It was been a wonderful few day in Vegas, Friday was spent recovering from Thursday night, Christian and I kept to ourselves, locked in our suite - only getting up for room service - it was pure bliss. Saturday was spent having some fun at the pool, a group dinner and then another night at the casino. It is now Sunday afternoon, 5 hours until we head home. Everything is packed and ready to go, we are just filling in time now. Christian, Elliot and Ethan have decided to hit the golf course for a few hours, so Kate, Mia and myself decided to hit the shops.
"Ana, you have to try this on." Mia holds up a very short hot pink tube dress with a matching diamante belt. I don't think Christian would approve of the dresses length, and I smile thinking of the punishments I might receive if I were to wear this on the plane ride home.
"Earth to Ana." Kate laughs, pulling me out of my daydream of spankings and floggers.
"Sorry, ummm, I'm sure that would look much better on you Mia, I'm not liking pink too much at the moment." I lie. She shuffles off to the changing rooms with about 6 dresses slung over her arm.
"So, you and Elliot seem to be pretty cosy again." I grin at Kate.
"We are so much better, thank you Ana, I was being silly, I just need to work on things, I was thinking maybe we could hit the gym together a few days a week?." she beams.
"Glad I could push you in the right direction, and sure, would love to work out with you." I nudge her playfully with my shoulder.
"Hey what was up with Christian last night at dinner, he seemed pretty angry after he left to take that call." I think back to last night. We were enjoying a lovely meal at the hotels restaurant when Christian's phone went off. He stormed out when he saw who was calling and came back in a foul mood.
"I have no idea Kate, he wouldn't talk about it, said it was a problem with work and he was annoyed they had interrupted our weekend over something trivial." I had my suspicions it was something a little more than a work problem, my immediate thoughts had been of Leila, but he soon squashed those, I decided to drop it, I didn't want to burst our Vegas bubble, not yet anyway.
Kate walks over to the dressing room waiting area and plonks herself down on the plush cream sofa to wait for Mia. She picks up a newspaper and gasps.
"Ana, honey, have you seen today's paper?"
"No, why?"
"Has Christian?" she asks cautiously, quickly turning the pages before stopping a few pages in and gasping even louder.
"Kate? What's wrong?" I ask nervously.
"I think you better look at this." she closes the paper, and hands it to me as I walk over.
Billionaire Power couple - Loving it up in the city of sin.
Turn to page 4 for all the juicy photos.
There is a small photo of me standing next to the pool yesterday wearing my green Victoria secret bikini. Shit! Christian had asked me not to wear that bikini in public, or at least put a dress over top but I refused, he was furious, but I talked him round, or rather kissed him round.
I turn frantically to page four. My face drops.
"Oh. My. God." I mutter in shock as I look at the photos of Christian and I. "I didn't see anyone around yesterday, how did they get these?" I whisper. "Oh fuck, Christians going to ….shit."
There is a large photograph of me on my hands and knees, hovering over Christian on the sun lounger, his hands on my ass. The photo was taken directly behind me, so my ass is the first thing that stands out. There is another photo slightly smaller in size taken side on, Christians hands are still on my behind, I'm leaning down, elbows resting by his head kissing him passionately, there are several other similar photos taken pool side. There is also a photo of me from behind walking out of the bar on Thursday night in the nude and black sequined dress while Christian is tipping the bartender. And last, but I think worst of all, a CCTV elevator photo from a department store we visited yesterday. We were alone in the elevator. Christian is standing in the corner, my back against his front, one of his hands is wrapped around my abdomen his other hand is noticeably between my thighs,. "Oh god." I whisper completely mortified. "How did they get this, I didn't see in cameras in there?, how could we have let them get these?" I am on the verge of tears looking at the very intimate photos of us on display for the whole world to see. I read the small article accompanying the photos.
A usually very private Christian Grey and wife Anastasia Steele-Grey - Seattle's billionaire power couple let their guard down in Vegas this weekend, and we were there to snap the much sought-after exclusive shots.
Staying at the 5 star Wynn Hotel, the Grey's have been loving up a storm all over sin city - minus the security team that usually surrounds them. Witnesses we have spoken to say the sexy CEO of Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc could not keep his hands off his wife Anastasia, CEO of Grey Publishing - , and with an Ass like hers, who could blame him. The couple who reportedly spent Friday locked away in their suite certainly put on a pool side show the next day. Missing from their weekend get away are their 2 children, Theodore and Phoebe Grey who remained in Seattle. Sources tell us the get-away was a distraction from the major changes taking place back at their Seattle companies.
"What?, major changes?, oh god, how embarrassing." I slump down in the sofa next to Kate who wraps her arm around my shoulder.
"Oh honey." she tries to comfort me. "You have to admit, you have a fantastic ass." she laughs, and stops abruptly when she realises I don't find her comment at all amusing. "It'll all blow over soon, we don't know if the photos have reached Seattle." she tries some damage control.
"I just want to get out of here Kate." I pull out my phone and text Christian.
*where are you babe, can we leave early please?, Ana.*
*just heading back to hotel, what's wrong baby? CG*
*I just want to get out of here. Ana.*
*baby, what's wrong? Where r u, I will come get you. CG*
I text Christian the name of the shop we are in, and look over the photos again as I wait for him to arrive. 10 minutes later Christian and Elliot burst into the shop and Christian rushes over to me.
