A/N: Wow - I got 89 reviews for that last chapter! Thank you for all your love and support :)

Chapter 6: Christmas Eve with the Grey's

Dinner that evening was a joyous affair, with everybody at the table talking and laughing happily about the dance Odette and Mitchell had taught them all earlier. Ana tried her best to join in the conversation, but she couldn't really bring herself to - her kiss with Christian under the mistletoe still consumed her thoughts, and she was having a hard time focusing on anything else. She couldn't help but glance over at Christian every couple of minutes throughout dinner, wondering if he was just as distracted as she was - judging how many times he had met her gaze across the table, he was.

Ana couldn't believe what happened… Christian had actually kissed her under the mistletoe! And she had kissed him back. It had definitely been more than just a simple peck on the lips too - there had been real emotion behind it, conveying feelings that Ana herself had been experiencing for days now, but had no idea how deep they went. She couldn't deny how attracted she felt toward Christian, and kissing him only seemed to amplify those feelings lying dormant inside of her. However, these new feelings only seemed to complicate matters - Christian was technically her boss, and he lived over a thousand miles away in a completely different state. Not to mention he and his whole family were a bunch of upper-class socialites - hell, Christian was so rich he was actually paying off Ana's student loan debt! He was so clearly out of her league, and she would be an idiot for thinking anything real could happen between the two of them.

But then why wouldn't these damn feelings go away?

Once everyone had finished dinner, Grace and Eliza helped Ana clean up the table, putting the food away and loading up the dishwasher. Ana's mind was still dwelling on Christian, so she was grateful for their help, but she was reluctant to finish her work in case they insisted she join them in the living room where everyone else was. She would likely have to interact with the man who had been occupying her thoughts all evening, and she was very reluctant to be put into that awkward position. Fortunately, however, Mia approached Ana after dinner and asked if she wanted to bake Christmas cookies with her tonight, and Ana was only too happy to agree.

Several hours of baking with Mia and producing dozens of delicious frosted sugar cookies seemed to be just the distraction Ana needed, because once they were finally finished it was past 11 o'clock, and everybody was heading upstairs to turn in for the night. Ana had successfully been able to avoid any sort of interaction with Christian, which she was very relieved about, at least for the time being. His proximity only seemed to jumble her thoughts and send her heart into a frenzy… and a much deeper part of her was legitimately afraid being near him alone would cause her to want to kiss him again.

And that was the last thing she needed right now.

After a fitful night's sleep, Ana woke up bright and early on Christmas Eve morning to the sun shining through her east-facing window. With a sleepy yawn she rolled out of bed, deciding to change into a pair of leggings, her favorite old CU sweatshirt, and thick woolen socks to stave off the cold. Her hair was a bit of a mess, so she brushed it out and twisted it into a simple side braid over her right shoulder before heading downstairs.

Eliza, Justin, Bradley, Lily, and Mia were up already and still in their pajamas. They had congregated in the living room and were sorting through boxes of ornaments, tinsel and Christmas lights to decorate the tree with.

"'Morning Ana," Mia said brightly when Ana walked into the room. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas," Ana grinned, glancing around the box-laden room. "You guys are already decorating the tree?"

"We're gonna wait till the others wake up, but all of us were so excited we couldn't wait to take out all the boxes," Eliza smiled, glancing down at Bradley who was playing with a cute little Rudolph ornament.

"Would you like to help us unbox everything, Ana?" Justin asked.

"I'd love to, but I should really get breakfast started for everyone," Ana said, gesturing toward the kitchen. "Does pancakes sound okay to you all?"

Everybody in the room excitedly chorused their approval of that breakfast, and Ana smiled before heading into the kitchen to get to work. Some evidence of her and Mia's late-night cookie baking still littered the kitchen, so she took a minute or two to wipe down the countertops and rinse off the cookie dough-spattered utensils in the sink.

She had just finished when she heard sound of someone approaching the kitchen and stopping in the doorway.

