Evil Duke, Please Be Gentle!

"I am talking about the black box that you have!"

"Oh, so you want the reward back too. Only over my dead body!!!" she stood up abruptly and without giving him a chance to explain she continued, "i have always thought that you are a wise person but to not understand who was the culprit you chose to blame me!

How wrong I was when I trusted you!! If I wanted to seduce you that was why I had drank the drink, then I would have not spent the night in the bathtub!" "achhoo" she sneezed at the end of the sentence but when she looked at his face, it was blank. 

She could not decipher what he was thinking by looking at it. But it only made her furious, why was that he could not trust her?

Last night! The way he had apologized to her and taken the cafe for her, if not much she had thought that they were good friends. Then why had he changed so much over night!?

His eyes flickered as he heard her accusing words! But when he looked above and met her eyes, it was calm like a lake. He did not say a word as he continued to stare into the eyes of the girl, as if trying to decide how truthful she was!

She was right, he did not trust her! He could not trust her! The sheer amount of jewels were forcing him to not trust her.

"So, you will not return the reward!" he asked, making sure that she did not know the origins of the jewels but thought that he had given her those jewels as her reward.

"No! They are mine. I have earned them rightfully. I have followed your every command and fulfilled your every whim. Then why shall I return them?" she asked back in a sharp voice as if a kitten was showing all her claws to the tiger to protect her milk.

"Don't you think that the amount of jewels were more than promised?" he could not believe that she thought that the jewels were given by him. If he would even ask for his share in the assets of the Thawyne family, he was sure that he would not get more than that! 

So, did she think that he had given her all his part? Or she had no idea about the properties of the Thawyne family and the value of the rare treasure she had!

Evan pursued her lips. She had never seen so many jewels and its variety so she had no idea how precious they were. 

Her face turned uneasy. Maybe he had added a lot more jewels to shut his aunt and now asking back for the extra ones, that softened her face, and she sat back again.

"Oh, so you were asking me to return extra jewels to you? You can take all of them back and pay me in gold and silver coins instead. Selling such rare jewels would be difficult as they would look at me with suspicious eyes like the matriarch." her soft and innocent eyes were clear, she was telling the truth!

If not, she would not have offered the jewels back to him! But how! How did she not know that she was the owner of all those and he had not added a single bronze coin to eat much less gold or silver!

"Alright, give all the jewels to me and I will pay you, your reward in gold and silver coins." he raised a brow and his lips curled upwards devilishly. "1000 gold coins would be fine, right?" he added as he tilted his head.

The amount was lesser than the amount she would get just by selling a single piece of it. It was a challenge, a test she had to pass!

"I do not know, maybe 1200." she blinked and he chuckled.

"Very well, 1200 it is! Arden would go with you, give him the jewel box and he will give you 1200 gold coins and 1200 silver coins." he replied with a chuckle, but his eyes were cold.

Evan did not notice his strange eyes as she was relieved that he did not want to blame her but asking back what belongs to him! She took a breath of relief and a smile came back on her face.

"Alright, I will do that. In fact, this is the right time. I am sure after the achoo, events of last night, achoo." she covered her face as she sneezed again and again and his cold face turned into a frown. He passed his handkerchief to her which she took unceremoniously and snorted on it.

He shook his head, she could never be a lady with those traits of her!!  She wiped her nose clean with the handkerchief and then blinked her red eyes.

"Yes! I was saying after the events of last night, I am sure that the matriarch and lady Aurora would not stay silent. 

They would create a ruckus and blame me for trying to mix drugs in your food and seduce you when I saw that my position as your wife is not stable. Achoo" there was no worry in her eyes at all when she talked about it. They were gleaming with amusement and excitement as if she was looking forward to the matter.

"Do not worry, I will support you." His nonchalant reply made her blink her eyes and she smiled warmly. She shook her head as her smile turned a bit bitter when she remembered how he was ready to do anything to get rid of her. 

"That is not needed, you have to support them and throw me out of the house to end my chapter in your life. After all, that was what you wanted from the start.`` She stood up ready to leave. But before she could turn, she asked back

"Leo, does it mean that you trust me?"

".........."