A/N: This is my attempt at an M rated fic as requested by the lovely 'madaboutcarla' who wished to read a 'Fifty Shades' type of fic but with liarla :) This first section here is just an intro covering some background plot / a set up for the chapter to follow. This intro doesn't have any M rated material in it. Also I apologize for all grammar errors, I will be coming back to edit later in the day but for now I decided I would just go ahead and post. Hopefully you all enjoy and as always thank you for reading.

The business partners would be coming in shortly so Liam had to mull over the new contracts yet again. He was stressed because this was such a big opportunity to expand his factories capacity but at the same time a few shady dealings had been brought to his attention and they needed to be addressed. It was his sister Michelle and fellow business partner in their cousin Tom who had brought to Liam's attention a few days previously their suspicions about the possibility of underhanded business practices. He was now straining his eyes in a panic looking at figures that just didn't add up.

"I told you, you shouldn't trust the scots man," Michelle smirked in the office of Underworld pacing back and forth while Liam feverishly looked over business plans and other corporate mumbo jumbo most people would be bored out of their minds about, "I told you to cut him the first chance you two got. But you wouldn't listen—"

"—Hey," interrupted Tom trying to keep the peace because he could see that Liam was seconds away from throwing his baby sister out of the office, "Nobody should be blaming anybody or themselves. These things just happen sometimes."

Liam was on a very short fuse as it was and the fact that Tom being his usual jovial self was trying to downplay this situation made him furious. He would likely lounge over the other side of the desk and come at his cousin any moment now. It was taking all the strength in the world to choose his words carefully and not flip out. If he did that then this whole new contract would fall through, because Tom would be going into the business meeting schedule shortly most likely in a fit of tears, "These things just don't happen Tom," Liam bit down on his tongue, "These things fall through the cracks and you should have been paying attention more! Good thing the auditors and the solicitors caught onto the issue in time."

Michelle not one to be left of the praise or recognition spun around slamming her fist on Liam's desk glaring, "I'm the one who caught onto them! And it isn't so much 'them' I think it's the wife responsible for all this moving about of money. I've met her before, she's a real piece of work…dragon lady if you will!"

"Don't exaggerate," said Tom in a state of shock over Michelle's volatile action. He quickly closed the blinds so to avoid the factory staff looking in. They had a tendency to be nosy little eavesdroppers. His goal now was to maintain the peace; glancing at Michelle he said in a stifled manner, "And keep your voice down, those workers out there smell the drama. As for the lady in question being a 'dragon lady', you exaggerate."

"And you're in love!" Michelle replied smugly before turning to Liam and smirking, "You've never had the opportunity of meeting the infamous Carla Gordon, Liam. But I can assure you that nothing our Thomas has to say about her is reliable, she has this remarkable talent of making 'come hither' eyes and causing all the blokes to fall down at feet. It's pathetic!"

"Now look who's exaggerating," Tom retorted under his breath.

Liam himself couldn't comment as he had never met the wife of Tony Gordon, nor had he ever cared to. Yes, he heard she was a great beauty and pleasant enough at social gatherings but that was that, he didn't want to know anymore as he had enough pointless information clouding his mind. Tony had always informed him though, that she was very busy and liked being a silent partner of sorts with no real influence or claim in the day-to-day happenings of his company. According to Tony, she was more of a figurehead, another number on his board so to speak; a good luck charm for moral support. No problems, is what he claimed over drinks countless times in the past. She let him be free and let him do, as he wanted. Liam recalled how Tony even joked that his wife helped stifle the competition but how ironic it was now looking at all this incriminating evidence; Tony's wife was the competition… his own.

If these pages were in fact telling the truth, and Liam had no doubt that they were he had spoken with his solicitor Leah on the phone earlier who had corresponded with the Gordon's solicitor in turn, it would appear that Tony really had no idea what his wife had been to, potentially stealing thousands if not millions of pounds from under his nose and for what?

"Her makeup is shit!" screamed Michelle snapping Liam from out of his deep thought. He was on the verge of getting a headache and his sisters screeching did not help, "I thought I was making a sound investment. You know the bit of money gran left for me in the will?"

"Yes," sighed Liam his blue eyes flickering up and stealing a glance at Tom. They had both heard this story a billion times over the last few days it was beginning to nauseate him to the ump degree.

