Page 96 of Seduced

Poppy had suddenly sat down on the wet stones, her legs giving out beneath her.

“I am, thank you,” she replied, her voice trembling.

She could scream from the pain in her arm, but she bit her lip and swallowed it down.

“Are you sure?” Wilder persisted. “You…you look quite green.”

Alexei was unconscious again, but Wilder was holding him up, looking as if it required no effort at all to him to bear the weight of a fully grown man in his arms. He laid Alexei down gently on his side.

“Mikailoff would prefer me to tend to you instead of him,” Wilder said, looking down at her, his brow furrowed in concern.

“And I would prefer that he not die,” Poppy replied.

The next second, she found herself gripped in Wilder’s embrace, the man’s entire body shuddering as he pressed her to his chest.

“Are…are you embracing me, Mr. Wilder?” Poppy dared to ask.

Wilder took a moment to reply. He appeared to be sobbing into her shoulder.

“I am embracing you,” he replied, slowly letting her go. His chest heaved, his eyes were red.

“Because…?”

“Because you saved him,” Wilder said, wiping his nose.

“Not yet,” Poppy said gently. “You must do the rest of the saving, it seems.”

“Oh, good God.”

Wilder turned to look at Alexei and his expression changed. Hades did look as if he were about to die, it was true. With a grunt, Wilder pulled him up by the arms, gathered him to his chest, and turned to carry him up the stairs.

“Stay where you are,” Wilder called at her, over his shoulder. “I shall call for help.”

“Oh, I am running away, no doubt about it,” Poppy said, then bent her head over her knees to keep herself from fainting.

Wilder swore—a new word, she would have to add it to her vocabulary—and was gone.

…

It took his servants nearly two hours to bring Alexei round, but as soon as he was properly awake and warmed up, Wilder had her called to his rooms. Poppy was in considerable pain, but with Rania’s help, she managed to change into dry clothes and put up her hair in a semblance of decency.

“God, your color is off,” Rania said, looking at her with a worried look on her face.

“What did you expect,” Poppy replied, “I watched him nearly drown. I thought hewoulddrown.”

“But you saved him,” Rania stroked the curls that had escaped Poppy’s chignon to fall across her forehead. “You saved him,” she repeated, her voice low and reverent.

“He nearly did not allow himself to be saved.”

“He wouldn’t, would he?” Rania said, matter-of-factly.

But Poppy was more disturbed by what had passed between her and Alexei at the lake than she could express. The moment a servant appeared to say that his lordship was presentable and able to receive visitors, she got up and limped to his room.

He was on that huge bed, his skin lily-white, his eyes empty. He almost looked the same as when he had been half-dead. Seeing him like that sent a knife to her heart.

She inhaled sharply and almost whimpered in pain.

His eyes shot up at her, and he was immediately alert.

---