Page 41 of Merciless Heir
I don’t think she is, but I didn’t get to where I am, I didn’t get to be me, without questioning things. And I’m attracted to her. I learned long ago, with that woman, the one I fell for, that attraction makes us blind. Vulnerable. Stupid.
And I’m not a stupid man.
She’s the exact kind of woman I never thought I’d meet or want. And that’s how cons work. Finding the in.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, Sadie. I’ve a right to know.”
“You have no rights with me except you getting your fucking tiara. I bet after you milk it, you’ll sell it to the highest bidder.”
“No, I’d want you to do it for me.”
“Why? So you can get the highest price?”
I glare and stalk up to her. “And so what if I want that?”
“You don’t get what it is you have with the tiara.” Her eyes narrow. “Rich people.”
“Says the criminal.”
“Ex.”
“And I have a right to know who and what I’m working with,” I say, her scent of jasmine and smoke with its wisp of spice winding around me, drawing me into her. “It’s one thing working with someone who steals from the rich and insured. It’s another working with someone who destroys lives.”
Her dark eyes glitter. “I’m no fan of my father, but how is what he did different from what you and your kind do to people?”
“I don’t take from people who can’t afford it. I don’t destroy lives. And I don’t do it deliberately with no thought about anything except myself.”
She turns away and I catch her arm, her flesh warm beneath the coat. We both look down at my hand and then at each other. And the sparks leap and dance and tease. “I’m not him.”
“What am I meant to think?” The situation is slipping free from my fingers, but the fire burns down into my bones. That flame between us that ignited the moment I saw her. The moment I tasted her dark sweetness.
I’m mad she’s evading me. I’m annoyed at myself for sliding a knife in between ribs. And I’m fucking turned on.
So is she.
It heats the air.
“You’re not meant to, Kingston. You hired me to do a job, and I’m doing that job.”
“We’re doing it together.”
“I work alone.”
“We work together. Especially now I know what runs in your blood.”
Silence bites and she shifts, sliding in closer, brushing against my body. “The same murky tendrils of morals that runs in yours?”
“We’re not the same.”
Sadie laughs, looking up at me, contempt and desire a dark and fascinating war in her gaze.
“You might have billions, Kingston, but you’re not any better than me.” Her mouth turns in a cold semblance of a smile. “The difference, apart from being handed money on your end, is you’ll do anything and everything to get by, to build a world for yourself because you can. I do it because I have to.”
I frown. “Don’t play games with me. I don’t steal.”
“Don’t you? Mr. Billionaire?”