"Well I thought I was being a smart business savvy person like you and our Paul were so I decided to invest and throw some money at that 'Allure' company after all it sounded so promising and everyone thought the return rate on the investment sounded great—"

"Who is everyone?" Tom threw himself into a nearby chair sipping at his brew, "If you had taken it to our solicitor Leah, she would have been able to spot this silly Ponzi 'slash' pyramid whatever scheme from a mile away."

"I don't need our family solicitors to babysit me! Carla Gordon's henchwomen or whoever, well they were very convincing. We had a whole makeup party and everything, pamphlets…consultations, I swear nothing looked cheap!"

"Perhaps she gave you those 'come hither eyes' and forced pen to paper," Tom couldn't resist taking a jab to make up for Michelle's one earlier.

Liam sat zoned out almost apathetic about what the hell he was going to do. There business meeting was coming up in about half an hour. He had told his trusty solicitor Leah to put a hold on things and she in turn told Tony's inside person to stand guard until they knew how to act. Things could be all wrong in this situation in regards to Tony's involvement. And as a fellow businessman Liam understood what it was like to get caught up in the web and cross hairs of gold diggers. He was sympathetic to the fact that Tony Gordon was also a kindred self-made man, who sweated tears and blood to get where he was today. Wanting to believe the best in people and wanting to give Tony the benefit of the doubt, he would call his attention to all that had been discovered in the past few days. Then Tony could cut the wife out of everything and proper justice could be discuss and pursued. This made the most sense if Tony was in fact an honest man; why not just eliminate the problem, his wife. If he was not however, the solution was simple and he'd have Leah on speed dial for legal action to proceed.

What was not in doubt…Mrs. Carla Gordon had been transferring funds out her husbands business for quite sometime now. 'Gordon's Catalogue's' it seems had been unknowingly supporting her own ambitious company ventures for about the past two years, long before Underworld came into the picture. From the looks of it she had been fronting a venture called 'Allure' a so-called cosmetics company that was really nothing more than a ponzi scheme. She'd convince people to invest, providing all the facts about the billion-dollar global beauty industry; good return rates and how her company understood a woman's need to feel beautiful. The products were convincing enough; they had managed to pull in Michelle and who knows how many others in with promises of extraordinary high return rates. Of course once Carla was done splurging off the money of gullible investors and there was none left to be paid back in; she'd dip her hand into Tony's business to pamper herself a bit more and of course try and keep legitimacy in paying out investments. This was a problem not only because Michelle had been swindled a great deal but also because 'Underworld' as a partner with 'Gordon's Catalogues' was being robbed in her constant dipping into the honey bowl. It was because of Tom on Michelle's insistence that a company mole had been able to steal some documents before Carla had a chance shred them away into infinity. This mole could also attest to doctoring certain business and accounting details for the purposes of deceiving Tony.

"Shut up both of you," Liam finally managed scuffling the papers together back into a neat pile. This Gordon woman seemed like a nasty piece of work indeed, but he would show some of these papers to Tony who had actually become a good friend. It would save him time ahead to prepare for a nasty and expensive divorce. Michelle and Tom who had been bickering stopped immediately looking at him waiting for a plan of action. Liam slowly got up from his chair, adjusting his tie and collar before pacing across the room. Addressing Michelle first he said, "You should have come to me first before throwing money at this stupid company of hers but you didn't and now all the pain and financial strain caused can't be avoided."

"It would have never been avoided," Tom interrupted, "She's been dipping into our 'Underworld' investments as well."

"I know," said Liam glancing at his cousin in annoyance, "I was going to say that before you interrupted. For now all I can say is that we need to get our case together and also well before taking action. Leah, our solicitor will advise us on what needs to be done before going ahead and filing for Fraud against Carla Gordon and her husband if our thoughts about his innocence turn out to be false."

"But what about right now?" Michelle practically stamped her foot, "Don't tell me you're actually considering having the meeting with him today? Not after what his wife has done to me! You better not—"

"We have to Michelle!" Liam grabbed his sister by the shoulder ready to steer her out the door as the meeting was fast approaching, "We have a new line of lingerie to preview. Tony wants new items in his catalogue and Tom and I both have been working months and months ahead to get everything ready for this fresh new image Tony wants for his catalogue. It's a concept and a vision and it takes time. We just can't throw it all away and more importantly we need to keep up the pretense of normality in case his involvement turns out to be true so that he doesn't suspect we're onto them."

