Battling the Enemy

by M. E. Clayton

  “You’re mine,” he repeated. “You’re mine and I will make this right, I swear to God. I will undo everything I did to you, but you will not tell me no. And there’s no way I’m every going to let you leave me.”

  My hands pushed at his chest. “Fuck you! You can’t undo it!”

  His hand wrapped around my neck and he squeezed. “Then you shouldn’t have kissed me back!” he roared in my face, right before he started tearing at my shorts.

  The fight was on.

  I knew I wasn’t going to win, but I had to fight. I couldn’t just give in no matter how much my heart wanted to. My heart wanted to forgive him, but my mind wanted to make him pay.

  And my soul?

  My soul wanted to feel the peace only being with Deke could bring me.

  Deke had yanked me off the counter and, even after fighting with all my might, he had my shorts and panties down around my knees right before he swung me around, pressing me up against the countertop. He locked his right arm around my body as his left hand reached in between my legs and he pulled my tampon out.

  It was the most intimately disgusting thing anyone has ever done to me.

  “Deke!” I screamed, trying to make him see reason, but he was beyond reason. Not two seconds later, he drove into me, and the moisture from my blood allowed him to slip right in. “Oh, God!”

  Deke slammed into me as if he hadn’t just forced himself into my body. “You’re mine, Delaney,” he grunted. “You’re mine, and I will not live without you.” I started crying the second I knew he was starting to win. “I love you, Delaney. I love you more than my own life, and I will…I will…anything, Lamb. Tell me, and I’ll do anything.”

  I couldn’t tell him.

  I couldn’t do anything other than ride the wave and I felt weak at how I could enjoy what he was doing to me. I hated how I knew I was going to forgive him. I hated that I was going to be that girl. I hated how he felt so good inside me, all common sense ceased to exist.

  “Deke…” I cried, not bother to hide the tears.

  His hand grabbed my neck, and he pulled my body up against his as he rammed his cock into me over, and over again. “I love you,” he panted. I stared at him through the mirror, and he looked as torn up as I felt. “I love you, Delaney. I’m sorry, baby. I’m so fucking sorry.”

  And then I felt it.

  The signs of what was to come, and shame coursed through my body as my body started to respond to his thrusts. I felt the anguish down to my soul as I told him, “I’m going to cum…”

  His hold on my neck tightened and his head dropped to my shoulder as his thrusts became harder, faster, and deeper. “Cum on my cock, baby,” he begged. “Cum on my cock and show me I haven’t lost you completely.”

  I came and my scream could be heard all over the house. “Deke!”

  A few grunts later, Deke was emptying himself inside me, until I felt the weight of his body collapse over me. Our chests heaved with exertion, and while I was absolutely wrecked, being a girl, I couldn’t ignore the fact I was bleeding.

  “Deke?” He mumbled something against my back, but I couldn’t make it out. “Deke, I need to shower.”

  He righted himself and looking at me in the mirror said, “I can’t let you go, Delaney.”

  “Deke, I just need to show-”

  “No,” he hissed. “You can’t…I can’t let you out of my sight until you say it.”

  “Say what?” Deke let out a deep breath before slipping out of me and the moistness was beyond what I was comfortable with. I was going to bleed all over this floor if I didn’t do something. “Let me shower, and then we can talk, okay?”

  He looked skeptical but nodded. “Okay.”

  Deke re-dressed me, and the blood not bothering him shined a huge light on his psychopathy.

  Chapter 37

  Deke~

  It was done, but I knew it still wouldn’t be enough to undo everything I had done to Delaney Saturday night, but I knew I had to do something. I also deleted that fucking picture of Melissa and me off her phone and cloud backup.

  We had showered together because we both needed to get clean, but I wouldn’t have cared either way. It wasn’t until I re-dressed, and she went in search of clothing, that I noticed the two boxes on the floor of her bedroom, and that most of her personal effects were missing.

  I had felt paralyzed with the realization that Delaney had been packing to move away when I had showed up earlier. She was moving, and had I not shown up when I had, she would have been lost to me. There’s no way Ava would ever tell me where she lived.

