Page 117 of Seduced

How do I dare hope? Is it stupid to hope?

Or is it the wisest thing I will ever do?

“You know the real reason I refused to marry you, it wasn’t my lameness, or the fact that I…” she started.

“Stop this, right now.” Alexei’s eyes flashed.

“Well, it wasn’t that.”

“What was it then, Persephone?”

“I…” It was hard to get the words out. But one thing she had discovered these past days was that courage was not easy, not for her. But she still could be brave, even if she was afraid. “I am still so deeply broken,” she said.

“So am I,” he replied at once. He tangled his fingers through hers, idly playing with them. “But I cannot think of better company, as we attempt to build ourselves from the beginning, than sharing it with you.”

“You…you would be willing to do that?”

“Would you?”

“Of course.”

She looked away. Her throat still hurt as if it was being shattered from inside, but apart from that, she felt all right. Her limbs ached from being in bed for so long, and her lungs felt pressed down. She longed to breathe in real air.

“Besides, I cannot live without you, as has been proven. You don’t want me to die, do you?” Alexei was watching her.

Poppy laughed.

“I would not,” she replied. “Not after going to all that trouble seducing you.”

“You finally admit it, you minx.” Alexei flicked her nose with his long finger. “But I did not think you were aware of the effect you had on me while you were doing it. I did not think you knew how many deaths a day I died, just watching you, just being near you and unable to touch you.”

“I don’t know about deaths,” she said, “but I knew you were nothing more than a big sweetheart as soon as I walked into the Underworld.”

“Did you call me a ‘sweetheart’?” He sounded affronted.

“I did. A big one.”

He leaned down and kissed her.

And she kissed him back. And back.

“So how did you know all of this, little one?” He sounded out of breath, his chest coming up and down rapidly, but hewas smiling down at her, his voice laced with teasing. But underneath it all, he sounded close to tears again.

She laughed. “It was the cats, of course,” she said and he threw his head back and laughed.

I am happy, she thought.I didn’t ever think I would be.But I am. I am happy.

And then she thought:There is my answer.

Alexei was still laughing, and she didn’t want him to stop, ever. So she repeated it, just to hear that peal of laughter:

“It was the cats.”

thirty-one

Alexei

“Of course it was those infernal cats,” Alexei said as soon as he could catch his breath. Being breathless out of happiness. There was a new experience. “I should have known.”

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