Chapter 7: A List of Reasons to Say No, Part 2

Christian glared at Anastasia for a moment, but then he backed down. "Fine... for now. I won't ask you about Elena as long as you're still under BB's protection. But be warned, Princess, as soon as you agree to be mine, I'm going to ask you again, and then, disparaging or not, you will tell me exactly what you meant, and what you think of my friend Elena Lincoln."

Anastasia still looked nervous. "Why, Sir? Why does it matter what I think about her, or any of your other acquaintances."

"I don't know," Christian admitted. "But I have to know. But it can wait. For now, I have another question. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about your list. We'll get back to it. But I need to know something about Leila Williams' fucking manuscript. You told me this morning that the first part of it was good, and that you'd publish it if it weren't for the rest of the book. So why don't you just get rid of the rest of the book and publish the first part?"

"No, absolutely not," Anastasia answered adamantly. "Leila Williams has one objective, and one only. I'm not even certain she wrote the first six chapters. If we were to publish it, then we would expect her to give public appearances to promote it. That's exactly what she wants, I'm sure. Even if we edit the manuscript so that there's no mention of you or any of the other Doms, she can't be trusted not to out you when she speaks. It's too dangerous. I'll never put you in that kind of danger."

"Never?" Christian asked. There was a challenge in his voice.

Anastasia looked confused. "Of course not. How can you even ask me that, especially if you're serious about having me as your sub? We have to trust each other."

Christian studied her face as if it were a science experiment. "Do you realize that you have this tiny little wrinkle between your eyebrows when you're confused? It's the cutest thing I've ever seen. It makes me want to say more things to confuse you, just so I can see that wrinkle. I want to kiss that wrinkle."

His words confused Anastasia even more, because she was expecting an answer to her question, not a comment about a wrinkle on her face, of all things. As a result, that wrinkle between her eyebrows grew larger, and the next thing she knew, Christian's lips were kissing her face, first there, between her eyes, and then her closed eyelids, and then her lips, first softly and tenderly, as if he were just tasting her, and then with more passion than she had ever even imagined, much less actually experienced. He had slipped off the edge of the sofa where he'd been sitting and pulled her to her feet, and he was kissing her like she'd never been kissed in her life. This was much, much more than the kiss this morning had been. It had been good, but this was better than good. She saw stars behind her closed eyes. She had no idea how long the kiss lasted, but it wasn't long enough. When Christian finally ended the kiss, he didn't move away from her right away. He licked her lips with the tip of his tongue, and rubbed her nose with his. It took some time for her to realize that he was grasping both of her hands behind her back. She wasn't sure when he'd done that, but she liked how it felt.

Finally, he was the first to speak. "I've been wanting to do that since I walked into the room and saw you in that dress, with that pink lip gloss. I knew when I tasted you this morning that I'd want more, and believe me, Anastasia, I want more. Is that intimate enough for you, Princess?"

"Mmm… yes. Yes, Sir." She couldn't think straight, her lips were still tingling, and she wanted him to kiss her again. But somewhere, in the back of her mind, she remembered. She spoke her thoughts. "The Grey Wolf never, ever kisses his subs," Anastasia answered breathlessly, still in shock.

"Fuck the Grey Wolf," Christian responded. "He's a fucking moron. Was that some more of the bullshit that you overheard in the ladies' room?" he asked.

"Yes, Sir" she admitted. "And it's also in your contract," she reminded him. "Chapter Eight."

"Fuck that fucking contract and the whole fucking manuscript" he said. "I already told you that I want something completely different with you. We're going to draft a whole new contract, nothing like anything I've ever had with any of them."

Anastasia still stared at him in shock. "You'll forgive me, Sir, if it takes me some time to digest all of this. You want to put your training collar on me. You want a TPE relationship... and that is what it will be, you do realize that, don't you? A relationship. With me. Not just a fucking arrangement."

Christian nodded. "Yes, that is what I intend... I think. I've never done this kind of thing, as you are obviously well aware, Anastasia. I'm not sure what you even mean by the term 'relationship.' But I have relationships with my mother and my sisters, so I assume you mean something like that. Except, unlike any of them, I am going to fuck you. A lot."

Anastasia considered his words for a moment. "We still have a problem though. I can't do it. You're forgetting about Number Four. How could you do that to me then and think I would do this with you now? I can't, Christian. You hurt me. You almost destroyed me. I loved my job, and you were heartless. Over what? It was just a simple biography, not anything invasive, and besides, I didn't even have a choice."

This was something he had been waiting eighteen months to set straight. "It wasn't a simple biography, Anastasia. Not if Cassandra Mason was the one commissioned to write it."

"Who the hell is Cassandra Mason?" Anastasia asked. "The author we commissioned was named Alice Woodlawn."

"Alice Woodlawn was one of my employees until she retired. Cassandra Mason was a former sub. Here, Princess, take a look." Christian unlocked his phone and tapped it a few times. When he showed it to her, she recognized the face of Alice Woodlawn, the woman she had interviewed and hired to write Christian's biography. "This is Cassandra Mason," Christian told her.

"No it isn't. It's Alice Woodlawn," Anastasia insisted.

Christian took his phone back and tapped some more keys as he said, "I think I know the difference between my own fucking employee, who was old enough to be my grandma, and who I never fucked, and my fucking submissive, who I did fuck over a period of six weeks until I ended the contract." He handed the phone back to Anastasia and told her, "That is Alice Woodlawn."

Anastasia stared at the face of a sixty-something year old woman whom she had never seen before. "Oh my God," was all she could say. She stared at the image of Alice Woodlawn longer than necessary. "Oh my God! Cassandra Majors... or whatever you said her name was... she was your... oh, shit! Shit! And you're telling me, I hired your former... to write your... Oh my God!"

