It's been a week and today, we are headed back home. I miss this place already. The week has been filled with so many sexual shenanigans and orgasms. It was freeing to spend the entire week naked and alone with my extremely talented husband. We talked a lot as well and learned even more about each other than we'd already learned over the last 3 years. I am physically drained, even though he made sure that I got plenty of rest. He gets a new bikini out of a small dresser and he helps me to put it on. He gets out some swim trunks and puts them on himself. He wraps his arms around me and kisses me sweetly. "Are you ready to get home, Mrs. Grey?"

"I don't want to leave here, but I'm anxious to get back to our children. Will we ever come back here?"

He smirks. "We own this entire island, so yes. We will be back." I smile widely. I had no idea that he bought this island for us.

I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him again. "Then let's get home to our children, Mr. Grey."

"Let's do." He kisses me sweetly one more time before walking us back down to the beach. "Are you ready to swim again, Mrs. Grey?"

"I am. Are we racing again?"

He shakes his head. "No. I wore you out this week. We will just swim out together." I nod.

"Let's do it, then."

We get out into the water and swim back to the seaplane. He helps me inside and gets in himself. He helps me to put my clothes that are still waiting here for me, back on. He puts his clothes on and well and then he buckles us in and we fly back to Fiji. Whenever we arrive, we meet Taylor and Gail at the jet. "Welcome back, Mr. and Mrs. Grey. I hope you enjoyed yourselves. I know that we did." Taylor says.

Christian looks down at me. "We most certainly had the time of our lives." He leans down and kisses me sweetly. "Let's head home. We miss our kids."

"Let's do, sir." Taylor responds. We all board the jet and, as usual, my husband buckles me in and we get some wine to drink on the way home. On the way, we spend most of our time in the on board bedroom. We make love a few times, but sleep most of the way. This has been an exhausting, but absolutely phenomenal week.

Whenever we arrive home, the kids are overly excited to see us. After spending the rest of the day with them, we put them to bed and go to bed ourselves. My husband makes love to me one more time before we fall asleep, sated, in one another's arms.

Over the last 3 months, we have fallen back into our normal routines and life has been going pretty great. Teddy is now 9 months old and about a month ago, he said his first word. It was 'Dada,' the same as Phoebe. We were elated. Phoebe is starting to talk more clearly and saying small sentences. Her and both of the other kids are doing great and developing just as they should.

Christian went back to work 3 days after we returned and I've been working at home again. I spend most of my time with the children, though.

I was contacted yesterday by the New York GP office and apparently they are having some problems that they need my help with. I'm going to be heading there tomorrow. Unfortunately, my husband cannot make it because he is right in the middle of closing a very big deal. He is going to keep the kids in Seattle since Liam still has school. I hate to go to New York all alone, but work calls and I must answer. It's the same thing Christian always says about his job.

Christian insisted that I take the GEH jet and I agreed. It would be much easier and I can sleep on the way there and back. Gibson will be accompanying me.

Once Christian gets home from work, we spend the remainder of the day as a family. Once the kids are down for the night, he takes me to bed and we love one another for several hours until we succumb to sleep in one another's arms.

I just touched down in New York and our hired car is waiting to pick up Gibson and I. They drive us out to the house so we can use our own vehicle to go to Crossfire. Whenever we arrive at the house, I go up to my bedroom and change into a business suit. I don't need to go there dressed in a t-shirt and blue jeans.

Once I'm ready, Gibson drives me up to Crossfire. Whenever we arrive, I head straight up to GP. I go to my COO to find out what the problem is. He informs me about there being breaches in our cyber security, occasionally locking them out of files and apparently, this time, someone took MY personal files. What the fuck? I tell him that I will have cyber security come back in and check out our systems.

I go to my office to make the call and I find a dozen of fresh red roses sitting on my desk. My loving husband must have had them delivered for me. I pick a rose up out of the vase and put it up to my nose and smell it's refreshing fragrance while I grab the card to see what it says. I put the rose back in the vase and I read the card.

I'd like to invite you to dinner to apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I promise to behave. Come see me and I will give you details.

Gideon Cross

What the fuck? How did he know that I'd be here? Ugh! That infuriating man. I put the card down and I make the phone call. They come in and go through our systems and after a couple of hours, they say that it was breached, but that they have everything under control and will continue to look into where the hack came from.

