Page 196 of The Scandal You Started
In her silence, he squeezed her fingers. “Please, my love. Marry me. Say you will. Tomorrow, the day after, before my heart perishes. Because I cannot go another moment without knowing you are my wife, and I your husband.”
Her lips twitched, then curled and widened until her smile reached ear to ear.
Euphoria bolted up his spine, and he stretched, broadened, puffed under the sensation.
Rayna was finally going to say yes after all the times of refusing him. She was going to make him the happiest man on Neves by agreeing to be his—
“I can’t,” she said, amusement teasing through her voice.
Dominic blinked, his lips parting.
He was beyond shocked but not hurt. More baffled by her laughter, and bloody damn frustrated that he was facing another one of her rejections.
“Why not?” he demanded with a frown.
She opened her mouth, but someone else cleared their throat.
Victor appeared to the side of Rayna, a step’s space between them. “Maybe you should discuss this back at the house.”
“No. No, I must know,” Dominic insisted and stood up. “Why can’t you, Rayna? Is it because I did not ask Victor and your father for their approval first? I did not think you would appreciate it if I asked them before asking you, but if—”
She shook her head. “No, Dominic. That’s not it. I don’t care about that.It’s you.”
“Me?”
“You don’t exist.”
He reared his head back. “What the deuces do you mean? Of course I exist. I am standing right in front of you.”
She rolled her eyes, grinning. “Not like that. But you don’t exist in the present. You weren’t born here, so you don’t have a birth certificate, and you’re not registered anywhere, so you have no way of being identified. The passport you had before wasn’t really real, but you need some real form of ID to get married. You can’t register a marriage without one.”
Oh…he hadn’t thought of that.
Dominic shuffled from foot to foot. “How long will it take to receive an ID?”
Rayna looked towards Victor, and he shrugged his slim shoulders. “I don’t know the answer to that,” he admitted. “But I doubt it’s going to be easy, so probably a month or two. Maybe more.”
“What?” Dominic rumbled. “That is far too long. I cannot wait that long. I will not!”
Rayna tugged on his hands. “Dominic—”
He bent into her, a pained, imploring weight falling on his brows. “Rayna, I cannot. Please understand, I am suffering already. I cannot wait months.”
She widened her eyes. “You’re acting like there’s something I can do to change how long it’s gonna take.”
Of course she couldn’t. But thankfully, his frenzied mind reminded him the people who could were still inside the meeting room, so he let go of her hands and ate up the two paces between him and the door.
“Dominic, no!” Rayna snagged him around the forearm with both hands.
She dragged him past Victor, further down the corridor, then drew him in front of her, keeping a hold of his elbows.
She gave him a slight shake. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Nobody said we’re not getting married. We just have to wait a bit, and honestly, I’d rather we wait.”
His heart dropped to his stomach.
Maybe he was embarrassing himself with his urgency to marry her, degrading his pride and masculinity in front of the woman who was only supposed to see the best of him. But he was afraid of exactly this. That if they waited, she’d change her mind, and he’d lose her. Again.
He sank towards her. “Do you still doubt whether you wish to marry me?”
