CHAPTER 10

Ana, Christian and Roz walked into the conference room one at a time. He grabbed an extra chair from the corner of the room and sat it next to his chair at the head of the table. Andrea walked in and sat in a chair by the wall to take the minutes. Ana paused letting Christian get settled and was standing looking around at everyone before she was going to sit down. A woman walked by her, literally pushing her out of the way to get to the chair. Ana was surprised at the audacity to touch her person. The woman sat right next to Christian and glared at Ana, throwing her nose in the air.

Christian saw it all and said bluntly, "That's not your seat, Miss Laramie."

The woman looked surprised and simpered, "But I always sit next to you, Mr. Grey."

Christian said hard, "The seat is reserved. Find another, now!" The woman jumped and scurried away to another chair further away. Christian looked serious like a Dom at Ana and gave her the 'Come here' finger sign. She smirked at him and walked up slowly to the chair, gracefully sat down and sexily crossed her legs getting comfortable. Everyone at the table was watching her and wondering who she was.

Roz stood up and said, "Good morning, everyone. We have a visitor today, Miss Anastasia Steele, sitting in with Mr Grey. Let's get the meeting started with this week's agenda. Mr. Reed, Director of the Accounting Department. You're up." She sat back down.

Mr. Reed and every department after gave their reports and weekly schedules. Christian had Roz, Ana and Mr Thomas from the Auditing Department stayed on Christian's request. Christian said, when the door was closed, "Mr Thomas, I need you to expedite an audit on all three Esclava salons. I want us completely severed from the company before Friday. I am having the lawyers draw up the paperwork this morning when I get back to my office."

Roz asked, "Why?"

Christian said, "We have to distance our company from Elena Lincoln before Friday when they legally serve complete separation papers to her. Something shady is coming and we have to move fast. I don't care what overtime or how many people you need to put on it. I want it done faster if possible. Do you understand?"

Mr Thomas said firmly, "I understand, Mr Grey. I'll go to my desk and get right on it. If you'll excuse me, please." Mr Thomas left the conference room and closed the door.

Roz asked concerned, "Christian,what the hell is going on?"

Christian said exhaling, "Elena has been doing so shady shit is all I can say and we don't want any part of her anymore. I don't want her bringing down my company with her."

Roz said disgustedly, "I never could stand that old bitch. She hovered around every time Gwen and I were in her spa. She always creeped my ass out. I don't know how your family could stand her." Ana had just sat back listening to everything.

Roz asked curiously, "Does Ana know all about all of this shady stuff?"

Christian said, sighing, "She's the one who discovered it all."

Roz was surprised and looked at Ana, "How do you know Elena?"

Ana shrugged and said, "The first time I laid eyes on her was Friday night."

Roz laughed and said, "You figured her shit out in a weekend while everyone else has put up with her ass for years with no clue? Yes, you need to work for us. We could definitely use someone smart, shrewd and savvy working for us."

Christian said standing up buttoning his suit jacket, "Let's go. I have to talk to the lawyers." They all stood up. They began walking to the door.

Roz said to Ana, "Tell you what, if you get any negative vibes off anyone I can point out. You can find out if they are shady for me." They turned down the hallway.

Christian laughed and said, "That will cover half the managers in the building up to me."

Roz smirked and said, "Be quiet, you're the shadiest person in the building and we all know you." They all three laughed, as they were going their separate ways.

Christian asked for two coffees and got on his phone with his corporate lawyers. Ana was looking at another acquisition file while he was busy. Ana wrote up another report analysis on that company like she did before along with any errors.

—--

At noon time, Christian took Ana to the restaurant the Pink Door. Taylor drove them there. They were seated immediately.

As they were eating, Christian asked, "Are you really going to go to HR today?"

Ana said seriously, "I told Roz I would, didn't I? Besides, it's fun. You could hire me as an acquisition consultant. Then I will have access to your department's information and work the numbers better. I would work on your picks of buy, liquidate or dump. I can then give you a more in depth analysis on the cause of the company failure and weed out any liabilities once you resume ownership." Christian was impressed because that would definitely drop risk percentages.

He said firmly, "Then you will go with me to the meetings for negotiations, travel with me, come to all of the company and charity functions as my companion." She smiled and cocked her head looking at him as she chewed her bite.

Ana rolled her eyes and said, "Geez Christian."

He said, shrugging his shoulders, "What?"

Ana said incredulously, "The consulting, sitting in on negotiations and possible travel is one thing. You want me to play the girlfriend in public at all events too?"

He said wondering what's wrong with it, "Yeah, then you can beat up the women that try to touch me." She started laughing at him and snorted. He started laughing now.

Ana said, shaking her head in disbelief, "You're so messed up, Christian. I am not G.I. Joe Barbie with the kung fu grip there to defend your honor or something. You have bodyguards for that crap."

Christian said slyly, "That may be true, but you would look so sexy defending my person and teaching those women that I'm hands off."

Ana looked at him with her eyebrow up and said, "Your person?... Your person is incorrigible. Your person is going to ask me if I'm available for events as they happen, because I'm not your girlfriend, but perhaps your employee."

He shrugged and asked, "Do you want to be?"

Ana asked, taken off guard, "Wanna be what?"

