The Scandal You Started, page 36
Her eyes bulged as she tried to get away from him—kind of hard to do when he was crouched in front of her. “What do you think I am? A flipping broodmare? Two!”
“Four.”
“Two!”
He entrapped her waist in the circle of his arms with a big, fat grin. “Five.”
She made a choked sound and pushed at his biceps in outrage. “Dominic!”
A husky chuckle shook his chest as he hugged her tighter, halting her squirming. “Rayna,” he echoed and pressed his lips to her sternum.
He showered a series of soft kisses to her skin, and damn him, the stupid oaf. Because despite the disgruntled blush pinching her cheeks, she felt herself sink towards him.
“I’m only teasing, my love,” he murmured into her. “I will be happy with however many you are willing to give me.”
Dominic laid a longer peck to her chest, and Rayna let out a grumbled sigh. Not in annoyance with his joke, but because she suddenly realised she was never going to be able to stay mad at him over anything. Not when he acted all sickeningly adorable like an oversized puppy.
She twisted her twitching mouth to the side, trying to maintain her frown, as she caressed her hands up his arms to his shoulders. She felt his smile widen against her skin.
“I love you,” he whispered.
With one last kiss, he pulled away. But she remained frozen, sure her heart was going to fly out of her chest at breakneck speed.
He didn’t wait for a response and began putting her other shoe on with a happy smile as if he knew she wasn’t going to say it back. Like he wasn’t even holding his breath, hoping she might. And Rayna didn’t know how to feel about that.
Didn’t he want her to say it? Didn’t it matter to him that she hadn’t?
She should’ve been able to say it back. He deserved to hear the same. She should’ve told him she…
Say it, Rayna. Say it back.
She forced her stiff mouth open. “Dominic…” He glanced up. “I…”
But wouldn’t saying it for the sake of saying it be the same as lying?
She didn’t want to lie to him. Especially not when he’d probably see right through it anyway.
“I’ll…I’ll consider it,” she said. “Marriage…and children.”
And Rayna would. Would have.
If only they hadn’t run out of time.
Chapter 42
Rayna
The loud blaring of a phone startled Rayna awake early the next morning, and Dominic flinched, cuddled around her naked body from behind.
He groaned into her hair, shifting against her before she quickly lifted her head, blindly patting on the bedside cabinet for the vibrating device.
She grabbed it and squinted at the lit-up screen, trying to get her bleary eyes to focus.
When they did, wariness plastered itself down her spine, making her stiffen.
“V” was printed as the caller ID.
For him to call at six in the morning on a Sunday…something wasn’t right.
“Rayna?” Dominic rasped as she bolted upright and swiped to answer.
“V?” she said. “Is everything okay?”
She felt and heard Dominic sit up behind her.
There came a heavy exhale on the other end of the line, and she knew Victor was rubbing a hand over his face. “I need you and Dominic to meet me at the lab. Now,” he muttered.
Sharp shards of ice-cold fear cut through her veins.
Dominic’s hand settled on her lap as he whispered her name, but she’d gone so stiff and numb, she couldn’t feel the warmth of it.
“Why?” she managed to ask.
“I’m sorry, Rayna,” Victor croaked.
There was a painfully long pause as she waited to hear the words her gut was dreading.
“The Board knows about your relationship with Dominic.”
Chapter 43
Rayna
Rayna’s pulse pounded at the base of her throat as she walked quickly through the pale blue corridors of the POTeM lab with Dominic following right by her side.
The edges of her vision were blurred, her limbs numb, her mind an utter blaring mess, but she’d walked these halls so many times that her feet knew exactly where to take her.
When she turned the next corner, her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach.
River, Ash, Monty, Victor, and George.
All five men who’d originally witnessed how it had all started were waiting outside one of the lab’s meeting rooms. They looked across to her and Dominic.
Shame, guilt, and regret that they’d been roped in almost made her stop in her stride with a pained sob. But Victor took an urgent step towards her, and her pace automatically quickened.
