Page 49 of Pride: The Rogue
“GivenI made enough assumptions about you, Livian, I decided to keep that one to myself.”
She held her breath.
As hoped, Lachlan took her bait. “But since you’re asking?” He rested his elbows and leaned the rest of the way across sotheir noses practically touched. “You and I, darlin’? We’re as similar as the night sky from the day one.”
“Some mornings,” she began softly, “the sun and moon will both appear, and they’re able to do so because they still share the same sky.”
Lachlan tensed. His narrow-eyed gaze moved warily over her face. “Your point being?”
“We might be different in ways, but there is much we have in common, too.”
“To be clear, because you believe we’re alike in some ways, you don’t mind me voicing my opinions about you?” he asked haltingly, like he was trying to solve a complex riddle and the world’s fate hung upon the answer he’d arrived at.
She shook her head. “No.”
He looked truly confounded now.
“Those lords who judge me do so largely because of my sullied bloodlines,” she explained.
“The conclusionsyou’vereached about me this night have nothing to do with my bastardry.” She continued, “You haven’t looked down your nose at me. Or found me wanting because of my complete lack of decorum and ladylike ways.”
“Darlin’, believe it or not, in my line of work and with my connections to the nobility, I’ve come across my fair share of peeresses, and you’re more a lady in just your single smallest finger than any of those haughty vipers.”
“That!” She jabbed a finger eagerly at him.
He scrunched his brow up. “What—?”
“You didn’t judge me because of reasons beyond my control. Rather, you take exception to decisions I’ve made.”
Or were about to make. She wasn’t betrothed yet, and the knowledge of that left her giddy with relief.
Lachlan lifted a dark eyebrow. “And that’s a good thing?”
She nodded.
He faced his palms up. “I’m more confused than ever, sweetheart.”
“You’re honest with me, Lachlan,” she said. “Oh, you might be frustratingly arrogant in the way you think you know things about me, things you clearly don’t, but you don’t wear a polite smile, and you certainly do not pull back on what you are thinking or feeling.”
“Ah.” It began to make sense. “Nobs on the other hand don’t give a clue as to what they’re thinking?”
“Exactly.”
“Yes, well in fairness,” Latimer said, deadpan, “it remains doubtful whether the highborn lords are actually capable of truly thinking.”
He winked.
Livian burst out laughing and he joined in, and it felt so very wonderful.
“All right,” he said after their amusement died down. “We can both agree that we do share some similarities—”
“Manysimilarities.”
“Particularly in our aversion and ill-opinion of the nobility.”
She nodded. “Agreed.”
“Which begs the question why, Livian,” he said, somberly, and without his earlier mockery. “You’re going to bind yourself to one of those undeserving, priggish, pompous lords.”