He said seriously, "My girlfriend?"

She said seriously looking him in the eyes, "Are you thinking you're ready for that yet? You haven't cut ties with Elena yet. Do you have a shrink because you haven't dealt with your issues yet?" Christian was looking disappointed.

He said looking down, "I have a guy therapist."

Ana said seriously, "I tell you what, let's get through this crap this week that will go into next week. You see your shrink a couple times a week and when he thinks you're ready, you'll ask me again, ok?" He nodded and looked at her with a hopeful look in his eyes. She didn't want to say no.

She said, "If an event comes up I'll go with you as your friend, will that do for now?" He nodded yes.

—--

When they returned from lunch, he walked with her through the lobby as everyone stared and stood by the elevator. Ana was taking off her fur coat and hanging it over her arm. Christian said in front of the elevator, smirking to her, "I'll see you soon." He grabbed her quickly, kissed her deeply with tongue, as all these people were looking and gasping. Taylor had used his key to bring the executive elevator to the lobby.

Christian broke the kiss and caressed her cheek. He smiled at a stunned Ana and said, "See you soon, baby." He turned and went in the elevator and smiled at her as the door closed. Ana stood there blinking and turned to go down the hallway to HR. She thought, shaking her head and huffed, 'What the hell was that about? He did that in front of all those people to mark me as his. Damn, dominants are always taking control somehow. Men!'

Ana filled out her application and resume, then went back up to Christian's office. When she got to the desk, Olivia was there covering lunch for Andrea. Olivia stood up blocking Ana from going into Christian's office. She hautely said, "You need to wait over there. Mr Grey is in a conference." She pointed to the waiting area.

Ana was surprised at this girl's attitude that was all timid this morning Ana said, "I know. I've been shadowing him all morning."

Olivia said snottily, "So, you need to have a seat and wait until he's done." Ana hung up her own coat and strutted to the chair in the waiting area and crossed her legs sitting comfortably with her arm up under her chin.

Ana said to Olivia, "You know he's going to chew you up and spit you out for this, right?" Olivia stuck her chin in the air and ignored her.

Ana said, shrugging, "Your funeral." Ana relaxed and started flipping through magazines.

Two handsome professional men in suits came up to the desk and the one with dark hair and blue eyes handed Olivia a piece of paper and said, "Can you have Andrea go over this?"

Olivia gushed, "Oh yes, Mr Stevens." She looked at the other man and said coyly, "Hello Mr Hyde."

Mr Stevens said, "Thanks." Hyde ignored her and zeroed in on Ana sitting in the waiting area. He nudged Stevens to get his attention. Stevens looked and had a big grin on his face.

Stevens walked over to Ana and said seductively, "Hello, beautiful. What's your name? I'm Matt Stevens." He put his manicured hand out to her.

Hyde sat down next to her. He leaned into her personal space and said, "My you are a pretty flower. I'm Jack Hyde." Ana hated guys like these that thought they were God's gift to women.

Ana looked at Hyde and looking at his mouth said, wrinkling her nose, "Did you brush your teeth today? You have gunk stuck between them." Hyde backed off and stopped smiling.

She whispered to the Stevens guy with a friendly smile, "Sorry, I haven't had my sex change yet. I'm a male lesbian still."

Christian and a man came out of his office. Christian was surprised to see Ana sitting in the waiting area with a magazine and said, "Where have you been? We were waiting for you to come back to my office." He looked at Stevens and Hyde by Ana and got jealous.

Christian said with authority, "What the hell are you two doing sitting in my waiting area! Get back to work!" Both men left.

Ana stood up and said looking at Olivia and, "The stuck up princess over there, said I had to wait out here until you were done. She even physically blocked me from entering your office." Olivia was glaring at her.

Christian said angrily, "Olivia, the next time you stop Anastasia from entering my office, you can pick up your last paycheck! Do you understand?!" Olivia cowered.

Olivia said timidly, "Yes, Mr Grey."

Christian held out his hand and said, "Come, Anastasia." Ana walked to him, taking her hand.

He led her into the office, closed the door and said, "Stupid girl. I only hired her as a favor to Senator Blandino. Were those two morons hitting on you?"

Ana sat down and said matter of factly, "Oh Christian, she's just like all those women in the lobby. They drool everytime you walk by. Those two were hitting on me. The one guy Hyde, I asked if he brushed his teeth because he had gunk stuck in them. I told Stevens that I hadn't had my sex change yet and am a male lesbian still." She crossed her legs.

Christian chuckled and asked, "You did?"

Ana said seriously, "Yeah, I did. And what was that kiss in the lobby all about? You were marking your territory like a wolf peeing on every tree down there."

Christian laughed and said, "No only one tree."

Ana smirked and said, "I thought so. Damn dominant. So what's next on your agenda today?"

Christian said smiling, "Mr Thomas said that he will have the audit results Esclava Wednesday. Roz is at lunch and I want you to look at the other three files I have here on Emerson Tech, Graves Industries and Blackwood Electronics."

Ana said seriously, "I can do the reports on my laptop and send it to you by email to print them?"

Christian said, walking over to the bigger table by the bar and laying the files down. Ana took her laptop to the table and sat down. She booted up and logged in. She started going through the files. They worked steadily through the afternoon.