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Chapter two-Drowning

I look at this dossier in my hands once more with a confused frown. I don't know if this is some type of joke or what, but I'm not fucking laughing.

I dial extension five and don't bother with pleasantries. "Welch, I want you in my office in two minutes." I hang up and look at the background check for the thousandth time not understanding what I'm looking at.

The name at the top clearly says Elizabeth Martin, but nothing after that makes sense. The accompanied picture is not a picture of Ocean Eyes, and the information given isn't adding up.

I hear a sharp rapping on my door, and then I see Welch peek his head through. "You wanted to see me, Mr. Grey?" he asks, walking further into my office.

"Have a seat, Alex," I mutter. I watch as he cautiously sits in the white leather seat in front of my desk, his frightened eyes centered carefully on me. I hold up the background check. "Do you mind telling what the fuck this is?" I throw it at the end of my desk, allowing him to pick it up and look through it.

He frowns as his eyes scan over the information. "It's the background check you asked for Elizabeth Martin, sir?"

I glare at him. "That woman is not the one I saw at Ranford Software Inc.," I inform him bitterly.

He looks between me and the dossier, at a loss for words. Welch is usually a very detailed, reliable worker and I rarely get fuck ups from him. But someone did fuck up, and since he's the one who gave me false information obviously I'm going to go after him first.

"Sir, Mr. Grey, I'm sorry. I searched for Elizabeth Martin twice just to make sure, and I can confidently tell you that this was the only Elizabeth Martin working at Ranford Software Inc.," he explains, irritating me. "I could do another search if you would like," he offers.

I lean back in my chair and run both of my hands through my hair. Why can't life ever be as easy as blinking my eyes? All I wanted was a damn background check on Ocean Eyes, a woman who has haunted my thoughts and dreams from the time I first saw her yesterday at three o' five p.m. Pacific time. Getting a background check was supposed to be the easy part, and it turns out it's the most difficult.

I turn around in my chair, stand up, and walk over to my floor-to-ceiling window and look at all the tiny little people going about their day, wondering if any of them happen to be my Ocean Eyes. If that woman in that background check is the only Elizabeth Martin working at Ranford's company, then perhaps Holloway was the one who gave false information. But then how would he not know her name? I know they worked in different departments, but that doesn't excuse him not learning what her name was. Or maybe it's just because I'm biased and I would make an effort to learn her name no matter whether I needed to or not.

So now the question is what do I do? I don't think I could go back to Ranford's building just to inquire who a certain intern was, if she was even an intern. And how would I even go about asking that. "Um, yes, hi, I was here the other day and I saw a woman briefly talk to a Mr. Holloway in conference room A, do you mind telling me what her name was?" Yeah, I could see that one going smoothly.

But I want to find her. I need to find her. She's all I've been able to think about since I left Ranford's yesterday, and the only reason I came in today was just to get the background check on her—and now that's completely shot to hell.

As I stand in front of the glass now, looking at my reflection, I can see myself drowning in her ocean blue eyes. And I'm lost with no direction in mind, no food, no water, but utterly, utterly content because I'm with her. I'm with Ocean Eyes. She's stranded with me, keeping me there with her, like I'm her prisoner, but I'm willing. I want to be with her. I want to drown myself in those ocean eyes, getting lost in her and having her all to myself.

"Mr. Grey?" Welch's voice pulls me from my inner musings. I turn around and look at his anxious, inquiring stare. I raise a brow at him, my face impassive despite the irritation and disappointment clogging my veins. "Would you like me to run another background check, sir?"

I sigh and sit back in my chair, my frown pulling my lips down. "No, Welch. It wouldn't make a difference." Clearly Ocean Eyes' name isn't Elizabeth Martin, so there would be no use in searching for the wrong woman. "You can go back to your office, and you can dispose of this. I don't want it." I hand him the dossier, which he readily accepts and hastily exits my office.

I look at my computer and shake my mouse, waking the screen only to be greeted by a vibrant photograph of the ocean. Of course the color of the sea in the picture is nowhere as beautiful as the color of Ocean Eyes' eyes, but it's close enough. I set this as my screen saver when I got into work this morning, prolonging my agony and exacerbating my sudden obsession, but I wanted a way to feel closer to her. I even got a photo where the waves of the ocean move, reminding me of the way her svelte body moved, with elegance and grace and perfect, fluid movements that no one else can make. It's completely natural, not something someone can imitate or recreate to be as beautiful or unique. Just like Ocean Eyes.

I think I need help. Maybe I should call Flynn. I'm obsessed with a woman I don't even know. But maybe it's best that I don't know her. I'm a fucked up man with adolescent emotions that contracts women that resemble my dead mother into consensual BDSM relationships so I can punish her through random women that I like to fuck and beat. That's not something I want for Ocean Eyes, but I don't know any other way to be connected to a woman other than through BDSM. And her pure, innocent eyes show her inexperience. I could never ask her to join me in my playroom. Not only because I'm 99.9 percent sure she would turn me down, but because I don't want to taint her innocence.

So I guess my only option is to let her go.

I can see myself staring into her mesmerizing eyes as we float across the calm Pacific, embracing the feeling of being with each other, and then the calm is suddenly replaced by turbulent winds and black skies. The life raft is being tossed back and forth, and I try to hold on. I'm not ready to let her go yet, but I have no choice as I'm thrown off the life raft. I plunge into icy cold water. I'm drowning and I see my beautiful Ocean Eyes looking at me, and she's crying as we float further apart and I fall deeper into the dark, cold water. I'm drowning and I can no longer see my Ocean Eyes.

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