Page 18 of Seduced

I will blurt out something ridiculous like ‘my father tried to drown me with a litter of kittens when I was a baby, and seeing you today made me relive that, you insufferable young pup! I haven’t been able to draw a clear breath since.’

No no no, that would never do. Even admitting the unwanted thoughts to himself was pathetic.

The boy, insufferable though he was, must be kept talking at all costs, or Alexei’s thoughts would drown him alive.

He tried to breathe and choked on pure air.

Excellent.

“Speak!” Alexei commanded again, in a voice that indicated that he was used to being obeyed.

And obeyed he was.

The boy, damn him, spoke, but not to answer his question.

“Do you do this often, Your Excellency?” he asked, completely changing the subject.

The boy appeared to have caught his breath in the relative heat of the closed carriage. Regrettable, that. But at least he had no excuse for not answering Alexei’s questions.

Upon closer inspection, he looked much younger than Alexei had originally thought. Barely into his teens, really. No doubt very ill brought-up, not to mention hugely uneducated.

I shall have to have words with Wilder again, about who he lets into the Hell Club, Alexei thought.It is supposed to have the reputation of an exclusive club, for heaven’s sake—even though we let in all the riffraff anyway. But this is beyond the pale. This is a child.

“Call me by my name, would you?” Alexei retorted irritably.

The thought of a mere boy entering the club and gambling away his meagre silver coins annoyed him to no end. Suddenly, he longed for the chilly air of the river; the coach seemed stifling. He could barely catch his breath.

“Do I do what often? Rescue bloody insufferable boys from the Thames? No. Rescue bloody insufferable cats? Yes. Every single one of my cats has been rescued from the streets.”

“That is impressive, Your Lor—Lord Hades,” the boy bit his tongue.

Right. This was much worse than calling him ‘excellency’.

“I said, my name,” Alexei muttered. “I don’t know why people insist on calling me Hades. It never really has made any sense to me.”

“I think they mean harbinger of death,” the boy explained.

“Well, I am nothing like that. Unless they mean death by means of too much pleasure.”

“They mean something quite the opposite of that,” his companion murmured.

“What?”

“Forgive me, Your Worship,” the boy said, “I am distraught. I don’t know what I’m saying. I shouldn’t speak; the more I speak, the more I sin.”

What a strange, not to mention completely nonsensical, thing to say.

Sin? What on earth…?

“All that’s left is for you to call me ‘Your Majesty’ now,” Alexei murmured under his breath.

“I’m sorry, Your Honor,” the boy said with nothing resembling contrition on his voice.

“Apparently, I was wrong.”

Alexei sighed so deeply it felt as if he were sucking in the entirety of the air in the carriage. The boy had abandoned all pretense at staring out of the window, and was looking at him intently.

“Stop staring at me like that,” Alexei said.

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