Page 78 of The Scandal You Started
He tugged her arm, trying to close the gap between them, but she stepped back on one foot, resisting his pull. “It was a mistake.”
“You kissed me.”
“I was confused.”
“You said you wanted me.”
“No, I didn’t.”
A sharp sting cut across his chest, and he tried to tug her again, but she still weighed back. “You admitted to thinking about me while with him. What else does that mean?”
“Means nothing.”
“You are lying,” he said, his voice growing rough with anguish. “And you may lie to yourself, but you cannot lie to me.” He shifted towards her. “You want me. You kissed me. You gave a part of yourself to me. You cannot now take that back. I will not let you.”
She shook her head, the mute movements rapid and jerky.
“Rayna.” Her name fell from his lips as a frustrated plea. “You do not have to lie. I shan’t tell anyone. I will keep what we have safe.” She reluctantly came half a step towards him when he pulled. “No one other than us has to know. I would do everything to keep us a secret. I would never dare endanger your job at the lab. I can promise you that—”
“You can’t,” she croaked, accusing him of failing already.
“I can.I will.I swear that to you on the Norland name.” He drew her closer yet. “There isn’t anything in this world I would not do for you. Because I care immensely for you—”
“No, you don’t.”
The iciness of her tone sent him reeling back. “What?”
She snapped her wrist out of his slackened grip and created about a pace between them, though it felt more like twenty. “Youdon’t care about me.” She gulped slowly. “At least…you think you do. But you don’t.”
The temperature of his blood rose, and he curled his hands into fists. “Would you care to explain how I supposedly onlythinkI care for you?”
How dare she?How dare she insinuate his feelings weren’t genuine? And why? For what—
“I was the first woman you met here,” she said, lifting her chin to a stubborn angle. “To you, I was practically naked. You were shocked, and it was confusing, and I was different from what you knew, so how do you know you’re actually attracted tomeand not just the idea of a woman from the future?” She shook her head. “It didn’t have to be me. It could’ve been Erin, Izzy, or Tip. But it just happened to be me. Who’s to say you wouldn’t have felt something for them if you’d met them first? Maybe it’s the excitement of discovering something new, and you’re confusing it for attraction? What happens when the excitement fades? What if you find someone else exciting, like Hania? How do you know you won’t—”
“Stop,” Dominic growled.
Boiling blood splattered from the dozens of painful little holes Rayna had made in his heart. But his muscles felt like blocks of ice, covered in dripping trails of molten red, beneath his skin.
“You may kiss me and rebuff me,” he said, low and slow. “You may run from me, pretend you do not want me. You may insult me, curse me, shout at me, hurt me, and deny me.” His voice grew louder and angrier and pained. “But donotever belittle how I care for you.Ever!”
Rayna stilled, not exactly shrinking into herself when he jerked towards her, but the guilt that twisted her expression caused her to look smaller.
“I amnota child, that I saw you as some fascinating toy, so easily replaced by the next new one waved before my face.Neither am I confusing excitement for attraction.” He paused and threw a hand out. “I have not gazed upon another woman in my time here because I do not care to do so. Because they do not mesmerise me with their strength and beauty and intelligence the way you do. Because even if they had all the qualities you do, I would still wantyou!”
He shook his head. “I will not deny that youweredifferent, that Iwasexcited at the prospect of becoming acquainted with you. But because it wasyou, Rayna. Not these other women you name, who I have never met. Not Hania.You.”
He dropped his hand, losing strength in his arm and voice. “For you to even accuse me of that…” He swallowed around the sudden tightness in his throat. “How dare you?How could you?How do you not see my affection for what it truly is when I have not hidden it from you? Or is this merely another way of rejecting me?”
A pained frown twisted Rayna’s brows together. She started to speak, but he continued before she could say another word to bruise him.
“If after last night you still cannot bring yourself to accept you desire me, then reject me once and for all. But do not go so low as to insult how I feel.”
She shifted ever so slightly on her feet, her face crumpling further. And Dominic wanted to let out the hollow chuckle of a bleeding, broken man.
Did she even realise she was gazing upon him as if he were rejecting her, not asking her to reject him—something she claimed she wanted to do?
You lie, sweetheart.
