I know I have another story going, but this idea popped in my head and I wanted to get it out.
Please review to let me know if I should continue.
Thank You.
THE PRODIGAL SON
CHAPTER-1
CHRISTIAN
Standing here watching the man who destroyed my life playing house with his perfect little family while I receive the Entrepreneur of the Year award makes me want to throw this award right at the perfect little family.
"Thank you for giving me this award. All I can say is that this is just the beginning."
I walk down the stage and exit the hall without so much as a glance at the perfect little family that was the Greys.
I hate them.
I hate them with everything I have.
They are the reason I lost everything. My father, my home and above all, I lost my mother because of those bastards. Every waking moment of my life is spent loathing them.
My mother would be so proud of me today, I think looking down at the award. They took away her chance of seeing her son grow into the man that I am today. Getting inside my SUV and instructing Taylor to head to Grey House, I pull out my wallet where I keep my mother's photo.
Beautiful gray eyes look at me smiling the most heartwarming smile I have ever seen. Her smile could light up everyone's day.
My mother, Ella Grey.
She was the most beautiful woman in this world. My sorry ass of a father would always say that and I would always agree. Mom would just brush it off saying we were only saying that because we loved her. She was so down to earth, so warm and so full of love for everyone and so believing of the man she spent her life devoted to.
And therefore, when she found out after 25 years of being married to my father that he cheated on her with that woman and also had a son and daughter, my mother couldn't take it.
I can never forget that night, the night I came back a Harvard graduate, only to have found my world upside down. 21 years of my life and suddenly every moment was a fucking lie.
I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. And I will hate them till I my heart stops beating.
They took away everything. After burying my mother, I cashed out my trust fund and walked out of that house. Started my own company with the one million dollars I inherited and today I am a fucking billionaire. The richest man on the West Coast and soon I am going to make it to the top 10 richest of the world list.
I am brought back to the here and now when I the SUV halts at the entrance of Grey House, the headquarters of Grey Enterprise Holdings Inc. Brushing aside all the bad thoughts, I head towards my sanctuary, the place where I am the master of the universe, my office from where I control my empire.
As soon as I step out of the elevator, I walk inside my office and place my award on the shelf next to one of many.
"With this rate, we'll have to add a couple of new shelves to fit in all the awards," my pain in the ass assistant, my best friend, the only person who knows me inside and out scoffs.
Turning around I see the most beautiful person in the world after my mother standing with both her hands behind, clearly hiding something.
"A simple congratulations would be nice, Anastasia!" I say rolling my eyes.
"Did you think I would come empty handed?" With that she dangles a bottle of chilled Bollinger in front of my face.
"Bring out the glasses," I tell her grinning at her childishness. Being 23 years old, you'd expect her to behave like a grown up, but not Anastasia Rose Steele, ever the immature, ever the ecstatic and ever the pain in the ass but also with the most beautiful powder blue eyes that see right through your soul and even a better heart.
In so many ways she reminds me of my mother. Loving, trusting, innocent, and full of life, just like her.
"To more billions,' Ana clinks her glass with mine and we take a sip of the champagne.
"Nice dress." I point out at the embellished gray drape jersey dress.
"Isn't it fabulous? It's Vera Wang. You are quite the generous boss, I must say. Thank you for the gift." And she winks.
And that is why I keep her around. She is my stress reliever. When she is around, I feel light, everything is right and my world is full of colors. Thus the obscene amount of money I pay her so that she won't have to go and work anywhere else. Most importantly she knows how to handle me because I can be quite a handful when I am throwing one of my temper tantrums.
"Christian, you have a meeting in 10 minutes and then you have a call with the HR of the Detroit Office." She says that and turns to leave but turns back around to me to remind, "Oh and before I forget, I have your table reserved at the Mile High Club for your date tonight." With a smug she leaves.
Holy shit.
How could I forget my date with Nina Williams? For fuck's sake she is the new Victoria's Secret Angel. God is she beautiful with those long legs. Just thinking about her makes my dick twitch. I need to get her a fucking gift, literally a 'fucking' gift, as in a gift so that she would let me fuck her tonight.
"Ana!" I scream.
She walks back to my office, "Yes?" she asks disinterested in whatever I have to say to her.
"I need you to buy a gift for Nina."
"If you will check in with your housekeeper, you will know you have already bought Nina a gift."
"Remind me again how I survived without you 4 years ago?"
"You were only existing, not surviving." She giggles. I have always loved that sound.
"Anything else, Sir?"
"That will be all."
With a dramatic bow, she exits my room.
Always up with some theatrics. She was one of the most dramatic people I have ever come across. Scratch that, she is the only dramatic person I know.
Such a drama queen.
ANA
"Oh my God, Ana, I don't know how you can ever handle the boss. I just never know what to do around him. He is so bloody intimidating and not to mention the most gorgeous man walking the planet." Andrea fans herself with her palms.
"I don't know. We've been like this from the very beginning of our relationship, err, I mean professional relationship. And he doesn't intimidate me." I quickly cover up the slip of my tongue.
I tell her not showing the discomfort inside me. My meeting with Christian four years ago had been anything but conventional.
