Chapter 19
Rayna
“Who is he?”
Rayna stopped mid-picking up the last of the empty shopping bags off the kitchen counter when Dominic demanded an answer to his question.
She was a little impressed and surprised he’d managed to stay quiet about Jake for so long, considering he’d subjected her to the roaring yellow flames of his gaze until they’d packed their bags of purchased clothes and food into the car.
He’d stared out the window throughout the drive back, omitting a dark, brooding aura that filled the vehicle’s atmosphere with palpable tension.
Rayna had half expected him to burst into a symphony of questions the moment they’d stepped through the threshold of the farmhouse. But he’d held it in while they’d put the shopping away, right until the very last second at least.
She wasn’t looking forward to facing the music of Dominic’s jealousy, knowing how loud it was going to be. The bass of her combative nature was already rising as a result.
Why the fuck did the world have to reunite her with Jake while she’d been with Dominic?
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been pleasantly surprised to have bumped into Jake, but she really could have done without Dominic meeting him and turning all possessive husband who’d caught another man trying to kiss his wife.
He wasn’t. He wasn’t supposed to be acting jealous either. He had no claim on her.
But it wasn’t just down to the selfishness of his attraction to her. Rayna was realising a part of it was her own fault too.
Maybe she shouldn’t have let him flirt with her. She should’ve shut him down sooner. But…
It had only meant to be harmless, hadn’t it?
Swallowing around a flicker of confused uncertainty, Rayna stuffed the green shopping bag into another full of all the other bags.
“What do you mean, ‘who is he?’” she said without looking at Dominic.
“You are perfectly aware of what I mean,” he growled. “Who is he? How did you become acquainted with Jake?”
She continued to give him her back as she opened the cupboard under the sink and shoved the bags onto the top shelf. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“Answer the damn question, Rayna!”
“Don’t fucking raise your voice at me, Dominic,” she snapped back, spinning to face him.
A deep frown had hardened the usually flirtatious lines of his face. His hands were in fists, his shoulders taut and visibly thrumming with anger. But she glared back just as fiercely.
“Do not test my patience further.” His voice was quieter, but no less laced with frustration. “You asked for me to keep quiet, and I have done so. But I require answers now, and I expect them, starting with how you know him.”
The last time Dominic had spoken with such deep-rooted authority had been in his quarantine room. Having not heard such a tone since, it’d completely slipped her mind that he could act like the world revolved around his demands.
But it was who he was. That was the life he’d grown up to lead. Where he gave commands, and it’d get done because he wielded that much power.
And fuck, because maybe that rubbed Rayna the wrong way more than him raising his voice or his misplaced jealousy did. The reminder that he was still titled nobility, even if they were pretending for a few months that he wasn’t.
Arrogant. Authoritative. And like he said, he expected his word to be obeyed.
When for the past two weeks, he’d acted like anything but.
Though she was the last person he could expect to bow to his every decree. In fact, her anger roared with a rebellious chant to do the complete opposite.
She almost did. But there was a tiny voice of logic and reason murmuring over the petty words she wanted to spit at Dominic that reminded her he had, in fact, respected the boundary she’d set with his questions. So answering one wouldn’t kill her, even if it felt like the surrender would.
“I met him on holiday,” she ground out. “That’s the only answer you can expect, because that’s the only answer I’ll give you.”
Rayna turned away to leave the kitchen, indicating she was done with the conversation. But as quick as a soaring eagle, Dominic swiped up her elbow and pulled her to a stop.
His grip wasn’t painful, but it was unyielding as he scowled. “Do not walk away from me when we are talking.”
“Talking?” she echoed harshly. “You’re trying to fucking interrogate me about something that’s got nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me when he was acting so familiar with you in front of me. And you let him—”
“Of course I let him. He’s my friend!”
“Friends do not look at each other the way he regarded you!”
Silence rang around them as his last word snapped off the painted walls.
A flicker of something akin to pain waned the line between his brows before his expression darkened further. “He held you and gazed upon you as if he had known your touch before.”
Her heart tripped over the truth, and she went a little too still and quiet before realising that gave her away more than any words ever could have. Not that she’d intended to lie about Jake. She just hadn’t wanted to tell Dominic anything.
