"You are seriously hung up on this girl," Elliot said carefully, testing the waters when he looked up from the spec sheet Christian had handed him. When it appeared as if his little brother wasn't going to shut down on him he prodded further, eager for any information he could glean. "Think she could be 'The One' as they say?"
Christian snorted. "Are you demented? I've known her for a few months, Elliot. And marriage? That is an institution you will never find me checking myself into."
"Maybe you don't want to visit the land of the forever taken but she may want to. Don't all chicks want to get married and have babies one day? What happens then, bro? I mean, for you to be seen with her and to call her your girlfriend in a press release proves it has to be serious for you. And if it's serious for you, it's got to be way over the top for her."
"Not all women are desperate for the white picket fence, El."
"Not all, no. But most. At least in my experience. You've never talked about it with her?"
A strange tingle started in the tips of Christian's fingers at the same time a melancholy settled over him at Elliot's off the cuff reference to babies. Not that he'd ever want one of those, hell no. But to know that something had been taken from Anastasia...it just saddened him as if he shared in that loss.
"No, no need."
Elliot's eyes narrowed, the exuberance over his brother seemingly normal for a time vanishing before his eyes. "Is Ana one of your..."
"Don't finish that sentence. I've told you what she is now leave it alone."
"Does she know? About...all that stuff? About what went down with"
"Enough! I'm not having this conversation now or at any point with you. Ana knows what she needs to know, she's not an idiot and she's not some naïve little girl." Lifting his eyes to his brother's Christian lowered his voice even more, "And never, ever speak that woman's name in my presence. She is dead to me on every single level."
"Gotcha," Elliot pacified him with. "No talk of her. Happy to oblige on that one. But I would like some nieces and nephews one day and all I'm saying is that Ana would make one hell of a wife and mother I bet." And just as he'd expected his teasing led to his brother running a hand through already messy hair and then dropping his hand onto the table in exasperation.
"Marriage, all that shit that comes along with it…never going to happen. Just finish your lunch and get the hell out of here, I've got a meeting with my lower level staff in 10 minutes and I'm about to fire half of them. So unless you want in on the show, hit the road."
"OK, OK. Scratch the lifetime commitment talk." Elliot, always eager to just talk to his little brother pressed on in the hopes of carving out some sort of normal relationship. "Four months is a long time. Have you dropped the L bomb yet?"
"Have you?" Christian counted, clearing the table of the remnants of his salad and pulling the architects blueprints from under Elliot's nose.
"Me? Who would I have said I love you to? The chick I banged three nights ago who claimed we had banged the previous year or her sister who claims to have been with me in college?"
"Sisters, Elliot? Really?" Christian deadpanned, not the slightest bit impressed by his pathetically promiscuous brother.
"I didn't know they were sisters," he answered smugly, hands knit behind his head. "I'd have remembered them if we had all been together but individually? I couldn't pick them out of a lineup."
"You're disgusting." Christian moved to the window and looked to the left. If he squinted and turned slightly sideways he could see the roofline of Ana's building and though he'd never really noticed the view before, nowadays he found himself doing this exact same thing constantly.
"You're telling me that in all your years of kink and fetish, all the twisted shit Ele...sorry, she made you do, you never did two chicks at the same time?"
"Not ones who were related you prick. And they think I'm the sick one," Christian mumbled, hitting the intercom button on his desk to let Olivia know to come and clean up after them. In she came, blouse suddenly unbuttoned another notch, a coy look on her face as she approached Elliot.
"Hello there Ms. Livieliv. How are you doing on this fine cold January afternoon?"
"Out, Elliot," Christian demanded from behind his desk. Fucker couldn't keep his eyes off a pretty girl no matter who she was. Elliot had already finger banged a girl from accounting and had somehow gotten two GEH interns last year to suck him off at the office Christmas party in a broom closet but damn if he was going to shit so close to home again. My assistant? Hard limit, brother.
"I was just going to ask this pretty girl if she'd like for me to get her a coffee."
"She makes the coffee. That's her job. Which she is currently at which currently pays her bills. If you want to fuck that all up for her, by all means, continue on with your inappropriate behavior." Not once did Christian look up from his desk. Instead he shuffled papers and prepared his notes for his meeting, his shoulders easing a bit when Olivia's red heels had left the office.
"What the fuck is your problem man?" Elliot hissed, his boots stomping in a straight line from the table to directly in front of Christian. "You just embarrassed the poor girl."
"No, your behavior led to her embarrassment. My problem is that you have no regard whatsoever for where you shove your dick and the last time I let you have free reign at my office I wound up with three sniveling women and a shit ton of gossip."
"No, your problem is you hate when anyone around you is happy. Here I am thinking you finally found someone who could love your egotistical ass but," he smacked his palm to his forehead, "for the life of me I can't figure out why she would."
"Would you shut the fuck up about love already? Christ, Elliot. Not everything has to boil down to that. You of all people should know that."
"Yeah, kill me because I believe that there's someone out there that I could, gasp! spend my life with. How terrible to love and be loved. It's a good emotion, C." He pinched the bridge of his nose, running his own weathered hands over his head. "Let's start from the beginning. Emotions. Emotions are feelings you get..." He smiled and laughed, "Feelings. Feelings are"
"Shut up," Christian said with an eye roll. Nobody, nobody got under his skin like Elliot did and yet he could never just shut him down either. "I love my family. I love my work. I love to fly and to sail and I love a good Delmonico steak. I do not love Ana. Yes, there are things I love about her; her kindness, her brain, her laugh, her body, what her body does to me. That does not mean I love her and it sure as shit doesn't mean she loves me! Like I said, the girl's got a brain. If she uses it, she'll never even get close to that emotion when it comes to me because I'm sure as hell not going to reciprocate it. Now, get the hell out and get your GC to call the architect. I want that building zoned and coded when I get back."
