Fifty Shades of War

BY

LISA BETH DARLING

Writing as Ebony Clarke

An Anti-Fanfiction Fifty Shades of Grey Piece

Moon Mistress Publishing USA

Moon Mistress Publishing

New London, CT 06320

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual or fictional events, locales or persons/characters, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2015—Lisa Beth Darling-Gorman

Text set in Calibri 11

All Rights Reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any portion(s) thereof in any form whatsoever.

The characters of "Christian Grey", "Anastasia Steel" and "Fonda" along with the backdrop of "Grey Enterprises", "the apartment" and "The Red Room" are the property to EL James and Random House Publishing. Their use here in this FREE work does not intend any copyright infringement and is meant solely for entertainment purposes.

ALL OTHER CHARACTERS, SITUATIONS, AND THEMES ARE THE ORIGINAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF THE AUTHOR, LISA BETH DARLING, AND MOON MISTRESS PUBLISHING.

In Loving Memory Of

KTS

1963-2002

Gone far too soon

Chapter One

No Scrubs

Settling down in a wrought iron chair outside the coffee house, Alena looked up at her husband, Ares, with pleading gray eyes, "We're on vacation," she coaxed.

Standing tall above her with his brawny frame blocking out the sun, Ares let out a deep sigh as his onyx eye rolled in his head, "Fine," he capitulated, "whatever you want, my darling." A small light dawned on him as his mood lightened and he bent down near her ear, "By the way, what do you want?"

A graceful fingertip wound through his dark beard to trace along the strong jawline below, "You, of course, always you," she cooed and planted a kiss on his cheek, "but right now I'll have a large coffee with cream and sugar and a...cherry...scone. I'll have you later."

"Not too much later. I'll give you a cherry scone alright, you wait and see," Ares winked at her as he grinned with anticipation. She pursed her lips in a mock kiss before he stood up again. Turning back to the line of people waiting for a lousy cup of coffee knowing he could wave his hand in the air and there would be two steaming cups on the table before it came back to his side he grumbled, "Vacation indeed."

Covering her mouth with her hand as she snickered watching him take his place in line and towering over everyone around him, Alena couldn't hide the sparkle in her eyes. Every now and then, it gave her great pleasure to make him act like a normal human being. He'd stood there three seconds and she already feel his frustration at having to wait. Lowering her hand to reveal the wide smile lighting up her eyes and shaking her head, she raised her face to the sun letting its warm rays caress her alabaster skin.

Within a few moments, the sun disappeared and Alena opened her eyes thinking it had gone behind a cloud but there was no cloud. There was a man, young maybe in his early thirties, dressed very smartly in a gray silk suit that seemed to set off his equally gray eyes. For a mortal, he was on the tall side with a sinewy frame. His reddish hair was neatly cropped about his head and handsome face. Before she could ask whom he was or what he wanted he spoke with what she assumed he believed was authority.

"Is this seat taken?"

Already joyful at the day, the prospect of playing with the man for a few moments while Ares stood in line intrigued her but Alena didn't like the way he smelled under the slick appearance. "Yes," she said flatly, "it is."

The man didn't care, he sat down anyway, putting his leather brief case on the concrete at his feet, "I'm sure she won't mind if I sit here for a moment."

Biting down on her bottom lip to keep from telling him what she really thought, Alena sighed wistfully as her eyes grew stormy, "I'm sure

he

will." Glancing around she noted to him, "That table over there is empty."

Yes, that table was empty and he did consider sitting there but he couldn't stop staring at her enjoying the brief moment of sunlight on her face. Her skin and hair so white he thought she must be an angel the only thing missing was a pair of white wings on her slender back. "I don't want to sit over there."

"And I suppose you always get what I want," she playfully replied even though he was already boring her.

He reached across the table for the woman's hand only to find it the softest thing he had ever touched. "Has anyone ever told you that you have the most beautiful eyes?"

Running her thumb over the back of his hand lovingly, Alena leaned forward to stare him straight in his gray eyes, "Is that the best you got because it if is it really won't do." She flicked his hand off hers and sat back waiting for his reply that took a while as he sat there dumbfounded by hers. It was clear that whoever he was he truly was accustomed to getting whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it. Today was not his lucky day.

