Page 22 of The Scandal You Started
“So, yeah, it’ll likely be a report and a project, though I don’t know the exact details of what they entail,” Rayna finished explaining. “But I do know you’re probably going to be here for four months. And that’s only if you actually decide to stay and help with the research.”
His brows dropped quizzically. “You mean to say I can choose to return?”
“Of course,” she said, not a single doubt in her tone. “It’s completely up to you whether you help us or want us to take you back.”
“And this choice could not have been presented to me a fortnight ago?”
Her mouth pressed into a thin line. “Actually, you were supposed to be told everything on the first day you arrived and then given the choice to stay or gobeforeyou started your quarantine and medical testing. But, uh...you didn’t exactly give them the chance to.”
She said it almost teasingly, but in reality, he knew nothing about his violent behaviour had been funny. Especially not now, knowing that if he’d just stopped to listen when they’d been trying to talk to him, he might not have had to remain in the room for so long. But fear and anger had taken control, and he’d been blinded to all reason.
He swallowed around that humiliating knowledge and asked, “Do many people decide to return?”
“Some. But not many. Most stay out of curiosity.”
Understandably. Dominic was also interested in finding out how the world he knew had changed in over two centuries.
“What happens if I choose to stay?”
“Then you’ll be assigned a Guardian—a historian who you will live with while you work on the research. They’ll be responsible for your care and will teach you about our time. We’ll provide you with everything from clothing to your own source of money too, and we’ll monitor your health with regular checkups with your assigned doctor, but they won’t be anything complicated, and you’ll be awake for them too. Then, when the three or four months are up, you’ll be taken back to your time on the exact day that you originally left.”
That didn’t sound like a bad deal at all. But…
“Who will be my Guardian?”
Rayna looked towards the screen. “River.”
River? As in River Harris? The bastard who’d kidnapped him in the first place?
Absolutely not!
Under no bloody circumstance was Dominic spending possibly four months living with that man. He was going to choke the life out of the scoundrel the moment he had the chance to.
Rayna, on the other hand…
Beautiful, confident, fiery, and intelligent. Gosh, she enthralled him in a way he could neither name nor explain, and he would much rather live and work with her with the hope of getting to know her more. He couldn’t fathom leaving without doing so.
Considering clothing was more of an option rather than a necessity, surely an unmarried man and woman living together couldn’t be considered much of an issue? Even then, he was more than willing to accept on the condition of a chaperone staying with them.
“So,” Rayna said, glancing at him with her chin cocked. “Would you like to stay, or would you like us to take you back as soon as possible?”
Dominic ran his tongue along the back of his teeth before settling on his answer. “I will stay.”
But I shall be staying with you, sweetheart. Not River.
Chapter 7
Rayna
“I’m fine,” Rayna said for the hundredth time as Ash inspected her neck, while Victor stood beside her, glaring and shaking like he was moments away from shooting off the walls.
George, Monty, Victor, Ash, and River had come in after Dominic agreed to stay, and Rayna had barely been able to finishtheir introductions before Victor tugged her to the opposite corner of the room, instructing Ash to follow.
“Rayna, you promised to give me the signal,” he snarled again like a stuck record.
“There’s only very minor bruising,” Ash said, releasing her chin from the grasp of his fingers. “And considering she can speak and swallow, I wouldn’t say there was any serious damage.”
“See,”Rayna wanted to say, but knowing Victor was already standing on a fraying tightrope of parental wrath, she didn’t want to aggravate him further. He was rightfully worried and angry, even if she didn’t want to admit it. She really did test his patience sometimes.
