Disclaimer: I own nothing...
A/N: Yeah so I've become MIA... I have to admit, I haven't really been writing a lot lately. No idea why, but such is life. I've had this sat in my documents, but decided to post it and see if can hit my muse in the right place... Sorry for my absence... forgive me!
Also, I said on my other story, but I will say it now – if you have nothing nice to say don't say nothing. I don't force people to read my stories, nor do I force them to review. I feel blessed every damn day people even give me a second glance and they will never know how grateful I am for them. If you don't like my story please just close the tab and forget it. Find a story that is to your liking and l.o.v.e it! There is enough crap going on in the world, don't bring it to a FANfiction site!
That said, thank you and enjoy!
Beauty and the Beast – Chapter Thirty-Nine
"I wanted her to react to that public conference," Ana said to Christian as they sat eating Chinese later that night. She had asked Luke and Taylor to sit with them as well. She hated having staff when they were more than that. They were a very weird family. "She has been this little maggot in our lives and after she did this, I wanted her to realise that she didn't ruin anything."
"Well she certainly didn't look happy," Taylor muttered as he remembered getting the surveillance on Kaitlyn.
"When did she?" Sawyer quipped and smirked as Christian and Taylor laughed. "I think that's why you get on with the security so well, Ana, you know how to crack a joke," he winked at Ana and watched her burst into a smile.
At first, he had found himself terrified to greet Ana after the surgery. What if he fucked up and made her feel worse? He would hate to be one of those that condemned Ana with just one look. However, he found that even with a scar down her cheek, the one running down her chest and all of the little ones marring her chest, she was never anything but, Ana. The bright eyed, giggling, teasing, stubborn woman that had graced all of their lives and even at her lowest, he knew she was still unbeatable.
"I remember that one time she slipped over on ice, you and me couldn't stop creasing up," Taylor began to speak, already beginning to chortle at the memory, "Christian came out of work to find her with her skirt up around her waist and her demanding we pick her up."
"And I still remember her blaming me," Christian spoke disgustedly as he remembered how much of a victim she acted that day.
"Then you've got Ana who falls over in the snow and only asks for help to get up to drag someone down to her level," Taylor pointed out, remembering one Christmas when that happened outside of her apartment.
Ana, innocently eating noodles off of her fork, shrugged, "I don't know what you mean."
"She did that to you too?" Christian exclaimed and looked at the pair. "She did it to me!"
Giggling a little with the two guards and her boyfriend, Ana suddenly narrowed her eyes onto Christian, "Remind me again why you ever got with such a brat?"
"Long story," Christian groaned out and rubbed his brow. "Let's say I'm glad I fell in love with you on my own and not to suit your father."
"That's right," Ana agreed, pointing her fork at him, "I'm not some deal. I'm the woman that stole your heart and your mind." She tilted her head to the side, "And if I'm going to fall down, I'm going to take one of you three with me every damn time."
The three men laughed at Ana's teasing behaviour.
"You've definitely got your work cut out," Sawyer quipped as he looked at his watch. "Right, I'm going to go and check in with Welch and see where that little spoiled bitch is lurking." He looked Taylor to okay his job before he really made a start on moving, "I'll ring you when I know."
"I expect direct coordinates," Christian ordered and looked to Taylor. "Ana and I aren't leaving the apartment, you can go and see Gail. Thank her for the food."
"Shall do," Taylor accepted his duty. "I'll tidy up then head over to Escala."
"Thank you, Taylor," Ana appreciated and looked to Christian. "Can I borrow you for something?" Ana asked seeing as they finished up breakfast, she wanted to show Christian something and she wanted to show him how she was coping. She wanted him to understand her method of healing herself. "I wanted to show you something."
"Sure," he smirked at her and finished his coffee off. He followed her back into the bedroom and wondered what it was she was going to show him.
She went straight for her designing table and turned to him. "I've been working on some things," she told him and passed him over the sketch book. "I couldn't help myself," she admitted in a weak admittance and watched as he opened the book and began to see what had consumed her when the darkness began to enclose around her.
Christian looked in awe at what Ana had created, "You've done all these when you feel yourself slipping?" Christian asked as he looked up for a moment and saw her nodded hesitantly. "This coping method is amazing, Ana. You should be so proud of yourself for channelling your feelings to create such beautiful work."
"I have inspiration and incentive," she said and Christian's head left the page to face her. "I can't help myself fantasizing over what my wedding dress would look like," Ana trailed off with that sentence, still unsure if she would ever get a chance to marry Christian, terrified she would feel like an ugly bride and not a blushing one.
"One day I will be marrying you," Christian breathed almost heatedly at her. "There is no doubt in my mind that one day you will be Anastasia Grey and we will make an amazing life together and do you want to know the best part of it?" Christian asked her, staring into her eyes.
"What's that?" she asked trying to stop her eyes from watering too much.
