As soon as Mr. Grey and I make it outside of my apartment, I breathe in a deep sigh of relief. I didn't think I would have made it down all those stairs in these heels. Mr. Grey places his hand at the small of my back and ushers me to the waiting SUV that is parked at the end of the driveway.
A good-looking man comes from the front of the car opening the back passenger door. He extends his hand for me to take so that it is much easier for me to get in. I slide over so that Mr. Grey can get in and of course he needs no help, he just slides in with ease as if it was nothing.
The man that opened the door and helped me in climbs into the front driver's seat and closes his door.
"Ms. Steele I would like to introduce you to my head of security and driver, Taylor" Taylor turns around in his seat and smiles at me before he says, "Evening ma'am"
"Evening Mr. Taylor"
"No just Taylor ma'am"
"Alright, but please just call me Ana then" Taylor looks over to Mr. Grey for approval and Mr. Grey nods his head.
"So Mr. Grey where are you taking me?" Not that I really care, but it's always nice to know.
"To one of my clubs here in Seattle, I think you'll find it to your liking"
"I think you'll find it quite surprising that I'm easy to please Mr. Grey" He takes a deep breath and swallows hard.
"Is that so Ms. Steele?" A playful little grin appears on his lips.
"Yes I'm not a picky person I enjoy a good cheeseburger from time to time" his grin quickly changes into a little frown. I don't know why but I have a feeling he thought I meant something else.
"Oh" He says before biting the inside of his cheek. "Well if a burger is what you want a burger is what we'll get you, do you have any place in mind?" He asks.
"Mr. Grey, I'm sure where ever you had in mind is just fine. I'm just letting you know for future reference"
"I'll keep that in mind for our second date," He says to me and I'm a little shocked at his words. This isn't a date this is a business dinner.
"Uh Mr. Grey I hate to burst your bubble but this isn't a date, this is a business dinner" He is a little sadden by the fact that I said business dinner. Why would he think this is a date?
"Point well-made Ms. Steele," He said in his CEO like tone. I think I really upset him. For the rest of the way to the restaurant I just stared out the window keeping my thoughts to myself. Yeah sure Mr. Grey is a very handsome, sex on legs type of guy. I'm sure when he makes love or have sex with someone little cherubs with tiny violins automatically start to play.
Well pull up in front of the restaurant. Taylor gets out of the car and opens the door. Mr. Grey is the first one out. I slide myself over to the open door, and Mr. Grey extends his hand to help me. There is this weird feeling I get when my hand comes in contact with his, It's a little hard to describe it, it's the same feeling I got when I shook his hand at his office and when he had his hand at the small of my back as we were walking down my driveway. I do my best just to shrug it off as a cold breeze.
Again his hand is at the small of my back as we walk to the front door. He removes his hand to open the door. I walk in with him right behind me. We are greeted by the hostess then shown to our table. Before the hostess even leaves he orders a bottle of wine. She nods her head and heads towards the bar area.
"So Mr. Grey what kind of rules do you have in mind for me and my girls?" I get right to the point.
"Getting right to business aren't we Ms. Steele"
"Yes Mr. Grey and please for the love god call me Ana, I don't know how much long I can take with you always calling me Ms. Steele"
"Well in that case Ana, please call me Christian"
"Ok Christian, so what kind of rules do you have for us girls for when we are at the terminal?"
"Wouldn't you prefer to have a glass of wine first" He says pointing his finger to the waitress that is coming our way with a bottle of wine in her one hand and two glasses in the other.
"I suppose a glass of wine before we discuss everything will be ok" Just as I finished speaking the waitress is at our table. She holds the bottle up and Christian nods. She then pulls something out of her back pocket and cuts the foil from the top of the wine bottle and inserts the corkscrew. There is the sound of the pop from the cork, she pours a small amount in one of the glasses and hands it to Christian. He takes a small sip swirling it around in his mouth then swallows. He licks his lips and I would be lying if I said I didn't think that what he was doing was sexy as hell.
I was a little taken back when he held the same glass to my lips offering me a sip. I lightly place my hand on his reassuring he has a grip on the glass. Closing my eyes I take a sip, repeating the same actions he did by swirling it in my mouth and swallowing. I licked my lips just as he did. When I open my eyes I realize that he has been staring at me the whole time. He has a soft smile displaying and I can't help but think it's just for me. I blush and look away.
"Are the two of you ready to order?" The waitress asks. Christian waves his two fingers for her to come closer to him. She leans down and whispers something in her ear that I am unable to hear. When they are finished she smiles at him taking the menu's that were sitting at the edge of the table and walks away. Ok I guess we are just going to drink our dinner, wouldn't be the first for me.
