Page 518 of From Rakes to Riches

He was attracted to her…

Hedesiredher.

Really, he should’ve called her out and let her run and been done with the entire mess.

But something inside him wouldn’t allow it.

Something that likely wouldn’t be good for him.

Not that he’d ever given much credence to such ideas, but it felt like a fated path.

One he must follow to the end.

Like a story.

For like it or not, whatever story Gem held within her, it had become part of his.

9

Night

Gemma crossed the threshold to her bedroom, let the door snap shut behind her, and sagged against it, grateful for privacy—at last.

What a day.

Anxiety still jangled through her veins from the early morning meeting with Rakesley.

Meeting.

That couldn’t be the correct word for what had occurred between her and the duke in his bathing room. All day, she hadn’t been able to safely blink without risking a vision of his bare, black-fuzzed chest, the hair inviting her gaze to explore the muscles beneath, leading her gaze lower…to his taut, ridged stomach…lower…

Her cheeks blazed even now.

She supposed she should’ve been grateful for the towel.

And she was.

Truly.

Even if her imagination wanted to fill in the thick, heavy bulge she’d detected beneath.

She didn’t dare close her eyes to sleep tonight for fear of the dreams…

But…what had actually occurred?

Her mind had run at it from every direction all day.

Rakesley had summoned her to ask about Hannibal’s saddle—surely not an unusual query when it came to jockeys and racehorses. And he’d asked where she’d come from. It didn’t mean she had to reveal anything. But she had—a little. Information that wouldn’t be of much use to him.

Then he’d asked if she’d begun shaving.

She reckoned men asked such questions of lads in their teen years. Surely something to do with virility, or some other such male nonsense.

But that wasn’t what had the blood rioting through her veins.

He’d touched her—a barely-there brush of the back of his hand against her cheek—and lightning had sparked through her, enlivening every cell, leaving no part of her untouched. She’d stood there and allowed it, the breath refusing to leave or enter her lungs.

And his dark, fathomless eyes… They’d captured hers and refused to let go. This wasn’t mere surface curiosity, but something deeper…more intense—a determination to know…

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