It wasn't often he came up against someone who didn't know who he was and didn't automatically fall at his feet. Always enjoying a challenge, she intrigued him further as he plotted out his next move. One hand tucked under his chin and the other on hers he offered her a sly smile, "I'm rich."

He was getting more tedious by the moment, "That's nice for you; however, I'm not for sale."

Still not deterred the stranger went on, "I can offer you a lot of excitement. Do you like to be excited? I have a plane, a yacht, a helicopter; I could take you to anywhere you want to go."

Alena was about to tell him the rude intruder that she could do those very same things for herself if she chose when she saw Ares coming back to the table. She thought she would just sit back and let Fate take its course from here. "Is that so? Well, tell me more." Alena batted her eyelashes at him stringing him along as she silently waited for his advanced to blow up in his handsome face.

Coming out of the coffee shop and greeted by the sight of the man sitting so suggestively with his wife, Ares switched both large steaming cups of coffee to one hand, licked the whipped cream from his thumb before putting Alena's cherry scone atop the cups then straightened his spine. His dark eyes narrowed on the slender man's back as he crept up behind him listening to the arrogant little brat try to sway Alena away from him with something as mundane as money. He would be furious if it wasn't so pitifully hilarious. For a one moment, Alena's laughing eyes met his serious ones to allay the jealousy still growing with in him. Standing directly behind the oblivious stranger Ares cleared his throat as he planted his big mitt on the intruder's shoulder so heavily it made the man's arm fall out from under him sending his chin abruptly crashing to the wrought iron table. "I don't know what you're doing but I know you're not trying to pick up my wife, boy."

Stunned by the sudden force and turn of events, the man had only begun to pull himself together and give a self-assured reply when he saw the hand on the table holding two large cups of hot coffee easily and the other one on his shoulder. It covered the entire thing from the nape of his neck to the fairly toned bicep in his upper arm. With his teeth aching from being so abruptly gnashed together and tasting the trickle of blood running into his mouth from his cheek, the rich man with the bad attitude shuddered as he turned around in the chair to face the man behind him and took in his abs. He had to raise his eyes and then crane his neck upward to take in the whole of the man staring him down. Without doubt, he had to be seven feet tall and more than three hundred pounds of sheer muscle. The stranger's heart stopped just before his mouth could run away with him again. Instead of a smartass reply, he began mumbling his apologies, "I'm sorry, just a misunderstanding."

"Yeah, sure it is," Ares grumbled, "get out here you little toad, go!" The hand gripping the man's shoulder gave a massive shove sending him from the chair to the ground with a heavy thud.

Titters and giggles started filling the air around them. The intruder noticed people taking out their phones so they could post this to their YouTube and Facebook pages. He'd have a bit of damage control to do if this took off and went viral like so many other mundane pieces of shit did these days. Trying his best to regain his composure he stood up, brushed himself off, picked up his brief case, held it in front of his crotch and again apologized for the misunderstanding before walking away...sideways.

At first Ares thought, the man was just keeping an eye on him to see if Ares would chase after him but when he got a little further down the street and turned around to break into a sprint it was clear to see his silk slacks were newly stained. Ares laughed heartily and when Alena admonished him for making the rude man wet his pants, Ares laughed harder. Chapter Two

Sharp Dressed Man

"Do we have to do this?" Alena sighed looking up at the all-too-modern building. "We're..."

"On vacation," Ares reminded her with a chuckle, "and when on vacation here in the Mortal World we have to do Mortal Things even if they're boring."

"Oh, fine," she agreed with a playful huff, "but what do you care about the money? I mean we don't even use it."

"I don't care about the money," he scoffed, "it's just paper, but it's good to check on it once in a while and see how it's doing."

"In case...what?" She led easily, "Olympus falls?"

"Something like that, come on, it will be fun."

"Like getting a tooth pulled," she followed him through the doors to the lobby of Grey Enterprises where Ares informed the secretary he had a two o'clock appointment with Mr. Grey. Alena watched with curiosity as Ares reached into the back pocket of his well-fitting Levi's and pulled out a leather wallet to hand over his ID. The beautiful and very young woman behind the desk buzzed the private elevator to let them go up. When the doors closed, she turned to her husband, "ID?"

