Page 32 of Seduced

He drew back against the corner and raised his chin up to hide his face from her.

Alexei wasn’t one to rethink his own decisions; once he had made up his mind to do something, he went ahead and did it, never looking back. There was nothing but torture in looking back anyway.

But today, on this crisp winter’s morning, as his barouche tottered along on the dirty London streets, carrying him and the abducted Miss Wyatt to his Hell Club, he wondered, maybe for the first time in his life.

What the hell have I done?

Poppy

The club looked even more resplendent in the morning.

There was little natural light filtering through the heavily-draped windows, but it was enough to make the place look magical: the great hall was dripping with marble and gold, every surface covered in intricate embroidery and Persian carpets. It was like stepping into a palace, like stepping into a fairytale.

Poppy’s heart was too heavy and numb to enjoy it, but she would probably be too frightened to do so even if she hadn’t been hurting so badly. As it was, her legs and back ached so much that she was constantly holding back a scream. Herthroat, raw with the effort not to shout in pain, felt as though it had been shredded into a thousand ribbons.

“Have you had breakfast yet?” a voice she was quickly starting to despise asked.

Hades looked even more intimidating in the daylight, if that was possible. His beauty was of a dark and icy nature, a barrier between him and the world, and he seemed content to shield himself behind it and his surly attitude. He seemed untouchable, as if nothing could break or soften his marble-hard façade.

Least of all she.

Poppy quickly decided, instinctively, that appealing to his pity would be useless, a waste of time. But other than that, she was too tired and in too much pain to think of what to do.

Resist, a voice said in her head.Fight.

She stumbled along, hurrying up to follow Hades’ long strides, every step an agony.

No, do not resist,she replied sternly to that voice in her head.Do not give in to the temptation. Resisting means starvation, punishment and death. You have lived this truth for years and years. Submit. Obey. It’s the only way to survive.

“What now?” Hades asked, sounding bored.

He was a few steps ahead of her, but he had stopped walking. She had given up the effort, too, and stood there, in the middle of a room big enough to be a ballroom, its walls lined with books, its ceiling an Italian mural. A literal army of cats was slowly making its way to her skirt, and she was surrounded by them within seconds.

“The cats need feeding,” she said.

Hades sneered. “Right,” he said, in that darkly sarcastic way of his, “the cats.”

His mouth twisted into what might pass as a smile inhisworld, but the rest of the world would call a grimace.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, finally facing her.

Poppy tried to think. Was she? She had turned off the part of herself that felt hunger; it was too painful, and she’d had to starve for days. It was even more painful to turn it back on.

“God in heaven, how long will it take you to decide if you are hungry or not?” Hades did not just sound impatient, which was only normal, after all: her brother was constantly out of patience with her. She must be so tiresome. But Hades also sounded furious, for some reason.

“I don’t know,” she replied truthfully, but that only seemed to make matters worse.

Hades ran his hand through his thick, black hair, ruining its style completely.

“That’s what I mean!” he practically roared. “Who doesn’t know if they are hungry or not? What is wro—” He stopped himself midsentence, took a deep breath. “You know what? Forget it. I’m feeding you anyway, and then you will tell me exactly who and what did this to you.”

“Why?” she asked, taking her life into her own hands.

Hades had turned around to begin his furious pacing again, but at her question, he froze, his back growing tense beneath his jacket.

“So I can murder them,” he replied, not turning around.

“I see,” Poppy said, although she didn’t see at all. One of the cats was attempting to climb her skirt as if it was trellis, ruining the tattered fabric. “Will you tell me why you brought me here, my lord?”

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