Page 104 of Seduced

He blew warm air on her fingertips, and when he saw that she was still shaking, he took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.

“Damn. You can barely breathe, you’re so frozen,” he hissed.

“Don’t…” Poppy began, reluctantly taking her hands back from him, and wrapping them around herself. She angled her body slightly apart from his, and he did not press himself closer.

But he frowned, looking down at her fingers. “What is it, love?”

“You were supposed to abduct me, not rescue me,” Poppy said.

Alexei smiled. “I always love rescuing you,” he replied.

“What an absolutely abominable thing to say!”

Alexei gave her a startled look.

She had not expected that outburst either.

She licked her lips and tried to take a deep breath.

You have to remember how to speak your thoughts properly, she told herself.It was not long ago when you could do it. Come on.

“I meant to say,” she said more calmly, “that you tried to do something fun and enjoyable, and instead you are here saving me. And I can’t stand it. I needed to be kidnapped, not rescued.”

“You needed…?” Alexei asked, looking confused and adorable.

Her hands turned into fists so that they would not reach for his lips. Feeling was starting to return to her numb fingers, and it hurt so much she hissed in pain.

“If you were to carry me away from my brother’s house,” she said, “it should be an abduction, so that I could enjoy it this time. I shouldn’t need to be rescued.”

“Ah.” He was silent for a bit, the smile fading abruptly from his face. “I see. But maybeIneeded to rescue you.”

“Is that why you are here? To save me?”

“Don’t you think you’ve savedmeenough times already?” He shuddered, but it couldn’t have been from the cold, because his body emanated heat, even without touching her. “But no, alas, I was not here for that; although you must believe me, Wyatt, if I had suspected for a second that I had sent you back to hell, I would have run after you as if the very devil were on my heels.”

“You did not send me anywhere. You gave me a choice.”

“Like a bloody fool.”

“No, it was necessary.” Poppy shook her head. “I needed to have a choice, because otherwise, how is any decision valid? How is any desire true?”

“I see.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t…Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?”

“Shake your head like that. It makes your hair tumble about your shoulders in this most appealing way, and I…” He swallowed, jaw working. “We are in such close quarters, and there is only so much a man can endure before he breaks. I have fought against myself, fought as if against a monster, from the first time I held you in my arms, not to fall on you and devour you and…”

“Kiss me,” Poppy said, lifting her face to his. “Please.”

Alexei reached out an arm and brought it with force to the carriage’s paneled wall, half an inch from her head, pinning her in place. Then, his elbow folding out, he leaned in and fit his face to hers.

Poppy breathed into his lips and felt him go weak against her. His hand came up to her throat, tilting her face higher, and he worked his mouth over hers until neither of them could breathe.

Suddenly, he bent his head low, panting softly.

“Now I’m about to faint,” he chuckled.

“I shall catch you,” Poppy smiled.

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