Ana POV
*19th February 2016*
It has been a whirlwind few months to say the least. I have continued working for Sharon as much as possible but it is getting more difficult with final exams looming. The morning after dinner with Kate and Elliot wasn't awkward at all and we spent the rest of the morning together until it was time for us to catch the train home. We managed to see each other for a day in January and go out to dinner but Christian has been busy flying to Seattle frequently in hope of expanding his company. The topic of sex hasn't come up yet but I know he wants it as much as I do but he hasn't said anything yet. Should I be the one to make the first move? Before I can overthink it anymore I am broken out of my daydream by the shuffling of chairs, signalling that the lecture is over. I hurry back to the house to grab my bag and a spoonful of yoghurt before I leave for the train station. Christian and I didn't have the chance to celebrate Valentine's Day last weekend because I was studying for exams and he was considerate enough to give me space so I could study but that didn't stop him sending a huge bouquet of roses to my house. I brought my books with me to study on the train and just as I finish writing notes on the final section of Tess of the d'Urbervilles the train pulls into the station and I see him. Our eyes lock and I scramble off the train to run to him. He envelopes me in his arms and leans down to kiss me.
"Hey"
"Hey"
"I've missed you"
"Me too, I'm sorry about last weekend by the way. I've never done the hearts and flowers thing before."
"What do you mean?"
"Doesn't matter. Come, we have a lot to talk about this weekend, ready to go home?"
He picks up my bag and reaches his hand out to me which I gladly take. Home? That must mean we're finally going to his place.
We pull up outside one of the most beautiful, and expensive looking, buildings I have ever seen in my life.
"Wow," my voice is barely above a whisper. Taylor opens the door for us and leads us to the elevator up to the penthouse. I can feel his eyes on me the whole way up and I feel the electricity between us. If it weren't for Taylor he would probably take me right here and now, I know he can feel it too. I sneak a glance up at him through my eyelashes and he catches my eye and winks at me. Oh my, that Christian Grey wink. Luckily we reach his apartment before the air gets too thick and he takes my hand as we step out into the lobby. The apartment is very open plan with a kitchen and dining room to the left, directly in front of is a living room with a large grey, horseshoe shaped sofa and floor to ceiling windows with a view over London. To the right is a corridor with three doors which are all closed and curiosity takes over me. I am about to ask for a tour but Christian speaks first.
"I was thinking we could have dinner first then I can give you a tour of the apartment, we have all weekend but you can leave whenever you want."
"Christian I am quite happy here so I don't think I'll be wanting to leave tonight unless you want me to. Dinner sounds good though, I'm starving!"
"Taylor can take your bag and coat. I'd like you to meet someone, this is Gail Jones. She's my housekeeper and the best chef around."
"Nice to meet you Miss Steele."
"Likewise."
"Is there anything specific that you'd like for dinner?" She directs the question at both of us.
"I think you should choose Ana."
"Erm, well I've had a long day I could use some comfort food. I know it seems childish but can we can Mac and Cheese with garlic bread?" Christian stares and me and Mrs Jones looks a little shocked but smiles.
"Of course," she says and returns to the kitchen.
"Why are you looking at me like that Christian?"
"It's one of my favourites, how did you know?"
"I didn't I just want a relaxing evening with you after a difficult week and it's one of my favourite foods to eat while I snuggle up in blankets and watch a movie. I don't know why I'm babbling on at you, you're still my boss I shouldn't even be seeing you."
"Anastasia stop. I know you still work for me but we don't work together directly and you'll be leaving your internship soon so that shouldn't jeopardise our personal relationship with each other."
"Okay…can I have an apartment tour while we wait for dinner? Do you have any movies?"
"Yes and yes. After you m'lady," he gestures to the corridor on the right and I giggle at his gesture as I walk down the corridor ahead of him.
"So you saw the kitchen, dining room and living room from the lobby so in this corridor we have my bedroom, my office and a media room."
His bedroom is very manly but I don't see much of his personality, just a lot of dark colours and intricate design. He doesn't give me much chance to have a look around, I guess it's because someone's bedroom is probably the most private room in their house. His office has a similar theme to the rest of the apartment which is a lot of dark mahogany and marbled flooring. His media room I am insanely jealous of. He has a corner sofa with an ottoman filling the gap in the middle, creating a sort of giant bed which faces a half – size cinema screen. Underneath I see an Xbox, PlayStation, Wii and DVD player. He takes my hand and leads me back down the corridor to head upstairs.
"I have to say, I am in love with your playroom!"
He freezes and drops my hand.
"What?"
"What did you just say?"
"I said I love your playroom. You know, the room with your Xbox and stuff." He visibly relaxes and takes my hand again.
"Oh, yeah, my brother is jealous of the media room too."
What was that all about?
The apartment is a lot bigger than I originally thought. Upstairs there is a gym, two guest bedrooms and one room which we walked straight past and Christian didn't even look at, if anything he seemed to walk faster past that room. He points out a bathroom to the left of the lobby before leading me through the kitchen and into yet another section of the apartment.
"This is the staff living apartment. I figured it makes sense since Gail is here every day and Taylor is around most of the time so he has his own office which is adjacent to the security office, there are security cameras throughout the apartment so this is where they can be monitored. The staff also have a kitchen and living room to share but their own en suite bedrooms at either side of the living room."
"This place is huge."
"I look after my staff as much as I can, they do a lot for me."
"It's a great place Christian, I love it."
"You said you've had a long week, do you want to eat at the dining table or in the living room or media room so we can watch a movie?"
"The living room? I want to look out over the city."
"Whatever you want Anastasia."
I look up at him as he says those words and somehow I feel like they have more meaning to them than just letting me choose where we eat. I decide against questioning him though as Gail interrupts us at that moment.
