A/N: Again I winged this! lol
"What the fuck do you mean he is at your house? I thought he didn't know where you lived." Christian said. I am confused I never told anyone where I lived. The only person that knows exactly where I live is my dad and the rest of my family.
"Christian I need to get back to my house! I need to make sure everything is in one piece." I said frantically pacing back and forth. Christian gets up and holds me still. I can feel the tears welling up in my eyes. I have never been this bad before but then again neither has Gideon.
"I am sending Taylor and Sawyer to survey the damage. You aren't going anywhere!" Christian said while holding my hands.
"Christian you don't understand. I need to get back to my house! I need to make sure my sanctuary is safe!" I look into Christian's eyes and he looked back. He let out a sigh of defeat and conceded.
"Fine! We'll go but no heroics. I told your dad I will keep you safe and I tend to fully keep that promise." I nodded and we headed down to the garage. Taylor and Sawyer already left. Christian told me to wait by the elevator. I hear a sexy engine roar to life. I look both ways to see where it was coming from. Seconds later I see a sleek, black Audi R8 Spyder pull in front of me. I crossed my arms and shook my head. I made my way to the passenger door and got in. We pulled out of the garage fast and began to head to my house.
"You and Audi's. Explain." I said with a smile. He smiled and snickered a bit. The way he is handling this car is completely sexy. I began to think of the night that Gideon drove me back to my apartment after I came back from seeing my family. I shook my head to dismiss the memory.
"Well, they are the safest car in the world and I care about my safety and my employees safety. You and BMW's. Explain." He says with a smile. I rolled my eyes and I heard him take a sharp breath. "Don't do that Chanelle."
"Well, BMW's are the best in German engineering so of course I would take a BMW over any American made car and don't do what?" I say. We stop at a light and he puts his hands on my knee. I feel the touch vibrating through me and it's making me shift in my chair.
"Roll your eyes and I can see that I have some type of effect on you Ms. Howard-Jones." I smile at him and stick my tongue out.
"1) My mother is Mrs. Howard-Jones. If you are going to call me by my last name Ms. Howard would suffice. 2) I can't help the fact that you are drop dead gorgeous Mr. Grey. You have that touch that could bring any woman to their knees." I said with a smile. He looked over and raised his eyebrows.
"You have no idea Ms. Howard." He says with a smile. We pull up to my house and my worst fears are suddenly brought to light. My light and airy demeanor now gone and replaced with rage. My house is destroyed. Windows broken, doors smashed in. Fuck! How am I going to explain this to my dad? I honestly don't want to tell him a lie. I walk into my house and immediately ran to my sanctuary. There isn't any sign of forced entry. I open the door and I fall to my knees and begin to cry. My room of peace and tranquility is ruined. My keyboard is broken and my guitar strings have been cut. Speakers are smashed in and my mic and mic stand broken.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I cried out as I let out a full on sob. Christian runs in and he sees the damage done to the my instruments. I am shaking from anger and sadness but mainly anger. Is he really that fucking childish that he would sit there and destroy my house because I don't want to be with him anymore. I get up and Christian helps me up. "I want him dead!" I said with gritted teeth. Christian holds me and I begin to cry into his shoulders.
"Calm down Chanelle. You will get through this." He walked me out of the room and into my room. It looks like he didn't come in here. "Pack up whatever you need to make yourself comfortable at my apartment. I will give you a few minutes." He walks out and gently closes my door. I pull out my 2 large suitcases and began to pack. I can't believe he is doing this because I am talking to Christian. I can't believe he is being this childish. I put my entire closet into one suitcase and my shoes, bras and panties into another suitcase. I move my stuff into the living room where I find Christian on the phone. He hangs up and walks toward me. "Taylor will take you back to my apartment. I will try to figure out what to do about Gideon!" I nod and walked my luggage out to the front.
"Ms. Howard I can take your luggage." I hand him my bags and I turn around. I loved this home and it's going to be a bitch to fix it. I turn to Christian.
"Christian...Thank you." I say and I turn away.
