Duke Looks Like a Groomsman - Valerie Bowman Page 0,10

on here?

Julianna was just about to open her mouth to say something about the ludicrousness of it all when Rhys caught her eye, shook his head ever so slightly as if trying to tell her to remain quiet and announced, “A pleasure, my lady. I’m completely at your service. Your slightest wish is my command.”

It was the way that he emphasized the two words that made Julianna’s breath catch in her throat, while a tingle of apprehension—dare she think, excitement?—shot down her spine. She snapped her mouth shut. Turning back toward the stablemaster, she searched his face, but all trace of irony had disappeared. Her gaze moved back and forth between the two men, examining them.

She clearly saw the silent plea in Rhys’s cobalt-blue eyes, begging her to play along at least for the time being. Something was amiss here. Something significant, but if her instincts weren’t mistaken, she was about to be afforded a priceless opportunity: to treat Rhys Sheffield like a servant.

Julianna crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She narrowed her gaze on him and eyed him up and down from the tip of his boots to the top of his head. Damn him. The man was every bit as good looking as he’d been the last time she’d seen him. More so perhaps, with the slightest bit of gray in his black hair and a few new wrinkles at corners of his eyes. He was just as fit and tall and oh-this-was-not-helpful.

Just what sort of a game was he playing? She didn’t trust him. Not for one moment. But her curiosity overcame her frustration. She would play along. For now. Oh, yes, she would. A grin she could not stop spread itself wide across her lips. She cupped a hand behind her ear feigning a hearing problem.

“What was that, my good man?” Meeting Rhys’s eyes, she hoped she conveyed the proper amounts of both I’m-going-to-torture-you and I-plan-to-enjoy-it. “Something about my wishes?”

He bowed again. His voice, when it came, had a deep timbre that made her insides quake with some old feeling she did not want to explore. “Your slightest wish, milady, is my command.” As he straightened again, she saw an unmistakable sparkle in his eye. And somehow, he’d managed to make the entire sentence sound positively obscene.

Oh, he was up to something all right. What was it?

Confound him. He was just as bold and arrogant and confident and oh, he was everything he used to be. How had she ever found him attractive? Very well. He was good-looking to be certain, but his manners left much to be desired and she’d never met a man more in love with himself. Detestable!

She would want to slap his handsome face, but that would mean she cared, and she positively did not care. Not anymore. She’d made a new match. A better one. Perhaps not with a duke, but with someone who was consistent and true. Someone altogether unlike Rhys Sheffield.

Before Julianna had a chance to reply, the stablemaster mumbled something under his breath about getting back to his duties and took off in another direction, his coattails flapping behind him.

And just like that, the stablemaster was gone, leaving Julianna standing next to the finest looking horse and (confound it) the finest-looking man she’d ever seen. For the first time in one year, three months, two weeks, and four days, she was alone with Rhys Sheffield.

Chapter Five

Rhys had been forced to make a quick decision. Either he could run off and risk forfeiting his bet on the first day—bad-form, that—or he could take his chances and risk Julianna recognizing him. The first choice meant instant failure. The second would at least give him a fighting chance, and he’d always been an admirer of a fighting chance.

He’d held out the slightest hope that Julianna might not recognize him given the way he was dressed, until he’d made that crack about his looks. Blast it. He simply couldn’t help himself. She’d given him the perfect opening. Her spine had stiffened. Obviously, she remembered his voice. That was interesting. Or at least it might have been if he gave a toss about her anymore. She also was aware of the Arabians. That was interesting as well, but for an entirely different reason. The lady knew her horses.

He allowed his gaze to take in her form, from the tips of her brown, leather riding boots to the top of her emerald velvet hat that brought out the gorgeous color of her light-green