Smirking Elliot gathered the plans and his drink. He'd gotten what he came here for. A little reaction from the unflappable Christian Grey. Shit, he hadn't seen that much emotion from him since the 'incident' and that had been years ago.
"You mean the building your girlfriend resides in? Or the one she works in? Does she know you're buying it? Or is that why you're shoving it into that bull shit LLC holding crap you formed two years ago?"
"I've hit my limit, Elliot," Christian growled from behind his enormous desk, fists balanced on the top just itching for a fight. "Out."
"Thanks for lunch, bro." Wisely, he walked out without another word, too angry to say anything more and still hoping to build something that had always seemed impossible until recently.
"You free tonight?" he tossed out at Olivia just loud enough for Christian to hear but the girl shook her head emphatically and then began to type furiously to avoid further eye contact. "It's all good, Christian!" he yelled over his shoulder just as the office door began to swing shut. "You still control everyone around you so you can continue to play God!"
Fucker! Love! What the hell was he doing coming into my office and spouting off about love and marriage and all that other shit that has no place in my world?
In the controlled rage he was so used to operating in he continued about his day, calmly firing twelve people he found to be lacking in performance standards and then approving the hiring of three new employees to take their place. His standards were exacting and clear. Don't measure up? You're not good enough to work for GEH or any of it's affiliates. And that one woman from litigation who broke out in hives anytime he spoke to her directly? Roz had especially enjoyed canning her.
The residential building that Ana and her roommate lived in had been an easy purchase; all Christian had to do was have his real estate acquisitions director flash some hard cash at the current owner and then pay a good percentage above the mill rate but the building, it's tenants, their applications, and the blue prints would be his by Friday of next week. Oh, and the keys to each apartment. Not that he planned on ever stepping foot inside one but still, it was nice to know he could drop by if he ever needed to.
At five Taylor came to door and took the briefcase from Christian's outstretched hand along with a stack of papers that got dropped onto Andrea's desk for filing.
"The jet is ready?"
"Yes, Sir."
"You've let Gloria know I'm coming?"
"Gail informed her last week, Sir. The apartment is ready for you."
"Ms. Steele is in the car?"
"Pulled in less than one minute ago."
His dick, flaccid all day because of stress, anxiety and anger sprung to life at the thought.
Below in the garage of GEH Ana exited the white Audi and slipped into the backseat of the limo that was waiting to whisk Christian off to SeaTac for his flight to New York. As soon as Sawyer shut the door she checked to ensure the privacy barrier was up and took of her dress just as Christian had instructed and slid the bra from her shoulders where it joined her panties on the floor.
'Heels only, legs spread wide,' he'd instructed via text not 30 minutes ago. Just the thought of being on display like this had her slick with want. Creamy skin prickled with anticipation and desire, nipples drew tight as they waited for the relief of his mouth and in her chest, her heart pounded so heavily she felt light headed.
At the door Christian paused and gave a small nod to Taylor who got the hint and went to the front as fast as he could. A quick glance around assured him that there was no chance anyone would see her when he opened the door, the expectation of slaking his lust causing a tremble in his hands that surprised him.
His jacket came in first, carelessly tossed onto the closest seat, the slight breeze it created sensual against her skin. God, that hair, she thought with a grin when he climbed in, the strain against his zipper the second thing she noticed.
"Damn," he mumbled when he saw the vision waiting for him. Chestnut waves of silk sensually fluffed out so that it cascaded down alabaster shoulders, the curl at the end just long enough to somewhat hide those pretty pink nipples he loved so much. Between her spread legs she was bare and glistening, the lips of her sex puffy and so fucking inviting he wanted nothing more in the world than to dive right in.
He poured a flute of champagne, took a sip and slid to the back of the limo for a closer look. I should have asked that she come with me, he thought, chastising himself for allowing her to make plans in his absence. The thought would never have crossed his mind had she just been a sub but now that he'd labeled her his girlfriend, well, business men often brought their significant others on trips like this one. And while the thought of going back to his apartment to have someone waiting for him had never even crossed his mind, the idea of Ana shopping on Madison Avenue and getting herself ready for a dinner out while he worked suddenly seemed very appealing.
"You, Ms. Steele, are a vision."
"Thank you, Christian. I follow instructions quite well."
He chuffed out a laugh and took another sip before loosening his tie and unbuttoning his shirt.
"That's debatable though there are certain situations in which you are fully adept at doing what you're told." Silver eyes raked her from scalp to toe, "This would be a good example of that. I'm pretty sure nobody could look as good as you do right now and the fact that it's for me makes me very happy."
Heart still pounding she watched him wrap that silver silk tie around his left hand, her mouth watering at the implications. Hurry up! she wanted to scream but begging him only drew out the torture. God he's beautiful. Her mind drifted along with her eyes to where he rubbed himself, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip.
"What would you like me to do right now?" Because I'm about to jump on top of you in a very unladylike fashion.
God damn she's sexy. "Run your hands over your inner thighs slowly."
She did, the sight of those glossy dark purple nails too much for his cock to take. On a good day it was 40 minutes to the airport but this was rush hour and a Friday. An hour, I have at least one hour and I am going to utilize every damn second of it.
"Fuck yourself with your fingers while I watch," he said, voice deep and husky, eyes focused on the purple tips of her finger as it disappeared inside her tight little body per his command.
