Page 513 of From Rakes to Riches

Behind him, the door opened, and the shuffle of hesitant feet crossed the threshold. Before he could get in a word of greeting, a gasp sounded.

Startled, Rake nicked himself,again. He pivoted and found Gem, mouth slightly agape, eyes wide as saucers. The lad’s source of alarm was clear.

“That shocking to find a duke shaving himself?”

The lad’s brow furrowed. “Like a common man,” he mumbled in his voice that sounded entirely composed of muddy gravel. “Except…” The lad seemed to be thinking better of continuing. He hadn’t blinked once since entering the bathing room.

“Except?”

Rake wanted to know what wasn’t common about him. He’d been told as much, but mostly in bedrooms—from women who’d discovered as much with hands and mouths…other parts too.

He stopped the sequence of thoughts there.

Before he gave himself a cockstand.

Gem shrugged, as if indifferent. It was apparent he was anything but. “There isn’t much common about you, I suppose,” he muttered.

What a strange footing this conversation had started upon. Still, Rake relented. “One man is much the same as another.”

What was that crimson flush shoving through the grime on the lad’s cheeks?

Was Gem…blushing?

“And,” began Gem. His gaze didn’t seem to know where to land, as it ranged from Rake’s bare chest to bare feet, just skimming across the towel in the middle, which only provoked them upward to a point just above Rake’s head.

“You’re not a man. You’re a duke.”

Rake snorted. “Perhaps we can meet in the middle and agree that I’m both?”

He returned to his present task—the sorry job of shaving his own face.

Gem’s throat cleared behind him.

“Yes?” asked Rake without moving his jaw.

“Is this usual for you?”

“What is that?” With studied concentration, Rake scraped the blade down his cheek, feeling no small amount of triumph that he’d managed to do so without drawing blood.

“Summoning jockeys to your dressing room?”

Rake shrugged. “On occasion.”

He didn’t owe this lad an accounting of himself. Who worked for whom, anyway?

“And then invite them into your bathing room?” Gem pressed.

Rake’s hand stopped mid-neck, and his gaze found the lad in the mirror. He shimmered with nerves and…indignation—which only provoked a baffled laugh from Rake.

Which only increased Gem’s indignation, judging by the thunderous expression darkening the lad’s visage.

Still, Gem seemed to be possessed of enough sense not to give voice to that indignation as his lips—the bottom one decidedly pouty—pressed into a firm line.

Right.

“I summoned you here to ask a question that I didn’t think to ask yesterday,” said Rake, slowly. “How was the saddle duringHannibal’s ride? Did you feel it impede his shoulders in any way?”

“Nay.”

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