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As the horse and rider flew past, Kamal got a better look at the jockey’s fierce expression—and sensed the effort it was taking for her to stay on the horse.
Fear careered through him.
The horse’s speed was completely unchecked. The animal was going too fast, its hooves pounding hard, its flanks sweating with the effort. Was the girl controlling the horse, or was she merely trying to cling onto its back?
That little fool.
Kamal shoved his way through the busy arena stables and leapt onto the nearest saddled horse. Grabbing the reins, he ignored the shouts from the stable hand who had been leading the horse to its stall and charged towards the arena.
The crowds parted to let him through as he galloped towards the track, his mind berating the foolhardy girl even as the fear continued to streak through his body.
The horse was coming down the back straight again as Kamal reached the track. The slender rider was bent so low over the mare now it was clear she had exhausted herself. Adrenaline and something that felt uncomfortably like arousal shot through Kamal as her wild hair flowed around her features, while her slight body clung for dear life to the still accelerating horse.
Kamal spurred his mount onto the track ahead of the runaway mare as it took the turn—determined to rescue the idiot girl before she broke her foolish neck.
‘Come on, girl, we’ve got this.’ Excitement barrelled through Kaliah Khan’s exhausted body.
We’re going to win. And I will finally prove I’m not a total screw-up.
She clung to the reins and kept her body low over Ashreen’s neck, urging her on, aware of all the muscles straining to stay on the horse as they careered around the track. She needed this victory to prove to her family, to prove to Narabia’s establishment and to prove to herself she had what it took to win in a man’s world.
But most of all to prove to that creep Colin, the guy she’d thought she was falling in love at Cambridge, he’d been wrong to call her a ‘frigid bitch’.
Her anger was like an aphrodisiac, turning the fear and danger into exhilaration—and adding much-needed fuel to her flagging stamina. It was as if they were flying. Perhaps if she hadn’t been so determined to win she might have controlled the horse more, but it was too late now—Ashreen had scented victory too.
Suddenly an unknown rider on a huge white stallion swerved onto the track ahead of her.
‘Who the...?’ Liah gasped.
Where hadhecome from? And what was he doing right in front of her?
The horse, much bigger than her mare, picked up speed and moved into her lane, keeping pace with Ashreen’s strides. The man was a huge black shadow on the white horse, large and forbidding, powerful and overwhelming.
Liah’s shattered mind imagined a Horseman of the Apocalypse come to collect her and take her to hell.
‘Get out of the way!’ she screamed, but her demand was whipped away on the wind. Her tired arms weighed several tons—all she could do was cling on, her body too weary to manoeuvre Ashreen away from the encroaching rider.
Ashreen lifted her nose, scenting the other animal, and for a split-second Liah was sure the mare would rear, but instead she slowed, almost as if she was intimidated by the huge stallion too.
‘No, Ashreen!’ Liah shouted. The finish line was just a few hundred metres away. But, before she could get the horse to accelerate again, the rider came alongside her. His hard, angular face was partially covered by a beard, but she could see the fierce concentration in his eyes and the spark of furious temper.
What the heck did he have to be angry about? She was the one getting pushed out of a race she’d been about to win.
‘Let go of the reins,’ he shouted. ‘I’ll lift you off her.’
‘Are you mad?’ she yelled back, but her fingers loosened instinctively.
The air expelled from her lungs in a rush as a hard forearm wrapped around her midriff and she became airborne, plucked from the saddle like a rag doll.
She heard the thunder of Ashreen’s hooves as the mare bolted away towards the finish line, leaving her behind. She grunted in shock as she found herself dumped face-down over the rider’s saddle. Her stomach slapped down on thighs hard with muscle and she caught a lungful of his scent—spice, musk and clean soap. His robe wrapped around them both as the mighty horse reared. But Liah didn’t even have a chance to scream before the horse bowed to its rider’s commands and its hooves crashed back to earth, giving her stomach another painful jolt against those rock-solid thighs.
His hand remained firm on her back, keeping her in place as he steered the horse across the track, bringing them to a stop inches from the fence.
The crowd erupted, waving and cheering, as if the whole thing had been planned for their entertainment. Nausea boiled in Liah’s stomach, her mind reeling as the giddy adrenaline rush slammed into a wave of shock and fury.
What had just happened? And who was this mad man? Because he’d nearly killed them both...and, more importantly—he’d just lost her the race. Every part of her body throbbed with pain. But what hurt most of all was her pride.
The rest of the field raced past them as the man dragged her up to seat her across his lap so she could see his face. Dark brows flattened over piercing golden eyes which looked weirdly familiar. Had she seen this man before? Because those amber eyes struck something in her memory from long ago.