She heard the clang of his belt buckle as it hit the floor and the faint slide of his zipper but there was something so outrageously erotic about being on display like this for her lover that to open her eyes would be to break the spell. Instead she envisioned him stroking his length as he watched her grow wetter. Imagined the way his shaft looked in his hand, remembered the way he always dragged the pad of his middle finger over the tip of his dick.
Around them the streets of Seattle teemed with people, the rush of traffic forcing their slowdown, a situation that would normally drive him crazy but was now a welcomed inconvenience. Horns blared, brakes screeched, people shouted but all Ana and Christian heard were the soft squelching sounds as she touched herself, the glide of his palm over the dry skin of his cock and the labored breathing they shared.
Dropping to his knees between her legs his hand rested on hers to still its movement, lifting it the merest inch so that it circled that perfect pink clit he wanted between his lips. It may have been her finger that was making her body jolt but it was his hand that guided her, the pressure not enough to get her off but not enough to cool her down either.
"I'm going to make you cum so hard you'll feel it all weekend. Hell, you'll remember it for the rest of your life, Anastasia." One, then two of his fingers breached her and slid in as far as they could until he'd found her G-spot, the quiver of her belly confirming that he'd hit the right spot. With the slightest come hither motion he tapped, circled, rubbed and pressed until her clit throbbed and her juices covered his palm. In his other hand he pumped his dick, the steady drip of pre-cum making him sticky and desperate for the smooth silk of her cunt.
"Faster, Ana. Make yourself cum," he demanded when he felt the walls around his fingers close in and begin to seize. She was drenching his hand, covering him in the scent and feel of her very essence as her legs shook and her belly clenched.
Blackness and then a blinding light assaulted her vision, eye lids squeezing tightly against the onslaught this man was bringing to her body. It was too much, it wasn't enough, it was consuming and terrifying and complete and utter satisfaction the likes of which she'd never known before and it just. wouldn't. end.
Raising onto his knees he slammed into her still quivering pussy and buried himself balls deep, his hands gripping the back of the seat as his body pummeled into hers to extend the orgasm that had her clawing at the tops of his shoulders and thrashing beneath him.
Fucking beautiful.
Mindlessly she reached for him, the connection and absoluteness of what had just happened causing her to lose her mind so that the very tips of her fingers brushed against the edge of his collarbone. With a roar he grabbed her wrists and flipped so that he was on the seat, her legs spread over his.
"You make me forget," he said angrily, reaching for the tie on the seat so that he could bind her hands together behind her back.
Momentarily pulled from the high she'd been riding on Ana leaned forward, reveling in the proximity of her mouth to those tiny scars on his chest and let him knot the silver fabric around her slim wrists, that familiar pang of rejection resonating deep in her heart.
"There," he said, lightly slapping the globe of her ass, the brief but intense anxiety all but gone from his voice. On instinct she moved just as Taylor hit a bump in the road but without hands to brace her fall, she had no choice but to fall on top of Christian again.
He responded with a small grunt and a laugh, his hand reaching behind her to hold onto the makeshift restraint while his hips urged her to bounce.
"God you feel so good, Christian," she moaned from above, the unbelievable fullness of being stretched by him overcoming any lingering sadness she may have had. He closed his eyes at the emotion that slammed into him. Nobody talked to him during sex except Ana and even then it had been at his urging. The intimacy of his name on her lips while his cock was encased in her body was crushing.
She leaned forward but he leveraged her with the grip of her hands so that all he felt were the tiny pebbles of her nipples brushing against his own and the perfect grip of her sex around his.
"So good, Christian. So big and thick," she panted. He gasped, gripped her hip a bit tighter and straightened his legs in an effort to keep from thrusting. "So hot and hard and fuck...so good." She leaned forward another inch and licked the shell of his ear, sharp teeth biting his lobe so that his balls drew up tight.
Holy…yes…fuck… "Ana…"
"God I love to fuck you…love to feel you cum inside me…love to feel that huge cock get even bigger…"
"Fuck," he moaned just as the first electric spasm started. "I'm cumming…shit…"
She grinned as his words sputtered off into nothing but incoherent mumbles. He'd let go of her hands in lieu of her hips but he made no effort to control her movements. Instead, for the first time since she'd met him, he seemed totally and completely at her mercy. Grateful almost to hand over the reins of domination and just let himself feel this connection that ran so thick.
When the evidence of his orgasm slid down his balls, when his fingers began to tingle from their grip, when the blur of what had just happened passed he opened his eyes to find her staring down at him, brown hair surrounding them like a curtain.
Mine, he thought, the flare of possession so strong he felt the heat of it pierce his gut. Open. He felt open and exposed and terrified.
Her heart thundered when she saw the vulnerability in his gaze and the way he looked at her with wonder but just as quickly as she saw it, he blinked and it was gone, the mask of ambivalence shuttering itself into place.
"That was…unexpected," Christian said, the corners of his mouth turning up while he fumbled to untie her. Before she could touch him he pulled her hands forward and placed them on the top of his shoulders. "Here is fine," he reminded her gently.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to touch you there..." A blush, furious and hot spread over the exposed skin of her chest and flamed her face until she was sure he could feel the heat of it. "I…you…it was too much," she finally said on a huff, her back straightening so that he slid out.
"I know. You and I," he shook his head, "we seem to lose ourselves a bit when we're together. That's why I usually am more careful with restraints but I wanted you to experience that, a clitoral and g-sport orgasm simultaneously and I just didn't think it through."
