With his wife on his arm and insulted by the woman's undertone, Ares dismissed her as though she were no more than a bothersome fly, "No, that will be all." Turning away from the young woman, he stood next to Alena and held her hand until she was settled upon the couch. Sitting his large body next to her, Ares put an arm around her shoulders, "Don't let her bother you."
Alena's face tilted upward to meet his gaze, "If I thought for half a second she had the merest chance with you, I'd gouge her eyes out right here," she leaned in a little closer, "yours would be soon after."
Ares nodded and cleared his throat believing that she would most certainly do her best to carry out that threat and having no doubt she'd get pretty damn far with it. "Yes, well, you know, my darling, I only have eyes for you."
"That's better," she wiggled on the couch trying to get comfortable but it seemed the furniture in here was designed more for show than for function or comfort. "I don't like this place."
That was an understatement; Ares felt her unease radiating from her, "Why?"
"It smells," she whispered in as low a voice as she could, "like...like...the back rooms of an Adult Store just after the cleaning crew has been by."
"I see, and you would know how that smells because..."
"I had a life before I became your wife, my love." Picking up the nearest magazine and leafing through it, she looked around at all of the women here. They were young and beautiful and most were scantily dressed and just standing around serving no other purpose than to look pretty. Living Art for the office. They almost reminded her of Ares' own little harem, the one he had so long ago when she first washed up upon his shore. Ares' women varied in age and size whereas these paper dolls were all between twenty-one and twenty-seven each one as interchangeable and disposable as the next. "What do you think?" She whispered to Ares from behind the magazine.
The God of War didn't need clarification of his wife's question, "Gay," he stated flatly.
"Really? I was going to say misogynistic."
Ares nodded thinking that a strong possibility, "I guess we'll find out soon enough."
They waited another ten minutes on the uncomfortable couch in the overly bright room before Fonda returned to them and said, "Mr. Grey will see you now." With that extra wiggle in her walk, her ass jutting out from beneath the too tight skirt like a ham jammed into sausage casing, she led them to the wide double wood doors and opened them with a great flourish.
Ares and Alena exchanged a silently annoyed glance before walking into the large room that was meant to be impressive and modernistic with its white walls, white floor, brightly colored artwork, and imposing bank of windows behind the minimalistic desk.
Without making eye contact the man behind the desk stood up, buttoned his jacket, strolled out from behind it with his hand extended and spoke, "Mr. Papathanassiou, so nice to meet you, I'm Christian Grey." The growl that came in response to his greeting was most unexpected. It was only at that point Christian looked up and then up some more to take in the man from the coffee shop and his angelic wife. "Oh, it's you."
"I was thinking the same thing," Ares snarled.
If the big man were anyone else Christian would just throw him out but he wasn't anyone else, Mr. Papathanassiou was the world's most well-known billionaire recluse—having inherited over 50 billion dollars from his uncle Adrian Papadopoulos just over twenty years ago-- and he was the largest investor in Grey Enterprises. The man, like his uncle before him, was a complete mystery disappearing from the face of the earth for years at a time then showing up again to change investments on a whim. When Christian heard Mr. Papathanassiou was asking for a meeting, he not only readily agreed to take it—which was something he almost never did-- but he had been up half the night hoping it all went will and blowing off some steam with Ana in their private playroom. Word on the street was Mr. Papathanassiou was at it again, he was checking on several of his investment and changing his portfolio. If he pulled out of Grey Enterprises, the company would take a massive hit from which it would not readily recover. The ripple effect could be completely disastrous. Keeping his cool and his hand out Christian finished the distance with as much grace as he could find, "About this afternoon, I want to apologize again, I was out of line."
"Off the map," Ares agreed as he clasped his hand over Mr. Grey's swallowing it from fingertip to forearm and giving a good squeeze making the man in the suit wince. "Nice pants, are they new?" One last shake and harder grip and Ares let the man go. "I'm not the one you need to apologize to," he stepped aside making Alena stand between them. "Go on."
"Mrs. Papathanassiou," Christian stumbled as he stared into her storm cloud eyes they were so like his own he was utterly captivated by them, "I meant no disrespect or harm, really I didn't, it's just that when I saw you sitting there, I just couldn't help myself."
Alena turned to look at her husband over her shoulder, "Misogynistic," she cooed, "I win."
"I owe you dinner," Ares agreed. "Shall we get this over with Mr. Grey?"
Christian didn't like the tone of the big man's deep voice; it made his heart sink as visions of his bank account emptying rapidly flew behind his eyes. "Please, make yourselves comfortable." He gestured toward the chairs before his desk.
Alena looked at the two white leather chairs in their scant chrome frames, "With your furniture, that's not really possible. It looks nice enough from a distance but when you get up close to it it's really not all it's cracked up to be." She walked past the suited man without looking back and took a seat in the chair that was exactly as she said. It looked soft but it was hard as a rock. A moment later Ares stood at her side telling Christian Grey that he would remain standing, as he didn't believe the chair would hold him.
Taking a seat behind his desk knowing he was in the uncomfortable position of playing defense, Christian held his hands apart, "Please let's forget about this afternoon and start again. It was all my fault."
"Yes, it was," Alena agreed, "you just walk up to any woman you see and impose yourself on her like that?"
Christian blushed and looked down at his desk feeling as though he'd been scolded by his mother. Swallowing hard as the rush of blood made a light bead of sweat break out on his unwrinkled brow he muttered, "This is business, let's not let our personal lives enter into it, shall we?"
"Oh," Alena chimed and glanced up at her husband still looming over the desk, "now he doesn't want it to be personal. Funny that." She couldn't get over the fact that Ares had been right when they first came in to the building; this
was
fun.
Looking down at the top of Mr. Grey's rusty head Ares mumbled, "Very amusing." Planting both hands on the desk at shoulder's width apart he barked, "Look up, boy, I think you know where this is going. I only came here to check on my investment and ask a few questions but now that I've met you, Mr. Grey, I think there are much better places for my money than Grey Enterprises."
Christian felt as though he had been fatally shot through the wallet. If Papathanassiou pulled out his original two billion dollar investment plus all of the interest and stock options, well, Grey did not even want to think about it, "You were the first major investor in this company, Mr. Papathanassiou, I'd hate to lose you."
"You'd hate to lose my money," Ares corrected, "we've never met. I invested in this venture on the advice of someone else. I owe you no loyalty."
"That's true," Christian rushed, "it is," he held up his hand in a stopping motion unable to believe the majority of his fortune was now teetering on the edge of him being unable to keep his mouth shut and hitting on the wrong woman just because he was desperately in need of a little tension relief before this very meeting. "Think of all you could lose by pulling out now, we're still on the upswing and it shows no signs of stopping. You could make another billion."
