CHRISTIAN

What the hell? He'd never had to work so hard to get a woman in his whole life. He normally didn't have to work at all. What made Anastasia Steele so immune? He was sure from their first meeting in his office that she found him attractive. And he felt like he'd broken past her walls at least a little bit a couple of times now. He could tell she was at least interested in him, intrigued by him. So why didn't she want to give him a chance? He'd never been completely shut down like this before. It was grating on him. He wanted her. He wanted to get to know her, and he was going to get what he wanted.

Sighing, he opened up the file folder containing her background check for what felt like the millionth time. There had to be something in here that would help him figure her out.

But there wasn't. He knew there was nothing because he'd already poured himself over every single word in the damn thing. And there was barely anything in it. Only child. Went to high school and graduated with honors, but never went on to college. She'd been working for Scott Kennedy since she was eighteen. No known relationships. She had a pretty menial amount of money in the bank, but a nice apartment, and drove a three year old BMW. That was the only thing that stood out to him. She wore a lot of nice clothes and lived in a very nice area and drove a damn nice car for someone working as a PA, yet had little disposable cash to her name. Kennedy's company had become very profitable in recent years and so the company made a lot of money. He could afford to pay his employees a nice wage, and he did. He took care of those who worked for him, offering top notch benefits packages and impressive salaries, much like Christian did. It was no surprise they liked working for him. Regardless, a PA, even a well-paid PA, didn't make the kind of money to have the things she did at such a young age. And one look at the hourly wage in her employee profile proved what he already knew. Maybe she came from money? He would have to have Welch check out her parents and see if maybe Mommy dearest or one of her numerous step-daddies had a habit of spoiling their little girl.

Unless.

What if she did have a boyfriend? Welch couldn't rule it out. She had no social media profiles to go off, and no one else's name appeared on any leases, but that didn't mean there for sure wasn't already a man in her life. It would certainly explain her reticence toward him. But why wouldn't she just tell him that?

Closing her file feeling no less frustrated than he had before he opened it, he grunted. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to get anywhere by not interacting with her, as had been the case over the last week. Since the day she'd kicked him out of her apartment. -She'd actually kicked him out!- A business trip had tied him up for a few days, and since his return to Seattle, he'd been trying to come up with some sort of plan to get her to let her guard down with him, yet still had nothing to show for it. He was no closer to knowing anything about her, no closer to any kind of plot for getting her attention. She hadn't pursued him, as he was secretly hoping would be the case. All he had was this background check, which was as good as sitting here empty handed.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he pressed the intercom to contact Andrea. "Come in here please, Andrea."

"Sir?" she asked as she walked in the door, her forever ready iPad resting on her forearm and she prepared to take notes on whatever instruction she gave.

"Do we have anything that needs taking care of regarding Greener Horizon's Inc?" he asked, shuffling through papers on his desk, looking for anything with the new GHI logo on it.

There was a slight pause, then a hesitant, "Anything… like what sir?" she asked, clearly unsure about what his was asking.

"Anything like anything. Paperwork, something that needs to be… reviewed. Signed. I don't know. Just… anything," he said, waving his hand around in the air absently.

"Um…" she said, using a filler word so uncommon for her. "I'm not aware of anything, sir. I can see if I can scrounge something up?"

"Please do," he said, dismissing her with a flick of the wrist. He was actually kind of embarrassed, and Christian Grey didn't embarrass easily. But asking his very professional PA to 'scrounge up' any kind of paperwork for a company just so he could use it as an excuse to see the PA at said company was actually quite humiliating. Even if Andrea didn't know that was the reason for his odd request. Still it made him look out of control, and out of control easily translated to weak. But right now he was desperate and just didn't give a shit.

"Mr. Grey," her disembodied voice came over the intercom on his office phone. "I found a report in my email for a company that is requesting GHI's services. The requesting company sent the file to me instead of Scott Kennedy's PA. I was just going to forward the request to her, but if you'd like,,. I can…" she said, trailing off, probably because she just wasn't sure what in the hell he did want her to do with information she normally just handled herself.

"Please print out a hard copy of the file and put it in a folder. I'll be out in two minutes to take the file to GHI."

"Yes, sir," she said, not asking any more questions than necessary. The ever professional Andrea Parker.

In a minute and a half, he was taking the folder off of the edge of Andrea's desk, his eyes trained on the elevator, not that she looked up from her computer to make eye contact either.

His fingers drummed the manila folder as he waited for the elevator to slowly make it's descent to the twelfth floor. What would he say to her when he saw her again? This was work hours after all. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Fuck it, he'd figure it out when he got there.

The elevators doors slid open at his destination and he stepped out into the main reception area. He was welcomed by the same receptionist who had been at the old offices, but this time she was seemingly desperate to come off with more professional airs than she'd put on before. She'd been eager to save him the trouble of taking the file to Kennedy's PA himself, but when he'd insisted, she had clamored to point him in the right direction even though he already was aware of it.

