Page 131 of The Scandal You Started
“What do you want, though?” George asked earnestly.
What didshewant?
In the two days since it felt like she’d had a small epiphany at the lab, she’d asked herself the same question every time she’d looked at Dominic.
And no matter what path her thoughts took…the end answer was always the same.
Outside, around the barbecue
Victor’s gaze drifted between the back of Rayna’s head through the window to Dominic, slowly cutting a punnet of strawberries at the garden table, while Winnie chopped up a watermelon.
He shuffled around the barbecue, so his back was to them as Declan rotated skewers of marinated chicken. “Has he said anything more to you?” he asked just above a whisper.
Victor didn’t need to elaborate. Declan knew who his younger cousin was talking about. “Other than that he told her he loves her, no. Nothing more.” Declan met his cousin’s gaze. “What about her?”
Victor gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m worried she doesn’t trust me enough to.”
Declan grunted, his barrel chest giving a slight shake. “That’s absolute bull, Vic, and you know it. She trusts you, but she’s probably scared she’s going to break that trust.”
Discomfort clawed at Victor’s chest, creating a deep crevice between his brows. “I should speak to her. I should tell her it’s okay to tell me, but I don’t know with certainty she actually wants to stay with him.”
“She’s taking her time to decide. Understandably. This is Rayna we’re talking about after all, and Dominic’s asking a lot from her after such a short amount of time. But she’ll come to you when she’s ready to. Trust that she will.”
“I know. I know.” Victor pinched his glasses off and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I just hope I get the chance to tell her the truth about what happened when it actually might benefit her and Dominic, rather than when it’s too late.”
Chapter 38
Rayna
Just after midnight that night, Rayna had washed off the day’s perspiration from her skin, her belly finally didn’t feel so full, and her limbs subtly ached with a pleasant tiredness.
Benedict had had a night shift at the hospital, so he’d ended up leaving a few hours before the sun set in the August sky, while Winnie and Declan had headed home much later with plans to celebrate the rest of the holiday with their other twochildren and grandchild. Which left Rayna, George, and Victor to disperse to their own rooms, with Dominic making himself comfortable in the spare bedroom across from Victor’s.
It left Rayna in a bit of a predicament. She wanted to sneak into Dominic’s room and spend some time alone with him. But that meant risking Victor seeing her, so she was waiting until that side of the upstairs landing seemed a little quieter. Because once Victor’s head hit the pillow, he’d be out like a light within five minutes.
But as she plodded around her childhood room in nothing but a loose T-shirt and boxer shorts, scrolling on social media to kill time, the door clicked open behind her. The sound was so quiet, she might not have heard it if she hadn’t turned the AC off a minute prior.
She glanced over her shoulder, and her brows rose as she caught Dominic sneaking his wide frame through a small gap. He shut the door behind him as quietly as he’d opened it.
Then he stood there, his khaki T-shirt pulled taut across his bullish shoulders, a late-night shadow on his square jaw, that dent in his chin so damn sexy, his hair streaked with the lines his fingers had made at some point, and a little, crooked smile on his mouth.
So damn gorgeous. Effortlessly. Painfully.Perfectly so.
“Good evening, my lady,” he said, smoothly bowing over one bronzed arm.
There was no fighting the big grin that blossomed on Rayna’s face as she rotated to him, the soft cream carpet tickling her bare toes.
“I think you have the wrong room, Lord Norland,” she played along, blindly dropping her phone on the wooden bedside cabinet by the double bed tucked in the corner.
He strode confidently towards her. “Oh? But I was told this was the bedroom of the woman who has slept in my arms fornigh two months now.” He bent over her, all arrogant, delicious rake. “And darling, you appear to look just like her.”
“Maybe I am her,” she purred, curling her hands into the neckline of his top.
She tugged at him, but he resisted. “Uh, uh, uh, love. I cannot kiss you if I do not know for certain you are her.”
“Yet here you are calling me‘love’and‘darling’anyway.” She quirked a brow. “You go around calling every woman that?”
“I wouldn’t dare,” he just about got out before he cupped the back of her head and plastered his mouth over hers.
