The Scandal You Started, page 16
There was something going on that she wasn’t telling him.
What did she mean she’d already told Jake about the project? How? When?
“Hi,” Jake said, his gaze travelling Dominic’s frame.
Dominic stretched his shoulders wide. “Hello.”
A moment of weighted silence passed where neither of them looked away.
“Um, well.” Rayna cleared her throat, catching Jake’s attention. “It was really great bumping into you like this. Dominic and I have a few more things to get, and I’m sure you want to get home, so we’ll let you go.”
Jake’s brows dipped in confusion. “You’re...shopping together?”
Rayna opened her mouth, but Dominic cut in first. “Why would we not be? After all, we are living together.”
The blankness that rose upon Jake’s face wasn’t a look of relief, and Dominic found it immensely satisfying. “He’s the historian you’re currently living with?”
“Archivist, yeah.” Rayna nodded and widened her playful smile. “It’s kind of like living with an overprotective br—bodyguard.”
Why on bloody Neves was she comparing him to a guard?
Jake huffed and forced a small smile onto his mouth. “I can see why.” Then he nodded to the side. “I’ll leave you to it then, but…I’m glad I got to see you today. Really.”
“Me too,” Rayna muttered, and Dominic clenched his hands so tightly his blunt nails dug into his palms.
“I’ll message you later.”
“Okay. Bye.”
“Bye.” Jake then nodded stiffly at him. “Bye.”
Dominic couldn’t get an answer through the barrier of his locked teeth as he seethed.
Jake turned and walked down the rest of the aisle before finally disappearing out of sight.
Only then did Dominic rotate to face Rayna.
“What did he mean, he will message you?” Dominic growled. “Does he have your phone number?”
Something flickered through her eyes before her brows pinched, and she tipped her chin up. “Of course he does, Dominic. We’re friends.”
“Friends?” he echoed bitterly. “Men and women cannot be friends, Rayna.”
Her scowl darkened. “Yes, they can be.”
“Then why were you so eager to tell him we were colleagues?”
She scoffed like what he’d said was ridiculous. “Because you were gonna go blurt out that you’re my husband when he knows I’m not married.”
“Why does he know that?” Dominic rumbled in frustration.
Over the top of Rayna’s head, he could see an older black woman slowing to observe them with suspicion.
Rayna widened her eyes in disbelief. “What the fuck does that mean, Dominic? I’ve told him, of course.” He went to argue, but she cut a hand between them. “No, enough.”
She glanced around them, then lowered her voice to a stern mutter. “I’m not going to argue with you in public, Dominic. Whatever stupid questions you have, keep them to yourself until we get back to the farmhouse.”
Chapter 19
Rayna
“Who is he?”
Rayna stopped mid-picking up the last of the empty shopping bags off the kitchen counter when Dominic demanded an answer to his question.
She was a little impressed and surprised he’d managed to stay quiet about Jake for so long, considering he’d subjected her to the roaring yellow flames of his gaze until they’d packed their bags of purchased clothes and food into the car.
He’d stared out the window throughout the drive back, omitting a dark, brooding aura that filled the vehicle’s atmosphere with palpable tension.
Rayna had half expected him to burst into a symphony of questions the moment they’d stepped through the threshold of the farmhouse. But he’d held it in while they’d put the shopping away, right until the very last second at least.
She wasn’t looking forward to facing the music of Dominic’s jealousy, knowing how loud it was going to be. The bass of her combative nature was already rising as a result.
Why the fuck did the world have to reunite her with Jake while she’d been with Dominic?
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been pleasantly surprised to have bumped into Jake, but she really could have done without Dominic meeting him and turning all possessive husband who’d caught another man trying to kiss his wife.
He wasn’t. He wasn’t supposed to be acting jealous either. He had no claim on her.
But it wasn’t just down to the selfishness of his attraction to her. Rayna was realising a part of it was her own fault too.
Maybe she shouldn’t have let him flirt with her. She should’ve shut him down sooner. But…
It had only meant to be harmless, hadn’t it?
Swallowing around a flicker of confused uncertainty, Rayna stuffed the green shopping bag into another full of all the other bags.
“What do you mean, ‘who is he?’” she said without looking at Dominic.
“You are perfectly aware of what I mean,” he growled. “Who is he? How did you become acquainted with Jake?”
She continued to give him her back as she opened the cupboard under the sink and shoved the bags onto the top shelf. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“Answer the damn question, Rayna!”
“Don’t fucking raise your voice at me, Dominic,” she snapped back, spinning to face him.
A deep frown had hardened the usually flirtatious lines of his face. His hands were in fists, his shoulders taut and visibly thrumming with anger. But she glared back just as fiercely.
“Do not test my patience further.” His voice was quieter, but no less laced with frustration. “You asked for me to keep quiet, and I have done so. But I require answers now, and I expect them, starting with how you know him.”
The last time Dominic had spoken with such deep-rooted authority had been in his quarantine room. Having not heard such a tone since, it’d completely slipped her mind that he could act like the world revolved around his demands.
