SURPRISE! Another chapter =] I know some of you are wondering why Ana is the way she is and it will get explained. Trust me the story will be worth the read =] There are still quite a few chapters still just bare with me =] I hope you like it. Let me know what you think in the reviews =]
Chapter Nine:
Swathed in a purple cape, Ana gazed at herself in the mirror Pierre, the stylist, lifted one long strand of her hair and scrutinized the ends. With a theatrical shudder he demanded,
"Who cut your hair?"
"I did, with kitchen scissors." she said.
He struck his forehead with the back of his hand. "What brand of conditioner?"
"None."
"Madame, you have come to the right place and only just in time. We will get to work." he said as he bundled her hair back from her face.
An hour and a half later, Ana was again gazing at herself in the mirror.
"That's me?" she croaked.
"Yes and you shall come back in six weeks not a day later." Pierre said grandly.
But Ana wasn't listening. Pierre had cut off great chunks of her hair so now it framed her face in soft curls.
Experimentally she tossed her head, feeling light and somehow free. All the weight gone.
Without any false vanity, she knew she looked astoundingly beautiful, as though her features had come into their own.
Perhaps, she thought slowly, she'd been hiding behind her mass of hair and now she was standing in the open.
Exposed.
Christian had accused her of cowardice, She tilted her chin knowing that he had her all wrong.
"Thank you Pierre." she said.
"You were a challange mon plaaisir madame." Pierre gave a satisfied smile.
Christian was waiting for her outside, Ana remembered. Christian who from the beginning had found her beautiful. Feeling absurdly shy, Ana walked out into the sunshine.
Christian had browsed the local bookstore and was leaning against the car, trying to keep his attention on the book he had bought. He couldn't. His mind persisted in wandering, and everywhere it went it came up against a chestnut haired women with a mind of her own.
Either Anastasia Steele was a brilliant actor, or she really didn't want Carrick's money. Or his.
Considering the amount of time he and Ana had spent together, he knew very little about her. Acting could well be one of her major talents.
Could he trust her? Hadn't he be burned too many times by women who'd wanted him solely for himself so they'd claimed, only to demand financial recompense when he'd ended the affair? Not one of them had been able to separate him from his money, or value him for himself.
Poor little rich guy, he thought ironically. Self pity had never, in his opinion been an admirable trait. But just once he'd like to be seen as a man, not as a walking bank account.
Then something caused him to look up.
Ana was coming down the salon steps toward him. His heartbeat stuttered in his chest. He pushed away from the car, watching her until she was standing only five feet from him.
Bravado masking shyness, he thought and shoved down a totally unwanted flick of respect.
"I've already told you you're beautiful, So now what do I say." he said flatly.
She blushed. "If I ever cut my hair again with kitchen scissors Pierre will hunt me down. I was a challenge, or so he said."
"He and I are in total agreement. You are, very definitely a challenge."
"The head of Grey Inc. challenged by a women who lives in a fish shack? It's the other way around Christian." she said incredulously.
"Is it why?"
"Clothes are the next in step in your plan, not interrogation." she scowled at him, if he wanted to see her then he was going to see it.
She was right, of course. He wasn't just interested in the way her body looked but also the way her mind worked. She was far to intelligent she just didn't show it.
"The boutique's one block down the street, shall we go?" he said and mockingly crooked his elbow.
With the sense she was doing something of enormous consequence, Ana rested her hand on his arm.
"If you pay for my clothes, it'll be all over the town that I'll your mistress, or don't you care?" she said provocatively, adjusting her stride to him.
"I've let it be known that Carrick's grand daughter, who's been living in Europe is here for a visit, I prefer gossip to be at least minimally accurate." He glanced down at her. "Would you like to be my mistress?"
"No!"
"Probably just as well, seeing as I haven't asked you."
She dropped his arm as if it was scalding her, the rosebushes that lined the entrance to the boutique brushing against her legs.
"Goo because it's not who I want to be." she stormed inside leaving him with his jaw to the floor.
She was primed for a fight and knew it was better to walk away then get into it on the side of the road.
"Can I help you?" A middle aged women walked towards her "You must be Anastasia Steele. I've been looking forward to meeting."
With a swift glance the women was beautiful and she sure didn't feel like she fit in here at all. The women walked over to the door and switched the Open sign to closed and drew the gauze curtain.
"Lets have some fun."
