Page 98 of The Scandal You Started
His locked jaw pulsed before he placed himself directly opposite her, with the counter creating a barrier between them. “Youwillmarry me, Rayna. You no longer have a choice in the matter after what we did last night.”
“What did we do? Have sex? So what? I’m not marrying you just because we fucked.”
“You should have considered that before you let me spill my seed inside you,” he snapped. “You could be with child, dammit. Do you understand that? And I will not risk you falling with child out of wedlock. No child of mine will ever be a bastard, and I certainly will not leave you unprotected.”
He stood tall and wide like a stubborn, immovable wall. “So we are getting married, Rayna. Today, tomorrow, or by the end of next week at the latest, and nothing you say will sway my decision. You and the child we may have created are my responsibility now.”
Wait, child? What the fuck is he—oh…oh. Oh.
He thought that she could be…that there might have been a chance she…
Some of her anger fizzled out into relief, and her tensed shoulders eased down.
Bloody woods, talk about jumping to conclusions. But his misunderstanding was probably more her fault than it was his.
In her eagerness to ride his dick, she’d completely neglected to consider protection and prevention. Considering he didn’t know she’d already taken precautions, his reaction was understandable. Somewhat.
“I’m not pregnant, you idiot,” she said with an exasperated bite to her words.
“It is too soon for you to know if you have conceived—”
“No, I definitely know I haven’t actually.” He opened his mouth to argue, but she spoke over him. “I have an IUD, Dominic.”
His brows dropped lower. “An IUD?”
“Yes. An IUD. A coil. We spoke about this a few weeks back, remember? Ways to prevent pregnancy. Birth control.” She waited until recognition eased him back in his stance. “I have one inside me.” She tapped her belly with both index fingers. “I have an IUD. So I can’t get pregnant right now. That’s why I let you come inside me.”
Rayna could see him processing what she’d said in his distant stare before he blinked and straightened and rolled his jaw. “So, you are not…”
“No. Not a chance.”
Well…a ninety-nine point something percent chance she wasn’t, but that was more than good enough for her.
Something flickered over Dominic’s face. It dampened the piercing gleam of his gaze, and he appeared almost sad. Disappointed. Dare she say even hurt.
It might have baffled her if the look had lasted longer than a second. But his brows fell low and fierce over his eyes again, and rather than questioning what she’d seen milliseconds prior, she convinced herself it’d been a trick of her mind.
“You should have told me,” he growled.
“Well, it didn’t occur to me because I normally don’t have unprotected sex.”
“Unprotected?”
“Condoms, Dominic. The guys I’ve slept with have always worn condoms.”
And she’d rarely, if ever, told them she had a coil. The one time she had, the guy hadjokinglyrefused to wear a condom, and she’d ended up leaving his uni dorm room. So it hadn’t crossed her mind to tell Dominic either.
At the mention of other men, blazing, red and green flames shrouded the air around him. A dark shadow cast over his face as his jaw muscle pulsed and his shoulders tensed.
It was jealousy. She recognised it instantly. How could she not when it encircled her in two greedy, grasping paws that were trying to keep her and mark her all the same?
She jabbed an angry finger at him. “Don’t look at me like that as if you haven’t slept with other women before me, Dominic, so you don’t get to be jealous of my past.”
He had the decency to glance away, the apple in his throat bobbing. But in that moment of quiet, the absurdity of the situation settled upon her.
Rayna slumped back, puffing out a breath as she shook her head. “Marriage? Seriously? What were you thinking?”
His eyes flashed vividly. “I was thinking about your welfare, Rayna. I was thinking aboutour child. I wanted to make sure you had my name and protection no matter what, and marriage was the only acceptable answer to that. I could not have allowedanything less. So do not act as if I suggested something foolish, you damned woman.”
