His door crashed opened, and as petty as he knew it was, he refused to look or even acknowledge her presence. She, on the other hand, didn't need him to acknowledge her, she just needed him to sign the papers, and she would be out of there by morning.

He looked at the papers, and his heart sunk. He wasn't going to sign them come hell or high water. He knew what he had to do, but his pride just wouldn't allow it. "Why would I do that when I enjoy making your life so miserable?" He said with a smirk he knew annoyed her to no end.

"Miserable?" She scoffed. "Oh no, Mr. Grey, if you want to know what miserable looks like, look in the mirror. I have a family I don't keep at a distance. I have friends I spend time with and make the most of every second of my life with them. Your only so-called friend is a pedophile…" He couldn't hide his look of utter shock if his life depended on it. "I have lived here for almost a year I am neither blind nor deaf, and that goes to show just how little you think of me. You think that thing is your friend? She has isolated you from everything and trapped you in a lifestyle you are ashamed of under the guise of help. How has your life changed because, as far as I can see, you are still crying and screaming in your sleep every night, begging your birth mother to help you." Yes, Ana had heard him every night, and every night she cried for him. The man was the single most arrogant, disrespectful, and downright ass of a human being she'd ever come across, but she felt sorry for him. He was trapped in a cycle of mediocrity when it came to his personal life but was afraid to change.

"As hard as you tried to bring me to heel, you've only made me stronger and grateful for the life I have. Looking at you, trapped in this prison of your own making, makes me realize the things I complained about were minuscule in comparison to your life because at least I have a life. You have all this money, and yet you are the poorest man I know. I wish I had one remotely nice thing to say to you before we part, but alas, I don't. Maybe you have forgotten, but I haven't, I don't need you to sign it, I just wanted to save myself a trip to the courthouse come morning." He had forgotten about that little stipulation.

Just tell her, put your stupid ego aside and tell her how you truly feel. Beg if you have to.

"Oh, I haven't forgotten, but I believe it also said as long as the marriage wasn't consummated, and let's be honest, you cannot prove it hasn't." He let out a small chuckle that died the moment he saw her smug grin that she knew annoyed him to no end.

"Of course, you wouldn't be you if you didn't find a way to be an asshole on this day." She said as she tossed an open envelope on his desk. It's a copy you can keep it."

Dear Hon. Judge Wilkinson

This letter is proof that as of JUNE 27TH 2012, Miss Anastasia Steele's hymen is still intact upon examination. Miss Steele has given me permission to provide further medical evidence if needed. I am also available to come to the courthouse if needed. Miss Steele's marriage has not been consummated, and I will attest to that under oath.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Dr. V. Green MD, FACOG

So that is where she went this morning.

Without another word, he signed the annulment papers and handed it to her with a heavy heart. He wanted to say something, he knew only the truth would do, but he wasn't ready to face her rejection. For she would surely reject him, he had done nothing but try to impose his will on her, the more he failed, the angrier he got. For eight months, he had done nothing but behave with nothing short of repugnance towards her. Hell, he had called her a whore and a slut on more occasions than he cared to recall. Three months ago, she ended an argument with words that stopped him cold when he threw his sub in her face. He always thought he saw something akin to pity in her eyes, assuming you know something and actually knowing it were two entirely different things. That was the day the arguments stopped, that was the day he got rid of his sub. That was the day he had the playroom constructed on the fourth floor in the building torn out.

Something about her words, her tone of voice, her demeanor had snapped him out of the jealousy induced anger he'd been under since the day she rejected him. Now he knew it was too late, his change had come too late, worse he hadn't apologized for the myriad of things he did to have her submit to him. In truth, that was what it all boiled down to. He wanted her submission, but it became clear from the get-go it would never happen. He wanted her like he never wanted anyone, and yet he couldn't have her. He had made a terrible first impression, and there was no going back from that. So he acted like the child he was, if he couldn't have her submission, he would make her life miserable.

Hating her was better than wanting her. He had never gotten something so wrong in his life, he prided himself on reading people, and with her, he had failed spectacularly. He finally looked up only to find her gone. He stayed holed up in his office that night, refusing to see beyond its walls. Most of his staff were out with Ana celebrating her freedom from a tyrant. He was in love with her, and he knew that now, but had allowed his pride to get in the way again.

