Page 70 of The Scandal You Started
All her energy was suddenly sapped from her, and she pressed her forehead against the cold, white metal.
Within her chest and stomach, however, was enough energy to light up a whole town for months. All bundled up in knots of emotions that loosened and tightened at once.
Frustration that settled but twisted this way and that like a broken, sparking wire. Dread that trembled as it entwined itself around anticipation. Irritation with Kelly and Erin for having been right about Jake. With herself and with Dominic. Panic. Disbelief.
But the one that pulled the hardest was relief.
Relief that her attraction to Jake had disappeared. Relief that he felt the same. Relief that she wouldn’t end up hurting him. He was a good man who clearly wanted a future with a woman oneday, and he deserved just that, but she could never have been that.
None of that relief had anything to do with Dominic, though. At least not in any way she was willing to admit. Or could admit.
The idea of going back to the farmhouse to face him incited an emotion she had no name for because it embodied so many others.
But it filled her with the kind of adrenaline that made her feel like a rocket during a blast-off countdown all through her drive back home.
Chapter 22
Dominic
She’d left him.Rayna had fucking left him to go meet someone.
She’d informed him of these plans the previous night but had answered his questions of who and where and why so bloody vaguely before shutting him out of her room the way she had done for the past week.
In fact, Rayna had been shutting him out in every way possible. All because he’d asked her to admit how she truly felt towards him.
But Dominic had done his utmost best to be patient with her, knowing her concern for the consequences was entirely reasonable. He’d still approached her, still tried to help her in every way he was able to. And he didn’t stop showering her with his affection, no matter how many stinging cuts her rejections wounded him with.
He hadn’t forgotten about Jake, but his anger with the young man’s appearance was a whisper in comparison to the fear of losing Rayna entirely.
Except when she’d announced that she was going to see a nameless friend, that fury had risen again, his blood spitting balls of fire, even as his hands shook, and his heart sweated in panic.
Dominic wasn’t a clueless idiot. She might not have told him who she was meeting, but he found it rather suspicious that so soon after bumping into Jake, Rayna suddenly had an evening planned that she hadn’t ever mentioned before.
And that betrayal was a smallsword to the gut.
He’d intended to confront her before she left that evening, but the moment there’d been a knock at the front door, she’d shot down the stairs, allowed River in, and disappeared out of the farmhouse with not a single glance taken backwards.
All Dominic saw of her was the black fabric of her shorts before the edges of his vision clouded with red, agonising rage, jealousy, and hurt.
Had River not held him away from the door, desperately spouting words of reason, Dominic would have charged out after her and hauled her back inside.
He would have locked Rayna in her room. Forbidden her from setting foot outside. He would rather have fought with her untilthey’d blown the house down, begged her to stay with him, than have been forced to helplessly listen to the sound of her car tires against the gravel path as she drove away.
Away from him and towards Jake.
And he’d been powerless. In a new place, with no idea how to get around, with no ability to get to her, he’d felt painfully, pathetically unable to do anything to change the fate he was facing. The only other time he’d felt thus was upon the sudden death of his father, knowing there was nothing he could do other than remain by the late marquess’s side until his last breath.
Dominic had wanted to go on a blind rampage of violence in the moments that followed. He’d wanted to shred River to pieces for having stopped him from stopping Rayna. Only after somehow managing to walk away had Dominic accepted that River wasn’t at fault.
But his agitation didn’t settle, didn’t loosen its grip on his heart at any point during the evening. He barely had a few forkfuls of the dinner River made, couldn’t focus on the show River tried to get him to watch. His eyes kept going to every clock—his mobile’s one, the one above the oven door, the ticking face in the sitting room—counting the seconds that passed. All he did was wonder where Rayna was, what she was doing with Jake, and when she’d return.
Until finally, River came into the kitchen some time after the clocks struck eleven while Dominic was drinking a glass of cold water at the sink and said, “Rayna messaged to let me know she’s on her way back.”
Dominic’s grip tightened around the cup before he threw a glance over his shoulder. “How long will she be?”
River gave an awkward shrug. “Ten, fifteen minutes.” He opened his mouth again, but only a puff of air came out. Seeming to think better of it, he clapped his lips together and shifted onhis feet. “Do you…do you want to watch another episode? Maybe cool off a bit before she…”
Rather than staring mindlessly at a screen until Rayna arrived, Dominic paced. And paced. And paced. Sitting when he was strung up so high just wasn’t an option.
