CHRISTIAN

Christian sat in the small conference room, his fingers drumming haphazardly on the surface of the table. It was pristinely clean in here, which was just homage to the dedication of his janitorial staff, since this room hasn't actually been booked for a conference in over six months. It was cramped, definitely. A table of six was rarely sufficient space for any meeting being held at GEH. But it was a room on the main floor that didn't really have any use, so it'd been converted into a conference room and sat stagnant most of the time.

Except for today.

Today he was waiting in this room because no one would need it. No one would find him here. No one would accidentally walk in. Only one person would be entering that door to join him. But she didn't know it yet, and she wouldn't know that it was happening until it was happening.

He looked at the clock on the wall. Any minute now. Any minute security would pull her aside for a problem with her badge and lead her to this room while they got the 'problem' sorted out. Any minute.

When the door finally cracked open, he watched from across the room as Ana hesitantly stepped in. He'd purposely placed himself at an angle from the door where he wouldn't be in her immediately view point. Which proved to be a wise decision as, when she did scan the room and noticed him, she immediately moved for the door handle to try and leave.

But she was met with resistance, thanks to Taylor holding it clothed from the outside, and immediately he saw the panic rise in her.

"You can't lock me up in here with you!" she exclaimed immediately, her voice taking on a higher pitch than normal.

"Ana, I just want to talk," he said in a calm voice. He didn't believe that she actually believed he would hurt her. But he also knew she would want to run, and he couldn't have her keep running. He was fighting a very hard battle, balancing on a razor's edge of wanting her in a romantic sense, and wanting to keep her safe. He knew in order to help her, his feelings for her should take a back burner, but that was easier said than done. He knew, logically, that he should focus all of his attention on just helping her escape Kennedy and get on her own two feet rather than pursuing her for himself, but his heart and his body often warred with his mind on why he couldn't both simultaneously.

"Well I don't, Mr. Grey. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to look at you. I don't want to be near you. I just want my life to go back to how it was before I met you. When everything was easy, when everything was normal, when I was—"

"Being used?" he interrupted, her face falling at his words. "When you were simply accepting of being Kennedy's play toy, unable to have thoughts, feelings, friends, and a life of your own? You miss when you were a mindless puppet for him, made to twist and bend to his every desire? You miss not having to use your own mind to make your own decisions? You miss not following your own instincts, your own heart? You hate that you've started to have thoughts of your own, now? You hate that you are starting to see the cracks in his façade, that you are starting to questions everything he's ever told you, everything you've ever known to be true simply because he's told you it was and you trusted him? You're scared of living your own life, of taking responsibility of it?"

He watched her swallow hard, watched her blanch has he continued to let sentence after sentence roll off his tongue. In the back of his mind, the warning bells were going off, saying he was being too forceful yet again. He needed to handle this more gently, almost with kid gloves in order to avoid having her shut down on him like she'd done time and time again. But as with the times before, he was having a hard time utilizing his brain to mouth filter, and he was unable to listen to the advice he was trying to give himself.

He looked at her, her eyes void of the sparkle with which he'd started to become infatuated. She looked sad, embarrassed, at his words.

"I'm sorry," he muttered after a beat, knowing now that he had definitely taken things too far. Berating her for being emotionally abused by Kennedy wasn't going to do her any favors. "I know it's not your fault you fell into his trap. It's not your fault he's manipulated you the way he has."

The fire in her eyes rekindled as she sat up, venom in her voice as she spoke. "I haven't been manipulated by anyone Mr. Grey. I am a willing participant in what Scott and I share. You're the only one who has a problem with it."

"Ana, I didn't mean to offend you. You're the victim here—"

"Victim," she practically screeched. "I'm not a victim, Mr. Grey," she insisted, standing up for effect. He watched her pull her shoulders back, her eyes blazing. "This isn't about me. This is about you. This is about you having some sort of hero complex and wanting to save the poor this damsel in distress. Well guess what? I'm not in distress, Mr. Grey. I'm not some charity case for you."

"I don't see you as a charity case, Ana," he said calmly.

