Third Person's POV.

Like a statue, she stood still with the picture and the note in her hand. She was doing everything in her power not to flinch when he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, so silently that for a moment she thought he was always around her. It has always been, in the dead of the night when she could hear nothing but silence. He could have been there, always lurking in the shadows and she would have never known.

'Click' the silence was pierced by that sound. Wait 'click'? Ava thought to herself and then realized it was the sound of the door being locked behind him. She released a shuddering breath. What will he do to me now? She flinched when she felt his breath on her ear. When did he get so close? He gently slipped the picture out of her hand and whispered.

"Sit." She was so used to hearing his kind soft voice that she couldn't believe her ears when his voice held somewhat anger in it. She did as she was told without defying. A woman should know the extent she can push a guy. Salvatore sat in front of her on the couch with his body leaned back as though relaxed, with his legs eased apart. One of his arms was splayed out over the backrest of the couch. And the other hand held the picture as he gazed at it, with cold eyes.

He should not look hot. Not in this situation Ava. She looked over his shoulder, trying to avoid him. She would have been happy about not having a panic attack for the first time if she was not so focused on trying to get her mind off of him and the way he looked right now. He was giving off Superiority. Asking the other to submit to him, all just by his aura.

"Are you sorry?" He looked with his predatory eyes, from over the picture, at her and asked in a deadly tone. Yet there was something else in his voice she could not quite put her finger on. "Yes." She whispered out. She knew she had to apologize. It was ahead of her to secretly go through his things while he was doing them a favour by keeping them sheltered in his house.

"I am sorry it was improper of me. I did not open any files.." She was looking down now and was twisting her fingers between each other, with her hands on her lap. "Look at me when we are talking." Please. He would have used that word if it was not for his anger and her foolishness.

Her eyes snapped back at his. And his eyes softened somewhat when he noticed fear in her eyes. Or was it just Ava's imagination? "How sorry are you?" He asked with all seriousness. "I am very sorry." She was embarrassed and ashamed. And she felt like a toddler being scolded. For the first time, she noticed how much more mature and older he was than her.

She only felt comfortable with having somewhat power over her situations. The distribution of power at that point would have unsettled her greatly, only if she was not fighting herself from noticing how powerful and thick his thighs looked as his legs were resting apart. Or how the muscles of his arms flexed by each flick of the picture in his hands.

She gulped and kept her gaze on the magnificent greys of his. "Enough to do what I ask?" His voice was more predatory than angry now, with a hint of something she was astonished to recognize at last. Desire. She nodded slowly doing everything in her power not to look away from his eyes or run to her room and slam the door shut. "Kiss me, Ava." He croaked out. She did not know what possessed her but by the sound of his need, she walked straight to him and stood between his legs with one knee on the sofa and her lips found him in a blink.

She heard him gasp as he lightly held her neck with one hand and her waist in the other. His lips were softer than they looked. His lower lip was slightly plumper than his upper lip which felt like perfection under her tongue. Suddenly the power dynamic shifted completely when he started kissing me back. Soft yet fierce, how can something be like this? It felt like a flower yet burnt like a flame. Engulfing her whole body.

After what felt like a lifetime, he pulled back. His eyes told her that if it was not necessary to breathe, he had no intention of ending it. Ever. "By God, I will forgive you anything this way." He breathed out. As he rested his forehead on hers. She felt a splash of water as memory pored in. How she touched her forehead from his. Their first contact and his first denial of their marriage. She stepped back immediately.

"Ava." He croaked out, as though in agony. His eyes held regrets and pain. He knew it. He knew what it meant to her and how she was affected by it. "I hope I'm forgiven." It was her attempt to make that kiss purely business and nothing could have hurt Salvatore more than that, at that time. She made it sound like her emotions, her desire was never involved in that kiss and it hurt him greatly. Not because of the possibility that it could be true. But because he knew it was a lie. And he knew she was not only lying to him but to herself too.

"That was not for the sake of forgiveness." He said with his voice just the slightest cold but still was kind enough, not to scare her off. She parted her lips to lie again and to insist upon that lie. But he cut her off more firmly. "It was not." His gaze held hers with pain yet patience. With anger yet adoration. And she could not deny it any more, but still she did not accept it.