Rayna collided into him, arms wrapping around his slim waist, and he squeezed her close.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, Rayna. It’s okay,” he mumbled over and over again, cradling the back of her head in his hand.
“V,” she croaked through rough breaths that had nothing to do with how fast she’d been walking. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
He clutched her deeper against himself. “You have nothing to apologise for. Nothing at all.”
No, but she did.
She’d gotten involved with a Study when she knew she shouldn’t have. Maybe she didn’t regret how far she and Dominic had come, but now the Board knew. She’d jeopardised not only her own career, but the careers of the five men who were standing around her. None of whom deserved to be blamed for the choices she’d made.
But worst of all, she hadn’t told Victor herself, and he’d found out from someone else.
“I was going to tell you,” she said quickly. “I wasn’t trying to hide it from you. I—”
“I know, Rayna. I had a feeling.”
She froze, her eyes colliding with Monty’s sympathetic ones over Victor’s shoulder. “You…you knew?”
Monty lowered his gaze as Victor said, “Yes.”
If that had meant to comfort her, it didn’t. It made her feel worse.
He’d been waiting for her to tell him, and she hadn’t. Monty had known too.
“I should’ve told you,” she rasped over the lump forming in her throat.
Victor turned his face and pressed a heavy kiss to the side of her head. “It’s okay. You were going to. And that’s all that matters.”
As he unwound his arms from around her, Dominic asked, “How did the Board find out?”
“They keep a close eye on Studies,” Monty muttered, his expression troubled. “Especially when there’s already a rumour floating around. They were bound to find out at some point. No doubt they already knew. They were just waiting for the project to be completed.”
“What rumour?” Rayna asked hesitantly.
“About what happened in Dominic’s quarantine room.”
Fuck. Fuck. How had she ever thought their relationship could’ve been kept a secret from the Board when everyone had known what was going on since the beginning?
“Is that why you are all here?” Dominic said.
“It’s why Ash and George are here, yes,” Monty answered. “Victor and I are here because we were in charge of your case, and River, because he was working with you.”
Rayna glanced between Ash, River, and George. “I’m sorry—”
“Shut up, Rayna,” George said, a brotherly smile on his mouth. “We’re here to back you up, so stop apologising.”
Instead of looking even remotely angry at being dragged into something that wasn’t their fault, River nodded in agreement, and Ash straightened with a smile.
“I would prefer to keep my job, though, if I’m being honest,” Ash added with a teasing tilt of his head. “But I guess I don’t mind risking it for you two.”
Despite the situation, a half-sobbed laugh broke out of her, and her lips curled in both regret and gratefulness. “Thank you, Ash,” she mumbled.
“Rayna,” Victor then said. “What are you and Dominic hoping for?”
Rather than answering, she stared up at Dominic for the first time since they’d left the farmhouse in a rush. He stared back, his jaw set confidently, as he wrapped his hand around hers in a silent, resolute declaration of love and support.
She closed her fingers around the back of his hand as she returned her attention to Victor. “We want to find a way to stay together.”
Victor’s chest sank on an exhale, and his gaze went still and apprehensive behind his glasses. “Do you trust me?”
Confused, and a little taken aback, Rayna’s brows pinched. “Always, V.”
“Then let me handle this.”
Rayna couldn’t help feeling like there was some obscure meaning to his words, but she nodded. “Okay.”
A few minutes later, they were all summoned into the meeting room they’d been waiting outside of. The seven members of the POTeM Board—four women and three men—sat on one side of the long, white, rectangular table, while Rayna, Dominic, Victor, and the others sat on the opposite side.
Tense silence gripped the atmosphere as Dr Jim Pine, the CEO of Two Worlds Research Limited, the company that was the face of the POTeM project, pointed a thin, beady stare at Rayna directly across from her.