"No problem." He says as I walk away. I hop in the back of the Q7 and we pull away from my house. I am looking out of the window and I can't believe this is happening. Why do bad things happen to good people? I look up and noticed that we were in front of Escala. How did we get here so fast?
"Ms. Howard, you can go up. I will bring your luggage up soon." Taylor says. I nod and walk toward the elevator. I look and see a key pad to get into the penthouse.
"Thanks Christian for not giving me that bit of information." I whisper to myself. I pull out my cell to see there is message from Christian.
*972018 is the code to get in to my apartment.*
I put the code in and the elevator car jerks upward. I walk into the foyer and I noticed the art work that lined the hall. I look up and see his driver standing there, waiting.
"I assume you know where your stuff is Ms. Howard. Mr. Grey has had the room set up to make you feel comfortable." I stared at Taylor for a minute and I nodded. He opens the door and I walk in. I finally get to mesmerize over the abundant amount of space he has. This is way too large for one person to live in. I walk up to the room and noticed the closet was full with my clothes and some additional pieces that I didn't recognize. I walk up and I noticed dresses that I didn't buy. They look brand new since they still had tags on them. I pick up the silver and black halter dress and hugged it to me then I looked at the price tag.
"$3,290?! I definitely didn't buy this!" I whisper to myself. I looked at the dress up and down then put it back on the rack.
"That's because I bought it." I nearly jump to the ceiling when I heard his voice. I look over and see Christian standing in the doorway. I begin to relax.
"Jesus Christian. You scared the daylights out of me. How long have you been standing there?" I say as I brush the loose bits of my hair behind my ear.
"I just walked up and I saw you gawking at the dress. I thought you would look absolutely stunning in that dress. I take it that you are making yourself at home?" He said while looking at me with lustful eyes. I begin to blush and turn my head away. I walk toward the bathroom but he catches my elbow. He turns me around and pushes my against the wall and pins me with his hips.
"Christian...I..." He stops me from talking by moving his lips over mine. This kiss felt different from the ones that I have ever had. There was something about this kiss that was making me hot. Making me forget all of my worries and pain. I leaned into it and our tongues fought. He broke the kiss and left the room. I fell to the floor touching my lips and began to laugh like a school girl. I sat there and began to think. What is he doing to me? I have never felt like this even when I was with Gideon, he didn't make me feel like this. Comparing the icy cold blue of Gideon's eyes and the smoldering gray of Christian's
Time passed so fast that I completely loss track of it. I rub my stomach and noticed I was a bit hungry. I went into the bathroom and wiped down. I noticed all of my bathroom items were in here. I didn't tell Christian about anything that I used. "How does he..." then thought came back that he knew exactly where I lived. I smiled and shook my head. I threw on my sweats and a oversized sweat shirt and headed into the living room. As I got closer, I can smell dinner being made. It smells so good. I look up and I see Ms. Jones doing her thing in the kitchen. Our eyes locked and she gave me this warm smile and I returned one back.
"Hello Ms. Jones! Is Christian still home?" I asked. I can't believe I sound like this.
"He ran out for a few minutes. He will be back. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Please make yourself at home." She said. I looked over and noticed he had a balcony. I open the door that led out to the balcony and made a phone call to my dad. I had to tell him one way or another. The phone went straight to voicemail.
"Hey dad!" I let out a sigh. Here goes nothing. "I'm just calling to let you know that my house got broken into last night. Everything in the house except my room was virtually destroyed including the keyboard you got me. I am waiting for the insurance company to call me back and give me an estimate. I am fine though. I was out of the house when this happened. I..." I begin to tear up because if I told him that it was Gideon then he will blame Christian for not protecting me but I have to let him know. "Dad! It was Gideon who broke into my house. Don't blame Christian! I was with him when this happened. Call me back as soon as you get this." I hang up and slide down the rail of the balcony and began to cry. I look to my left and I see the flickering lights of the Seattle skyline. I hear the door to the balcony open.
"Chanelle it's kind of cold to be sitting out here. Dinner is ready too." I look over and I see Christian standing on the door frame. I sniff and wipe my face. "Are you okay?"
