Page 49 of The Scandal You Started
“I’ve already had enough lectures from V,” she grumbled. “But yeah. I’ve learnt my lesson. I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Good.”
She rolled her eyes, but an irritated little smile found its way onto her mouth. “Take your own advice and try not to destroy your knuckles again.”
Dominic rolled one set of fingers. The dry scabs pulled slightly, but they were healing rather well with the cream Rayna had given him to use. “I…have also learned my lesson.”
She chuckled. His grin widened.
Silence fell between them again. Under the weight of her brilliant, charcoal gaze, his blood warmed with satisfaction. He could have lain there forever, simply watching her.
“What?” Rayna eventually muttered, her voice a touch raspy, maybe even breathless.
“Nothing,” he whispered thickly.
“Then turn over and go to sleep.”
He gave the slightest shake of his head. “Not yet.”
“Fine. Then I will.”
Before she could move, he clamped his fingers around her hand, pinning it to the mattress.
“No. Not yet.”
Her lashes dipped for a long moment, then lifted. “My hand.”
Dominic lowered his attention to their hands as her fingers shifted under his palm. But no matter how much he tried to will his grip to soften, his body refused to comply.
It was the first time he’d touched her in two days. He suddenly found he was weak and famished for even the slightest feel of her skin against his. He just wanted to cling on a little bit longer…only a few more seconds…one more breath.
Like stiff, cold fingers forced to leave the comforting heat of a fire, he let go gradually and eased his hand back, tracing the lines of her palm as he did.
Unable to give up her touch entirely, he rested his hand by hers and dared to keep two blunt fingers against the delicate inner side of her wrist.
He watched, with his heart pounding at the base of his throat, as her eyes darted between his caresses and his face.
She only looked at him like that, like a confused, startled creature that wasn’t quite certain if it were in danger or not, whenever she rejected his flirtation. So Dominic did the only thing he could think of doing, and broke the silence first, hoping it’d deter her from kicking him out.
“Would you consider this to be an intimate touch?” he mumbled.
She gulped slowly. “It is when you stare at me like that.”
Was the desperate hunger and longing burned across his soul printed so obviously within his eyes? Though it wasn’t as if he wanted to hide it from her, so was it a surprise that it was?
“I could close my eyes,” he suggested, and reluctantly, pressed his lashes together.
A breathy sound of amusement had him opening them again.
His fingers stopped in their motion upon seeing the twist on her mouth that resembled a smile. She didn’t look happy, though, but rather frustrated and uncertain.
“You’re stupidly persistent, Dominic,” she whispered. “And it hasn’t even been a week.”
“Does that bother you?” he asked, wary of pushing her too far and losing all her trust.
She exhaled the weight of the world off her shoulders and dragged her hand away, tucking it under the duvet. “Do you realise that I could lose my job at the lab if the wrong person saw you behaving like this with me? And I like my job, Dominic. I’d hate to lose it.”
A sharp pang pricked at his chest, and he shook his head. “I would never jeopardise your work, Rayna. I swear that to you.”