"Did I hurt you?" When I touched you. My boyfriend who I should be able to touch anywhere. Her breath was caught in her throat as he pondered for a minute, the silver of his eyes clouding over when he thought about it.
"I don't recall," he said slowly, the reality of that catching him off guard. Had it hurt? I don't even know. "Either way, we both need to be more careful next time."
By the time the limo pulled to a stop in front of the white jet with the letters GEH emblazoned on its side they'd both gotten dressed and had just polished off the rest of the champagne. Outside Taylor stood patiently with his back to the heavily tinted windows waiting for the knock that would let him know it was safe to open the door. He'd seen a lot, probably all of The Boss's women naked at some point but the precaution Grey took to keep Ana away from anyone but himself didn't go unnoticed.
Not that The Boss was into sharing those women, he just didn't care in the same way. An important call? A security briefing? Didn't matter, Taylor was to find him no matter what was going on and if that meant walking past some chick on her knees in the hall outside his office or some brunette making him lunch in nothing but the skin she was born in, well that was just a hazard of the job. But Ana? Shit. Unless the President of the US was in the foyer, and even then he'd tread lightly, Ana, her body, her time, Christian's time with her? Coveted.
"Will that hold you over until Monday?" she giggled while he pawed her breast, so perfectly framed in the tight cream silk blouse.
"Hardly. With you anything over an hour is too long to wait." It was the truth but it was the way he said it that had her smiling. "You know that Sawyer goes with you wherever you go," he said as he fixed his tie.
"I do."
"You also know that you're being watched by the media now that they know we're in a relationship, correct?"
"Are you…are you afraid I'll embarrass you or something?"
"No," he laughed, pulling her close enough to graze his nose along hers. "It's my way of making sure you know that if you so much as talk to another man I'll find out about it."
Flustered, Ana pulled back and gave him a look filled with incredulous disbelief. "You're worried about me being unfaithful?" Is he serious? "Even if I wanted to be, which I don't, you have a babysitter assigned to report my every move to you."
"Security, Ana. Not a babysitter."
"So Sawyer doesn't send you updates on everything I do?"
"Of course not," he retorted though he knew it was a veiled truth. There was plenty Sawyer wasn't tasked with reporting. What she ate, what she was wearing, what time she went to sleep. And well, yes he had required to know where she was going, who she was with and any changes to her routine but that all helped to keep her safe. Or so he told himself despite not having such security in place for his own sister.
"What about you and those bimbo swimsuit sisters that horrible woman we had dinner with wants to set you up with? I should be worrying about you, not the other way around!"
He laughed then, truly laughed and kissed her lips quickly before he let her see just how happy her jealousy made him.
"Anastasia, you have exactly nothing to worry about. Even if I weren't committed to you, the chances of me entertaining the notion of meeting them is non-existent." His perfectly manicured hand rapped on the window, the door opening immediately to the frigid January air. With a smirk he took in the pebbling of her nipples and turned her so that nobody outside could see.
"I'll expect you at Escala when I get back on Sunday night."
"I feel funny being there when you're not there," she whined rubbing her arms to protect her from the cold.
"Don't. I want you there waiting for me. It's the reason I'm flying back late night instead of early Monday." Something about the way he said it, the genteel quality of his voice that made it easy for her to ignore the demand and hear only the romance.
"I'll be there."
He smiled, kissed her lips once more and stretched his long legs onto the pavement before leaning in once more. "Mia has a habit of trying to shirk her CPO's. Don't even think about doing that." As an after thought he leaned back in, his arms draped over the roof of the car so that his shirt pulled taut, each muscle defined under the thin white cotton. "Make sure you get something sexy when you meet with Caroline Sunday but please, for the love of God, don't let my sister see it."
There is an energy to New York City that despite having travelled the world countless times over Christian could never find elsewhere. Ten million lives rushing in a chaotic stream of human bodies, all with a confidence and determination unmatched by any other city had him standing as an observer at the window of his 46th floor penthouse.
Rarely was he in New York for longer than a few days despite his love of its energy but his trips here had almost always included a pit stop to the BDSM club Elena had taken him to on his first visit here. It was in that club that she'd first put him in a cock cage at the tender age of 17 before forcing him to make her cum with first his tongue and then his fingers while another man fucked her. It had been the first time he'd been forced to share her and the hurt had cut as deep as the lines left behind from the stainless steel that had encased his dick.
So deep in fact that each visit afterwards had him more angry than the last so that his time there wasn't just sporadic but dark. It was this East Coast club where his transformation from submissive to Dom had started. On the cement floors and roughhewn wood of that dank establishment he'd felt the shift in him, felt the draw to sadism, felt, for the first time, the freedom of his own sexual desires instead of being the outlet for someone else's.
It wasn't that he'd been forced to watch his Domme with another man, she'd made up for that a few weeks later by bringing in two female subs she'd borrowed from a friend, and it wasn't that he'd been forced into a cock cage that had been not only painful but humiliating.
His anger, the simmering anger that proved to be the fertile ground for who he later became stemmed from the fact that for the first time he'd been able to observe other Dom/sub couples and for the very first time realized that what he had with his Mistress was not like what the others had. Those subs were respected, cared for, thought of. They weren't a source of humiliating release for their Doms nor were they whipping posts for other people's transgressions. In a world where trust was paramount, his had been abused just as his body had been.
It had taken almost three more years and countless interactions between other Dom/subs for him to finally understand just how screwed up Elena Lincoln was not only to him but to the temporary submissives she sometimes brought into the mix. Ending things between them had proven harder than he'd thought, especially since her influence was so wide spread but when he'd threatened to out her more fiscally illegal activities she'd backed off and had let him go with a recommendation to the most prestigious Dominant training academy in the country.