"It's either that or… or… or you're jealous," she spat, her words spewing quickly, her hands flailing around. "Scott and I share an incredible sex life. He's done things to me you've never heard of, fucked me in ways you can't even image," she huffed, then turned bright red as soon as the words left her lips. He could almost see the embarrassment radiating off of her as her strong demeanor crumbled, her squared shoulders falling, her head bowing down in shame.

The silence that surrounded still rung with the words she's last spoke, the air thick as they both sat in awkwardness over what she'd said. Finally Christian cleared his throat uncomfortably. He idly scratched at the back of his neck, which was hot with his own very rare blush at her words.

"It's not a secret that I'm attracted to you, Miss Steele. And while I'm certainly not jealous of the type of relationship Kennedy shares with you, you are correct in assuming I'm envious of the fact that he gets part of your time at all. I would like to get to know you better, and certainly a romantic relationship is in the scope of interests I have where you are concerned, but that all takes a back burner to the fact that I just want to help you. Please just let me help you."

She watched her, but she sat there across from him, unmoving. Her head was still down, hands splayed across her thighs, almost like the day he went into Kennedy's office…

Immediately he was out of his chair, around the table and kneeling down in front of her. He'd read about the sub positions in the information Welch had provided him about BDSM. If that was what she was doing, he wanted no part of it around him.

"Ana," he whispered as he kneeled in front of her, hoping she'd look up at him immediately. However, she stayed perfectly still. "Look at me," he insisted, cupping her cheek and lightly pressing up to tilt her face so she was forced to look at him. But when his thumb swiped her smooth skin, it was met with wetness. She was crying.

"Oh Ana," he sighed, taking her hands in his and clutching them tightly. She didn't return the squeeze, but she didn't pull away from his either. "Please don't cry baby." At that, she let out a sob. His heart ached for her. He could feel the war she was battling within herself. He could tell she felt the tendrils of questions taking root in her, but she was afraid to let them. He hated to always be pushing her so hard, but he felt like he had no choice if he was ever going to get her to be receptive to the fact that she and Kennedy had together wasn't healthy. Eventually he could take things a little slower, get her there a step at a time, get her to talk to John Flynn, who he had met with and had on standby, ready to help Ana as soon as she was ready. But before all of that, he had to gain her trust, and he had to get her thinking. And to do those things, he had to be more forceful that he wished he could be. He had to go with what yielded results.

Slowly her tears subsided, and after a beat she pulled her hands from his and used the heels of her palms to wipe at her damp cheeks. "I have to get to work, Mr. Grey," she said, her voice aiming for impassive but tinged with emotion.

"Ana," he pleaded, willing her to open up him.

"Mr. Kennedy gets upset when I'm late. I'm sure you don't want me to get punished yet again on your behalf."

Christian winced, rocking back on his heels, allowing her room to stand. She rose immediately, her heels clicking across the floor as she walked quickly toward the door. A swirl of thoughts clouded his brain as he watched her smooth, flawless legs flex which each step, thoughts of frustration, sadness, determination, concern and… lust. He wanted desperately help her, as well as to take a real shot at building a real relationship with her. But how do you help someone who doesn't want help? How much could he keep pushing her if all she did was push back against him? What if he was doing more harm than good? What if he was just pushing her further into Kennedy's grasp?

He was so consumed in his own thoughts that he almost missed it: as she grabbed the door handle, she paused for just a moment, turning her head and glancing back over her shoulder at him before pulling it open and exiting the room. It was barely anything, but at the moment, it was everything. He was affecting her in some capacity. And for now, that had to be good enough.

ANA

"Sir?" Ana asked, her fingers stretching wide against her thighs in an effort to keep them from twisting together and showing her nervousness.

"Yes, Ana?" Scott replied distractedly before taking a swig of juice straight from the container in her kitchen. He was still shirtless, but had his work slacks back on, zipped but not buttoned. He was working on a huge deal with Mr. Grey's brother Elliot's construction company, forging ideas for new ways to implement GHI products into furthering the eco-friendly sustainability of his various projects. It was work that was both mentally taxing and exhilarating for Scott. He absolutely loved furthering the directive of impacting the world in a positive way environmentally. It was his passion, his dream to make these kinds of things commonplace, as well as cost effective, and he'd been in his absolute element since signing on with GEH. So the combination of hard work and excitement that went into his job every day had his coming to Ana looking for relief of his pent up high-on-life type of emotions. She was there to help him get the energy out more than the stress. A deal gone right had been getting her into more intense scenes than one gone wrong, as of late. The scenes lately had been very much pleasure-focused. He was taking pride in bringing her body to writhing heights of pleasure over and over, using his control of her pleasure as the catalyst for his. He hadn't really punished her since the night she hurt her arm. Instead he was riding the high of his happiness and using it to push orgasm after orgasm from her in every way imaginable.

