Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,76

he understood it or not, he didn’t quite mind having Faye around. To his sister’s charges, Tynan quite liked her.

Well, if this wasn’t a damned disaster. He’d suddenly gone weak. And for a lady of the peerage, no less.

And she was still hovering outside, a damned lamb to the slaughter, wholly oblivious to the peril that awaited a woman out on her own.

Bloody hell.

Muttering to himself, Tynan grabbed his cloak from the hook at the back of the door and tossed it over his shoulders. He let himself out.

The click of the panel closing echoed in the winter still.

Faye immediately turned and faced that sound. Even with the length of the street between them, he caught the way her eyes lit.

Because of him?

Surely not. Surely it was a trick of the late afternoon light.

But then, as though she were a lady and he a proper gent meeting across a ballroom, she lifted her hand and waved excitedly. “Tynan!” she called out in a cheer-filled greeting, as if they’d not just spent the better part of the day together, reading and snacking on pastries. She was the only person who’d ever been eager to see him other than his late mother and sister. To the rest of the world, he was a mercenary monster.

Only, Faye knew those pieces about him too, understood the ruthless crimes that had seen him thrown in prison, and she still greeted him with a bright-eyed eagerness at odds with how all Society saw him.

He stalked across the street.

“Would you not do that?” he said when he reached her side.

Her smile slipped to a scowl. “Do what?”

“Call my name.” He did a glance about.

“No one is here.”

He dropped his voice to a hushed whisper. “There is always someone near, Faye. Someone lurking in the shadows, people bent on harm.” If she didn’t learn that soon, she was going to find herself in real danger this time.

Faye burrowed into her cloak, rubbing at her arms. “I am not so naïve as to fail to realize the danger that exists in the world.”

He gave her a look.

“What?” she asked indignantly and started walking.

Tynan hurried to catch her and fell easily into step beside her.

“I’ll have you know I’m quite savvy. Very wise to the way of the world,” she said, scouring the street.

He strangled on a laugh.

“Oh, hush,” Faye muttered and lightly thumped him on the arm.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked, opting to shift them to the more pressing matter of her being out on these streets, and in his company, no less.

“I fear my hackney driver has gone which isn’t like him. He’s been escorting me about since I set my plan into motion.”

“Carrying you.” At her look, he clarified, “That driver hasn’t been providing any form of escort.” And certainly not protection. With a frown, he did another sweep. “Doesn’t this strike you as odd, Faye?” he asked gravely.

She frowned. “Odd, but not so very odd.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Of course it does. Perhaps he was hungry and required sustenance after waiting all day,” she said. “Perhaps someone had an emergency that required his assistance. Perhaps another person asked for a ride, and he saw an opportunity to do both and make himself needed coin.”

He resisted the urge to jam his fingertips into his temples. She was even more trusting and naïve than he’d suspected and now feared. Whatever vows he’d made about not letting a person too close and never caring after a stranger proved moot in this moment. For somehow, someway, Faye Poplar had slipped past walls that had proven to be less impenetrable than he’d believed, and he was involved.

He stopped and took her gently by the arm, bringing her around to face him.

She stared up, a question in her eyes. “What is—?”

“Incongruities point to peril, Faye,” he interrupted. “When something isn’t as it seems, there is always a reason for it. And those reasons are never good.” And if she didn’t realize that soon, especially continuing on as she was with her plans to out the peerage, she was going to find herself burned.

Despite the chill, sweat slicked his skin. Tynan gritted his teeth. Goddammit, this caring about another person’s well-being was even worse than he’d feared.

She gave him a gentle smile and collected his hands in her own. “And sometimes, Tynan, some things and some people are just as they seem,” she murmured. Her fathomless gaze pierced through him, penetrating to a part of him that had been previously untapped