Around a similar age to Declan Griffin, with short brown hair littered with white, deeply set eyes, and a clean, rounded jaw, Jim Pine was an unsmiling and detached man who’d never been overly pleasant nor rude all the times Rayna had interacted with him. But there was a colder edge to him in the crisp white shirt, his hands clasped atop the table, as his gaze shifted to Dominic on her left, and then Victor on her other side.
“Where are Declan and Winnie Griffin?” Jim asked, his voice firm.
“No answer,” Victor said blandly.
Jim then turned to Lang, the stout, warm-toned man on his right. “They didn’t answer my calls or emails either,” Lang said.
Jim’s jaw rocked once. “Then we’ll start without them.” He flicked his sharp stare back to Rayna. “Do you know why this meeting has been called?”
Dominic squeezed Rayna’s hand under the table as she raised her chin to a stubborn angle. “Yes.”
“And do you admit to engaging in an intimate relationship with a Study, despite knowing it goes against the clearly stated guidelines of the project?”
“Yes.”
Jim cocked his chin. “You don’t sound remorseful, Miss Faez.”
She almost smirked. “Because I’m not. I knew exactly what I risked choosing to be intimate with Lord Norland. And if I had to go back and do it again, I’d still make the same choice.”
“In that case, do you think you should be allowed to keep your job?” Sheun, a black woman with braided hair, asked, two seats down from Jim.
“Yes,” Rayna answered. “I am good at my job. I work with dedication. I have never before caused any problems, and despite getting involved with Lord Norland, we still completed both the report and project on time and to a high standard. So while I don’t think I should be exempt from punishment, yes, I do think I should be allowed to keep my job.”
“Evidently, you’re not good at your job, Miss Faez, if you’ve caused a scandal by breaking arguably one of the most important rules of the project,” Jim countered.
Rayna didn’t reply. Not because she didn’t have the words to. She chose instead to tame the vicious fury rolling off Dominic with reassuring caresses over the back of his hand in the hopes he didn’t jump across the table and throw Jim against the wall.
In her silence, Jim moved his attention between Victor and Monty. “All the guards stated Lord Norland displayed an obvious interest in Miss Faez in his quarantine room, so why, Dr Johnson and Dr Sanz, did you allow Miss Faez to be his Guardian?”
“Because it was displayed first by Lord Norland, and there’s nothing in the guidelines against that,” Monty answered. “But Miss Faez didn’t reciprocate his interest, so no rules were deemed broken as a result. There was no reason to prevent her from being his Guardian.”
“But Miss Faez was not meant to be his Guardian, was she?” Lang said. “It was meant to be you, Dr Harris.”
River shifted in his seat. “Yes, it was meant to be me. But Lord Norland didn’t want me to be his Guardian.”
Jim Pine scoffed. “I didn’t know we allowed Studies to pick and choose who their Guardians were.”
“We’ve never forced a Study to work with a Guardian they don’t want to work with,” Victor said, his voice as ice-cold as his irises.
“But this wasn’t such a case, was it, Dr Johnson?” the CEO said, an equally cool undercurrent in his words. “You and Dr Sanz not only allowed Miss Faez to work with Lord Norland but also allowed them to remain together while knowing what was going on between them, making you complicit in their affair.” His attention moved along their row of chairs. “Making you all complicit, and subject to termination of your contracts.”
Rayna stiffened as anger fanned across her skin. She wasn’t going to let Dr Pine threaten everyone else’s jobs for something that she and—
“You cannot mean to suggest any of these men would have been capable of putting an end to my ‘affair’ with Miss Faez,” Dominic said, his voice deep and creepily calm. “Because I can assure you, Dr Harris could have been my Guardian, we could have lived on the other side of the state, and I still would have fallen in love with Miss Faez. I still would have pursued her in every manner possible. No one or thing could have had enough power to stop me. So do not lay blame on these men when there is nothing they could have done other than watch it happen.”
A moment of silence followed his weighted declaration.
“Besides,” Dominic continued. “We are not here to discuss who is at fault for a situation that was inevitable. We are here merely to inform you that Rayna and I intend to remain together, here and in the past, whether you approve of it or not.”