  After Delaney had dressed, she sat next to me on her bed to talk, but as I stroked her back, she fell asleep. Now she was laying across her bed, her head in my lap, as I had done my best not to wake her while I made the video.

  I was sitting up on her bed with my back against the headboard, but I had done my best to make sure it was visible that we were in her bedroom. I had done a pan of the empty room, making sure to include Delaney’s sleeping form resting on my lap.

  Her phone started ringing, but it wasn’t until the second call that she sprang up from my lap, trying to wake up. “What…”

  “Your phone’s ringing,” I said helpfully.

  She stretched her arm across the bed to grab it from the center of the bed, blinking, still trying to awaken. “Holy crap,” she breathed as she looked at her phone. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “Not long,” I assured her.

  The phone rang in her hand again and, this time, she answered it. “Ava?” Delaney sat up straighter as she said, “Whoa, wait...” Her eyes flew to mine, and she lowered her phone below her chin. Eyes narrowed, she said, “What did you do?” I shrugged a shoulder, but before she could rip me a new one, Ava called her attention back to the phone. “No…I just woke up. I…no…you’re kidding me, Ava…What!?” Delaney shot me an incredulous look before saying, “Let me call you back, okay? Yeah. No. Yeah, I’ll pull it up now. Yeah, let me call you back.”

  I stayed seated watching Delaney shaking her head at me. “Tell me she’s lying, Deke,” she implored. “Please, please, please tell me Ava wasn’t…that this is a joke…”

  “I can’t,” I stated simply. “Pull it up, Delaney.”

  Her hands were trembling as her fingers flew across the screen until she came upon my social media real-time video. I didn’t say anything, but you could hear my voice loud and clear in the quiet stillness of the room. Because, here’s the thing; I humiliated Delaney in public, and so, she deserved an apology in public. And this was the only way I could think of to do it.

  The video begins by panning Delaney’s room, showcasing the emptiness of it, and then her sleeping on my lap on her bed, and finally me. “So, by now, most everyone probably knows about the showdown at the cove Saturday night. You’ve all probably heard about how I was hanging out with my friends, while a girl I was seeing walked upon us, and I kept on with my business. You probably heard about how I ripped her to shreds by sharing her utmost secrets. You probably heard how Deke Marlow used up Delaney Martin and tossed her aside.” In the video, I’m shaking my head. “But that’s not, at all, what happened…

  What happened was that I saw a picture of my girlfriend with someone else, and instead of letting her explain, I let my insecurities get the best of me. Because, trust me when I tell you, this girl makes me feel insecure like a motherfucker. See, she’s better than me. She’s better than me in every way. So, when I assumed the worst, I let a girl who means nothing to me sit on my lap to make Delaney jealous. I did it to hide just how torn in half I was by her supposed betrayal. But because Delaney is stronger than I had given her credit for, she walked away with her dignity still intact. So, because I was too weak to face that she might not love me, I chased after her and spewed the most vicious things about her, all of which were untrue. Nothing I said that night was true. It was all hateful shit spewed by a guy who couldn’t handle losing the best thing that’s ever happened to him…


  When I found out the truth, I chased her down, begged for forgiveness, and gave her no choice but to forgive me or suffer for it. I ignored her protests and ignored how she told me she didn’t love me anymore. More importantly, I ignored how I don’t deserve her and refused to back down…

  Delaney Martin is the fucking air I breathe, so I can’t afford to back down…

  She hasn’t forgiven me, and she probably never will. And, well, I don’t blame her if she doesn’t, because what I did to her was not love. It was selfish insecurity, and she has every right to walk away from me. As you can see from the beginning of this video, her room is empty because she’s moving. She was secretly moving away, so I couldn’t find her…

  But I won’t let her…

  I love Delaney, and I will spend every day of the rest of my life living on my knees for her if I have to. I will live for her, kill for her, and die for her if she asks…

  Delaney, baby…I’m so fucking sorry. I’m sorrier than you will ever know, but I’ll never let you go…

  Ever.”

