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The Perfect Temptation, Part 9

Sweat poured off of his brow as he stared at the other end of the court. The tennis ball machine was gearing up on high like he had set it. His shirt lay discarded on the clay, wet from several hours of exertion. He twirled the racket in his hand once, before getting into position. The sun beat unrelenting on his back, deepening his tan. The ball came flying towards him at a hundred miles an hour. Damien slammed his racket against it, sending back across the court to ricochet off of the chain link fence with an audible rattle. He hammered the rest of them in the same direction, making a racket in the process. A few managed to hit him, stinging blows against his flesh, but he didn't care. He felt like it was just punishment for his actions towards Angelina the two evenings before. "For being a complete asshole," he muttered under his breath as he pounded several more of the tennis balls across the court.

"Off," he called out to the machine, making it whir faintly as it clicked off. He walked back over to the bench and dropped down onto it. His hair hung in damp chunks on his head and more sweat glistened on his skin. His muscles ached from the abuse he was putting them through, but he felt like he deserved it. Raking both hands through his hair, he stared down at the red clay under his shoes. All he could see was her face. She was haunting him even with his eyes open. "Why did I have to say those things? I always end up putting my foot in my mouth. I can handle business conversations, but when it comes to conversations with women, I screw it up," he muttered, his tone very self-deprecating. "It's open mouth, insert foot, Damien Winner." He leaned back against the chain link behind him, not caring if the metal bit into his flesh. He picked up a water bottle and dumped it over his head. Water rained down over his hot face and neck. However, it didn't alleviate the burning inside of him. It was guilt. Remorse. A whole host of other things he couldn't begin to explain.

"Dammit," he cursed again as he ran one hand over the back of his neck. Muscles stretched and contorted from the action. Many would be surprised of his current appearance. Lacking the heavier build of his cousins, his slimmer frame didn't make him any less strong then them. He was an inch or to shorter than the six foot two Dominic and half an inch shorter than his own brother. Jet was the only one shorter than him. His strength when he was angry enough was unprecedented. Jonathon had come into contact with it once, walking away with a broken nose. He sighed again and stood up, ready to put himself through more physical abuse. He called for the machine to turn on again, but at a faster speed. They zipped across the net like wildfire. His muscles were strongly protesting against his rough treatment of them. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered now.

Quatre gazed through the fence at his son, while playing a game, he himself despised with a passion. But Cathy played and Quatrina and Mira did as will. Vaughn and Damien only picked up a racket was when they were pissed with the other or in Damien's case, at himself. With a soft sigh, he pushed the gate open and stepped inside the enclosed court. "Damien, he called quietly.

The oldest Winner heir turned and looked at his father through the sweat running down into his eyes. "I needed to get some frustrations out," he replied shortly as he called the machine to halt once again. "I needed the exercise too since I spend a lot of time behind a desk."

"I hardly think that you need to exercise, since you're about as fit as anyone else is," Quatre answered back as he sat down on the bench. "But I know you've been in a bad mood lately just as your brother has, and coincidentally, it's due to women."

Damien frowned as he sat beside his father. "That's always been my problem and right now, it's two of them. Which makes it ten times worse considering who they are."

"One is Claudia and the other is Angelina."

A shocked look replaced his frown. "How did you know that?"

"I feel Angelina's frustrations and her pain, knowing it has something to do with you. Claudia is a lucky guess," Quatre replied as he watched his son's face. "What's going on?"

"Like you need to ask," Damien said with a dry look. "Let's just say it's your typical love triangle. Angelina is at one corner, Claudia at the other…and I am their objective. And unfortunately for me, I can't make up my mind about one over the other. Claudia is the woman who ripped my heart out without a smidgen of conscience, and Angelina just likes to twist me into knots and tease me."

Quatre arched a brow. "I hope you wouldn't chose that girl that made you a zombie for three months. I wouldn't want to smack some sense into you. While she seems like such a nice girl, she isn't the one for you. She never was and I knew that. It was almost a blessing in disguise when she broke up with you."

"You knew that we were going to break up?" Damien couldn't believe he was hearing this.

With a nod of his head, he confirmed his answer for his son. "Being perfect doesn't mean it's the best for you. I could sense flaws under the surface, I didn't know what they were, but I knew that you wouldn't end up with her. But there were sometimes I was a little worried that you were going to ask her to marry you."

