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Sierra was trapped. She couldn’t move and panic filled her as she cringed. What was her father going to do now? She hadn’t done anything. She could handle the pain if she knew it was coming, but when it came out of the blue, she wasn’t prepared.
She began struggling, trying to get away. She knew it wouldn’t do any good, but she had to try. She couldn’t just give up and take the beating. She didn’t deserve it she’d been good. She did everything he asked of her.
“Sierra, stop. Ouch! What the hell?”
The deep voice sent her panic over the edge as she kicked her trapped legs, moved her shoulders, struggled to free herself.
“Please, I haven’t done anything. Please, no more. It hurts. I can’t…” Sierra sobbed, knowing her punishment would be worse, but in her sleepy delirium she couldn’t stop herself. She just didn’t want to be hurt.
She sobbed as her body grew weaker. She couldn’t get away. He’d really hurt her now. She shouldn’t have struggled.
“Sierra, wake up, you have to wake up. It’s me Damien.”
Sierra tried to open her eyes, tried to rise from the nightmare, but panic was still clogging her, still keeping her under its spell. She was still trapped.
“Please…” she begged in one final attempt.
“Sierra, it’s me,” the voice said. It didn’t fit, it was too gentle, too caring. That couldn’t be her father. Hazily, Sierra pulled herself from her half-sleeping state and cracked her eyes open.
Damien was warily watching her, the lamp beside his bed casting a glow across his face, showing the concern radiating from his eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she automatically replied with tightness in her voice.
“My groin begs to differ. You have one hell of a good knee,” he said with a slight grimace. It took Sierra a moment to figure out what he was saying, and then it dawned on her.
“I’m so sorry,” she gasped.
He was leaning over her, supporting his weight on his elbow, the blanket ridding low on his hip. When she looked down and noticed her chest fully exposed to his view, she quickly reached for the blanket, trying to tug it from underneath their bodies.
Damien gave her breasts a leisurely look before shifting and allowing her to pull the blanket clear up to her chin. She didn’t know how she’d ended up in his bed. The last thing she recalled was lying down on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and a movie playing.
“I carried you upstairs. You fell asleep before the opening credits even started,” he said. It was unnerving how he always seemed to guess what she was thinking.
After they’d finished having sex, they’d fallen asleep on the couch, only for him to wake her a couple hours later with a second round, even better than the first. When she’d gotten up and tried to grab her clothes, Damien had scooped her into his arms, saying he liked her naked.
He’d then re-deposited her on the couch with a blanket, before going to the kitchen to make her hot cocoa. She’d been so comfortable she hadn’t put up too much protest.
“I need to get some water,” she told him, hoping he’d be a gentleman and turn away.
“I’ll get it for you,” he offered as he started to move.
“I need to use the bathroom, too,” she said, her face immediately turning red.
“Need me to carry you?”
“No!” She felt her face go from red to burgundy. He started laughing, then flipped over on his back. As she tugged one of the blankets the rest of the way loose, her eyes glanced down and she couldn’t help but notice the impressive tent his body was making of the sheet barely covering him.
Her eyes shot back to his face and his satisfied expression. How could he even think about sex after the extreme rounds they’d had not long ago.
“Don’t take too long,” he said with lazy indulgence.
She scooted from the bed and made a beeline for the bathroom, stopping at the sink and splashing cold water on her face to wash away the last of the terror still making her heart pound. She must have been tangled up between Damien and the blankets.
“You’re okay,” she promised herself in the mirror. Her heart finally slowed down as she took a long drink of cool water and gave herself a few moments to talk herself down.
She emerged from the bathroom, not sure what she should do next. She didn’t think it a wise idea to climb back into Damien’s bed, letting him think she was planning on jumping full on into the affair.
Her mind mocked her. She hadn’t refused him yet, so what was the difference. She glanced to the bed and let out a relieved breath when she noticed he wasn’t there anymore. She could sneak from the room and find a guest bedroom. With the size of his house he had to have at least three or four of them.
