Page 63 of No One’s Daughter

I sucked my teeth before turning around, because fuck it, if she wanted me to see her, then I fucking would. I met her gaze, then. There was a captivating glint in her blue eyes—a dare. One I couldn’t back away from.

I studied her in a way I hadn't before, taking note of every one of her piercings—a nose ring, a medusa and several on her ears. From a lone freckle near her temple to her full lips, and the way her dark curls framed her face so perfectly.

And then, under her watchful eyes, I allowed my attention to drop to her bare chest, down and further still until I slowly raked them back up.

She was beyond gorgeous and I was hard as a rock, but I wasn’t going to let her know that. “Lovely,” I said, acting bored. “You can put them away now. I’m not going to change my mind. I don’t trust you, therefore you need to be watched. So no, no privacy.”

She hummed, cocking her head, eyes darting to the bulge that was apparently not as hidden as I would have liked to believe. “Does that mean you’ll be ‘watching’ me in the shower?”

What the hell had gotten into her tonight? She really needed to stop this game, or I would do it for her. My self-control was excellent, but she was pushing real hard on that boundary.

I demolished the space between us in five easy strides, standing at the threshold to the tiny bathroom in which she stood, still in only a pair of black cotton panties. Panties that I wanted to rip off of her to discover if she was as turned on as I was.

But I wouldn’t.

Couldn't.

I looked into her eyes, those shining blue orbs filled with sparks and defiance as I closed the door for her.

“I’ll take that as a no,” she said all too cheerfully through the door, and a moment later, I heard the water from the shower.

Which didn’t really help, because now I was picturing her in that shower, without the panties, wet, with her hands roaming her skin.

No.

Fucking stop it.

I clenched my fists.

I needed space. A moment without her tormenting me.

I grabbed my phone and made for the door. “I need to make a call. Don’t get any ideas. I’ll be right back. And don’t even think about running.”

I stuck the phone in my pocket along with the key I’d used to lock the door and breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I’d stepped out of the cramped space. I knew that if she really wanted to, she could break through the door and make a run for it, but I hoped that she had more sense than that by now.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Ailsa

THE SKY HAD turned that strange, bruised shade of dark blue when the last of the day bled reluctantly into night, clouds hanging low and heavy as though the air itself had thickened. There was a weird charge to it like the world was holding its breath.

​We’d barely been training for twenty minutes when Davien started snapping about God only knew what and just… left. He’d gone cold and distant before abruptly stalking off.

​Since I’d used the only weapon in my arsenal against him two nights ago, he’d been even colder than usual with me. I had wanted to test his boundaries because I’d noticed his eyes on me when he didn’t think I’d realised. But I had noticed how they lingered just a little too long, and I’d definitely noticed the hard on that night.

​He could say what he wanted and act as aloof as he desired, but I knew beneath it all he was at the very least attracted to me on some level. And I wasn’t above using my sexuality to fuck with him if that’s what it took. I needed to figure out how to get one over on him, and then how to escape him.

​After he’d stormed out that night, I’d taken the opportunity to rifle through his things, but all I’d found were police reports on some thing that was killing humans. Did he think that was connected to me?

I’d also made a mental note of all of his weapons and phones. If I was going to make a run for it, I’d need to be smart about it. I couldn’t risk him catching me. Or the Ninth—the big, scary organisation he refused to tell me much about except that they were bad—or anything else that was after me.

​“Care to tell me where we’re going?” I called to him, after he didn’t slow down as we neared our room, and instead veered off in the opposite direction of where we were staying. “Or why?”

“Into open space,” he replied without looking back, slinging his duffle bag over his shoulder. “I think being in a concrete jungle might constrict your abilities, and I think you feed off fear and danger so we’re going to try something different.”

I rolled my eyes, though a small part of me begrudgingly acknowledged the logic. Whilst I didn’t like the idea of fear and danger, he had a point—not that I'd openly admit that to him. The only times my power had manifested were in situations of life or death, quite literally.

“Whatever you say.”