14 Months 02: November

"So, you would be my PA and basically work for me," Sophie said, testing the boundaries of his job description.

"That is true, but at the end of the day, Darius Blackstone is the name on the bottom of my paycheck," he explained. "I am here to help and advise you when asked. I will also manage your team over the next few weeks."

"I have a team?" Sophie gasped.

"You will have a team once you sign this," he tapped the contract she had laid on the table. "Let's see, Margaret is a qualified dietician so you won't get many sneaky treats past her. You've also met Susan who will be your doctor should you need anything, birth control or flu meds. You know the general stuff. She has also ordered a complete blood workup to make sure you are fit and healthy and have no nasty STD's from your former occupation."

"Michelle had us checked over every month sometimes fortnightly. She was pretty fanatical about it," Sophie replied, liking this man's blunt way of addressing the way she earned her living before being sold to Darius.

"The three of us are in a holding pattern until this ironed out," he tapped the contract again. "Once that is done life will be busy. You will have a stylist come and measure you for a more comprehensive wardrobe. A personal trainer will come and give you a work out program tailored to your specific needs. I expect Darius would like you to change your hair colour back to whatever it was originally, so a hairstylist and makeup artist will come and make recommendations. Margaret and I will be the only part of your team that will remain constant and who you will have to deal with every day even when we are back in the city, the others will come and go as needed."

"Wow, I see," Sophie took a large gulp of the drink Margaret had placed before her. It wasn't very sweet, but it was very refreshing.

"The point I am making is that it's my job to manage all those people and appointments. It's my job to listen to you and fix the things you don't like. If you don't like or want someone on your team, tell me, and I'll find someone else," he said as if it was nothing to hire and fire people at her behest.

"What if I don't like you managing my life?" she asked with a perfectly straight face even though her eyes danced.

"Then you take that up with Mr Blackstone, but you will find that I am very likeable. I'll be like that overprotective big brother you never had and never knew you wanted," he grinned widely.

"Okay, overprotective big brother. You know about the contract, and I am guessing the Alliance and the game," she looked at him and he nodded when she waited for a response. "So, there is no reason I can't show you this?" she asked. "Just to clarify a few phrases I didn't understand?"

"No reason at all. I'm happy to help with whatever's troubling you," Trent said, sincerely wanting to help speed this process along. "Or would you like to go through it step by step? I'm happy to do it, but Darius would probably be happier if you asked him so he could explain his exact thoughts on different issues you might have whereas I could only speculate."

"I sort of thought that might be that case. It's not that I'm stupid, some words are just..." Sophie let her words trail off. It was still difficult to discuss the loss of her family, and why she had never done well at school after that.

"You don't want Darius to think you're stupid because you don't understand some passages?" Trent asked, caught by the sad look that entered her eyes.

"Yeah," she admitted, not realising how true that was before she was asked the question. "I don't want to seem like the stereotypical dumb bimbo," she sighed.

She had pretty much convinced herself that she would sign the contract as long as she could understand it and that there were no hidden loopholes or obstacles in there to trap her with him. She needed that out clause explained to her so she knew for sure that if it ever became too hard, she could leave. She needed someone separate to Darius to explain it to her. He'd asked her to trust him, to believe him but this was all so bizarre she couldn't get her head around it, and it was hard to find the truth with only Darius and his people surrounding her.

"Legal jargon is difficult for everyone but the lawyer's," he chuckled. "Darius won't think any less of you because you ask questions. I imagine he would be disappointed if you didn't question everything in that document. He doesn't want a partner who does everything they are told like a robot going through the motions without being invested in the game." Trent thought about the first time Darius had entered the contest and the disaster that was both private and public for everyone to see. That girl had done everything he asked of her in the same half-assed way because she didn't care. She was biding her time to get the money at the end. Even the bonuses weren't enough incentive for her to become involved in this world or the game. She was a beautiful woman, but she had her spirit broken long before Darius had taken her.

