Christian
I watch Ana closely as she looks around the house the realtor is showing us. She doesn't like it, that much I can tell. To be honest, I like the property, but I would just knock the house down and start from scratch.
"Excuse me, Miss Kelley, I know the question I am going to ask you sounds odd, but did someone die in here?" Ana asks and I stare at her in surprise. Why would she want to know that?
"Actually, there was a couple that was murdered in here, but that was years ago." Miss Kelley explains.
"Well, that explains a lot; just how many owners did the house have since then?" She asks and I give up, I have no idea what is going on.
"I think ten in the last fifteen years."
"Okay, we'll meet you at the next property; this is not what we are looking for. Let's go, Christian." With that, she drags me out of the house.
"What was that Ana?"
"I'll tell you, but you have to promise me that you won't laugh at me." She murmurs a little embarrassed.
"Okay, I won't."
"When I was six or seven I've spent the summer at my Grandma's house. She had just moved and it was the first time I spent time at her new place. The moment I stepped into the house, it gave me the chills. It wasn't old or anything, but it had this strange vibe to it. I didn't like it there, at night I always felt like someone was in the room with me and the same summer I had this imaginary friend William, a boy my age. Turns out that years ago a family had lived in the house; the father lost his job, started to drink too much and would fight with his wife. To make a long story short, he suffocated both his wife and son... oh and his son was a six-year-old boy by the name William. I got the same weird feeling when we got into this house; no way I am living there." She says and I try my hardest not to laugh.
"You believe in ghosts?"
"I believe that when something terrible happens at a place or someone dies unexpectedly something stays at the place. Oh whatever... go on laugh at my, but if you move into this house, I'll get my own place." She pouts and I kiss her.
"I didn't exactly like the place either, so I guess we just have to wait until we find the perfect home for us. Though it would make things easier if you would give me some hints what you would like."
"I don't know, that's the thing, I don't have a clear picture of what I want, but I know it when I see it. Just like I knew I wanted you the first time laid eyes on you, Mr. Grey."
I want to answer, but my phone rings and I scowl. "Grey!" I snap.
"What crawled up your ass and died, Grey?" I hear Cross's voice and I take a deep breath. He is Ana's brother and Mia's boyfriend, be nice, Grey, I tell myself.
"Sorry, just bad timing, so is everything arranged?"
"Is Ana with you?"
"Yes."
"Okay, everything is arranged, my jet will arrive around 10:30 a.m. at Sea-Tac tomorrow."
"Perfect, thanks for helping me out."
"Your welcome. Listen, Mia is a little bored and I thought I'd take her to Vegas next weekend. Care to join us?"
"I have to check my schedule, but I think I can make it work." I look at Ana, but she is already in the car motioning for me to hurry up.
"Can you bring your sister and maybe some of Ana's friends? I want to surprise her."
"Sure, is Arnaldo allowed to join or will you be pissed the entire weekend if he shows up."
Well fuck! "Is he single?"
"Nope, hooking up with some chick I haven't met yet for a couple of weeks."
"Get him to bring her too and it is fine with me."
"Great, I let you know the details." He says and hangs up. Man, I'm nervous about tomorrow, but I know Ana will be over the moon, for me it will be more like a test run. If I can make this work, then I will talk to Ana again about something I know she really wants. Fuck, I can't believe I am even considering this, but to my own surprise, I want this, but Ana needs to be on board.
"Christian, come on, I don't want to be here any longer, get in the car or I'll leave you here." Ana snaps and I get into the car.
"Careful, Miss Steele, my palms still start twitching you know that?" I ask and she smirks.
"And I believe that I have proven to you on several occasions over the past six weeks that I do like a good spanking... or flogging for that matter." She winks at me and I drive over to the next house we are going to look at today.
I like it right away, it has a very long driveway up to the main house and the many trees on the property make it impossible to even see the house from the road.
"Oh my gosh, have you seen the meadow? This is it, Christian. I want to live here." Ana seems suddenly completely excited and I smile at her.
"What if you get your creepy feeling again inside, baby?" I tease and she pokes her tongue out at me.
"Is that an invitation?"
"Maybe, but Miss Kelley is right behind us, so I guess we have to wait. Oh and by the way, the room in the tower is mine; it's going to be my study." She tells me and is out of the car the moment I stop it. I get out too and we wait for Miss Kelley to let us in.
"Can we look at the room in the tower first, Miss Kelley?" Ana asks and so we head upstairs and I can tell that Ana is already decorating the room in her mind, but she is trying to play it cool.
The house has ten bedrooms, a huge living room, and another room that would be perfect as my study. There is a room that would be ideal as the security office, the kitchen is enormous and it even has an indoor pool in the basement.
