Chapter 4: Breakfast with the Grey Wolf, Part 1
Anastasia was surprised to be the first of the trio to arrive at the Mile High Club for the breakfast meeting. She was shown into a private dining room that she'd never been in before. She ordered a pot of tea, and a minute later, the server brought her a pot of hot water with a box of tea bags. The Earl Grey caught her eye, and she opened it, staring at the word "Grey" on the packet. Damn it, get it together, Anastasia! She took a teabag out of the packet and placed it in the pot of water. Before the tea had time to get too strong, she started to pour it into the cup.
"Ms. Steele," the loud masculine voice from the door startled her, causing her to miss the cup and accidentally pour the hot tea on her fingers that were holding the stem of the cup.
"Shit!" she exclaimed before she could stop herself. The pain from her burning hand caused her to drop the cup, and it fell to the hardwood floor and shattered. "God damn it!" she muttered under her breath.
Christian strode towards her, smirking as he said, "You're a high-class publisher now, so I know you have more words in your vocabulary than profanity." As he got close to her, he realized why she had cursed. "Oh, shit, you've burned yourself. Did I cause that? I realize I scared the shit out of you and made you drop your cup, but I didn't know you burned yourself too." He grabbed her wrist so he could get a better look at her burnt fingers. "Damn it! That must hurt. Come!" He didn't let go of her wrist, but he wasn't forceful as he led her to a small restroom that adjoined the private dining room.
Anastasia was too flustered to wonder why a private dining room had its own ensuite restroom. She couldn't speak as Christian ran her burnt hand under the cold water. He was standing directly behind her, so close that she could feel something hard pushing against her ass, something that could only be his very prominent erection. He was still gripping her wrist with one hand, and the other was stroking her other arm, and then her hair. His scent was intoxicating, a citrusy, cinnamon, earthy mixture that made her feel like melting into a puddle on the floor. And then, he sniffed her.
"Did you just sniff me?" she asked, slowly gaining the ability to think again. She stared at him in the mirror in front of her.
"Ah, she speaks," he replied snarkily. "Yes, I did. You smell amazing. What is that? Vanilla? Coconut?" He smiled as maintained eye contact with her, making her suck in a breath. She'd never seen him smile before, and his handsome face was truly breathtaking when he did.
"My shampoo?" she asked innocently, trying again to tap down her feelings. "I don't know. Anyway, thank you for your help, Mr. Grey. I'm OK now." She tried to remove her hand from under the water, but he wouldn't allow her.
"You're not OK. Your hand is injured. Look how red your skin is. How can you say you're OK?"
Anastasia decided that it was time to address the reason they were having this breakfast meeting in the first place. "Mr. Grey, now I know that you actually enjoy making the skin of certain women turn red, so please don't bother yourself with my hand. I'm fine, really." She reached for the faucet with her uninjured hand and turned the water off before he could stop her.
Christian didn't blink an eye as he replied, still staring at her in the mirror, "If you're implying that it gives me joy to see any woman suffer from being burned by hot water, then you couldn't be further from the truth, Ms. Steele. I'm not into that particular kink. But I do admit that I'll take great joy in making your gorgeous ass red, when I finally give you the punishment that's long overdue. A fucking year and a half overdue."
Anastasia turned away from the sink and pushed him away, returning to the dining room just as BB arrived with the server.
Christian told the server, "Bring the full continental breakfast for all three of us. Add three servings of scrambled eggs and bacon. Coffee for the two of us, and a new pot of water and teacup for Ms. Steele. Also, send in a janitor to clean up the mess. We had an accident. And see if you can find an icepack for Ms. Steele's hand. She burned it."
"No bacon for me," BB corrected. "But yes to the eggs and everything else. Add some fresh fruit. Preferably berries."
The server wrote down the order and promised to bring an icepack and send in someone to clean up the broken cup on the floor.
"Well, good morning," BB said once the server had gone. "What happened to your hand, baby girl?" He walked over to Ana to get a closer look.
