Okay so here is something that I want to clear up. In the reviews I had some people concerned about Christian still wanting to take Ana in his playroom. Just remember that in the actual book she had to leave him for him to understand that his actions were wrong. She did leave him in this story, but not in the same way and that only made him embrace his nature. I plan to take this book very far (through marriage and children) so be patient with me and let the story unfold itself. Thank you for all of your support! Here is chapter nine. Happy reading!


She will hate me if I let her go to that salon. Even if Elena doesn't come there anymore I still have to tell her.

"Ana I don't think that—"

"Hey maybe you can take a day off and come to the spa with me. God knows you can probably use a break. Speaking of which, what is it exactly that you do? You said that you bought SIP so you must do something… expensive."

"I am a businessman. I'm the CEO of my company Grey Enterprises Holdings Incorporated. Ana we need to talk about this—"

"Oh my God! That must be really cool. Do you remember when we were kids and we always talked about what we wanted to be when we grew up? I wanted to be an author and you wanted to be a Dom." Her joking tone falters as she remembers. "Guess you got your wish," she whispers. For the first time in my life I feel ashamed although I don't know why the hell I do. I want Ana to be my submissive. She knows that I would never hurt her. Well not intentionally at least. This relationship has to be built on trust. I need Ana to trust me. That is what the Dom/sub relationship will give us. She has to agree.

"Sorry. I probably shouldn't make what you do sound like a crime. There are a lot of people who are into that kind of stuff."

"But you aren't?"

"Why would I be? I mean if every guy I meet just wants to beat the shit out of me and fuck me then I'll be a virgin for the rest of my—" She stops, but I hear it. She has let the bomb drop and it is doing a hell of a lot of damage.

"You're a virgin?" She says nothing and that gives me my answer. "Ana what the fuck?! You're twenty-five years old. Why the hell are you still a virgin? You are beautiful. How is that even possible?"

"Is it a crime for me to be a virgin?" She snaps at me.

"No, but Christ Ana. You have to have at least done something."

"No I haven't Christian. Now shut the hell up!"

I am amused now. I decide to tease her. I lean in close to her ear and run my finger down her neck very slowly as I speak. "You mean to tell me that no one has tempted you? Not one of these dumb fuckers in this city tried to fuck you? None of them tried to taste your sweet, warm, tight little p—"

"I get it!" She yells at me and tries to push me away and only succeeds in hurting her shoulder. I feel like an asshole immediately.

"God Ana! I'm sorry! Lie back. You must be in so much pain."

"It's not really my shoulder, but my head. I'm fine. Anyway, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

I smirk at her. "Why yes, I do. How did you know?"

"Don't be a smartass. If I were her I would wash it out with soap."

She glares at me for a moment and then she looks down at my hand. "Give me my gift card back."

Oh shit. I forgot about that damn gift card. "Ana you can't use this gift card."

"Why not? Kate gave it to me as a birthday present and I promised I'd use it when I was better. You know I don't break my promises."

"I know, but this is a gift card to Esclava. The salon that I own with—"

"You own a salon?! And you wonder why your family thinks you're gay."

"Ana! I have just about had it with your smart mouth now shut the fuck up and let me finish!" She looks at me in mock horror and I know she is not intimidated in the least. Why? Why is it just me that she acts this way with? I have been trying to answer that question since I was fifteen.

"Oh I am so sorry sir. Forgive me. Please continue." That's better. If only she meant it.

"As I was saying Esclava is the salon I own with Elena." Her good humor vanishes in an instant.

"Why the fuck are you in business with her?! Why do you even still talk to her Christian? For God's sake she's a pedophile. She's a child molester."

"Ana shut your fucking mouth and I mean it! Elena saved me! I would never be where I am today without her. She is the reason I am who I am. Without her I would probably be in jail or dead and not a fucking billionaire. So just lay off of her will you?!" She stares at me truly stunned at my outburst and then her face turns impassive.

