A/N: I am so sorry for leaving you high and dry! I had internet connectivity problems after a strong storm knocked out the power and an out-of-town husband who couldn't fix anything until he got home last night.

Chapter 10

I walk into Christian's bedroom for the first time and the beauty of the room takes my breath away. Where most of the penthouse is quite clinical in it's use of the color white, this room is awash in shades of the ocean. The furniture looks to be made of driftwood, over the bed hangs a painting of an angry sea during a storm. I look back at Christian and smile at him as I stand at the foot of the bed. I have no idea which side he prefers.

He stalks towards me with a shy smile. "Let me give you the tour. I wouldn't want you to get lost." He teases me. He wraps me in his arms and points to the various doors around the room. "My closets are those doors over there, that is the door to the rest of the penthouse. This door here will lead you to the security office and the penthouse. It is locked from their end but they have a key so they can enter in case of an emergency, and that one over there is the bathroom." He tells me and spins me around to face him. Some tour, I laugh to myself. "Ana, I promised you that I would always look after you and keep you safe. I am so sorry you got brought into this." he starts.

I put my hand up to stop him. "Did you release those pictures?" I ask point blank.

He looks at me like he just sucked on a lemon. "No, I didn't. Why would you ask that?"

"Because you don't need to be sorry if you didn't release the pictures. Do you know who did?"

"I have a pretty good idea. I have it narrowed down to a few people. Taylor's team is working on the leads as we speak." He tells me with authority and I breathe a small sigh of relief that I see a glimpse of the strong CEO I know shine through.

"Good. Once we know who did it I want to go give them a piece of my mind." I tell him, letting my frustration out a little bit. Whoever did do this can go rot in hell for all I care.

Christian leans down to kiss me on the forehead. "I am sure you will." He says proudly and gives me a light tap on my rear end. I watch him dig through his drawers searching for something. He stands back up with a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt and hands it to me. "You can sleep in this."

"Thank you." I tell him as I take my shirt and bra off to change. It isn't like he hasn't seen everything already. I can't help but to notice that he has stopped what he is doing to watch me with a hungry look in his eyes. I slip the white t-shirt on and slip off my jeans and step quickly into the sweats. Perhaps I should have gone to the bathroom to change and not given him that floor show. He looks like he could eat me alive. While sex should be the last thing on his mind right now, considering the situation, I long ago concluded that Christian uses sex as a coping mechanism. If he was having a bad week at the office, we would have a lot more sex than when things were smooth sailing.

I close my eyes and think of the best way to bring up the topic of telling his family about the abuse he suffered at the hands of Elena. I can't believe she would do something so awful to someone so young. I can't believe that I interacted with a pedophile and I didn't have a clue. I try to think back of something that would have alerted me, a sign, something she said, but I keep coming up blank. Other than being on the kinky side, nothing struck me as odd about her. I am kinda disappointed in myself. I always assumed that I would be able to recognize someone who was truly bad to their core. I guess she had me fooled also.

Christian comes out of his closet wearing sleep pants and t-shirt and immediately climbs into the bed, tapping the other side. "Come, join me Anastasia."

I climb in and I think I just found heaven. I didn't know a bed could be this comfortable. As I place my head on the pillow and turn to him, I take a deep breath. "So Elena, huh?"

He turns his face away from me and grasps tight to his blanket. "Ana. Please, not now."

I knew this wasn't going to be easy. "If not now, when? It is never going to get any easier. Let's just pull this band-aid right off so we can both get a little sleep" I tell him firmly. I will back down if I need to, but I prefer to get this over and done with. "Besides, she had me fooled too." I admit.

Seeming to acknowledge my stubbornness, he rolls over and faces me. He grabs my hands in his and kisses them. "What do you want to know?" He asks sadly.

"Lots." I tell him, and let out a laugh. "But for now, there are a couple of things I want to know." I look him in his gorgeous stormy gray eyes. He gives me a slight nod to go on so I continue. "What has been going on between you and Elena recently?"