"Humm...see?" He handed over the driver's license and watched her blush at the name, "That's right, just call me Ari, hummm?"

"You're a dick," she cooed and handed it back to him as she remembered their honeymoon in Boston where they'd run into Earl Holbrook her old boss and she was forced to come up a name for her new husband on the spot. "Aristotle Papathanassiou. Does that make me Mrs. Papathanassiou?"

"Of course it does," Ares flicked his wrist to produce a driver's license for her, "I didn't change your first name though."

"Not again anyway," Looking at the very authentic plastic card she laughed again then tucked it into her purse. "How kind of you."

The elevator doors opened on to a blindingly white room with touches of gray and red upon chrome. It was so sparse and overly clean that the glare hurt her eyes. There was in nothing here that was warm or inviting, it even smelled bad.

A very buxom young woman with blonde hair and purple-rimmed glasses sauntered over to them with a clipboard in her hand, "Mr. and Mrs. Papathanassiou?" Her free extended to Ares in greeting. "So nice to meet both of you, I'm Fonda."

"Fond of what?" Ares asked drawing his hand away from hers. Although it was soft and warm it had a lingering stench of jizz tinged with an underlying layer of fresh urine on it.

"A lot of things, Mr. Papathanassiou, many things," she whispered suggestively. "Please, follow me." Fonda made sure her walk had a little extra wiggle in it as she guided them toward the couch in the waiting area. "Is there anything I can get for you? Anything at all?"

With his wife on his arm and insulted by the woman's undertone, Ares dismissed her as though she were no more than a bothersome fly, "No, that will be all." Turning away from the young woman, he stood next to Alena and held her hand until she was settled upon the couch. Sitting his large body next to her, Ares put an arm around her shoulders, "Don't let her bother you."

Alena's face tilted upward to meet his gaze, "If I thought for half a second she had the merest chance with you, I'd gouge her eyes out right here," she leaned in a little closer, "yours would be soon after."

Ares nodded and cleared his throat believing that she would most certainly do her best to carry out that threat and having no doubt she'd get pretty damn far with it. "Yes, well, you know, my darling, I only have eyes for you."

"That's better," she wiggled on the couch trying to get comfortable but it seemed the furniture in here was designed more for show than for function or comfort. "I don't like this place."

That was an understatement; Ares felt her unease radiating from her, "Why?"

"It smells," she whispered in as low a voice as she could, "like...like...the back rooms of an Adult Store just after the cleaning crew has been by."

"I see, and you would know how that smells because..."

"I had a life before I became your wife, my love." Picking up the nearest magazine and leafing through it, she looked around at all of the women here. They were young and beautiful and most were scantily dressed and just standing around serving no other purpose than to look pretty. Living Art for the office. They almost reminded her of Ares' own little harem, the one he had so long ago when she first washed up upon his shore. Ares' women varied in age and size whereas these paper dolls were all between twenty-one and twenty-seven each one as interchangeable and disposable as the next. "What do you think?" She whispered to Ares from behind the magazine.

The God of War didn't need clarification of his wife's question, "Gay," he stated flatly.

"Really? I was going to say misogynistic."

Ares nodded thinking that a strong possibility, "I guess we'll find out soon enough."

They waited another ten minutes on the uncomfortable couch in the overly bright room before Fonda returned to them and said, "Mr. Grey will see you now." With that extra wiggle in her walk, her ass jutting out from beneath the too tight skirt like a ham jammed into sausage casing, she led them to the wide double wood doors and opened them with a great flourish.

Ares and Alena exchanged a silently annoyed glance before walking into the large room that was meant to be impressive and modernistic with its white walls, white floor, brightly colored artwork, and imposing bank of windows behind the minimalistic desk.

Without making eye contact the man behind the desk stood up, buttoned his jacket, strolled out from behind it with his hand extended and spoke, "Mr. Papathanassiou, so nice to meet you, I'm Christian Grey." The growl that came in response to his greeting was most unexpected. It was only at that point Christian looked up and then up some more to take in the man from the coffee shop and his angelic wife. "Oh, it's you."