Why did you have to be an asshole today? For months you had behaved and acted somewhat like a gentleman, but the minute something didn't go your way, you resorted to the man she had come to know so well, a colossal ass.

Christian heard them all come in at around four in the morning; he heard the fun and laughter. God, he'd lost count of the number of times he wished he was responsible for her giggle. Half an hour later, the penthouse was quiet. He slowly made his way to his bedroom even though he knew sleep would not come. He stared at the ceiling until it was time to get ready for work.

He heard her as he headed to the bathroom, he stood behind his bedroom door with the door open a crack listening to her say goodbye to his staff. "Gail, don't cry… we will still see each other." She said firmly. He knew his staff loved her, and that was another thing that sent him off the rails.

"Jason." She said with a giggle.

"Ana… take care of yourself. I will check in on you from time to time, so don't go all GI Jane on my ass when you see an Audi outside your apartment on occasion." He chastised.

"Don't forget, I have Sophie in two weeks."

"If I somehow manage to forget, she won't," Taylor answered with a chuckle.

"I won't say goodbye because this is not goodbye… take care of him, will you. We all know, despite appearances, he is not as strong as he likes to portray." He moved away from the door is gut-churning with regret and self-loathing. He could have had something with her, and he knew it, and that hurt more than he could admit.

He sighed and headed for the shower. It all started when Elliot invited himself to Las Vegas with him on a business trip. Turned out, Ana and Katherine had just graduated and had decided a weekend in Vegas was just what the doctor ordered. Katherine Kavanagh had hounded his PR team for a year for an interview, and he had declined, especially after her father's paper printed an article that ended a deal he had been working on for near on eight months. To this day, he still couldn't remember their initial encounter. They were both drunk, and thanks to Elliot and Katherine, not intervening, they had gotten married and woken up in the honeymoon suite of the Bellagio with no recollection of what had actually transpired. He had behaved appallingly accusing her of taking advantage of his drunken state despite seeing how drunk she was as well. She was struggling to even sit up straight. He felt out of control and in a blind panic said some things he knew he should have apologized for there and then. He had also taken her quiet state for submission, later he realized how wrong he was. She was drunk, nursing one hell of a headache, and didn't have the energy to put him in his place, which she did a few days later.

Naturally, they tried to get the marriage annulled only to get a judge who insisted on teaching them a lesson for making a mockery of the sacred sanctity of marriage. He ruled that they were to stay married for a year, leaving under the same roof and making every effort to make the marriage work. He would grant them the annulment if, at the end of the year, they didn't want to stay married on the proviso, the marriage had not been consummated.

The judge really thought little of us; in all fairness, our generation wasn't exactly known for keeping it in our pants. Well, I didn't, but Ana did. Never once thought she was a virgin or that she could prove the marriage had not been consummated.

Unfortunately, the law dictated that they could only get an annulment in the same state in which they met the residency requirement. He had his legal department look into ways to get him out of the hole Elliot had put him in. Yes, Elliot, Elliot had stood by and let him get married, made absolutely no attempt to stop him. The two had descended into a physical altercation when Welch had shown him the surveillance footage of him getting married. Ana could barely stand, and yet they had been allowed to get a marriage license and go through with the ceremony. He doubted he had uttered the words 'I do,' but all the same, they were legally married. Despite having proof of being of unsound mind when they got married, the judge still refused to move from his position, claiming being drunk did not fall under the category of being of unsound mind. They were only left with physical incapacity, which came down not being able to consummate the marriage, but he would only do so after a year.

He couldn't go to his parents because the one thing he and Ana agreed on was that nobody could know.

God, he felt sick to his stomach when he thought back to some of the things he did and said. He had gotten angry when she said she didn't want her parents to know because she didn't want to disappoint her father. He got upset even though he had been the one to first bring up the subject of not telling a soul. All he thought about was how much of a disappointment he was to his parents, and then anger and resentment took over because she wasn't and didn't ever want to disappoint her parents.

He had threatened his own brother and Miss Kavanagh to keep their mouths shut. For months he and Elliot didn't talk; eventually, his brother being the lovable goof who couldn't hold a grudge no matter what had come to him and conceded that he should have stopped his brother.

Elliot had somehow hoped the situation would bring Christian out of his shell, make him more sociable, he couldn't have been more wrong.