"You've been avoiding me."

Ana froze, staring down at the counter, before slowly turning around to look at Christian. He was wearing his usual black long sleeve t-shirt and pajama pants while leaning against the doorframe, his gaze piercing into Ana. His expression was unreadable, but Ana couldn't help but think he looked positively gorgeous right now, all sleep-tousled and sexy. She swallowed, tearing her gaze away to glance down at her feet.

"Have I?" she asked in a casual a voice, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"You have," Christian affirmed, pushing himself off the doorframe and walking toward her. "I really think we should talk about what happened yesterday."

Steeling herself, Ana turned her eyes up to gaze directly at Christian. "No we don't," she said firmly.

Christian frowned. "We don't?"

"No," Ana said again. "We were under the mistletoe and that's why we kissed - it shouldn't have happened, but it did. You're my employer, and I'm your employee, and I fully understand that that's the extent of our relationship."

Even she could tell how unconvinced she sounded. Her tone of voice seemed to register with Christian, because the next moment he had taken several steps forward so he was directly in front of her, less than a foot apart and gazing down at her with a blazing look in his eyes. Ana stared up at him, somehow unable to look away.

"So we're just going to pretend like that kiss didn't mean anything?" Christian asked quietly, though Ana could detect a hint of a growl in his voice. The sound made her heart pound. "We're going to pretend that I didn't want to kiss you… and that you didn't want to kiss me back?" He placed his hands on either side of her on the counter behind her, leaning in close so their lips were mere inches apart, their noses touching slightly. Ana struggled to regulate her breathing. "Is that what you want to do?"

Ana closed her eyes, willing herself not to give in to her desire to kiss him again. It was very difficult, since his close proximity and the heat emanating off his skin was intoxicating. She took a deep breath, willing herself to be strong.

Opening her eyes again, she gazed up at him imploringly. "We can't, Christian."

Christian blinked, a flicker of disappointment and perhaps even resignation showing in his gray eyes. He pulled back slightly, his eyes still boring into hers.

"…You're my boss," Ana went on. "And we barely know each other - once Christmas is over with, we're going to go our separate ways anyway. It just isn't a good idea."

Christian nodded reluctantly, glancing down at the floor as he brought a hand up to run through his hair. "You're right," he agreed quietly after a moment, bringing his hand down and looking back up at her. "You're my employee - a temporary one at that - and after Christmas you'll be staying in Colorado while I'm going back to Seattle. It would be foolish to get more involved, and I apologize if you felt that I was taking advantage of you in any way."

Ana grimaced, unable to help feeling a little dejected by his words. "I didn't feel that way at all, Christian, but it's okay. Let's just try to forget about it and enjoy spending the holidays up here with your family."

The small pang of sadness Ana felt upon having to say that caused her to step away from Christian and walk over to the refrigerator so she could gather the ingredients to make pancakes. She avoided Christian's gaze as she grabbed the eggs and a carton of milk before walking over to the kitchen island and setting them down.

"…For what it's worth," Christian said, and Ana looked over at him. He met her gaze from across the room. "That kiss last night was one of the best I've ever had. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since."

Ana felt frozen to the spot, her heart hammering in her ears as she stared at Christian. She couldn't believe he had said that - she watched as walked toward her, a hint of amusement and affection playing on his handsome face.

Ana blinked a couple times before swallowing, trying desperately to collect her thoughts as he stopped about a foot in front of her. "…Is this your attempt trying to forget about our kiss? Because I don't think you're doing it right."

"I never said I wanted to forget it," Christian replied without missing a beat, still gazing at her. "And I'll tell you right now that I don't intend to. I know you said getting involved was a bad idea, but I would be remiss if I didn't at least tell you how much I've wanted to kiss you since the moment I laid eyes on you, or that I've never enjoyed getting to know someone as much as I have gotten to know you over the past few days."

Ana was speechless - never in a million years did she think a guy would say something so romantic to her. But Christian spoke so sweetly, so matter-of-factly, that she couldn't help but believe what he said. She blushed scarlet.