I dropped out of Washington State University after two years because studying never sat well with me. I was never a bad student but studying always bored me to death. I wanted to go to Julliard to study drama, but my father wasn't too keen on that so I enrolled in Literature at WSU. But soon, reading literature made me want to work in theatre more. So I came to Seattle looking for theatre work.
I got work sooner rather than later and before I knew it I had done two shows where Christian was invited as the Chief guest. At the end of the second show, he approached me with a dinner invitation. I accepted and we met for dinner. Post dinner he took me to the Fairmont Olympic to have sex. We were both drunk and I told him my story and so did he. When we were finished we both fell asleep in each other's arms minus the sex.
The next morning, it was awkward. And before I was about to leave after more awkward breakfast, he found himself offering me the job as his assistant and assured me that it would strictly be professional and we were never to bring up the previous night ever again. I took the job. And since day one we had the most amazing rapport and whatever attraction we had or have has been pushed back to the furthest end of both our heads and hearts.
That night, all but forgotten.
"Hey, Ana!" I look up from my lunch to see Wesley standing with a smirk on his face.
Goddammit.
Wesley Schneider has been after me for the past year, asking me out every fucking weekend. The guy clearly doesn't get the message. Sure he was a good-looking bastard, but he had the worse breath in the history of bad breaths. On top of that I never date with people I work around. It just complicates things and I don't do complications.
"Hi, Wesley," I say uninterested. "What brings you here?"
"The boss wants to see this month's accounts." He leans closer. "So about that dinner," he is cut off with Christian's scream.
"Ana!"
Phew.
"Excuse me, Wesley."
I all but run to Christian's office. Closing the door I heave a sigh of relief.
"What happened now?" Christian rolls his eyes at me.
"Wesley happened."
He gives me a sly smile. "I thought you couldn't wait to get in his bed, Anastasiaaaaaa!"
"Oh please, I don't get how on earth you sit across from him with his bad breath."
"He gets his work done well. Anyway, I called you in to ask if you would like to accompany me to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show this year? Nina will be busy backstage of course and I don't want to get bored and I figured you'd be interested…" Holy motherfucking shit. Did he just ask me to the VS Fashion Show?
"Did you just say the VS Fashion Show?"
He nods.
I all but jump and throw my arms around him even though he is sitting.
"OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD." I am jumping but I can't help it.
"You're the best, Christian." I give him a peck on the cheek and make my way to my seat to find clothes.
Holy Shit.
CHRISTIAN
"Christian!" Nina exclaims as soon as she sees me.
I stand up when I see her, my mother taught me well.
"Nina." I kiss on her cheek even though by the tilt of her face I know she wanted a kiss on the lips.
I never kiss on the lips. It's too intimate and too personal. I don't do intimacy, I don't do gentle and I don't do love. It is all but farce, the biggest example being my father.
Throughout dinner, I see her finding excuses to touch me. A brush here, a slight touch there, a bite on her lip. She can't wait to get away from here just as much. Taking out my phone I text Taylor to get the car ready to head towards Fairmont Olympic in half an hour. I never take my dates home. I don't allow anyone near my personal space. It's only ever been Ana, but she never asks, just arrives with her loud mouth and vibrant personality.
Thinking about her immediately brings a smile on my face. I clearly remember the first time she came to my penthouse at Escala. As much as she loved it, she hated the coldness she said. So before I could say anything, she called a friend of hers who is an interior designer and asked him to put more colors in my apartment.
That is just so Ana, barging in and taking charge.
Nina clears her throat and I am brought out of my thoughts.
"I'm sorry, I just got lost there a bit. Something to do with one of my companies."
"It's absolutely fine, Christian. I know what it must be like being you."
"If you will please excuse me for a minute, I need to make a call."
"Sure."
Standing up, I move away from the table and head towards the men's room and dial Ana.
"Christian?" Ana asks puzzled.
"I'm bored."
She giggles.
"You're with Nina Williams, Christian. Even boring is good. She is HOT. I have a girl crush on her. Did you even see those legs?"
"Of course I have, that is the reason I am with her."
She laughs. "Ever the gentleman."
"There's still dessert left and I can't wait to get her to the hotel. She won't shut up about bras and panties. What the fuck do I care as long as she lets me rip hers." I smirk imagining those long legs over my shoulder.
"TMI! TMI! Eww that's gross. Shut up. And I am getting ready for a date, mind you."
Alert.
"Date? With who?" I frown. What the fuck? Why hasn't she told me before? She knows how protective I am of her and who she mixes with.
"No idea. It's a blind date. Andrea says it's her new boyfriend's friend or something and we are doubling. She also told me he is a blonde god." She giggles. "Wish me luck. It's the first time since him."
My blood boils at the mention of that dick. Ana's ex boyfriend was a douche. And the fucker cheated on her after two years of dating.
Damon motherfucking Westwood.
He left her so broken. She loved him so much and since then she had a hard time trusting another man. But that was six months ago. I wanted to hunt him down then and I want to hunt him down now because he hurt an important person of my life, but Ana stopped me.
"Alright. But I'll get a background check on him if you wish to continue to see him."
"Aye aye captain." She giggles. I adore that sound.
I laugh and hang up after wishing her luck and to text me once she reaches back home.