"The usual Mr. Grey?" Gail asked as she wiped her hands on the napkin.

"Yeah… emm no… can I have scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast." She smiled sadly at him and proceeded to make breakfast, Ana's breakfast. He ate his breakfast because he was meant to, and not because he was hungry. He felt lost; adrift knowing she was gone, for months he didn't want her around, for eight months he took on five different subs. He called her a whore because it made him feel marginally better for taking on subs, except she hadn't ever had sex, and for some reason, that knowledge made him feel far worse than he could put words to. In truth, neither considered themselves married, and he was free to do as he wished, but deep down, he still felt wrong for taking on subs.

"You've been married for the last twelve months?" Flynn asked, looking as though someone just told him he had a month to live.

"We made the decision to keep it to ourselves after all it would be annulled after a year," Christian answered that sinking feeling in his gut solidifying.

"You look disappointed."

"I am." He answered without thought. "I didn't want it; I woke one morning, and I was married, and yet when she showed me the papers this morning, I felt like the ground had gone from underneath me. Instead of telling her the truth, telling her, I felt something another the resentment I showed her… I resorted to being the asshole I had acted like in the last year." Regret coursed through him like the blood in his veins. "My thought when I woke up next to her, head pounding was that she was somehow to blame. I called her an opportunistic gold-digging whore, because how else could have I have woken up married. She just sat there and took it while I ranted and raved until Elliot told me it was my idea... he didn't even try to stop me. I should have apologized there and then, but I didn't, and it quickly descended into a nightmare… one I will admit was of my own making. I flew home and tried to get it annulled but ended up with a cantankerous judge who refused to grant it until we had at least stayed married for a year. It didn't bother me too much as she had her own place of residence and I had mine I figured my life could go on as usual. Then a month later we were summoned to the judge's chambers, he insisted we make an actual go of it meaning living together and threatened to check on us. Whether he did or not, who knows." Christian stood and moved over to the window. "I immediately tried to impose my will on her. Tried to lay down rules…" he let out a humorless chuckle. "The same rules I had for my subs might I add, and even added more. I saw it as an opportunity for TPE. After her submissive display the morning after we got married, I thought I had found myself a sub. Could I have been more wrong."

"What happened?" Flynn asked, failing to keep his tone neutral. He knew whatever had transpired was a train wreck of epic proportion, and naturally, he was gripped.

"Turns out she was drunk that morning and didn't care to trade insults with me. She wasn't drunk that day and told me to stick my rules were the sun…" Flynn's chuckling interrupted him.

"Sorry, Christian, carry on."

"She stormed off into her room and slammed the door, without thought I stormed after her and barged into her bedroom. It hadn't taken me long to realize I wanted her; I wanted her as a sub. The rules were just a precursor to showing her the playroom and giving her a contract. At that moment, as she stood there, her hand on her hip, tapping her foot, ordering me out of her room… she looked divine, and I lunged and tried to kiss her after my behavior towards her in that hotel room what possessed me to do that is beyond me. She bit me and slapped me and told me if I ever touched her again, I will regret it."

"Did you put her in the sub's room?"

"No, one of the guest bedroom." He sighed, running his fingers through his already unkempt hair. "The next day, I came home from work to find a manual combination lock installed on her door. That started another all screaming match, which didn't achieve anything. The lock is most likely still on the door." He hadn't checked; he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Why did she get the lock?" Flynn asked, knowing there was more to the story.

"I told her it was my penthouse and I would go anywhere I pleased, including her bedroom so she got a lock I couldn't pick or get Barney to hack. I developed a certain amount of begrudging respect for her." He admitted.

"Christian… knowing you were stuck with her for a year, why not at least try to be civil." Flynn asked.

"I wanted her, and I couldn't have her, so I resorted to acting out like a spoiled brat. When I couldn't bring her to heel personally, I resorted to attacking her professional life." He lowered his eyes, avoiding Flynn's at all cost. Shame didn't even begin to sum up how he truly felt.

"Do you believe there was anything you could have said to change her mind, to stop her going through with annulment?"

"I don't know. It took me a while to see it, but she pities me. She looks at my life and sees nothing but a sad, pathetic lonely, miserable man, and worse, she is not wrong." Her words about his friendship with Elena and his lifestyle ruminated around in his head for hours on end, tormenting him.

