Page 172 of Niccolo

“Maybe you’ll continue your streak, then.”

“Alright: why are you in Hong Kong?”

“I’m notinHong Kong. I’m in Macau.”

“You little brat,” I said, at which point she giggled. “Alright – why are you inMacau?”

“Why… to fuckyou,of course.”

“And that’s why you came all this way, huh.”

“Mm-hm.”

“You could’ve made it a lot easier on both of us and just hooked up with me back in Italy.”

“But then you would have tried to kill me.”

“I suppose thereisthat tiny wrinkle,” I admitted. While she was looking straight at me, I went for the kill, hoping she would flinch. “Did you talk to Mr. Lau?”

Her expression lapsed into neutral blankness, and she didn’t say anything.

Her face wasn’t giving anything away –

So I bluffed.

“You did,” I said with feigned smugness. “I can tell.”

Her face didn’t change one bit.

I was almostpositiveshe’d talked to Lau…

But I couldn’t beabsolutelysure.

She had a better poker face than I’d given her credit for.

I considered my options: press on, or just give up.

I could keep spouting bullshit about how I knew what she’d done, but that would make me look try-hard –

So I quit while I was ahead.

“Alright… I guess we’ll see how it turns out,” I said.

She didn’t reply.

“And I suppose we’ll resume trying to kill each other once we get back to Italy,” I said with weary resignation.

“I suppose so. What do you want to do in the meantime?”

“Well… I could fuck your brains out some more.”

“See?” she said as she sat up, crawled up on my lap, and straddled me. “Nowyou’re negotiating.”

“I kind of already gave away my leverage, though, by fucking you so much already,” I said playfully.

“No,” she teased, dangling her breasts right in front of my face. “You gave me a taste… and now I want more.”

So I gave her some more.

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