Michelle pouted some more, her brown eyes resembling slits before she throw Liam's hand from her shoulder and grabbed him by the arm pulling him into, "Just don't you forget what your main priority is…FAMILY!" And with that she threw him back shoving past Tom and throwing the office door open to an array of nosy workers stomping down the hallway out into the daylight. Liam have to would scream at her later for creating so obvious a scene in tension. These gossiping factory workers would be sure to talk.

"Well that was pleasant," Tom smirked sitting back down at his desk and throwing his feet up, "I could do with a good rest, a good pampering session after all that. I wish Gordon wasn't penciled in today—"

Liam couldn't even understand how Tom could be so at ease about all of this. He wanted to send the message home loud and clear that this whole situation was Tom's fault because if Tom hadn't pushed so hard for them to enter into contract with 'Gordon's Catalogue's' then none of this swindling nonsense would have happened. Liam liked to consider himself a sensible and reasonable man, good at reading people and smart with business decisions. If this whole thing blew up in there faces it was his credibility on the line not Tom's, "Oh fuck off," Liam snapped pulling at his tie collar in frustration. He was ready to hit a wall.

"Sorry for existing," Tom scowled back, "You moody idiot."

"Oh you're going to be sorry for a lot more than that if you don't get that stupid look off your face," Liam glared, "Now make yourself useful to me and go and get the rest of the samples ready!"

"I'm going to make myself another brew actually," Tom said shoving off his seat, "I don't have to deal with this rude beahaviour!"

"Go and get the samples! They are on your way down over to the kitchen anyways—"

"—Ask nicely and maybe I will."

"FUCK OFF!"

"Uhmmm," there was a gentle rapping on the door and Liam tearing his eyes away from Tom glanced at his assistant Rosie, "Mr. Connor…Mr. Kerrigan?"

Liam quickly turned on the charm not wanting her to going running back to her mother Sally with any tidbits, "What is it Rosie?"

"Mr. Gordon called and says he is on his way. Also your solicitor Ms. Pardo is on the line but I told her you were getting ready for a meeting. She said to call back immediately afterwards—"

"—Thank you and when Mr. Gordon gets here tell go ahead and seat him in the conference room. I trust you have everything set up for the consultation?"

"Yes Mr. Connor. I also made sure to get his coffee right as well…three sugars," she smiled proudly, "Anything else?"

"Yes," Liam glared pointedly at Tom before turning back to his young assistant, "Can you go get the rest of the samples not already in the conference room? It seems our Mr. Kerrigan here doesn't want to make himself useful."

"Yes Mr. Connor, right away," Rosie exited.

Tom pushed past Liam stopping at door, "You better get your mood in check for when Tony comes. I can't have you ruining something now. Oh wait…I forgot, you're perfect," he sneered shoving the door open and following Rosie out in a huff.

Liam didn't care if he had upset his cousin. He was always cleaning up Tom's blunders, which were always attributed to the fact that Tom just didn't give a crap about anything so long as it came easy, and he didn't have to lift a finger for it. Knowing his cousins track record, Tom would be left to talking about the fun non-business related topics while Liam would be left alone to sell Tony on the new lingerie all which would be even more difficult to do convincingly now that he was pretty sure Tony's missus was a swindling dishonest con woman.

Left alone in all these thoughts, in this suffocating office, Liam tugged at his necktie again in annoyance taking it off. His head was starting to hurt and right now he just wanted a bloody drink. Pulling open his desk drawer he pulled out a bottle of whiskey, saved for these sort of messed up and stressful situations. He would throw caution to the wind and just get hammered if he could, but he had to show some restraint. Pulling up the blinds in momentary distraction he glanced back down at the incriminating documents before shoving them back into a large file and putting them on lock and key. He stared at his computer monitor ready to drink and numb himself the hell out.

He heard a clanking, the sound of heels on the hard factory floor which caused his blue eyes to slowly flicker up to the sight of her. Her skin was an olive tan and her hair raven like. Those lips, ruby, sensual…she moved like she had no weight at all, like she walked effortlessly on air. She was so entrancing he couldn't help the obligatory jaw drop as he took her all in pacing by him…those green eyes alight holding his stare through the blinds. In that moment he truly believed that she was reading his mind and he almost couldn't breathe because there was a connection going on, chemistry that she left sink in with those 'come hither' eyes. A faint smirk halfway between amusement and indifference formed on her lips before pushing gaze forward, straight ahead onward, continuing in the direction of the conference room. This had to be her, the allusive, mysteriously titillating, most likely the swindling criminal, Carla Gordon.