“I brought a snack and wine,” Damien said as she reached the door only to run into him. “Where are you going?” he finished as his eyes narrowed.
“I…well…” she stumbled, feeling frustrated with herself. Just say it! “I’m going to another room,” she finished stubbornly.
“No.” He didn’t elaborate as he placed his hand on her back and led her to his bed. She glared at him when he gave her a soft push and she landed on the bed on her behind.
“You can’t just tell me no like I’m two, Damien,” she said with exasperation.
“Then don’t act like you’re two,” he said as if he was making perfect sense.
“I told you last night I don’t want to jump into an affair.”
“It’s a bit too late for that, Sierra. Try this, it’s my favorite,” he offered as if they weren’t having an important discussion.
“Fine, I’ll try the wine if you tell me more about your vendetta,” she compromised.
“You first. What were you dreaming about?” Sierra hesitated, but knew he’d keep on pushing.
“It wasn’t a dream. I just…when I woke up, I couldn’t…um…move, and it scared me, that’s all,” she said half-truthfully.
“That was more than panic over being trapped. What are you hiding, Sierra?”
“Nothing. That’s what happened,” she stubbornly answered.
“I don’t believe you,” he persisted.
“I felt like I was trapped. I panicked, end of story. Now, it’s your turn to talk,” she said as she sent a glare his way, letting him know she wasn’t giving him anything else.
His eyes narrowed as he stared her down. A small shiver passed through her. The man really knew how to intimidate with nothing but his eyes. She firmed her resolve, though, desperate to hold onto her newfound will-power.
“What do you want to know?” he finally asked as he sat next to her and grabbed a cracker and a slice of cheese.Original from NôvelDrama.Org.
“Everything.”
“That’s a little vague, Sierra.”
“You’re avoiding the subject, Damien. You expect me to turn on my best friend, the only person who’s always been good to me, and you’re not willing to give me any details. I hate to tell you this, but you must not have any friends if you think I’d do that,” she said, refusing to break their eye contact.
Instead of anger, he gave a sheepish smile. The almost unguarded expression on his face sent her heart into overdrive. Wow, he was stunning when he didn’t look so angry.
“Actually, Trinity is my best friend and she’d have my hide if she knew anything about this. She’s amazing.”
Sierra felt the tiniest twinge of jealousy, but then she remembered that Trinity was a happily married woman. Her husband was incredibly gorgeous, too, and seemed like a nice guy. Sierra had been far too nervous on their short visit to really pay much attention, but the little she’d seen of the couple, had made it seem they were in love.
“Trinity seems like a smart woman,” she said after a long pause.
“She is.”
“Are you done stalling? Why do you hate the Anderson’s?”
“It goes back to before I was born. My father was twenty-five years older than my mom. I know, it’s a lot of years, and I wouldn’t even think about dating a woman half my age, but they fell in love, according to my mom. He pursued her, and she fell hard for him. He was charming, wealthy, and promised her the moon. About the time they met, my grandfather passed away and there was a huge race for the company. It should’ve gone to my dad. His brother, Milton had zero interest in the corporation, and my dad had been working there for years,” Damien started.
Sierra was fascinated by the intense look on his face. She still didn’t understand what any of this had to do with the Anderson’s, though.
“Joseph and George are twins, the only sons of Milton, my father’s nephews. When my grandfather died, they both rushed home to get their greedy hands on what my father had worked so hard for. The board of directors chose Joseph to run the corporation and my father was left with nothing. His own dad didn’t leave him a dime in the will. The corporation was all he had. The old man left what he had to charity’s, saying the boys needed to build their own wealth, that they’d appreciate it better in the long run. Well, Milton didn’t have to build his own wealth. He had a nice little ranch that his father bankrolled for him, while my father had nothing, because he’d been sure he’d take over the Anderson Corporation.”
