Page 45 of Seduced

He could only hope that she hated it too.

“Can you step onto the boat there?” he asked her, indicating one of the many long barges docked on the rocks against which a small lake’s waters was lapping peacefully in the darkness. “I would rather not touch you. I shall push you on the water as soon as you are in.”

“Shall you…” her breathing was shallow, and her words were cut short. She was terrified. Good. Still, she obeyed him, getting into the boat without protesting.What is wrong with you?“Shall you stay on the shore?”

Oh.She was afraid that he would push her out into the water all by herself, in a shallow boat without oars. To die.

“You still think I am trying to kill you, don’t you?” he murmured, wincing at the thought. He jumped in, beside her, and his thigh brushed against the hem of her dress. A shiver shook his entire body. “While in fact, it’s the exact opposite.Youare trying to killme.”

“I—I don’t—”

He was supposed to be glad that she was so flustered and disoriented, but instead he felt like a monster.

He grasped the oars, a little tighter than was absolutely necessary, and started rowing, his knuckles white, his lips set.

“It truly is a lake,” Poppy said at length, distracted from her fear by the expanse of the water. They were a good fifteen yards far from the shore now. Over their heads, the cave echoed their every breath, its ceiling glowing silver with the water’s reflection. “It’s enormous. I had not thought it possible.”

Alexei did not share her fascination. Proximity to water was always an excruciating agony.

“It feeds into a river, eventually,” he said. “The lake goes out from this cave to a river, and then to the sea. It passes through the Thames, you see. My friend Lord Darlington once escaped his captors via this very lake. Very useful. But deadly, too. The lake gets deep the farther from the shore we wander.”

“I thought it would be shallow water.” Her voice was trembling again.

“It is the opposite of that,” Alexei said, seeing his opportunity and grasping it with both hands. “Be careful. If you fall in, you’ll drown, because I cannot swim myself. I mean, I would dive after you, naturally, gentleman and allthat, you understand. But I don’t swim, so we shall both drown, and they won’t find our bones until centuries later. There is no natural light here, and the water gets deep over twice my height in the middle there.”

He pointed with a jut of his jaw.

“How on earth do you know that?” Poppy shuddered.

“I tried it.”

“You tried it? You…you mean, you dove in, when you can’t swim?”

“Well, that is irrelevant,” Alexei shrugged. “I wanted to see how deep it was. Turns out, too deep,” he chuckled. Poppy’s face was bloodless. “Oh, don’t look so horrified, Dante was here.”

“And what if he hadn’t been?”

He shrugged again. They rowed on in silence, the oars gently lapping against the still black waters, the cave echoing their rhythm.

He watched her. Even though she was so frightened she was practically trembling with fear, her features exuded serenity.God, she is beautiful.

After a few minutes, he realized that she was cradling her one arm, and gently massaging her fingers. It matched her bad leg, and he felt a sharp pain on his chest as he saw it.

“Does it hurt?” He glanced at her hand, then away.

“Yes,” she replied simply.

His head gave a little jerk, but otherwise he didn’t react.

She leaned over carefully, and touched her palm to the still surface of the water, her fingers parallel to the silvery liquid. He had to bite down hard on his lip so as not so shudder at the idea of someone putting their hand in contact with the water intentionally.

She closed her eyes, thick lashes leaning against velvet cheeks, and breathed out a sigh of pure pleasure.

That’s it. I can’t take any more of this.

I brought her here to torture her, and I am the one burning in the fires of hell.

Alexei was considering throwing himself over the side just so that he would drown and end this torment, when she turned to him and said:

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