A/N - Hey guys! Sorry for being totally MIA with this story lately...I was really busy moving house and I'm just getting over the worst flu imaginable! Hopefully I will be able to get back to regular updates. It's up to you guys, would you prefer 1000 word chapters every 2-3 days..or 3000 word chapters once a week?
Grey Steele fan - Glad you noticed he had some interest! Hopefully you'll get more of that in this chapter :P I know! Makes you appreciate what you have. You'll find out some of her story in this chapter...but the rest won't come until she can trust him more :D
chrisana143 - Yes both broken...but maybe they can heal each other?
tkc - Why thank you! Hopefully I can keep it all to this standard ;)
MrsLeona - Thank you! Glad you dig :)
Chapter 4
She was wary. She'd only just met this man tonight and here he was, in her room...wanting to know more about her. Sure she'd assaulted both him and his brother but she'd explained why she did that, what more could he want to know? In any normal case she would have just brushed this off, but there was something about this man that intrigued her and hell, she wanted to know about him too.
She'd never had to actually speak about her past with anyone but her Father, Jay and the lawyer that helped keep her safe. She'd told Kate about as little as she could get away with to placate her, but that was it. She clung onto the fact that it was her life to share and she could tell him whatever she wanted, but she couldn't help but wonder why he wanted to know about her. Pulling herself back to the present, she noticed how they were both silent, just staring at eachother. Looking at him with curiosity, she cleared her throat before speaking.
"Mr Grey, I get that I can come across a bit strange and you're probably wondering why I am the way I am. What I want to know is why do you care enough to come and question me?" She could see his eyes making their way across her face, seeming to be taking her in before speaking.
"Because you're like me" It was whispered so softly before those gray eyes bore into her once more. She must have looked confused as he carried on speaking in that soft whisper. "Haphephobia...I have it too."
She gasped and her legs failed her, causing her to fall to her knees on the floor. No. She could barely handle what happened to her never mind what could have happened to him to cause the phobia. She couldn't catch her breath and she started to shake. Her mind caught up with her and she realised that she had 3 Suits in her dining room as well as Jay that all worked for Mr Grey...for his...protection. She knew Jay could protect him on his own, so the reason he had three more must be because of his phobia. Oh, god. What happened to him? Please don't let it be what happened to her. She started to see spots in her vision from not being able to catch her breath. She needed to get herself under control before she passes out. She focused hard, trying to draw in a big breath and when she did, she shouted as loud as the breath would allow her.
"NINE!"
Within seconds Jay came bursting through the door, his eyes darting straight to her on the floor and flickering to Mr Grey in the corner. She was still gasping for breath as Jay knelt down in front of her and held her face in his hands, making her look him in the eye.
"Rosie...breath for me sweet girl. You're safe. I'm here. Just breath like your daddy taught you." The words acted as a soothing balm to her and she was able to take in her first shaky breath, followed by another, and another until her vision cleared. Realising that Mr Grey wasn't in her eyesight, she started to shuffle back before being scooped up into Jay's arms and thrown roughly onto the bed. Looking up, she saw Jay stood at the side of the bed at full height staring down at her intensely. Ot Oh. Someone was in trouble.
"What the fuck is going on in here, Rosie?" He didn't raise his voice, but she knew how serious he was being. He was using his dad voice. Not knowing how to explain the situation she just whispered. "He's like me, isn't he?" She saw the recognition in his eyes before they softened, followed by the rest of his face and body. He turned and walked to the corner where Mr Grey was frozen solid in her chair. She could hear their whispers but made no attempt to try to work them out. She was too exhausted. Her mind was swimming with thoughts that she'd rather forget and hoping that the thoughts were hers alone to suffer from, and not shared with Mr Grey. She heard a soft whimpering around the quiet room and it took her a few minutes to realise they were coming from her. She was sat in the middle of her big bed with her legs pulled up to her chin crying quietly.
She saw Jay and Mr Grey straighten from their huddle in the corner and make their way over to her. Mr Grey stopped at the bottom of her bed, where he perched on the end of it facing her while Jay came around the side, sitting on the bed next to her and pulling her into his lap. She wanted nothing more than to fall asleep on Jay's shoulder but before she did she had to make sure he wasn't like her. She looked up at him with questioning eyes.
