Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades #3)(81)
Author: E.L. James

"You are," I whisper. I lean down and kiss the corner of his mouth.

He closes his eyes and tightens his arms around me.

"Christian, you are. You made this weekend so special – in spite of what happened to Ray. Thank you."

He opens his large, serious gray eyes, and his expression tugs at my heart.

"Because I love you," he murmurs.

"I know. I love you, too." I reach up and caress his face. "And you’re precious to me, too. You do know that, don’t you?"

His stills, looking lost.

Oh, Christian . . . My sweet Fifty.

"Believe me," I whisper.

"It’s not easy." His voice is almost inaudible.

"Try. Try hard, because it’s true." I stroke his face once more, my fingers brushing against his sideburns. He gazes at me, eyes wide, gray oceans of loss and hurt and pain. I want to climb into his body and hold him. Anything to stop that look. When will he realize that he means the world to me? That he’s more than worthy of my love, the love of his parents – his siblings? I have told him over and over, and yet here we are as Christian gives me his lost, abandoned look. Time. It will just take time.

"You’ll get cold. Come." He rises gracefully to his feet and pulls me up to stand beside him. I slip my arm around his waist as we wander back into the bedroom. I won’t push him, but since Ray’s accident, it’s become more important to me that he knows how much I love him. As we enter the bedroom, I frown, desperate to recover the very welcome lighthearted mood of only a few moments ago.

"Shall we watch TV?" I ask.

Christian snorts. "I was hoping for round two." And my mercurial Fifty is back. I arch my brow and stop by the bed.

"Well, in that case, I think I’ll be in charge."

He gapes at me. I push him onto the bed and quickly straddle him, pinning his hands down beside his head.

He grins up at me. "Well, Mrs. Grey, now you’ve got me. What are you going to do with me?"

I lean down and whisper in his ear, "I am going to f**k you with my mouth."

He closes his eyes, inhaling sharply, and I run my teeth gently along his jaw.

Christian is working at the computer. It’s a bright early morning, and he’s tapping out an e-mail, I think.

"Good morning," I murmur shyly from the doorway. He turns and smiles at me.

"Mrs. Grey. You’re up early." He holds open his arms. I bolt across the suite and curl into his lap. "As are you."

"I was just working." He shifts as he kisses my hair.

"What?" I ask, sensing something wrong.

He sighs. "I got an e-mail from Detective Clark. He wants to talk to you about that f**ker Hyde."

"Really?" I sit back to gaze at Christian.

"Yes. I told him you’re in Portland for the time being, so he’ll have to wait. But he says he’d like to interview you here."

"He’s coming here?"

"Apparently so." Christian looks bemused.

I frown. "What’s so important that can’t wait?"

"Exactly."

"When’s he coming?"

"Today. I’ll e-mail him back."

"I have nothing to hide. I wonder what he wants to know?"

"We’ll find out when he gets here. I’m intrigued, too." Christian shifts again. "Breakfast will be here shortly. Let’s eat, then we can go and see your dad."

I nod. "You can stay here if you want. I can see you’re busy."

He scowls. "No, I want to come with you."

"Okay." I grin, and wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him.

Ray is bad-tempered. It’s a joy. He’s itchy, scratchy, impatient, and uncomfortable.

"Dad, you’ve been in a major car accident. It will take time to heal. Christian and I want to move you to Seattle."

"I don’t know why you’re bothering with me. I’ll be fine here on my own."

"Dad, don’t be ridiculous." I squeeze his hand fondly, and he has the grace to smile at me.

"Do you need anything?"

"I could murder a doughnut, Annie."

I grin indulgently at him. "I’ll get you a doughnut or two. We’ll go to Voodoo."

"Great!"

"You want some decent coffee, too?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Okay, I’ll go get some."

Christian is once more in the waiting room, talking on the phone. He really should set up office in here. Weirdly, he’s by himself, although the other ICU beds are occupied. I wonder if Christian’s frightened off the other visitors. He hangs up.

"Clark will be here at four this afternoon."

I frown. What could be so urgent? "Okay. Ray wants coffee and doughnuts."

Christian laughs. "I think I would too if I’d been in an accident. Ask Taylor to go."

"No, I’ll go."

"Take Taylor with you." His voice is stern.

"Okay." I roll my eyes at him, and he narrows his eyes. Then he smirks, and cocks his head to one side.

"There’s no one here." His voice is deliciously low, and I know he’s threatening to spank me. I am about to dare him, when a young couple enters the room. She is weeping softly.

I shrug apologetically at Christian, and he nods. Picking up his laptop, he takes my hand and leads me out of the room. "They need the privacy more than we do," Christian murmurs. "We’ll have our fun later."

Outside Taylor is waiting patiently. "Let’s all go get coffee and doughnuts."

At four o’clock precisely there’s a knock on the suite door. Taylor ushers in Detective Clark, who looks more bad-tempered than usual. He always seems to look bad-tempered. Perhaps it’s the way his face is set.

"Mr. Grey, Mrs. Grey, thank you for seeing me."

"Detective Clark." Christian shakes his hand and directs him to a seat. I sit down on the sofa where I enjoyed myself so much last night. The thought makes me blush.

"It’s Mrs. Grey I wish to see," Clark says pointedly to Christian and to Taylor stationed beside the door. Christian glances then nods almost imperceptibly at Taylor who turns and leaves, shutting the door behind him.

"Anything you wish to say to my wife you can say in front of me."

Christian’s voice is cool and businesslike. Detective Clark turns to me.

"Are you sure you’re happy for your husband to be present?"

I frown at him. "Of course. I have nothing to hide. You are just interviewing me?"

"Yes ma’am."

"I’d like my husband to stay."

Christian sits beside me, radiating tension.

"As you wish," murmurs Detective Clark, resigned. He clears his throat.

"Mrs. Grey, Mr. Hyde maintains that you sexually harassed him and made several lewd advances to him."

Oh! I almost burst out laughing, but put my hand on Christian’s knee to restrain him as he shifts forward in his seat.

"That’s preposterous," Christian splutters. I squeeze Christian’s wrist to silence him.

"That’s not true," I state calmly and matter-of-factly to Clark. "In fact, it was the other way around. He propositioned me in a very aggressive manner, and he was fired."

Detective Clark’s mouth flattens briefly into a thin line before he continues.

"Hyde alleges that you fabricated a tale about sexual harassment in order to get him fired. He says that you did this because he refused your advances and because you wanted his job."

I frown. Holy crap. Jack is even more delusional than I thought.

"That’s not true." I shake my head.

"Detective, please don’t tell me you have driven all this way to harass my wife with these ridiculous accusations."

Detective Clark turns his steely blue glare on Christian. "I need to hear this from Mrs. Grey, sir," he says with quiet restraint. I squeeze Christian’s wrist once more, silently imploring him to keep his cool.

"You don’t have to listen to this shit, Ana."

"I think I should let Detective Clark know what happened."

Christian gazes at me impassively for a beat then waves his hand in a gesture of resignation, letting me continue.

"What Hyde says is simply not true." My voice sounds calm, although I feel anything but. I’m bewildered by these accusations and nervous that Christian might explode. What is Jack’s game? "Jack Hyde accosted me in the office kitchen one evening. He told me that it was thanks to him that I had been hired and that he expected sexual favors in return. He tried to blackmail me, using e-mails that I’d sent to Christian, who wasn’t my husband then. I didn’t know Hyde had been monitoring my e-mails. He’s delusional – he even accused me of being a spy sent by Christian, presumably to help him take over the company. He didn’t know that Christian had already bought SIP." I shake my head as I recall my distressing, tense encounter with Hyde.