Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,122

Maxwell. The guilt from that did not swarm her this time. Oh, the pain of it would always be there, for what he’d endured. But it was not her fault. Tynan had helped open her eyes to see that.

“But that doesn’t excuse it, Faye,” he said. “Because I was also the beneficiary of kindness from a man among the peerage.”

Her mouth tightened reflexively.

“Do not hold him in ill-will, Faye.”

“I didn’t say anything,” she pointed out. She’d merely been thinking it.

The right corner of his mouth lifted in a lazy smile. “I know you, love.”

I know you.

How in tune their thoughts were with each other. Had she ever been closer with another person?

“Lord Lothian offered to help me secure another post at a different prison. I wouldn’t have to go quite as far as America, just to a smaller institution in the English countryside.”

He was leaving. Just like that, her joy at his romantic gesture plummeted. Her arms fell uselessly to her sides. He’d come to thank her and tell her his plans. Somehow, the divide separating them grew at just the mention of his parting.

“I… That is wonderful, Tynan,” she whispered, hating herself for being so selfish that she couldn’t add a false inflection of truth to her words. It was too much, being this close to him and knowing she still could not have him. Wandering off, she stared out at the children at play in the near distance.

“No, it’s not,” he said from behind her.

It’s not?

“Not unless you are beside me,” he murmured, and it took a moment for his words to root through the thick haze of her grief and loss.

Faye’s heart stopped, and she turned slowly back to face him. “What?” That single syllable left her on a whispery exhalation.

His long legs closed the space she’d put between them, churning up snow as he went. “All of it is empty without you. My life is empty without you, Faye. I didn’t even believe I could have a life outside of my work.” A pained chuckle escaped him as he ran a hand along the side of his head, knocking loose his Oxonian hat. “I didn’t even know I wanted one. And then you came along, Faye.” He ran his large, callused palms up and down her arms that now shook, not from any chill in the London air, but from every word that fell from his lips. “And you challenged me to be better. To see that I was better. To imagine a future for myself.”

She was never going to be cold again. Every word he uttered in this moment would keep her warm forever.

Suddenly, he released her. “I want that future with you, Faye.” Emotion left his voice ragged. “I want to have daughters with your spirit and strength. I want to spend every day being absolutely flipped upside down by you.” He took a deep breath, slowing the rapid flow of words springing from his lips. “I want to marry you, Faye.”

And there it was.

I want to marry you.

That was what she wanted most. After he’d left that morn so long ago, she’d discovered that was all she wanted.

She pressed the flowers close to her breast.

“Unless… you do not want that.” The hesitancy, from this man who was always a master of self-control, brought her eyes flying open.

“Yes,” she rasped.

The little place between his brows pulled deeper. “You do not want that?”

A laugh burst from her, and she rushed to him. Her skirts, heavy from the snow clinging to their hems, made her efforts awkward, and she tumbled them both, taking Tynan down and crashing atop his chest. “You silly man, of course I want that.” She took his lips under hers, claiming his mouth in a kiss that sent heat zipping through her veins. Faye drew back so she could hold his gaze, willing him to see. “It is all I want. You are all I want. I love you.”

Emotion filled his eyes. “And I love you, Faye Poplar.” Tynan cupped her cheek, angling her head, and she opened for him. His tongue filled her mouth, and she tangled her flesh against his in a kiss that went on forever, filling her with a warmth that blotted out all cold. She whimpered, pressing herself closer against him—

“What the hell is the meaning of this?”

Faye and Tynan broke apart.

Panting and out of breath, Faye scrunched her mouth up. Alas, only her brother could do something as bothersome as ruin a good kiss that sealed