The Scandal You Started, page 9
A moment of understanding, or rather acceptance passed between them.
“Good night,” she offered softly.
After a few beats, he gave her a single stiff nod. “Good night.”
Rayna had just collapsed onto her bed in the bedroom next to Dominic’s, teeth brushed, face washed, utterly exhausted, when through the crack of her slightly open door, a groaned creak whispered in that was all too familiar.
It was the sound the third step from the bottom of the stairs made when treaded upon, and the person who’d stepped on it clearly wasn’t her.
Summoning the ghost of her mother to give her enough patience for the next four months, Rayna shot upright.
“Dominic!”
Chapter 9
Rayna
The next morning, Rayna faced the consequence of leaving her door open when her alarm went off at 8:45 a.m., disrupting her peaceful slumber.
She wasn’t the only one jolted awake.
Through heavy lashes, she saw a giant body of bronzed skin and dark blue flinch before bolting upright.
Dominic.
Not quite convinced she was seeing correctly, Rayna ignored the bleeping noise of the clock and eyed him as he switched on the lamp at his side before his head flew around in frantic search.
She hadn’t forgotten the events of the previous day. That was kind of impossible when everything was vividly burned into her memory. But after catching him trying to explore the downstairs of the farmhouse when she’d told him not to, she was sure she’d sent him back to his room like a grounded child.
She’d fallen asleep almost immediately after that in her own room. But she had no recollection of being awoken by Dominic’s entrance.
Yet there he was, taking up the entire left side of the king-sized bed, dressed in the pyjamas he made look sexy, with his eyes glazed from interrupted sleep and hair mussed in a way that made her want to reach out and comb her hand through it.
Was there any need to look that good first thing in the morning?
“What the bloody deuces is that noise?” Dominic rasped.
And the sexy, sleepy voice is back. Fuck.
Rolling onto her back, Rayna fumbled for the digital clock on the rustic bedside cabinet and jabbed the off button. The loud beeping stopped, throwing the dim room into a ringing silence. Slivers of light snuck in from the sides of the long, dark cream curtains.
Her bedroom was slightly bigger than Dominic’s, but not by much. The wooden-framed bed was situated in the middle of the shared wall with his bedroom, two warm wood cabinets flanked on either side. The door was on the left, and along the right were two windows. There was an alcove cupboard that gave access to the ensuite too, just like in Dominic’s room, but she had a large stand-alone mirror next to the chest of drawers against the bathroom wall.
“My alarm,” she muttered, plopping her arms over the fluffy cream blanket as she stretched her legs out. “What are you doing here?”
As he slumped with a heavy sigh and scrubbed a hand over his face, Rayna realised he wasn’t under the blanket. But rather on top of it, letting it act as a barrier between their bodies. Almost as if he were giving her a level of respect and privacy.
What was all that bloody danger bullshit for then? Idiot.
“As in an alarm bell? What they used on battlefields to alert the soldiers?” He threw a grumpy frown across his shoulder. “Why on damned Neves do you require an alarm bell to rouse you?”
“So that I wake up on time.”
“I suggest you use a sound that isn’t meant to frighten a man witless,” he grumbled and let himself fall backwards. He sank into the pillow with an inaudible mutter and threw an arm over his face like a distressed maiden, resting his other hand on his abdomen.
She rolled her eyes at his dramatic display. “What are you doing here?”
Quiet breaths lifted his broad chest steadily. “Your door was open.”
“So?”
“I came in.”
“When? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I do not recall when. And you were fast asleep. I did not wish to wake you.”
“The point of leaving my door open was for you to come in and wake me if there was a problem. Not for you to walk in and sleep next to me.”
“There was a problem. I was bored senseless and could not sleep. I came in with the intention of sitting with you while I read the manual. I must have fallen asleep.”
He didn’t sound like he was lying. She also didn’t see why he would. As she pushed herself upright, she spotted the ring binder manual on the cabinet behind him, next to the lamp.
“That’s fine,” she said. “But you need to wake me up when you come in. And you can’t make a habit of this. You have your own room to sleep in.”
Sliding his arm up to his forehead, he peeked at her with a little smirky smile. “But I would much rather sleep with a beauty by my side than in a cold, empty bed by myself.”
“Tough. I prefer sleeping in a cold bed by myself.”
He growled through a light chuckle. “Little witch.”
Smirking to herself, she pushed the duvet back and scooched her legs off the edge of the bed. She combed two hands through her tangled, wavy strands and let out a long, silent yawn.
“Come on, get up,” she said, slipping her feet into a pair of white flipflops scattered on the latte-coloured carpet. There was movement behind her as she shoved herself up. “There’s a lot I’ve got to explain to you today and—”
Dominic’s sharp inhale cut through her sentence and sent her flying around to face him.
“What?” she asked, scanning him for injury. “What happened?”
Oh…oh fuck. Shit.
Shorts. Fuck, she’d forgotten.
She was wearing pyjama shorts that were a little tight around her arse with a matching, fitted T-shirt. The way Dominic was looking at her though...she might as well have been naked.