"I… don't know what to say to that," she said honestly.

Christian gave her a small grin, taking another step toward her and gently taking one of her hands in his own. "You can say that I'm not making a complete fool out of myself," he said, his tone a mixture of amused and sincere.

Ana couldn't help but smile too - after a moment she shook her head. "You're not," she said quietly, sincerely.

Christian beamed at her, the happiness shining clearly in his gray eyes - despite all of Ana's earlier reservations, she couldn't help but feel a bubble of hope and happiness swell up inside of her at the idea of someone like Christian having feelings for her.

God, could this really be happening?

The sound of a throat being cleared interrupted their moment, and Ana and Christian blinked before looking toward the doorway, Christian quickly letting go of Ana's hand. Lily stood before them, glancing between the two with a noticeable scowl on her face.

"Is there any coffee made?" she asked Ana. Her voice was hard, as if she were trying to reign in her anger.

Ana glanced over at the coffee machine. "…Um, no not yet. I can have it ready in about ten minutes."

"Hmph," Lily glared between the two of them one last time before turning on her heel and walking away.

Ana and Christian were silent for a moment. "I'd forgotten there were people in the other room," Ana admitted, and Christian chuckled.

"Me too," he said honestly. "I should probably leave before they all start wondering why I'm taking so long in here."

After giving Ana one last lingering look, he turned to follow Lily out the kitchen door. As he walked away, however, a sudden thought occurred to Ana:

"Christian?" She asked, and he stopped in his tracks. "Were you the one who hung that mistletoe?"

There was a short pause before Christian smiled at her: "No, I wasn't. But to be honest, I'm eternally grateful to the person who did."

Within the next hour or so, everyone else had gotten up for the day, and Ana (with the help of Eliza and Grace) cooked up a large breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs and hashbrowns for everyone. They all ate together at the large dining table, talking excitedly about decorating the tree and unwrapping Christmas presents later that day. Apparently, it was a Grey family tradition to have everybody unwrap just one present on Christmas Eve before unwrapping the rest on Christmas morning, and that's what they were planning to do this afternoon once the tree was decorated.

"Alright people - we have a very large Christmas tree this year, so I think we're all going to have to work in groups in order to decorate it," Grace announced to everyone, clapping her hands together. "Elliot, Carrick and Dad can start on getting the lights on the tree. I think there's a stepping stool in the downstairs closet if you need help reaching the top. Eliza, Justin and Mom can then hang the tinsel garlands. Mia, Lily, and Sean can start hanging the ornaments and put the star on top, and Christian, Ana and I can bring all the presents down to place underneath the tree."

Ana, not missing the fact that she was going to be teamed up with Christian, glanced over at him and blushed, turning away quickly before she could meet his gaze. Their conversation in the kitchen still played in her mind, and she couldn't help but wonder what all of it meant. Her intention had been to diffuse any prospect of her and Christian getting involved in any way - to make sure nothing more would happen between them while they stayed in this house - but somehow the opposite seemed to happen. Her feelings for him were strong before, but now they seemed to burn like a raging inferno, and she had no idea how to stop it now.

Ana bit her lip. How on earth did she manage to get herself into this situation?

Everybody immediately set to work on their respective tasks, and Grace led Christian and Ana upstairs where all the presents were. Christian fell in step beside Ana as they walked up the stairs, and Ana was highly aware of his arm brushing up against hers as they moved along.

"Here we are," Grace said once they reached the den area where all the wrapped presents were stored. It was a huge pile that almost reached the ceiling, and Christian and Ana couldn't help but stare at it in shock. "I apologize - with twelve of us here, there were a lot more Christmas gifts than what I expected," Grace said apologetically. "We'll probably have to take a few trips in order to get them all downstairs…"

The three of them set to work gathering all the colorfully-wrapped gifts in their arms to carry downstairs. Ana reached for a large rectangular-shaped one before suddenly stopping, staring down at the label on it with a frown on her face.

