In Enemy Territory

by M. E. Clayton

  I didn’t sleep for shit because even after all my tough talk yesterday, I still stayed up half the night trying to work a way to help them out that didn’t involve sacrificing my home or business.

  My father had a problem and the little girl in me wanted to believe that just maybe…maybe, if I helped them out, he would go to counseling and finally become the dad I always dreamed of. Then they’d finally be happy and that would allow them to finally be happy for me.

  I’m such a fucking idiot. Seriously, I should have a medal in idiotism or something.

  I was going over some bank statements when my assistant manager, Debbie, cracked open my office door. “Hey Lady, there’s a guy out here who says he needs to speak with you.”

  “Is he here for a job?”

  She shook her head. “Nah, he said something about settling a debt with you?” Her face took on a look of confusion and she just shrugged one of her dainty shoulders.

  My face must have mirrored hers because I didn’t have…..debt.

  Shit! Shit! Shit! My fucking parents.

  “Oh…uh, go ahead and send him back. I’m sure he’s just confused. I’ll take care of it.”

  When Debbie left to go get him, I stood up and rounded my desk. I’d never felt so anxious before in my life and that’s saying something. I just had a gut feeling that I did not want to be sitting down looking up at the guy when he walked in. He had obviously been told by my parents that I would handle their debt, so I needed to stand strong and come across firm when I corrected him.

  There was a light, respectful knock on the door before Debbie opened it. “Come in.”

  I smiled at Debbie as she walked in first and held the door open for…Damien Greystone???

  Holy Mary, Jesus and Joseph!

  Walking in the room like he owned it, was Damien Fucking Greystone and all I could do was stand here and die of the heart attack I was so clearly having.

  Debbie immediately closed the door after Damien cleared the path and if she found it odd that I hadn’t greeted him, she didn’t say anything before walking out.

  Damien Greystone was standing in my office and oh, Sweet Baby Jesus, he was gorgeous. He’d always been beautiful as a kid and then a teenage boy. But standing before me as a man, Damien was breathtaking. His hair was still dark as evil and while it was cut short on the sides, the top length of it fell around his head like his hair didn’t give a fuck either. His dark black brows arched perfectly over the deep green lasers of his. His eyes looked greener, if that was possible. His face grew into sharp slants and edges and was void of any hair, ready to slay any female with a pulse should he flash a smile that I know came with a deep set of crescent shaped dimples.

  He was dressed in a suit that I know cost more than my daily profits. I know this because it draped his body with tailored perfection. He looked taller, bigger and more imposing. And he was looking like he wanted to chew me up and spit me out like the insect under his shoe that I was.

  I decided to put my heart attack on hold to ask him what the fuck was going on. “What are you doing here, Damien?”

  He tilted his head slightly to the right, as if he was puzzled; but I knew better. This man was never puzzled by anything. He always knew what cards everyone at the table was holding. “I thought your friend out there had explained. I’m here to settle your parents’ debt.”

  I walked back around my office placing the desk in between us. I know it looked cowardly, but I needed to put some space between us. I folded my arms across my chest. “Exactly…my parents’ debt…not mine.”

  I was so in shock at seeing him, I didn’t notice the folder in his hand until he flung it on top of my desk. “You’re father’s gambling debt to be specific.”

  I didn’t reach for the folder. “That still isn’t my debt.”

  I had so many questions, the first being how in the hell did he become the holder to all my father’s debts. How was that even possible? For ten years I tried to erase this man from my memories and the entire time he was exchanging money and shaking hands with my father? Damien hates me. Why would he have anything to do with my family if he didn’t have to?

  Luckily for me, Damien wasn’t one to dick around and he was more than happy to crumble my world around me. “You’re right. It’s not your debt and you are technically not obligated to pay it. However, if you don’t want to see either of your parents in jail, you will.”

  I guess I can add passing out to having a heart attack, because if I didn’t sit down, I was pretty sure I might faint. “Jail?”

  He sat down on the chair across from my desk as I sat down in my chair. He jutted his chin towards the folder he put on my desk. “Everything I need to put both your parents in jail for a long time is in that folder there. Copies of course, but still.”

  My gaze didn’t waver and I didn’t open the folder. “Why don’t you explain it to me, Damien?”

  His lip curled just a bit, but he complied. “About five years ago I bought out Smithtown Textiles. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that your father is one of the office administrators there. However, I’m not sure if you know that he was promoted to the accounting department about three years ago, where he immediately began embezzling from the company.”

  No! Oh, God, no!

  “It was suspected a little over a year ago and a full investigation was launched.” He crossed his left ankle over his right knee and grabbed his leg as he rested his arm over his body. “The amounts started out fairly small and unnoticeable, but this past year they’ve increased incredibly.”

  My hands trembled as I opened to folder. There were account statements, canceled checks, pictures of my father entering and exiting gambling facilities. As I continued to flip through the papers, I found loans against their house, promissory notes and even a picture of my father in a strip club all over a naked redhead.

  Oh, God, I was going to throw up; throw up in front of Damien Greystone.

  “Shall I continue?” He taunted.