"Uh I thought we were eating dinner, not drinking our dinner?" I say jokingly to him and he laughs.
"We are but I took the liberty of ordering for the both of us, I hope you don't mind?" He asks.
Still joking around I say, "Well how do you know I'm not a vegetarian?" he starts to laugh again.
"Well if that is true then you shouldn't have mention to me about eating cheeseburgers in the car" He continues to laugh and I join in. I don't know how it even happened but we are both in tears from laughing so hard at each other. All eyes are on us in the restaurant and they are all smiling at us.
We break from our laughing fit when the waitress comes with two plates in her hands. I'm kind of nervous as to what he had ordered for us. I'm really not a picky person when it comes to food but when dining out at a fancy restaurant the first thing that comes to mind is eating something you can't even pronounce only to find out later that it was duck liver or something crazy like that.
When she puts my plate in front of me I start to wonder if my eyes are playing tricks on me. There is a huge freaking cheeseburger sitting there. I look at Christian then back to the cheeseburger. I can't believe it. He ordered me a cheeseburger.
"You ordered me a Cheeseburger?" I say with a smile
"We aim to please" He grins "Are you pleased?" He asks. I pick up the burger with my hands taking the biggest bite I can manage. Oh my god it tastes so good, the only thing I can say is,
"Mmhmm" He laughs picking up his own burger and bites into it.
The whole time while eating we don't utter one word to each other. We are both lost in burger bliss. He finishes before me and watches me with a smile on his face. I take another bite almost regretting it because I am over the top full.
"Finished?" He asks looking down at my plate. There's at least three bites left of my burger and about half the amount of fries that I was given left.
"Yes I can't eat another bite, if I do I'm afraid a crane might have to carry me out of here," I tell him.
"Ok. Now that we are finished with dinner, why don't we discuss your rules and conditions?" I say to him.
"Alright but to be honest there really is only one condition"
"And that would be?"
"If you and your friends want inside this building for the whole weekend, then you have to allow myself to accompany you. Along with two other people of my choice" I let out a growl. I know for a fact the three of us don't want someone who has no experience in the paranormal tagging along on an investigation let alone three.
"No absolutely not Mr. Grey, I can't allow that, it's extremely dangerous for a person with no experience to be on an investigation you could get hurt or something far worse"
"And you think it's not dangerous for you and your friends to be alone in an abandon train station at night?"
"It wouldn't be the first time the three of us have been alone in a large scaled building such as yours, and I'm sure it won't be our last either" I say a matter of fact.
"And why would it be so dangerous for me? I'm not sure if you have noticed Anastasia but I am a well-built man" Oh I have noticed.
"Because Mr. Grey, it just is,"
"Well Anastasia that isn't the answer I was looking for, so I'm sorry to say this but I won't be able to allow you or your friends inside the terminal"
"What come on, that isn't far" I pout at him.
"Pouting is not a very good look for you"
"Well you know what, I just don't really care right now," He laughs at me.
"What if we make a little arrangement?"
"What kind of arrangement?" I ask.
"You teach me all there is to know about the paranormal and how to ghost hunt so that this way you girls can go off and do your thing and us men will go off and do ours" I don't like the idea of having another team in the same building as us girls. You never know how their voices will carry, or if they will end up playing jokes on us while we are trying to be serious. But if this is the only way to get in there I don't have much of a choice.
"Fine" I hiss "But we are setting some ground rules because of this"
"Alright, why don't you come up with a contract stating your 'ground rules' this way if I and my men don't abide by them we will leave?"
"When you say men, what men are you talking about?"
"Well one will be my brother of course, him and I haven't spent much time together so maybe this would be a good way to do some brotherly bonding. And the second person would be Sawyer my other security member"
"Why not Taylor?"
"Because Taylor and my housekeeper are engaged and they haven't spent much time alone with each other due to my schedule, so I figured I could give him the weekend off and take Sawyer instead"
"Well I guess that's very nice of you to do something like that"
"Yes it is. Would you like more wine?" He points to my glass which is empty and I nod my head yes.
"So tell me a little more about the paranormal, what type of gadgets do you use?" I take a sip of my wine and begin.
"Well there are so many things out there now a days, for instants Kate she likes to use the K2 meter as well as an EMF meter"
"Ok what in the world is a K2 and EMF meter?" I can't help by laugh and shake my head.
"Well a K2 meter is a way to detect spirits aka 'ghosts' it is known that spirits produce a magnetic field which they can manipulate at will. Based on this assumption, us researchers will ask questions and when the lights go off or flash it means with have made contact with a spirit. Now and EMF meter does pretty much the same thing but gives you a better read out of the magnetic field around you"
"Really?" He asks with a surprised look on his face.
