Page 18 of The Scandal You Started
She jerked closer, squaring up to him. “It wasn’t a threat; it was a warning.”
His gaze skated over her face, lingering on her cheekbones and lips. “Threat or warning, it will not achieve anything. So what say we call a truce and agree not to issue any? And in return, I willrefrain from…touching you again.” He raised his brows. “Do we have a deal, Rayna?”
“Depends,” she said, arching her own brows. “Can you actually keep your hands to yourself?”
“I can,” he said calmly before he swallowed and eased the slightest bit back. “But I would like to make it clear that I was unaware my...advanceswere truly unwanted.”
Her anger waned under the weight of sincerity in his voice, but she couldn’t help sneering in bafflement. “Wasn’t it clear from how many times I told you to let go of me?”
His mouth curled, playful but chagrined, as he loosened his hold on her wrist. “You offer a fair point. However, you never once asked me to stop.” His timbre dropped two notches. “And I clearly recall you agreeing to lie with me.”
Rayna gritted her teeth over the blush that warmed her face.
He wasn’t exactly wrong, but he wasn’t right either.
She twisted her hand, expressing her irritation. “There is more than one way of saying stop, Lord Norland.” She narrowed her eyes sarcastically. “And don’t get your hopes up. I only said that, so you’d let go.”
Dominic’s smile grew, before he dragged his teeth over his bottom lip with a huff of laughter. “You are a curious wonder, sweetheart.”
She stayed silent, doing her best to ignore the puzzled warmth that fluttered over her skin.
He held her under his heavy stare for a few beats longer before nodding. “All right. We shall talk. But no guards. Only you and me. Is that a deal?”
She nodded once. “Deal.”
Chapter 6
Dominic
“Iwould feel much more comfortable if you joined me on the bed,” Dominic said, dropping the lid back over the plate of rice mixed through with vegetables and chicken Rayna had brought in.
The tray of food was placed on the mattress next to him, while Rayna made herself comfortable on the table with the pillow he’d offered her after she’d refused to sit next to him. He’dassured her he wouldn’t touch her, but that hadn’t swayed her. And as much as he quietly accepted her choice, it pricked at his conscience.
He hoped she didn’t think he was a cruel cad who’d force himself on a woman. He admitted he’d lost his head a bit, clinging to her in a game of cat and mouse in a way that wasn’t very proper or gentlemanly, but he would never have gone further until he had her agreement.
“I’m fine here,” she said, lowering the glass of water from her lips, having picked it up again. “I won’t have to crane my neck talking to you like this.”
“As you wish.”
Cradling the glass in her lap, she straightened, suddenly looking rather like one of his lawyers when he called upon them to discuss his finances. “First, before I explain where you are, can you confirm that you’re Lord Dominic Evander Jonathan Thorne, the eighth Marquess of Norland, from the southern Region of Vindall, aged thirty-one, born first of January 604 PR?”
A laughing smile bloomed on his mouth at the way she recited everything. “Yes, that is me,” he said, then tilted his head. “But why is it that you know so much about me while I only know your given name? I feel at a great disadvantage, so would you kindly level the soil for me?”
“My name is Rayna Faez. I’m twenty-five, and I was born on the twenty-sixth of March.”
“Is your family titled?”
“No.”
Nonetheless, she was poised and well-educated, Dominic acknowledged, which meant she likely came from a wealthy family. Maybe she was distantly related to someone in the peerage, or her father was a common-born man who’d made his fortune in a trade of some sort.
Dominic’s gaze then slunk from her left hand to her neck. “You are not married?”
It wasn’t a traditional practice, but it was becoming increasingly fashionable to give engagement rings and lockets. Considering her age, though, Rayna wasn’t wearing either.
She blinked as if she hadn’t quite understood his question before her brows puckered. “Why is that relevant?”
He frowned in return. What the deuces did she mean?
