Page 52 of Seduced

“Do it, quickly, before I have time to recover my breath.”

She did it. His hand flew up and caught her fingers before she could literally ‘claw at’ his eyes, as he had instructed. He hissed at her touch but did not flinch, staying still, in front of her.

“Again,” he said.

They repeated the entire thing, hissing included.

“Does your arm hurt like this?” he asked her, letting it down with more gentleness than she had thought him capable of.

“A little,” she replied. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly from the exertion, and she was feeling more alive than she had in years.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s no matter,” Poppy said. “I’ve learned to live with it. To do what I must.”

“No.” His face got sullen, and he looked younger, like a boy. “This is unacceptable.”

“Are you not in pain as well?” Poppy thought of all the hissing.

“No, why would I be?” His eyebrows met in confusion.

“You said you couldn’t abide to be touched.”

“Oh that.” He looked away. “You’re right. I can’t. But I had…had quite forgotten.”

“Oh.”

He forgot? How on earth does one just forget—?

“Come on then,” Hades said with renewed enthusiasm, “we shall find a better maneuver for you. Let me think.” He proceeded to try out different movements right there, in front of her. She watched him move lightly on his feet, with the grace of a dancer, mesmerized. “Right,” he said finally. “Punch me now, right in the face, like I showed you. Then push me away. No, faster. The minute I lean towards you, do not hesitate, do you hear me? Do not think of refusing, juststart fighting at once. At once. You may have a split second, use it.”

She tried to do as he asked, but her body felt wooden, awkward.

“Again,” he said, infinitely patient.

“Again.”

“Again.”

“I’m sorry,” she said twenty ‘agains’ later.

Sweat was pouring down his brow, but his lips were smiling. And it did not look like a lie.

“Never mind that now, you are making progress,” he said, sniffling. “Come at me. Harder. Make it hurt this time. Move the way I taught you, your body tight, and choose my weak spot, where you can do the most damage.”

They went on, their breaths panting in tandem.

Finally, he let her rest and braced his arms on the back of a chair, catching his breath for a full minute.

“You are quite spent,” he told her.

He was watching her, smiling an absolutely wolfish smile. His hair was sweaty, dark strands plastered against his forehead, and at some point, he had taken off his vest and stood there in his stockinged feet and shirtsleeves, a wall of muscle inside his billowing lawn shirt. He was smiling down at her with his white teeth and deep dimples, and before she knew what she was saying, it happened:

“Shall you try to seduce me now, so that we can see if I can resist?” her mouth said.

Without her permission.

She herself was still trying to get enough air inside her lungs.

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