"I startled our girl and made her burn her hand and drop her cup," Christian admitted regrettably.
BB gently took Anastasia's wrist to examine her hand. "Damn, that's going to blister. Sorry, sweetness. Does it hurt badly?"
"I'll be OK," Anastasia assured BB. "We can go ahead and start the meeting, if that's OK." She took her seat at the table, and the men joined her. She didn't wait for either of them to speak as she continued, "Mr. Grey, I have a copy of the manuscript here which I printed for you. It includes my editorial comments, but there's no way Bennington Steele would ever consider publishing this… umm… work."
Christian took the offending manuscript from Anastasia. As he was examining it, a janitor came in and cleaned the floor. The server also brought an icepack for Anastasia's hand. Everyone was silent until both the janitor and server had left the room.
"Why did you say you'd never consider publishing this?" Christian asked Anastasia unemotionally. He was relieved but very curious as to why she was so determined not to publish it.
Anastasia seemed surprised by his question. She reminded him, "You should know after the agreement we made with you 18 months ago that we'll never publish anything that even mentions your name without your consent. I made that agreement because I knew you had the power to stop Bennington Steele from going anywhere if you wanted to. Thankfully, you accepted my offer and left me alone."
Little did she know that he hadn't left her alone at all. He had insisted on fully funded her and giving her free rent. But he wasn't ready to tell her any of that. He glanced back at the manuscript in his hand and asked her, "Couldn't you just take my name out of it and publish it anyway?"
Anastasia considered his question for a moment, shook her head adamantly, and replied, "This manuscript could be revised to take out any mention of you, but we still would never publish it, not under any circumstances. But that's your copy to keep, just so you know what Leila Williams has written about you. You need to…" She had to pause and rephrase because who was she to tell Christian Grey what he needed to do? "If I were in your shoes, Sir, I would take action against her to stop her from going to another publisher, one who might be more willing to print her garbage."
"That's good advice, Grey," BB told him. "You should listen to my girl."
Christian looked pissed off. Anastasia thought it was because he was being told to take advice from her, and he didn't like that. But it was actually because he didn't like hearing BB call Anastasia "his" girl. She was supposed to be Christian's girl, not BB's. BB didn't even like girls.
When Christian realized that his scowl was making Anastasia uncomfortable, he smiled at her again, which confused her even more. Was he doing that just to disarm her even more, she wondered. Did he know what his mere presence did to her?
"Tell me what she wrote," he demanded, but his tone was more gentle than was normal for him.
Anastasia gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I thought BB already gave you the gist of it. There aren't many reasons why I'd call BB in the middle of the night. I felt he needed to make you aware of this… umm... matter… as soon as possible."
Christian admitted, "Mr. Bennington did indeed call me early this morning, which is why we're having this meeting now. So yes, I have heard his version of the facts."
"My version of the facts?" BB repeated humorously. "Hell, man, I just told you that Leila Williams wrote a memoir about her experience as your submissive. I don't even know the facts, other than that."
"Well, that's the gist of it," Ana said. "I mean… do you want details? Now?"
"I want to hear a summary of the book from you," Christian insisted.
Anastasia sighed and rolled her eyes before she responded, "Fine, you want me to tell you all the gory details that Leila Williams wrote about you?"
"Watch your tone, girl," BB warned her.
"Sorry, Sir," Ana responded quickly. She took a calming breath before she turned toward Christian and told him, "I apologize for my tone, Sir. The book…" She had to stop again and take another deep breath. Talking about this directly to the Grey Wolf made her nervous. She knew he wasn't going to be happy, and she'd been on the receiving end of Christian Grey's bad temper. She didn't want to experience that again.
"Apology accepted," Christian told her. "I'm not angry with you, Princess. Not yet. I'll only get angry if you keep stalling."