"I wanted to discuss with you the possibility of me going back to school," she rushed out in one breath.

Scott paused, the juice jug halfway to his mouth for another chug. His head turned to look at her, his green eyes piecing hers so intensely that she averted her gaze to the floor.

"Why?" he asked, his voice stern, his good mood post-scene gone.

She rolled her shoulder in an awkward shrug, her voice betraying her for a moment as her mouth opened and nothing came out.

"Why Ana?" he asked again, setting the juice on the counter and closing the distance between them.

"You know I always wanted to go to school," she said quietly, losing the fight against her nervousness and wringing her fingers together tightly. "I put it off to be there for you and make GHI a success, and now that it is, I thought… maybe…" she trailed off.

"Is the life I've worked painstakingly hard to provide for you not sufficient, Ana?"

"No," she interjected quickly. "It's nothing like that. I appreciate everything you do for me, give to me. It's just, you know I've always loved books and I always had dreams of going into publishing. GHI was your dream, and you've shown me how going after one's dream can lead to such amazing things. I thought maybe… now would be a good time to start my dream. Sir."

"My dream is to make GHI a success with you by my side, Ana," he said, his voice a low murmur as he circled his arms around her still-naked waist. "I've done that, but this is just the beginning. We're on the cusp of such amazing things. We haven't even seen a fraction of the success we're going to see in the future. And when it happens, I want you there with me," his lips trailed down from her ear to her neck, his thumb gently swirling around her left nipple. "I want to celebrate every moment of it with you. I want to shower you with gifts, with high end clothing, the best quality everything. I want to see the world, Ana. And when I do, I want you to see it with me. I want to flog you and fuck you in every major county on Earth. School just doesn't really fit into that right now, okay?"

She opened her mouth to speak, hoping to have more of an actual discussion about it, but he immediately sealed his lips over hers, preventing her from any further conversation on the matter. His kiss was demanding, and she knew in that moment he was telling her not to argue. His decision was already made, no discussion required. He was shutting her down without even really entertaining the idea and the dominant nature of the kiss was telling her there was no room left for argument, that she wasn't to bring it up again.

She felt her chest tighten with emotion at the idea that school was never going to be an option for her, that she was being forced to give up the idea forever. His fingers left her nipple to drag between her legs. On instinct, due to her emotional state, her thighs moved inward, subconsciously rejecting his touch. "Don't," he muttered, his breath hot on her cheek as he paused, giving her a moment to follow his lead and open her legs back up. With a stilted sigh, she did as told, allowing him purchase to her most private area. "Good girl," he commended, his fingers twirling around on what he often called his 'playground'. And as she often did when he wanted to scene while she was upset, she forced herself to turn off her brain and focused on her body.

A/N: Short, I know. But it was where I needed to cut it off. And I'm hoping now that I wrapped up Guilty Conscience I can put more focus into Manipulated and update pretty regularly. The only reason this update even took this long is because I got the burst of inspiration to finish GC, then wanted to clean up some spelling/grammar errors in it so I took about a week or so to read it all back over and clean it all up. Then I spent a most of this week taking care of myself and my family who all came down with the flu over a four day span. Otherwise this would have been pushed out a while ago. Anyway, excuses, but there you go. I've almost got the next one done, and have been working on another part, maybe the chapter after that, or the next one. Whatever. But either way, the point is, is I'm actively working on it more often, so updates should be more frequent. Thanks, as always, for reading! XO

A/N2: Okay so I uploaded and then realized I had accidentally left out the whole part of Ana's POV. So I went back and deleted and re-uploaded, so if you got two emails or something wacky, that's why. Sorry.