Page 35 of The Russian's Bought Bride

“I know.”

“No, you don’t,” I shake my head, blinking back tears. “You don’t get to say that and expect me to be okay with this.”

He hesitates, not maintaining the same grip anymore. “Maybe not, but it’s the best I can do for now.”

That catches me off guard, but it doesn’t change anything. “Then let me go.”

“I can’t.”

We’re only going in circles, and it makes my anger flare again, but it’s more frayed at the edges by everything else wearing me down.

“Fine,” I mutter, my shoulders sagging slightly as I give up the fight, regardless of everything inside me screaming not to. “Then what? I just stay here and do whatever you say while pretending this is normal?”

“No,” he says. “You stay here until I can make sure it’s safe for you to leave, then we’ll go from there.”

“And when is that?”

“I don’t know yet,” he admits, but doesn’t even try to sugarcoat it.

Letting out a shaky breath, I close my eyes for a second and try to think of where to go from here.

I can’t fight him like this. Not physically, anyway. It’s his place, and it’s completely locked down and under his control. Even attempting to escape when he isn’t looking would be pointless.

“Let go,” I say again, quieter this time, while the energy to keep this up drains from me. “I’m not going anywhere for now.”

Nikolai studies me closely, like he’s trying to decide if I’m telling the truth, and regardless of how my breath falters from being this close to him, I hold his gaze steady.

His eyes track over my features, expression unreadable, then he sighs and releases my wrist.

The absence of his grip is immediate, and I notice the lack of warmth immediately, irritated all over again at the fact.

Stepping away from him quickly, I put distance between us while my heart refuses to slow again.

“Happy?”

“No,” he utters, not elaborating.

Refusing to respond while I try to get a grip of myself, I turn and walk down the hallway, back toward the guest room. Every step is tight with frustration, anger, and something I don’t have the mental capacity to decipher right now.

When I reach the door, I push it open harder than necessary and pause briefly once I’m inside.

I can still feel him. The closeness, the heat, and the way my body reacted despite everything in my head screaming at me to get away, and to remember how dangerous this man really is.

It makes me feel sick and almost angrier somehow, but I shove the feeling down and close the door behind me with a sharp click.

This time, I don’t come back out.

Chapter 11 - Nikolai

I’ve handled worse situations than this.

That’s what I keep telling myself as I stand in the hallway outside the guest room where Dani has confined herself to overnight, staring at the wood like it’s going to give me an answer that will fix everything.

But of course, it doesn’t.

This isn’t something I can brute force my way through, especially not with her or my brothers. I’ve created a mess by letting those two worlds collide, and now, I have to find my way out of it while causing minimal damage.

I said too much to Dani, and that’s the problem.