Down the hall and to the right, he found the desk where Miss Anastasia Steele, Personal Assistant to Scott Kennedy was supposed to be seated.

Only she wasn't there. Glancing at the clock, he saw it was 10:42, clearly too early for her to be away on lunch break. He backtracked, checking the break room in case she was getting a cup of coffee, but that too was empty. He went back to her desk, standing awkwardly for a moment, trying to decide his next move. Maybe she was with Scott out to some business meeting. He had no idea what Scott's schedule looked like. He could have Andrea access it in the GEH computer system if he so chose, then come back when he knew they were here. But then his PA would surely think he was losing it. And he could probably add that receptionist to the list too. He didn't need it to be obvious to all of his employees that he was chasing after little Miss Steele. He could end up looking like a fool if he kept up behavior like this. Especially if she was still going to end up turning him down.

In fact, it was probably for the best that she wasn't here and that he wasn't able to go through with this. He could just go back up and have Andrea forward this information like she was supposed to. He was shaking his head as his lack of self-control, especially during work hours, when he heard a deep voice from inside Kennedy's office.

Shit. He was in there? Well, if he was in the building, where was Ana? Out sick for the day, perhaps? He hoped not. If so, though, maybe he could use that as an excuse to go to her place. He could go check on her, make sure she was doing okay. He could have Taylor stop on the way and get her some soup. That would surely win him points, wouldn't it?

With the file in hand, he moved to enter Kennedy's office. He could go in, saying Ana wasn't at the desk. Kennedy could then confirm that she was out sick, and then he could tell her that he heard it from her boss when she inevitably asked how he knew she was not at work today. He almost felt giddy at the new plan that was taking shape.

Pressing on the door which was just barely cracked open, Kennedy came into view, sitting behind his desk working diligently at his computer. He was on the phone, which explained why Christian had heard his voice. He raised his fist to knock in order to make his presence known since the lack of reaction showed he obviously hadn't drawn any attention to himself when he'd opened the door, but he stopped when he noticed Kennedy wasn't in the room alone.

Next to his desk, on the floor was Ana. He noticed immediately that her left arm was strung up in what appeared to be a sling. He felt instant worry for her. She'd obviously been hurt. Was she okay? What happened to her?

But those thoughts were fleeting, as his brain caught up and managed to take in the bigger picture before him. She was on her knees to Kennedy's left, her head bowed down, her right hand palm down on her thigh. He watched her totally bemused. What was she doing? She was just… there. Unmoving, What the fuck was she doing? Was she…. She couldn't be… sleeping… could she? He kept just staring at her, waiting for her to move, but she just didn't. And obviously Kennedy knew she was there and didn't mind that she was… what the fuck was she doing? The longer he waited for something to happen to explain this to him, the more uncomfortable he felt even being there. He was completely thrown for a loop. Not a single idea came to mind to explain what was happening before his eyes. He felt like he was intruding on something he didn't understand but also had a sneaking suspicion that if he did, it would not be something of which he would approve. Whatever it was, he needed to make it stop. He needed Ana to get off the floor, because whatever was happening, he knew he didn't want it to be happening.

So before he gave himself another second to witness it, he knocked loudly while simultaneously pushing the door open the rest of the way, making sure to make a production out of it so he would be noticed.

Kennedy's head shot up at the noise of the door quickly opening along with the sound of off-beat knocking. He muttered a quick "I need to call you back," into his phone before hanging up the receiver so quickly there was no way the person on the line could respond one way or another.

"Mr. Grey," his carefully measured voice greeted. And with and oddly graceful ease, Christian watched Kennedy stand, discretely but purposefully knocking a pen off the edge of his desk by Ana's feet. He looked down at her, his voice still even as he asked, "Ana, did you find your pen down there?"

"Yes, sir," she said, immediately breaking from her statue-still position, grabbing the pen next to her leg and standing. A look passed between them as she stood, taking her iPad off of his desk and holding it to her chest while she awaited instruction.

"That's all then. You can go," Kennedy told her, taking his seat again and dismissing her. Christian watched Ana dutifully turn on heel and exit the room without another word.

He had no time to further contemplate what he'd just seen. He would, later, but for now, he had to come up with a valid reason as to why he'd barged into Kennedy's office the way he had, and he needed to come up with it quickly.

A/N: It was short again. I know. Shorter than last time even. And it took forever to post. How embarrassing. But truly my life has been taken over by a homeowner issue that is slowly killing my sanity. At the end of the day, when I have a moment's peace, I'm so frazzled that my story is the last thing I'm thinking about. Had I known this time consuming issue would hit, I probably would have pushed off publishing this story so I didn't have TWO stories out there that don't get updated enough. This was supposed to be my mental break from Guilt Conscience, and instead I simply don't have enough time to properly attempt working on either. It's very frustrating, and I again apologize. I will try to try better, however. Because you guys have been amazing about this story so far. I love the reactions. I love the reviews. You guys are awesome. And I thank you.