  Delaney was sobbing by the time the video cut off. Her phone in her lap, her face was in her hands, sobbing, and it was the most heartbreaking thing I have ever witnessed. She was crying as if her soul was being torn to pieces.

  I crawled to her on the bed and gathered her up in my arms, letting her cry it all out. “I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered over, and over into her hair. “I’m so goddamn sorry, Lamb.”

  My heart started beating again, and my relief was palpable when Delaney turned in my arms and tried to bury herself inside my chest. She was crawling and moving like she couldn’t get close enough to me, and the more she burrowed herself to me, the tighter I held onto her.

  When she finally looked up at me, she sobbed out the most painful and beautiful words I will ever hear in my life, “I love you, Deke.”

  “Thank Christ,” I swore right before she tucked her face into my neck and continued to cry.

  It was hours later when she finally woke up again from crying herself to sleep, and my body was feeling it. I hadn’t moved a muscle because I had refused to let her go, even in her sleep.

  “Deke?” she mumbled sleepily.

  “I’m here, baby,” I muttered into her hair.

  She was quiet for a bit before saying, “I bought a house in Manotile, and-”

  “We’ll sell it this week after moving you into my place,” I said, interrupting her. No fucking way was she going to live in Manotile.

  I thought she might argue because, let’s face it, that video wasn’t shit enough to going towards earning her forgiveness, but she didn’t. Instead, she said, “You can never hurt me again like that, Deke. I’ll walk and never look back.” I bit the inside of my cheek enough to taste blood, and I knew I was going to have to talk to Ramsey some more about how he deals with what he did to Emerson.

  I positioned Delaney, so she was straddling my lap and she had to look at me. Her face was a puffy mess, but she still looked breathtaking. “Delaney, I meant what I said in that video,” I replied. “I am going to spend the rest of my life making sure you never doubt what you mean to me.”

  “Forgiving you makes me feel stupid,” she admitted, and I understood. No one wanted to be the fool who forgave someone, only to be proven wrong later on.

  “I get that, Lamb,” I whispered. “I do. I understand your pride is taking a beating, I do. But, Delaney, I will do whatever you need me to do to make that feeling go away. If you need me to beg you during lunch in front of everyone at school, I’ll do it. If you need all my money, my car, whatever…it’s yours. If you need me to never even look at another girl again for the rest of my life, I’ll do it.”

  The tears came back, but they were quiet and tender, not violent and heartbreaking. “I don’t know what I need,” she confessed. “I don’t know how to make this feeling go away.”

  I brushed her hair back from her face. “Maybe talking with Emerson might help,” I suggested.

  Her eyes lit up a little as she agreed, “Maybe.” Delaney’s eyes searched mine before saying, “I need you to need me above everything and everyone else, Deke.”

  I smirked. “I already do, Delaney.”

  She fell against me, and I held her some more as I let her come to terms with her new future. I knew it was going to be a hard fight until Delaney believed what I was telling her, but I was up for it. Delaney Martin was everything I never knew would consume me.

  I spent a lot of time teasing Ramsey and Liam about how they worshipped the girls but having Delaney in my life made me see that love truly is a maddening sickness.

  Here’s the only person in the entire world who holds your heart, mind, and soul in the palm of their hands, and the idea that something could happen to them, or they could leave you?

  Yeah, Delaney wasn’t ever leaving my sight again.

  Epilogue

  Deke – (Ten Years Later)~

  Vacation has finally started, and I couldn’t wait.

  It’s been about two years since I’ve taken an actual vacation, and it was showing if Ramsey and Liam telling me to go suck a dick this morning was any indication.

  Ten years, and a shit ton of hard work later, we were equal partners in our own company, and life couldn’t be more perfect.

  Actually, that’s a lie. It got infinitely a lot better as I snuck up on Delaney in the kitchen and wrapped my arms around her.

  “Deke!” she screeched.

  “Expecting someone else?” I teased.

  Delaney turned around in my arms and smirked up at me. “You scared the crap out of me,” she grumbled.