"So then, change it. It's clear to me, despite the upcoming annulment, you still want her, and evidently, your life as it is isn't good enough for her." Christian nodded, but he didn't think he was capable of changing. The morning's events had been proof of that. He had a perfect opportunity to be anything another than the asshole Ana knew him to be, but despite what he stood to lose, he behaved very much like the asshole she expected him to be.

"Now tell me about this attack on her professional life and what you hoped to achieve." Flynn could not understand the logic behind it.

"I'd rather not. It only served to prove just how right she was about me." He mumbled, collapsing back on the couch. He'd give his right arm to go back in time and change things.

He stood outside Flynn's office and took a deep fortifying breath. In a few hours, the annulment would be finalized, and that thought hurt. He was never much a part of her life, not like most of his staff. Taylor and Gail had taken to Ana immediately, they loved her, and she loved them. So much so, she had become something of a fixture in Sophie's life. He'd hired someone to tail Ana, without Taylor's knowledge. He had not been willing to ask Taylor to have Ana followed. An order he knew would cause contention, and he didn't need any more than he already had.

Ana spent as little time at the penthouse as she could, and he needed to know what she was doing. Despite having subs, the idea of her with other men ate at him in ways words could not explain. She had one too many male friends as far as he was concerned. She had spent a weekend with the photographer in Utah, they had stayed in the same room at The Grand American Hotel. He remembered the anger he felt when he saw the pictures of them entering the room and not exiting until morning. What hurt the most was that she looked happy, carefree and her smile was constant until she returned to the penthouse. He had called her a whore when she got back. She had ignored his question about where she'd been, and that had been his response to her silence.

He chuckled humorlessly when he realized she had long ago stopped paying him an iota of attention. It didn't matter what he said and did, she ignored him going about her business as though he did not exist. He never saw himself as the type of man who would resort to such behavior because a woman did not want him. It was sad and pathetic, and he still couldn't understand why he had behaved so appallingly towards her. All this could have been avoided had he simply apologized when he learned it had been his stupid idea to get married. "God, how drunk was I to even suggest something so monumentally stupid." He muttered to himself. As he walked back to the car, Flynn's question also played on his mind, God, he recalled the pathetic incident that had led to him buying SIP.

7 MONTHS EARLIER

His balls ached; he needed a hard fuck like he needed his next breath. He didn't know why he cared so much about bringing a sub to the penthouse. He was never ever going to get to fuck her, so why not fuck his sub. Nothing in months, and he was feeling it. Everyone around him felt it too. This was not the longest he'd ever gone without a sub, but fuck, it felt like it, and he knew why, so he got himself a sub before he completely lost it. He heard her coming down the stairs, and he studiously stared down at his plate of food.

I will not look up at her will not acknowledge her.

From the corner of his eye, he saw her coat and clutch on the kitchen island. He looked up as she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

Fuck me.

She looked spectacular; her dress clung to every curve, her hair tumbled down her back in loose curls. She rinsed the glass bending over to put in the dishwasher, and he got one hell of a view of her ass. Her dress was too short for his liking, but infuriatingly it wasn't his place to say anything. They hadn't talked since the lock on the door debacle; they hadn't said a word to each other.

Well, except for a couple of weeks ago when you called her a slut for reasons you can't now remember.

Without sparing a glance his way, she walked out hips swaying deliciously. If he was hard before, he was now at breaking point.

Fuck it.

He felt marginally better, a night of imagining his sub as Ana had done wonders for his disposition. He sat at the breakfast table, eating a bearable breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. He crunched down on other eggshells, and annoyingly, he had no choice but to swallow. He heard the elevator and, for a split second panicked. His sub was after all on her knees sucking him off. Strangely his panicked mood did not subside when Ana walked through the double doors. She had on a pair of yoga pants and a tank top that looked too damn good on her lite body. She took off her coat and backpack he hadn't noticed the night before and placed them on the bottom of the stairs. Much to his misery, she walked over to the kitchen and started making breakfast. He could fill his erection fast deflating in Candice's mouth but was just too arrogant to stop her. There was no way Ana missed it. There was no way Ana missed the girl on her knees, sucking him off as he ate breakfast.

