Damon didn't bother to knock on Elena's office door. He just walked straight in.
Her head came up from her computer, her eyes narrowing with anger on him.
Damon had flashbacks to Harvard and her looking at him that exact same way on many occasions.
Dislike and disdain.
And, just like it bothered him then—not that he would ever let her know that—it bothered him now. Even more so.
"I'm busy," Elena said.
"This won't take a minute. What you just saw in my office wasn't what you thought it was."
She barked out a laugh. "So, you weren't just about to screw my assistant."
"No." Damon gritted his teeth. "I had just come out of my bathroom after showering and—"
"Often take showers during the day, do you?"
"When I have just done a workout in the gym on my lunch hour, yes, I do." He paused, gritting his teeth. He took a deep breath in through his nose and then exhaled it out. "Look, Lexi and I have…a past. A short past. We slept together once before she started working here."
"And you just didn't bother to tell me?"
"I didn't think it was any of your business."
Elena laughed. "Typical, Damon."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means, you never think further than the end of your cock."
Damon's jaw tightened. "Honestly, I didn't want to cause a problem, and I knew, if I told you that I had slept with her the night before you came in for that first meeting—"
"Hang on." Elena held up a hand. "Lexi was the reason you were late for our meeting? She's the one who left that note on your shirt?"
Damon realized what he had just let slip, and his heart just sank. "Yes."
Elena let out a sound of disbelief, shaking her head.
"I would never have touched her if I had known she was going to start working here."
"Yet you were just naked in your office with her pressed up against you."
"That was all her. She was waiting for me. I hadn't invited her, and I sure as hell didn't want her there. But she wasn't taking no for an answer."
"So, she overpowered you and pressed you up against the wall?"
"I wouldn't say overpowered—"
She laughed derisively, cutting him off. "You can go now. I have work to do."
"Don't do that. Don't dismiss me like I'm your assistant."
"Well, don't screw my actual assistant in your office in the middle of the day, and maybe I won't!" she yelled, rising to her feet, hands pressed to the desk, her face red, eyes bright with anger.
"I didn't screw her!"
"Only because I interrupted you!"
"I wasn't going to do a goddamn thing with her! Aside from the fact that she works here and I never touch employees, I never ride the same roller coaster twice."
"God, you are disgusting. Same game, different place. You are working your way through the female population of Richmond just like you worked your way through Harvard."
"Except for you, Elena. I never worked my way through you."
Her jaw clenched, working angrily. "Only because I saw right through you. God." She laughed. "Same old Damon Salvatore. And here I was, thinking you had changed. You sure had me fooled."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means, you are still the same shallow, self-centred, womanizing asshole that you were in college!"
"Yeah, and you are the same stuck-up, judgmental bitch that you always were!"
"Go to hell," Elena spitted.
"Original." Damon laughed. "But maybe that's the problem, Elena. Maybe you want to sleep with me, and you can't. Maybe that has been the problem all along. You wanted to screw me in Harvard, too, and that was why you were so bent out of shape all the time."
Her eyes narrowed like lasers. Damon knew he was being a dick, overstepping the mark, but Elena pushed his buttons like no one. She had always been able to push his buttons.
"God, I hate you," she scowled.
Damon narrowed his gaze on her. "The feeling is one hundred percent mutual, sweetheart."
"Don't call me that. I'm not your sweetheart."
"Thank God because, if you were, my balls would have frozen off by now."
Her eyes closed, and Damon hated that he couldn't see what she was thinking. She exhaled slowly through her nose and then opened her eyes.
"Anything else?" Her tone was so even, one wouldn't think they were just tearing each other to shreds.
"No."
"Good."
Her eyes moved to her office door, and Damon took the blatant hint.
He had just opened the door when her voice hit his back. "Where is Lexi?"
Damon glanced at her over his shoulder. "I sent her home for the rest of the day."
Elena laughed softly. "Figures."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that you do what is best for you and screw everyone else."
That was like a match to his simmering flame. "Dammit, Elena. You don't know the first thing about me. You don't get to come in here and speak to me like this after five minutes of working here. Yeah, you might be co-CEO or what-the-hell-ever, but this company is mine, and irrespective of what you think just happened with Lexi in my office, I deserve some respect from you."
