She could prove an interesting diversion over the next couple of months, he mused idly. He wondered who she was. He knew that the aristocratic Hardwick family had many offshoots, and he assumed that Rachel must be a relative.
‘Are you staying up at the Hall?’ he demanded abruptly, forcing himself to step away from her.
‘Earl Hardwick isn’t in the habit of inviting his stable-hands to live in,’ Rachel replied dryly. ‘Not even his head groom.’
‘So you work here.’ Diego frowned. ‘Do you own Piran?’ He knew that most yards paid low wages, but the stallion was a thoroughbred and must have cost several thousand pounds.
‘No, I have him on loan. His owner is Peter Irving, from the farm adjoining the Hardwick estate. Peter used to be a world-class showjumper, and he’s my sponsor.’
‘Irving—the name is familiar.’
‘Three times Olympic gold medallist and top rider with the British Equestrian team for many years. Peter is my inspiration,’ Rachel explained.
Diego caught the note of fierce determination in her voice and glanced at her curiously. ‘You hope to be selected for the British team?’
‘The next Olympics are my dream,’ Rachel admitted, blushing and wondering why on earth she had revealed her life’s ambition to a man she had never met before. She had never told anyone, apart from Peter Irving, of her hopes of competing at the highest level—not her friends, and certainly not her family. Since her parents had divorced when she was nine, they had both been too wrapped up in their lives with their new partners and children to take much interest in her, and the few times she had mentioned her riding to her mother it had led to the old argument about getting a proper job, somewhere decent to live rather than an old caravan, and a boyfriend.
‘The Olympics are a long way off,’ she murmured. ‘For now I’m working hard in the hope of being picked for the team for the European championships next year. Peter and Earl Hardwick both think I have a good chance. The Earl has been very supportive of my career,’ she added. He allows me to stable Piran here, and he always gives me time off to go to competitions. The facilities at Hardwick are excellent, and working here is a fantastic experience.’
‘But not quite so fantastic when your horse refuses a jump,’ Diego said dryly, his sharp gaze noting how she had crossed her arms over her chest and was surreptitiously rubbing her ribs. ‘I’ll ride Piran back to the stables for you.’
Without giving Rachel time to argue, he deftly adjusted the stirrups and swung into the saddle with a lithe grace and expertise. Piran did not usually take to strangers but, to Rachel’s annoyance, he stood as docile as a lamb while Diego spoke to him in Spanish. The deep-timbred voice was strangely hypnotic; Piran’s ears pricked up and he whinnied—almost as if he were talking back, although that was just fanciful imagination, Rachel told herself irritably. It was a pity that the Argentinian horseman did not have such a soothing effect on her. She felt decidedly rattled, and she knew it was not only because of the fall.
She opened the paddock gate and Diego took Piran through, but then halted and waited for her. ‘I still think I should call a doctor,’ he said, his mouth thinning when he noted how she winced with every step she took. ‘You’re as pale as a ghost and clearly in agony.’
‘I’m just bruised, that’s all,’ Rachel argued stubbornly.
Diego gave her a hard stare. ‘You’re going to be black and blue and you’ll ache tomorrow. To be on the safe side, you shouldn’t ride for the next week.’
‘Are you kidding?’ Rachel looked scandalised. ‘I’ve got a competition coming up and I’m going to take Piran round the course again tomorrow. He’d have managed that last fence fine if he hadn’t been startled by the bike.’
Diego let out a curse, torn between impatience and admiration at her mulish determination. ‘You are the most argumentative woman I have ever met, Miss Summers.’ He moved before Rachel could guess his intention, and she gave a startled cry when he reached down and lifted her effortlessly onto Piran’s back, placing her at the front of the saddle and clicking his tongue so that the horse immediately began to walk. One arm remained around her, holding her against his chest, while he held the reins in his other hand and controlled the stallion with impressive ease.