"We could have a gym over there." Ana says and points to the empty room next to the indoor pool.
"There is also a movie theatre in the basement." Miss Kelley lets us know and Ana seems excited when she sees it. I don't like to watch movies, but I have learned in the last six weeks that watching a movie is also a great opportunity to make out.
We continue the tour of the house and find out that there is a guesthouse, which could become the new home for Taylor and Gail. Either the rest of the security can have the apartment over the boathouse or we can build apartments over the garage for them. I don't want them to live in the house with us, so this would be the perfect solution.
After we have seen everything, Miss Kelley gives us a moment to talk.
"I love this house, Christian. What do you think?"
"I think we have found our home, baby."
"Really, wait, do you really like the house or do you just say it because of me?"
"Ana, I love this house, it's perfect."
"Great, so what do you think, how much is the house?"
"I believe it was listed for 10.4 million dollar."
"Wow, that's a lot, okay do I put half of it into your account or do we both pay half of it to the owner directly?" She asks and my jaw nearly hits the floor. She can't be serious.
"Ana, you are not going to pay for our home."
"But..."
"No, I mean it. This is not up for negotiations. I am the man and I will pay for our home, end of discussion."
"Christian that's insane. We will live here together, so why would you be the one to pay for it alone?" She asks and I have to count to ten.
"Baby, the day I'll allow you to pay for our home is the same day you can put a box on your nightstand to keep my dick and balls in it."
"But I have the money." She insists.
"Look Ana, you know that I want to take care of you, this need will never go away. I don't want us to fight over this, but I am not going to let you pay for this house."
She stares at me for a while and sighs. "Fine, but if you pay for the house I will pay for our next vacation."
Compromise Grey! "Fine, anything you have in mind?"
"Yes, I want to go to Switzerland or Austria in the winter so we can go snowboarding."
"Snowboarding?" I ask her alarmed and she laughs.
"Yes, and don't worry I'm really good on a snowboard, which is actually pretty funny because I suck at skiing."
Oh damn, I will probably die of a heart attack when I have to watch her on a snowboard, but this is the new Ana and as I have learned she likes adventures. She has told me all about the skydive she took on her 24th birthday, that she went diving with sharks and how fucking Cross taught her how to ride a motorcycle.
"Come on, it will be fun."
"Good, I agree, but before we go I will take you to Aspen for a weekend so you can show me that you are really as good on a snowboard as you claim to be."
"Great."
The next day - Ana
"To Grey House Ma'am?" Sawyer asks and I nod. It's only eleven in the morning and I am already exhausted. I am slowly starting to get in touch with some organizations and the authorities to build a Safe Haven here on the West Coast, but I had no idea it would be this hard to get some of the charities here in Seattle to work with me. So far, Coping Together and another charity are on board, but we need at least one more to have the finances to start. So, I have spent the last two hours at a ladies brunch and had to learn that the only reason I was invited is that I am Christian's girlfriend.
Urgh, I feel dirty after some of the questions I was asked and those women had no boundaries at all. One asked me right away, if I was really Christian's girlfriend or if he just hired me to play the part, because she believes that he is gay. I was so tempted to really let her have it, but I have learned how to deal with inappropriate questions and so I just excused myself and went the ladies room.
I wanted to go back to Escala, but Christian called me and asked me to come over to Grey House, because there is something we need to discuss. I hope it is nothing bad, shit maybe something went wrong and we won't get the house.
Once I am at Grey House, I take the elevator to the 20th floor and Christian's assistant Andrea tells me to go through to his office. Inside I find Christian standing beside his office chair, which is facing the window.
"Hey baby, I thought we could have lunch together." He says, but I can tell by the way he is smiling at me that he is up to something.
"Okay, and what are you hiding?" I ask and when he moves the chair around I mouth drops open.
"Sam!" I squeal and squad down just in time to catch Sam who runs straight into my open arms.
"Hi baby boy, what are you doing here?" I ask even though I know he won't answer.
"I know how much you missed him and he misses you, too. So, I arranged for him to come to Seattle. Your brother helped me with it."
"Wait did he fly alone?"
"No, your friend Nina flew to Seattle with him, she will join us for dinner at Escala."
"Thank you." Is all I get out at the moment, because I am so happy to see Sam, I'm about to cry, but Sam wouldn't understand that I am crying because I'm happy.
"You're very welcome, now before we leave I thought we could have an early lunch here."
"Sure where are we going?" I ask.
"You've told me that Sam's first visit to the zoo didn't go well, so I thought we would go to Woodland Park, I had Taylor get a map for me and Sam already showed me which animals he wants to see."
