Page 92 of Twilight Sins
I snort. “Yeah, right. Yakov didn’t talk to you about me.”
“Which is how I know he would only have good things to say.” He taps his lips. “If Yakov hates you, he talks endless shit. If he likes you, he doesn’t mention you at all. He’s protective of people that way.”
“What does it say when he locks you in a bedroom for two days?” I snap. “Should I expect a marriage proposal soon?”
“He didn’t put you in here to be cruel. He really is trying to take care of you.”
“Then tell him I want my cat.”
Nikandr laughs. “That cat… That might be the most surprising part of all of this. Yakov hates cats. When I saw that cat in his office, I knew things were serious.”
My jaw falls open. “Gregory is hanging out in his office now?”
Et tu, kit-tay? My God, is there no end to the treachery?
“Is that really what you took from what I just said?” he asks.
“Sorry,” I say sarcastically with a roll of my eyes. “All this cruel and unusual torture has gone to my head.”
“Five-star suite and three gourmet meals a day is torture?”
I throw my arms wide. “What would you call this?”
“It could be worse,” he warns in a low, serious voice, leaning forward to plant his elbows on his knees. “There are other rooms in this house where you’d be much less comfortable.”
I joked about a dungeon when I first got here, but maybe I wasn’t so far off. Goosebumps bloom across my skin. I wrap my arms tightly around my chest to stave them off.
“I can’t wait to get out of this place,” I whisper.
Nikandr stares at me for a long second before he blows out a breath. “Talking to people who are into each other but refuse to acknowledge it is a real bummer, you know? How does that saying go: you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink? Well, you two are horses standing in a giant fucking trough of water, but you won’t take so much as a damn sip.”
I frown. “The first person I can talk to in days and you don’t make any sense. Great.”
“She’s funny, too. God,” he mutters, mostly to himself. “My brother is so fucked.”
I know exactly what Nikandr is saying, but I can’t think about it now. I poured my heart out for Yakov and he locked me up. That says more than anything else how he’s feeling about me.
Yet I still have an ache in my chest that is frustratingly Yakov-sized. He’s the reason I’m in here without anyone to talk to, but I still miss him.
Nikandr thinks his brother is fucked? He should take a good, hard look in my direction.
“Anyhow.” Nikandr stands up with a groan. “I just wanted to come meet the woman who has my brother in such a bind.”
“You’re confused again,” I snap. “I’m the one who is bound.”
His smile fades away. “My brother isn’t an easy man to get along with. He holds the people around him to a high standard. But he holds himself to an even higher one. If he tells you he’s going to take care of you, there isn’t a single fucking thing in the universe that is going to stop him. Not even you.”
My dumb heart jolts again. “So I should be grateful he wants to take care of me so much that he locked me up?”
“Yes, you should be,” he says. “Because if you were anyone else, he never would have agreed to help you in the first place. He would have let you be killed. The fact he didn’t means more than you know.”
I’m so stunned that I don’t even bother making a run for it when the door opens. I stare at it long after it has closed.
Everything Nikandr said circles around in my head for hours. It’s all I can think about as I shower in the afternoon to pass some time. The thoughts circle faster when Hope brings me dinner with a white chocolate mocha on the side.
I ask her who put the meal plan together, but she won’t say anything. I catch a tight-lipped smile on her face as she heads out the door, though.
Then it’s hours and hours of lying awake in bed. Hope brought me a stack of clothes yesterday, but no pajamas. So I’ve been sleeping in my bra and underwear. It’s not like there’s anyone around to care either way.