Five members of the Board looked around or straightened in shock, but Sheun and Jim kept a tight leash on their composure.
“That isn’t possible, Lord Norland,” said Jim. “You’re from the past. You have a life and a family there. And for the sake of protecting and upholding the timeline that’s already been written, you can’t be in a relationship with Miss Faez, and you can’t remain here.”
“That’s not entirely true, Dr Pine,” Victor said, leaning against the table.
Rayna’s head whipped to him, as did everyone else’s in the deadly quiet.
“I’d like to remind you that you signed an NDA, Dr Johnson,” Jim hissed.
An NDA? An NDA for what?
“An agreement that expired last year, which no one asked me to renew.”
Jim shifted a hard glance to Lang, whose face went red with a choked sound. “I–I’m…I’m sure I sent emails…” The spluttering man faded off, making the certainty of his statement clear.
“I didn’t receive any emails,” Victor retorted, “so there is nothing stopping me from telling them that you’re lying. Studies have been allowed to stay in the past.”
The revelation Victor dropped left a ringing echo in the room. Or maybe it was within Rayna because it was all she could hear as she held her breath in shock.
How…when…when had Studies been allowed to stay? Because for as long as she could remember, it had always been banned.
Anger flashed across Jim’s face. “That was a long time ago,” he bit out, reluctantly confirming Victor’s declaration. “Before we knew what taking someone out of their time period could do. The Rupture it causes.”
“Can cause,” Victor corrected. “It’s not guaranteed. It can be diminished or overcome given enough time to figure out what precautions need to be taken.”
Jim arched a brow. “Do you honestly believe taking someone as important as Lord Norland out of his timeline won’t cause a Rupture that can’t be managed?”
“You don’t know that with certainty.”
“Neither do you know the opposite with certainty.”
Both men stared each other down for a dozen seconds.
Then Jim Pine returned his attention to Rayna and Dominic. “You will end your affair today—”
“No,” Dominic snapped, and her heart stuttered with the same refusal.
“And you will return to your time tomorrow evening after wrapping things up at the museum, Lord Norland.”
“I said no,” Dominic growled. “I will not be separated from Rayna.”
“You just told us Studies have been allowed to stay,” Rayna added. “So, given the chance to overcome his Rupture, whatever that means, Lord Norland should be allowed to stay too.”
Jim rested his elbows on the table. “Miss Faez, the last time someone tried to overcome a Rupture, people died.” He paused as he stared her right in the eye. “Your mother.” He glanced to George on the other side of Victor. “Your parents. They died trying to help Alex overcome a princess’s Rupture. Is that really what you want to happen again?”
The solid, unforgiving blow of his words landed directly against Rayna’s chest, winding her. The high-pitched zinging swarmed her head and ears again.
“What?” George croaked.
“And it was your fault,” Victor rumbled, jerking forward. “It was you who didn’t give them enough time to figure out the princess’s Rupture. You rushed Yasmin into doing an experiment she told you wasn’t ready! You were so desperate to cement your place on the Board, you forced her to choose between helping Alex and her safety because you knew she would risk her life to help him. You’re the reason they’re all gone. Yasmin, Alex, Frank, and Samara died because of you!”
Hot and cold rushes flooded in crashing waves through Rayna’s veins as she gaped at the anger and pain straining Victor’s face, a wetness coasting over his eyes.
“And you can sit there,” he hissed, “and pretend you earnt your place as the CEO, but you didn’t. You stole it from Yasmin. You killed her to get it.”
Pin. Drop. Silence. Numb and cold and agonising.
The same kind that had shattered Rayna’s strength when she’d seen her mum’s weak body in the hospital bed thirteen years ago. The explosion had bruised her mum’s body where it’d thrown her across the room. But the real damage had been on the inside, where the Type Two Z-energy that the POTeM functioned on began causing her organs to fail one by one until she lay lifeless two days later.
