Page 122 of The Scandal You Started
He hauled her to him, tunnelling his hand in her hair, and kissed her.
Like his life depended on it. Like it was the last time he’d ever hold her.
He kissed her like he was trying to bury himself inside her. Like he never had to part from her.
He scrunched her hair and tasted her mouth deeper with the fear that she was nothing but a dream. A figment of his imagination he could never truly have.
But gosh, did she prove she was real. She locked her limbs around him and chased after his tongue. Met his choked sounds with her own.
She held him as if she wanted to meld their hearts together, and he—
“I love you,” he whispered through a strangled breath.
Maybe he realised that she froze, but he couldn’t hold the words back any longer.
“I love you, Rayna. I have done from the very moment I met you, even before I knew your name. Even before I realised time did not wish for me to have you. But I do not care what history has written. You belong in my heart. It is yours. Every part of me is. I love you. I do not wish to leave you, even if you do not love me yet. Only allow me to love you anyway. Allow me to be your husband. Let me cherish you and spend every moment with you for the rest of my life.”
He brushed his nose across hers. “That is all I ask for, sweetheart. It matters not to me whether in the past or the future, all I want is to be with you.”
Chapter 35
Rayna
“Rayna, my love. Look at me.”
She ignored him, kept her back to him, and scrunched the edge of her pillow even tighter. Her heart throbbed from how hard it was trying to run out of her chest.
“Darling, please.”
She screwed her eyes shut, trying and failing to block out the pain in his voice.
“Say something. I beg of you. Your silence is destroying me.”
A gritted sound broke through the barrier of her teeth as her lashes flew up. “Dominic,” she bit out, but it wasn’t harsh. She sounded fearful.
Of course, she was fearful. The man from the past, who didn’t belong in the present, had told her he loved her, that he wanted to be her husband, spend the rest of his life with her.
Dominic had told her everything Rayna had never wanted to hear.
And yet she hadn’t been able to tell him she didn’t want it.
She’d pulled away from him in the library, dazed and silent. She’d disassociated in the car as she’d focused on getting them home safely. She’d been trapped in her own frantic thoughts as they’d eaten dinner without a word spoken between them.
Now she was sharing a bed with him, lying wide awake and stiff on her side, as far from him as she could get—just like a wife who’d fallen out with her husband.
The irony wasn’t lost on her. In fact, it just made her wonder even more.
How did this happen?
How had Dominic fallen in love with her? How had he decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her? How hadn’t she seen it?
Why had she ignored it?
Because if she was being honest with herself, the signs had always been there.
His words. His touches. The way he looked at her. His possessiveness and jealousy. His husband and dating comments. His“If a man came along”speech.
He hadn’t hidden it. He never had.