He forced down what had turned into a cold, wet, disgusting breakfast compared to the mouthwatering smell coming from Ana's cooking. She made four large stacks of pancakes, two strips of bacon and scrambled egg. It didn't escape his notice that it was the same breakfast he was eating or rather meant to be eating. His pancake was burnt on one side and undercooked on the other. His bacon was far too hard for even a dog to chew, and worse of all, his scrambled egg was also burnt, had far too much salt, and had eggshells in it. This, would you believe it or not, was Candice's fourth attempt at making breakfast. The sight of her wasting food after food had forced him to accept this bunch. He had been so desperate for a fuck he had accepted what was a mediocre sub at best. Any other day this girl would not have made his list more or less accepted her.

Much to his irritation Ana plated every last bit of her breakfast on one plate and walked out of the kitchen.

The minute she was out of the kitchen, he pushed Candice away in anger. She was so inferior to Ana; it annoyed the hell out of him. "You can't even keep me hard. What is your use if you can't even manage that." He knew his loss of erection wasn't down to Candice. She was doing a perfectly good job before Ana walked in.

I hate her; I so fucking hate her… why can't she just submit to me? It would make both our lives so much more enjoyable.

That thought died a quick death, the moment he realized he was the only one miserable. He wanted her; she didn't want him. He could have ten women lined up to suck his cock, and it wouldn't mean shit to her. If he was going to be miserable, then so was she, and he knew just where to start.

For the first time in four months, he woke up with a smile on his face. He owned SIP, and after a two-week embargo, the news had finally been made public. Today, he was going to walk into SIP like the master he was.

This is what happens when you cross Christian Grey.

Exasperatingly she was nowhere to be seen when he arrived at SIP. He made his way to Roach's office and asked to see her. "My brother is dating her best friend, and I have on occasion associated with Miss Steele personally. I wanted…"

"Understandable," Roach said, interrupting. Strangely he didn't mind the interruption; usually, he found it irksome.

She wasn't surprised; she expected this from him, he quickly realized. He could have sworn he saw pity in her eyes but must have been mistaken. He found the idea amusing; as it stood, he was in control of her professional life. If she chose to leave SIP, she would find no other publishing house in Pacific Northwest would hire her.

"You can get back to work now Miss Steele," Roach said with a smile, he found himself feeling more irritated when she leveled a beaming smile at Roach. In the four months they've been living together, not once had she smiled his way.

He should have known by now, she never did or behaved as expected. How did he think it was going to transpire? He expected fear, he expected glistening eyes, and he expected to find her at home tonight ready to get on her knees, begging him for her job. He knew as he walked out of Roach's office that none of that was going to happen.

The sight of her laughing with her boss further compounded his misery. She hated Jack Hyde, he knew that much. He had, after all, heard her complaints to Kavanagh about what a creep he was.

Did she loathe me that much that her creep of a boss was preferable?

He knew the answer was yes, and it angered him to no end. That was all he seemed capable of these days, Anger, jealousy, hate.

"Well, isn't this cozy." He mocked with a smirk. He wanted to throw back the fact that she had called Jack a creep in her face. Except how would he explain his knowledge of that? He couldn't admit he'd been eavesdropping on her conversations. Something had changed between her and her boss, and he had to find out what. How did he earn her friendship or whatever this appeared to be?

"Mr. Grey," Hyde said just as mockingly.

"I don't pay you to stand around chit-chatting?" He barked.

"No, you don't, but what I do with my lunch hour is none of your business." Jack sneered

"Right." He conceded. What else could he do? His smile though, told Ana he was going to find a way to make Jack pay for this embarrassment.

Owning SIP did nothing for him, nor did it change his contemptuous relationship with Ana. If anything, he found her more alluring, not just beauty but brains. Shouldn't he have already known that; after all, she wanted nothing to do with him? A month into owning SIP, Hyde had been arrested for various counts of rape. How the entire thing had transpired had him flummoxed. Ana's apparent sudden coziness with Hyde was all just a front. She had realized her boss's constant rotation of assistants was down to him, harassing them. She had gone to Taylor with her concerns, and he had Welch and Barney looking into Hyde. Little did she know it wasn't harassment but rape? Barney found Hyde's stash of blackmail material hidden on SIP's server. Strangely, Barney wouldn't have found it had it not being for Hyde trying to remove it, knowing GEH was about to overhaul the system.

