Page 118 of The Scandal You Started
Her chest rose, paused, and then sank on a heavy sigh.
She snaked one arm around his shoulders and raked her other hand through the back of his sweat-damp hair.
“You…” Her huff of tired laughter tickled his scalp. “You actually piss me off sometimes, Dominic, do you know that? Ifit wasn’t for your dick, I’d be so mad at you right now. If you’d have just let me explain before accusing me of betraying you, I could’ve told you I’m not going on another date with Jake.
“He’s meeting us on his lunch break before we go to the mall, so I can give him his sister’s invitation to the exhibit’s opening gala.”
Dominic stilled.
I beg your finest pardon? What?
Chapter 34
Rayna
“So are you two finally dating?” Jake asked when Rayna and Dominic met him during his lunchbreak on Monday in a square of food trucks and packed tables and benches.
Surprise lurched through her heart as she gaped at his grin, and she immediately said, “No.”
At the exact same time as Dominic said, “Yes.”
Her head whipped around in bafflement. As did Dominic’s.
She glared at him, and he glared back, stubborn and furious.
“We are,” he declared.
Dating?No, no, they were sleeping together. Not dating.
But she wasn’t going announce that because, technically, no one was meant to know. It had nothing to do with the fact trying to wrap her tongue around the syllables was…uncomfortable. Especially when they elicited an image of Dominic’s downturned expression in her mind.
Gritting her teeth, she flicked her attention away from the oaf and found herself blushing under the bright laughter dancing in Jake’s green eyes.
“I take it it’s a little complicated,” he teased.
“Not at all,” she grumbled.
As Jake chuckled and Dominic’s aura still flared dark and moody, Rayna dug a hand through the handbag in her lap and pulled out a cream envelope sealed with a red wax stamp.
She smoothed her expression out as she offered it to Jake. “Here you go. This is for Serena.”
Jake took it and flipped it over. “Thank you so much for this, Rayna.” His eyes crinkled with the love of an older brother. “I honestly had no idea what to get her for her birthday this year, but this is perfect. She’s going to love it.”
Rayna’s pride swelled. “I hope she does. But it’s address to you as well, so if you’re free that evening, come with her.”
She ignored the way Dominic bristled as Jake nodded his head to the side. “I don’t think I’ve got a fancy enough suit for aTregency-style gala, but yeah, I’ll come.”
“They’ll have tailcoats you can borrow for the night free of charge, but a three-piece suit is more than fancy enough.”
“Okay, that’s good to know.” Jake then waved the envelope around. “How’s it coming along though? The exhibit and all the letters?”
Rayna let out a single, exhausted laugh as she glanced across to Dominic. “It’s become a little bit more complicated than we would’ve liked it to be.”
“Oh?”
“Some of the letters are written in a code we can’t crack, which means we currently have an incomplete story and catalogue of them. So we’re kind of stuck, and honestly, it’s driving us all mad. But we still have time to figure it out, and we will…hopefully.”
In the days after meeting Jake, Rayna and Dominic ended up coming home a little later each evening from the museum as the whole team worked hard to solve the mystery of the letters. With the deadline of the first draft of Dominic’s case study report coming up towards the end of the month too, the other four days weren’t much slower for them either.
