I don't know why I agree to these things. Sure it looks good for my image, but these events are always so boring. I crane my neck to look at my security team that are standing behind my chair on stage. Taylor raises his eye brow at me, I shake my head no and roll my eyes turning away and stare at the large banner that is directly behind us. "God Bless you Mr. Grey – First Southern Baptist Church of Seattle West, Shelter of Compassion" I smirk at their idiocy, yes God Bless me for giving them a grant worth a small fortune to help get the shelter up and running. The only reason I did it was because my mother was so insistent that the founder was a sweet girl whose life ambition was to help others, she was a volunteer at the children's hospital, a new member of Coping Together and an advocate to stop world hunger, starting with her home town first. My mother begged and pleaded with me to award S.O.C (Shelter of Compassion) the grant they needed to get their feet wet. I honestly only agreed to get my mother to stop calling me every day asking about it, her insistence was annoying.
I look down at my watch and realize that the ceremony for the grant should have started ten minutes ago. This makes my jaw clench, I hate when my schedule is disrupted, and this will make me late for every single one of my appointments today. There is nothing I hate more than lateness. I stare around at the other people sharing the stage with me. There is an older women, maybe in her 70's that is excitedly talking to an elder man who I assume is the pastor of the church whose parking lot the stage is set up in. The man shakes the woman's hand and moves away to the man sitting next to her. I begin looking at the crowd that is taking their seats, some are fumbling with the program and others are talking amongst themselves. I look down at my watch, fifteen minutes behind schedule.
" ." I hear a male voice to my left, the pastor sits down in the chair next to me. I look up and offer him a tight smile.
"Yes?"
"My name is Ray Steele, Pastor Steele to most of the crowd here today. I can't even express to you how very thankful we are to you and your business for honoring us with the grant that allowed us to move up the opening of Shelter of Compassion. Your grant is allowing us to open just as the cold weather is beginning, it is really going to help the community and we can't express our thanks enough." The pastor says with his eyes getting a little teary, the last thing I need is a grown man crying in front of me.
"Pastor Steele, it is a worthy cause, one that I hold very dear to me. It is an honor to assist in the opening of the shelter, though I must ask, when will the ceremony begin? I hate to be a pain but I do have a tight schedule to keep and if one appointment runs late then all my others ones follow suit."
"I understand, Mr. Grey and I apologize greatly, the ceremony will be beginning in about a minute, we're waiting on my daughter Anastasia who is the one who opened the shelter, and she has just arrived." The pastor says with a smile and looks up as the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on takes the stage. She smiles at her father and moves to the podium. "Show time Mr. Grey." Pastor Ray stands and places one hand on my shoulder causing me to freeze. "God Bless you son." He squeezed and let go.
I watch as Pastor Ray makes his way to the podium and embraces his beautiful daughter. She hugs him back warmly and smiles with her eyes closed. Just as I am about to turn away her eyes open and meet mine. I am frozen, her eyes are the deepest blue I have ever seen. They are bright as sapphires and even more beautiful. She smiles at me and whispers something to her father. He pulls away and looks back at me and whispers back to her. I wish that I could hear what they were saying. He shakes his head and leads her to a chair to the right of the podium. She sits gracefully in her black and cream dress that clings to her body in all the right places but is still modest in a strange way. She crosses her ankles and smiles up at her father.
"Hello and welcome to the opening of the Shelter of Compassion!" Pastor Ray exclaims in excitement to the crowd, the crowd begins to clap at his words, I join in as not to be rude. "I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we are not only for our Lord providing us with the idea to open this much needed shelter in our community but for blessing us with the means to do so. There are many things that have tribute to the opening of this shelter, my sweet daughter Anastasia for championing this idea with our church, all of our church members who have helped guide and volunteer to bring this idea to life, Mr. Grey and Grey Enterprises for awarding a very generous grant to our cause and above all our Lord who has provided us with everything we hold dear. Let us go to the Lord in prayer."
I watch as everyone bows their head in prayer, I too lower my head but keep my eyes open to stare at the brunette beauty sitting not 5 feet away from myself. She has her head bowed and her eyes closed tightly as she silently mouths as her father prays. I watch as her mouth forms words like "Yes" and "Amen" I jump as I hear the crowd chorus together saying Amen, Anastasia's eyes open and land directly on me. I stare back and she blushes and looks away hastily. I chuckle to myself and bring my attention back to Pastor Ray.
"The idea for the shelter has been brought to life by so many of us, however, the shelter itself would not be possible without my dear Anastasia who not only dreamed up the idea of the shelter but has spent countless hours getting donations and getting the word out to the community. Then came along Anastasia's good friend Grace Grey who convinced her youngest son Christian Grey to use his business and award our struggling shelter with the grant money needed to open six months before we had originally planned." The crowd begins clapping again, I smile and wave my head at them in acknowledgement. "With that being said, Ana and Mr. Grey will you please join me?"
I dutifully stand up and walk to the Pastor and smile at him and his daughter. "It is with great pleasure that I present to you the two people who have brought this dream to reality. We are truly blessed by both of them and owe a great deal to them for this shelter. Ana and Christian will you two please give us all the honor of cutting the ribbon to signify that the Shelter of Compassion is open?"
Pastor Ray hands Anastasia some overly large scissors, she turns to me expectantly. Slowly I move to stand to her right and grasps the scissors with her. She smiles a blindingly beautiful smile at me and then turns to her father.
"Ready?" Pastor Ray asks us. All I can do is nod, Anastasia smells of soft roses and something that I can't quite put my finger on, but it's intoxicating. What is wrong with me?
"Yes! On three! One…" The crowd begins to count with her "Two…" she smiles at me with tears in her eyes "Three…" I say with her as we cut through the blue ribbon.
"Ladies and Gentlemen the Shelter of Compassion is open!" Pastor Ray exclaims.
Anastasia does a small dance and jumps into my arms. I'm too shocked to wrap my arms around her waist.
"Thank you so much Mr. Grey," Anastasia whispers in my ear, I slowly wrap my arms around her and squeeze slightly, I never hug anyone besides my family. But this feels different. There is a pull in my stomach I have never felt before. "I can't begin to express my gratitude for your generosity, sir" Sir? Oh God I need to pull away before she feels what she is stirring in my pants.
"You are most welcome Miss. Steele," I say as I pull back and stare at her, I keep my hands on her waist and look into her beautiful blue eyes, she really is a beautiful young woman, her thick chocolate brown hair falls in soft curls to her waist, she has beautiful pale skin and I can't help but wonder what the rest of her body would look like pink from being in my play room. I smile down at her tiny frame, "it was for a worthy cause."
She steps away and smiles at the crowd that is starting to enter the shelter. "Never the less." She says still staring at the crowd, "you are true blessing from God, Mr. Grey." She looks back at me and I'm breathless staring at her. "Please tell me you are staying for refreshments, I'd love to give you a tour of the shelter since your generosity contributed in such a major way." Her blue eyes look so hopeful staring at me, not the usual intimidation I see in the eyes of just about everyone I meet.
"You go ahead and head into the reception, I will find you after I make a couple calls."
"Alright" she says and smiles at me before turning around and talking to the first person she sees. I watch as the young man embraces her tightly whispering something in her ear that makes her laugh. Her laugh is something to behold. Their embrace ends and they grasp hands and start walking into the shelter. Jealousy hits me like a freight train, who the hell is he and why are they holding hands?
I grab my cell phone and make the call that I've been itching to do since I laid eyes on the beautiful Pastor's daughter "Welch, I need a background check on Anastasia Steele, I need it back asap."