It was just another day in a long line of days. I woke up, worked out, showered, put on a suit and my grey tie. I went to the office, made some calls. Closed a deal that was dragging on forever, grateful it was over, ten thousand jobs hanging in the balance.

I didn't see her coming and I always see everything coming. Well at least I used to. I was going through security footage with Welsh, looking for gaps. Bouncing around all the extra security cameras we had placed throughout the building. Trying to figure out how Leila was able to get into my office after hours undetected. It had been nearly two months and he nor I couldn't figure it out and I wasn't like I could just go and ask her. We had spent hour after hour for weeks, making sure a breech like that couldn't happen again.

"Mr. Grey, I really believe that she got in during the day in a crowd and hid until after hours. That is the only logical explanation." He sat there, eyes fixed on the screen.

"If that the case then why couldn't your men find her on any of the lobby footage from that day? No Welsh. She got in through the service entrance, of that I am certain but how she got all the way up here and not be caught on camera. That is the thing that keeps me up at night. If a deranged woman can do it…"

"Then anyone can. Oh sir, lets keep looking." We had added cameras, to all the service entrances, at every elevator on each floor, in the back hallways that were never used for anything but fire drills and deliveries. The freight elevators, the kitchens and cafeterias the laundry rooms, and even the sitting rooms of the gym. Anyplace there wasn't a camera there was now. I hired ten more guards on each shift to keep up with the new footage. Now Welsh and I went to task and finding what the cameras couldn't see and no one knew my building better then I did.

I saw her sitting in the atrium, legs curled up on one of the chairs, reading. Even in the grainy black and white film she glowed. She twisted her long dark hair around her finger, fully engaged in what ever she was reading, biting on her lower lip. It was like a sirens call, drawing me towards her. I was powerless with want for her.

"I think that is enough for today Welsh. See what else you can find. I expect a report when I get back from California on Friday." He nodded as he collected his things and made his way out the door. I exhaled loudly, grateful to be alone for a moment. Ever since Leila, I had not been sleeping. The nightmares growing more and more intense with each passing night; without my usual outlet for my angst and energy I felt trapped by it. I lifted my jacket off the back of my chair and put it on in one motion. I made my way to the atrium, knowing I was about to start something I had no business starting.


She was still there, perched in her chair, reading… ahhh of course Wuthering Heights. Being close to her I could feel this surge pumping through me, unlike anything I had ever experienced before. My muscles tightened, my cock hardened.

"There are starving children that would kill for that salad." Not the best opening line, I know but effective none the less.

"Uh… I will get to it eventually." I looked at the salad and then at me. Her deep blue eyes making me her meal. I could tell she felt the attraction to, her face was an open book. I couldn't take my eyes off of her, the small lean body, delicate hands, her skin was soft and pale. I could almost feel it under my hands, watching it redden from my unkind touch. I clenched my fists.

"You're new here."

"I work in marketing."

"Ah, I see marketing. That's on the fortieth floor. How did you find this place?"

"Oh, well a friend of mine interviewed the owner months ago. She got a tour and said this was the crown jewel of the building." Interview, Interview. Yes Kate Kavanaugh. Rich, attractive, pushy, blond, asked me if I was gay. Well she was right about one thing, this was the crown jewel of the building. I had designed it myself.

"She interviewed the owner?" I should have just revealed myself, I should have told her who I was. But I was enjoying my anonymity a little too much. Usually when I talk to a female in the office they are swooning and batting their overly mascara laden lashes at me.

"Yes, Christian Grey." I loved how my name sounded coming from her mouth. I knew in the very near future she would be screaming it as I fucked her.

"Ahhh, of course. And you have never met him? Christian Grey?"

"Nope. Well, my time is up. Got to get back to the grind."

She slipped her heels back on to her feet with such grace and then like a baby doe she wobbled. My instinct kicked in. I had my hands at her waist and it was like being hit with lightening bolt. I wanted to fuck her right there and then. I could feel myself harden at the thought and I couldn't even bother to control it. He cheeks turned bright pink, which was not helping matters. I wanted to bend her over the chair, lift her skirt…

"Uh, thanks." She interrupted my thoughts, bringing me back to reality. All these months with out a sub was taking it toll. The girls I picked up in the clubs were not the same as a real sub. Someone who I knew, someone who knew me. But even a sub had its issues and landmines. I was not sure if I could do it anymore. Despite how much I needed it.

"It was my pleasure Miss…"

"Steele, Ana Steele." Ana Steele, her name lingered in my head as she walked away. Then she turned and smiled and I knew without a doubt I would make her mine.

"I didn't catch your name. Mr…" Fuck, I don't want her to know, not yet. She is not the girl who would be impressed by all of this.

"Chris, my name is Chris."

"Well, thanks again Chris. It was nice to meet you." I watched her perfect body walk away, still feeling the energy pulsing from her body to mine. I cracked my neck, and smiled. This was going to be fun.


"So Christian how are you doing?" Flynn looked at me over his glasses.

"Not good. Not good at all." I sat back in the chair, exhausted.

"Still not sleeping?"

"No." I would get an hour or two and then wake up in a panicked sweat, only to lie awake for another hour just to calm down. On these nights I would take to my piano, and play the demons to sleep, soothing them back to the darkest corners of my mind.

"I know you don't want me to prescribe you anything but maybe you should reconsider."

"Out of the question, I will not become dependent on drugs to sleep. Why don't you do your job a little better." I was losing my patience. I had been seeing Flynn for years, he was one of the few therapists that actually did something to help me but in light of recent events I felt like maybe I needed a change. Maybe he knew me too well to be effective. Maybe it was easier talking to someone who didn't know me so well.

"Christian, first of all you would not be dependent on them, you would use them briefly to get yourself back on track and second I can only do as much as you are willing to do. If you don't want to discuss Leila's suicide then I can't help you work though it."

"What is there to talk about, she put a gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger and I had a front row seat. There is nothing more to say." The sound of her teeth knocked into the metal of the gun, her hands shaking. Then the snap of her pulling the trigger, the explosion that followed. It happened so quickly, I remember screaming out her name, but it was too late. She fell to the floor, carnage surrounding her. Her last words lingering in my head, maybe they would be forever.

"I don't agree. You said once that you felt responsible for her, why don't we talk about that."

"Well, I was her Dom, I mean this is not news Flynn. When we were together I took care of her every need and want except for the one thing she really needed… Me… she loved me and I didn't feel the same way… And then she killed herself." I crossed my arms against my chest, disgusted with myself, disgusted with my past.

"You are skipping over her marriage, her affair and the death of her lover. There were many factors leading to the day she found herself in that motel room with a gun in her mouth. Things that had nothing to do with you."

Deep down I knew he was right but he wasn't there that night. He didn't see the light gone from her eyes, the hollow shell she had become. When I was with her she was funny and creative, always humming and laughing. But in her last moments she was an empty haunted creature and I couldn't deny the part that I played in that.

"But she came to me…because I always kept her safe. Until I didn't. I don't want to talk about this anymore. I want to talk about today." I pushed the thoughts of the past out of my mind and focused on the future.

"What happened today?"

"I met someone." Ana Steele… I couldn't stop thinking about her, no matter how hard I tried.

"A new sub? I thought you were trying to stay away from that for now."

"I am and she is not sub material. At all. That is the problem." He jotted a quick note in his book and then looked at me with question in his eyes.

"What kind of material is she?"

"Girlfriend material."

"Why is that a problem?'

"Because I don't want a girlfriend."

"Maybe you do Christian, maybe you do."