"Ana, baby, is everything okay, why do you want to leave early." he looks worried, his ruffled hair a dead give away.
"We'll meet you at the hotel." Kate looks at us concerned, she hands me my bag after slipping the newspaper into it. "Elliot can walk us back." I take Christians hand and walk out to the rented SUV that they arrived in. Christian nods to Ethan who was sitting in the front passenger seat, and he climbs into the drivers side while Christian and I slide into the back.
"Ana!" Christian growls, wanting an explanation. I pull out the newspaper and shove it into his hand. He opens it up.
"FUCK." he tenses up, and flicks to page 4. "FUUUUUUUUUCKKKKK." he shouts and chucks the paper down to the car floor.
"Christian, why did we come without our security team?" I ask cautiously. I know if they had been here the area would have been scouted for paparazzi and this would not have happened.
"They are busy doing other things." he snaps. "besides, I didn't think we would be easily recognised here, I fucked up."
We ride the rest of the way to the hotel in silence. I can tell Christian is beyond furious and on the verge of exploding so I don't want to add fuel to the fire by questioning him any more.
Christian spends an hour on his phone once we are back at the hotel. He walks back into the living area, and looks in a slightly better mood.
"All taken care of." he mutters.
"What is?" I ask puzzled. Does he mean the flight, the photos, or something else?
"Ana, it's sorted, don't give it another thought, it doesn't concern you." he cuts me off sharply. I was going to ask him about the paper, the photos, the changes in our companies but instead I am standing here feeling pretty small . He moves forward to grab my hand after noticing my reaction.
"Don't." I pull away. He looks shocked and hurt, I never pull away from him.
"Ana…"
"Christian don't! You know the worst photos are of me, not you but ME! We are married, I thought that was supposed to mean sharing everything, including difficult situations, I don't know why you always exclude me from everything. I'm just as annoyed as you are about my ASS being plastered over the paper, and rather than letting me in so I can have a bit of comfort knowing how things are being handled, you shut me out as always and make me feel worse." There are tears streaming down my face.
Christian runs his hand through his hair and let out a sigh.
"The photos. I paid the newspaper out. They have surrendered the photos, both hard copy and digital and they have pulled them from their website. We were very lucky they had not sold them on to any other papers or magazine yet. We can't pull the papers off the shelves, but at least we have pretty much stopped them from spreading out of state."
"The elevator photo?" I question. "What's stopping the company distributing that photo and possibly more around?"
"Welch and my legal team are on it. Those fuckers will get what's coming to them."
"Christian…" I stop myself asking about the company changes, I don't want to push my luck, instead I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry baby." He kisses the top of my head. "Lets talk about this later, the planes ready to go."
"We can leave early?" I glance up at him.
"Yes baby, the jet is waiting for us."
"Thank you." I reach up and kiss his lips softly.
"Everything I do, I do for you, remember that." he whispers. There was something in his tone of voice that told me there was hidden meaning behind those words. "I love you Mrs Grey." he returns my kiss.
Once on board the GEH jet with the others, tiredness hits me, I have enjoyed this these past few days, despite the photos in the paper this morning. I try to get some sleep but there is too much running through my mind. The elevator photo, the changes to the companies that the paper had mentioned, work, Christians words before we left that sounded deeper than they were, seeing the children. There's a party of emotions in my head and it's giving me a headache.
Christian pulls me onto his lap, and I curl up. "Go to sleep beautiful." he whispers while stroking my hair. I close my eyes and focus on the scrumptious scent that is Christian beside me. I must doze off, as when I open my eyes Christian is buckling me in to land.
I walk the metal stairs down to the tarmac, Christian in front of me holding my hand. I see Taylor in the SUV parked close by. He exit's the car and opens the back door unleashing an excited Teddy, who comes flying towards us at lightening speed.
"Mommy, Daddy." he squeals in delight. I bend down to his height and hold my arms open. He runs full speed ahead, nearly knocking me backwards.
"Hey my little man, I missed you sooooo much." I wrap my arms around him and pick him up, swinging him around in the air.
"Gram-ma got me new cars." he yells excitedly. "Blue one, and red one, and green one, and blue one, they go brooom broom." he screws up his little face trying to make car noises.
"I can't wait to see them Teddy." I kiss his head, and then hand him over to Christian who is waiting with his arms out wide.
We all climb into the SUV and head for home.
It feels so good driving back up the driveway to our safe haven, the one place we are free from prying eyes, where the children can run around safely, and I don't have to worry about my ass ending up in the paper when I decide to straddle my husband by the pool. It's back to reality though, there's work to catch up on and crazy ex-subs to sort out. I start to feel slightly anxious thinking about Leila, but then I look out the window, and see my princess, her gummy smile brightening my thoughts instantly. Grace is holding Phoebe in her arms at the front door. My little brown haired beauty dressed in pink - and nothing matters anymore except my family. I'd do anything to protect my family, anything.
A/N: Please excuse any mistakes, am surviving on only a few hours sleep today. Let me know what you think of this chapter, i'm not sure how i feel about it, but it was needed to put some things in motion. ;)