Read Online Tempestuous/Restless Heart by Tami Hoag - Free Book Online

open field, and Terminator was determined to reach the end of it ahead of the horse running beside him.
    “Dammit, Christian, pull up!” Alex shouted. “He thinks it’s a race!”
    Christian eased the gray back half a length, then a length, but Terminator surged on, faster still, out of control. Rising in his irons, he kicked his gelding ahead, urging him with hands and legs. The gray responded with a burst of speed that brought the two horses even once again.
    Alex was leaning back, sawing on the reins with every ounce of strength and determination she had and making no impression on her animal whatsoever. Taking his own reins in his right hand, Christian stretched his left arm out, his fingers grasping for Alex’s rein, then curling around it.
    “Let him go!” Alex ordered as Christian sat back, his movement pulling the two horses closer together.
    Alex frantically tried to pull Terminator the other way, but the chestnut had already changed his course and his mind. He was no longer bent on winning the race but on beating the daylights out of his opponent. Ears flattened, he willingly turned his head in Christian’s direction and lunged at the gray.
    Christian’s startled mount bolted sideways to escape his adversary’s teeth, stumbled, and went down, sending Christian sprawling. Alex overbalanced to the right, and Terminator neatly dodged left, ducking out from under her. She hit the ground with a teeth-jarring thud and slowly pushed herself to a sitting position just in time to see Terminator disappearing down the trail for home.
    “Damn!” she said, tearing up a clump of grass with her gloved fist and throwing it away.
    Christian’s mount had righted himself and stood near the edge of the clearing, alternately grazing and staring at his fallen master with wide eyes. Alex’s heart went to her throat as her own gaze fell on Christian. He seemed ominously still.
    “Christian?” she called, her voice trembling as she scrambled over to him. She unbuckled the chin strap of her jockey’s helmet, which suddenly seemed to be strangling her, and still couldn’t get a decent breath.
    Christian lay like a mannequin in the grass, unnaturally still. What if he were unconscious? He wasn’t wearing a helmet—he might have hit his head or been kicked. What if he were—Alex swallowed hard and refused to finish the thought. On her knees she bent over him looking for blood and bruises. “Christian?”
    He opened his eyes and smiled weakly. “I do love how you say my name, darling.”
    Relief washed through Alex like the waters of a burst dam. And in their aftermath came a tide of anger. She pushed herself to her feet and swore at him in Italian. “You’re not hurt at all!”
    “Try not to sound so disappointed,” he said dryly. He sat up gingerly, mentally assessing the damage. A few aches, no major pains, all extremities attached and working.
    “Madre di Dio!” Alex flung her hands at him, amber eyes flashing. “I thought you’d been killed!”
    “Is that a goal of yours or something?” he questioned suspiciously, rubbing an aching shoulder through his dark leather jacket. “This is the second time I’ve found myself on the ground because of you. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if you were down here with me,” he added with a roguish grin.
    Alex just growled at him and paced, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.
    “I say, you won’t be able to talk with your hands tucked up against you.”
    His teasing earned him a baleful glare. He chuckled. The lady didn’t want him to know how badly rattled she’d been at the prospect of his death. It was a start.
    “You could thank me for saving your beautiful neck,” he suggested, fighting back the grin that threatened when her cat’s eyes flashed at him again.
    “Saving me? You got me thrown!”
    “Yes, well, it appeared that beast of yours was going to run all the way to Maryland. I saved you a long trip home.”
    “At least I would have had a ride,”