"Get out."

"Excuse me?"

"I said get. OUT!" She yells the last word at me and it makes me frown. No one talks to me this way. Then I sigh. No one, but Ana, talks to me this way.

"I'm not leaving Ana now just calm down."

"If you don't leave right now I will call security to come and remove you. I don't want to look at you anymore. Just… just leave…" She lies down in the bed and turns away from me. I have no idea what to do so I just do as she asks and I get up to leave. Before I reach the door I turn and walk back to her. I bend down so my mouth is close to her ear and then I whisper, "You are my one true friend in this entire world. If I had not met you and had you in my life then there would have been no point in living. You have given me meaning and purpose. You brought sunshine into my life and pulled me from the darkness. Elena may have saved me, but you Ana. You kept me alive." With that I turn and walk out of the door. I get a chair from the waiting room and I drag it through the hallway and station myself outside of her door to sit there, and maybe even sleep there until I am forgiven. This is nothing new. We used to fight like this all the time and I would just sit in the tree outside of her window until she was ready to forgive me. She knows that I can never sleep easy unless things between us are alright. I never want another fight like the one we had eleven years ago… No. I don't want to go down that road right now. It will only make me go beg for her to forgive me and right now she needs her space.

I sit in the chair for the better half of two hours when a nurse rushes past me into Ana's room. I begin to panic, but I do not go in. I will just attack the nurse with questions when she comes back out. A few seconds later the nurse exits the room and turns to me and says, "Miss Steele asked me to tell you that you can come back in now." She walks away and returns to her station. I smile and return the chair back to the waiting room before I go back into Ana's room. Back into Ana's forgiveness.


I am on the edge of consciousness and I really don't want to wake up. I know that if I wake completely there is only a throbbing shoulder and a splitting headache waiting for me. When I can fight it no longer I wake to sunlight streaming into my hospital room. I blink a few times to clear my vision and I gasp. I am surrounded by birthday balloons, giant overstuffed teddy bears, my favorite chocolates, a gourmet breakfast that no one at this hospital could have ever dreamed of cooking, and a long black velvet jewelry box lying flat on my lap. This has Christian written all over it. When the hell did he do all of this?! I look down at the box on my lap and I am scared to open it. Christian always liked to spoil me and that was before he got rich. I reach up to touch the necklace that never leaves my neck and it is gone. I begin to panic when Christian walks in.

"My necklace! The one you gave me for my fifteenth birthday. It's gone! They must have taken it off when I came here last night. Oh God Christian I'm so sorry I have never taken it off I swear I—"

"Ana. Calm down. I took it off. I was touched when I realized you still wore it." He looks at me with a shy smile that I remember all too well and he stares down at the black box. "I figured you should have something that I can… presently afford."

"You mean something expensive."

"Generally, yes. Open the box."

"I want my old necklace back."

"You haven't even seen the new one."

"I don't care. I love that necklace now give it back."

"I will. As soon as you open the box and accept what is inside."

I make a noise of frustration and open the box. I gasp in awe. There is my necklace and with it there are matching diamond earrings and a bracelet. The earrings are made up of four diamonds, three of which are all small and the same size and the fourth is about the size of a dime. The bracelet is silver with diamonds woven into it. It looks like a charm bracelet. The charms consist of a music note, a book, a quill, a journal, a heart, and a C and an A that form an infinity symbol.

Something falls down my face and I reach up and realize that I am crying. "Hey. Don't do that. Don't cry Ana. Do you like it?"

"Christian I love it. It's beautiful." I look into his beautiful face and he graces me with a smile.

"I'm glad you do baby. I thought if I made the gift a bit more… personal you would have more reason to accept it." He gives me his shy smile again and I shake my head.

"Well you were right."

He laughs and then he hits me with his big gray puppy dog eyes that I haven't seen in years. "Are we alright?"

