“Ah, so you are aware of the fact that you are forcing me then.”
“Well…forcing, cajoling, convincing. These are all words we can use.”
“I doubt it. You are like a bull intent on knocking down everything in your path.”
“Oh, Austin, that is the nicest thing you have ever said to me,” Lavender sang. She looked up at him just in time to catch the end of a smile before he smothered it under his usual scowl.
“Except the Countess of Lively,” he pointed out.
Lavender didn’t rise to the bait. She knew it was coming. Her shoddy performance at Lord Pemberton’s garden party had been enough to raise questions Lavender wasn’t prepared to answer just yet. She was surprised it had taken him this long.
“I suppose,” she answered mildly. “But it shan’t happen again.”
“Why did it happen in the first place?” he persisted, much to her surprise. “You spoke so confidently about your plan to overthrow Lady Lively that I could not believe how fearful you were to speak to her.”
“I was not fearful,” she defended. “I was biding my time. And the garden party wasn’t the right time.”
“That wasn’t what it was and you know it.” They came to a small bench. Austin chose to sit so Lavender did the same. “You were basically shaking when she was approaching you.”
“When she snuck up on me, you mean. Don’t think I have forgotten about the fact that you knew she was walking up to us.”
“Because I wanted to see how you would respond. And it was not well.”
Lavender rolled her eyes. “How astute of you, my lord. And here I thought you didn’t care about my plan.”
“I do not. It doesn’t mean I am not curious.”
“If you wish to know so badly then you should answer a few questions of my own.”
“I pass,” he said without hesitation and began to rise.
“Wait!” Lavender grabbed his arm with both her hands. She hadn’t paid much attention to how muscular his forearm was until she felt it herself. He tensed at her touch but didn’t pull away, only looking down at her. “Come now, don’t run. Sit, sit.”
She patted the spot he had just vacated and try to ignore the flutter of her heart when he looked down at her hands. Lavender took her time in letting him go. She thought he would just walk away and leave her there so her surprise overcame her slight nervousness when he sat down instead.
“Out with it then,” he grunted.
Lavender folded her hands in her lap. Her gaze fell on his own hands. She hadn’t forgotten the way it felt when those large hands had brushed against her cheek at the garden party. Now she knew that he’d done it to distract her. And distract her it had. So easily, so thoroughly that she had gone to bed the same night thinking about that simple touch.
“Why do you do prizefighting?” she asked at last.
Austin drew in a slow breath, staring out ahead of him. “Because I like it.”
“I’m sure there is more to it than that. How did you get into it in the first place?”
“It just happened.”
“You are being purposely vague,” she said with a pout.
“And you are being annoyingly insistent.”
“Can you blame me? It is such an unusual thing for a man like yourself that I cannot help but be curious.” Lavender paused for a moment, then a smile tugged at her lips. “I am a little interested in it myself.”
Austin gave her an incredulous look. “And by interested, you mean…”
“I mean that perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to learn how to defend myself. Perhaps I will need to use such skills one day.”
“Those are choice words coming from the lady who is so determined to become a proper lady accepted by the ton.”