Leaning up on his hand, visceral heat charred over his wide eyes, making the glaze that already coated them turn dark and heady. He was entirely unmoving, didn’t even look like he was breathing, all except for his gaze as it slipped up her naked legs and to her round breasts.
Her braless breasts.
Glancing down, she almost swore aloud.
For fuck’s sake, her nipples were on full display too, poking against the thin fabric and announcing their presence as loudly as her alarm had sung through the room only moments ago. Great!
She wasn’t ashamed of her body, but Dominic wasn’t used to women dressing like so, and considering how he felt towards her, it was probably way too much stimulation in one go.
Lifting her chin, Rayna laid one arm over her chest to hide her nipples from him.
His lashes snapped up and captured her in a burning tornado of lust. Her stomach did a somersault, sending a flutter of reciprocating warmth through her.
Nope, uh-uh.
A blush nipped at her cheeks. “What?” she said stiffly, almost sharply.
His jaw locked as he gulped. “Where are the rest of your clothes?” The depth of his voice laid a heavy kiss against the base of her spine.
She tightened her arm around herself. “This is what I wear at night when it’s summer.” His brows dipped and rose within a second. “I’m going to teach you about clothing after breakfast, so it won’t seem as scandalous after.”
Dominic let out a gruff sound. “Scandalous is not the word I am thinking of, sweetheart.”
Voracious male pheromones radiated off him in thick waves as he licked her up from head to toe again. Waves that teased across her skin, brushed over her lips, caressed down her neck, and shaped her thighs, leaving blooms of prickles all over.
She shivered but gritted her teeth, trying to contain the enticing sensation. “Stop that.” She failed to make it sound like a warning. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“I’m trying. I am.” His chest rose and deflated on a shaky breath. “But I am merely a red-blooded man, Rayna. What do I do? You are temptation I did not know I longed for.”
This time, her heart flipped in sync with her stomach. But her mind immediately raised a battalion of rationale, and she stiffened her shoulders. “Leave. Now.”
For once, he didn’t argue.
Dominic lowered his gaze and all but threw himself off the edge of the bed, shoving his feet into a pair of black slippers. Rayna whipped her head away, but by then it was already too late.
With the lamplight illuminating him more than the morning sun behind the curtains, she got a full side view of a very distinct tent in his trousers.
He was hard.
And she hadn’t even touched him.
Not that she was going to touch him. No. Gosh, no. She wouldn’t.
Writing that across her brain in big, red, binding letters, she forced herself to face him just before he left. “I’m going to get ready, then I’ll come to your room.”
He hummed roughly, and then he was gone, shutting the door behind him.
As the echoing clack rang through her room, Rayna dropped her arm and sighed up at the ceiling.
What a great start to the day that had been.
Chapter 10
Dominic
Dominic couldn’t get the image of Rayna’s luscious body, barely clad in any fabric, out of his head. She was printed across the backs of his eyes.
Not in ink that would wash away, but as an embossed stamp. Permanent. Tangible.
Gosh, he’d had no clue she was lying in such a state of undress under the bedding when he’d first fumbled through the darkness of her room. Upon discovering the switch of the bedside lamp as Rayna had shown him with his own, he’d turned it on, and the glowing sight of her had nearly brought him to his knees.
Awake, she might have been a strongheaded flame of sultry hips and sharp, infuriating words, but asleep, she’d been a breathtaking wisp of a woman nuzzled on her side, all flowy hair, lustrous cheeks, enticing lips, long lashes, and erotic curves.
She’d looked soft and vulnerable. Delicate. And the sight of her had clawed at his chest. It’d made him ache with acute tenderness that begged him to curl himself around her.
He hadn’t, worried he’d wake her, but he hadn’t been able to resist stroking her cheek a few times. Though he’d wanted to, he hadn’t climbed under the bedding in case it angered her.
Had he known she slept naked, for the sake of his sanity, he would never have entered her room.
No. Actually, he was lying through his teeth.
Dominic would have still slept beside her, but maybe he would have been the slightest bit prepared to witness it with his own eyes.
No, that was also a lie.
No amount of training or imagining could have prepared him for the sight of Rayna’s naked legs, shapely and supple, her skin radiant and golden. The grey…bloody woods, he didn’t even know what to call them. Smalls? What people in the present called boxers? But why on Neves did she sleep in a man’s undergarments? Whatever the bit of clothing was, it had stretched across her derriere so deliciously, showing off the rounded shape of her rather than disguising it.
And then she’d turned.
And Dominic’s dick had risen to attention with the kind of shocking blast of arousal that turned his skin hotter and mouth drier than the Northern Jahandari Desert.
The wicked view of her nipples, poking against her tiny, too-tight shirt—“T-shirt,” she’d called it—had had lust branding her name on his soul. He hadn’t been able to look away as if he’d never seen a woman’s breasts before until she’d covered herself.
He wasn’t an innocent man. He’d slept with his fair share of beautiful women. But only Rayna had been able to make his bones quake with a desperate need to hold her, without even a single word of temptation spoken between them.
Bloody woods, how he’d resisted the urge to haul her to him, bend her over his arm, and plaster his mouth over her breasts until he’d dampened her shirt, he’d never know.
