Page 10 of The Scandal You Started
The next, a blur of a fearsome man towered over her.
She barely even managed to stumble back before his huge, bandaged hands came around her throat in an unforgiving grip.
Oh, shit.
He didn’t give her a chance to fight or speak. He yanked her around like she was lighter than air and slammed her back against the wall, obliterating all the oxygen from her lungs. She clawed into his hands, choking on gasp after gasp. Futilely, because no air was passing through her windpipe to her panicking organs.
Just when she thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, the floor disappeared from under her feet as he heaved her up the wall, bringing their faces almost level.Double shit.
His hands tightened on her throat like two thick clamps.
And tightened. And tightened some more.
Fuck, I’m dead.
Rayna was sure of it.
Because the lord’s irises, somewhere between the colour of dark gold and honey, ringed in burnt amber, were merciless. So fogged with rage and murderous intent, they were bloodshot.
And well, his teeth were bared like he was putting his all into asphyxiating her, so…
At least his breath didn’t stink.
On the other side of the glass
Eyes popped from their sockets, and everyone lurched towards the screen in the observation room when Lord Norland grabbed Rayna by the throat. Every feral grunt the man huffed out, and each desperate strangled sound she made echoed from the speakers all around them.
The four guards, dressed in white anti-contamination suits, immediately came off the wall to intervene, but as the first man reached for the exit, Victor roared at them to stop.
“He’s strangling her,” George cried.
But Victor didn’t tear his gaze away from Rayna, watching with his heart in his throat, waiting for the signal she’d promised she’d give him.
“Come on, Rayna. Give me the signal,” he muttered, his timbre rough with unease.
Except she wasn’t even attempting to lift her hands from around Lord Norland’s wrists. Not to struggle against his grasp, nor to indicate she was ready to be pulled out.
“She’s not fighting him,” River said, his gaze flying frantically between the screen and Victor.
“He’s going to kill her,” George snapped, throwing a hand towards the screen.
“Be quiet, George,” Victor roared and slammed his hands down on the console under the screen. “Rayna, give me the damn signal!”
Monty scrubbed a hand over his mouth and sighed. “She won’t,” he said resignedly. “She’s waiting for him to let go.”
Victor bit out a bunch of curses, running both hands over his hair and yanking at the strands. “I’m going to kill her.I’m going to fucking kill her.” Then, without looking at the guards, he straightened his glasses and growled, “You go in on my signal.”
That signal was never given.
Within the next edgy second, Lord Norland released Rayna, stumbling back from her as she dropped to the floor with a painful thud. Heaving gasps and splutters flooded into the observation room before—
“You…you are a woman.”
Chapter 4
Dominic
Dominic stared at the small woman he’d released from the clutches of his hands, his heart pounding harder than the hooves of his most decorated racehorse and his fingers tingling from having been tense for too long.
