A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this development! ;)

E.L. James owns!

We arrived at his parents' house just a little over 45 minutes, and within moments of our arrival his mother quickly looked him over with tears in her eyes.

"I'm so pleased to see you again, Ana," Grace looks at me when she finally calms herself down. Elliot and Christian weren't kidding when she took this hard.

"Me too," I smiled at her. I felt like such a bitch for not even remembering our first encounter but decided playing along would be easier than explaining how self-centred I was.

"I'm just so glad you and Christian reconnected," she squeals and gives me a bone-crushing hug… so this is where Elliot gets it.

"Uh yes…" I breathe out; she was affecting my circulation.

"Mom…" Christian comes up from behind us, "Can you let her go, she can't breathe."

"Oh, Christian, I'm just so glad you found each other again," she smiles at the two of us and then runs to hug her son. Elliot was sitting alone on an ottoman laughing at the interaction.

"Okay mom, I know me too," Christian tries to pry himself from his mother's vice grip.

"Oh, but your house!" Grace exclaims.

"It's okay, the insurance will cover it," he explains to her when he wraps his good arm around me, and I lay my head on his. It was an unspoken move, we knew we had to talk about this soon, but right now we didn't want to complicate it any further.

"Hello," a tall man who looked a lot more like Elliot than Christian stood on the threshold of the room.

"Carrick," Grace stands up and walks to her husband.

"Hello, love," he smiles and kisses her passionately. When they finally release each other, Christian and I stand up to greet him. "This must be what all the fuss is about."

"Dad…" Christian warns.

"It's in jest son, but I can see what all the commotion is all about," Carrick smiles at me.

"Pleased to meet you," I held my hand out to him nervously.

"You look a lot like your mother, you're lucky," he smiles and pulls me into a hug. "How are you?"

"Fine, a bit shook up," I confess.

"As you should be, what a way to be introduced to the family, huh?" he smirks, I see where Christian gets his everything. What Carrick and he lacks in similar physical appearance, they made up with their mirrored mannerisms, the same cocky smirk, the confidence, and the debonair air they both exude.

"She's fine dad," Christian runs his hand through his hair.

"And you? Making rookie mistakes?" Carrick points at Christian's wound.

"That was my fault-"I trail off.

"Not at all," Christian interjects.

"No really, if I weren't there he wouldn't have been shot," I explained.

"I'm only teasing," Carrick explains. "Welcome to the family, you'll fit right in," he kisses my hand and turns to his two sons, "get situated we might be here a while."

"That's fine with me," Christian shrugs, "we need to discuss our next move."

"Yes, yes, after dinner," Carrick waves him off and then walks out with Grace on his arm.

"It's like you're the underboss again, huh?" Elliot laughs from behind him.

"Fuck off," Christian spits out. What a weird dynamic, they act like normal father and son, I had an image in my head that they would be on 24/7. I was wrong, there was something almost sweet about it, but I know underneath it all lays a very lethal family. I can never make that mistake of getting too comfortable.

"Let's go," Christian looks down at me, "you should rest."

"What about you?" I looked at him with trepidation.

"Oh, this? Just a scratch," he laughs, "come on, I'll show you to your room."

I nod at him as he led me around the expansive staircase that led to the second floor, in my head I was going through the interaction that just occurred downstairs. Mulling over what Carrick was saying about me.

"Christian?"

"Hmm."

"Why did your father welcome me to your family?"

"Oh," he sighs, "let's save that conversation when we get to our room."

"Our room?" my eyes open wide.

"I'll explain," he sighs again.

Once we found the room that Christian and I shared, I walked straight to the couch on the west side of the room that overlooked the large backyard. Christian takes the seat opposite mine and runs his hands through his hair.

"You'll prematurely go bald," I warn him.

"I think I'll be okay," he deadpans.

"Okay, tell me why we're sharing a room because I know that this place isn't lacking any guestrooms."

He groans, "For me to get you our family's protection, without ruffling any feathers was to tell my family that we were able to reconnect and that something was going on between us."

"So, you lied to them?"

"Well, in this case, it's unrequited," he chuckles darkly, he looks into my eyes and I could see the sadness that they held.

"Christian... "

"I just needed them to willingly take you in, so I can get you out of the country."

"You did all of this so you could help me?" I ask in disbelief.

"Yes, I want you safe, especially if I can't be with you. I want you to live the life that you want to, with or without me. It's irrational for me to think that once we met again that you'd feel the same way about me. You're the one person I can't be selfish with."

I shake my head at him and stand up; he cared enough to let me go. At that moment I knew that my feelings for him were starting to grow, if he hadn't been covering me earlier, I would have been shot. If he hadn't risked starting a war for me, I would still be captive. If he hadn't given me a safe place to stay, who knows what I would have done to get out. And here he was giving me an out, an out that I thought I wanted.