"I'm sorry, but this one is addressed to me?" Ana turned to look up at Grace with a curious frown on her face.

Grace smiled widely at her. "Why yes it is, dear. I'm sorry, we had actually meant for it to be a surprise - Christian went and bought you a Christmas gift that day we all went shopping in town."

Ana turned to look at Christian, her eyebrows raised. "You…?"

"Yes I did," Christian smiled at her. "I felt bad that you were missing out on opening presents with your roommate on Christmas morning, and since you were doing such a wonderful job housekeeping for us, I thought getting you a present would be a proper way of thanking you. I mentioned it to everyone, and they all agreed, so we all pitched to buy a gift for you."

A whole plethora of emotions filled Ana's chest, and all she could do was shake her head, glancing down at the gift in her hands with a bemused expression. "You guys really didn't have to do this… you're already paying off all my student loans - a Christmas gift is too much!"

"Oh, darling - we're more than happy to do this for you," Grace said kindly, walking over to Ana and putting her hand on her arm. "It's really nothing. Just think of it as a Christmas bonus!"

Ana couldn't help but giggle, smiling down at the gift she held in her hands. She felt a swell of affection and happiness grow inside of her. "Now I feel bad I didn't get you guys anything," she said humorously.

Grace and Christian both laughed, and the three of them proceeded to finish gathering up everybody's gifts to bring down to the living room and place under the tree.

With everybody pitching in with their respective tasks, the Christmas tree was decorated within the hour. Grace, Christian, and Ana piled all of the beautifully-wrapped presents underneath it, making the whole room look even more Christmas-y. Everyone was really in the holiday spirit now, and once they were done decorating, everybody agreed to open their one present for Christmas Eve right at that moment. They all gathered together in the living room, excitedly going through all their gifts and picking out which one they wanted to open.

"I'm going to open my biggest gift - they're always the best," Mia insisted, picking up a large box wrapped in shiny red paper.

"Can I open mine first?" Elliot asked eagerly, picking up his present wrapped in snowflake wrapping paper.

"You know what? I think Ana should open up her gift first," Grace said, and everyone in the room turned to look at Ana. She blushed under all their gazes.

"Oh, no I don't think -" she began, shaking her head, but Carrick interrupted:

"Yes, I think Ana should open hers first," he said with a smile. "It is from all of us, after all."

Everyone else in the room chorused their agreement to that idea, and Ana, still blushing, picked up the box with her name on it and began ripping off the wrapping paper.

It was a rectangular cherry wood chest, about a two feet wide. Curious, Ana lifted the lid, and she froze when she saw its contents - it was a box filled to the brim with the most beautiful, high-quality art supplies she'd ever seen! At least fifty tubes of highly pigmented acrylic paint sat in neatly arranged rows at the bottom of the chest, along with over a dozen paintbrushes of varying shapes and sizes. There was also a pad of professional craft paper, a wooden palette, oil paints, charcoal pencils, essential oils and varnishes for cleaning, and so many other things Ana could see but was too overwhelmed at the moment to name. She could only gaze into the chest, staring at everything as if she couldn't believe it was all real.

"Oh my God…" she whispered, finally looking up at all the Grey's smiling faces. "This is incredible!"

"We knew you'd like it," Mia smiled. "Christian told us how much you love painting, and we figured you could take this back to your art studio in Boulder."

Ana still felt too overwhelmed to speak, and Grace, who seemed to understand, walked over to place her hand on Ana's shoulder. Ana stood up and pulled Grace in for a hug, silently thanking her for the amazing gift, and Grace hugged her back with a smile on her face. Everyone else in the room all laughed and awwed at the sweet gesture.

"Alright, I think we've embarrassed Ana enough," Elliot announced, rubbing his hands together. "I get to open my gift now!"