Attempting to scramble down would be futile, Rachel acknowledged as she stared at Diego’s muscular forearms. She would just have to sit still until they reached the stable block, but she absolutely would not give in to the temptation to relax and lean her head against his chest. He was too close as it was, and the feel of his hard thighs pressing against her bottom seemed shockingly intimate. She was agonisingly aware of him—of the heat that emanated from him and the sensual musk of his cologne mixed with another subtle scent that was excitingly male and utterly intoxicating.
She was thankful when they reached the yard. Diego dismounted first and then carefully lifted her down. He seemed to think she was the rag doll he had described when he had witnessed her flying out of the saddle, she thought irritably as he strode into the barn, still holding her in his arms. His heart was beating steadily beneath her ear, but hers was thudding erratically and she was supremely conscious of his hands holding her beneath her knees and around the upper part of her body so that his fingers brushed lightly against the side of her breast.
She was pink-cheeked when he sat her down on a hay bale, and she glared at him when he leaned over her to prevent her from jumping to her feet. ‘I need to see to Piran,’ she said angrily.
‘I’ll ask one of the other grooms to rub him down. Every breath you take is agony—I can see it in your eyes, even if you are too stubborn to admit it,’ Diego said grimly.
Rachel stared at his hard-boned face and it slowly dawned on her that she had finally met someone whose determination to have his own way matched her own. ‘I’ve told you I’m fine,’ she muttered. ‘And Piran doesn’t like anyone else to groom him.’
‘Well, he’s going to have to get used to it because I don’t want to see you around these stables until you’ve had your ribs X-rayed and been thoroughly checked over by a doctor. My chauffeur, Arturo, will drive you to the hospital,’ Diego informed her coolly. ‘I would take you myself, but Lady Hardwick is giving a dinner party this evening—and I believe I’m the star guest,’ he added dryly.
‘Don’t waste your breath arguing with me, Miss Summers,’ he warned, placing his finger beneath her chin and exerting gentle pressure so that she had no option but to shut her mouth and swallow the angry words that were bursting to escape. ‘I will be in charge of the stables for the duration of my stay at Hardwick Hall, and I refuse to have anyone working here who can’t pull their weight. If you’ve broken your ribs, or sustained other injuries today, you’ll be a liability I can do without.’
Unfazed by her furious expression, he smiled, revealing his gleaming white teeth that contrasted with his bronzed skin. ‘I can’t keep on calling you Miss Summers all summer—can I, Rachel?’
His voice had altered, and was now as thick and sensuous as molten honey, but Rachel was determined not to be impressed. Clearly he was an outrageous flirt, as well as the most arrogant man she had ever met, and she was furious with her treacherous body for responding to him. She was aware of a tingling sensation in her breasts and a shocking yearning for him to push her down into the hay, lower himself onto her and kiss her like she had never been kissed before.
‘What do you mean by “all summer”?’ she croaked. ‘I know you’re here for the polo tournament, but surely you’ll be going back to Argentina straight afterwards.’
Diego shook his head, his smile widening at Rachel’s look of dismay. ‘As a matter of fact, I usually spend a couple of months—when it is winter in Argentina—at my polo school just outside New York. But this year the Earl has invited me to Hardwick to train the polo ponies.
‘So you see, Rachel,’ he drawled softly, moving his finger from under her chin and gently tracing the shape of her lips with his thumb pad, ‘for the next month
or so I will be your boss, and you will have to abide by my rules. Go to the hospital with Arturo, get yourself checked over, and when you can come back to me with a clean bill of health you will be welcome here. Until then, if I catch so much as a strand of your pretty blonde hair near Piran’s loose box, there will be trouble. Entiendes?’
There was a hint of steel behind his mocking tone that warned Rachel he would be a dangerous man to cross. Incensed by his high-handedness, she jerked her head away, disgusted to find that she was trembling. The feather-light caress of his thumb over her lips had been shockingly intimate, and the idea that she would be working for him over the summer was downright disturbing.
‘Earl Hardwick personally appointed me as head groom, and I’m sure he’ll have something to say when I tell him you’ve banned me from doing my job,’ she said furiously.
