Page 526 of From Rakes to Riches

He was the duke. He didn’t sleep in foaling boxes to see horses through the night. He paid people to do that.

Like the person before him.

The person he would be giving the sack tomorrow.

The person staring at him with a curious expression in her eyes.

Right.

He spoke a gruff farewell and turned on his heel, vacating the foaling box and stable without further ado. As his boots crunched against crushed gravel, he realized that, in the course of this night, a certainty had crept in. More than one certainty, in fact.

He admired Gem.

He might respect her too.

And yet another certainty followed.

He wouldn’t be giving her the sack tomorrow.

Or any other day.

True, she had her secrets—but didn’t they all?

The fact was, she was born to work with horses. It was her talent and passion, and who was he to deny her?

Deny himself, in fact.

It wasn’t that he wouldn’t let her go.

Hecouldn’tlet her go.

So, he would let her keep her secret.

And yet…could matters simply carry on as they had been?

The fact was, he felt a powerful, unexpected pull toward this woman he both knew and didn’t know at all.

This pull was about more than her talent and skill.

It was a pull toward the physical.

He desired her—wantedher—in a way that felt new.

This wasn’t the familiar desire for beautiful flesh—though that was part of it.

It also had to do with that talent and skill of hers—her capability.

And possibly the character he detected within her.

The simple answer was he would stay away from her.

Gem had a job, and all Rake had to do was leave her to it.

A vow that sounded simple in his mind.

And doubtful in practice.

Could he know her for a woman and not want her as a woman?

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