dragons did not dance.

“It’s okay. Go on without me.” He used his softest tone, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

Sierra’s expression fell a bit, and it almost broke his heart right there. “I guess so. If you’re not up to it, I guess I could ask Clancy.” She looked over her shoulder where Clancy had been a minute ago, but he was no longer there. “The only people I’ve line danced with before are strangers. I thought it would be fun to have a proper partner.”

That kicked Beck right in the ass, and he stood up a little too suddenly, making the ground move and a family with small children nearby gasp up at him.

“No,” he said firmly.

Sierra couldn’t hide the delight in her expression as he took her hands. “No what?”

“No, you ain’t asking Clancy or anyone else. I’m goin’ with you.” Even if he sent every person in this barn running and screaming bloody murder with his dancing, he wasn’t going to disappoint Sierra. He’d move mountains for her.

Even if that mountain was himself right now.

“Yay!” she exclaimed enthusiastically. “Over here.” She took him toward a corner of the now-larger throng, just a few paces away from the others, as she squared her body in the direction everyone else was facing and began to bob her head in time with the music.

“It’s easy, just one, two, three, clap.” She showed him, moving perfectly with the rest of the dancers. “Then back the other direction, one, two, three, spin.” She did a little twirl that made Beck smile, and he found himself tapping his foot on the ground just watching her get into the rhythm of it.

Before she’d even completed the full sequence, Beck was moving with her, memorizing the steps as he went, watching Sierra as she swung an invisible lasso high above her head, swayed her hips with the music, and stomped her little feet forward and back and left and right and all over again.

By the time the song had hit the second verse, he figured he already had it all down, which allowed him to just enjoy dancing next to Sierra.

“See, it’s not that bad,” she said loud enough so he could hear her over the raucous playing of the band.

The “stomp” part of the sequence hit, and Beck’s foot hit the ground, rattling several of the floorboards as the whole room shook a little harder than when it had just been the humans in the lineup. A couple people that had lined up next to them sent him a strange glance, but he ignored it.

He was having too much fun with Sierra to be bothered.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were a pro at this,” Beck said, nodding to Sierra at his side as he watched her curvy shape as it moved to the music.

She just laughed.

To their side, Beck saw a young man staring over at Sierra, his eyes moving a little too low and lingering a little too long in places they shouldn’t. So when the group turned and Sierra was in front of Beck, he shoved his arm to the side, pushing the guy out of the lineup and onto the ground with an oof.

When the man stood up, annoyance in his eyes, Beck glared down at him and traced his index finger aggressively over his throat in a slitting motion, showing him exactly what