Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,123
a marriage proposal.
She turned her head to look. An entire audience of the Poplar family had gathered, with the children and Caleb approaching at a slower pace. Finn, Jack, John, and three other boys whose names she didn’t yet know, raced over, putting themselves between Faye and Tynan and her onlooking family.
“He’s insufferable,” she said for Tynan’s ears alone. “I daresay it is a good thing you love me, or Tristan in all his overbearing big brotherliness is enough to make any man run.”
His lips twitched in a grin. “Your brother is the smallest of perils to brave for your love.”
Faye sighed and stretched her mouth up to his.
“Faye!” Tristan squawked like the chickens she’d loved to watch at Dartmoor.
“He is surprisingly prudish, given his former reputation,” she said from the corner of her mouth.
Rising, Tynan reached down and effortlessly lifted Faye, setting her on her feet so that they stood side by side against her brother. And there was something in how he didn’t position himself between them, an unspoken acknowledgment of their relationship as a partnership, that made her fall all the more in love with him.
“If you would?” he spoke quietly.
The little boys hesitated and then fell back, coming to stand beside Faye and Tynan.
Tynan opened his mouth to speak. “I—”
“Aunt Faye has children!” her niece Harlow squealed, clapping her hands excitedly. “Might I go play with them?”
“Your aunt decidedly does not have children,” Tristan clipped out.
“Not yet. But I hope to soon, poppet.” Faye directed that at Christina’s daughter. “Is that not correct, Tynan? Finn and Jack and John and the other boys in need of a home.”
The children whipped hope-filled gazes up to her and Tynan. “Wot?”
Tynan collected Faye’s right hand in his and raised her knuckles to his mouth, dropping a kiss atop the gloved fabric that sheathed her fingers. “If they wish—”
“We do!” Finn croaked, interrupting the rest of Tynan’s quiet pronouncement.
“I don’t suppose you have a girl among your new children, Aunt Faye?” Harlow called over hopefully, glancing about as though a little girl playmate might be conjured.
“Hopefully, we will one day soon,” Faye promised with a wink for her niece.
Tristan’s entire face went green, and he looked one more utterance from Faye away from casting up his stomach’s contents.
“Not helping,” Tynan said, his lips impressively unmoving.
Tynan sketched a bow before Tristan. “I’ve come to ask your sister to marry me,” he said, looking first to Tristan and then to Faye’s sister Claire. “I love her.”
Claire’s face lit. “I told you he would return,” she exclaimed, bringing her hands together much the same way their niece had just moments ago.
“I know you did,” Faye said on a rush. “I didn’t believe it.”
“And yet, here we are,” Claire pointed out with all the satisfaction and glee of a sister who’d discovered she was right about something.
“Yes, here we are,” Tristan muttered, rubbing a hand across his brow.
Her son in her arms, Tristan’s wife finally reached the rather large assembly of people, taking in the tableau. “Never tell me, my husband is being anything but romantic.”
“He is indeed,” Faye called over, and her brother promptly fell to mumbling under his breath. “He is quite boorishly interrupting a heartfelt proposal.”
Color splotched Tristan’s cheeks. He turned to Poppy, putting a direct appeal to her. “He is—”
“In love with Faye?” Poppy interrupted, then called over to Tynan, “I take it?”
“Incandescently and hopelessly,” Tynan said quietly, raising Faye’s knuckles for another kiss.
Sputtering, Tristan glanced about the gathering of Poplars, settling on the one man who’d not weighed in.
Caleb held his palms aloft and shook his head. “Far be it for me to challenge love.”
“I should have expected as much from you as an American… oww,” Tristan cried out as Faye delivered a swift kick to his shin.
Faye hid a smile.
Tynan started over to Tristan. He stopped before the other man. Both tall in their own right, Tynan exuded a raw power and vitality missing from the slightly shorter gentleman before him.
“I’m not a lord,” Tynan murmured. “I’m not a gentleman. I’ve never belonged to your world, and I never will. But I love your sister,” he said quietly, and her heart flipped.
What this public declaration must be for him, a man who’d deliberately kept himself in the shadows. And now he’d do this for her? Tears glazed her eyes.
“I know you’re right in that I do not deserve her, that there’s likely any number of men who’d be better for her than me. But selfishly”—Tynan glanced briefly back to Faye—“I cannot imagine my life without her.”
A tear fell down her cheek, warm against her cold face. She brushed it back, but it was swiftly replaced by another. “I love you,” she mouthed.
“I love you, too,” he said quietly, his words resonating around the gathering.
Tynan stretched a hand out toward Faye’s brother.
Tristan briefly closed his eyes, and then with a soft curse, he shook Tynan’s hand; accepting that offering. “If you hurt her…” he warned the moment he released that grip.
“I’ll live to bring her joy and only more joy,” Tynan vowed.
Lightness suffused her breast, and collecting her hems, Faye rushed forward, knocking Tynan off-balance once more, and this time as they came crashing down, their laughter mingled in the joy of the future that awaited them.
The End
If you enjoyed Faye and Tynan’s story, be sure and order My Fair Marchioness where the young woman Faye hands her cloak off to will find an unexpected happily-ever-after!
Miss Julia Smith peddles flowers for her daily bread, but lands in the Duchess of Arlington’s household when selling blooms becomes unexpectedly hazardous. To Julia’s surprise, Her Grace offers not only safety, but also a chance at a new, fancier life—a life Julia isn’t sure she wants.
Harris Clarendale, Marquess of Ruthven, has seen his dear godmother taken in by one charlatan after another as Her Grace has searched in vain for a missing niece. Harris determines to charm his way past Julia’s defenses, and expose her for the schemer she is. Instead, he finds a woman of wit, honor, and integrity, and more than a little passion, and soon Julia learns that a fancy lord can also be a decent man with a loyal heart.
When secrets are revealed, will love be enough for Julia and Harris to forge a future together?
Scandalous Affairs
A Groom of Her Own
Taming of the Beast
My Fair Marchioness
Want to know the stories of the Lost Lords of London:
Lost Lords of London
In Bed with the Earl
In the Dark with the Duke
Undressed with the Marquess
Want to know the story of Claire’s brother Tristan, the Earl of Bolingbroke and his wife, Poppy?
Courting Poppy Tidemore
Biography
Christi Caldwell is the bestselling author of historical romance novels set in the Regency era. Christi blames Judith McNaught’s “Whitney, My Love,” for luring her into the world of historical romance. While sitting in her graduate school apartment at the University of Connecticut, Christi decided to set aside her notes and try her hand at writing romance. She believes the most perfect heroes and heroines have imperfections and rather enjoys tormenting them before crafting a well-deserved happily ever after!
When Christi isn’t writing the stories of flawed heroes and heroines, she can be found in her Southern Connecticut home with her courageous son, and caring for twin princesses-in-training!
Visit www.christicaldwellauthor.com to learn more about what Christi is working on, or join her on Facebook at Christi Caldwell Author, and Twitter @ChristiCaldwell!
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