Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,107
around his chest at how desperately he wanted to say, To hell with it all, and take that which she suggested, stealing it like the thieves he’d once imprisoned. “For how long? Happiness is fleeting,” he said flatly, reminded all over again about just how innocent Faye truly was. “You witnessed firsthand, with a knife against your throat, the danger that comes from being linked to a man like me.” He tried to step around her.
“That is my decision to make.” She proved unrelenting, blocking his escape.
“No, it’s not, Faye,” he said impatiently. “You don’t get to make that decision.” He’d sooner cut himself with a knife than let her be hurt because of him.
“I don’t want anything but you, Tynan.” She roamed her eyes over his face. “Only you.”
Those words, spoken in those soft, tender tones, he could almost believe. No one had ever wanted him. They’d wanted what he could provide. And now he was a man with nothing but the small coffers he’d built up, funds made by bribes, a different type of theft.
“You’re a liar,” he rasped. “You want”—he slashed a hand between them—“this. Because it’s exciting, and when the thrill wears off—”
She recoiled. “When the thrill wears off? What are you saying?” she asked, her voice stricken.
What was he saying? What the hell was she saying?
“You’re a clever woman, Faye.” She went doe-eyed, her features going soft. He jabbed a finger toward her. “And don’t look at me like that.”
“You can’t tell me how to look at you.”
No, he couldn’t, and he didn’t want to control her.
“What good can there be for you and me together? Children?” He blanched at the reminder that he’d just spilled himself inside her. “There is no future here.” No matter how much you want there to be.
“But there could be one somewhere else.” Her words hung there in the air.
He stilled. “What are you saying?” he asked guardedly.
Her voice grew more animated as she spoke. “We can go to America. I began exploring the possibility of it before we even met. It is a place far away from here…”
As he listened, he wondered if she realized she was attempting to run from her past.
“You’d have me just leave the children here who rely upon me?” he asked quietly, and at last, he managed to reach her.
She froze. “No. I…”
Tynan ran a knuckle along the curve of her jaw.
The doors exploded open, and a tall, glaring figure filled the doorway. Even covered in dust as they were, the cut and quality of his garments conveyed wealth.
Harsh, unforgiving eyes took in Faye and Tynan, and then he moved his focus to the floor.
Tynan’s stomach sank, and he belatedly grabbed up the discarded wig and affixed it atop his head. Oh, bloody hell. There was only one man this could be.
The brother.
Rage dripped from his frame. His hair hung unkempt about his heavily bearded face, hiding much of his features, but not the snarl on his lips. He put Tynan in mind of a lion who’d come to hunt, and as he turned his rage-filled, bloodshot eyes upon Tynan, there could be no doubting that he’d settled upon his quarry.
“What is the meaning of this?” he whispered, advancing into the room and then closing the door with the quietest of clicks behind him.
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Tristan,” Faye said, and for the calmness of her voice, Tynan rather suspected the lady’s brother might very possibly believe her.
Had her bodice not been eschew and her skirts wrinkled and her glorious dark tresses escaping her loose chignon.
And then there was the matter of Tynan with his own mussed garments.
With the other man’s attention on his sister, Tynan discreetly reached up and adjusted the ridiculous powdered wig these foolish lords insisted their staff don.
It was the wrong thing to do.
Lord Bolingbroke whipped his gaze over to Tynan. A low, menacing growl escaped the other man. And then Faye’s brother rushed at him.
Alas, Tynan had been born dodging such attacks, and that skill had only been honed during his years working in Newgate.
He quickly stepped aside as the baron lunged.
Faye gasped. “Tristan Poplar,” she snapped. “That is quite enough.”
Her brother gave no indication that he’d heard her protest. In fairness, having a sister of his own, Tynan didn’t blame the other man one bit. In fact, were his sister to get herself tangled up with a bastard like him, he’d have responded a deal worse than the man before him.