"I guess you're right. I'll talk to Darius after lunch. Until then, I plan to swim and think about what you have said about the team. If I choose not to sign what happens, you and the team then?" She asked.

"We miss out on the money and the bonuses and go back to the jobs we had before you, just as we will at any time over the next year if you decided to leave. You know there is an out clause. You just have to contact the council and explain your decision, and you can leave with whatever you have earned to that point," Trent explained. "So, no harm in trying the contract on for size, is there? You might even like it."

"Maybe," she laughed. "First though, I am trying on a swimsuit if Darius has provided one for me."

*****

Darius stepped back from the doorway into the living area when he heard the chairs scrape out from the bench and headed towards his office rather than be discovered eavesdropping. After lunch, he'd be able to get the contract ironed out and start the rehabilitation process. He wondered if Susan had any results back from the lab yet. He had told her money was not an issue. He texted her as he returned to his office and stood before the window overlooking the back yard. He would be able to see her swim from here. He wanted more than anything to join her in the cool blue water, but he had to give her space and time to come to him. He had made his intentions and attraction to her clear. Now it was up to her to accept his offer.

An email pinged into his account as soon as he sat at his desk and he smiled, opening it and downloading the attached medical report. Minutes later, Susan tapped on his office door.

"It's not the full report yet, but it gives you the main information you needed. Sophie is a little deficient in iron and folate, but that can be remedied with a good diet. She is disease-free thus far though it will take a little longer to get the complete report on that. Her medical records which I have access to now show that she was tested only a matter of a week ago and was clean then. She gets a monthly shot for birth control rather than relying on the pill or rods in her arm which can be damaged. She's looked after herself pretty well considering her history. Did you know that at seventeen she was hospitalised for a beating she claimed was from her foster father and that there was evidence of rape?" she asked.

"Yes, the foster father claimed she hung out with gangs and that her boyfriend worked her over. He was a pillar of that community, and when the caseworker questioned her story, she didn't recant her statement and thinking no one would believe her, she ran away. She spent her eighteenth birthday on the streets before Michelle found her," he finished off that episode in Sophie's life for Susan.

"You sure she's the one you want?" Susan asked. "She's got to have some serious hang-ups and triggers from what I can see."

"I'm sure. Every girl we rescue has a story. Being sold by the one person she trusted has got to have made her even more suspicious of me and my motives, but I think, given time and space, she will come to see that I am not a bad guy and that the Alliances motives are good at the core. Besides you are living proof that change can be made if you want it badly enough," Darius said, defending his decision to take this girl.

"There are far more failures than winners out there, Darius," Susan warned. "You all treat them like princesses and then discard them when you're done. Most of the girls never recover from that dismissal, believing they meant more to their partner than they did. Don't play with this girl's emotions Darius, be upfront and honest all the way through and I will support you, but if you break her with even the smallest deception, I am done with you and the Alliance for good. I won't watch that happen to another girl."

"You and Byron remained close while you were at university and after. There's no reason it can be the same for Sophie and me," he shrugged.

"Byron was honest about the end of our contract throughout my challenge. He set me up with that scholarship and a place to live emphasising that it would be separate to him. I was prepared, and even though I knew what would happen, it killed me every time I saw him with another. I knew my place and never complained, but the first few times he chose another it almost broke me. You men think it's so easy to turn it all off on a specific date, but it's not for us, and you need to take care of that. If you become her everything, she will break when it's over, and you walk away, leaving her with nothing. Ask yourself if you can live with the consequences of doing that to her," Susan felt her serene blank mask melt away, and she turned her back on Darius and walked out of the room.

"Well, fuck!" Darius said. "The poster child for the success of this contest didn't approve of it after all. He knew enough other success stories to know that what Susan had said wasn't true for all the women. He wondered for the first time about his wisdom of bringing Susan onto his team. If nothing else she would make him keep the end goal in mind, but her views could also mess with Sophie's headspace.