Those first forays into dominance had been disastrous, his unbelievable good looks and well developed sexual expertise his saving grace. Would things have been different had he been average looking? Had he been poor? Would those women whom he had been so callous with been so forgiving if he'd had a belly? Or a small dick? If his eyes weren't so beautifully cutting? His abs so perfectly developed?
The real me, he wondered as he watched the tiny red lights of traffic below move at a snails pace. Me, not the body, not the money but me. Did anyone know the real me? Did I know the real me?
His phone buzzed in his pocket, his hand reaching for it automatically.
-Safe flight? Are you settled?
He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face or the way his stomach flipped at the sight of her name and the knowledge that she'd thought of him.
-In my apartment having a drink before bed.
-That was quick!
-Private jets are much more efficient with regards to time.
Plus he'd come here straight from the airport, bypassing the club without even having to tell Taylor. Come to think of it, he hadn't even thought about going to the club...
-What are you wearing?
He laughed at the absurdity of her asking him what he was wearing but played along anyway if for no other reason than to interact with her. She was just so...adorable.
-Jeans
-Shirt?
-No
-Mmm. Socks?
-No
He grinned, swallowed the remaining liquid in his tumbler and walked towards the bedroom.
-So hot. Have I ever told you how sexy I find your feet?
Well that gave him pause.
-My feet?
-Yes your feet! You have the sexiest feet I have ever seen. But why are you shirtless and barefoot in January in New York?
-Radiant heat and a lot of scotch. Now go to bed, it's after midnight in Seattle.
-…which makes it after three in NY. Go to bed with me.
-I wish I could. I've got a hard on that needs attending to first. What are you wearing, Ms. Steele?
He stripped his jeans off, tossed them into the corner and stroked the hot skin of his ever present erection where Ana was involved. Even the supermodel from Brazil whom he'd contracted with two years ago, the one who liked it rough and had zero limits never turned him on like this. Nobody, in all the years he'd been sexually active had even come close.
A picture followed the text stream, his laugh breaking through the silence.
-You like? She'd typed under the picture of her in her bed, a pair of pink fleece Elmo pajama pants on her legs and his Harvard sweatshirt on her chest. Hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and face scrubbed clean she was more appealing than any woman who had ever worn the tiniest lingerie for him.
-I love, he'd typed back before frowning and deleting that word that seemed so strange to him.
-This just proves that you're so insanely beautiful that you can wear anything. Now let me see what's underneath those very age inappropriate pants.
"Just have a few drinks with them, Grey. You have no idea how insistent my wife can be and frankly, I'd rather face a $20 million dollar loss than have to tell her that you refused."
"Not interested, Mr. Denahi."
The older man shook his head slowly and looked skyward. "I don't get it. They're fucking swimsuit models! They're discreet, they're horny and they're flexible as hell. Ask me how I know," he said with a wink.
"I'm here on business, nothing more," Christian had begun, his palms clenching under the table with frustration before the man interrupted him.
"Business, business, business," Denahi said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You're also a man and what better way to seal our deal than to let me gift you with unrivaled pleasure. I promise you, Grey, you'll not regret it." Sucking in a long toke of his cigar he patted his belly and grinned. "You get off and I get the wife off my back. A win win if you ask me."
Ignoring him Christian clipped his briefcase shut and checked his phone to see if Ana had texted yet. "I'll have Andrea send you the minutes from today's meeting and Ros will be in touch along with my attorney so that we can get this notarized today. My people will file Monday morning."
"You'll be here? We should do breakfast at The Waldorf then, I know Ivana will want to see you before you go."
"No," Christian stated matter of factly, standing to shrug on his suit jacket. "I'll be leaving immediately after my lunch meeting with the mayor tomorrow but my NY office is fully capable of handling any loose ends from this point on."
With a final handshake he made his way to the door with Denahi on his heels.
"Last chance for the girls, Grey."
"We'll be in touch Monday morning," was all Christian said as the door swung open and then shut.
"Dumb fuck," Denahi murmured when he was alone. Reaching into the pocket of his suit jacket he phoned his wife, the sound of feminine laughter in the background enough to have him reaching for the joint he always had stowed away in his desk. "Send them over in an hour. Make sure they know to put their purses with the camera lens out towards the room he takes them to."
"I'm so jealous of your boobs. Are they real?" Mia chirped a little too loudly for Ana's taste especially so early on a Sunday morning.
"What? Of course they're real!"
"Mine aren't," the raven haired beauty said with a pout. "I had to go behind my parents back when I was 20 and recover at Lilly's house for two weeks but once they were in what could they do ya know? God, Elliot and Christian almost killed me which is just perfect seeing as like, all of Elliot's ho's have fake tits."
"What about Christian's? Girls. His other...friends." He'd said he'd never brought anyone else around but...
"Couldn't tell ya. I only met one of them and that was by default. But I'm pretty sure she had fake ones because according to my mom, she was fake from head to toe."
"By default?"
Mia's eyes grew wide as she looked around, realizing the error she'd just made. "Uh, kind of. I didn't actually see them together like you guys are, I just knew her and then found out she and my brother had...a thing. Friend of the family I guess you could say. Until we...until she got...just, someone we knew growing up who turned out to be a snake."
I'll let that drop. For now. Ana thought as she watched Mia squirm in her seat. If she wanted background information, clearly this girl was the one to get it from but if Mia shut down now, then so did the information.
