Chapter 38
Rayna
Just after midnight that night, Rayna had washed off the day’s perspiration from her skin, her belly finally didn’t feel so full, and her limbs subtly ached with a pleasant tiredness.
Benedict had had a night shift at the hospital, so he’d ended up leaving a few hours before the sun set in the August sky, while Winnie and Declan had headed home much later with plans to celebrate the rest of the holiday with their other two children and grandchild.
Which left Rayna, George, and Victor to disperse to their own rooms, with Dominic making himself comfortable in the spare bedroom across from Victor’s.
It left Rayna in a bit of a predicament.
She wanted to sneak into Dominic’s room and spend some time alone with him.
But that meant risking Victor seeing her, so she was waiting until that side of the upstairs landing seemed a little quieter.
Because once Victor’s head hit the pillow, he’d be out like a light within five minutes.
But as she plodded around her childhood room in nothing but a loose T-shirt and boxer shorts, scrolling on social media to kill time, the door clicked open behind her. The sound was so quiet, she might not have heard it if she hadn’t turned the AC off a minute prior.
She glanced over her shoulder, and her brows rose as she caught Dominic sneaking his wide frame through a small gap. He shut the door behind him as quietly as he’d opened it.
Then he stood there, his khaki T-shirt pulled taut across his bullish shoulders, a late-night shadow on his square jaw, that dent in his chin so damn sexy, his hair streaked with the lines his fingers had made at some point, and a little, crooked smile on his mouth.
So damn gorgeous. Effortlessly. Painfully. Perfectly so.
“Good evening, my lady,” he said, smoothly bowing over one bronzed arm.
There was no fighting the big grin that blossomed on Rayna’s face as she rotated to him, the soft cream carpet tickling her bare toes.
“I think you have the wrong room, Lord Norland,” she played along, blindly dropping her phone on the wooden bedside cabinet by the double bed tucked in the corner.
He strode confidently towards her. “Oh? But I was told this was the bedroom of the woman who has slept in my arms for nigh two months now.” He bent over her, all arrogant, delicious rake. “And darling, you appear to look just like her.”
“Maybe I am her,” she purred, curling her hands into the neckline of his top.
She tugged at him, but he resisted. “Uh, uh, uh, love. I cannot kiss you if I do not know for certain you are her.”
“Yet here you are calling me ‘love’ and ‘darling’ anyway.” She quirked a brow. “You go around calling every woman that?”
“I wouldn’t dare,” he just about got out before he cupped the back of her head and plastered his mouth over hers.
Her senses erupted, robbing her of any tiredness. She kissed him back, long and slow and deep, taking and giving all the kisses they hadn’t been able to share throughout the day.
“How did you sneak over here?” she rasped.
“I avoided the squeaky floorboards.”
“How did you know which ones were squeaky?”
“I tested both sets of stairs between the landing each time I came up to the bathroom.”
She stared, lips parted, in laughing disbelief. “You’re unbelievable.”
“Well, it is unreasonable to think I could accept being distanced from you for three whole nights, on top of not being able to touch you during the day either.” He nudged his nose across hers. “It is agony, and I am suffering to no end, my love.”
He was so bloody dramatic. And it was so fucking cute.
She let her lashes slip low and seductive over her eyes. “You can touch me wherever you want in here.”
His jaw locked tight. “Do not taunt me, little witch.”
He said that, but his hands skimmed down her body to wrap around her waist and under her arse so he could hoist her up.
She clasped his prickly cheeks and kissed him as he walked them to her bed.
He was so careful as he laid her on her back on the pillow closest to the wall.
She wanted to wrap her limbs around him to keep him over her, but he climbed off the bed.
Once he found the button of the bedside lamp, he swaggered back towards the door and switched the ceiling light off. Then he made himself comfortable on the pillow next to her.
Rayna turned her head, smiling as her chest rose but never quite fell in the same way it seemed so full. Dominic smiled back, glittering hearts throbbing in his eyes in the lamplight.
It was still terrifying. Knowing that the look he’d given her lying beside her that first week had only deepened and intensified. She carried the weight of it, and she still wasn’t sure she had it in her not to drop it in a panic.
But she couldn’t imagine him looking at her in any other way. Didn’t want to imagine it.
