Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,53

should be dealing with.” He turned and started on. Tynan made it several steps before seeming to realize Faye still wasn’t beside him. With a curse scandalous enough to bring even her to a blush, he returned. “What now?” he snapped.

“Well, it’s just… this isn’t settled. You don’t get to make decisions for me.”

“I most certainly do,” he said.

She sputtered. “The arrogance of you. I am my own woman—”

“Who is dependent upon me,” he said, killing off the impressive tirade she’d intended to deliver. “Because if you were as in control and in charge, Faye, then”—he gave her an up-and-down look—“you wouldn’t have needed to enlist my help.”

She closed her mouth, hating that his was a fair point.

Alas, he wasn’t done. Because being correct was not enough for a man like Tynan Wylie.

“You came to me and asked me to lead the way for you through this asinine plan of yours.”

Faye wrinkled her nose. “My efforts are not asinine.”

“And that is what I’m doing. And so who you’ll meet and when you meet them is all decided by me.” He stuck his face close to hers, the hint of citrus clung to his breath, both enticing and distracting for the sweetness of it. A sweetness at odds with the flare of his nostrils and dark, glinting eyes. That juxtaposition oddly captivating and—

His gaze dipped to her lips. “Is that clear?” he whispered, his voice a raspy growl that should have raised terror, but only added to the primitive appeal of this man before her.

“You are c-clear,” she said, her voice trembling with a shameful desire. She opted to refrain from mentioning that she’d never been the dutiful, obedient sort.

Tynan brought a hand up and ran the tip of a gloved finger down the curve of her jaw in a tantalizing caress that sent butterflies dancing in her chest. “Most times, I cannot sort out whether you’re courageous or stupid, Faye.”

Her body didn’t care that those words were at odds with his most tender of touches. “I prefer c-courageous.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “And I think you’re a woman who can’t and won’t be deterred from whatever you’ve got in your head, unless…” He lowered his head close to hers, his breath warm against her lips.

“Unless?” she whispered.

His eyes lingered on her mouth. “Unless there was good enough reason to abandon your efforts.”

Suddenly, he straightened, and then lifting his arm, he summoned another waiting hack.

More than half dazed, she looked to the approaching conveyance.

A moment later, as Tynan handed her up into the carriage and she settled on the squabs, disappointment filled her, and strangely not because of the meeting he’d put an end to with Mr. Colb, but rather, the end of her time with Tynan Wylie.

Chapter 12

Tynan’s meeting with Lord Lothian had been a failure.

As a result, he did not have his work as warden of Newgate. In fact, he had no work in any prison.

Which meant his future was as uncertain now as it had been when he’d been a boy toiling alongside his family in that London workhouse. Serving as a warden had not only given him purpose in life, it had provided him with power. Without his post, there was no security or safety. He’d amassed a small fortune, but having lived in that workhouse he’d come to appreciate that a man could never have enough. There could never be enough for those, like Tynan, from the streets of East London. Those who knew what it was to be starving and beaten and cold. Nay, a man needed to collect as much as he could so there could be absolutely no doubting that there would ever be a return to such a squalid existence.

What he did have?

What he did have was a spirited, madly infuriating English spitfire who couldn’t be tamed.

Hell, forget tamed. Reasoned with. He’d have gladly welcomed a Faye Poplar who could be made to see reason.

Having loaded that same lady into her hired hack a short while ago, Tynan made his way down the narrow alley to his residence.

But no. He should have expected better from a woman who’d gone to Newgate and sprung one such as him from prison.

Of anything he’d expected of his and Faye’s meeting that morn, this had decidedly not been it.

A dead end. The other man was supposed to have thrown up a roadblock, confirm that there was no one willing to speak with the lady about the crimes she was all too eager to