"Let's go spend my brother's money!" she said with a stretch and a lean. "I need some new bikini's to wear for my trip to Cannes next month. I'm intent on showing off the girls," she giggled.
Swirling the cinnamon sprinkled foam of her cappuccino around Ana did her best not to stare but with the shirt Mia had on and the way she was leaning over the table it was all but impossible to look away.
"Well, they look great," she finally said. "We should get moving, our appointment with Carolyn is in two minutes."
Mia laughed and gathered her bag and phone from the table. "Ana. Between myself, my mother and Christian we probably give her close to $80k in commissions alone each year. Trust me, she'll wait as long as we need her to."
"Either way, I don't want to be rude or waste her time." Walking briskly towards the private shopping area Ana gave Sawyer a tight nod and looked around for Kate who was supposed to have been here an hour ago. Her text that she'd gotten caught in traffic was her way of saying she'd hooked up the night before and was running late leaving her lover but an hour had caused a slight anxiety to rise. Life without Kate would be…horribly lonely.
"Ana!"
Turning she saw the stick straight blond hair of her best friend and walked to greet her, the smell of some sort of cologne still on her clothes.
"Sorry," Kate whispered. "He started crying when I got up to leave."
"I was starting to worry. Come on, we're late and I want you to meet Mia."
"We've met," Mia offered shyly, extending her hand with a small smile. Kate assessed the woman standing in front of her, her eyes lighting up with recognition almost instantly.
"Of course! Pat Neelan's party last summer." Kate winked and leaned forward. "How could I forget?"
"Uh, forget what?"
Mia turned and hooked her arm into Ana's, pulling her into the door that magically opened as the trio drew closer.
"I was dating this guy Andrew for a few weeks and he disappeared at the party. I guess Kate was looking for a bathroom and walked into a bedroom where she found him and some slut in bed together."
"It was grotesque. She was hideous, panting like a bitch in heat but I saw the dude's dick. Micro would be complimenting it. And from the looks of things, he knew nothing about the motion of the ocean if you know what I'm saying." Together the girls laughed like old friends.
"Thank God I never found out the hard way on that one. Anyway, Kate had seen me with him earlier and came to find me right away but by the time I made my way upstairs the girl was gone but Andrew was still getting dressed. I never did thank you for that by the way."
"Eh, no worries. Girl code and all that shit. I love sex like everyone else but I don't touch what isn't mine. Men already play us against each other, I just refuse to play the game and frankly, after what I've seen my mom go through, I just can't let men get away with it. Or in his case, let a boy get away with it because Mia, he was no man."
"Ms. Grey, Ms. Steele," Carolyn said with a nod, settling on Kate to await an introduction.
"Katherine Kavanagh," she offered with a smile. "You've dressed my mother for the Academy Awards every year since I can remember."
"Of course! Please tell Margot that I'm looking forward to our appointment this week. I've got the dress picked out and everything. Now," she said with a hand clap, "let's get you all started with a mimosa shall we?"
One hour, countless dresses, pants and shirts later Kate huffed out an exhausted breath and settled herself next to Ana on the couch while Mia tried on bathing suits for her return trip to France.
"Do you know that girl?" she asked, pointing to Leigh, Carolyn's assistant.
"No. I mean, she was here the first time I came in but I don't know her outside of this. Why?"
"Because she's fixated on you and not because you reek of dollar signs today."
"Kate. It's her job to be fixated on her client. She probably thinks Carolyn is going to retire soon and therefore I'll keep her around if she can please me. If there's one thing I've learned about being attached to Christian, it's that nobody sees anything but a step up the ladder when they look at you."
"No," Kate said slowly, that journalistic instinct kicking into high gear. "There's something going on there. I can't tell if she's a lesbian and she wants you or if she's not a lesbian and wants your boyfriend but there is definitely more than business flying out of her eyes."
Assessing the small brunette who moved efficiently about the room collecting discarded items and piling up purchases separately, there did seem to be something amiss there.
"My brother's on his way home, Ana," Mia yelled out, the phone askew against her face. "He said he tried calling your cell but it went straight to voice mail and you know him, blah blah blah he's not happy." She laughed into the phone at the tirade surely raining down on her from the other end.
"Tell him I'll check it now."
Mia waved one hand and resumed her conversation topless, turning from side to side to admire herself.
"OK, I'll tell her. And don't forget dad's birthday dinner on Tuesday. Should I have Andrea call the Mile High or will you take care of it?" A few more nods, one or two 'yes's' and a roll of her eyes and she tossed the phone into her purse after checking the time. "I've got to run, lunch date with a new boy toy. Thank you so much Carolyn."
"Are we delivering to your home as per usual, Ms. Grey or did you want us to ship this to Paris directly?"
"My home is fine if you can get it there by Wednesday."
The minute she walked out Carolyn wheeled in a rack filled with lace, satin and gossamer lingerie that had Kate grinning and leaning back to watch her friends obvious discomfort.
"All right, Ms. Steele. Where would you like to start?"
"Um, I…can I just try these on in private?"
"Of course if that's what you would prefer. Just leave what you'd like on that table there and what you don't want Leigh can gather once you're finished." The two women left, the brunette turning to look at Ana one last time.
"Kate. You too."
"Why? It's not like I haven't seen you naked!"
"Yeah," Ana laughed, slipping the strap of her bra down one shoulder. "But walking in on me in the shower while you're drunk doesn't count. I'll let you know when I'm finished."
