Page 3 of The Scandal You Started
“Hmm. A marquess from six-three-five PR.”
George let out a soft whistle. “Damn. We’ve never had a titled lord before, have we?”
“He’ll be the first,” Victor said. “We should be fine with just River and Zack here, but if we need more help, I’ll have to cut your holiday short. Hence, the need to take your work phones.”
Rayna laid a hopeful look on Victor. “Is there any chance I can pair up with whoever might be the marquess’s Guardian, if he does come?”
Victor’s shrug was thoughtful. “If you’re not needed elsewhere, I don’t see why not.”
Chapter 1
Rayna
It should have been the ideal holiday moment.
Key phrase:should have.
Instead, Rayna was sitting on a flat rock above the shoreline on the white-sand beach, the sun setting behind the gentle waves of the sea, the breeze soft and warm, glaring at her phone as it vibrated and blared out a ringtone in the palm of her hand.
“George”was printed in white as the caller ID.
Rayna forced out a slow breath and turned a grimace to Jake next to her—the handsome man she’d been about to kiss.
“It’s your brother, isn’t it?” Jake asked, his warm, green eyes crinkling in amusement.
“Yup.”
He chuckled lightly. “It’s okay. Answer it.”
A reluctant curl touched her mouth as she swiped to answer the call. “You have the shittiest timing, do you know that?” she said down the phone.
The indecipherable syllable that came out of George’s mouth turned into a stuttered breath. “Did I…you still with Jake?”
“Yes.” She glanced at the man in question as he grinned.
Damn, he was gorgeous. Tall and athletic, his short brown hair flopped around in the soft breeze. The orange sunlight twinkled in his laughing, emerald-green eyes. And the white, toothy grin under his straight nose belonged to the male lead of a romcom film.
When she’d met Jake at the beach a few days ago while he was holidaying with his friends, he’d been charmingly flirtatious but sweet, so she’d allowed herself to indulge him.
As a result, over the past three days, she’d discovered he was an older brother to three sisters, lived in the north of Khaas in the Region of Olkmond just like her, and that he could hold an interesting, intellectual conversation as well as a funny, pointless one. Plus, while things had been suggestive between them, he’d always been respectful with his words and hands.
Rayna might have given him a reason to let that boundary of respect drop with their clothes had she not had a gut feeling that he wasn’t interested in having a holiday fling.
George groaned in disgust. “This is going to scar me for life.”
“We’re sitting on the beach, you idiot.”
“Oh, thank Neves.”
“Are you gonna tell me why you rang?”
“Oh, yeah. You need to come back. Now.”
“What? Why? Is something wrong?”
“Well, he didn’t fully explain, but V rang just now and said they’re struggling to decipher one of the documents and need us to come back. He’s emailed us two tickets. We’re on the next flight back to Redworth, so you need to get here within the hour.”
“Decipher one of the documents”had absolutely nothing to do with an actual document. It was a code phrase they used in public, meaning a Study was causing trouble in the lab during their quarantine period upon arriving from their time to the present.