He squeezes my hands and starts to speak, "Well, a couple of months ago I asked my accounting department to perform an audit on her salons. you remember, Esclava?" I nod. Of course I do. " Well, when the report came back, there were a lot of red flags. A lot of unexplained expenses. When we followed the leads we found that she was funneling money out of GEH to the tune of a couple hundred thousand a quarter for the last several years. We turned that information over to the proper authorities and they are investigating." he tells me.

"Does she know?" I ask thinking that if she does, there is the motive right there.

He shrugs. "I would think she would know that she is under investigation. Does she know that I turned her in? I don't know the answer to that. I haven't told her anything."

Softly I ask him, "You know you are going to have to tell your parents what happened, don't you?"

He closes his eyes and I watch him for a long minute. He lets go of my hands and I feel his body begin to tremble. When he opens his eyes, they are heavy with unshed tears. I can feel his pain physically and right now I would do anything just to take it away from him. I know he needs to do this, as hard as it is. I reach up and rub his cheek, drying the odd tear that escaped.

"I will help you. I will be there if you want me to be." I do my best to reassure him.

"I don't want to cause them any more pain than I already have." he admits sadly. "You should have seen their faces today, Ana. When they saw the pictures on the television. The disgust, the disappointment. They finally saw me for the monster that I am."

Suddenly he grabs my hand and places it on his chest under his t-shirt. He hisses in pain and do my best to try to pull it off of him but he won't let me. He is too strong for me. I watch in horror as he writhes in pain. "I need this Ana" he grits out between his teeth.

"You need cause yourself pain like this?" I cry out at him. He is starting to calm down. He is only breathing heavily now and I try to remove my hand, but again he stops me.

"Ana, let me do it my way." He pants. Resigned, I leave my hand in his control. Once upon a time I longed to do this very thing.

It takes him a while but eventually he brings himself back to a calm state. He opens his eyes and looks at me. Tears are flowing down my face. Watching him has been excruciating. I have just one question. "Why?"

"Two reasons." He ls me softly, placing a stray hair back behind my ear. "First, to be able to find it in me to tell my parents what she did to me I had to remember what it felt like. What it was like for her to control every aspect of my life and the pain of her punishments. The second reason is because like Elena, my haphephobia has had way too much control over me and I just want to be normal." Well, that makes some sense. Then he adds, "I want to be able to give you everybit of myself next time."

I look at him wide eyed and then I notice that my hand is still splayed across his chest but he had already let me go. I slowly move my fingers across his chest. His stiffens at first but then relaxes into my touch. He lets out a small moan when I lightly squeeze his nipple and then rake my fingernails across him. I am so enamored in exploring the forbidden zone that I get lost in time. When I come back to my senses, I look up at Christian through my eyelashes and I give him a shy smile. He puts a finger under my chin and brings his lips to mine.

The kiss starts of lightly, innocently and builds slowly. I open my mouth to allow him entrance and our tongues duel for control. He brings his hand slowly up my shirt until he reaches my breast. I arch my chest into his hand as he tweaks and twist my nipples. He is making my body feel so good. I moan loudly as he plays my body like a fiddle. I hear him chuckle.

Slowly, he moves light kisses down my body, removing my pants along the way. When he reaches my most delicate spot he gives me a mischievous grin before he begin licking and nipping at my lips. I hold on to the sheets as I writhe in pleasure, moaning my approval loudly.

"Look at me Ana. Watch me." he tells me and I do my best to open my eyes and focus on watching him give me pleasure but as he bites down softly on my flesh my eyes shoot back and my body arches up as I loudly come.

Christian rubs me through my climax and as I come back down he begins to knead and rub my body as he slowly works his way back up to the top of the bed. While he did have me touch him earlier, I am not sure what he would think about being spontaneously touched now so I am being extra careful not to come close to touching him now. He notices how I move my hands away from anywhere that I think he is going to move to and grabs them. "Can I make love to you Anastasia?" he whispers into my ear.

I am vaguely aware of the fact that I didn't want to fall straight away into a physical relationship with this man again but all sense seems to have left my body. All I can think about is how my body is screaming to be touched by him again. I give him a slight nod yes.

He smiles at me. "Is that a yes, Anastasia? I can make love to your beautiful body? Let me hear you say the word sweetheart." he rasps in a deep, husky voice filled with want and need. He is rubbing his fingers in a circular pattern across my belly and breasts.