Damien’s eyes narrowed as he told a story Sierra was sure he’d heard a thousand times. Sierra knew there was no way it could be true. Even a young Joseph couldn’t be monster. There had to be more to the story and she was determined to find out what it was.
“Were you able to verify if all of this is true?” she asked, afraid of his reaction, but still having to ask it.
“Of course I verified. I found the old newspaper articles. There was a fight for the CEO position. In the earlier papers, apparently Joseph was playing it cool, because they said he didn’t seem interested in taking over his grandfather’s reign. Apparently, he’d already amassed a huge fortune. However, greedy people always want more, and Joseph was no exception.”
“How do you know it was about greed? What if he wanted to run the business his grandfather put so many years into?”
“If that was the case, why did he leave in the first place? Why wouldn’t he have stayed and learned how to run the business like my father had?” Damien asked with bitterness.
“Don’t you think the best way to get answers to those questions is to ask Joseph?”
“Why? So he can tell me lies? The story doesn’t end there. My father was so upset about his losses that he quickly went downhill, started drinking himself to death. One night he drank too much and lost control of his car. He was dead before the paramedics arrived.”
“Oh, Damien, I’m so sorry,” she said, sincere sadness draping her words.
“I was only a few months old at the time, and later my mother found out she was pregnant with my sister. She went to the Anderson’s for help. Even though begging from anyone was against everything she believed in, she did it for my sake mine and my sister’s. She showed up at their door, and they laughed at her, told her they didn’t believe her story, that they were glad my father was dead, and then they shut it in her face. She had to leave my sister in the hospital’s care, and my mother lived a rough life from that moment on,” he said, pain evident for the mother he’d lost at too young of an age.
Sierra could relate to how he felt. She missed her mom every day. She always imagined how differently her life would’ve turned out had her mom been there. She may have actually been a normal child. She’d never believe the things her father said about her. She hoped her mother was far happier wherever she was, and the only thing that kept Sierra from falling apart was knowing she’d someday see her again.
Sierra set down her empty glass of wine, surprised she drank the entire amount. It really had been good. She then wrapped her arms around Damien, not able to give him the cold shoulder when he was obviously fighting such a ferocious internal battle.
“I’m fine,” he said, not letting his walls down, but he didn’t push her away. She took that as a good sign.
“What do you plan to do?” This time he didn’t try and pretend he didn’t know what she was taking about.
“I’ve already started. The Anderson’s have a lot of different divisions to their vast empire. I’ve been working for years to take away the one thing that matters to them their income. They have several shipping yards throughout the world, so I’m building my own shipping company. I’ll supply the same products at a lower cost, taking away their business. If they have a mall in a city, I’ll build a larger, better one with lower rents. Every market they’re invested in, I’ll come behind and undercut them. In the process, it will most likely break me, too, but I don’t care. I’ve lived with nothing before, and I can live that way again.”
“I think you’re making a mistake. I know them, Damien. They aren’t anything like my father. They’re good people. If you’d just talk to them ”
“No! You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he interrupted.
Sierra didn’t know what else to say. Her heart was broken at his internal turmoil and she felt like she was being torn in half between him and her loyalties to Bree and the Anderson’s. She knew without a doubt that she was falling for him, and she also knew they had no chance of a future together. He was too angry, too set on revenge, and the people he wanted to hurt were the people she loved most in the world.
With a lump in her throat, Sierra lay back down. She didn’t feel like fighting with him anymore that night. She knew if she tried to get up, he’d just drag her back. Hopefully, if she just turned over and went to sleep, he’d leave her alone, let her have time to think.
She was grateful when the light went out and she felt him shift behind her. His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her tightly against his body.
“I have to do this,” he said, almost a plea in his voice.
“No, Damien, you don’t. What you should do is learn the truth,” she said, her own voice sounding defeated.
It seemed she was destined to go from one battle zone to the next. Sierra was grateful when she felt herself beginning to drift to sleep. She’d start fresh the next day.