"I've served dinner Sir, it's on the breakfast bar."
"Thank you so much Gail, I don't think we'll need anything else tonight so you can take the evening off."
"Thank you Mr Grey."
She leaves us alone in the kitchen and carry the food into the living room and place it on the coffee table.
"Hold on a second," he says before sprinting off in the direction of his bedroom. He returns a moment later with a fluffy grey blanket and drapes it over us, leaning back so that I can rest against him. He turns on the TV and hands the remote over to me.
"You're in charge Ana."
"Mr Grey I had you down as the ultimate control freak and yet you're letting me have control of the TV remote, I'm impressed."
I switch to TLC to watch some bullshit reality show that I can laugh at. We have watch a couple of episodes of Extreme Couponing in comfortable silence while we eat so I decide to take a quick glance at Christian and I'm surprised to see he is actually watching the show. Then he notices me watching him.
"What?"
"Nothing. I didn't have you down as a fan of this sort of stuff."
"I have never seen this before in my life but I like relaxing with you so I guess I'll suffer."
"You love it really, don't lie." I feel him chuckle and we fall into a comfortable silence once more as I feel myself getting sleepy.
Christian POV
I had every intention of showing Ana the playroom tonight but when she told me about the busy week she's had I thought better of it. In every other case I haven't been bothered how tired the girl was or how busy her week had been but with Ana it's different. Everything is different with her. She catches me off guard constantly and I have to admit that 'snuggling' on the sofa with her this evening has been very comforting and relaxing which isn't something I'm used to. Could we have a relationship? Who am I kidding? BDSM is what I need, it's my coping mechanism, it's my therapy. I look down at Ana and see that she has fallen asleep on me. I'll let her sleep. Tomorrow the games begin.
Ana POV
I woke up on the sofa under a blanket and on top of Christian. Hmm, not a bad way to wake up. We spent most of the morning watching cartoons before Christian said that he had some paperwork to sort out and that I could use one of the guest rooms to shower and change. He showed me into the room next to the one that we didn't go into yesterday. As soon as he left and I heard him walk down the stairs I timidly tip toed over to the mystery door and tried the handle but it was locked. It's driving me insane not knowing what is behind that door! I feel refreshed after I change into clean clothes and head to Christian's office. I knock on the door in case he is on an important call or something.
"Come in."
"I wondered what you wanted to do today, it looks really nice outside we could go for a walk and grab some lunch?"
"Sounds good, I'll grab a jacket." We head out and walk around Hyde Park for an hour or so before we get cold and walk back to his apartment via Harrods.
"Do you mind? Apparently they have some great new art just in this week and I haven't had a chance to look yet?"
"Not at all. I love interior design."
"Good, you can help me choose." Me choose art?! I know how much this stuff costs and even I don't trust my own judgment sometimes. It doesn't take long before something has caught my eye and Christian doesn't ask twice before he buys it. Before we leave, however, he catches sight of the gadgets. I roll my eyes at him. Thankfully he doesn't take long to look around but I think he was tempted by the hover-boards. I also catch him glancing over at the Tiffany & Co section of the jewellery floor and pick up the pace a little before something catches his eye. Honestly his impulse shopping is worse than mine!
As we get closer to his apartment he seems to tense up and get nervous. When we are inside he tells me to wait for him outside his office while he gets some paperwork. I watch him as he walks over to the dining table to place what looks like a contract on there and motions for me to follow him upstairs. We head towards the mystery door and he takes a key out of his pocket. Finally!
"Anastasia remember what I said yesterday, you can leave at any time."
"Just open the door Christian."
His hands are shaking a little as he places his hand on the handle and pushes it down. I don't look or step into the room until he turns the light on and then turns to look at me. My gaze is still at the floor until I am inside but once I look up I cannot hide my reaction.
"What the fuck?!"
I walk around the room. Canes, whips and handcuffs, oh my! The room is a sensual, deep red which is surprisingly calming. In the centre, dominating the room, is a four poster bed with satin sheets and opposite is a red leather chester sofa.
"Anastasia please say something."
"You're a sadist?"
"I'm a dominant."
"So you do this to women or women do this to you?"
"I do this to women, women who want me to?"
"I…I don't know what to say."
"Come, we'll sit at the dining table and talk over the contract I have ready for you."
"Sure, okay."
I follow him numbly downstairs and sit at the table. He explains the contract in great detail I'm sure but I can't concentrate on anything. I walk over to the fridge to get a bottle of water and sit on the steps from that lead from the lobby down to the living room.
"What do you think Ana?"
"I don't know."
"Well let's start with a simple question, when you've had sex before was there anything that you liked or didn't like?"
"I don't know, I've never…" I trail off without finishing the sentence and he looks at me in disbelief.
"You've don't other stuff though, right?"
I stay silent and look down at my hands.
"Anastasia are you a virgin?"
Again I stay silent but look up to meet his gaze and that is all the answer he needs.
"But you're so beautiful, men must throw themselves at you."
"Never any that I've wanted."
He leans forwards to kiss me before standing up and extending his hand to me which I take without thinking. He begins walking down the corridor to his bedroom.
"Where are we going?"
"To rectify the situation."
"I'm a situation? What does that mean?"
He stops walking and picks me up bridal style to carry me the rest of the way to his room. Oh my.
AN: Sorry to leave on that little bit of a cliffhanger but we all know what's *ahem* coming;) next chapter! I am trying to stay to the books as much as possible which includes borrowing a couple of lines here and there so I hope you don't mind. What would you guys think about a chapter made up of different character's POV (eg. Taylor, Gail, Ros...) let me know. As always thank you so much for your support and please favourite/follow/review/spread the word and enjoy! B x