"Yes, we also use other equipment as well besides just those. We also have a DVR system that we set up to capture anything that we may not notice. Jen likes to use mag-lights" He gives me this strange look.
"Yeah I know, I give Jen the same look every time she pulls it out"
"What is it that you use?" He asks me.
"Well I believe the best equipment is your body, you were born with 5 senses, see, hear, touch, smell as well as taste. But some people are lucky they are giving 6"
"And what would be the 6th one?"
"Insight or intuition, some people have it some people don't"
"Do you?"
"Do I what?" I ask
"Do you have a 6th sense?"
"Kate and Jen think I do, I mean sometimes I feel things but not all the time" It's true I have felt a lot of weird things when I'm on an investigation. I have also felt things just out and about. I have read a few things online about it and I have even been told by a medium that I was a sensitive but I choose not to believe it.
"Do you feel anything now?" He asks. Should I tell him I felt this weird vibe when I touched his hand earlier or when he touched me in his office this morning. No I'd be better off if I kept it to myself.
"No, why do you ask?"
"Just wondering that's all" He looks down at his wine and trances the rim of the glass with his finger.
I look down at my watch and I see that it'll already 10pm, holy cow we have been talking for the last 2 and a half-hours.
"Wow it's getting late" He checks his watch as well and studies it for a few seconds, like he is shocked at the amount of time we have spent together.
"Yes it is, I should get you home," He signals for the waitress and she comes walking overlooking ever so exhausted. I bet she'll be happy once we're gone. He opens up the black binder holding the bill. He signs it and hands it back to her.
There is an awkward silence between us. He stands from his chair walks over to me and takes my hand that I had extended for him to take to help me up. At first my legs were a little shaky but he held tightly onto my hand.
We exited the restaurant and Taylor is standing outside holding the door to the SUV open.
"Thank you Taylor"
"Just doing my job ma'am" I smile at him as I get into the car. Christian talks to Taylor for a moment and then enters.
"So when would you and your friends like to get inside the terminal?"
"As soon as possible, I mean if Kate said she seen a shadow person I really want to confirm what she saw"
"Alright how about this weekend, I believe my brother is free"
"Sounds like a plan Mr. Grey, this weekend it is"
"Will you e-mail me the rules you would like me and my men to follow?"
"Yes, but I will need your e-mail address in order to do so" Reaching in his back pocket he pulls out his wallet taking out a white business car with dark gray writing. Then he reaches in the inside of his breast pocket and pulls out a pen and starts to write something on the back. He hands the card to me and says,
"Here is my card, I also included my cell phone number on the back in case something comes up and you need to speak to me"
"Thank you, I'm sure me and the girls will come up with a few things and e-mail them to you tomorrow"
"I'm looking forward to hearing from you"
We pull up in from of my apartment; he gets out of the car and helps me. Of course my legs fail and I nearly fall but luckily Christian was there to catch me.
"You really are a klutz aren't you Anastasia" He says holding me close to him while caressing his thumb over my cheek.
"Yes I am" Closing my eyes enjoying the tingling feeling his thumb is leaving on my cheek. Opening my eyes I'm meet with his gray eyes. I snap myself out of it and say, "I don't think I should have worn such high heels" Leaning down to remove myself from his hold. I take my shoes off one at a time. When I stand up straight again I feel like a little person next to him, he towers over me by over a foot.
He walks me to my door. "Thank you for dinner I had a wonderful time"
"As did I Anastasia" I extend my hand for him to shake but instead he pulls my hand to his lips and kisses it lightly, he eyes never break contact with mine.
"Good night Anastasia"
"Good night Christian" I watch as he walks back to the SUV just before he gets in he turns around to look at me. I give him a small wave then turn the door handle and walk inside. Both Kate and Jen are watching old reruns of the TV Ghost Hunters on the Sci/Fi channel.
The sound of my keys hitting the kitchen table makes them jump.
"Holy crap Ana you scared the shit out of us" Kate said as she was getting off the couch.
"So how did it go?"
"Great! But I have a little bad news" I sigh. "He said in order for us to be allowed inside the terminal, he and two other men must accompany us. One he said it's to protect us and two he said something about bonding with his brother"
"Are you kidding me Ana, they are going to get in the way"
"No they won't Christian promised that they won't, as a matter of fact we need to come up with a few rules for them and I will e-mail it to Christian tomorrow"
"Well this is just freaking great" Jen stomps her feet all the way to her bedroom, I let out a sigh this is really going to be a long night.