Page 54 of The Scandal You Started
“He was meant to work with River, actually, but River’s taking a short break, so they asked me to take on the project instead. The three of us are working on a different case study together, though.”
“Lucky you,” Maleeka murmured. “I wish someone had assignedmeon a project with a gorgeous curator hunk.” She quickly perked up. “Wait, is he single?”
Rayna gaped. “You’re married, Mal. To a curator!”
“Oh, honey.” She waved her hand around with a dismissive scoff. “My Rumi swings both ways too, so she’d be admiring Dominic just as much as me, if not more. But I wasn’t asking if he was single forme.” Her mouth tipped to a mischievous angle. “I’m asking foryou.”
“Me?” Rayna practically choked out, a flood of heat rising to the surface of her skin.
“Oh, come on, look at him.” Maleeka gestured discreetly towards Dominic. “Tell me you don’t think he’s a fine specimen of a man.”
She didn’t mean to actually look at him, but when she did, she couldn’t stop herself from quickly analysing him. From the piercing glow of his eyes to the way he’d combed his flowy hair back over his head, with the sides falling over his ears and temples. And the way his off-white T-shirt was snug around his thick shoulders and arms, and how the navy-blue chinos River had found really suited him. Plus, he’d shaved in the morning, so his cheeks were smooth and crinkled gorgeously when he smiled.
“You do see it,” Maleeka said, snapping Rayna out of her thoughts.
She blinked dumbly at the smirking woman. “See what?”
Maleeka wiggled her brows. “That he’s a fine specimen.”
For some annoying reason, Rayna blushed again, but she rolled her eyes. “I’m not blind, Mal. He’s objectively attractive. But so what?”
“Mm-hmm,” she hummed, crossing her arms over her chest. Rayna scowled in return, but Maleeka bent closer. “A piece of advice, honey?”
“No—”
Maleeka poked her arm with a manicured finger. “Make him yours before someone else does.” She thumbed in Dominic’s direction. “You don’t find a man like that every day, you know.”
Rayna choked on an indecipherable noise of shock but shot straight as she recovered. “You don’t even know him,” was what she said because she couldn’t tell Maleeka the real reason she couldn’t make Dominic hers.
Not that she wanted to claim him anyway.
It wasn’t even so much that she couldn’t as much as it was the fact that they wouldn’t work.
He was so different from her.
He likely wanted marriage and kids, and Rayna?
That wasn’t her. She didn’t want to get married, and she’d never thought about having children as a result.
So no.No.
Enjoying his cheesy flirtation was one thing. But anything more? No.
Maleeka narrowed her eyes, and the perceptive sharpness of her green irises made Rayna stiffen. “There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?” the older woman said.
“Of course not.”
“Rayna.”
“There isn’t,” she said with more force. “And there isn’t going to be anything either.”
Then why didn’t she sound a hundred percent sure?
“Oh, wow,” Rayna said in awe, eyeing the age-worn letters and open leather notebooks laid upon a glass table. “How many are there in total?”
After sorting out the issue of their badges with the Facilities team, Rayna and Dominic were collected by Matt, Cassie, and Hania—the three curators they were going to be working with for the next three months.
When they found out it was Dominic’s first time there, chaos broke loose, and they insisted on a quick tour around the museum first. Eventually, that led them to where they were, down in the archives in one of the research rooms.