"Angel…" His expression was pained and it made her panic wondering what Mr Grey had actually been through. It wouldn't be hard for him to tell her if it wasn't bad.
"No…" She whispered feeling more tears pool her eyes. Jay closed his eyes, taking a breath before looking down at her again with nothing but pure sadness in his eyes.
"Not nearly as long, and it doesn't affect him like it does you...but some of the same abuse." She only just caught the words they were so quiet from his lips. She closed her eyes tightly, focusing on her breathing as she really let the words sink in. Same abuse. Those two words went around and around in her head.
After a few minutes of being inside her head, she opened her eyes and looked over to Mr Grey. He looked sad, probably reflecting the look on her face. Uncurling herself from Jay's lap she crawled down her bed to sit on her knees in front of Mr Grey. She raised her hand to his face. Before she made contact, she remembered his phobia leaving her hand frozen in the air stretched out towards him. He must have sensed her hesitation as he slightly nodded his head in approval. Continuing her movements her hand made contact with the side of his face where she caressed the soft skin.
"Who would be able to hurt such a beautiful man?" She said her thoughts out loud as her eyes followed her finger. "I'm so sorry that this happened to you." She dropped her hand when she saw his rise slowly to her face. When he saw no hesitation in her face he softly wiped the tear tracks from both of her cheeks whilst speaking.
"I got off easy by the sounds of things. Don't waste your tears on me, I'll be fine."
She was about to reply when a loud grumble sounded from behind her. Turning her head, she saw Jay rub his tummy. She gasped.
"When did you last eat?" She asked him through narrow eyes. He raised his hand and scratched the back of his head.
"Uh…"
"Don't 'Uh' me, Jay. You know how I feel about that. Up. Both of you. Hopefully there's food left for all of us." She said as she made her way off the bed. She let them out of the room in front of her and she followed behind.
She felt strange walking into a room full of men wearing just her sleep shorts and an old T-shirt, but she was way to tired to care enough to go change. The first thing she noticed was Katie and Mr Grey No.2 sat so close together she might as well have been sat on his lap. She smiled when she heard her best friend giggle, it was obvious she liked him. Next she noticed how someone had served all of the food, remembering to serve her, Jay and Mr Grey a portion too. She also noticed how no-one had touched their food yet, they just watched them enter the room. Now she was confused.
"Why hasn't anyone touched their food? Is there something wrong?" She asked, looking around at everyone. At her voice, Kate and Mr Grey No.2 broke their stare to look at her. Surprisingly, it was Sawyer that answered her.
"Since you were so kind to get everyone food, we thought it best to wait for you Miss Steele."
"Please, call me Ana...and there was really no need." She smiled at him and the rest of the room before taking her seat at the other end of the table to where Mr Grey was now sat and tucked into her meal, followed by everyone else.
For a few minutes everyone ate their meals in silence until Jay spoke.
"It's a nice play you got here, Rosie."
"Thanks. Me and Katie were looking at a couple of other places before settling on moving here, like The Olivian and Escala but the penthouses were taken. In Escala we could have had the apartment under the penthouse, but it wasn't secure enough...public elevator and stuff like that. I wanted both apartments up here, but the adjoining wall between the two supports the structure and obviously the elevator needs to be there. It seemed a waste to buy it to be an empty space. I mean, I could have just given it to Kate but the whole point of moving in somewhere together is so that we could be together. But don't worry, I had Peters check out who moved in. They're clean." After she finished speaking she looked up from her dinner to see Jay grinning at her.
"I forgot how much you can talk, Angel."
"Why do you need to be at the top?" The unexpected question came from Mr Grey.
"Safety." She answered simply, sending him a small smile which he returned.
After that, more silence followed as everyone finished their meals. She noticed when everyone had finished and looked towards her best friend for help on clearing the table. Kate jumped up straight away, gathering everyone's dishes and making her way to the sink with them. When Ana heard the water running at the sink she made her way to her friend rolling her eyes.
