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"No, I will not."
"Oh, come on, you know you can't resist me for long," Gabriel purred which caused Quinn to fold her arms over her chest and shake her head.
"No."
"I'm going to take it eventually so you might as well give it to me now."
Quinn narrowed her eyes as if she were searing him with laser beams, and shook her head with a decided no.
"I'll pay you triple."
"If I give you Park Place then you'll have that entire half of the board. There is no way I'll make it around and not get slammed. I can't believe I agreed to play Monopoly with you, Mr. Billionaire. I need to have my head examined."
"I think your head is lovely but let's talk money. I'm willing to pay you three times what it's worth when built up with hotels."
"Yeah, how did you get that much money anyway?"
He grinned, a sexy mischievous little grin, and Quinn wanted to toss her water in his face. "I've the Midas touch, always have."
Realization dawned as she grabbed a pillow and tossed it at his head. "You little sneak, you've been lifting it from the bank!"
His smile was completely unrepentant. "You can't prove that, love."
She wanted to laugh but the realization that that was how he had been forced to survive as a child, by lifting money from people, dampened her mood. He saw the change in her when he sat up from his prone position on the floor and reached for her hand.
"What's wrong?"
"What was it really like? Where did you sleep? How did you eat? When I was seven my biggest concern was getting on top of my horse and not falling off and you were across the ocean picking pockets so you could feed yourself."
"Are you sure you really want to know?"
"I do. I want to know everything there is to know about you; I want to know what makes youyou."
He sat back against the sofa. "I lived on the streets but when the weather was bad I would duck into abandon warehouses. I learned to sleep just about anywhere and to sleep light, but many nights I didn't sleep at all and my body adapted. When I was ten, I got nicked by a peeler so spent some time in the system but I eventually escaped and hooked up with Niall. He was a good guy, helped me when I really needed it."
Quinn considered his story for a moment before she asked, "What happened to Niall?"
"We were deceived by someone close. I started looking after things when Niall went away, and since I was good with numbers, I eventually took over."
"Where did Niall go?"
Quinn knew by his body language that he wasn't going to share any more so instead she asked, "And later?""
"As the money grew I moved into gambling - back table, gaming halls - you name it. That was when the money really started flowing in. After a couple of years I started investing in legitimate businesses, like Nick's."
"You're an investor in Nick's business?"
"Yeah."
"How'd that happen?"
"I lifted his wallet when he was visiting my fair city. He caught me, I'm still miffed by that, but instead of turning me in he took me out to dinner and the rest, as they say, is history."
"How old were you?"
"19."
"When did you move to London?"
