Page 48 of The Scandal You Started
So how? How could he even consider the idea of courting Rayna? This wasn’t his time nor his home, and once the four months had passed, he’d return and never see her again.
What was the point of worrying over Victor’s opinion of him then? Marrying Rayna wasn’t even a possibility to begin with.
But…
Dominic rubbed his teeth together as he mapped the sweet lines of her face. A howl sounded from the deepest depths of his being in protest of the idea of being without her.
I want her. I wish to have her.
But simply labelling it as desire felt…inadequate. In fact, it was offensive to the emotion she stirred inside him when it ran far more dear and sincere than just a wish to lie with her and feel her bare skin rubbing against his.
Bloody woods, he couldn’t explain it other than a constant whispering question binding around his heart and teasing the edges of his mind.
Is she the one?
Was she the one he couldn’t find in his own time? The kind of love he’d watched his father and Mother Penny have that he craved for himself?
Surely the world wouldn’t test him in such a cruel way, putting hundreds of years between him and the woman of his heart.
Would it?
“What?” Rayna grumbled in his silence, forcing him to push the worrying thought to the back of his mind.
Dominic rolled his jaw as he swallowed. “You’re being incredibly infuriating at present.”
“Me?” she snapped in a higher tone. “Well, you’re not exactly making me grin from ear to ear. You’re actually beginning to piss me off. And can you…” She began huffing and grunting as shetried to turn onto her side under the thin bedding he was lying upon. “Can you stop lying on top of my blanket? Either go to your own room or fucking lie under it.”
He had no desire to go back to his own room, but ingrained decorum made him hesitate over climbing under the sheets alongside her despite her invitation.
Well…only for a moment.
Dominic sat up and scooted off the edge of the bed, then he climbed back under the blanket and laid on his side facing Rayna. He made sure he didn’t end up too close to the edge of the pillow as he tucked the sheet around his waist.
“Turn the lamp off,” she said, folding one arm against her chest.
“Not yet.”
He stared at her, memorising the way the luminous light touched her skin. She stared back for several quiet heartbeats.
“What now?” she asked with an impudent rumble coating her words.
He wanted to smile at how charming he found that soft lilt of attitude whenever she was ill-tempered. But something about what she’d said minutes earlier kept his mood from inflating.
“Do you…” Dominic started, then paused, averting his gaze to her neck. “Have you truly forgiven me for how I treated you?”
Her expression didn’t overtly change, but the quick flutter of her lashes made it seem like he’d caught her by surprise.
“I would not blame you if your answer is no, but I sincerely do regret how I hurt you.” He shook his head against the pillow. “I vow to you I have never raised a hand on a woman before, nor would I or will I ever again. And I am aware my behaviour after was not any better. You had me wonderstruck, and I got ahead of myself and acted like a shameless cad. But I am not…I’m not truly like that. I would never force myself upon you, ever.Ever.”
Dominic poured every ounce of conviction he could conjure up into his words, hoping if she still held any doubts or grievances against him, he could swipe them all away.
“I know, Dominic,” she said, soft and understanding. “You don’t have to feel bad about it anymore. It’s forgiven and forgotten, I promise. I told you that first day it wasn’t an issue.”
“I know, you foolish woman.” She narrowed her eyes, and he smiled lazily. “I am relieved your skin didn’t severely bruise. I would have loathed myself a lot more if it had.”
She touched an absent finger to her throat. “Yeah, the redness faded quite quickly.”
“Thankfully. But do not ever play with your life like that again, Rayna. The outcome could have been far worse.”