But he saw it, his scowl lifting in bitter understanding. “He does.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement. And there was nothing for her to say in response.
“Were you intimate with him?”
Rayna clenched her teeth over a rise of renewed anger at the accusation in his tone. As if she’d somehow cheated on him with Jake.
“I don’t owe you any explanation.”
“Were you or were you not, Rayna?”
“So what if I was?”
A shadow cast over his face. “How?”
“What?” she said with a sarcastic grin. “You want me to give you all the details?”
“Yes.”
She stared, lips parted, then scoffed. “Just actually fuck off.”
“Tell me the truth, Rayna. What happened with Jake?”
“He didn’t fuck me, Dominic,” she rumbled, squaring up to him. “There. Are you happy? Is that what you wanted to know? That we didn’t have sex?”
He clearly wasn’t happy with her answer. If anything, his irises looked alight with ten times more jealousy. “But you are not simply friends, are you? You lied to me.”
“Oh, get over yourself.” She ripped her arm free.
“How exactly did I lie to you, huh? By not telling you Jake and I kissed?” Dominic froze, but she cocked her head and drove on.
“Something that happened before I even met you, which you have neither a right to know about nor a right to be jealous about.”
“You kissed him?” he uttered hoarsely.
She tipped her chin defiantly. “Yeah. We kissed.”
“Then how can you call him your friend? When it is evident from the fact you have kissed that men and women cannot be friends.”
“Because a kiss doesn’t change the fact that neither of us has asked to be anything more than friends.”
Silence. Heavy, vibrating, and bitter on the tongue.
Then Dominic rubbed a rough hand over his jaw and shifted on his feet. “I do not want you talking to him again.” Rayna’s mouth collapsed. “You are not to see him either. And take his phone number off your smartphone.”
Bubbling molten lava erupted through her veins, and she reacted with a furious jerk forward. “Who the fuck do you think you are, telling me what to do? When it’s got nothing to do with you who I kiss, who I fuck, and who I’m bloody friends with.”
“How can you say that, knowing how I care for you?” he roared.
That wasn’t fair. He was using his feelings to trip the switch of her guilt as if she’d done something wrong, and she hadn’t. She hadn’t. But…
The switch was being pushed to the middle, neither dropping this way nor that, but balancing precariously and causing her to be conscious of its agitating, nagging pull.
Still, she jabbed a frustrated finger at him. “That’s your own problem, Dominic. My life doesn’t revolve around your bloody feelings.”
A bitter, dare she say even hurt, smile quirked his lips.
“Yes, I can see how little regard you have for my feelings. But are you truly shocked that I am not jumping for joy having seen you embrace a man who has felt the touch of your lips and so obviously longs for more, while you lie to my face, telling me he is your friend when I am able to see the contrary evidence before me?” He threw a hand out.
“He cares for you, and you know that. In fact, it rather seemed like you were happy to encourage his attention, and where does that leave me then?”
The pinch of anger burning her skin dulled, and she leaned back in wary confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”
His hand went limp at his side. “You had led me to believe my attraction was reciprocated, but you stand before me, defending your relationship with Jake as if my reason for feeling betrayed is absurd.” He shrugged tiredly.
“I was convinced you only wanted my attention, yet you are unwilling to reject his, so where does that leave me, Rayna? How am I to feel?”
Rayna couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason her heart lurched up to her throat before collapsing back into place, sending a tremor through her stomach.
It was shock, but it was more. It was denial, but it was disagreement too. It wasn’t quite realisation, but it wasn’t confusion either. It was panic, but it was like something clicked into place too.
“What are you talking about?” she said almost fearfully. “I didn’t lead you to believe anything.”
He smiled wryly. “Are you to deny this as well?”
She bristled. “Deny what, Dominic? I’ve told you multiple times that nothing would happen between us—”
“Yes, you have,” he agreed, then shook his head. “But you never claimed it was because you did not wish for something to happen. Because you found me unappealing or bothersome.”
She opened her mouth to tell him he was wrong, but only a puff of air came out.
I did. I had. She had, hadn’t she?
All those times she’d told him—she’d said—she’d warned him of…of…
The consequences of being caught. The rules of her job.
But she’d never told him to stop because she didn’t like it.
She’d never told him to stop, full stop. That was how they’d ended up here in the first place.