Page 31 of The Scandal You Started
After a few beats, he gave her a single stiff nod. “Good night.”
Rayna had just collapsed onto her bed in the bedroom next to Dominic’s, teeth brushed, face washed, utterly exhausted, when through the crack of her slightly open door, a groaned creak whispered in that was all too familiar.
It was the sound the third step from the bottom of the stairs made when treaded upon, and the person who’d stepped on it clearly wasn’t her.
Summoning the ghost of her mother to give her enough patience for the next four months, Rayna shot upright.
“Dominic!”
Chapter 9
Rayna
The next morning, Rayna faced the consequence of leaving her door open when her alarm went off at 8:45 a.m., disrupting her peaceful slumber.
She wasn’t the only one jolted awake.
Through heavy lashes, she saw a giant body of bronzed skin and dark blue flinch before bolting upright.
Dominic.
Not quite convinced she was seeing correctly, Rayna ignored the bleeping noise of the clock and eyed him as he switched on the lamp at his side before his head flew around in frantic search.
She hadn’t forgotten the events of the previous day. That was kind of impossible when everything was vividly burned into her memory. But after catching him trying to explore the downstairs of the farmhouse when she’d told him not to, she was sure she’d sent him back to his room like a grounded child.
She’d fallen asleep almost immediately after that in her own room. But she had no recollection of being awoken by Dominic’s entrance.
Yet there he was, taking up the entire left side of the king-sized bed, dressed in the pyjamas he made look sexy, with his eyes glazed from interrupted sleep and hair mussed in a way that made her want to reach out and comb her hand through it.
Was there any need to look that good first thing in the morning?
“What the bloody deuces is that noise?” Dominic rasped.
And the sexy, sleepy voice is back. Fuck.
Rolling onto her back, Rayna fumbled for the digital clock on the rustic bedside cabinet and jabbed the off button. The loud beeping stopped, throwing the dim room into a ringing silence. Slivers of light snuck in from the sides of the long, dark cream curtains.
Her bedroom was slightly bigger than Dominic’s, but not by much. The wooden-framed bed was situated in the middle of the shared wall with his bedroom, two warm wood cabinets flanked on either side. The door was on the left, and along the right were two windows. There was an alcove cupboard that gave access to the ensuite too, just like in Dominic’s room, but she had a large stand-alone mirror next to the chest of drawers against the bathroom wall.
“My alarm,” she muttered, plopping her arms over the fluffy cream blanket as she stretched her legs out. “What are you doing here?”
As he slumped with a heavy sigh and scrubbed a hand over his face, Rayna realised he wasn’tunderthe blanket. But rather on top of it, letting it act as a barrier between their bodies. Almost as if he were giving her a level of respect and privacy.
What was all that bloody danger bullshit for then?Idiot.
“As in an alarm bell? What they used on battlefields to alert the soldiers?” He threw a grumpy frown across his shoulder. “Why on damned Neves do you require an alarm bell to rouse you?”
“So that I wake up on time.”
“I suggest you use a sound that isn’t meant to frighten a man witless,” he grumbled and let himself fall backwards. He sank into the pillow with an inaudible mutter and threw an arm over his face like a distressed maiden, resting his other hand on his abdomen.
She rolled her eyes at his dramatic display. “What are you doing here?”
Quiet breaths lifted his broad chest steadily. “Your door was open.”
“So?”
“I came in.”