Alone at last she fingered through what she knew was very expensive underwear, each void of a tag to indicate the price. Some of the labels were known to her; Agent Provocateur, La Perla, Marika Vera but there was also a slew of designers so high end she'd never even heard of them.
One by one she chose what she thought Christian would like, tossing some of the more…unwearable items into the return pile. A knock on the door had her shuffling into the robe provided to her but before she had a chance to answer Leigh walked in and began to pick up items ready to ship out.
"He doesn't like navy blue," she said icily, holding a beautiful lace garter and pantyhose set by one manicured finger.
"He…ah…what?"
"Mr. Grey. He doesn't like the color navy blue."
Tightening the robe around her body, awareness of just how naked she was, Ana felt a blush cover her entire body.
"How do you know that?"
The salesgirl gave a haughty huff and dropped the blue garter onto the floor. "We all know that."
We? "You and Carolyn?"
Wide brown eyes blinked at her as if she were the dumbest woman on earth, fake sympathy painting her alabaster face. "Of course me and Carolyn. We dress all of his…friends."
Friends. Submissives. Did Leigh know the nature of Christian's relationships with those women?
"Plus," she continued without looking, "it's in the contract." At that her lashes raised and eyes that burned with open jealousy met Ana's. Message sent. Message received.
"Contract." Ana repeated, chastising herself for showing the slightest bit of naitivity to this bitch who pointed one stubby finger at Ana and took a small step forward.
"I have sat back and dressed each and every one of you. I have received notes about preferences, notes about sizes, notes about special orders. I have stood in this room and seen woman after woman, all brown haired, all light skinned, all small boned come and go and I have sucked it up even when it killed me. I have listened to their brainless chatter, I have listened to them go on about how they were hoping their 'boyfriend' would appreciate this outfit or that pair of panties. I have hated them all because they were with him. They had his time. They had his dick and his mouth that is capable of such wicked things. And I kept my own mouth shut just so I could have some small part in his life still. Some crumbs of information dropped on the floor in this fitting room about what was going on in his private life."
"You know how many of us there have been? Do you know how many of us have walked through that sterile apartment and decorated it in our heads pretending like one day we'd be asked to live there as his girlfriend? How many of us have been as perfect as possible in the vain hope that he'd choose us. Do you know how many times I asked him to take me out to dinner? To a movie? For a god damned coffee? But you," she hissed, taking another step forward, "you he parades in public like some preening peacock."
Ana waited for her to strike out, hands at her side, mouth pressed tightly shut. Stunned would be the word. Stunned into silence but also hungry for any information this woman would give.
"I have an MBA in micro-economics but I dress his whores for him. This," she said, waving her hands up and down her body, "is what he reduces you to once he's done with you. And he will be done with you despite what you think."
"I'm not his submissive," Ana finally said gently, hoping her tone would calm the raging storm she saw in front of her. "I'm his girlfriend."
"Ha!" Leigh laughed, head back and mouth open wide. "That is hilarious. You are nothing more than a shadow that he hides behind. Did you read the papers before he started showing you off? Hmm? Did you know that his popularity had tanked due to his family unfriendly status? You know how hard it is to close business deals when people don't want to work with you because you show no empathy, no sympathy, no human emotion? Ever! No wife, no girlfriend, hell, the man had no dates! You're nothing more than a PR stunt."
Flipping through the few things she'd read about Christian when they first got together she found it impossible to recall anything of the sort but she hadn't read much to be honest and even if that had been true, the Christian she knew wouldn't care about his popularity.
"Think about it you stupid girl. You're not the prettiest girl he's had. You don't have the nicest body or the biggest tits. You're not the smartest or the most successful. You are no different than me or anyone else who subbed for him. You look just like us, you fuck just like us and now," she said with a wave of her hand, "he's dressed you just like us."
Embarrassed fury rose up in Ana's chest like a crescendo until her mouth opened along with her hands which reached down for the navy blue garter.
"I am nothing like you you classless throwaway. I will wear this exact set for him tonight. In fact," she took a full step forward, reveling in the small sway of Leigh's legs, "I will have this on and will be waiting in his bed, that's right, his bed in his bedroom where we fuck. And I will bet your job that he'll like everything he sees right down to the navy blue lace he'll tear off from between my legs before he makes love to me. Now, get the hell out of my way."
It had taken less than thirty seconds for Carolyn to figure out that something had gone terribly wrong and less than a minute to get the gist from Kate who'd caught the last minute of their confrontation. Before Ana had buttoned her jeans Leigh had been fired and forcibly removed from the store.
Her phone rang before she'd even gotten into the backseat of the car Sawyer had driven her in.
"What the hell is going on?" Christian barked from 30 thousand feet in the air. "Carolyn just called Andrea and told her there was an altercation at the store and assured her that the offending assistant had been fired. What the hell is she talking about, Anastasia and why am I hearing it from Andrea and not you?"
Next to her Kate grasped her hand and kissed her cheek, a silent wave goodbye and a promise to call later to check in. Ana took the few seconds to compose herself; six, seven, eight deep breaths finally settling her frayed nerves and shaking hands.
"Her assistant's name is Leigh." She waited, one recently manicured nail tapping on the window as Sawyer navigated his way through Seattle.
"So?"
"Leigh. Short, brunette, brown eyes, small tits, bad attitude? Leigh."
Silence. Nothing for a good thirty seconds, all of which had her battling the urge to scream. Being confronted by one of his ex-subs wasn't so much the issue but the way in which had been done, the way in which that bitch had so clearly painted her version of reality had Ana pissed in a way that demanded an outlet.
"Hello?" she sing-songed into the phone, frustration bubbling at the surface of her usually calm attitude.