Everyone laughed, and they all commenced with opening their Christmas Eve gifts, everybody making a fuss on which present they wanted to open and in what order. Ana tried to pay attention to everything going on, but she was much too excited about her new paint set to focus on anything else - every few minutes or so she would find herself looking at all the colors in her new paint set or examining her new brushes, enraptured by their beauty. Every time she glanced back up, she spotted Christian watching her with a small smile on his face, and Ana couldn't help but smile back.

Finally, after over an hour, everyone had opened up their Christmas Eve gift, and Ana set to work helping Grace and Odette clean up all the wrapping paper. Everyone was pretty hungry at this point, so Grace promised to make them all a late lunch.

"Oh, I won't need your help for this dear," Grace said kindly to Ana when she offered to help. "Soup and sandwiches are very easy to make - go and enjoy your new art set. I'll most likely need your help later tonight for making Christmas Eve dinner."

"Okay, thank you Grace," Ana smiled, and began to make her way back to the living room to take her art set up to her room.

On her way back to the staircase, she ran into Christian.

"Christian," Ana said, smiling at him. She gestured to the wooden chest in her arms, shaking her head. "I don't even know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything," Christian smiled back at her. "I'm glad you like it."

With a grin, Ana shifted the box so it rested against her hip before stepping forward and, on her tiptoes, pressed a sweet kiss to Christian's cheek.

She pulled back slightly so she could gaze into his eyes. "Thank you, Christian. Merry Christmas."

Christian blinked down at her for a moment before smiling, his gray eyes conveying a plethora of emotions. "Merry Christmas, Ana."

Ana gave him one last smile before turning and heading upstairs to her room. She wasn't sure how to sort through her feelings for Christian at the moment, but right now all she knew was that she wanted to enjoy what little time she had with him while she could. Despite their circumstances in life.

Ana had planned on spending a little time checking out her new art set and perhaps even trying out some of the acrylic paints, but the moment she opened the door to her room Lester immediately ran at her, bounding up on his hind legs and barking.

"Do you want to go outside?" Ana asked him, and Lester barked in affirmation. "Alright buddy, let me just find my shoes…"

After putting on her boots, hat and winter coat, Ana made sure Lester's collar was around his neck before taking him downstairs and out onto the back patio. The temperature had dropped below zero last night, and today it was freezing cold, with Ana's breath coming out in white cloud puffs the moment she stepped outside. She shivered as she watched Lester run out into the snow, his paws slipping and sliding a little on some newly formed icy patches.

Ana shivered again, checking her watch. She would just wait for Lester to do his business before taking him back inside. It was far too cold out for them to be out here for very long.

Suddenly, she heard the patio door behind her open and close, and the sound of footsteps crunching on the snow-covered deck as someone approached her. Ana smiled to herself, wondering if Christian had sneaked out for a little one-on-one time with her.

"You think you're so hot, don't you?"

Ana's smile vanished, and she turned around to see Lily standing there in her winter coat while glaring at her. "What?" Ana couldn't help but ask.

"You and Christian - I've noticed the way you keep looking at him," Lily said, narrowing her eyes at her. "I've known Christian for years, and you think you can just waltz right in and steal his heart after knowing him for two fucking seconds? Dream on!"

Ana blinked, not knowing how to respond to that. "I-I don't…"

"You crashed our vacation and charmed the pants off of the whole Grey family," Lily interrupted, taking a step toward her. "You gave them all a bunch of sweet words and pretty smiles… but I can see through all that bullshit." She took another step forward, and Ana instinctively took a step back. There was almost a crazed look in Lily's eyes, and it made Ana nervous. "What did you do, huh? How much did Christian pay you to suck his dick?!"

Lily suddenly reached forward and shoved Ana back - it wasn't a hard push, but it caused Ana to stumble backward into an icy patch.

She immediately lost her footing and slipped - she landed hard on her back and her elbow, and her head collided with the icy ground. In a split second, everything had gone black.

A/N: Uh oh, another cliffhanger 0_o

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! If you did, please review!