"Really, that's great. Are you excited to go to the zoo, Sam?" I ask and he gives me a big smile, but then starts to point at his belly.
"What is he doing, Ana?"
"He is hungry; we've taught him so easy things to communicate. We are going to have lunch in a couple of minutes, Sam okay?"
He nods again and starts to point at his crotch. "Where's the bathroom, Christian?"
"The door over there. Wait, isn't he wearing diapers?"
"He's three years old, Christian. He only needs pull ups at night to avoid accidents." I carry Sam to the bathroom and hold him so he won't fall into the toilet. While he is peeing, I have to bite my lip so I won't, because Sam always moves his leg and shoulders as if he is dancing when he is on the toilet.
After we are back in Christian's office, we all sit down on the floor and have lunch picnic style in his office.
"I thought eating here was a safer choice than going to a restaurant where he has to wait for his food while other people around him are already eating."
"Yes, that was a very good idea, taking him to restaurants has to wait some more." I murmur and watch Sam who still eats his food as fast as he can. The staff at Safe Haven has tried to get him to slow down so often, but it always ended in him throwing a huge temper tantrum, so it's small steps and occasionally a couple of steps back with him.
"Don't worry about his eating habits, Ana. It took my parents nearly a year until I wouldn't eat like a caveman. When he sees food he goes into survival mode, it will get better with time." Christian says and it makes me sad to think that many years ago, Christian was just like Sam, but it also gives me hope. Even with all his issues and the horrors of his early childhood, he didn't end up like his birth mother. So, there is definitely hope for Sam to have a happy normal life.
The moment we arrive at Woodland Park Sam is so excited I have to remind him that he is not allowed to let go of my hand at least ten times. I think I would have a heart attack if he would get lost here, but again Christian finds a quick solution by having Sam sitting on his shoulders while we look at the different animals.
"Do you want to pet a penguin, Sam?" Christian asks and Sam nods super excited while I look at Christian in surprise.
"I called the zoo in advance and asked if Sam could have a look behind the scenes, they told me that they sometimes allow kids to pet some of their penguins. We have to go over there."
I follow Christian who is still carrying Sam on his shoulders and I secretly snap a picture of them. It's so cute and I love how much at ease they are with each other. Usually Sam doesn't like men, but somehow Christian has managed to win him over in a heartbeat.
We meet a young woman from the zoo staff and she leads us into a building where we meet Tom, who takes care of the penguins and when he opens a door I have to stop myself from squealing because there is a grown up penguin and behind it walks the cutest fluffy little baby penguin.
Sam starts to squirm and Christian puts him to his feet. "You have to be very gentle when you pet the penguins, okay Sam?" Christian tells him and Sam nods in agreement. He comes over to me because I am a bit closer to the penguins and I bend down so I am on Sam's level ready to interfere if this goes wrong.
Suddenly the little penguin looks at us spreads his flippers and starts to wobble towards us.
"Awww, look at him, Sam isn't the little penguin cute." I can't help it by now I am just as excited as Sam and we both sit on the floor and pet the baby penguin, after a while the bigger penguin joins the little one and Sam is allowed to feed the penguin with fish. I turn around to see if Christian wants to pet the penguins too, but he stands as far away from them as he can and takes pictures of Sam and me.
"Come Christian, you have to pet them too."
"No thanks, I'm good here." He answers almost too quickly and I have a feeling he is a little afraid of them which makes me giggle.
"Why didn't you pet the penguins, they were so cute." I ask when we are on our way to out of the animal house.
"I'm not really good with animals and I can do without getting bitten by a penguin. So, I think we should leave now, your friend will be at Escala in an hour."
When we had towards the exit; Sam sees a beautiful merry go round near the exit and starts to point at it.
"You want to take a ride, Sam?" I ask him and he nods, so we head over buy the tickets and I get on one of the horses with Sam.
"Do you like this, Sam?" I ask him when the ride starts and he gives me a huge smile. I miss the little guy so much that getting him here to spend the weekend with us was the best surprise Christian could have done for me. It's not like I am not missing the other kids too, but Sam has a special place in my heart.
When we reach the car Sam is sleeping with his head on my shoulder and I place him carefully in his car seat so he won't wake up.
"Thank you, Christian. I know that it wasn't easy to get the permission to bring Sam here. It really means a lot to me."
"I know, baby and he misses you too, we will talk about this after the weekend." He says and I frown. Is he up to something?
"Relax; it's nothing bad, I promise." He says and together we look at Sam, who is still sleeping peacefully in his car seat...
Part II of their weekend with Sam will be next... then there will be two or three chapters about their weekend in Vegas, which will have a lot of fun and some surprises...