But it was who he was. That was the life he’d grown up to lead. Where he gave commands, and it’d get done because he wielded that much power.
And fuck, because maybe that rubbed Rayna the wrong way more than him raising his voice or his misplaced jealousy did. The reminder that he was still titled nobility, even if they were pretending for a few months that he wasn’t.
Arrogant. Authoritative. And like he said, he expected his word to be obeyed.
When for the past two weeks, he’d acted like anything but.
Though she was the last person he could expect to bow to his every decree. In fact, her anger roared with a rebellious chant to do the complete opposite.
She almost did. But there was a tiny voice of logic and reason murmuring over the petty words she wanted to spit at Dominic that reminded her he had, in fact, respected the boundary she’d set with his questions. So answering one wouldn’t kill her, even if it felt like the surrender would.
“I met him on holiday,” she ground out. “That’s the only answer you can expect, because that’s the only answer I’ll give you.”
Rayna turned away to leave the kitchen, indicating she was done with the conversation. But as quick as a soaring eagle, Dominic swiped up her elbow and pulled her to a stop.
His grip wasn’t painful, but it was unyielding as he scowled. “Do not walk away from me when we are talking.”
“Talking?” she echoed harshly. “You’re trying to fucking interrogate me about something that’s got nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me when he was acting so familiar with you in front of me. And you let him—”
“Of course I let him. He’s my friend!”
“Friends do not look at each other the way he regarded you!”
Silence rang around them as his last word snapped off the painted walls.
A flicker of something akin to pain waned the line between his brows before his expression darkened further. “He held you and gazed upon you as if he had known your touch before.”
Her heart tripped over the truth, and she went a little too still and quiet before realising that gave her away more than any words ever could have. Not that she’d intended to lie about Jake. She just hadn’t wanted to tell Dominic anything.
But he saw it, his scowl lifting in bitter understanding. “He does.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement. And there was nothing for her to say in response.
“Were you intimate with him?”
Rayna clenched her teeth over a rise of renewed anger at the accusation in his tone. As if she’d somehow cheated on him with Jake.
“I don’t owe you any explanation.”
“Were you or were you not, Rayna?”
“So what if I was?”
A shadow cast over his face. “How?”
“What?” she said with a sarcastic grin. “You want me to give you all the details?”
“Yes.”
She stared, lips parted, then scoffed. “Just actually fuck off.”
“Tell me the truth, Rayna. What happened with Jake?”
“He didn’t fuck me, Dominic,” she rumbled, squaring up to him. “There. Are you happy? Is that what you wanted to know? That we didn’t have sex?”
He clearly wasn’t happy with her answer. If anything, his irises looked alight with ten times more jealousy. “But you are not simply friends, are you? You lied to me.”
“Oh, get over yourself.” She ripped her arm free. “How exactly did I lie to you, huh? By not telling you Jake and I kissed?” Dominic froze, but she cocked her head and drove on. “Something that happened before I even met you, which you have neither a right to know about nor a right to be jealous about.”
“You kissed him?” he uttered hoarsely.
She tipped her chin defiantly. “Yeah. We kissed.”
“Then how can you call him your friend? When it is evident from the fact you have kissed that men and women cannot be friends.”
“Because a kiss doesn’t change the fact that neither of us has asked to be anything more than friends.”
Silence. Heavy, vibrating, and bitter on the tongue.
Then Dominic rubbed a rough hand over his jaw and shifted on his feet. “I do not want you talking to him again.” Rayna’s mouth collapsed. “You are not to see him either. And take his phone number off your smartphone.”
Bubbling molten lava erupted through her veins, and she reacted with a furious jerk forward. “Who the fuck do you think you are, telling me what to do? When it’s got nothing to do with you who I kiss, who I fuck, and who I’m bloody friends with.”
“How can you say that, knowing how I care for you?” he roared.
That wasn’t fair. He was using his feelings to trip the switch of her guilt as if she’d done something wrong, and she hadn’t. She hadn’t. But…
The switch was being pushed to the middle, neither dropping this way nor that, but balancing precariously and causing her to be conscious of its agitating, nagging pull.
Still, she jabbed a frustrated finger at him. “That’s your own problem, Dominic. My life doesn’t revolve around your bloody feelings.”
A bitter, dare she say even hurt, smile quirked his lips. “Yes, I can see how little regard you have for my feelings. But are you truly shocked that I am not jumping for joy having seen you embrace a man who has felt the touch of your lips and so obviously longs for more, while you lie to my face, telling me he is your friend when I am able to see the contrary evidence before me?” He threw a hand out. “He cares for you, and you know that. In fact, it rather seemed like you were happy to encourage his attention, and where does that leave me then?”
The pinch of anger burning her skin dulled, and she leaned back in wary confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”
His hand went limp at his side. “You had led me to believe my attraction was reciprocated, but you stand before me, defending your relationship with Jake as if my reason for feeling betrayed is absurd.” He shrugged tiredly. “I was convinced you only wanted my attention, yet you are unwilling to reject his, so where does that leave me, Rayna? How am I to feel?”