He sat and brooded on Sophie's past, moving to an armchair to watch her in the back yard. He could barely see her head above the lip of the pool though and became lost in his thoughts. Her past had made her strong, not vulnerable he decided. Susan was wrong. She was imposing her own experiences onto Sophie. He wanted Sophie more than he had let himself want anything for a long time, and it was too late to turn back even if he wanted to, he'd taken her and offered her the contract, and now it was up to her. He watched as Trent went to the edge of the pool and said something to the object of his obsession. Darius checked his watch. It must be lunchtime, he stood erasing Susan's stinging words from his mind and went to check his email before heading out to the kitchen to meet Sophie for lunch.

Darius smiled as he entered the kitchen and saw her. Even with wet hair pulled back from her face in a messy bun, she was beautiful. He felt his body respond to her, and if she had signed the fucking contract already, he would drag her upstairs or to his office to work up an appetite with her before sitting down to lunch. The thought made him harden, and he took a chair rather than stand there like a teenager with a hard-on for a girl he'd had a crush on for months.

"Enjoy your swim?" he asked casually, still looking her over as she walked toward the dining room table with Trent.

"I did," she replied with a grin. "Thanks for the swimsuit but I should probably go up and change rather than sitting down in a damp towel."

"It wouldn't bother me but if you feel more comfortable," Darius said easily.

"I'll be quick," she said, looking over at a disapproving Margaret and hurried upstairs.

"She seems fully recovered today," Darius spoke to Trent, but it was Susan who came into the dining room who answered him.

"She's fine. Her high metabolism helped her recover. She just needed to sleep it off," she said easily. "What's for lunch?"

"Fish," Margaret said in her snappish tone.

"Great," Susan laughed. "I love fish."

Margaret continued to walk plates to the table and placed a metal cloche over Sophie's to keep in the heat until she arrived.

"Sophie asked for some help deciphering the legal-speak in the contract. I suggested you would be the best person to do that so she said she would meet with you after lunch if you're free," Trent said even though he was fairly sure Darius had heard their conversation earlier that morning.

"For her, I will make myself available," Darius said and picked up the jug of juice and poured himself a glass offering it to the others at the table. Rapid footfalls on the stairs alerted him to Sophie's return, and he stilled himself from turning around to watch her approach. She glided past his shoulder and took the chair beside his as Margaret removed the cloche and retreated to the kitchen. "Juice?" he offered.

"As long as its not apple juice," she said and wrinkled her nose. "I mean apples are okay, but I'd rather have water if that's the case."

"Not apple," he chuckled and poured her a glass of the orange and pineapple blend Margaret had made herself.

"Trent suggested you might like some help understanding some of the terms in the contract after lunch?" Darius said and tilted his head as she looked around at Trent. "Everyone in this room understands why you are here and the nature of our relationship, Sophie. It is only when we return to the city that we will need to be more circumspect."

"It just seems odd, you know. If a guy hires a prostitute, he's usually not so open about it," she shrugged even though the words made her cringe on the inside, this was what it was, and there was no way to sugar coat it. He would be paying her to fuck him and only him for a year.

"That's what you were. That's in the past if you want it to be. From the moment you sign that contract, you are not that any more, and as I have already explained to you, that is not why you will be paid. I will pay you to be at my beck and call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for a year for events and the challenges. I'll pay you to look how I would like you to look and wear the wardrobe I provide. I'll pay you to put up with my work schedule and missed events due to business dealings. I'll pay you to compete in the challenges given by the Alliance. The fucking, as you put it so eloquently last night, will be a bonus for being my partner and for all intents and purposes over the next year, my girlfriend," Darius said letting his mouth quirk up in a half-smile as Susan choked on her food and Trent held back a laugh and ended up snorting.