Anastasia responded, "OK, Sir, the manuscript… The first part of it is actually pretty good. It's the kind of work we want to publish. I asked our Lifestyles editor to do a series on alternative lifestyles, and when she gave me this manuscript, you can imagine how interested I was in it, knowing what you know about me."
"Yes, Princess Rose," Christian responded with a smirk. "Keep going."
She couldn't keep going because the server brought their coffee and a fresh pot of hot water and teacup for Anastasia. This time, Christian insisted on pouring Anastasia's hot water for her. She took a new teabag and dunked it into the water. She took her time, using the distraction to collect her thoughts. Talking about this with the Grey Wolf himself was difficult!
Anastasia knew she was blushing, but hopefully neither Christian nor BB would comment on it. After taking a sip of tea, she continued. "The first six chapters are all about Leila's journey to self-identification. It's actually beautifully written, and it would give outsiders a more favorable view into the mind of a submissive. It's the kind of thing I'm looking for… to give the general public a more positive perspective towards BDSM, because we have too many critics."
"Do you honestly believe it'll make a difference?" BB asked her doubtfully.
Anastasia replied, "I do. And if that were what this book were really about, I'd be all for it. But then, when she gets to Chapter Seven, she starts naming names. She not only gives the full names of her former Doms but also gives details about their professional lives. You aren't the only one, Mr. Grey. There were five Doms before you, before she met Mistress Elena and then you. But you are the only name people would recognize. And she outs you as the Grey Wolf, because that's how she met you, at Down Under. She describes in vivid detail how she was trained by Mistress Elena, who apparently groomed her for you."
"And she named Elena too?" Christian asked angrily.
"Careful, Princess," BB warned Ana. He knew how both Anastasia and Jose felt about that evil woman, and while he agreed with them, he had warned both of them to never speak disparagingly about another Dominant or Dominatrix, even a bad one, even her.
"Yes, Sir, she did," Anastasia confirmed. She didn't question why Christian sounded so defensive of Elena, at least not verbally. Instead, she continued, "Then, in Chapter Eight, she writes mostly about her contract with you. Every detail, from your rules and how she felt about them to all of her hard and soft limits."
"Shit," Christian spat. "I would never have wanted you of all people to read that."
Anastasia assumed that he wouldn't want her to read his contract because he wasn't interested in taking her as his submissive, and she felt disappointed. Christian, however, wanted an entirely new contract with Anastasia, different than anything he'd ever done before. Months of talking with BB, especially their latest conversation less than a week ago, had informed him of what Princess Rose wanted in a Dom, and he had made up his mind that he wanted to give her what she wanted, not what he had always done with those other women. Truth be told, he needed a change, and the idea of something new with Princess Rose excited him.
Anastasia didn't respond to Christian's comment. Instead, she cleared her throat again and continued. Only her trembling voice gave away her nerves. It didn't slow her down. "Chapters Nine through Twelve are all about her first three months with you. She includes many details about your scenes and how they impacted her, as well as how you interacted with her when you weren't in a scene, and all of the things that you purchased her."
"Probably not all the shit you purchased her," BB commented dryly. "That would have likely filled another manuscript."
Christian sighed. He told BB, "Of all the people who could have read all that, it had to be Anastasia. The last person in the world I would want to know…"
"You should be glad it was her," BB reminded him. "You can be certain she'll never out you. She's a good girl. She'll respect you and keep your secrets."
"Yes, Sir, I will," Ana promised. "And like I said earlier, I would never even consider publishing something as offensive as this manuscript."
"Why does it offend you, Anastasia?" he asked her curiously. "It's about me. Why does that matter to you?"
The server seemed to have perfect timing, as he knocked at the door and entered with several trays on a cart. After placing all of the trays on the table, the server left them alone once again. Christian didn't hesitate to fill Anastasia's plate with scrambled eggs, bacon, and a buttery croissant.
"Thank you, Sir," Ana told him. She was actually thinking that it was too much food, but she didn't complain. She glanced at BB, who didn't say anything but his face showed approval. Good.