Elena sniffed. "Respect is earned."
Damon gave her a pointed look. "Yeah, it is." Then, he spun on his heel and slammed her office door behind him.
He marched to his office, ignoring Rose, who had finally reappeared at her desk.
He slammed his office door shut, strode over to his desk, and sat down in his chair.
He was seething.
Who the hell did she think she was? Elena might be hot, but she was still a bitch. God, he hated her.
Well, he didn't hate her. But he wanted to.
Damon was so sick of lusting over her.
And, after today, with her talking to him like that, screw that, he was done.
Damon wanted her gone. From this office and out of his life and his thoughts.
His initial instinct to get rid of her was the right one.
And he would do whatever was necessary to make that happen.
He needed ideas on how to get rid of her from here, but he couldn't think of any because his mind was too twisted up with her to think straight.
Damon turned to his computer and opened up his email. He started a new email, addressed to Alaric and Enzo. His fingers angrily hit the keys as he typed out a message to them
Damon: SOS. I need ideas on how to get rid of her.
Enzo replied almost immediately.
Enzo: Am I right in guessing that her is Elena Gilbert?
Damon: Yes.
Enzo: I thought you were getting on okay with her?
Damon: I was, but then she caught me in my office with Lexi.
Enzo: What were you doing with Lexi in the office? Did you have sex with her?
Damon: No, asshole, I wasn't. And I wasn't planning on sleeping with her either. Lexi turned up in my office when I got out of the shower, and she tried to seduce me.
Enzo: You should have taken her.
Damon: Dude. Can you stay focused here?
Enzo: Okay. Sorry…but what do I need to focus on?
Damon: Getting rid of Elena.
Alaric: Just playing catch-up. And, dude, you want to get rid of Elena? You don't mean…kill her, right? Because I love you, man, like a brother, but I'm too pretty for jail.
Enzo: No, I'm too pretty for jail. You would just be the nerd they beat up every day for fun.
Alaric: Go to hell.
Enzo: You are not my type, nerd boy.
Damon: Jesus Christ! Can we please get back on topic? And Alaric, I don't mean I want to kill Elena. You really need to stop watching Cold Case. It is scrambling your brain. I want her gone from the business, as in fired. But I don't know how to make that happen. Especially not now, as she came up with this really great idea for the business, and my parents love her even more for it.
Enzo: Just sabotage her great idea. Make her look incompetent. Then, your parents will fire her.
That made Damon sat back. Could he actually do that? Sabotage her business idea?
No. Not only for the fact that he would never do anything to hurt the company, but he also couldn't do that to her.
Damon: No…I can't do that.
He shut his email down and turned his chair so that he could look out at the city below him.
He felt a lot calmer than he did before, but he hadn't changed his mind.
He still wanted Elena gone from here. He wanted his life to go back to how it was before she came here and messed everything up.
He just needed to figure out how to make that happen. He needed a plan of action of how to get Elena fired that didn't involve messing up the Ananda deal.
Elena was about to learn that there was only one boss at Lady Boss.
And that would be him.
It was official. Damon had reverted back to his childhood ways.
When he was in kindergarten, he had this crush on Becky Young. She was the prettiest girl in his class. And, of course, like any other five-year-old who had a crush on a girl, Damon was mean to her. Pulled her pigtails, stole her juice box at lunch—that kind of thing.
Now, he was reduced back to the days of Becky Young, except it was with Elena now.
The next day after their argument, Damon was willing to be civil—until he got rid of her. But Elena apparently wasn't on the same lines as him.
They had a morning meeting with finance. And then she accidentally stood on his foot on the way out of the conference room.
And she just happened to be wearing a pair of five-inch Louboutin heels.
Forget the fact that those were some serious sexy shoes, and in any other circumstances, Damon would be lusting over her in those shoes.
And it hurt a lot.
What pissed him off was Elena didn't bother to apologise.
A week later, Damon still had the bruise on his foot to prove it.
He was really pissed off after that little incident. So, he replaced that powdered creamer that she put in her coffee with confectioners' sugar.