"Cassandra Mason," Christian corrected. "And yes, you hired my former sub, who convinced you of her false identity for one purpose: to get close to me, because I had rejected her and she wanted me back. She was using you."

"But I did her background check myself," Anastasia insisted. "I checked all her references, and everything checked out. I even called GEH to check into her employment history. I would never... I didn't mean... Surely, you know I wouldn't..."

"You were young, Anastasia, only what? 21? Straight out of college, barely even legal."

"I'm only a few years younger than you, Christian," Anastasia argued.

"I was around 25 at the time," he agreed. "But I've never exactly been normal."

"You were already a billionaire," Anastasia agreed.

"True," he acknowledged. "I reached billionaire status by the age of 24."

"So, your point is that I was too naive. I get it. All this time, I thought you were being an asshole…"

"Yes, and I'm going to punish you for that as soon as you're mine," he promised her.

"But I didn't call you one," she argued. "I said I thought you were being one."

"Stop being argumentative," he ordered her. "Unless you're doing it on purpose, so I'll punish you even more. I know you're looking forward to it almost as much as I am."

Anastasia blew out an air of frustration, which made Christian snigger. "We're going to have so much fun together, Princess," he told her. "Anyway, yes, my point is that you were too naive. I think you've grown up a lot in the past year, and having BB as your protector has been good for you. At the time, you'd obviously never encountered this kind of deceit, and you didn't recognize it for what it was."

"You're being nice to me now because you want to dominate me, but you were so mean to me back then. I guess I understand why now. But I didn't know. Honestly. And my boss was threatening me on one side while you were threatening me on the other. I was in a no-win situation."

"I know that now," Christian responded. "At the time, I thought you were being malicious, working with her. I thought you were working with your asshole boss, not just for him. BB convinced me otherwise, because he knew you, and he also knew about what Hyde was doing. We took care of him. Anyway, that's the only reason I went along with BB's plan, because he convinced me that you were innocent. I wasn't trying to ruin you, Anastasia. I thought you were trying to help Cassandra Mason and Jack Hyde, and I was trying to protect my own interests."

"I get it," Anastasia said. "But what did you mean... about my boss? What happened to Jack Hyde?"

Christian answered, "When I purchased SIP, he was the first person to go. And I made sure he couldn't find another job in publishing anywhere on the West Coast. He moved back East, back to whatever hellhole he came from." Christian didn't even consider telling Anastasia the rest of the story regarding Jack Hyde. It wasn't something she needed to know.

"I thought I was the first person to go," Anastasia muttered.

"You left before I'd finalized the deal," Christian responded, with no malice. "And for the record, I wasn't planning to fire you. I thought I made that clear at the time. You were just too proud to work for me, because of what you thought you knew about me. You thought I was being a hard-ass with the deal I set up with BB, but you didn't even stop to consider that I was actually working with him to set up this publishing house, not just for your own protection, but also to help you accomplish your dreams, because by that point, I knew you were innocent. You chose to belief the worst about me. And that, my sweet girl, is what I intend to punish you for. I can hardly wait to get my hands on your luscious ass."

Anastasia looked dumbfounded. "You worked with BB to set up Bennington Steele? To protect me? You cared about my accomplishing my dreams? But... that doesn't make sense. You were so mean to me, even after the contracts were signed."

"Only because you were being a bitch," Christian responded matter-of-factly, still with no malice. "You were so high and mighty, thinking you were a fucking victim of the evil tyrant Christian Grey. I just gave you what you obviously already expected. You'll find, Princess, that I really don't give a shit what people think of me. If you chose to hate me, I really didn't have a reason to change your opinion. Not then, anyway."

In hindsight, Anastasia knew that what he said was true. "I'm sorry," she told him quietly.

Christian gave Anastasia a chaste kiss on her lips. "You're forgiven," he said. "So... what do you think? Can we let bygones be bygones?"

Anastasia didn't answer immediately. "I guess... I still need a minute to wrap my head around this. Everything I thought was true... apparently wasn't. Did BB know the truth... about the woman I hired?"

"Yes, of course he knew," Christian answered. "But he couldn't tell you who she really was, for obvious reasons. You weren't even in the lifestyle yet, and even if you had been, BB would have never broken my confidence. Very few people know I'm in the lifestyle, and even fewer know I'm the Grey Wolf. In fact, none of my subs in the past year haven't known my true identity. After this," Christian pointed at the manuscript, "I'm glad I've kept it that way."

"So BB was protecting both of us," Anastasia pondered.

"It is who he is," Christian acknowledged. "I've never had a friend I trusted more with my secrets. And I think he's been a damn good protector to you. He's kept the assholes at Down Under away from you."

"Including you," BB teased as he walked into the room.

Christian laughed, and then said with a straight face, "You're not keeping me away from her anymore, though, are you, Bear?"

"That's up to her now," BB responded.

"Did you just laugh?" Anastasia asked Christian.

"I think I did," he answered. "Why? Do you have a problem with that?"

"Not at all," she replied. "It's just... until today, I've never even seen you smile. I've never heard you laugh. I like it. A lot. I think I want to make you laugh more."

Christian stared at Anastasia until she started to get uncomfortable. He wasn't smiling, and she wondered if she had screwed up.

But then, Christian then smiled at her, almost tenderly. "I have a feeling I'm going to be laughing more. That is, if you accept."

"Are we talking about a training collar, and all that it entails?" BB clarified.

"That's what you told me she wanted, so yeah, if that's what she wants." He turned to Anastasia and asked, "Right?"

"If that pleases you, Sir," Anastasia answered sweetly.