Page 48 of My Merciless Don

“I stole your money.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“I betrayed your trust.”

I blinked in surprise at those words. “You assume I trusted you?”

“You trusted me enough to let me into your system.”

“You had me backed in a corner. I had very little choice.”

“You could have just killed me and have it done with.”

“Like I said before, how would that have helped me to get my money back?”

“But I stole more!” She exclaimed as if I did not understand that.

“Yes, you did.”

“So why are you helping me?” She shouted.

I shrugged. “Like I said, damsel in-”

“Distress.” We both said together.

“Yeah, you said,” she continued sounding extremely frustrated. “It's Amy, isn't it? It's because I look like her. Because I’m her sister?”

I rolled my eyes, even if she was kind of right. “I took you to Sofia before I knew who you were.”

“You knew about the resemblance.”

“So what?”

“You called me Amy in bed. Do you think I'm your replacement Amy?”

I sighed, shaking my head, “Audry, I assure you - please listen to my words - you and Amy are nothing alike.”

Weirdly, she looked hurt by that statement. “Yeah, I know I'm not anything like St. Amy. I don't rescue dogs and kittens, or sing in the rain, or cook you breakfast. I know that. It's a good thing you know that as well, because you can't make me into her.”

I shook my head at her obtuseness. “That's not what I meant. I wasn't trying to say that Amy is better than you. And trust me, she was no saint. All I meant to say was that I see you. I see beneath all the masks that you put up, your cockiness, your bravado, it's all up front. I see the fear beneath, the fear that who you are is never going to be good enough. I'm not gonna tell you that you're good enough Audry, because you won't believe me. But I hope that you give me a chance to show you that you are. That your intelligence, your sense of humor, your recklessness, your astuteness, the way that you see people, that it's enough.”

She blinked at me clearly nonplussed. I felt a little smug to have shut her up so effectively. Her mouth twisted and she gave me a look. “You think you have me gobsmacked, don't you?”

“You see. This is what I mean about you being astute.”

She derisively shook her head and looked away. I could see the blush on her cheeks though. She was pleased and embarrassed by my words.

“So now what? You want your nuclear launch codes back?”

“That would be nice. But the horse has already left that barn. There's no way we can trust that you don't have copies.”

“So, what do you wanna do?”

“What do you want to do?” I volleyed the ball gently back into her court.

She just looked at me, letting the bleakness show in her eyes. “I have no idea, Marco.”

Slowly I leaned in, giving her every chance to pull away. She kept looking me in the eye with curiosity and something that might have been fear. I closed the distance between us and pressed my mouth to hers. Her lips were soft and warm beneath mine, the aftertaste of whiskey hitting my tongue as I ran it along her bottom lip before licking my way into her mouth. The kiss was tentative, a tender questing thing, asking a question and hoping for the right answer. Tongues tangling around each other, dancing a two step tango, trying to find each other's rhythm.

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