"No Christian. I am not okay! The fact that Gideon is back to haunt me in ways that I never thought possible is nerve wrecking. I had to make the hardest phone call of my life tonight and who knows what my dad will do or say when he gets the message." I feel the tears come back up. "I kind of want to just go to sleep. I'm not hungry anymore." Christian narrows his eyes and picks me up.
"He will pay for what he did Chanelle and you will eat. I know you haven't eaten since breakfast this morning. Please eat." I look at him with a disgusted look but he is right. I haven't eaten a thing since this morning. He helps me up and rubs my arms. I began to stiffen but I immediately relaxed. I know he wouldn't hurt me but I just can't take that risk again. We sit at the breakfast bar and Ms. Jones puts two plates in front of us.
"I hope you like Chicken Marsala." She says with a smile.
"OH MY GOODNESS! I HAVEN'T HAD THIS IN YEARS!" I say with excitement. Christian begins to laugh as he cuts into the chicken. I begin to dig in and the juiciness of the chicken is making me do a happy wiggle on the bar stool. Christian begins to laugh. "Something funny Grey?" I shoot him a cold glare and he stops his snickering.
"No! Not at all Ms. Howard. I see you are enjoying your dinner." He begins to snicker again. I shoot him another cold glare and he stops snickering.
"I am! I can't help that this taste absolutely amazing." I say with a smile on my face. After dinner is done, Christian walks into his study and I make my way to my room to read. I open the door and what I find sitting on my bed almost had me in a full sob. There was a keyboard with a big fuchsia bow on top. I run to my temporary bed and sit cross legged with the keyboard in my lap. I look over and see an envelope. I pick it up and open it. There was a letter and pictures inside.
Chanelle,
I told you that I would handle it.
Christian
I look at the pictures. There are pictures of my house. Looking like nothing has happened. The last picture had me in tears. My sanctuary looks brand new and my buddha statue is sitting on my window seal. I run to the door to see Christian standing there with a bouquet of calla lilies.
"I told you that I would handle it. Trust me Chanelle, I know you are apprehensive about everything thanks to that fucker Cross but I made a promise to your dad to protect you. In the same token, I am really highly attracted to you but I don't know if I could give you what you need. I have never been in a relationship outside of the..." We move to the floor of the bedroom sitting next to each other. I pulled my knees up to my chest.
"Dom/Sub relationship. I know. I kind of picked that up. Listen..." I let out a sigh. "I'm very attracted to you but I don't know if I can do this again. Gideon fucked me up mentally and physically. I...I..." Christian put his hand on my back and I stiffen again. He leaves it there and I begin to hold my breath. His touch hurts even though I know he means well. I removes his hand and he looked at me.
"You suffer with the same thing I do." he says. I look at him crossed. What does he mean by that?
"I don't understand. What do you mean?" I say. He takes my hand and he tries to have me touch his chest but he just couldn't do it. He moves my hand back and begins to breath quickly like he was holding his breath. "You don't like to be touched!" I said with shock. I wonder what happen with him.
"It's a hard limit for me. I would like to be touched but it hurts too much." His eyes fell. Maybe I could tell him how I learned to cope with it.
"It took me a while to get used to my family touching me after the incident with Gideon. You have to take it day by day. Have someone lightly touch the area and hold it there for 30 seconds. That's what I did and it slowly started working. When a stranger touches me, I stiffen up if there is skin to skin contact because I don't know them." Christian looks confused.
"You were fully clothed when I went to grab your waist."
"My back was exposed. When I felt your forearm brush against my lower back that's when I stiffened up. Try it!" He looked a bit apprehensive but he grabbed my hand. "Ok we will try 10 seconds instead of 30 seconds." He nodded and put my hand on his chest. He got wide eyed and began to breath quickly. "1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10" I yanked my hand back and he relaxed some.
I get up and give him a kiss. He pulls me back down and I straddle him. I push back up and stand up. He gets up with me and bumps me a little. I give him a kiss on the cheek and back away.
"I take it that is my sign to leave and that you are going to bed. Goodnight Chanelle." I smile and fall back on the bed."
"Goodnight Christian." I move the keyboard into the corner and slid into the bed and fell asleep.