The sound of her choking and spluttering in the kitchen was the highlight of his day.
Then Damon came into work the next day and found that someone had changed the password on his computer, locking him out of his own PC. It didn't take long for IT to sort it out, but it was more the inconvenience that pissed him off.
He only wished he was there to hear all the calls she must be receiving about the ad for the used vibrator, free to a good home, that had been listed on Craigslist yesterday with her name and number.
Damon knew he was an asshole, but Elena deserved it.
He would take the ad down after this morning's staff meeting. He reckoned a day of annoying phone calls was enough payback for locking him out of his computer.
Elena's cell lit up with a call on the table in front of her. That was the third time her phone had gone off since the meeting started forty minutes ago.
She sighed and reached over, cancelling the call.
Damon stifled a laugh.
He focused back on Lillian's voice. She was saying something about this year's targets.
He was originally leading this morning's meeting, but somehow, Lillian ended up taking over, so he took the only available seat, which was next to Elena.
Damon's parents officially retired last week. But they had both been in the office every day for one reason or another. He knew it had nothing to do with thinking that he and Elena weren't capable of running the company—even if, at the moment, that was questionable, as they could barely hold a conversation without throwing barbs at each other. But he knew it was because his parents were finding it hard to let go.
Her phone went off again, and Damon couldn't help but leaned close to her and whispered in her ear, "You should probably get that. You don't want to miss out on a potential sale."
Elena made a cute growly sound under her breath. Then she nipped him. Hard. Right on the tender part of his arm, near his armpit.
Damon barked out a curse, and everyone in the room turned to look at him.
"Everything okay, Damon?" Lillian asked, her brows furrowed.
"Yep." Damon cleared his throat. "Everything is fine. Carry on."
Lillian looked at him for a long moment. Then, she resumed talking, and all eyes focused back on her.
"That wasn't very nice," Damon whispered under his breath.
"You deserved it, asshole."
"Bitch."
"Why don't you go fuck yourself, Damon?"
Damon laughed softly. "Like you do with your vibrator? No, thanks."
"I don't even—" Her voice pitched, and Elena paused, reining it back in when George from HR looked across the table at her.
"Go to hell," she whispered to Damon when George looked away.
Damon chuckled quietly. "That's rich, coming from the devil herself."
He saw her hands curled into fists on the table, making him laughed again. And he realized just how turned on he was right now.
He was getting off on making her mad.
Jesus, he couldn't win here. Would he ever stop lusting after her?
Yes. When he kicked her out of his company.
As soon as this meeting was done, Damon was going to work out a plan of action—after he took down the Craigslist ad.
"Okay. So, that's it for today. Unless anyone has anything to add?" Lillian said, finishing up the meeting. "No? Well, everyone have a good rest of the day."
Damon picked his cell up from the table and put it in his pocket.
"Damon, Elena, have you got a minute?" Lillian said from the front of the room.
Damon paused. So did Elena.
"Sure," Damon said at the same time Elena said, "Of course."
They waited for the room to clear, and then Lillian closed the door.
"What's up?" Damon asked, sitting on the edge of the table.
Elena was standing at the opposite side of the table from him.
"Well, I was talking with your dad—Giuseppe," Lillian added, looking at Elena, "last night about the Ananda deal, and even though everything seems to be running on schedule, we just want you to go out to the factory and check to make sure everything is running as they say it is."
"You want me to go to Thailand to do a production check?" Damon asked.
He had never been to Thailand before. This would be fun.
This trip to Thailand, away from the office and Elena, would be just what he needed to get himself back on his game.
Damon was actually smiling, thinking of all the fun he could have in Thailand, when Lillian said, "Yes. But not just you, Damon. I want Elena to go with you. I want the both of you to go out to Thailand and do the production check together."
And, just like that, his happy thoughts were obliterated.
Thank you so much for the support and kind reviews. Sorry for the delay in updating the chapters as work has been busy. I promise I will try to write a few more chapters in the next few days.
What will happen in Bangkok? I'm having such a great time writing DE in Bangkok, LOL! Enjoy:)