"I'm tired," I exclaim as I get up from the couch and head to the bed. I quickly pulled the sheets off and crawled into the king-size bed. It was like a cloud. I closed my eyes leaned back on the headboard.

"I'll leave you alone, I'll call you when it's dinnertime," Christian mumbles.

"Uhh, okay?" I looked at him dumbly, why was he saying that? "Why do you have to leave?"

"I don't, but you sort of walked away…"

Shit. Fuck. You're a fucking bitch Ana. You just stood up and left him hanging, "Shit, I'm sorry, no I was just lost in thought, please stay."

"It's okay, you've had a long day," he looks at me saddened.

Before I could stop and think about what I was about to do, I quickly threw the covers off me and ran to him, pressing my lips onto his. I don't think he truly believed what was happening, because his lips didn't start moving until I had kept pushing my tongue begging for entry.

"Ana," he breathes detaching his lips, but I push the back of his head towards mine. Running my fingers through his silky hair.

"Don't think," I rasp out and pull him towards the bed. I pushed him down and straddled his stomach and began my intrusion again, he ran his hand over my body as our tongues melded together.

We continued our assault on each other; he had flipped me over and pressed his body against mine as I wrapped my legs around his torso pulling him harder. He set us up, so I was sitting on his lap with my legs still around him, and in-between us was his very large erection. Did this man have any flaws? I pushed him down the bed, but the impact caused him to wince, which reminded me of the fact he was still hurt.

"Shit, I'm so sorry," I bit my lower lip.

"It's okay, keep going," he rasped, pulling me back down. "So, fucking beautiful," he caresses my breasts over my shirt, perking the ladies right up.

"Knock, knock," Elliot's voice booms from the other side of the door.

"Shit," Christian hisses, abruptly stopping everything, "ignore him." he grins lasciviously at me.

"Christian, get your ass out here," he yells on.

"Fuck off!" he yells as he pushes my shirt up grabbing my waist.

I stop and held him down at arm's length, "It might be important."

"Freshly baked cookies are important to him," he growls, "can't I just have this one thing? I've dreamt of this for years."

"For years?"

"Yes," he looked at me a little self-consciously.

"Christian, hurry the fuck up, stop whacking off."

"Shut the fuck up," he growls at the door.

"You're sexy when you're angry," I laugh, "why don't you want to answer the door?"

"Because I may not get another chance at this."

"Why? I'm not going anywhere."

"You can always change your mind."

"I won't, I promise, I'll be right here after you have your little chat with your oaf of a brother."

"It's probably not important."

"You don't know that, maybe it's imperative that you talk to him now, because the fate of the country hangs on by a thread," I tease. "We'll talk about this when you're done."

"Okay," he gives me a sweet smile as I unwrapped my legs around him, "until later."

"Later," I promised. He gives me a chaste kiss and shakes his body like he was trying to shake something off. "What are you doing?"

"I need to think about sick puppies to get rid of this thing," he replied, motioning to his erection.

I bark out a laugh and sunk back into the bed.

"Hey, cockblock, you better be on fire," Christian deadpans.

"Finally," Elliot exhales, "Kate's here."

"What the fuck? She'll lead them straight here!" Christian bellows and bolts out the door. His smile that seemed stuck on his face just moments ago was replaced with a scowl.

I follow the two of them down to the living room, "I'm sorry, bro. She was scared."

"So, you tell her to come here and endanger us?" Christian seethes, "I promised that she'll be safe, but on my terms. We have to go."

"Christian, I'm sorry," Katherine cries from the other side of the room." I heard Roberto speaking to someone about the hit on your house, he was pretty vague, but it was still clear."

"And you didn't tell anyone?" Christian spat back.

"I-I- I didn't think it was –"

"Yeah, you didn't think," Christian runs his hands through his hair.

"Christian, it was a mistake, she was scared," I said from behind him, I put my arm around his.

He tries to calm himself before he speaks again, "Elliot, tell Carrick what happened, Kate stays with Ana, we need to evacuate."

"Be reasonable," Elliot quips, "aren't you jumping the gun?"

"Elliot, you are the head of my security, get your head out of your ass and think about what just happened in the last twelve hours and what do you think is going to happen next? Stop thinking with your fucking emotions and with that brain of yours," Christian says violently.

Elliot takes a moment and nods, "I'll get Carrick."

"I'm sorry Ana, but we have to move again," Christian kisses my forehead and heads upstairs to gather his things. Within moments Christian has three duffel bags, filled with what? I don't know, Elliot soon returns with Carrick and Grace in tow.

"Mom, dad, you two drive out first," Elliot commands them, the couple nods and starts to go.

"What about the staff?" I asked.

"We've already asked them to vacate to the safe house on the property and await instructions," Elliot answers. Christian hands his father a duffel bag as they walk out of the foyer and into the garage.