  I looked back up at him. “By all means, please do.” I was happy my voice sounded steady.

  “I’ll save you the trouble of looking for it, but the total amount equals to a little over four-hundred grand, Halloween,”

  I couldn’t help the ferociousness that left my lips. “Don’t call me that.” The gorgeous sonofabitch just arched a brow and lifted the corner of his mouth in a smirk.

  Point one for him.

  “I’ll cut right to the chase then, Fiona.” Damien set his left foot back on the floor, and leaning over, he placed his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands before him. “If the debt is not settled, you’re parents are going to prison for a long time. You’re father for embezzlement and your mother for being an accomplice and using those monies to finance her lifestyle.”

  I jumped out of my seat so quickly my chair nearly fell over. “Lifestyle! What lifestyle? You’re talking like she’s walking around town draped in diamonds and furs!”

  He leaned back in the chair, but kept his eyes on me. “I don’t care if she’s walking around in a used, second hand jacket. That jacket was purchased with money that didn’t rightfully belong to her and since she’s never worked, it can’t be argued that she bought anything with her own money.”

  I was shaking with rage and helpless frustration. “You are such a bastard.”

  “I never claimed to be otherwise, baby.”

  I wasn’t violent by any means, but the fury coursing through my body had me wanting to murder this man with my bare hands. “You have everything they own already signed over to you…I ca…can sign over my house as well. That should cover most of it.”

  “Yes, I suppose. However, the profit on your homes all depends on their market value and what is still owned on the original loan, am I right?”

  He knew he was right, the fucking prick. “You want Fiona’s, don’t you? That’s what this is about, isn’t it?

  He stood up and walked over to me until he was invading my personal space, an
d he did it on purpose. I wasn’t a stranger to his bullying tactics. Yeah, it’s been ten years, but the last ten years hadn’t done enough to erase the 13 before then.

  I didn’t flinch and I didn’t step back. I wasn’t a ten year old girl anymore protecting her new art bag. I was a grown ass woman who was protecting her home, her business and her livelihood.

  And now her parents’ freedom, apparently.

  Damien reached out and twirled a loose strand of my hair around his finger and I immediately felt the bottom of my stomach fall out. The last time I was with this man he left me bleeding all over my bed sheets and now it seems like he’s back for more blood.

  “Don’t touch me,” I grinded out.

  “Get used to it, Halloween, because I’m going to be touching you a lot in the near future.”

  I fixed my brown eyes onto his green ones. “Wh...what are you talking about?”

  He hadn’t let go of my hair when he answered, “I’ve got a proposition for you.”

  Every hair on my body stood at attention, his words as smooth as silk. “No.”

  He began to crowd me until the back of my thighs hit my desk. “Eager to see your parents in prison, are you? I mean, I know your father’s a dick, but I thought you still loved your mother, at least.”

  “I’ll sign over my house and my business,” I conceded and I didn’t even bother trying to hide the moisture pooling in my eyes. I’d like to think I would have stood stronger had I not been blindsided by Damien coming back into my life, but I knew that no matter who had held the debt, I couldn’t stomach my mother going to prison all because she was stupidly in love with my father.

  “You can,” he agreed, “but I already have a house and a business. I don’t need another of each.”

  I wanted to scream and cry and kick this fucker in his nut sack! “Then what do you want, Damien? Quit playing fucking games and tell me what all this is all about!”

  “What it’s always been about…you.”

  I started to shake my head. He couldn’t mean what I think he means. No way. There’s just no fucking way!

  I guess he could see the dawning in my eyes because he smirked again and confirmed my suspicions. “I want you in exchange for dropping the charges and clearing your parents of all debt and criminal accusations.”

  No, no, no! He can’t be serious. He….he just can’t!

  I don’t know how I held his eyes, I was just happy I could. “What does that mean exactly?”

  “It means that if you accept, you’re mine for the next six months.”

  “Yours for six months,” I numbly repeated.

  Damien nodded. “You’ll be my…uh…somewhat of a girlfriend for the next six months.”

  I knew my eyes were the size of saucers. “Oh, God!” My knees gave out on me and I would have gone crashing to the floor if he hadn’t wrapped his arms around me to hold me up.

  This time I really was having a heart attack. All my insides suddenly felt too large for my body and it felt like they were bursting to escape.

  This man hated me in an extreme, singular way. He didn’t want me to play the part of his girlfriend. Men usually treated their girlfriends with adoration and respect. Damien Greystone did not adore or respect me. So that meant he could only want one thing from me. Apparently he hadn’t been done with me on graduation night, after all.

  Growing up, he had turned me into a weakling, a coward, a scared mouse and now that we were all grown up, it looks like he wants to turn me into a whore.

  His whore.

  For six months.

  I felt like I was five years old all over again feeling the punch of his rejection at not wanting to be my friend. The pools in my eyes finally spilled over. “Why?”

  The phone on my desk started to ring saving him from having to answer. He stopped playing with my hair and took a decent sized step back from me. “How about I let you get back to work and give you a few hours to think about it.”

