Page 57 of Seduced

She’s threatening me. It’s blackmail, it is. If Nikolaos’ assassins were as good at threats as this girl, I can’t promise thatI wouldn’t have given the prince’s location up already.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, following her at once. “Remember when I taught you how to fight back?”

“Faintly,” she replied, hurrying out in the hall.

“I am beginning to think it was the worst idea I ever had. I think I taught you a little too well.”

“Do not flatter yourself, my lord,” Poppy’s voice floated back to him, and he thought he heard a laugh in her voice. The very thought that she might be smiling—or laughing—was enough to nearly send him to his knees again. “You had little, if anything, to do with my new-found courage. I can faintly remember being this person before. I had just lost myself for a bit, that’s all.”

She was clearly taking the lead; but where was she leading him? She didn’t know enough of the Club’s labyrinth-like structure to take him anywhere yet.

“What have I done?” Alexei chuckled, as he followed, obediently.

But inside, his heart was being torn apart.

If just one kiss revealed you to be a goddess,he thought silently at her,then what were you before?

And who did this to you?

What have they done to you?

Who dared to turned you from a goddess to a pet?

And how soon can I get my hands on them to murder the absolute hell out of them?

Twice over.

…

There was no escaping the cats.

As soon as they climbed the stairs to the main floor, they were swarmed by the feline masters of the club. Poppy walked calmly around them, her steps not faltering once, the cats magically allowing her to weave through their soft paws as if they recognized in her a rare form of cat-approved authority.

By the time they found the gaming rooms, there were seven of the bloody animals tangled around Alexei’s boots and Poppy’s dress. He was alert, ready to drop to his knees and swoop all seven demons in his arms if he saw that they were about to trip Poppy; she had trouble enough walking with her limp, although one could not tell by the graceful if a bit uneven way she floated on the ground. But somehow, it seemed that the cats were even more careful of her than he was, so he relaxed and surrendered himself to following her and wondering what new stupidity he had gotten himself into.

He did not have to wonder for long.

She took him to one of the gaming rooms. Men of various ages and social standing were lounging about as the thick, pungent fog that was coming from their cigars clouded about their heads, and Miss Wyatt, instead of being shocked, ignored all of that and simply said:

“Now we shall pretend to play, but really, we shall watch.”

“We?” he lifted an eyebrow, a movement which was usually enough to render his companions into cowering idiots. But Miss Wyatt did not even notice.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” she said with indignation. “But do not presume to ask me again why I came here, my lord, if you do not have the patience for the answer.”

“Don’t you ‘my lord’ me,” Alexei hissed, annoyed into making a fool of himself.

Poppy smiled. His breath caught at the sight.

I would make an absolute fool of myself every day just to see her smile.

Damn her.

They sat at a card table and proceeded to spend the most insipid night of his life pretending to play cards, according to Miss Wyatt’s instructions. From where he sat at her elbow, it didn’t look as if she were pretending: the girl knew her game.

After she had won several hands and cheated most shamefully, Alexei perceived that she was about to get up, subtly motioning to him to do the same. He endeavored to pick his jaw up from the floor and follow her in a somewhat inconspicuous way.

“What are we doing?” he hissed at her. Maybe he should add‘I don’t follow females around my club’s gaming rooms’to his list of things he did not do.

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