Linen, leather, fine wood, silk, slacks, bras, shoes, earrings, casual, semi formal, elegant and always in a mirror a women who was stranger to Ana. A women who bore little resemblance to a small town librarian on a coastal island.
At the end when the lady was adding up the bill, Ana said.
"I'll be paying for the first 4900." she knew to a penny the amount in her savings account, she was leaving enough money to fly back from Adelaide should she need to.
"Christian didn't say anything about you paying for anything." she said
"Christian Grey is much to used to getting his own way," Ana held out her credit card. "The first 4900"
"He's in for a shock with you."
"It'll be good for him."
Ana signed the receipt and gave the women a quick hug.
"Thank you so much."
"My pleasure. I'll make sure everything is delivered to you later today. Have fun on your travels. Ana I mean that."
"I'll do my best," Ana said smiling, and walked back outside.
Her pumps were Italian leather, her hose silk. Her underwear was also silk, edged with the finest of lace. Her suit with its cheeky little flared skirt and neat fitting jacket, was cerise linen, teamed with a cream silk blouse her earrings were simple gold hoops. With new confidence in her stop, Ana crossed the road and saw Christian walking down a side street toward her.
She met him partway, flipped her new Chanel dark glasses up into her hair, and passed him the bill.
"I cost you plenty, I really liked her by the way." she said.
"Not as much as I'd expected." He flicked down the bill.
"That's because I paid the first $900, that was I'm only a partially kept women." Ana said calmly.
"You can't afford to do that."
"You let me decide what I can and can't afford thank you." she said and she knew she was talking about far more then clothes.
"Sometimes I will, and sometimes I won't" he replied with dangerous softness.
"Then you'll keep me on my toes, won't you?" she said looking down at her new shoes.
"While I was waiting, I arranged our flights to Manhattan and Paris."
She couldn't help but get angry.
"You said one step at a time! That's two steps. Don't push your luck Christian."
"You're the most contentious women I've ever met." A muscle twitched in his jaw.
"Flexibility in the face of opposition is a sign of maturity." she remarked.
The sea wind was gently flipping her skirt, exposing even more of those glorious long legs. For wasn't she like a flower. Christian thought, colorful, graceful, burnished with sunlight? Flowers are for picking a voice said in his head.
Not this flower.
So now you're a coward Christian?
With an incoherent exclamation compounded of frustration, lust and fury. Christian put his arms around Ana, pulled her to his body and plunged for her mouth. In sheer shock she opened to him. He thrust his tongue in an assault as unsubtle as it was steeped in raw hunger.
More hunger slammed through him, his heart like a piston in his chest, his loins hard with primitive need.
Her scent, her softness shafted his body with lethal speed.
He was lost...
He wasn't lost he was on the main street of Camberley ravishing Carrick's grand daughter in full day light. As though someone had thrown cold water in his face, Christian wrenched his head free.
And met a pair of wild held green eyes, turbulent with emotions he couldn't begin to guess. Patches of colors rode high in Ana's cheeks. Her shoulders were ridged in his grip.
"If I was smart, I'd head for Manhattan on my own on the first plane." Christian said choppily.
"Go right ahead," she snapped.
"No way, I never back down from a challenge, It would ruin my reputation." he gave her a wolfish grin.
His answer wasn't in any way reassuring. Ana gazed up at him blankly, her breath lodged somewhere in her throat. and her knees on the point of collapse. she was also, she realized distantly, trembling. The desire that had streaked through her veins from Christians kiss was indeed her enemy, it's sole aim to drive her into intimacy with a man who screamed danger from every pore.
For if his kiss had been passionate, it had also been passionately angry.
Intimacy? The word was as much a stranger to her as the man. Yet she agreed to traipse around four continents with him in the next few weeks.
She was out of her mind.
"i can always run away Christian. And I will if you push me too far." She said.
"I can always bring you back."
"I am good at vanishing, I've had lots of practice you might want to remember that." she said with a serious tone he had never heard before.
Even now knowing he'd just made a major mistake in judgment lust blinding him to any remnant of reason Christian had to fight the urge to seize her in his arms and kiss hr again. He'd never felt so out of control, so at the mercy of a women's body. Although that's all it was, a body. Dammit, the only thing he was feeling was the basic attraction between make and female.
Lust. Chemistry. Testosterone.
Nothing else.
And that's the way it was going to stay.