"Everyone will know about it," he whispered it at her delicately and then leaned in to kiss her, his hand running along her jaw line, stopping at her ear so he could tilt her head up to him to deepen the intensity. He pressed his tongue to her lip, running it along to gain access and Ana caved to kiss.
Immediately her arms came around to look around his neck and when they both pulled away she bit her lip and rested her forehead to his, their eyes staring at one another. It was another thing that added to the pile that Christian's love for her was neither waning nor forced. It was still perfect and effortless.
"Thank you," Ana murmured to him, her breathing heavy with emotions and taunt with control to not let them rip free and ruin the moment with making her cry.
"Baby, for what?" Christian asked confused, there were no thanks necessary when love was involved, especially when it was reciprocated.
Ana flicked her eyes down for a moment before looking at him, "for loving me. For never letting me feel anything but loved by you. I left Escala so miserable and feeling like my life was ending and then that attack, I thought you were never be able to look at me the same ever again. You proved me wrong even when I told you to leave. You came back. You always came back."
"I don't need thanking for listening to my heart," Christian told her with sincerity. "Loving you is the easiest thing I have let myself do and the attack, it didn't change you, it changed me and the way I value you." He saw her eyes well up with confuse, her eyebrows pulling together to knit into a furrowed expression. "I took you for granted and I nearly lost you when we were at our lowest with one another. I won't ever do that, Ana. I won't ever make you think I don't love and appreciate you. I won't ever live with regrets like I have."
"We aren't right now," Ana countered and smiled at him. "We really aren't now, Christian. Your love for me is what's helped me survive this. If you hadn't have loved me, had you have finished with me because of the scars I would've died. I would've done anything to not live like that but you saved me. You keep saving me."
"I love you enough to do that," Christian admitted to her and smirked that coy little smile. "You do realise without you I am a dying man. You make me, Ana. You made me into the man I always wanted to be. How could I ever not love you?"
"The scars," she whispered doubtfully and diverted her eye contact away from his.
"Look at me," he commanded her and she listened. "Scars don't make you my Ana. That personality and quick wit, that smile and that laugh are what captivated me. Your strength, your courage, you love after having such a vile thing happen to you makes me fall in love all the more. You wear your scars with pride and you came out of the darkness and didn't let them or Kaitlyn win."
"If I let her win what am I?" Ana asked Christian, the anger building up at the mere thought of Kaitlyn. "If I let her win over me then I am a pathetic excuse and I'm not. I'm Anastasia, I'm better than her and I have everything at my feet. I still have my life, my family, your family, you. I've won already."
"We've won," he defied her claim, replacing it with a new one that made her beam up at him. He pulled her to his body, held her close and slowly allowed Ana to push him backwards. "Woman," he warned but, it was too late to stop her. He fell backwards onto the bed only able to see the seduction burning throughout Ana's expression.
"You cannot say those things to me and not expect me to response in such a way," she told him, falling on top of him deliberately, straddling him. Pinning him down, Ana smiled as he moved his head to the side and kissed her arm, it was all he could do when he was restrained beneath her.
He then looked up at her and couldn't resist the cheek achingly big grin that captivated his lips. She looked so beautiful here, her beauty shining brightly and he had never felt more turned on than he did so much. Not with the future piecing together, not with Ana so like herself. He knew not to fool himself, that Ana's mood could snap back and forth as it so pleased but, he knew she was strong enough to fight the darker emotions.
"You can't expect me to not want to take you, Mr Grey," Ana teased him, leaning in, her hair shrouding them both as her lips met his, her fingers flexing and then interlocking with Christian's as she kept them held above his head.
"You do realise I could easily just by pushing you onto your back, rip you pyjamas away and take you," he murmured at her as they parted the kiss, "Right here, right now."
"I do," she spoke, the glint in her eye twinkling at him. "It's kind of what I'm holding out on." She giggled at him, not pushing the moment upon them but, more or less, working into it. "So we either stay here like this, or we give in."
"Again," he grinned up at her, he was biding his time to shock her when he threw her over and straddled her. He would have his wicked way with her, and he would make sure she felt it for the following few days. The night before, the sex had been perfect, a true testament of their love but, he could see she wanted more of what they had before. More of the heat, the hard fucking, the really raw emotions that led to the most amazing orgasms and then led to them just wanting to stay in bed forever making love and forgetting the world outside.
"Oh yeah, again," she said as he went in for another kiss.
"Oh god!" Kate suddenly killed the moment with her terrified tone, "Shit, my bad! Fuck, erm, I'll leave you to it." She quickly shut the door but, then opened it, "Your parents are here. I'd make it out here before they barge in. This isn't something for them to see."
As they were left alone, Ana collapsed in a fit of giggles, Christian suddenly erupting into laughter with her and they looked at one another, Ana's cheeks flushing with heated redness, Christian's laughter getting the better of him.
Apparently getting caught was a new thing for the pair of them!