  He really was a bastard. He knew there wasn’t much to think about. Either I fuck him on command or my parents rot in prison.

  I stood silently as I watched him head for the door. “I’m staying at The Embassy, room 500. I’ll expect you at exactly six o’clock. If you’re a second late, your parents will be getting arrested at precisely six-ten. We clear?”

  I nodded like a simpleton and I stayed silent as he shut the door behind him.

  I ignored the ringing phone. If it’s important whoever’s calling will leave a message. I looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was already a little past four.

  Hours to think about it, my ass.

  Not that there was a whole lot to think about. I couldn’t let my parents go to prison. I wish I could let them. I wanted to be able to walk away from this and let them reap what they sewed, but Damien was offering a way to save my parents without losing everything I worked so hard for.

  I’d just have to push my dignity and self-respect aside for six months.

  Chapter 8

  Damien – Being a Functioning psychopath as a real thing.

  I’m not going to lie; I spent the last two hours since I left Fiona feeling like my skin was trying to crawl off my body. I’d like to say I wasn’t a big enough bastard to send her parents to jail, but I was. If I was going to spend the rest of my life drowning in misery, then so the fuck was she.

  It had taken strength I didn’t know I possessed to keep from flipping up the skirt she was wearing earlier and just take her on top of her desk. Her beauty had always rendered me stupid, but Fiona as a grown woman was proof that God and The Devil existed. Fiona had a face created by God and a body created by The Devil. Add that to her personality and…well, it made her walking, talking sin and salvation all at the same time.

  I’d never felt such relief in my life as I did the second I heard the knock on the suite door. I opened the door to find a very pissed off Fiona on the other side. I stepped back giving her enough room to walk in. I didn’t say anything as she surveyed the room. It was a nice room as far as suites went, but at the end of all this, all I cared about was that it had a bed big enough for me to fuck her on in every position I’ve ever imagined.

  I was too anxious to care about subtlety. “So you got an answer for me, Halloween?”

  Her posture snapped and she slowly turned around to face me. She wasn’t the timid girl from school anymore, I’ll give her that. “Is ‘fuck you’ a good enough answer?”

  I laughed at her defiance. “Yes, it is.” I walked over to one of the end tables that decorated the sitting area and picked up my phone. She eyed me as I dialed the PI I had on retainer for everything Fiona. “Yeah, Andrews, this is Greystone.”

  “What’s up man?” He had answered on the first ring. Smart man.

  “Can you take what you have on the Eldsteads-“

  “Damien, please don’t,” she hastened.

  Never moving my eyes from hers, I relented, “Never mind, Andrews.”

  I hung up the phone. “So does this mean you’re ready to give me a different answer?”

  She dropped her purse over the back of the couch and let it land on the cushions. She looked around the room again, probably wanting put off uttering the words that would change her life as long as possible.

  I waited patiently until she finally faced me. “I ac…accept your agreement. I’ll…uh…date you for six months if you let my parents off the hook.”

  What I really wanted to do was drag her by her hair to the Justice of the Peace, but I figured I should stick with the plan of baby steps. So instead I nodded. “At the end of the six month, I’ll hand over everything I have on your parents. However, your father does not get off unscathed. He will have to attend gamblers anonymous in order to keep his job.”

  She sadly shook her head. “I’ve tried, Damien, but he won’t-”

  “He will,” I insisted. “I’ll take care of it, Fiona.”

  If I wasn’t so sure of the hatred she had for me, I would swear I saw grati
tude in her deep russet eyes. My goal at the end of all this was to have her so madly in love with me that she’ll be signing her name Fiona Greystone in six months. But I knew the odds were more in favor of her pleading ‘not guilty’ to involuntary manslaughter after she kills me in a haze of hate and rage. I was so willing to risk it, though.

  Starting now.

  We both knew who held all the cards here, so since I didn’t need to establish my dominance, I went to her. If I were a better man, I’d give her time to get used to our arrangement. I’d take her to dinner and make an effort to ease her discomfort. But I wasn’t a better man and I’ve waited ten years to have her again. I had every intention of keeping her on her back until the sun came up tomorrow.

  “Are you on birth control?” No sense in dancing around the practicalities.

  “Yes.”

  That’s it, just a simple ‘yes’, nothing more.

  “When was your last physical?”

  I could see her bristle a little bit at the question. “Last year sometime.”

  I raised a brow at her stubbornness. She knew exactly what I was trying to get to. What she didn’t know is that I already knew everything I needed to know about her. The PI I have is the best. I could even tell you when her period is due; that’s how fucking sick over her I am. “Anything I need to know?”

  “Nope.”

  I stepped into her personal space and grabbed her by her upper arm. “When was the last time you fucked someone?”

  I could feel the intake of her breath. “That’s none of your business!”

  “I have to disagree, Halloween.”

  She got right back up in my face. “When was the last time you fucked someone?”

  “I’ve never fucked anyone without a condom and I’m healthy. That’s all you need to know.”

  Her face flushed red and I knew it’s because she knows my statement isn’t entirely true. I have fucked once before without a condom. “You’re a liar,” she hissed.