Page 81 of Pride: The Rogue
But…
She drew back.
He is… afraid. Of me? Or believing he is in fact, good and decent?
“Do you know what I think, Lachlan?” she asked, sotto voce. “I think you keep talking about how wicked you are, not for me, but so you can convince yourself you’re bad and not the good, honorable gentleman you are.”
“Would a gentleman stick his fingers in a lady’s cunny, darlin’?” he asked crudely.
Livian didn’t so much as flinch. “Likely not, but with what both know to be true about noblemen, neither can we say that with absolute certainty. As for me?” She shrugged. “I’m not a lady, and I’d venture an actual one wouldn’t have allowed those liberties.”
Fury blazed to life in his eyes.
“Miss Lovelace!”
They spun.
Glaring daggers, and a knife in hand, the small boy looked back and forth between Livian and Lachlan.
“You again!” Caleb snarled and lunged towards Latimer.
“Stand down, Caleb,” she said, firmly. “This is Mr. Latimer.”
“Aye, I know who that one is,” her small but valiant protector growled. “Hauled me from the roads and carried me like a sack, he did.”
Caleb, a veritable David against a Goliath, jabbed the tip of his weapon at the mountain of a man beside them. “Do I need to cut you, Latimer?”
Even with the implausibility of that threat, Lachlan lifted his palms up and took a step back.
“You’ll have to ask Miss Lovelace,” he demurred, showing a small child the same due deference he would a grown man.
And it was all done for Livian—she fell hard, fast, and completely, irrevocably, heels over toes for Lachlan Latimer.
“Well, Miss Lovelace?” Caleb slid a glance her way. “Should I do it?”
Livian spoke around a well of emotion in her throat. “There’ll be no need for that. Mr. Latimer’s been a gentleman.”
Her small protector frowned. “A gentleman?”
“Oh, yes.” She flashed the gentleman in question, a small, secretive smile. “Nothingbut.”
Over the top of the boy’s head, Latimer’s eyes widened. “Still with this?” he mouthed.
She waggled her eyebrows.
“Less reason to trust him, then,” Caleb mumbled.
Lachlan chuckled. “On that, we can agree.”
“Oh, yea?” The tow-headed boy angled his chin at Lachlan. “What do you know about it?”
“Everything.”
Caleb gave him a quizzical look.
Lachlan grunted. “I grew up in the Dials. Own a business now.”
The little boy’s eyes went bright. “Gor, do you now?”