"I think that's what Claudia wanted too, but I was too occupied and I knew she resented it. She hated anything that took me away from her. But I loved her and you know as well as anyone else, dad, once you're bitten by that particular emotion, you're blind to what goes on around you. I had considered marrying her, but before I really could make up my mind about it, she went and dumped me."

"I'm very glad you didn't. She just wasn't the one for you. There's someone out there that's much more suited for you."

"You're talking about Angelina, aren't you, dad?"

"Maybe I am."

Damien snorted. "She's hardly the right one for me. Her type scares the hell out of me." "Plus she hates me at the moment anyway." "Brazen, bold, gutsy women are definitely not for me. They never were."

Quatre arched a brow. "She is who she is. Yes, Angelina might be brazen, bold, and gutsy, but she's a good girl at heart. She needs someone who will care for her and listen to her. Her mother wasn't the most delightful of mothers," Quatre added. "She was a beautiful woman, but she was like your Claudia. Perfect on the outside, but far from it on the inside."


"That's what I heard," Damien replied. "Jonathon told me some things about her. And I find myself believing what he said about her. I went to talk to her the other night about what she saw earlier in the week, and she said she didn't care. I knew enough about her to know that she was lying to me about something. She hid it and I got mad from some remark she made, then as usual, I opened my mouth and inserted my foot."

Quatre winced a little as a shot of pain raced through him, but he shook it off as it died away, but it didn't completely leave. He concentrated on his son in front of him. "What did you say to her?" he asked.

"I more or less told her that I would pity the man that would have her."

Quatre contemplated his son's words for a moment. He liked Angelina. She had always been a good little girl, but he had seen her living under the influence of her mother for years. It was hard to take sometimes. She had been quiet and cute little thing. She had glasses, braces, and scores of freckles across the bridge of her nose and under her eyes. And in her mother's eyes, unattractive and less than perfect, which to her was unacceptable. Then he saw her at eighteen, after not seeing her for four or five years, and was shocked at the transformation. She had grown out of the braces, wore contacts, and the freckles were gone. In her place was a very beautiful young woman, who was very intelligent and very vivacious, but she still saw herself as unattractive because of her mother. He knew what she hid underneath that mask. She was afraid of letting anyone in, not wanting anyone to see how insecure she really was, which he understood. And now, he knew how she was beginning to feel towards his oldest son, who had his own insecurities. He frowned as he glanced over at him. "That was not a wise thing to say to her."

Damien exploded. "Don't you think I know that? The shattered look on her face was enough to make me realize what I said! I couldn't take it back and the funny thing is, I feel horrible! I don't know why, but I do! And it's driving me insane! She drives me insane!"

He didn't deign to comment after his son's outburst. He could see the intense frustration written on the nearly identical features, except for the stubborn jaw, which belonged to Cathy. He knew that Damien had tended to shy away from girls and always seemed to feel uncomfortable around them except for the ones he had known since childhood. But that changed as Randy and Veronica, grew older and bolder, and they were the only girls he tended to shy away from. Angelina was much like the both of them from what he saw. He tapped a few fingers on the bench, thinking of something to say to his son. "She drives you insane?" he finally asked, not knowing what else to ask.

"YES!" Damien shot off the bench and started pacing back and forth in front of his father. He shoved his hands through his hair, making it stick up between his fingers. "She delights in twisting me into knots, she makes me so mad some days that I just want to strangle her, scream at her, shake her, kis…" he bit off the rest of the word and glanced back at his father to see if he caught the slip. Both of his brows were arched up in amused question. "Shit," he muttered under his breath, knowing by that look, he had caught it. "She just drives me mad."

Quatre had to bite back the laughter at the expression on his son's face. "She makes you feel that much, does she?"

Damien didn't answer as he chewed on his lip. He turned away from his father. "I didn't mean that last part about the…you know…"

"About kissing Angelina? Oh, I think you do or else you wouldn't be denying it."

"I don't want to kiss her! I'm not denying anything."

