Flirting with Trouble. Elizabeth Bevarly

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      ELIZABETH BEVARLY

      is a RITA^® Award-nominated author of more than sixty works of contemporary romance. Her books regularly appear on the USA TODAY bestseller list and the Waldenbooks bestseller lists for romance and mass-market paperbacks. Her novel The Thing About Men hit the New York Times extended bestseller list, as well. Her novels have been published in more than two dozen languages and three dozen countries, and there are more than ten million copies in print worldwide. She currently lives in a small town in her native Kentucky with her husband and son. Visit her online at www.elizabethbevarly.com.

      For everyone who has roots in the Bluegrass State,

       whether homegrown or transplanted.

       Unbridled spirit indeed.

      Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Elizabeth Bevarly for her contribution to the Thoroughbred Legacy series.

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Epilogue

      Chapter One

      As he settled his hand on the corral gate and shot his gaze over virtually miles of white plank fencing that crisscrossed and enclosed Quest Stables, it occurred to Daniel Whittleson that a June morning in Kentucky was about as close to heaven as a man could find. And this was only the first of the month. Sure, the dogwoods and redbuds had stopped blooming by now, but the surly spring weather had mellowed into steady blue skies and balmy breezes, and the smothering heat of July and August was still weeks away. The colts of Quest Stables, where he was senior trainer, were confident and playful by now, and they’d discovered the joys of losing themselves to running. A handful of them were doing that now, at the farthest edge of the pasture beyond the corral. The elegant, shallow hills of Woodford County were awash in the deep green of the bluegrass, dotted here and there with copses of broad, leafy sugar maples and towering oaks. At not quite 7:00 a.m., the sun had just crested one of those hills, tinting the sky with a mellow pink and orange and spilling a wide trail of luscious gold across the pasture.

      There must be something about the curvature of the earth at this latitude that made the sunlight do that, Daniel thought. He’d lived and traveled all over the world, and he’d never seen the land glow the way it did in Kentucky when the sun’s rays were at their longest. He ran a work-roughened hand through his hair, noting without much surprise that he was way overdue for a cut. Then he lifted the gate’s handle and entered the corral, whistling for the chestnut stallion on the other side. The horse’s ears stitched forward as he whinnied his objection to being interrupted in his own enjoyment of the morning, then he obediently, though reluctantly, trotted across the corral to where Daniel stood. The horse, Flirting with Trouble, certainly lived up to his name.

      He was a spirited two-year-old Daniel was hoping to whip into shape by next year’s Kentucky Derby, but so far, Trouble wasn’t cooperating. For now, Daniel worked mostly on winning the animal’s trust and forging a bond between them. He was confident Trouble would come around. Eventually. Daniel was a firm believer in the old adage about good things coming to those who waited.

      Summer wasn’t the busiest time of the year for Thoroughbred trainers, but neither was it in any way slow. This year’s Derby and Preakness were over—both won handily by Leopold’s Legacy, a Quest Thoroughbred, Daniel thought smugly—but the Belmont Stakes were less than two weeks away. And if things went the way they were supposed to, Leopold’s Legacy would take that race, too, making him only the twelfth horse in history to earn the Triple Crown.

      Daniel hadn’t trained Legacy himself, though. That honor had fallen to Robbie Preston, whose family owned Quest Stables, the first of many major wins the young trainer would doubtless see in his life—provided he got over his impatience and learned to handle the pressures that came with the job. Although Daniel wouldn’t be part of the group accompanying the horse to New York, he still had plenty to keep him busy on the farm. Which was good, because he thrived on the extra work. Hell, work was what kept СКАЧАТЬ