The thought that she didn't come to him, but instead went to Taylor saddened him, that only served to further fuel his anger and jealousy. He decided to move her to GEH to work as his speechwriter only to find it was her last day that Friday. She had handed in her notice two weeks ago. He hurled a paperweight across the room in anger. She had found a job at Kavanagh Media, that didn't surprise him.

"Earth to Christian." Elena barked.

"Sorry, Elena… what were you saying?" His thoughts were overwhelmed by Ana since she left. It hurt to realize he didn't have a good memory of her.

"What is wrong with you? For the last few weeks, you have been like a zombie." She looked concerned, but he couldn't tell her, not that he'd be stupid enough to do so.

"We had all the logistics in place for an acquisition, but because of my own arrogance and stupidity, it has gotten away from me. I have no idea how to get it back or even where to start." He said.

"Come on, you are Christian Grey; you will figure it out." She purred her fingers inching closer to his. "It's been a while since you had a sub…"

"I don't want a sub." He sneered.

"I'm not offering a sub… I'm wondering if I could be of help to you." The look he leveled at her had Elena sitting back in her chair. "Christian, clearly, you need something, and it's not these little brunettes." He was very much aware of needing something, but it wasn't Elena, it never would be. That something though wanted nothing to do with him.

"I have to get going. I have an appointment at the courthouse." He mumbled.

"You just got here…" Her protestation fell on deaf ears. As the door to the private dining room shut behind him, Ana's words about Elena came back to him again.

A prison of my own making, indeed.

"Elena Lincoln is now on the proscribed list at both GEH and Escala. I want you and Welch to get me every and anything on her, the more damaging, the better." His days of self-imposed imprisonment were over.

Taylor smiled. "Yes, sir, will get right on it."

"How is she?"As usual, it took him all of ten minutes to ask about her.

"Ana is Ana," Elliot answered, it's the only answer Christian ever got from him. It was just over a year since the annulment, and since he last saw her, but she affected him just the same. Despite Elliot's silence regarding her, Katherine was quick to inform him of her moving on. He was well aware of the mutual end of her relationship with a pediatrics surgeon after almost a year of dating. "I told myself I would never ask." He avoided eye contact. "Honestly, I'm afraid of knowing you are capable of the things she accused you off."

"It's all true." He didn't need to hear her accusations, whatever Ana accused him off, it was all true. If there was one thing he learned about her was her knack for telling the truth, no matter how painful.

"When did you turn into that guy, the one who calls women whores because they wouldn't sleep with them?" Elliot was pissed and rightly so.

"I didn't think I was that guy either. I was the one likely to jump in and deck any man who made such comments about any woman. I wanted her, and she didn't want me, and it made me angry. I was miserable, and I was determined to make her as miserable as I was. Why should I suffer alone? Eight months later, and her words woke me from my jealousy induced anger, and I realized it was more than want. I had fallen for her strength, her tenacity, and her beauty… she was what I needed. I should have gotten on my knees and begged for forgiveness, but I didn't. The day she put the annulment papers in front of me, I panicked and… sadly, reverted back to the asshole I had been for months. I'm not making excuses. I wrote to her, whether she even got it, I have no idea."

"Well, she got your letter." He sat up, feeling a little hopeful. "She read it and then threw it away." It was not what he wanted to hear. Elliot could see his brother visibly deflate.

"What did you say?"

"I apologized, I knew it was highly unlikely she would accept my apology. I just needed to let her know I was sorry."

"Maybe you should do it in person," Elliot said with a shrug. "Get on your knees, as you said." He added.

Two weeks later, Christian found himself waiting in the private dining room at the Mile High for Ana. Whether she would show or not, he didn't know, but he had sent the invitation, and he would wait for her. Elena was destroyed, he hoped Ana saw her perp walk on the news. He'd made it a point to have it known he was responsible for her arrest and subsequent imprisonment. This time, it would be different; this time, he would worship the ground she walked on. This time it would be a relationship of equals, and not a word of insult or abuse make it out of his fucking mouth. All he needed was a chance, a chance to show her he was worthy of her.

The handle to the door turned, his heart beat widely in his chest as he stood hoping against all hope it was her.