With a sigh, Quatre stood and walked over to his son, placing a hand on his shoulder. "A small bit of advice, Damien. When a woman makes you feel like that, feel so many emotions at once, stirring them up inside you, it means you're interested. Don't be afraid of feeling like that because it's very normal. Just trust me," he said as he gave his son a smile and dropped his hand away. He turned and started to leave the court.

His hands left his hair and fell to his sides. He stared after his father, contemplating what he said. "Dad?"

"Yes?" Quatre replied as he opened the gate, he looked over his shoulder.

Damien looked his father in the eye. "Did mom make you feel like that?"

A smirk crossed Quatre's lips. "What do you think?" he asked before he turned away and left the court.

Damien picked up his shirt and mopped his face with it. His brow was wrinkled in thought over his father's advice. He was also finding it a little hard to believe that his mother made his father feel like that too. He was afraid of what she made him feel. The feelings made his palms itch, his heart race, and his eyes follow her around and trek over her body when she was in sight. "Claudia never made me feel like that," he murmured as he sat back down again. He stared sightlessly at the other side of the court. Claudia had been his fantasy girl. She had been what he thought he wanted. Pretty, reserved, ladylike, and safe. She was safe because he didn't feel raging emotions when he was with her. He loved her, certainly, but never with an out of control passion. It was calm relationship. Even sleeping with her hadn't increased the feelings he had for her. He was ashamed to admit that the sex was good, it seemed to be lacking. And he didn't know what it was.

"And Angelina?" he murmured as he dropped his eyes to the clay under his feet. She frightened him. Her boldness, her total lack of restraint, her fiery beauty, and independence shook him up inside. The thoughts he had about her sometimes were so heated, so sexually charged, that they made him flush with embarrassment because he had never had thoughts about Claudia in that manner. She was the opposite of his ex-lover. She made him feel passion and he could only imagine what making love to her would be like. "Making love? Where did that come from?" he asked out loud, puzzled that he would connect love with her. "I couldn't feel something like that for her, could I?" "Well you won't find out if you could feel like that towards her because you acted like an ass and she won't talk to you. You said some pretty nasty things to her and she probably hates you. What you should do is go to her and apologize for being an ass in the first place." He pressed the heel of his hands against his eyes. "I guess that's the only thing I can do at this point. I have to apologize to her," he said as he stood again, the image of her hurt face lingering in his mind.

******************************************************************************

"Men suck."

"At the moment, I have to agree with you."

"Well at least you have a guy that loves you and treats you with respect."

"Still doesn't mean I can't think men suck."

"Randy, why are men such idiots? I mean, they say one thing and mean another," Angelina said crossly as she dropped the wrench onto the asphalt with a clatter.

"Because they're men. They can't think with their brains when a pretty woman is involved," Randy snorted as she pointed a brand new spark plug at her friend. She jerked her head in the direction of Donavon, who was in the office with David and Chris. "And Donavon is just as guilty of it as the rest of them. They can open their mouth and insert their big feet."

A slightly amused look crossed Angelina's face. "I take it having a shadow is getting to you?"

"You have no fucking idea," Randy grumbled in reply as she leaned under the hood to replace the old spark plug. "I'm lucky I'm not tied to him now or having him hover over me like some damned ghost."

"Well, like I said before, at least you have someone. The one I thought I wanted is an asshole," Angelina said as she frowned and turned back to the car she was working on.

Randy leaned up again and turned to look at her friend's back. "Damien has always been a chicken with women like us. Our boldness makes him cringe. I told you he would be a hopeless case, but you let your hormones get the better of you," she chided, wagging her grease stained finger.

"Oh shut up! All I wanted to do was rile him up some, not marry him!"

"Honey, you wanted him flat on his back, begging you for more."

With her face flaming from Randy's insinuation, she turned to face her. "Well don't you want Donavon the same way? Don't you want him on his back, begging you for more?" Angelina shot back.

Randy's face turned bright red. " Bitch," she growled, "don't shout it out! I would rather he not hear that!"

"So, you do admit it. The proud virgin that you are."

"You're a virgin too, Angie. Don't forget that. You flirt and tease just as I do."

Angelina crossed her arms and scowled at the other girl. "So, I do, but like you, I don't give it away. What man is going to want me in bed, especially not Damien."