"I was thinking the same thing," Ares snarled.

If the big man were anyone else Christian would just throw him out but he wasn't anyone else, Mr. Papathanassiou was the world's most well-known billionaire recluse—having inherited over 50 billion dollars from his uncle Adrian Papadopoulos just over twenty years ago-- and he was the largest investor in Grey Enterprises. The man, like his uncle before him, was a complete mystery disappearing from the face of the earth for years at a time then showing up again to change investments on a whim. When Christian heard Mr. Papathanassiou was asking for a meeting, he not only readily agreed to take it—which was something he almost never did-- but he had been up half the night hoping it all went will and blowing off some steam with Ana in their private playroom. Word on the street was Mr. Papathanassiou was at it again, he was checking on several of his investment and changing his portfolio. If he pulled out of Grey Enterprises, the company would take a massive hit from which it would not readily recover. The ripple effect could be completely disastrous. Keeping his cool and his hand out Christian finished the distance with as much grace as he could find, "About this afternoon, I want to apologize again, I was out of line."

"Off the map," Ares agreed as he clasped his hand over Mr. Grey's swallowing it from fingertip to forearm and giving a good squeeze making the man in the suit wince. "Nice pants, are they new?" One last shake and harder grip and Ares let the man go. "I'm not the one you need to apologize to," he stepped aside making Alena stand between them. "Go on."

"Mrs. Papathanassiou," Christian stumbled as he stared into her storm cloud eyes they were so like his own he was utterly captivated by them, "I meant no disrespect or harm, really I didn't, it's just that when I saw you sitting there, I just couldn't help myself."

Alena turned to look at her husband over her shoulder, "Misogynistic," she cooed, "I win."

"I owe you dinner," Ares agreed. "Shall we get this over with Mr. Grey?"

Christian didn't like the tone of the big man's deep voice; it made his heart sink as visions of his bank account emptying rapidly flew behind his eyes. "Please, make yourselves comfortable." He gestured toward the chairs before his desk.

Alena looked at the two white leather chairs in their scant chrome frames, "With your furniture, that's not really possible. It looks nice enough from a distance but when you get up close to it it's really not all it's cracked up to be." She walked past the suited man without looking back and took a seat in the chair that was exactly as she said. It looked soft but it was hard as a rock. A moment later Ares stood at her side telling Christian Grey that he would remain standing, as he didn't believe the chair would hold him.

Taking a seat behind his desk knowing he was in the uncomfortable position of playing defense, Christian held his hands apart, "Please let's forget about this afternoon and start again. It was all my fault."

"Yes, it was," Alena agreed, "you just walk up to any woman you see and impose yourself on her like that?"

Christian blushed and looked down at his desk feeling as though he'd been scolded by his mother. Swallowing hard as the rush of blood made a light bead of sweat break out on his unwrinkled brow he muttered, "This is business, let's not let our personal lives enter into it, shall we?"

"Oh," Alena chimed and glanced up at her husband still looming over the desk, "now he doesn't want it to be personal. Funny that." She couldn't get over the fact that Ares had been right when they first came in to the building; this

was

fun.

Looking down at the top of Mr. Grey's rusty head Ares mumbled, "Very amusing." Planting both hands on the desk at shoulder's width apart he barked, "Look up, boy, I think you know where this is going. I only came here to check on my investment and ask a few questions but now that I've met you, Mr. Grey, I think there are much better places for my money than Grey Enterprises."

Christian felt as though he had been fatally shot through the wallet. If Papathanassiou pulled out his original two billion dollar investment plus all of the interest and stock options, well, Grey did not even want to think about it, "You were the first major investor in this company, Mr. Papathanassiou, I'd hate to lose you."

"You'd hate to lose my money," Ares corrected, "we've never met. I invested in this venture on the advice of someone else. I owe you no loyalty."

"That's true," Christian rushed, "it is," he held up his hand in a stopping motion unable to believe the majority of his fortune was now teetering on the edge of him being unable to keep his mouth shut and hitting on the wrong woman just because he was desperately in need of a little tension relief before this very meeting. "Think of all you could lose by pulling out now, we're still on the upswing and it shows no signs of stopping. You could make another billion."