"Just leave them, Katie. We'll do them later." She said as she turned the tap off. Grabbing her friends hand she made her way back into the dining room. She was much more relaxed than she was when she first walked in here. As she stood at the head of the table she suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, how rude of me. Here we are, having had a meal and I still don't know half of your names. I'm Anastasia Steele, or Ana…" She pointed to her best friend. " and this is Katherine Kavanaugh, or Kate." The first suit stood up, the one she'd not long assaulted in this very room and held out his hand towards her which she quickly shakes.
"Ryan, ma'am."
"Ana, please." She corrected. "And sorry for earlier, probably shouldn't have taken it out on you."
"Ana." He only said, and nodded his head. After him, the second suit stood up and offered his hand.
"Bass, ma'am." At her groan, Jay and Katie chuckled.
"Please, call me Ana." She said, to which he just nodded and sat back down. Now it was only Mr Grey No.2 who she didn't really know the name of. Luckily, he stood up and made his way towards her. Nervous about her earlier actions, she took a cautious step back which made him stop in place in front of her.
"Shit. Sorry, little lady...forgot." He shrugged his shoulders, flashed a huge cheeky grin and held out his hand. "Elliot Grey." She immediately shook his hand and gave back an equally cheeky grin. "Ana Steele." Although she liked Elliot, she didn't let their touch linger and removed her hand after a second or too.
"Little ball of fire, aren'tcha? Wish I could hug you…" He leaned in close and whispered "but I'll just get extra from your bestie." She giggled and he chucked as he made his way back to his seat.
"So, what is it that you do? Must be something kick ass if you can punch like that and afford a place like this?" Elliot asked her whilst he sat with his arm around the back of her friends chair. Uh, more about her past. But she guessed that's what happens in a regular conversation: people talk.
"I suppose I do quite a few things now. You'll be proud, Jay." She quickly smiled at his questioning eyes before getting back to talking. "Have you ever heard of The Combatives?" She asked the room. When she saw most of the room nod, apart from Elliot and Mr Grey who held confused expressions she was shocked. The fact that Elliot didn't know didn't shock her, but that Mr Grey didn't. A man with a massive security team, most of them probably ex army. "But Mr Grey...is that not one of your conditions when you hire someone? Combatives training?" She asked him in confusion. It's Jay that answers her question.
"I hired my team, Rosie." Now she's not confused, just mad.
"You mean that you hired your team to protect your boss on the grounds of training from my school, but didn't think to tell your boss what the hell it is? What, don't you think it's an important condition? Do you even look for that at all?!" In the middle of the sentence, Ryan and Bass both gasped. Obviously shocked to find out that she was that Steele.
"Ange-"
"Don't you dare 'Angel' me, Taylor!" She shouts, making everyone in the room jump and Jay to sit staring at his lap, obviously ashamed. From the corner of her eye she notices Mr Grey stand from his chair making her gaze move onto him. He coughed nervously before speaking.
"It's not Taylor's fault that I don't know Miss Steele, I just gave him the rains on the hiring because I trust him. And honestly, I'm too busy to even know what's necessary when hiring a team able enough. Please, I'd like to know."
Now feeling like a complete idiot, she made her way around the table to where Jay was sitting still staring into his lap. Using her hand, she gently pulled his face up to look at her. She kissed the tip of his nose and whispered a 'sorry'. He quickly pulled her into his lap and held her close. Feeling safe in his hold she decided to have the rest of the conversation from here.
"The Combatives is a U.S army school which teachers quick, effective and simple techniques for fighting with or without a firearm. My Father was a Sergeant First Class and he established the school 2001 with the support of Mr Taylor over here. When I was 13, Jay and my Father taught me everything that they taught at the school. When I was 16 I'd learnt everything that I could from Jay and my Father and then the three of us worked together on the school. When my Father died when I was 19, I took full rains of the school which I'm still doing right now." Finishing her story, she laid another kiss on Jay's nose making him smile. People wouldn't think anything of the little kiss, but to her it's a big sign of trust.
"That explains one of the things that you do, you said you do quite a few?" Said Mr Grey to her left. She turned her attention back to the room where she told them even more information about herself.