"Let's go," Christian leads me to a blacked-out sedan with Kate and Elliot sliding into the back of the car. Kate tucks herself under Elliot's arm.

"Hey, Ana, sorry for not greeting you earlier," she looks at me.

"It's okay," I give her a small smile as Christian gets in and starts the car with a push of a button. He looks back at the couple and grimaces, he doesn't hide the distaste for her, and I want to know why.

As we drive along, I can see Christian wincing every time he moves his arm, his medication is probably wearing off.

"Do you need another pill?" I asked, grabbing his hand that was resting on the console.

"No, it's okay, I hate that stuff," he offers me smile.

"You're obviously in pain, maybe you can humour me, okay?" I look at him and grab his bottle in one of the bags. "Here."

"Ana," he warns.

"I don't care how many Ana's you say, but you're going to take it. You're not going to drive in pain," I arch my bitch brow at him, prodding him to continue.

"Fine," he groans, making Elliot giggle. Yes, ladies and gents, giggle. I hear a very clear slap from Kate, which makes me laugh. I hand him bottled water as he takes the pill. "Was that so hard?"

Christian shakes his head and continues driving, I run my fingers over his. I'm somehow comfortable in this messed up world that I'm currently residing in. The fact that Christian was next to me made all of this sort of all right. I'm mental.

The next few hours went by with awkward sexual tension, I think the proximity of our bodies was too much. Now that our blurry lines were crossed all I could think about was how his hands felt on my skin, the scorching heat that left delicate kisses on my skin. And his lips permanently etched into mine, the movement of his tongue massaging my own, and the rush of emotion I felt when our eyes would connect. It was an undeniable spark. He was slowly creeping into my heart and for the first time in a long time, I'm not afraid of feeling something.

I know what I'm starting to feel for Christian wasn't quite love, right? It couldn't be love. Fuck, I don't even really know what it is. Was I even capable of giving him that?

I definitely could try for him.

"What are you thinking about?" Christian shakes me from my reflections.

"All of this," I give him a reassuring smile, he returns it and turns his head back to the road. Only one more hour to go.

"Ana, your uncle has been going crazy with worry," Kate interjects.

"Kate, really?" Christian admonishes her, "Not now."

"Christian, it's okay," I soothe him. "I'm sure I can handle it."

"He's turned the entire apartment upside down, he didn't give me any details, but only that you've "left"," Kate explains. "He tried to brush it off like it was no big deal, but I could tell that he's really worried."

"I wish I could tell him I was okay," I said without thinking.

"When you're untraceable," Christian pats my thigh, I look him straight in his face and notice the sadness in his eyes.

"I'm staying," I told him.

"No," Christian says quickly, "you're going to go."

"Thanks, but I think I can make my own decisions," I scoff at him.

"Ana, I'm not joking, you're leaving when it's time."

"Well, I'm staying," I shrug, and then turn away from him.

He grips the steering wheel, "Anastasia, you will not stay in New York, things will go as planned, please don't be stubborn."

"I'm not being stubborn; I'm just exercising my free will. You are not going to tell me what to do."

"We'll talk about this later," he says tightly.

"Fine," I cross my arms and look outside.

"So, you guys, excited about being back?" Elliot asks, trying to ease the tension.

"No, Elliot, we are not excited," Christian, answers.

"I think you two should relax, Ana wants to hang out with us we should let her."

"No, Elliot, she does not want to fucking hang out with us."

"Just let her, bro, we can protect her."

"I'm not going to risk her life so we can 'hang out', why are you head of my security again?"

"What can I say I'm a sucker for a love story," Elliot laughs and pats me on the back. I think I'm going to really like Elliot; I give the guy a large smile and relax in my seat.

I pat Christian's arm offering a white flag, he gives me a sad smile and kisses my fingers.

We arrive in the city at around ten in the evening, we were on the Upper West Side, where one of Christian's many buildings is located. Part of his business was real estate, they explained that he owns quite a variety of properties such as apartment complexes, hotels, casinos, and a few restaurants. He likes to 'dabble' as he says.

Part of his conglomerate was a firearms manufacturing plant in Belgium, so in a way, he's somehow privatized the game. All of this was explained to me on the car ride back to his home, the man is wealthy as fuck; he didn't even have to be in the mafia to make money. The question is why do any of them stick around? Wouldn't it be enough to have all of this without having to do anything illegal?

Once we were settled in, he gave me his shirt and a pair of his boxers after showering.

"Fuck you look sexy in my clothes," he growls as he lunges at me.

"Slow down," I laugh as we roll on the bed.

"Why you promised…" he whines.

I laugh at his words, "I know I did, but we should talk about what's going to happen."

He groans and runs his hands over his face, "All right."

"Thank you," I kiss the tip of his nose and sit up, he does the same, so we're face to face.

"Anything for you, beautiful."