He already knew she did not look inside any files. She could tell by his relaxed and confident posture earlier. "You knew. I did not look inside the files." He nodded, not denying it. "I know everything that happens in my house." He looked up at me, his eyes getting softer and softer by the time. "And sometimes things happen just because I want them to." Then the realization hit her like a wave. The keys were too easy to be grasped. He knew it would happen, he baited me. He knew she was curious.

"It was anything but business." He stated silently, trailing her mind out of her thoughts. His gaze was on her lips again. She pulled her lips in a thin line at his attention, so his gaze moved up to her eyes. "Is he your father? The one in the picture?" He looked at her and realized the attempt to change the topic again. He nodded and said, "May he rest in peace." She waited for him to explain everything, their fathers' connection, his father's death, where was his mother or anything. But he did not say anything else.

"Will you please allow me to take you somewhere?" He pulled out car keys from his back pocket. "I forgive you. But with this, I will forget that anything happened." What? he was still going on with this forgiveness thing, while he was the mastermind behind it? "Let me take you out this once and I will grant you a wish too." Oh? Now that is something tempting. "Okay, deal." He chuckled lightly and replied. "Deal."

After an hour Ava walked up to his car in a navy blue dress that almost knocked Salvatore out of his breath, as he was standing by his Rose Royce, in an extremely expensive black suit. In the luxury of her room, and Salvatore walking around her all the time with puppy eyes, she sometimes forgot how rich he was. He could have anyone if he just pointed their way. "You make the word feel unreal sometimes." His words were always too much. She looked down, not letting him see her embarrassment.

She seated herself down comfortably. Salvatore had his hand on the metal of the car above her head when she was sitting down not to mention he had opened and closed the door for her. "Where are we going?" She asked after a few minutes of the ride. "There is a restaurant I know you will love." He said, excited like a child. But it was a great disappointment when we reached there and were denied entry because of the charges on Salvatore.

They did not feel safe, allowing him inside their posh restaurant. He looked at her and there was a little embarrassment, which she could not bear. "They are not good enough to have us anyways." She started with newly recovering humour, which she barely had around him. Without thinking she held his arm and pulled him back to the car. He smiled down at her, "Yes they are not good enough to have Ava." He has a way with his words that remain unbeatable to her.

"Is it good?" She asked as he took another bite out of the biryani. They sat at a stone wall, with their shoulders almost touching, near the empty beach. It was night time and this particular spot was always empty, that's why Ava loved it. They got Indian takeout from a place Ava loved. And was sitting at Ava's secret comfort spot, which was no longer a secret. "It's... spicy." He did not like spicy, she could tell with one glance. She chuckled and handed him a can of Coke, after opening it. He hurriedly took a few sips when he realized that she was about to open her can.

"Please, allow me." He extended his hand and she placed the can in it. He took it and returned it after opening it up. He looked at her as she drank from it, looking annoyingly satisfied. How childish! "You talk like a gentleman from classic romances." She stated without thinking. "And it displeases you?" He asked as he took another bite. Not one to waste food, huh? Impressive.

"No. That's not what I meant." She became flustered and he chuckled at her reaction. "English is not my first language. I learned mostly from reading classical books." She was excited to know more about him, at last. "You did not go to school?" She asked curiously. "I was supposed to. I was admitted to an all-boys prestigious school. But I was having a rebellious face at that time. So I used to run away a lot." She chuckled as she imagined a young Salvatore being a typical teenager.

"My father loved me a lot," I said more to myself. His eyes were unfocused, as though he was back in past living something again. "That's why he raised you well." She smiled up at him, living in the moment. Salvatore looked down at her and saw the moon shining on her perfect features. The sky seems prettier when it is reflected in her eyes. Oh, I love her, how can I not? He smiled back at her.

He was not the Agosti who had hurt her. He was dead and will never get out of his grave again. Ava could tell that by the look in his eyes. He was Salvatore, someone who looked at her as though he could not breathe without her. He was someone she could feel safe with. Someone who walked around her like an open book about his emotions. She could accept him finally. She realized it, in her world, in her head.

She nervously took his hand in hers. Her fingers light on his rough skin. "Salvatore, I think I..." She was interrupted by something that almost made her jump out of her skin.

Loud sirens, guns, and red and blue lights flashed and reflected on the waves. "You are under arrest for the murder of Benjamin Ford." And everything went by like a wave, Salvatore being handcuffed, being dragged to a police car. It all happened with the shore screaming in the background. And Ava stood there and watched in horror how all of their lives could change in just a blink.

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I wrote something to indicate it's a romance genre, after all.