Page 75 of Scandalous Lover

I knew it. My mouth drops open, all confidence sucked out of my chest, replaced with impulsive stupidity.

“Sam told me that you threatened all the men on this island to stay away from me or risk bodily harm.”

Definitely shouldn’t have said that…

Dom narrows his eyes at me but says nothing. I can almost see his mind working. I need to distract him, and quickly.

“Maybe I’ll go find myself a nice pool boy to hook up with. Would that make you happy?”

Dom’s face remains impassive. “LikeSamsaid,” the inflection he puts on Sam’s name sends a chill through me. “There isn’t a pool boy on this island who will touch you.”

I throw up my hands in exasperation. “Which is it, Dom? Do you want me to settle down or do you want no guy to ever touch me?”

Again, he refuses to allow me to rile him. “Don’t you want to find someone?” He glances sidelong at Reina, who’s smiling at him like he hung the damn moon. “It’s pretty great.”

My mouth drops open at the uncharacteristic display of affection, as subtle as it was, butI snap it shut.

I’m on my feet before I realize it’s happening. “Of course I do!”

My shout falls on two surprised faces.

“Of course I want to find someone. It’s just…not that easy. I’m not exactly the kind of person people want to date.”

The truth is far more complicated, but my words have already done their damage—on myself. I spin and escape into the house before anyone can try to comfort me with empty words.

I have to get out of here.

Collecting my few essentials into a canvas bag, I start the asinine journey down all one million steps to the sandy road below the house. I know they can see me from the porch, so I keep my pace quick but steady. I keep my face stern but calm.

I’m not used to making such public admissions of my own shortcomings—or admitting that things aren’t perfectly the way I want them. Everything I do in life is intentional. If it’s not, I find a way to make it look intentional for my channel. Or I hide it away.

I have no idea what to do now that one of my deep, dark secret feelings is out in the open like this.

I only make it about twenty feet down the sandy path before Reina catches up to me. I startle and glance back at the house, wondering if there’s some secret elevator they failed to mention.

Maybe the woman just has calves of steel after living in that house for so long.

“That got a little off track, Naomi.”

“Sorry to bum you guys out with my loser life.”

She easily keeps pace with me as I huff down the sandy road. “That’s not what I meant. Dom…well, he can be stubborn and overprotective, but he really does mean well.”

I stop short and turn to face her, planning to give her apiece of my mind about how that man thinks he can just say whatever he wants and then send his girlfriend down to smooth things over, but she just looks so…nice.

I grind my teeth and say nothing.

She must see the indecision on my face, because hers softens further. “He wants you to be happy.”

There’s no stopping the eyeroll that statement produces. I shake my head and keep walking.

“I’m serious. This whole situation really threw him. I’ve never seen anything like it. He worries about you, you know. Always has.”

“No, Reina. That may be what he told you, but it’s far from the truth. When you worry about a person, you check in on their wellbeing. You speak to them more than once every five years. He had my whole life to look out for me when I was living in that estate, being raised by nannies and trying my best to stay out of the way of my father who blamed me for all his problems. Instead, he ignored me completely when I was a kid, and continued to ignore me for my whole life. And now, he somehow thinks that he has a right to step in and tell me that how I choose to live isn’t good enough?”

I shake my head again, trying and failing to keep the emotion out of my voice. At least it’s just Reina who’s about to watch me cry. I’d rather throw myself off the bluff than break down in front of Dom.

Reina lays her hand on my shoulder, and I slow my pace until I’m stopped again, staring down the path in front of me.

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