Page 97 of Seduced

“Don’t be in pain,” he said in a voice hoarse from coughing.

She had meant to give him a look that fell somewhere between indignation and dignity, but seeing him like that scared her so much that she forgot about both. She rushed to his bed, limping in a most graceless manner, and practically shouted:

“You fool!”

Some life flowed back into his cheeks and his eyes lit up. He sat up, smoothing his mane of wild black hair back and coughed wetly.

“I’m sure you are right,” he said, “but why am I a fool this time? No, don’t—don’t—I don’t want you to be hurt any more. You’ve been hurt enough.”

He nearly got out of his bed, reaching out to her, his face a mask of pain.

She pushed him back in and smoothed the covers over his chest. He was shaking.

“Why did you almost let yourself drown?” Poppy asked in a hushed voice, the words almost too horrible to pronounce out loud. “You didn’t even call for help. I…I saw you sink quietly.”

Alexei was looking at her, his eyes full of emotion. But he did not speak.

“You,” she told him, “would rather die than take my hand.”

Alexei lay back on the pillows and took a rattling breath.

“I told you.” He shut his eyes, the color of his cheeks resembling that of the sheets. “I’d sooner drown than hurt you.”

“It would hurt a little, yes, but you wouldn’t be dead!”

“What should I stay alive for?” he snapped.

Poppy felt the blood drain from her face.

“What did you say?” she breathed. “Did you just ask me for reasons not to die?”

Alexei looked tired; resigned. “Why wouldn’t I? I deserve to die.”

“You…”

“I have known it’s what I deserve since I was born,” he went on, looking idly at the ceiling, “but now…After what I have become now…I deserve it even more. I’m just polluting the world. I know that’s all I am.”

“What you are is precious.”

He chuckled without mirth and reached out a long, tapered hand to lightly grasp the bent fingers of her left hand in his. He studied them, his lips turning white. Her fingers still hurt, but not while he held them.

“Please, Wyatt,” he said, “do not insult my intelligence.”

“You deserve to live.” Poppy was crying now, but she didn’t care. “Alexei, you deserve the world. You are a prince in name and in deed. And if you are blind to all the people you have saved, all the people who depend on you and love you, then I…Ineed you.”

“I know that.” His face turned dark and closed and he let go of her hand gently.

“You do?” Heat rushed into her cheeks.

“Well, you seem…attached to me, God knows why. I don’t…I can’t stand knowing that you need me. I don’t know how itispossible for you to need me; I am not anything anyone needs. I told you not to care, Wyatt, but you didn’t listen, did you?”

“It was too late by then,” Poppy said, shivering at the memory of the boxing room and how he had turned into an icicle after she had melted in his arms. How he had fled from her, put her aside.

“So you do care?” he whispered.

“Care?” Poppy snorted. “Are you daft? I love you.”

Alexei inhaled sharply and promptly started coughing again. It sounded as though his chest was being torn to shreds.

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