I close my eyes and try to find the will power to stop this but I can't. I don't want to stop this. It feels too good. We can deal with the fall out later. "Yes, please." The words come falling out of my mouth. "I am on birth control." I tell him.

Satisfied, he rolls on top of me and slowly enters me while kissing and nipping at every bit of my body he can reach. When he gets to the sensitive area on my neck, I scream out in pleasure. I put my hands in his hair and lightly pull and he releases a deep groan. "Please hold me." he begs.

Carefully and lightly, I move my hands from his hair and slowly bring my arms around his back and resting my hands on his lower back. I feel his muscles tense as he thrusts into me. I cradle him in to me as I rest my face onto his chest. I meet him thrust for thrust as he increases his tempo and I am building with him. I look up and see that he isn't far from coming. His gorgeous face is filled with concentration as he chases his orgasm. Watching him is the sexiest thing I have seen in a long time. Before long he stills and calls out my name as he empties himself into me and then collapses on my body.

As the euphoria dissipates, my mind begins to rush. I can't believe we just did that. I was afraid that it would be too easy to start being physical with this man again but that just crossed an emotional plane I wasn't expecting. I can't help the rush of feelings I am having towards this man. Feelings that in the past I was forbidden to have but I suspect they were always lurking close to the surface. As I continue to hold Christian in my arms, I hear his breathing even out and I know he has fallen asleep. I yawn a little, kiss the top of his head and let sleep find me too. We can deal with the fall out of this later.

I wake to Christian gently nudging me. "Ana, wake up." he calls to me. "My parents and Ros are here. Come on, Ana." My body feels unbelievably heavy and I was just so warm and cozy that I resent the intrusion.

"Just five more minutes." I tell him, holding up one hand over my head as I cuddle back into the pillows, making myself comfortable.

He chuckles loudly. "Nope, sleepyhead. My parents are here and I need you to come with me. Now come on." he tells me as pulls the covers off of me.

I don't want to get up but I know he isn't going to leave me alone until I do. I grumpily sit up, vaguely aware of how wild I must look while half awake and with crazy bed head going on. I watching him cross the room and open the door leading to the security office. He pulls a rolling rack full of womens clothing into the room before shutting the door again and turns to me with a big smile. I roll my eyes. Leave it to Christian to arrange an entire wardrobe for me when I haven't been here for 24 hours yet.

As I look at the rack, I notice there are some items that look very familiar. I look at Christian for confirmation. "I had Mrs. Taylor pull this out of storage." he tells me.

"You didn't get rid of them? What about everything else?" I ask, genuinely curious. I can't believe that he didn't get rid of my clothes when I left. I figured he would donate them or something, not keep them.

"I just had them sent to storage downstairs, I don't know why. I guess it seemed wrong to give away anything that wasn't mine." He shrugs and looks at me intensely and adds, "and maybe I was hoping that one day you would come back."

I look back at him and give him little grin while flipping through the many articles of clothing, I pick out a baby blue sundress in a classic cut and a pair of white pumps. Comfortable, but elegant enough to feel confident is the look I am going for. I pick out some underclothes and head for the ensuite to freshen up a little.

The bathroom smells like Christian. He must have recently showered himself because there is still the strong scent of his manly bodywash in the air. I notice how excited just smelling him makes me. I turn on the water jets to prepare for a quick shower and I notice that he has left me my favorite toiletries. His thoughtfulness makes me feel so cared for. I have missed this.

As I step into the shower, I resolve to at least start to examine my feelings. So much has happened over the past two days that it is no wonder I feel as if I am walking in a fog. I don't know where to begin. A quote from Lewis Carroll jumps into my head, "Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." Alice in Wonderland was my favorite book when I was a young girl. I was even the Queen of Hearts one year for Halloween.

If I am going to start at the beginning, that would be seeing the pictures on the news. How do you really feel about that Ana? I continue to talk to myself. I close my eyes and think hard. How do I feel about the pictures being released? Initially, I was angry and embarrassed. The pictures weren't even of me, but what an intrusion. I am angry that reporters and photographers invaded my life. I am embarrassed that everyone knows that I like kinky sex. I am disgusted that reporters even made the connection having just one picture of us in a public setting.

