Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,34

forward.

“I take it we are meeting in the kitchens,” she remarked, not even looking to see whether he followed.

“I was going to suggest my parlor or formal office.”

That managed to bring her to a stop. She whipped about to face him. “Indeed?”

He smirked. “It’s called sarcasm, princess. Learn it.”

“Hmph.” Resuming her march onward, she tugged off her gloves as she went. “I thought we could spend the day with you providing the names of the lords and ladies who you know firsthand are linked to criminal actions. This way, if I’m unable to conduct the necessary interviews within the short timeframe you’ve permitted, then I can still continue my work after our time together is done.”

The oddest pang struck somewhere in her chest at the thought of it.

Which was… peculiar. Tynan Wylie couldn’t have been clearer in that he wanted nothing to do with her. She, however, appreciated his candidness. That he was honest to the point of brutalness. That he saw people—people like Finn—who dwelled outside the peerage.

They arrived at the kitchen, and Tynan reached past her and opened the door. “You’re off your damned head,” he muttered, motioning her on ahead.

She paused, looking through the entryway and then up at Tynan. Tynan, who was so very determined to be seen as a brute and a boor and who time and time again proved himself to be thoughtful.

He lifted a bold brow. “Dare I hope you may have realized the folly—”

Faye swept into the kitchen.

“I guess not, then,” he said drolly. With a sigh, he entered behind her, closing the door and effectively trapping all the delicious warmth from that oven in the small quarters.

Faye shrugged out of her cloak. She did a search of the kitchens and, locating an open hook, crossed over and draped the article alongside the fine wool article that was already there.

Something in seeing their cloaks side by side, the fabric brushing as if they belonged together because two people belonged together—

Thump.

Her heart racing, Faye spun about and found her bag now discarded in the middle of the table alongside a cup of black coffee and a small book.

Tynan swiftly collected that book and filed it away under a cabinet just behind the door.

Her intrigue piqued, a curiosity to know what he’d been reading before she’d arrived that he was so determined to hide. A book of names perhaps? A volume that contained the identities of all the men and women with whom he’d had dealings through the years?

“Let’s get to it,” he said when he returned to the table. “You’ve got an hour.”

“An… hour,” she sputtered.

“I agreed to a week.” He flashed a taunting half grin. “You, however, failed to indicate one way or the other how long each of those meetings was to be.”

Faye stomped her foot. “You are an insufferable bounder, Mr. Wylie, and I’ll have you know your name is an apt one. You’re as wily as a fox.” And she’d do well to stay several steps ahead of him.

“I thought I was Tynan, Miss Poplar.”

And blast if a smile didn’t ghost his lips, this one filled with so much amusement it would have set her teeth on edge if it hadn’t dimpled his cheek in a way that gave him an endearingly boyish look. “Yes,” she said with all the aplomb she could muster. Faye made a show of fishing out her belongings and hurriedly setting them on the table. “But not when I’m cross with you.”

“Are you ever not cross with me?”

“No.” Faye seated herself. “But I’m even more cross with you than usual. Now, as we have a limited amount of time, I’d ask that we begin.” She pointed to the vacant place across from her.

Surprisingly, he didn’t fight her. Instead, he drew out the chair and sat.

“Names,” she said, flipping through her book until she landed on an empty page. “I need names and an enumeration of their crimes.” She made notes as she talked. “Plus the names of all those who are in fact aware of those crimes and addresses as to where I might meet the men and women who have any awareness of the acts—”

“Whoa, love.” Tynan held his palms up. “Slow.”

“Alas, slow isn’t an option, given your latest deception.”

He kicked back on the legs of his chair. “Ohhh, is it really a deception if you never thought to lay out those details and I thought to fill them in instead?”

Glancing up, she compressed her lips, refusing to be baited. After all, he