But she’d told him to leave, so he’d departed as fast as his legs had been able to carry him, knowing the danger of staying was too great for his control and her wrath.
He’d immediately locked the door to his own room, folded on the floor before the bed, and taken his cock in hand, panting as he spent in his palm to the thought of her.
Now dressed and sitting at the small dining table in the bright, open kitchen and dining area at the back of the farmhouse, Dominic’s dick was again pressing against the seam of the black trousers Rayna had told him to wear. It wasn’t trying to burst free, but bloody Neves, he couldn’t convince his cock to rest around her.
Said pretty little witch was completely oblivious to his mental struggle as she slunk around the bluish-grey kitchen shaped as an L with an extra little flick at the end. The white countertop was broken up by a deep silver sink and the black futuristic stove, where Rayna was preparing breakfast.
She grabbed stuff out of the full-length cupboards, where the top shelves proved to be too high for her to reach, and a silver, two-doored cuboid the manual had called a “fridge”—not at all like the ice rooms in his stately homes but supposedly made to do the same thing. Wherever she walked, her flappy slippers clacked against the greyish wooden flooring that led seamlessly out of the open archway to the rest of the house.
But while she was focused on filling the room with scents of sizzling slivers of meat and fresh toast, he was losing his mind watching her.
Dominic was beginning to understand why women from his time weren’t allowed to wear trousers or pantaloons in public. They were a damned irresistible villain that could tempt even the most prudish gentleman far more easily than any low-cut dress or silk shift could.
Had women been allowed to wear the kind of skintight pantaloons Rayna was wearing, showing off her delicate ankles, her pretty toes, and the exact shape of her legs, men would have been dropping to their knees, left, right, and centre. Even with the fact she was wearing a rose-red T-shirt that skimmed past her rump and hung too big on her frame.
How was it possible for clothing so similar to that of a man’s to look so bloody sensual on a woman?
Dominic didn't understand, but Rayna painted a magnificent vision, and he struggled to remain seated. The heavy longing snaking around his bones was doing its best to persuade him to follow her around the kitchen like a pup and nestle himself against her. To hold her tight from behind while he kissed her, licked her, maybe even bit her neck at every chance he got.
But either she cooked quickly, or he’d been lost in his ogling, because soon enough she handed him a plate of omelette and slivers of beef. Then she joined him at the square table with her own plate and a stack of toast for them to share.
He probably would have continued gawking at her had the delicious, cheesy, oniony scent combined with crisply cooked meat not reminded him how hungry he was.
Oh, he still stole glances at her in their comfortable silence. But it was between bites of buttered toast, sips of sweetened tea, and moments of admiring the view out of the long glass door made up of three big panels.
The land the farmhouse sat on was wonderfully picturesque, with the bright blue of the sky, not a single cloud in sight, allowing for an endless panorama of the calming scenery.
A large stream, or rather a small river, flowed at the end of a long gravel path and stretch of grass, on the other side of which was a spread of forestland. From the angle he was sitting at, he could see a weathered stable building within the fence of a paddock. And when he craned his head over his shoulder, there was another farmhouse built closer to the river.
“So,” Rayna eventually said, slumped back in her chair, sipping at her cup of coffee. “How much of the house did you manage to check out last night?”
Dominic’s hand stopped midway to his open mouth, and he held her sure, accusing stare. His lips spread into a wide grin as he lowered his bit of toast. “What has led you to believe I did not stay in the room after you caught me?”
She narrowed her eyes with a small scrunch on her mouth. “I’m not an idiot, Dominic. I know your insatiable curiosity didn’t keep you in that room for long after I left you.” Leaning forward, she set her mug on the table and smirked. “That, and I noticed you’d moved things around in the kitchen and turned half the switches on.”
He chomped on the last of the buttered bread, neither denying nor admitting to exploring after she’d warned him to stay put in his bedroom. He hadn’t lasted an hour in there.
“I hope you at least took the manual with you.”
He finished chewing and straightened. “Of course,” he said proudly. “How was I to know what I was inspecting without it?” Her glare was disapproving. “I swear to you, sweetheart, I was very careful with how I handled every new item I discovered.”
She shook her head. “All you had to do was wait one night.”
“After being confined for so long already, another night did not seem possible.”
Her expression softened. “Fine. I can understand that.”
“Thank you,” he said and sat back in his chair. “So what are we to do today?”
“As much as we can, really,” she said, crossing her arms atop the table. “We’ll tidy up breakfast, then I’ll go over men’s and women’s clothing as your first lesson, so that from tomorrow you can choose what to wear yourself. Then I’ll take you on an official tour of the house, and I’ll cover as much as I can of all the basic items you need to know how to use.
“But first, I’m going to explain what you’ll be doing here, who you are, and who I am in more detail.”
Dominic reared his head back. “Who I am? What does that mean? Am I no longer to be myself?”
“Well…” she dragged the sound out, thinking over her words. “Yes and no.” She gestured to him with a roll of her hand. “You’ll still be you. You just won’t be Lord Dominic Evander Jonathan Thorne, the marquess. You’ll simply be Dominic Thorne.”