Rayna couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason her heart lurched up to her throat before collapsing back into place, sending a tremor through her stomach.
It was shock, but it was more. It was denial, but it was disagreement too. It wasn’t quite realisation, but it wasn’t confusion either. It was panic, but it was like something clicked into place too.
“What are you talking about?” she said almost fearfully. “I didn’t lead you to believe anything.”
He smiled wryly. “Are you to deny this as well?”
She bristled. “Deny what, Dominic? I’ve told you multiple times that nothing would happen between us—”
“Yes, you have,” he agreed, then shook his head. “But you never claimed it was because you did not wish for something to happen. Because you found me unappealing or bothersome.”
She opened her mouth to tell him he was wrong, but only a puff of air came out.
I did. I had. She had, hadn’t she?
All those times she’d told him—she’d said—she’d warned him of…of…
The consequences of being caught. The rules of her job.
But she’d never told him to stop because she didn’t like it.
She’d never told him to stop, full stop. That was how they’d ended up here in the first place.
“Just because I—I didn’t say it, that doesn’t mean I’m attracted to you,” she said, fumbling over her words.
“Then what did it all mean?” he asked, his piercing eyes searching her face with the slow, intent perusal of a hunter. “Because I was not simply dallying with you, Rayna, and I believe I made that quite clear. I did not hide the way I looked at you nor the way I longed to touch you. So why have you not refused me if you did not care for my attention?”
“Would you have listened if I told you to stop?” she snapped.
“Yes.” He narrowed his eyes when she scoffed. “I have told you before, I would never force myself upon a woman. Had you said I was making you uncomfortable, I would have locked my feelings in a box so that they may have never bothered you again.”
You didn’t.
He didn’t say it. But the accusation was there at the end of his sentence.
Rayna found herself at a loss for words as her mind ran in jagged lines, crisscrossing between all the moments she’d spent with Dominic, replaying their conversations, trying to decipher her own reactions to him. All while trying to deny his case against her.
Dominic was attractive. But that didn’t make it attraction.
It didn’t.
So what if he ignited sharp sparks of lust in her belly? And it didn’t matter that his embrace was always warm and comforting. Maybe she enjoyed teasing and talking to him and listening to his cheesy compliments. Perhaps there were moments when his laughter and curiosity made the thing in her chest, the thing on the left side, do odd, meaningless dances. And if the way he looked at her, with deep desire that bordered on yearning, made her stomach swoop and rise within the same breath, that didn’t mean she…it couldn’t mean that…that she…she…
She gulped as her mind stuttered on one blaring, obvious conclusion.
No. No. No. For fuck’s sake, no!
She wasn’t attracted to him. I’m not.
You might be.
I’m not!
Look at you, a historian denying the evidence.
But one piece of evidence allowed for multiple inferences depending on prior knowledge and context, so Rayna leaned all her weight on the POTeM project and all the reasons she couldn’t be attracted to Dominic to infer the only thing she could.
It was his face. His body. He was handsome and flirtatious, and it was fun—that was it.
“I don’t understand what you want me to admit,” she settled on saying with a lift of her chin. “That I think you’re good-looking? Yeah, fine, I do. But so what? That doesn’t mean I feel anything more for you.”
He stared intently for several beats before slowly—to Rayna’s dismay—his shoulders relaxed, and the softest, relieved smile touched his lips. “I do not believe you.”
She opened and closed her mouth dumbly as her cheeks burned. “I don’t care if you—”
He stepped towards her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin, every cell smarting with a need to run. “I could not believe you even if I tried to convince myself to. Because you are making that face again.”
“What face?”
“I have noticed that whenever I push you too far, you look upon me as if I have dangled temptation before you, but you are frantically searching for every reason not to take it.” She held her breath as he leaned into her. “Because you wish to take it. And giving in would be rather easy, which is why you have to try so hard not to.”
In her mind, she was vigorously shaking her head. But in reality, she stayed frozen and mute, fighting not to drown under the certainty that beamed from him like neon lights.
Dominic gripped her upper arms in the gentlest hold, yet even the idea of shaking him off seemed ridiculously impossible. “Why must you deny us both if this is what you truly want?”
“It’s not.” Rayna had no idea where the words came from, but she was relieved to hear that a part of her brain was still functioning logically.
He sighed but smiled almost playfully. “You lie. Very badly, might I add, too.” One large paw skimmed down to her wrist. He brought her palm up to his chest, covering the steady, sure beat of his heart. “You want me, sweetheart.”
“And you think really highly of yourself,” she muttered, wishing it sounded more malicious.
His smile took on a heartfelt intensity. “Because I know with certainty, there is very little I would not do to prove I am worthy of you.”
He dipped his face, his weighted gaze on her lips as his own parted, and the sharp kick of her pulse jolted her out of her tranced state.
No. Enough.
She pressed against his chest with both palms, holding him back. “It doesn’t matter, Dominic.” Fortifying her shoulders, she shook her head. “What you think you see, or what you want me to admit, it changes nothing.”
