Page 12 of The Seducer
My throat was burning. Hearing her say that she could undo the curse made me all dizzy with excitement. “What do you want?”
Athena hardened her face and looked into my eyes again. “Five days, I want five days.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You took five days from me, and now I want five days from you.”
My eyebrows dipped low and my hands plowed through my long curly hair when I asked the obvious question in a low incredulous tone. “You want me to be your hostage for five days?”
“Since you’ll be volunteering to give back what you took, it wouldn’t be right to call you a hostage. Besides, in order for you to be a hostage, I would need to have the purpose of trading you for something, which I don’t.”
“But why would you want me in your house? We both know you hate me.” I hated how calm and collected she seemed about the whole situation. Like she was asking me to take off my shoes before stepping into her house.
“I don’t hate you. I did not appreciate what you did to me, but I have found my peace with what happened.”
“Then why are you looking for revenge?”
Athena shrugged. “My motivation is my own. The question is: are you willing to pay the price of five days to have me lift the curse?”
“Even if I wanted to stay, I couldn’t. I’m supposed to attend all these different events, and Hans is probably already wondering what’s taking me so long.”
“Would you like me to talk to him?” she offered.
I rubbed my face before huffing out air. “You can’t be serious about this?”
But she looked very serious when she repeated her request. “Five days, Finn.”
I threw up my hands and raised my voice a little. “And what are you gonna do with me for five days?”
“I’m going to do to you what you did to me.”
I jerked my head back. “The hell you are.”
She held my direct stare, and raised an eyebrow.
“Fuck that, Athena. What would even be the purpose?”
“As I said, my motivation is my own and this is the last time I’m going to ask you to stop using that word in my house.” She stood up. “Take a few minutes to think it through. I’ll be waiting with Hans outside.”
Every unsatisfying sexual encounter that I’d had ran through my mind, and Athena hadn’t even reached the door when I stood up so abruptly that my chair tilted. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
Her body stiffened before she turned and gave me a nod. “Good. Excuse me while I go and explain it to Hans.”
CHAPTER 4
Tied
Athena
“Is this really necessary?” Finn grunted.
“Yes, everything has to go,” I said and didn’t look away when he pulled his thick sweater off with an annoyed groan.
I should have anticipated the loud gasp from Hans, who stood next to me.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a tattoo,” I said, remembering my own reaction the first time I’d seen Finn’s abdomen. Even though I hadn’t commented on it to him at the time, I’d been terrified he was half machine and void of human empathy.
“But it looks so real.” Hans leaned closer to study the visual illusion of skin peeled back and machinery underneath. “You look like a cyborg,” he told Finn and angled his head. “Why in the world would you do that to yourself?”