That brings me back to Sam. I feel a little guilty at how fast I was to break up with him. In hindsight, I think I might have jumped to conclusions that he was cheating on me with Dawn but the reality is that I was just looking for a reason to leave. If I am being honest with myself, I don't think either of us was particularly happy being together anymore but too scare to be alone. Hopefully he finds someone who will make him happy.

My head starts to spin when I think about Christian. All that I learned, all that we have done, all that I am feeling towards him. We need to sit down and seriously talk. Sooner rather than later. I really didn't want to jump right back into the sack with him, but the reality is he weaves some kind of magic that I can't resist. Holding him, something I never imagined getting to do brought strong feelings to the surface and now I am afraid I will no longer be able to control them. Also, my life is in New Orleans, not Seattle. So right now I am just playing with fire. I know this.

After drying off from the shower, I set to work trying to untangle my hair. I hear a soft knock on the door as I am pulling the comb through some of the worst spots. I tighten the towel around me and make sure I am covered up. "Come in."

Christian opens the door and peers in. "I am going to be in the living room. When you are finished, please join me." he says. The expression on his face is begging me to hurry.

"I will see you in there." I confirm. Deciding I don't have time to deal with my hair right now, I quickly put it up into a messy bun and get dressed. I know Christian needs as much support as he can get right now.

After slipping into my shoes and giving myself one last once over, I leave the safety of his bedroom and head out into the main room. It looks to be late afternoon judging by the placement of t+he sun in the sky. I retrieve my phone from the wall charger and join Christian on the couch, oblivious to the reactions of anyone in the room.

I check my phone and notice that Kate has texted me at least 20 times to make sure I arrived in one piece so I shoot off a text to her confirming that I had and apologizing for not texting her sooner. As soon as I finish, I look up and see that I have an audience.

Christian makes room for me next to him on the couch and I squeeze in between him and the arm of the couch. I give everyone a little smile and a nod. I notice Dr. Flynn is there and he is beaming at me. When I look at him he gives me a little wink.

Christian continues from where he left off. "Taylor and Welch have figured out that the pictures originated from Elena's computer. That makes sense as she took the images to begin with."

"Why would Elena take images of you in such a position, Christian?" His mother, Grace, asks him in her no nonsense voice. I can tell that he isn't going to be able to evade her questioning for long. He must have come to the same conclusion because he reaches for my hand and gives it a squeeze.

"That is a story for a later, mom." He tells her and I can tell she wants to argue but Carrick puts his hand on her knee to stop her and speaks up himself.

"Son, right now we have pictures that were released to the media of you in a damaging light, Elena Lincoln, and now Anastasia is here. The story is causing more and more damage to your business. Nothing is adding up here. I am trying son, but I don't know how to protect you if I don't know what is going on." I can tell how much Carrick loves his son by how hard he is trying to understand so that he can protect him.

I feel the need to speak up and offer some kind of explanation as to why I am here but I don't. I don't want to make the situation any worse than it already is and I don't know what he has already said about me. I feel his thumb start to massage my palm in an attempt to sooth me.

A fiesty ginger haired woman stands up and hands Christian a thick file. "Christian, PR wants to make a statement as soon as possible. It would be best if we could drop a statement in time for the 9:00 news cycle. Current fallout has been light so far, but I expect they are just waiting to see what the response will be." she reports while staring at me. No doubt full of curiosity about who I am and why I am here. She is dressed smartly in a green power suit and you can tell she is a no nonsense go-getter. She walks up to me and puts her hand out. "Ros Bailey. Chief Operations Officer of Grey Enterprise Holdings" she offers in way of an introduction.

I shake her hand. "Anastasia Steele." I introduce myself but I don't offer her any further explanation.

"Well, I promised that I would take Gwen out to celebrate our anniversary tonight so I am out of here. Grey, get on the statement. Got it?" Ros tells Christian as she heads to the elevator. "Please wait until the morning before you call me." she warns through the closing doors.

I look around the room and see that it is just his parents and Dr. Flynn. I feel Christian tense beside me before he begins to speak. "Mom and Dad, there is something I need to tell you."