Page 132 of The Scandal You Started
Her senses erupted, robbing her of any tiredness. She kissed him back, long and slow and deep, taking and giving all the kisses they hadn’t been able to share throughout the day.
“How did you sneak over here?” she rasped.
“I avoided the squeaky floorboards.”
“How did you know which ones were squeaky?”
“I tested both sets of stairs between the landing each time I came up to the bathroom.”
She stared, lips parted, in laughing disbelief. “You’re unbelievable.”
“Well, it is unreasonable to think I could accept being distanced from you for three whole nights, on top of not being able to touch you during the day either.” He nudged his nose across hers. “It is agony, and I am suffering to no end, my love.”
He was so bloody dramatic. And it was so fucking cute.
She let her lashes slip low and seductive over her eyes. “You can touch me wherever you want in here.”
His jaw locked tight. “Do not taunt me, little witch.”
He said that, but his hands skimmed down her body to wrap around her waist and under her arse so he could hoist her up. She clasped his prickly cheeks and kissed him as he walked them to her bed. He was so careful as he laid her on her back on thepillow closest to the wall. She wanted to wrap her limbs around him to keep him over her, but he climbed off the bed.
Once he found the button of the bedside lamp, he swaggered back towards the door and switched the ceiling light off. Then he made himself comfortable on the pillow next to her.
Rayna turned her head, smiling as her chest rose but never quite fell in the same way it seemed so full. Dominic smiled back, glittering hearts throbbing in his eyes in the lamplight.
It was still terrifying. Knowing that the look he’d given her lying beside her that first week had only deepened and intensified. She carried the weight of it, and she still wasn’t sure she had it in her not to drop it in a panic.
But she couldn’t imagine him looking at her in any other way. Didn’t want to imagine it.
Wordlessly, she rolled over to face him, tucking her hands under her pillow. He didn’t say anything either. He simply massaged a hand up and down her hip.
“Did you have fun today?” she mumbled.
“I did. Very much so. Did you?”
“Hmm, I did. Uncle Declan always makes the best burgers, and Harvest Holidays are probably the only times we can convince V to play video games with us.”
Dominic’s teeth peeked out in one corner. “I must admit, I quite enjoyed beating him in the racing game. Though I do not think it won me his favour.”
Rayna giggled tiredly. “I think he was just shocked to realise he really is that bad at playing.”
For two hours, she exchanged quiet laughs with Dominic as they reminisced the antics of the day before they drifted off on random tangents and shared old memories. His hand moved between her hip and thigh and arms while her fingers twisted the hem of his T-shirt and traced the veins over his hands, but neither of them tried to close the space between them.
Yet everything about the conversation was intimate. Pleasant and gratifying even in the moments the words faded into silence. She could’ve kept at it all night.
But at some point, Dominic whispered, “I ought to leave.”
“Why?” She didn’t mean to sound so disappointed, but that was how it came out.
He flashed a grin as he brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek. “It would not serve us well if we fell asleep and Victor caught us in each other’s embrace come morning. He would never scold you, but I do not believe it would be the same in my case.”
Rayna didn’t want Victor finding out like that either, but Dominic wasn’t right about the reason.
“He likes you, you know,” she assured him. “He’s just being a grouchy dad who doesn’t want to show it.”
“Even so, my love, I would rather he did not find us in a compromising position.” He pinched her chin between his finger and thumb as he pushed himself up onto an elbow. “Though it kills me to leave you so.”
He placed a series of firm, lingering pecks on her lips. She sighed heavily between the last two, not wanting to take her hand off his nape, but he edged out of her hold with a smile.
