Page 71 of The Scandal You Started
Then a knock sounded at the door.
He went as still and as solid as a hot rock, his muscles heavy but vibrating with the hundred-degree heat that coated his skin.
Through the open archway of the kitchen-diner, he watched River slip out of the sitting room into the corridor. After a hesitant glance at Dominic, the man opened the door.
Rayna stepped through the threshold of the farmhouse, lugging a small grey trunk on wheels with her, faintly smiling at River as she greeted him. He closed the door, and they exchanged a few words, but Dominic could barely hear anything over the raw, visceral sound that ripped through every inch of him as he finally got a real look at her.
How completely devastating she looked.
So scantily dressed that she might as well have been naked.
That wasn’t what she’d left wearing. Which meant she’d changed at some point.
She went to see Jake looking like that. She dressed up for him.
Abandoning the trunk by the sitting room wall, Rayna finally looked down the corridor, and her charcoal gaze, so shielded and glassy, almost had him howling his woes there and then.
How could you, sweetheart? Why…
Dominic clenched his jaw so hard his teeth ached and dug his blunt nails into his palms as she came silently down the corridor towards him. Each step was a stomp on his heart.
The non-existent skirt of the cream dress patterned with small blue flowers skimmed so high up on her supple, golden thighs that if she’d bent forward, her entire fucking derriere would have been on display for every man to lust over.For Jake to lust over.
The thin fabric gently hugged the curve of her hips, the softness of her belly, the dip in her waist before…before…fuck, it barely even covered her generous chest!
Cut in a sharp V, the fabric was tied in a flimsy bow between the valley of her breasts with a small, exposed triangle of skin underneath. A slight ruffle went up either side of the neckline and formed the barely there sleeves that sat on the bones of her shoulders.
There was a delicate gold chain around her neck, a thin sheen on her warm skin, the soft rumples of a long night on the waves of her hair, a pink rouge on her cheeks, and black paint coating her long lashes, giving them their signature, seductive flutter with every blink.
All. For. Jake.
Rayna slipped the small cream bag dangling on the tip of her fingers off onto the sofa by the archway upon walking through it. She stopped at the edge of the rug, less than two metres from him, and kept a hold of his burning stare as River came up beside her.
Only then did she look at the other man again. “How was your evening?” she asked calmly, but there was a slight roughness to her tone.
“Yeah, it was—it was fine. Good.” River let out an awkward, unconvincing chuckle as he ruffled the back of his dark blond hair. “I made pasta, and we watched a few episodes ofBorn to Lie.That was pretty much it.”
She hummed and smiled. “Thanks for staying with him.”
Dominic ground his teeth together. He bloody hated the way he was being treated like a child who needed supervision. He was a powerful marquess with every member even remotely associated with the peerage knocking on his door and hundreds of people in his employ.
“No, it was no issue. And if you need to—” River immediately cut himself off, his wide grey eyes flicking to Dominic before dropping away. “Never mind.”
“It’s late,” she then said. “You should get home to Kelly before she starts messaging me that I’m overworking you.”
Rather than laughing at her joke, River cleared his throat. “Will…” He glanced between them. “Will you two be okay?”
“Yes,” Dominic bit out at the same time as Rayna said, “Yeah.”
“Okay.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “I’ll let myself out. See you.”
River nodded to Dominic with a tight-lipped smile as he picked up his car keys from the kitchen counter. He gently squeezed Rayna’s elbow as she greeted him before heading down the corridor.
The front door clicked shut, and the atmosphere around them suddenly grew ten times thicker and hotter. Neither of them moved or uttered a sound for several seconds.
“Why have you returned so late?” Dominic eventually heard himself say.
“It’s half past eleven,” she replied firmly. “It’s not that late.”