‘The Earl had a hard job persuading me to come to Gloucestershire rather than New York, and I think you’ll find that he’ll go along with anything I say,’ Diego replied with a breathtaking arrogance that made Rachel itch to slap him. ‘Besides, you are not banned, Rachel. I am very much looking forward to working with you once I am assured that you suffered no serious injuries today. I have great plans for Hardwick Polo Club, and I have a feeling that you and I will be spending a lot of time together.’
The sensuous gleam in his eyes was unmistakable, and a quiver ran down Rachel’s spine. She wanted to jump up and tell him to get lost—tell him that she’d rather work for the devil than him. But she couldn’t move. For one thing, her ribs were seriously painful—but the real reason, she acknowledged dismally, was that she was trapped by his magnetism and utterly captivated by his raw masculinity. He was the most potently virile man she had ever met; she could not tear her eyes from his sensual mouth and when he lowered his head slowly towards her, she ceased thinking, almost ceased breathing, her heart hammering with frantic excitement when it seemed that he was going to kiss her.
To her intense disappointment, he did not. Instead, he straightened up abruptly and moved away from her, giving her a mocking smile that added to her humiliation.
‘Wait here for Arturo,’ he ordered. He strode across the barn and halted in the doorway to glance back at her. ‘It promises to be an interesting summer, don’t you think, Rachel?’ he taunted softly.
CHAPTER TWO
TO RACHEL’S relief an X-ray showed that she had not broken any bones when Piran had thrown her, but her ribs and shoulder were badly bruised and the doctor was adamant that she should not ride for a few days.
‘I doubt you’ll be able to move tomorrow,’ he told her as he handed her a prescription for strong painkillers. ‘Take two of these twice a day, and if I were you I’d go to bed and stay there.’
It was the most ridiculous suggestion Rachel had ever heard. She had never spent a day in bed in her life, and as far as she was concerned the fact that she hadn’t suffered any fractures meant that she would be fit to work at the stables tomorrow.
But the following morning she woke in agony and the sight of her purple bruises forced her to accept that she was in no fit state to ride her bicycle up to the stables, muck out loose boxes and then spend the morning exercising the horses.
Besides, even if she managed to get to the stables, Diego Ortega was likely to send her straight home again. The Argentinian was the most arrogant individual she had ever met. Infuriatingly, he was also the sexiest man she had ever laid eyes on, she acknowledged grimly. She cringed when she remembered how she had been so mesmerised by him that she had stared at him, hoping he would kiss her, and his amused smile had told her that he had known exactly what she was thinking.
The day dragged endlessly, but fortunately the painkillers worked well and by early evening Rachel was feeling less like she had been trampled on by a herd of bulls and was bored of her enforced isolation. One of the other stable-hands sent her a text saying that Diego had returned to the Hall, where he was staying as a guest of Earl Hardwick. He was unlikely to visit the stables again tonight, Rachel decided as she cycled through the woods to the Hardwick estate, wincing every time she hit a pothole on the path.
Piran was gratifyingly pleased to see her. From his gleaming coat she guessed that someone must have groomed him, but she gave him another brush and fed him a couple of peppermints, and did not notice she had company until a figure came up silently behind her.
‘Jasper, you’ll give me a heart attack if you creep up on me like that,’ she snapped when a faint sound made her swing round and she almost collided with Earl Hardwick’s son and heir. ‘It’s a pity you weren’t so quiet on your bike yesterday,’ she muttered, feeling the same uneasy tension that always gripped her when she was alone with Jasper. The young Englishman was reputedly one of the most eligible bachelors among the landed gentry and, with his blonde hair flopping onto his brow, Rachel could see why women might be attracted to him. But he did nothing for her, and she hated the way he looked at her as though he were mentally undressing her.
‘Yeah, I heard Piran threw you when you were jumping him yesterday.’ Jasper lounged in the stable doorway, blocking Rachel’s path so that she instinctively stepped backwards away from him.
‘It was your fault, not his. The noise of your bike scared him. I wish you wouldn’t ride it near the paddock.’