"I was thinking I should be saving myself for marriage if I am giving up my former job. You know regrow that pesky hymen of mine. They say it can't be done, but hey, you never know with the power of prayer, right? How do you feel about church on Sundays?" she said with a perfectly straight face. "How will a vow of chastity fit in with your girlfriend plans?" she teased.

"We'll have to see how persuasive I can be during our negotiations this afternoon," he replied with an equally straight face.

"Oh, to be a fly on the wall during that conversation," Trent snorted again, and Susan gave a rare smile at the banter.

"This is great by the way," she pointed to her plate. "Margaret, I think I love you will you marry me and take me away from all this angsty decision making and make me fat by feeding me all day every day?" she called out.

"Not today, Sophie, I have baking to do. Ask me again tomorrow," Margret called back in the same snappish tone as if the proposal was irritating despite her response.

"Damn, I'll just have to get fat by eating my way through my broken-hearted feelings then," she said, sadly picking up a cherry tomato from her salad and popping it into her mouth.

"She did say you could ask her again tomorrow," Trent pointed out loving that this girl gave the two scariest members of this household shit while she was sweet to him so far.

"Wait, did you say baking, Margaret! Darius we may have to postpone our meeting while I become Margaret's official taste tester," Sophie grinned mischievously.

"If you want to get under that woman's feet when she has a hot oven tray in her hands be my guest," Darius said as if not concerned at all but they would be having this meeting one way or the other after lunch even if he had to get the contract and do it here in front of everyone.

Susan listened and watched as the banter continued during lunch. She could see that the brash and funny girl had all of her walls up. Much like the class clown, it was easier to make them laugh than admit she needed help because she didn't know the answers.

Over the years Susan had worked for the Alliance she had seen all sorts of girls come through the process, some stayed to work in the alliance clubhouses and retreats others took their money and ran back to what they knew. There was a very few who went on to fulfil their dreams and make a life for themselves outside of all this craziness. If she had to guess, the fragile girl beside her hiding behind witty banter would break when it was over rather than rise above it all and the betrayal she would feel in the end.

Susan hoped she was wrong, but Sophie wasn't a club girl who could watch the man she had attached herself to with another woman at his side, nor would she willingly go back to the streets after tasting the good life. She'd have money to sustain that lifestyle for a little while, but Susan doubted she had the intelligence to put it to good use, which was sad. She wished she hadn't signed up for this team. The girl was far too young and sweet to be in the contest only to be thrown away when her time was done.

Maybe she could help her by putting in some fail-safes for the end. Maybe if she were lucky, she wouldn't be caught interfering. She sat considering her options having no doubt that Darius had amazing powers of persuasion and Sophie would be in his bed by tomorrow if not tonight. She studied Trent. He was a loyal soldier; everything he did would go through Darius. He wouldn't help Sophie even if he could see disaster heading her way. Susan would have to do this alone and be that constant voice on Sophie's shoulder warning her against falling in love with a man incapable of the word, let alone the emotion.

*****

"So, what this says in a nutshell," Sophie spoke slowly. "Is that for the next year you control my life, up to and including December of next year even though I am signing this now, so fourteen months in total." She paused but held up a hand, stopping him from interrupting. "During those fourteen months, you will decide what I do, what I wear, what I eat, who my friends are, everything about my life. I can make requests on which you also have the final say. The only power I will have is to end the madness by contacting the council member, Byron Blade, and requesting removal from the game and giving my reasons. You can end the contract in the same way if we are incompatible beyond reconciliation or I breach the rules laid out in the contract."

"In return, you will receive money, gifts, and my affection, which will be yours forever," Darius said evenly.

"And within reason, I can veto anything I feel I just can't do and you will listen to my reasons before deciding to accept the veto or ignore it," she said holding up a finger. "But I can also ask for things that would make my life better or make suggestions, and you will listen to me before deciding if they would make your life better or not."

"Yes," he said, blowing out a breath. This had been a longer process than he had thought it would be, but he could also see that Sophie needed to be very clear about what she was signing.