I sit back down at my desk after they leave and I think about this dinner invitation. I am fully secure in my marriage and he no longer poses a threat to my relationship, so a dinner together should be harmless. I have to call my husband first to see what he thinks.

I dial his number and he answers almost immediately. "Grey."

"Hello, Mr. Grey. Do you have a minute?"

"Don't you know by now that I always have all the time in the world for my wife?"

I smile. "Of course. I have to talk to you about something."

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes, there was a security breach that they are working on. I need to talk to you about something else, though. I got an invitation on my desk from Mr. Cross, inviting me out to dinner to make up for his atrocious behavior. Do you think that I should go?"

He gets quiet for a little bit. "How do you feel about it? Do you feel as if you would be safe from any more advances from him?"

"I'm fully confident that I only want only my husband now, so yes. I know that even if he tries something, he won't succeed. I will put a stop to it immediately and leave."

"In that case, I trust you and I don't mind if you do go, but I'd like you to contact me afterwards and let me know how it goes and if I need to come kick Cross's ass."

"Okay. I just wanted to see where you stood. I didn't want to go without seeing what you think because I don't need you to find out some other way."

"Thank you for letting me know, baby. Try to enjoy yourself, regardless. I will be waiting for your call later."

"Okay. I love you, Christian."

"I love you too, Ana."

I hang up and I get up and walk out to the elevator after telling them that I'll be back in tomorrow and to let me know immediately if anything else arises. They agree to let me know. I take the elevator up to his floor and once I get off, I'm greeted by Scott.

"It's nice to see you again, Mrs. Cross. Have a seat and I will notify Mr. Cross of your arrival."

"Thank you, Scott."

I have a seat in the waiting room and only a few minutes later Scott approaches me. "Mr. Cross will see you now." I nod and he waves for me to go ahead to Gideon's office.

I approach the doors and knock lightly before opening it. I walk in and find him standing there in a crisp suit. "Mrs. Grey."

"Mr. Cross." I reply. "How did you know that I was coming to GP today? Those roses were fresh so they had to have been placed there quite recently."

He smiles. "I have been sending fresh ones down daily for months for whenever you finally came in. I apologize."

"Well, they are very beautiful anyways, so thank you." He nods.

"May I hug you, Mrs. Grey?"

What's the harm? "You may." I reply.

He approaches me and wraps his arms around me in a warm embrace. He smells my hair, which I find odd, so I pull out of the hug. "Please, have a seat." He says, pointing to his couch. I reluctantly go and have a seat. He comes and sits on the couch as well, maintaining a safe distance between us.

"So, what did you need to discuss, Mr. Cross?" I ask, trying to cut straight to the point.

"As I said on the card, I'd like to take you out tonight for dinner."

I nod. "When and where?" He smirks at me.

"I have a restaurant downtown that I'd like to take you to. They have an exemplary cook and you should love it."

"What time then?"

"Does 6 work for you?"

I nod. "I suppose that I can make that work."

He smiles. "Excellent. Where should I pick you up?"

I furrow my brow. "My security will be bringing me. Just give me the address and I will meet you there."

He looks discouraged for a moment. "Okay. Let me write it down really quick."

I nod and he gets up and walks to his desk and sits down and writes something down. He gets up and comes back to me, handing me the paper with the address on it. "I will see you there at 6, Mrs. Grey."

"You will. You look like you're doing good, Mr. Cross. I'm glad you seem to be doing well."

He smiles. "Thank you." I get up and he walks me to the door. He opens it for me. "See you soon."

I nod and walk out and to the elevator. I hand the paper to Gibson and we take the elevator down to the lobby and head out to the SUV. After he lets me in, he gets in and drives us home. Whenever we arrive, I head straight up to my room and take a quick bath before getting into a blue cocktail dress that isn't too sexy or provocative looking and I go back downstairs and relax on the couch with some wine.

It will be 6 in an hour so I sit and drink until it's 5:45 and have Gibson take me to the address on the paper. Whenever we arrive, it looks like a luxurious establishment. Gibson lets me out and walks me inside and I look around the dim lighted restaurant and I see Gideon in the distance.

Gibson is seated close to the door and I go over to where Gideon is standing. He gives me a kiss on the cheek before encouraging me to have a seat across the table from him. He sits down himself. "You look stunning tonight, Anastasia."