"I am not your brother or your cousin or your friend. Do not speak to me like that." His voice was low, that Dominant growl that turned her on so easily vibrating over thousands of miles but this time, it just hurt. A small puff of air left her lungs in a rush, his reaction to that instantaneous. "I can see that this interaction upset you and I have a better understanding as to what your issue is now. I will ensure that you don't have any future dealings with Ms. Shea."
Leigh Shea. Great, now I have her full name. Dumbass.
"Did you know that she worked there?"
"I don't keep track of anyone no longer in my life. Taylor has a running security log on them and I vaguely remember being told that she'd been hired at Nieman's but I had no idea she would be interacting with you."
"But you knew she worked at Nieman's and you still sent me there?"
"Ana, I don't give two flying fucks about her or any other woman I've been with. I have no interest in keeping track of them and I certainly have no interest in their day to day jobs. That being said, this is a security problem for me because now I know she's been interacting with my sister and mother and now my girlfriend."
Girlfriend. My girlfriend. Those two little words may as well have been a water hose to Ana's burning building because immediately the rage focused itself on Leigh and Leigh alone.
"If it makes you feel any better she's violated her NDA just by breathing my name so Taylor will be paying her a visit very early tomorrow morning."
"Will he be reminding her that we're a couple and that I'm not like her?"
Christian chuckled into the phone and took the freshly printed file from Taylor. "Yes, he will."
"Good," Ana said with a grunt of satisfaction. "I'm going to have Sawyer bring me home first so I can shower that vile woman off of my skin. Any more places I need to be leery about going to now?"
He scanned the page with the updated employment information for his ex-sub on it and saw that she'd been hired as a sales girl in the cosmetics department five years ago but had quickly been given a promotion thought the exact nature wasn't listed.
"This is a major fuck up," he growled at Taylor, pointing to the open ended information.
"We'll update everyone this week, Sir. My guess is she ensured that her new position was kept off of her transcripts so that you weren't made aware."
"Christian?"
"I'm here, just dealing with the security end of this whole thing. I will do my best to ensure that you won't be running into any more women so long as I can control it." He glared at Taylor who took the paper and walked to the jet's office to start the task of updating each file. "I didn't take you for the jealous type, Ms. Steele. I have to admit I kind of like it."
God that low timbre of his voice just made her crazy inside. Subconsciously she checked the time. Four more hours and he'd be home and hopefully inside of her.
"I'm not the jealous type, Mr. Grey but seeing her wouldn't have been my first choice. What I reacted to is what she said to me and how she said it."
More silence. Do I want to know the details? He asked himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. Having the swimsuit sisters tossed out last night had been bad enough drama to last him for the next six months. He'd heard about the entire ordeal from Taylor who had to convince the very confused doorman that no, in fact Mr. Grey did not want these supermodels to come up to his penthouse and no, in fact, he did not want them even in the building thankyouverymuch. It was times like that he'd have to remember when he ripped him a new one for letting Leigh Shea work so closely with Carolyn.
"We'll talk about the details when I get home, Anastasia." Maybe by then you won't want to repeat it. "Four hours and you and I will sit down and go over what was said and what was done. In the meantime, go home and bang on your piano like I know you're itching to do and then meet me in my bed where I can bang any remaining hostility out of you myself."
And that is exactly what she did. For two hours she practiced and perfected Alicia Key's 'A Woman's Worth' until Kate threw a pillow at her and begged her to stop.
"As much as I love your voice and the way you play, I can't, just can't hear it again. Go do what the rest of us do when we're jealous. Get yourself super sexy and fuck his brains out. Just please," she draped herself over the side of the couch and covered her eyes dramatically with her arm. "Stop. Playing."
"Welcome home, Mr. Grey," she purred from the center of his bed, legs clad in navy blue stockings, hips draped with navy blue lace, breasts barely covered with navy blue gossamer.
He dropped his suit coat on the floor and kicked the door shut behind him, his tie, shirt and shoes making a very expensive trail to the bed.
"You look good, Ana," he said seductively as he undressed. "Did you get that today?"
"Yes," she said coyly, biting one nail and running the tips of her fingers over the swell of her cleavage.
"I like it. A lot." He swallowed thickly, the reins of self control slipping out of his fingers each time she brushed those dark nails over that creamy skin.
"Do you like the color?" Her back arched, that shiny manicure highlighting the blue that so perfectly offset the milky color of her flat stomach.
"Love it." He did. He hadn't until this minute but yeah, navy was quickly becoming a favorite of his. "Blue is one of my favorite colors after pink."
"Pink?" she questioned, her mouth twisting with confused disbelief. Christian Grey liked pink?
"Yes, pink," he repeated, naked and on all fours as he went to her and bent his head to kiss those lips he'd dreamt about for two nights now. "The exact shade of these lips," his tongue brushed against her mouth, "and these nipples," and then laved at the tiny points covered in thin fabric. "But this shade," he said as his fingers pulled her panties aside and parted her, "is my favorite shade of pink."
"Oh my God..." It took no time at all for her to arch off the bed and cry out and even less time for him to toss her now torn panties to the floor and sheath himself in her heat.
"Yes," he breathed out once he found his rhythm. When she dug those nails into his biceps and came around him once more he shot inside of her with a grunt, the weight of the world sloughing off his shoulders for a few blissful seconds.
Moments later, still encased in the one place in the world he felt like he belonged, he raised his head and grazed his nose against hers, the move so tender it had her heart skipping. "Of all the colors in the world though, it's the blue of your eyes that I love the most."