Tempestuous/Restless Heart Read Online Free PDF

and batted her spiky lashes at him. “I hear they’re looking for help at Green Hills, and the trainer’s a real dishy guy. Ain’t that right, Bobby?”
    Braddock wheeled toward his friend with stark panic in his eyes, but Christian took no pity on him. He was too wrapped up in his own worries.
    “I’m going to watch the next competition,” he mumbled, and wandered off in the direction of the show ring.
    It was all that time he’d spent with his family, he thought morosely. They’d rubbed off on him. Three weeks with the Athertons was enough to give anybody a stiff neck. He rubbed the back of his now as he leaned against a light pole and stared, unseeing, at the horse and rider negotiating the jumper course in the arena.
    The effect would wear off, he was certain. He would loosen up again. All he needed was a bit of fun with any one of a number of ladies whose names would have rated gold stars in his address book had he been gauche enough to use such a system. He preferred to appreciate every woman for her own unique qualities and leave rating systems to men with no class.
    There was Hillary Collins, he reflected. She was always pleasant company. And then there was Regina Worth, who had two really outstanding qualities, he thought with a lazy grin. And Louisa Thomas …
    But each name that came to mind faded quickly away. The truth of the matter was, he didn’t feel like seeing any of them. The only woman he was interested in seeing was the one who had turned him down. The one with the flashing amber eyes and sexy, sexy mouth. The one with the mysterious past. The one who had sent him sprawling with the ruthless efficiency of a Ninja warrior. The only woman he was interested in was at that very moment riding into the arena on a horse he wouldn’t have wished on his worst enemy.
    So maybe it wasn’t going to be quite so simple to win this bet, Christian thought as he watched the unflappable Ms. Gianni cast an imperious glance at the course she was about to negotiate, but then he had all the time in the world. It had never taken Christian Atherton a month to get a date with a woman in his life. Alexandra Gianni was not going to be the exception to that rule.

three
    TERMINATOR REARED AS THE ARENA GATE swung closed behind him. Alex calmly forced him forward, driving him with her legs. She had learned very quickly that it did no good to punish him for his bad manners. He tended to take reprimands as a challenge and exacted his revenge with even more outlandish behavior. She had decided the only hope she had for redeeming him was to ignore his little fits and do her best to help him keep his mind on his business.
    The horse could jump like a champion. His talent over fences was the only thing that had saved his miserable hide from being made into so many baseballs. If she could get him to concentrate on his job and forget the shenanigans, she might prolong his career and put off his trip to the butcher’s for another few years.
    With that in mind she urged him into a canter and glanced over the course as she circled him near the gate. Because this was just a schooling show, and most of the horses participating were either young, unseasoned, or simply not good enough to make it on the A circuit, the fences were not terribly high—nothing over four feet. And though the course itself was more complicated than those of the hunter classes that had preceded it, it was still well beneath Terminator’s capabilities. He had already been shown at higher levels of competition, but Alex had chosen to restart him and bring him up gradually to the tougher levels as they got to know each other, and as she gained more control over his unbalanced mind.
    When she noticed Christian standing outside the ring, his gaze riveted on her, she caught herself straightening in the saddle, bringing her chin up, making half a dozen little adjustments that might impress him. Dammit, she scolded herself as she pointed her horse toward his first