Page 71 of Captive Heart

Her eyes close again. “Thanks,” she whispers.

I start rubbing her back again. She lets out a sigh, so soft as to be all but silent.

This girl?

She’s dangerous. I have no idea if she even realizes it. But she is definitely angling to entrap me.

For what purpose, I have no idea. But I can feel my heart thumping in my chest. Feel her soft, supple skin as I stroke it reassuringly.

I know what is happening. I am starting… beginning to…

Feel… things.

But for the life of me, I can’t pull away. I stare down at Penny, gently rubbing her back. And I wish that I could be different.

I wish… I wish I could be the type of man that keeps girls around him. The kind of man that could…

Could make her want to stay.

I know I can’t.

I know that trying would be a painful and embarrassing failure.

I can’t be like any other man. I know no other way.

But just for now… just while we are here, in this manor, in this place that’s full of ghosts… I can pretend.

I gently push her back. She protests but I scoop her up in my arms, taking the chair for myself.

Penny yawns and immediately makes herself at home in the crook of my arm. I stay like that, stroking her lovely raven hair and enjoying the feeling of her light weight against my lap until the house falls dark.

Chapter25

Persephone

“Were ye trying to run away?”

Brows arching, I look up from my breakfast tray in the huge navy-hued bedroom I woke up in this morning, Hades is leaning against the doorway, cutting a dark figure in his dark shirt and pants. Pushing away the toast and half-eaten egg, I try to sit up.

Pain radiates from my scabbed-over wound.

“Ahhh,” I hiss, pressing my fingers over it lightly. The dressing has been changed, although I don’t know by whom.

Things just seem to happen around Hades. Unseen hands do much of the dull work.

Like magic, when I woke this morning there were dark, luxurious dresses and oversized sweaters hanging on a rolling stand beside the bed. A fire had been laid in the hearth of my bedroom.

I’m glad now that I took the time to painstakingly pull a fresh sweater over my head before my meal. I shake my head, wrinkling my nose.

“What were you talking about again?” I ask.

“I was talking about the day ye had your little run-in with Constantine’s men.” His eyes narrow on my face, but his expression gives nothing away otherwise. “Were ye trying to run away?”

“No.” I roll my eyes and lie back, the soft mound of pillows just behind me feeling as if they were made in heaven. I clear my throat. “I was looking for a bottle of aspirin. You were nowhere to be found. So… I took the initiative.”

A sour expression curls his upper lip. “I dinnae ken whether to believe ye or not.”

I pull a face. “Have I lied to you before?”

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