Wordlessly, she rolled over to face him, tucking her hands under her pillow. He didn’t say anything either. He simply massaged a hand up and down her hip.
“Did you have fun today?” she mumbled.
“I did. Very much so. Did you?”
“Hmm, I did. Uncle Declan always makes the best burgers, and Harvest Holidays are probably the only times we can convince V to play video games with us.”
Dominic’s teeth peeked out in one corner. “I must admit, I quite enjoyed beating him in the racing game. Though I do not think it won me his favour.”
Rayna giggled tiredly. “I think he was just shocked to realise he really is that bad at playing.”
For two hours, she exchanged quiet laughs with Dominic as they reminisced the antics of the day before they drifted off on random tangents and shared old memories.
His hand moved between her hip and thigh and arms while her fingers twisted the hem of his T-shirt and traced the veins over his hands, but neither of them tried to close the space between them.
Yet everything about the conversation was intimate. Pleasant and gratifying even in the moments the words faded into silence. She could’ve kept at it all night.
But at some point, Dominic whispered, “I ought to leave.”
“Why?” She didn’t mean to sound so disappointed, but that was how it came out.
He flashed a grin as he brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek. “It would not serve us well if we fell asleep and Victor caught us in each other’s embrace come morning. He would never scold you, but I do not believe it would be the same in my case.”
Rayna didn’t want Victor finding out like that either, but Dominic wasn’t right about the reason.
“He likes you, you know,” she assured him. “He’s just being a grouchy dad who doesn’t want to show it.”
“Even so, my love, I would rather he did not find us in a compromising position.” He pinched her chin between his finger and thumb as he pushed himself up onto an elbow. “Though it kills me to leave you so.”
He placed a series of firm, lingering pecks on her lips. She sighed heavily between the last two, not wanting to take her hand off his nape, but he edged out of her hold with a smile.
“Good night, Rayna.”
The pounding of her heart punched through her pulse as she stared at him, unable to say it back, suddenly tongue-tied.
He began heading for the door. She lifted herself up on her palms.
Rayna? Hello?
He’s leaving, dammit! What the fuck are you doing? Say something!
But her damned mouth wasn’t cooperating. It’d completely forgotten how to shape any words, and no matter how much she willed herself to speak, the sounds weren’t coming together.
Just as he reached for the handle—
“Dominic.”
He paused and rotated halfway. “Yes, sweetheart?”
Oh, thank Neves!
She was relieved she’d managed to stop him. But it was daunting realising she actually had to say something now. Worse yet, she actually had to face her feelings.
Exhaling a deep breath, she anchored her fingers into the thin blanket under her. “Stay.”
Maybe it was a trick of the dim lighting, but she thought she saw his body flinch.
The long seconds that followed wound a blush up her face, and she fought hard not to take back what she’d said.
“For tonight, you mean?” he finally croaked.
It took a moment, but she shook her head. “Not just tonight but…with me. After the project. Here and in the past. Some balance that might…make it possible to stay together.”
Silence.
Dominic didn’t move. His expression didn’t change. She was convinced he hadn’t heard her.
Then with a quick flicker of his shadow, he was stalking towards her, unforgiving purpose and possession and determination burning in his amber-ringed stare.
Her heart skedaddled like a frightened cat on ice, and Rayna scrambled on the bed.
“Wait. Wait, wait, wait.” Her back hit the cold, painted wall, and she held her hands up. “Dominic, wait.”
He stopped short of the side of the fabric-framed bed, and she panted, her pitched shoulders dropping as if she’d only just narrowly escaped the jaws of a predator.
Her fingers trembled before her eyes, and she buried them in the blanket again. Embarrassment taunted her pride, poking and pinching her skin like a school bully. Gosh, was it frustrating, but she could do nothing to stop it.
The only option was to conquer it, because running wasn’t a choice anymore.
She gulped. “I’ve…I’ve never done this before.”
Fucking Neves, she hated how pathetic she sounded. It almost made her stop entirely, but Dominic’s presence remained steady and without judgement, so she carried on.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not even sure I know what I actually want. But every time I think about you leaving…I hate the way it feels. I don’t—I don’t think I could do it. Just watch you leave. Not without trying at least. Maybe not even then.”
She pushed even further back against the wall as the bed dipped under the weight of his palms and one knee, bringing him eye-level. “Rayna—”