Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,29
rare carefree moments with her.
A squeal went up, as mirth-filled as the others joining in.
He was at the wrong residence.
There was nothing else for it.
Except…
Tynan glanced about, taking in the familiar surroundings.
Grabbing his key, he shoved it into the lock and let himself inside. Shock froze him in the entranceway, leaving him there with the door hanging open and his mouth hanging even wider as he took in the scene before him.
Two figures crawled frantically around the kitchen floor, laughing as they went.
“Ye ain’t gonna get it this time.”
Finn… and—
“Oh, I have no intention of losing.”
Tynan thinned his eyes at the elegantly clad lady in familiar black satin skirts.
“What the hell is going on here?” he barked, and Faye and Finn crashed into each other, bumping their heads.
All laughter died as the pair whipped their gazes up.
The pale white, heart-shaped features flooded with a rush of crimson color, and thoughts slipped in of Faye Poplar with that same hue after he’d taken her mouth with his outside of Newgate.
Finn scrambled to his feet, his little cheeks flushed red. “Ye’ve got… company,” he mumbled, jolting Tynan out of his desirous musings.
With the heel of his boot, Tynan kicked the door shut behind him. “Yes, I see that,” he said in cool tones that he laced in steel.
Alas, Faye, still on her knees, gave no outward indication she gave so much as half a damn about his displeasure. Instead, the smile she’d worn while doing… whatever the hell she’d been doing with Finn faded to an impressively dark scowl.
The little boy glanced down at his tattered shoes, briefly diverting Tynan’s attention from the fact that his home had been invaded a second time. New shoes. The boy needed a new pair of boots. Tynan made a mental note to see to that detail, but for now…
He’d known he shouldn’t have returned.
At least, not as quickly as he had.
But there’d been Finnigan and the need for shelter. Good God, she was tenacious. He’d thought, however, he’d at least a day before she darkened this doorstep again.
Tynan resisted the urge to curse. “You again.”
“Yes,” she hissed like the cat he’d taken her for at their first meeting, and with the same agility of one, she sprang to her feet, an impressive accomplishment given the expanse of skirts she wore. “Me again.”
Tynan opened his mouth to deliver a droll response in return, when from the corner of his eye, he saw a figure move from the shadows. His gaze snagged upon the young woman who stepped forward. She was dressed in black, her features flat as to reveal nothing.
He recoiled. My God… “There are two of you.”
“We are not twins,” the odd-looking young lady murmured. “I should expect that is very clear.” He opened his mouth, but she’d already shifted her attention to Faye. “You said he is clever. He doesn’t seem very clever,” she remarked.
For what it was worth, flipped upside down as he was by the strange gathering and tableau he’d arrived to, he didn’t feel very clever either. “I didn’t mean… I meant…” He searched for a sharp retort, but God help him, for the first time in his life, he was rendered speechless. “Ladies,” he managed to squeeze out between tightly clenched teeth. “I meant there are two ladies.” And this latest one to darken his household was even younger and more innocent than the other.
Faye slid over to the young woman’s side and took her hand. “Daria is my decoy.”
Tynan rubbed at his temples. Do not ask. Do not ask. He couldn’t help it. “Your decoy?”
“A decoy.” Faye carefully enunciated each of those three syllables.
When he still managed nothing more than blankness, the young lady… nay, Miss Daria With No Last Name cupped one hand around her mouth and in a not-so-subtle whisper added, “I told you he is not so very clever.”
Endlessly loyal Finn immediately jumped to Tynan’s defense. “He’s clever!” The boy paused. “With some things,” he added, wholly undermining that previous confidence in Tynan’s abilities.
“That remains to be seen,” Daria noted in those curiously emotionless tones.
Faye released an even longer sigh. “A decoy, Mr. Wylie. As in a person, device, or event meant as a distraction to hide what an individual or a group might be looking for.” She stuck a foot out. “Why, they’ve been used for centuries in the game of hunting.”
From the corner of his eye, he caught the exaggeratedly-slow nod from Faye Poplar’s partner. “And during wartime. Or…”