The Devil's Match by Victoria Vane Page B

and the nervous tension roiled within her. With bated breath
she watched as the handkerchief descended. Plying whip and spur,
horses and riders bolted from the starting post like a violent
clash of thunder and lightning.
    ***
    Refusing to cast a sidelong glance, Diana was
still ever aware of DeVere’s presence. She crouched low over her
mare, that sleek and supple snorting mass of muscle and sinew.
Boadicea was well matched against her foe, ironically the son of
Centurion. Diana was confident in the mare’s ability. Boadicea was
bred of the finest racing blood; Diana knew the fiery, little horse
would run until she burst.
    The horse’s ears flickered forward and back in
response to her rider’s cues. Diana crooned words of encouragement
as her fingers played on the reins. It was no magnanimous gesture
that DeVere had given her the lead, for she knew he intended to
play a cat and mouse game with her. He was visible out of the
corner of her eye now, gaining, but only by fractions. She held
back, refusing to push the horse too soon. He would surely try to
taunt her into burning her up early. She wouldn’t make that
mistake.
    They had covered half a mile when he
appeared at her side, flashing that dazzling smile meant to unnerve
her. It wasn’t completely without effect .
The underhanded bastard. Yet, refusing to be daunted,
Diana and the mare held their own against the larger, stronger
pair...until the three-quarter mile marker came into
view.
    They were riding neck and neck now; she could
see the red flare of Titan’s nostrils, the breath of both mounts
now coming hard and fast like a bellows as their iron-shod hooves
continued to tear up the verdant turf. She stole another glance at
DeVere to discover with smug satisfaction that he was no longer
smiling. His features were drawn taut with concentration.
    With a low clucking noise, Diana gave her mare
another inch of rein. The ears flickered, and the body beneath her
surged forward with a renewed effort that DeVere and Titan didn’t
hesitate to match. Her mare’s neck was damp with sweat, but the bay
stallion was coated with white foam at the mouth and chest. The
extent of his exertion under the heavier rider was now showing. He
was tiring quickly with a furlong still remaining to the
finish.
    The stallion began slipping back, losing
valuable ground. DeVere plied whip and spur to no avail. The post
was within a hundred yards, and Diana could no longer glimpse them
in the periphery of her vision. Her pulse sped up with rising
confidence that the race had become theirs for the taking.
    ***
    How the bloody hell can she be
winning? Ludovic was nearly beside himself. A loss to
a woman in a sidesaddle would surely be too much for his pride and
reputation to bear! Hell, he’d have to leave the country for
another ten years before this humiliation would die down! Let alone the fact that he
had almost had her within his
grasp. He was desperate to end the damnable itch once and for all,
and a week in his bed fucking her day and night in innumerable ways
would surely have made the cure.
    They were already ahead by a length, and he knew
his horse was spent. Oh, he could whip and spur till the stallion’s
flanks bled, but he knew damned well the effort would be pointless
destruction of a fine animal. Better to bow out with grace, or he
thought drily with his engorged “tail” firmly between his legs.
    He was almost ready to concede when it happened.
In the final yards to the finish, the mare’s right leg collapsed
beneath her. Ludovic’s heart lodged in his airway when before his
eyes, she pitched forward onto both knees. For an interminable,
terrifying instant, he feared her momentum would send her into a
somersault, but by some miracle, she recovered. Diana, however, was
no longer seated in the saddle, but had slid onto the horse’s neck
where she now clung helplessly. He pulled up abruptly, flinging
himself to the ground before his own horse had even come to a halt.
“My