Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,96

into the role of escort. Together, they made their way at a brisk clip along Chalk Road.

“I’ll do the talking, Faye. And you aren’t to mention anything about your identity. Not your first name. Not your last. Do you have all that?”

Faye smiled wryly. “I daresay it is hard for me to say, as there’ve been so many rules you have given me.”

An endearing color slapped at his cheek, a blush from a man who just days ago had been cold and worn a perpetual scowl. He slowed his steps and gripped her lightly by the arm, bringing her to a stop. “This isn’t a time for jest, Faye,” he said in hushed tones. “There’s nothing light or safe or amusing about these streets or the people who live in them.” His eyes locked with hers. “There’s only danger here.”

A forlorn wind howled, an ominous punctuation to Tynan’s grave murmurings.

Faye shivered, that slight tremble having nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with that quiet warning and the uneasiness in Tynan’s gaze. This from a man who’d been unflappable from the start was enough for Faye to pause and look around at these particular East London streets in a new way.

“I’m going to be fine,” she said softly. “You are with me.”

“But I won’t always be, Faye,” he said bluntly.

His words were like a knife running through her, as unexpected as the plunge of a blade and the resulting agony.

And yet, should it be so very unexpected? Their time together had always been finite. He’d never made a hint at there being anything more than the week she’d managed to wrestle from him.

You just haven’t allowed yourself to think about this ending because you don’t want to imagine your life without him in it. You—

Tynan reached a hand inside her hood and cupped her cheek. “I won’t always be around to escort you to these parts, Faye.”

No. Her family would return soon, and before they did, Tynan had to leave. Another unforgiving wind slapped at her face, bringing a sting of tears to her eyes.

Nay, the tears were for him. Everything, in such a short time, had become so very much about this man, who was so very determined to leave. Who didn’t and couldn’t and mayhap wouldn’t foresee any future relationship between them.

“I won’t have something happen to you,” he said, slashing through the sea of tumultuous thoughts.

She bit the inside of her cheek hard and forced a smile that hurt. “La, one would think you have come to care for me, Mr. Wylie,” she said with a toss of her head in an attempt at flippancy she didn’t feel. Remembering his directives about the use of his surname, she dropped her voice to a whisper intended only for his ears. “Tynan.”

Unlike before, he didn’t scold her for that misstep. “Aye,” he said. “I have come to care about you, Faye.”

That unapologetically direct confirmation sent her heart into a tailspin.

He continued to caress her cheek, gliding his callused fingers over that soft, sensitive flesh, and fluttering her lashes, she leaned into that touch as tempting as the words he now spoke. “And the more you enter this world, the more you put yourself at risk. None of what you intend is worth it, Faye.”

With a seeming reluctance, he lowered his arm to his side.

She edged her chin up. “It seems like that is for me to decide, though, isn’t it?”

Tynan sighed, a frustrated glint in his eye. “Then let’s have this done, Faye.”

Let’s have this done.

As in this meeting, or her and him? Somehow, contained within that resigned pronouncement were traces of both, and she hated that it hurt as it did.

They didn’t say another word the remainder of the way. The already narrow streets became even more narrow, creating a gust through the alley. A crush of people huddled and crowded together, as though stealing what warmth they might from one another. And her heart ached for the privileged life she’d been born to, while so many others should go without.

“Is this what your life was like?” she asked quietly as they walked, her eyes catching on a solitary young girl, pale and wan with black circles under her eyes that highlighted the pools of despair reflected back. The moment she caught Faye’s stare on her, fire blazed to life. Anger. And hatred.

He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Part of it,” he said with a matter-of-factness that threatened to cleave her in two. “Until we landed