Jasper gave a careless shrug. ‘It’s my land—or it will be one day. You know, it would pay you to be nice to me, Rachel,’ he said with a sly smile, reaching out and running his finger down her cheek. ‘One day I’m going to be very rich—as long as my dear papa doesn’t blow the family fortune on the polo club. God knows how much he’s had to fork out to persuade Diego Ortega to come here and share his “expertise”,’ he added petulantly. ‘Ortega is already a multimillionaire, and the money the old man’s paying him could have gone on increasing my paltry allowance.’
‘Mr Ortega is reputed to be one of the best trainers in the world,’ Rachel murmured. ‘And his appearance at the Hardwick Polo Tournament has trebled ticket sales, which must be good for the club.’
‘Ortega is a notorious playboy,’ Jasper said sulkily, clearly resenting Rachel’s defence of him. And why had she spoken up for Diego when the first thing he had done since his arrival had been to ban her from the stables? she wondered irritably. ‘My sister was all over him like a rash at dinner last night,’ Jasper added sneeringly. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for his smarmy charm too?’
‘Of course not,’ she replied quickly; perhaps too quickly because Jasper stared at her intently and she felt herself blush. She could not bear for Jasper of all people to guess the effect that Diego had on her and so she added, ‘From my brief meeting with Diego Ortega, I found him to be the most objectionable man I’ve ever met and, like you, I’ll be glad to see the back of him.’
‘Is that so, Rachel? How disappointing. I had such high hopes for our relationship,’ a familiar, heavily accented voice drawled mockingly behind her. Rachel gasped and jerked her head round to see Diego strolling in through the doors of the stable block. ‘Our working relationship, of course,’ he added, giving Jasper Hardwick a bland smile when the young Englishman glowered at him.
Diego turned his attention back to Rachel, and she felt a fluttering sensation in her stomach as her eyes clashed with his gleaming amber gaze. He had obviously changed for dinner and looked stunningly handsome in tailored black trousers and a white silk shirt. Presumably he would don a tuxedo and bow tie before dinner with the Hardwicks, but for now his shirt was open at the throat, revealing his golden skin.
‘I’m afraid you’ll be seeing a lot of me over the next few weeks—back and front,’ he said sarcastically, while she stared at the floor and wished a trapdoor would miraculously open beneath her feet. ‘Earl Hardwick has challenged me to turn Hardwick Polo Club into a top sporting venue—and I can never resist a challenge,’ he murmured silkily, his eyes focused on Rachel’s flushed face.
He glanced dismissively at Jasper. ‘I’m afraid you will no long
er be able to ride your motorbike around the estate. I’ll be doing some intensive training with the polo ponies and I don’t want to waste my time calming them down after you’ve terrified them. Your thoughtless actions yesterday caused Rachel’s accident, and it was sheer luck the outcome wasn’t more serious.’
An angry flush stained Jasper’s face. ‘It’s not my fault Rachel can’t control her horse,’ he said sullenly. ‘Everyone knows Piran is too strong for her.’ He gave Diego a look of active dislike. ‘You can’t tell me what to do. My father …’
‘Your father agrees with me that the bike should be banned from anywhere near the stables and practice paddocks,’ Diego interrupted with a quiet authority in his tone that brought another wave of colour to Jasper’s face. ‘Miss Summers’s riding skills are not in question. I was watching her yesterday, and in my opinion she is an excellent horsewoman.’
Rachel blushed at the unexpected praise. Jasper glanced furiously from her to Diego and swore viciously before he swung round and stormed out of the stables. In the silence that fell after his departure Rachel felt her tension rise and she busied herself with putting Piran’s grooming brushes away.
‘He may be a member of the British aristocracy but he’s a charmless individual, isn’t he?’ Diego drawled. ‘But perhaps you don’t think so, Rachel? Did you arrange to meet Hardwick here, when you knew the other grooms would have finished work and the two of you would be alone?’
Stunned by the accusation, she spun round and saw that his amber eyes were coldly assessing her. ‘Of course not,’ she denied sharply. ‘Why would I? I’m not the slightest bit interested in Jasper.’
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