Page 80 of The Scandal You Started
But the distance she’d forced between them made her hyperaware of his every move. Maybe that was why on Thursday evening, while they were eating dinner at the small, square table, something about his silence felt off.
She’d made steak and chips with a salad. None of it was spicy, and she hadn’t added anything he didn’t like, yet he kept clearing his throat and taking sips of water as if in discomfort.Plus, there was a slight strain between his brows and a faint pinkness under his skin. Neither of which were normally there.
Rayna lowered a forkful of steak from her open mouth when Dominic cleared his throat for the dozenth time and reached for his glass of water. Pressing her lips together, she watched his left eye give the slightest wince as he swallowed the liquid before he placed the glass down.
“Is something wrong?” she muttered.
“No,” he replied without lifting his gaze from his plate.
“Do you not like what I made?”
He pressed a forkful of steak into a thick chip. “I do.”
“Then what’s—”
His head snapped up. “There is nothing wrong.”
She blinked, taken aback by his abruptness. It might have angered her if she hadn’t noticed the weary droop to his eyes. He looked exhausted as if…
“Dominic, are you not feeling well?” she asked, placing her knife and fork on her plate of half-eaten food.
He lowered his thick fans of lashes. “I am well,” he muttered and chomped down on the fork.
She shuffled forward on her chair and moved the back of her hand towards his forehead. “Let me check—”
But he dodged her fingers. She stared agape as he finished chewing.
“I said I am well.”
“Then let me check you are.”
“You do not need to.”
“What the—” She cut off, and the crevice between her brows deepened. “Yes, I do. I have a duty of care to you as your—”
“Guardian.” His amber-ringed eyes pierced into hers. “Yes, I’m aware.”
She ignored the stab of discomfort between her ribs and sat taller. “Then let me check, Dominic. Because if you’re sick, I need to tell Ash.”
“There is no need. I am fine.”
“No, you’re not,” she snapped. “I can see you’re not, so why are you lying?”
His lips curled in a small smirk that threw her off. “You do not believe me?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Well, then…take my word as I took yours. I am fine.”
With that, he forked the last chip on his plate into his mouth, finished his water, and picked up his stuff. After placing everything in the sink, he left.
Rayna had wanted to chase Dominic and yell at him for being so stupid and comparing how she’d lied about wanting him to the way he was lying about not being ill.
In hindsight, she should have. A Study falling sick could potentially escalate into a serious issue, and as his Guardian, she should have been more adamant about checking him as she would have been with another.
Instead, not having the energy to butt heads with him, she decided to force the subject again in the morning and assess his condition properly.
But the following day, Rayna was almost finished preparing breakfast, yet Dominic hadn’t made an appearance. She even woke up a little earlier to try to catch him before he went for aswim, but she’d neither seen him leave nor return through the garden doors.