I nod. "Thank you. You don't look bad yourself." He smiles confidently back at me.

The waitress comes around and takes our orders. She brings us our wine pretty quickly. I take a drink of my wine and I look over at Gideon, who is staring at me. He puts his wine glass down just before he starts talking. "First of all, I would like to apologize to you. I'm sorry for my advances. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I just thought that you felt the same towards me. I guess that I was wrong."

I nod. "Apology accepted." He smiles again.

"So, how have you been? I hadn't seen or heard from you in a while, so I assume that you moved back to Seattle."

"I did. I've been great. My children and husband are great. How have you been?"

He sighs as he looks down at his wine glass. "I have been better, but I've been good for the most part."

"That's good. I'm glad to hear it." I give him a soft smile and he returns one himself.

"I promised you whenever we first met to tell you about myself if you came out to dinner with me, so I'm guessing the time has come to keep that promise."

I smile. "You don't have to."

"I want to. I'd like to, at the very least, be your friend at some point. In order for that to happen, I need to keep my promise."

I nod.

"My father passed away unexpectedly whenever I was young. Because of that, I needed therapy to attempt to get past it. I had a male therapist and he seemed helpful at first, but the way that he would touch my knee made me uncomfortable. I expressed this discomfort to my mother and she told me that it's nothing and that I needed to continue my therapy."

I nod. He takes another drink of his wine. "I continued going, thinking that it was all in my head, because my mother had reassured me that it was nothing. After a few more sessions, he started to rub my leg and he would touch me between my legs. I kept my mouth shut, because he said that if I told anyone that they would never believe me. His behavior progressed and within months, he ended up holding me down and raping me." He stops and clears his throat before taking another drink of his wine.

I nod again, putting my hand on his forearm, encouraging him to continue while attempting to comfort him. I hate that someone could treat a child that way.

"This continued and the attacks became harsher as time went on. I, eventually, went back to my mother and told her what was happening with tears in my eyes. She just scoffed and told me that my therapist would never do such a thing and that I need to stop coming up with outrageous stories in my head."

I gasp. "That's awful, Gideon. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

He nods. "It only got worse after that. I never tried to tell my mother again. This continued until he had a heart attack and died a year later. I was so relieved. I hate that someone's death would make me so happy, but after what he did to me, I couldn't help it."

The waitress comes back and I take my hand off of Gideon's arm and she sets our plates in front of us.

We begin eating. "I will continue after we eat." I nod.

We eat and I change the subject and we talked about other stuff casually throughout our meal. Once we're done eating, the waitress returns, collecting our dishes. She brings us another bottle of wine.

Gideon refills our glasses and goes back to talking. "After that, I began having nightmares. My mother insisted that I go to another therapist, but I was just filled with rage towards her for not believing me, so I refused to see another therapist. After months of trying to convince me to take on another therapist, she finally relented and stopped trying. As soon as I was of age, I moved out and I haven't spoken to my mother since. I refuse to talk to her. I have a little sister named Ireland. She's the only one from my so-called family that I will speak to. She's nothing like my mother. She's always been the light of my life.

I began just having one-night stands with women. I usually kicked them out afterwards because of my nightmares, but one night, I passed out and the woman in bed with me fell asleep as well. I woke up to her slapping me and I realized that I was towering over her and she was sobbing. I rolled off the top of her immediately. I asked her if she was okay and she screamed at me as she quickly climbed out of bed, covering herself with a sheet and she told me that I raped her and that she hated me."

I gasp.

"It was my nightmare, Anastasia. I finally went and found myself a therapist and told him about what had happened to me when I was young and the nightmares. Eventually, I told him about the incident with the woman. He pointed out to me that it's possible that I was seeking my revenge on my abuser subconsciously and that it was him that I thought I was raping that night. Not her. I had a hard time accepting this, but after about a month, he had me convinced. He put me on some medicine to help to ward off the nightmares and whenever I was finally free of them, I went back to one night stands, but this time, I would only fuck them in a hotel and I'd immediately get out of bed and get dressed before leaving. I'd been living my life like that for the last several years."

I'm crying quietly by the end of this so he places his hand on mine. "I'm so sorry that happened to you, Gideon. That's terrible."

"Shh, don't cry. It's in the past and you have absolutely nothing to apologize for because you clearly weren't the one that's at fault."

