Page 46 of Just Imagine
Cain seemed more amused than angry. “You think so?”
“What do you say we see? You on Vandal and me on Temptation. We’ll start at the gate next to the barn, race past the pond to the maple grove, and finish right here.”
“You’re not going to bait me.”
“Oh, I’m not baiting you.” She gave him a silky smile. “I’m challenging you.”
“You do like to live dangerously, don’t you, Katharine Louise?”
“It’s the only way.”
“All right. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
He was going to race her. She gave a silent cheer as he grabbed his shirt from a sawhorse. While he buttoned it, he issued orders to the men who’d been standing around staring at her. Then he picked up a worn Western hat with a stained sweatband that testified to years of comfortable wear and set it on his head.
“I’ll meet you at the stable.” He rode from the clearing without bothering to wait for her.
Lady was eager for the oats that awaited her, and she made the homeward journey a little faster, but they still arrived well after Cain. Temptation was already saddled when Kit got there, and Cain was checking the cinch strap. Kit dismounted and handed Lady’s bridle to Samuel. Then she walked over to Temptation and ran a hand down his muzzle.
“Ready?” Cain said shortly.
“I’m ready.”
He gave her a leg up, and she swung into the saddle. When Temptation felt her weight, he began to prance and sidestep, and it took all her skill to keep him under control. By the time the horse had finally settled down, Cain had mounted Vandal.
As she rode from the yard, Kit was intoxicated by the sensation of leashed power in the animal beneath her, and she could barely resist giving him his head. She reluctantly reined in when she reached the gate near the barn.
“The first one who makes it back to the mill wins,” she said to Cain.
He tipped up the brim of his hat with his thumb. “I’m not racing you.”
“What do you mean?” Kit needed to race him. She wanted to compete with him at something where his size and strength wouldn’t give him an advantage. On horseback, the differences between a man and a woman would disappear.
“Exactly what I said.”
“Is the Hero of Missionary Ridge afraid to get beat by a woman in front of his men?”
Cain squinted slightly in the blaze of the late-morning sun. “I don’t have anything to prove, and you’re not going to bait me.”
“Why did you come here if you weren’t going to race?”
“You were doing a little bragging back there. I wanted to see if any of it was true.”
She rested her hand across the pommel and smiled. “I wasn’t bragging. I was stating facts.”
“Talk’s cheap, Katharine Louise. Let’s see what you can do with a horse.”
Before she could respond, he set off. She watched as he let Vandal break from an easy trot into a canter.
He rode well for a large man, so relaxed and easy he seemed to be an extension of his horse. She realized he was every bit as good a rider as she. Another black mark to chalk up against him.
She leaned over Temptation’s sleek black neck. “All right, boy. Let’s show him.”
Temptation proved to be everything she’d hoped. At first she kept him abreast of Vandal and held him to a canter, but then, when she sensed the horse straining to go faster, she let him have his head. Veering away from the planted fields, she turned him into an open meadow. They tore across it at a fierce gallop, and as she felt the raw strength of the animal beneath her, everything else disappeared. There was no yesterday or tomorrow, no ruthless man with cold gray eyes, no kiss she couldn’t explain. There was only the magnificent animal that had become part of her.
She spotted a low hedge ahead. With the barest pressure of her knees, she turned the horse toward it. As they thundered closer, she leaned forward in the saddle, keeping her knees tight to his flanks. She felt a great surge of power as Temptation effortlessly cleared the barrier.
Reluctantly she slowed him to a trot and turned back. She’d done enough for now. If she pushed the horse harder, Cain would accuse her of being reckless, and she wasn’t going to give him an excuse to keep this horse from her.
