Page 82 of No One’s Daughter

​My jaw clenched.

So I did the only thing I could think to do and grabbed a glass from her hand. Maybe some fresh blood would distract me.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Ailsa

THE BAR WAS fun.

​Surprisingly so.

​It felt strangely alive. The low hum of a jukebox crackled in the corner, the tune pulling at something in me that I hadn’t felt in weeks. And I let it.

​Nikolai laughed beside me, the sound easy, his hand brushing mine as he tugged me a little closer to where the music bled out into the room.

​“Let’s dance,” he said, already swaying slightly. My body followed before my mind could catch up, a quiet laugh slipping from me as I shook my head.

​Nikolai spun me lightly, not quite a proper turn, just enough to make me stumble a half-step before catching myself, his grin widening at my reaction.

​I liked him. He was easy to be around. There was none of that constant tension I’d grown so used to.

​My gaze flicked, almost unconsciously, toward the bar where Davien sat, half turned away from the room, glass in hand, posture rigid. He hadn’t joined us, hadn’t even tried. He just watched. He pretended not to but I noticed.

“What’s the deal with you two?” Nikolai asked, nodding at Davien as he grabbed two drinks from the nearest table.

​“What? You mean the dick that practically kidnapped me and keeps me hostage?”

​“Harsh.”

​“It’s the truth,” I said, taking a glass that was half filled with what looked to be whisky from Nikolai.

​“You don’t look chained up to me,” he said, taking a sip from his own drink.

​I couldn’t argue that, but what other choice did I have? “At this point, I’m pretty much out of options. I’m here not because I want to be, but because what else am I supposed to do? Feels like everything is trying to kill me.” I looked down, nursing the drink in my hand. Saying that part out loud didn’t make me feel any better.

​“And you’re not… you know?”

​I looked at him, puzzled.

​“You know, doing more than sleeping in that shared bed.”

​“God no,” I said, after almost choking on my drink.

​“The thought really that bad?” He half laughed. “Poor guy.”

​“Poor guy?” I repeated, brows lifting incredulously. “Are you forgetting about the part where I said he kidnapped me?”

​“No,” Nikolai said easily. “But from where I stand, it clearly looks like he did that because he felt like he had no other option.”

​I hesitated. Just for a second, because… was that true? I hadn’t really let myself think too much about what he might be going through.

​I scoffed, pushing the thought away before it could root.

​“He’s a good guy,” Nikolai added, watching me a little too closely.

I shifted my weight, folding my arms across my chest. “Maybe I don’t care for ‘good guys’,” I said, lifting my fingers in mock quotation marks. No, I’d found those to be no better than the bad ones. At least the bad ones knew what they were.

​Nikolai huffed a quiet laugh, shaking his head “No, I don’t suppose you do.”