  I looked down at my lovely wife and asked, “Where are your hellacious offspring?”

  She laughed and just shook her head, and then narrowed her eyes at me. “Emerson came and got them. Roselyn and Liam are having some sort of Deke’s-Gone-Let-Celebrate party or something and everyone’s at their place.”

  I laughed. “Uh, the guys might have mentioned this morning they’ll be happy to be free of me for two weeks when I accused Lee of hiding my coffee creamer…uh, that was sitting on the kitchenette in broad daylight for the entire world to see.”

  She smiled. “An innocent mistake,” she said, defending me like the loyal wife she was.

  “Uh…we were throwing punches at the time of this ‘innocent’ mistake,” I mumbled.

  Delaney laughed and said, “No wonder Emerson came and got the kids. She was probably afraid you’d snap at one of them, and then I’d have to kill you.”

  “Speaking of kids,” I lowered onto my haunches, “how’s this little girl doing?” Delaney was pregnant with our fourth child, and she just started showing a couple of weeks ago.

  We had three boys and were finally getting a girl. And, while Delaney didn’t know this, I had planned on continuing to knock her up until she did give me a girl. Dash was eight, Crew was six, and Zane was four, and as much as I loved my sons, I really wanted a little girl.

  Ten years ago, after I moved Delaney in with me, Ramsey, Liam, and I had told our parents to go eat a dick and we had started up our own company. The girls had gone to college, but they had all gone to Blaineview, where they had gotten an exceptional education, and received their degrees. The only reason we had managed to survive them going to school while we worked to get our company off the ground was because we knew they were all together.

  They’d protect each other.

  And when Dash came into the world, Ramsey and Emerson had produced the first of their two boys, Ramsey Jr. and Maddox. Liam and Roselyn fell in line with their three children, Chance, Neo, and Gideon. The entire brood was made up of boys, except for Ava’s kids. She was able to throw some estrogen in the mix with her two girls, DJ (Delaney Jr.) and sweet little Maggie.

  And now, Delaney was finally giving me a little girl.

  “Other than zapping all my energy, she’s doing well,” Delaney complained lovingly.

  I leaned down and nuzzled her neck. “How zapped ar
e we talking about?”

  Delaney’s laugh turned into a moan when I reached around and took her ass in both my hands. “I’m not that zapped,” she answered huskily.

  Grabbing Delaney by the back of her thighs, I hoisted her up and planted her fine ass on the kitchen counter. Stepping in between her legs, I took her face in my hands and kiss her, pouring everything I felt for her in that kiss.

  Ramsey had been right all those years ago.

  The regret I felt at how I treated Delaney all those years ago at the cove has stayed with me every day since then. I did my best to treasure her daily, and I knew she was happy with our lives-happy with me, but it wasn’t enough for me. It’s been ten years, but I will spend the rest of my days loving Delaney like I should have from the beginning.

  I broke off the kiss to tell her, “I love you, Lamb.”

  She smiled softly because she recognized my tone. “I know you do, Deke. I love you, too.”

  The End.

  Playlist

  Series Playlist – The Right Kind Of Wrong – LeAnn Rimes

  Facing the Enemy – Pretty Girl – Sugarcult

  Aerials – Systems Of A Down

  Animals – Maroon 5

  Centuries – Fall Out Boy

  The Catalyst – Linkin Park

  Hail Mary – 2Pac

  Killing Strangers – Marilyn Manson

  Sucker For Pain – Lil’ Wayne

  Whatever It Takes – Imagine Dragons

  Engaging the Enemy – Basic Instinct – The Acid

  Addicted – Saving Abel

  Dollhouse – Melanie Martinez

  If You Could Only See – Tonic

  Like A Stone – Audioslave

  Unforgettable – French Montana

  Where You Belong – The Weeknd

  Piano In The Dark – Brenda Russell

  I Shall Believe – Sheryl Crow

  Battling the Enemy – She – Live

  Love The Way You Lie – Eminem

  Broken – Seether

  I Wanna Be Bad – Willa Ford

  Pray For Me – The Weeknd