"Yeah, Christian. We're alright." He smiles really big at me and plants a long searching kiss on my lips.

"I love you Ana."

"I love you too." We are staring into each other's eyes when someone walks in.

"Dios mio Ana! Are you alright?!" I look past Christian to see a worried Jose standing at the door. Christian turns to see him also and turns back to me with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey Jose. I'm fine. Come on in." He comes further into the room and takes a look around before looking at Christian and then his eyes finally rest on me and they soften immediately.

"I was so worried about you. Kate just told me what happened. She said she came and saw you last night. She didn't tell me because she was so worried and was only focused on getting to you. You sure you're okay?" His eyes flash to Christian briefly and then return to mine.

"I'm fine I promise. Jose I'd like you to meet Christian Grey. Christian this is Jose Rodriguez, a friend of mine and Kate's."

"Mr. Grey." Jose sticks out a hand to Christian.

Christian stares at his hand for a moment before he takes it and says coldly, "Pleasure." What's with him?

"I got you something for your birthday." He takes a look around the room again and then looks at my lap and his face falls. "Although it's probably not as nice as all this stuff." He pulls his backpack off and hands me a square box. "Happy belated birthday Ana."

"Thank you Jose." I open the box to find a small picture frame. He has placed a picture inside of me standing at the edge of the lake. I am looking out at the Sound at sunset. It reminds me of my fifteenth birthday when Christian took me to see this very sight in his backyard. I start to cry again. "Jose this is beautiful. I love it. Thank you so much." I hug him as much as I can without causing myself pain.

"I'm glad you like it." He stares at me the way Christian stared at me just a moment ago. I look down and blush because I know the way that Jose feels for me, but I don't feel that way for him. I feel like a horrible friend every day that his feelings go unreturned, but I can't help it. Christian is the only man I have ever loved.

I look up when Christian clears his throat. "I'm going to check with the nurse to see when you're getting discharged and if it's no time soon I'm going to have it arranged for you to be moved to a better room."

"Oh, Christian that's not necessary. I'm fine in here."

"Nonsense. I'll be right back." He turns to leave and then, as if he forgot something, he turns back and gently cups my face and kisses me. I mean he really kisses me. This is not the passionate or demanding kisses we have shared. No this kiss is different. This one is possessive and dominating. He is making a statement that I am no longer available apparently. His tongue twines with mine and he shoves it deeper into my mouth and I moan involuntarily. This is what he wants, a sound of confirmation from me. He finally releases my mouth and looks into my eyes and I can see that everything I thought was spot on. With a final quick kiss, he rises, glares at Jose and walks out. He should have just lifted up his leg and peed on me and growled "Mine" for all the trouble he went through.

"Wow. That was some kiss," Jose says, clearly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that."

"No it's fine. I just didn't know you were seeing anyone."

"I'm not! Well I am, but I'm not. Christian is just an old friend. We just reconnected with each other."

"I'm a friend and you sure as hell never kissed me like that. You've never kissed me at all." He says this with a bit of bitterness in his voice.

"Look Jose I'm sorry. I love you, truly I do, but I am not in love with you. I have been in love with Christian since I was thirteen years old. He's it for me. I can't even dream of being with anyone else. You are my friend and you always will be, but I can understand if you no longer wish to be," I whisper to him, looking down at my knotted fingers.

I hear him sigh and say, "Ana I will always be your friend no matter what. I love you. Don't ever forget that." He kisses my forehead and says he'll come back later on with Kate and he leaves.

Christian comes back in and tells me that I can go home in a few days so there is no point in moving me. "So, Jose is really hot for you," he says nonchalantly, but I know he is angry.

"He is not. He's just a friend."

"Have you ever dated?"

"No we haven't Christian. Just leave it alone."

He opens his mouth to say something else when Ray walks in. I beam at him. "Hi daddy!"

"Hey Annie." He has a grave look on his face and I am about to ask him what's wrong when my mother walks in.