]

"Oh, I think he wants you well enough. He's lusting after you and you know it. You don't believe him when he's denying it, so he doesn't believe that you didn't give a shit about Claudia. You like him very much, and it's more than just you, him, and a bed," Randy said pointedly.

Angelina snorted and gave Randy her back. It was true when she had said that she cared about Damien and Claudia more than she let on. She liked him very much with that irritated look on his face when he would do paperwork. She found it amusing when he would rake his hands through his hair when he was reading something that obviously didn't sit well with him.  The flush that would rise to his cheeks when he thought she wasn't looking was also very cute. Or when he would so desperately try to cover up the intense heated look in those aquamarine eyes of his. Those looks of his sent chills through her. And she loved that smile of his. Although the other night had been painful since all she had thought about had been his words of him pitying the man that would want her. He had upset her so much, inflicting more damage to an already opened wound. She frowned. "I don't like him right now."

"I don't like Donavon right now either, but I'm not going to deny that I love him more than anything," Randy sighed as she raised her eyes to the ceiling. "Even if he spanked the hell out of me for messing around with Vaughn and getting Veronica all upset."

"Randy, he spanked you hard enough you couldn't sit down for almost twenty four hours."

"Yeah, added onto the spanking by my father. It didn't help the soreness already there."

"You deserved it," Angelina put mildly.

Randy glared at the other girl's back. "I didn't deserve it twice in one day. He could've given me some time to heal," she said as she glanced over towards the office door behind her. Music was playing loud enough so they wouldn't be heard inside the office. "But no, Donavon came walking in and smacked the hell out of my ass for at least two minutes. And I knew Veronica got pleasure out of seeing me brought to heel at Victoria's birthday party. The bitch was trying not to laugh."

"She wasn't the only one trying not to laugh," Angelina snickered as she turned around to face Randy once again.

"Screw you," Randy hissed. "But you were staring at Damien the entire night. Like he was at you when you weren't looking. He can't hide it as much as he tries, but what blows me away is what you implied about him saying to you the other night. He's not known to be that nasty. That title goes to his sister, Quatrina. My advice would be, is to back off. Let him have his space and sort his mind out. I will say this that ex of his helped fuck him up. She got in his brain and scrambled it because in his eyes, the cow is the perfect woman. He has to make a decision. You or her, and I guarantee it, he'll get migraines from it," Randy recommended.

"Why would he chose her, when she hurt him as much as she did?"

"Because when it comes to that girl, he gets all wishy washy, and she walks all over him. I don't think he would be able to survive having his heart ripped out a second time."

Angelina frowned again. "But there's the possibility that he would go back to her. If he still loves her…of course," she said softly, a feeling of dread trickling through her. She didn't think she could stand it if he chose Claudia over her. Her psyche was held together by the most minute of strands. If one broke, she knew she would collapse. "Let's just hope he doesn't chose her. I would even rather him not choosing either one of us. I think I could withstand that at least."  She waved her hand. "Enough of this talk, let's talk about something else."

"Like what?" Randy questioned, not at all surprised by her friend's change in topic.

"Like how much longer your beloved is going to tail you and watch everything you do"

"Probably when hell freezes over, but I'll tell you this," Randy said, wagging her finger again, "I will make him pay for making me where that shirt. As much as I hate to admit, I deserved that spanking, but not the shirt and the leash. I will definitely make him pay because payback can be a real bitch, and I'm the bitch that's going to give it to him," she finished with a growl.

Angelina smirked, noticing that Donavon was standing behind Randy, with his arms crossed.

"He's behind me, isn't he?" Randy asked, flinching."

"What's this about making me pay for the shirt and the leash?" Donavon drawled, more amused than annoyed. He was smirking.

"Nothing," Randy replied, "Nothing at all, love."

"You said payback was a bitch, and you were going to be the one to do it," Donavon said, his smirk getting wider.

Angelina sighed and shook her head as Randy sputtered out more denials. She could tell that Donavon was enjoying his girlfriend's discomfiture. She sighed and turned back to the car she was working on. Tears filled her eyes as she thought of Damien. "Why did you say the things you said?" she whispered as she sniffed back the rest of her internal distress and went about her work.

A/N: I know it took me awhile, but it's here and I hope you enjoyed it. Miserable, isn't it? Stay tuned for more! XOXO!