"I moved to Seattle when I was 19 and started up a shelter for abused women and their children. It's still going really well and we've helped a lot of families." She smiled when Jay kissed the side of her head as a sign that he is in fact proud. She carried on. "I completely fund the shelter myself from the profits my club makes."
"'Steele', the name of the club. I should have guessed when we exchanged names." Mr Grey said more to himself than to anyone else.
"Yep." She said and smiled, she was really proud of her achievements and she hoped that her father was too.
Jay suddenly lifted her off of his lap and stood himself.
"Boss, sorry to be blunt but tonight's been a big night for everyone and I think we should leave so that everyone can get some rest, it is really late after all." Inside she was cheering for the fact that she was going to have all of these people out of her house, but sad at the same time because that meant that Jay had to leave too.
"You're probably right, Taylor." He said standing up, followed by everyone else. At the sudden movement she moved herself from the side of the table to the end.
She walked to the door and opened it for everyone to leave. The security guards saluted her as they left, which she quickly returned. Elliot made it look like he was going just shake her hand before diving in to kiss her cheek and running out of the way in case she was going to swing at him again. All she did was laugh at his behaviour as she was ready for some funny business from him. Next, Mr Grey was in front of her ready to say his goodbyes. From this angle, she noticed the small scuff on his chin caused by her Louboutins. She slowly raised her hand to his face, just like in the bedroom to softly caress the mark on his chin before dropping her hand.
"I'm so sorry about that, Mr Grey." She said softly, looking into those amazing grey eyes.
"Please, call me Christian." She felt her cheeks flush and she giggled as he used her line. He smiled in response and slowly brought his hand up to gently fun his finger down her pinkened cheek.
"Thank you for allowing us into your home, Anastasia." No-one ever calls her that, but strangely she liked it coming from him.
"It was the least I could do, Christian." Even though it wasn't necessary, she wanted to say his name. Again very slowly, he inclined his head down towards her and gently kissed her cheek. Though she clenched her fists behind her back, it wasn't an unpleasant experience. She expected the feeling of rage to fill her at the touch, but instead she felt a small tingling feeling where his lips met her skin.
"Feel free to visit the penthouse any time you wish to see Taylor, I'll get him to give you the address and codes to the elevator. Bye, Anastasia." With that he left too.
That just left her, Jay and Kate in the apartment. She ran up to Jay and squeezed him in a massive hug, which he eagerly returned. She took his phone, typed her number in and then pressed call so that she'd have his number. He promised to call her in the morning to check in with her. With one last hug and a kiss on his nose he left too. The apartment felt empty, but comfortable now that it was just her and Kate. After locking the door and checking it twice, she turned to her friend and smiled nervously.
"I'm really sorry about all of that."
"No problem! Did you see how hot Elliot was? AND he asked me for my number too!" She giggled at her over excited friend and grabbed her hand, pulling her from the door and down the corridor to their bedrooms.
"I'm beat. Talk tomorrow?" She said to her friend who was now looking nervously at her feet.
"Sure, Ana. Night." She said in a small voice. Ana was trying to think of a reason as to why her friend was acting like this and then she remembered. She wanted another kiss. She felt brave after her reconnection with Jay so she reached out to her friend and gave her an awkward one arm hug, making sure not to make too much body contact to freak her out. Kate gasped and tears appeared instantly in her eyes. After removing her arm she quickly pecked her friends mouth, smiling at how happy she looked.
"Night, bestie." She whispered before disappearing into her bedroom for the night. Once in her bed she couldn't help but feel a little proud of herself for not being a complete mess tonight and confused at the tingle that she could still feel lingering on her cheek from Christian's lips.
A/N - Gonna leave it there...it is over 3000 words though! Hope that it was up to all of your standards. I do have plans for the next chapter which I'm going to start writing up tomorrow on my day off to get up hopefully in the next few days. Have to point out how weird my playlist has been whilst writing this story, if you want to know some of the songs that I listened to the most just let me know :) If you have any suggestions please do let me know...ideas are always welcome! Don't forget to review! :)
Lots of love…
Daisy xo
