Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,19

said. “And you shouldn’t. Go back and live your comfortable life.” He headed for the kitchen door, and she knew if he opened that door, she would lose him.

Desperation propelled her to his side, and she gripped his bare arm. “I don’t want a comfortable life. I want an honorable one.”

He laughed harshly. “That’s rot, love. If you’d gone a day without even once, you’d never even think of forsaking anything. And furthermore,” he went on before she could speak, “you wouldn’t be forsaking anything. I would be the one who’d divulge secrets for you to print. I’d pay the price, and you’d have your fun and freedom.” His harsh mouth formed a harder line. “And I’ve no interest in giving mine up again, love. So…” He nudged his head sideways toward the door. “Be on your way.”

Faye remained rooted there.

He… wasn’t incorrect. She’d be made into an even greater social pariah and whispered about even more, but her life wouldn’t really be affected the way his would were his role in her efforts discovered. “I… hadn’t thought of that,” she allowed.

“Of course you didn’t.” Tynan again nodded toward the gaping entranceway. “A person such as you wouldn’t.”

A person such as her.

Did he refer to her Poplar birthright?

Or her status as a lady of the peerage?

Either way, both stood true.

It was wrong of her to ask him to put himself on the proverbial line when he was the one who, as he pointed out, would pay the steepest price. “You are right,” she said softly, and he stilled, the muscles of his chest rippling slightly as he stiffened in the only discernable indication of his surprise. “I would not have you risk yourself, but the world should know, Tynan.”

“To clear your conscience? No, they shouldn’t. There’s enough ugliness that enjoying it as some sort of diversion only feeds the perversity of your people.”

“That’s not what this is or what it will be,” she said in response to his blunt cynicism. “I’ll not have you detail your dealings with the nobility.”

His brows came together. “Go on.”

Before thinking better of it, Faye took a step closer. It proved a mistake. It put her so close that the heat rolled off his broad in waves, that chest which still glistened with remnants of the bathwater that clung to him, beckoning like diamonds. She reminded herself to breathe.

“If you can lead me to the wronged, allowing them to tell me their story, then you wouldn’t break your confidences with those with whom you had dealings.”

“They weren’t confidences,” he said coolly. “They were business transactions, Faye.”

It was the first time he’d used her name, and the sound of it, wrapped in silken tones and slightly graveled, sent little shivers of awareness through her. “And as one who was willing to enter into a bribe, Tynan, you’d surely not have any qualm with tiptoeing around any promises you made for their confidence.”

The corners of his mouth pulled up, ghosting his lips with the faintest trace of a grin.

“What’s in it for me?” he asked suddenly, that sinner’s smile gone.

She frowned. What was in it for him? “I secured your f-freedom,” she sputtered, indignation causing her to stumble with her rebuke.

“Ah, yes.” He splayed his arms wide. “But I’m free, and you can’t quite put me back in my cage, can you, sweet?”

Oh, blast and damn. But then, what had she expected when she’d decided to enlist him in her efforts? Faye folded her arms at her chest. “You’re bribing me now?”

He waggled his eyebrows. “It is what I do, love.”

“You are insufferable,” she muttered. “What do you want?”

His lashes swept low, and the air instantly crackled and sizzled like the earth just before lightning struck.

That had been the wrong question to ask.

Chapter 6

The moment this wisp of a woman had sprung Tynan free of Newgate, the odds he’d intended to help her in any way had been absolutely zero.

As she’d spoken to him about her plans, explaining the role she expected him to serve, the likelihood of that already nil involvement had shrunk even more.

He’d intended to escort her out, see her on her way, and focus on getting his own life back together, leaving her to her bored-lady venture.

All that, however, had changed with the four words she’d just spoken.

What do you want?

Or, what proved the better question: What could he do to make this situation work for him?

That had always been the singular question that had driven him. That was the only way not