Page 123 of The Scandal You Started
Rather, she’d ignored it instead of shutting him down.
No. She hadn’t ignored it. She’d played house with him. She’d enjoyed it.
Why? What had she been thinking? Why had she let this happen? Why had she encouraged it?
Why, amongst the suffocating noise of panic, was there a more hopeful voice?
What if they let him stay? Could he? Could I be with him?
And that was the scariest part of it all.
She was imagining. Picturing the idea of him staying with her.
Her.Rayna. The one who’d sworn she would never give a man a permanent place in her life. The one who laughed when someone asked her if she had a boyfriend. She had her“Marriage sucks”speech memorised off by heart, she’d spoken it so many times.
So why?What the fuck had Dominic done to her?
What spell had he cast on her that the thought was even there in the first place?
It was paralysing her. She was supposed to run, but she was stuck in place, wondering if maybe she wanted to turn to face him instead.
But then what would she say? There were no words to express the mess in her head and heart.
“Rayna,” he whispered, settling his hand on her hip. Her pulse flinched. “Talk to me.”
He was going to coax her to face him. She knew he was. She couldn’t, not yet, so she kicked the blanket off her knees and sat up at the edge of the mattress.
Dominic’s movements rustled the cool linen sheets.
She got up with her back still to him and walked to the middle of their room.
More rustles. Then the faint pad of footsteps on the carpet followed. And stopped.
The AC hummed in the background as she took slow, deep breaths for a long minute, while Dominic’s presence remained heavy but patient behind her.
Her heart hadn’t settled. Neither had her thoughts, but at some point, she found herself turning.
He was at the end of the bed, a distance of two metres between them. She was thankful for the space, but the twist of agony above his pleading eyes and on his mouth speared her through the sternum. He was leaning towards her, his shoulders curled forward, trying to make himself appear small, unassuming, non-threatening. It was fucking laughable.
He was the biggest threat to everything she had ever known.
“I told you we were just having fun,” she muttered. “That this was temporary.”
The apple of his throat bobbed. “I know.”
“I told you I didn’t want to marry. I told you I didn’t believe in love.”
He gave the faintest nod.
“So why did you fall in love with me?”
“How could I not?” he said thickly, his smile so earnest and heartbreaking. “You are brilliant. Strong, intelligent, capable, wonderful, beautiful. Breathtakingly so. Every part of you, all your stubbornness and temper too.” He shook his head. “My heart never stood a chance. It was lost to you immediately, and I did not wish for it back. Not when it felt as if I had finally found the person whose name was engraved on it. It was always yours to have, Rayna.”
She shook her head rapidly, denying it, refusing it. “It can’t be mine.”
“It is.”
“It’s not. You were never meant to meet me.”