I nod. "Okay." I wipe away my tears with my napkin. "I need to use the ladies' room to freshen up. I will be back shortly.

"I'll be here waiting." He says with a smile. I get up and go to the ladies' room. I freshen up and collect myself. While I'm standing there, I check my phone really quick to see if there's anything from the office. There's nothing. I set the phone down on the counter and that's when I hear the door to the bathroom close and the lock click. I look over and see Gideon standing there.

"Why are you in here, Gideon?" I ask.

"I just wanted to make sure that you're okay. You seemed quite distraught after I told my story."

I shake my head. "I'm fine. I just hate that anyone could do that to a child and, as a mother myself, how I would always believe my child if they'd tell me something like that. It's horrible."

He approaches me and wraps his arms around me to comfort me. I put my arms around him as well to comfort him. We stand there like this for a little bit. I eventually pull back from the hug and look up at him. "How are you? It couldn't have been easy for you to divulge all of that information to me."

"I'm okay. You're the only person, other than my therapist, that I trusted enough to tell that to."

I nod. He puts his hands softly on the sides of my face as tears start to fall again. He wipes away my tears with his thumbs like Christian always does. He leans down and kisses me sensually and I reciprocate. I just want to make him feel better. Whenever I realize what's going on, I pull back "Gideon, I can't. I told you before that I'm happily married. I can't be kissing other men. My husband deserves better than that."

He sighs. "You're right. I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to help you feel better." I nod.

"Well, it can't happen again." I say and I turn back towards the mirror to clean up my face again. He comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. He bends down and brushes my hair to the side and kisses my neck. Fuckkkkk! My hormones begin to stir. I close my eyes and try to shake it off. He still stands there behind me, laying kisses on my neck. I eventually shake out of my daze whenever he touches my legs lightly and begins to move them up my skirt. I push him back and turn around. "You can't be doing that, Gideon. You promised to behave and you told me that you wouldn't try anything if I came out to dinner with you. You need to leave so I can finish getting freshened up."

He nods with a pained expression on his face. He backs up and begins to walk away. I stare at him, feeling terrible that I was so curt with him. Once he leaves the bathroom, I shake it off and turn around and finish getting myself freshened up. I grab my phone and realize that my screen is on. I pick it up to find that my husband had been on the phone for 5 minutes. How is that possible. It shows that I dialed his number. What the fuck?

I have to call him as soon as I get home. I wonder what he heard. I slide the phone back into my handbag and I take a deep breath to center myself and walk back out to the table. I should probably leave now, but I feel bad that he's in so much pain right now from reliving his horrible past.

I decide to sit with him just a little longer. I go back to our table and find him looking out of the window with a sad expression. My heart is broken for this broken man. I sit back in my seat. He looks at me and half smiles. "I'm sorry, Anastasia. I just wanted to help you feel better since I upset you with my story."

I shake my head lightly. "It's okay. It just can't happen again." I take my wine glass and drink. "I guess I should tell you a little bit more about myself since you've divulged so much about your past."

"You don't have to. I just wanted you to understand why I am the way I am."

I nod. "I'm telling you anyway so get over it." He nods and I proceed to tell him about husband number 3's abuse. I continue to drink my wine as I talk and he listens attentively.

He reaches across the table again and touches my hand. Now his touch is making me feel things again so I decide that it's best that I leave. "I have to get going. I have to make some phone calls."

He reluctantly nods. "Okay. I hope to see you again soon so that we can discuss being friends."

"I will see what I can do."

I stand up and he stands up again. I give him a quick hug and I walk over to Gibson and have him take me home. I have to call my husband.

I dial his number and he immediately answers again. "Grey." He says sounding more terse than usual.

"Christian.."

He cuts me off. "Anastasia, I need you to come home right now, unless you have more plans with Gideon fucking Cross. We need to talk immediately. I want to see your face whenever we talk."

I can feel his anger seething through the phone. "I'll have Gibson take me straight to the jet and we will be on our way."

"Okay. I'll see you whenever you get here."

"I lo.." is all I get out before he hangs up. Shit. He is very angry. I don't believe I have ever heard him sound so angry.

I quickly approach Gibson after shoving the phone into my purse. "We need to head back to Seattle right now."

"Yes, Mrs. Grey." He leads me out to the SUV and calls to have the jet readied on our way to the airport.