24

PROLOGUE

The last weekend with a submissive had never been this hard to think of for Christian Grey, but this brunette derailed him. In his grand scheme of plans, women had never been any part of it. While he needed women to entertain him during the weekends and to relieve him of the stress, he never saw them as a permanent fixture in his life.

When he talked to John the other day, the expensive charlatan asked him a question.

"Now, close your eyes. I want you to imagine a weekend without a submissive." He did what he was told, albeit reluctantly, he started to picture the next weekend. Usually he would wait a while before getting the next submissive if the previous contract was terminated, and the next weekend would be exactly those filter weekends. "What do you feel?"

"I don't know. How can I know?" He grunted a response, still with his eyes closed.

"How were your previous weekends between subs, Christian?" The doctor asked gently.

"Repetitive."

"And?"

"Boring."

"And?"

"Lonely?"

"That's something new," he murmured under his breath, and that made Christian open his eyes to see the therapist writing on his notepad. "Now, picture a weekend without Anastasia."

"It'll just be like all the other weekends when I don't have a sub." He shrugged nonchalantly, failing to see the point of bringing up the name of his current submissive, the only girl they've talked about during sessions.

"Tell me this then," the good doctor shifted in his seat, approaching the problem from a different angle, even though Christian didn't know what issue was there in the first place. "Throughout your three-months contract with this girl, we've had..." he paused, flipping through his notes, "including this one, five sessions — three in here, and the rest on the phone." He flipped back to the current page and looked up at Christian's confused face. "Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

"You see me at least once a week, but you've blown me off since that girl signed your contract."

"I don't need you."

"Okay. Let's see, the first time you mentioned her to me was when you were trying to get her to sign your contract. You told me she was not into the lifestyle but was willing to try but never found the Dom." Christian nodded, still failing to see the point of going over the contents of their previous sessions. "You told me you've never been so happy to contract a sub." He nodded again, still frowning. "Then it was your phone call to me when she told you that she wasn't available during the week when you called." Dr. Flynn paused before continuing. "Your next appointment was about you finding out that she had been drinking in the club where you two met, you went there and she saw you and slipped out. You went thermonuclear on Taylor when you saw her drinking with a man and not with her best friend."

"Because fucking Elliot was with Kate." Christian scoffed at the memory of that night.

"Now, your fourth appointment," he continued, completely ignoring Christian's outburst. "A phone call—you were confused why you never had the heart to deliver her the punishment she deserved but turned each and every one of them into something painless and pleasurable. You said you enjoyed it and she agreed."

"Okay. Where are we going with this?"

Dr. Flynn smiled. "Since this girl came around, you seemed a lot better. Happier, and more bright in general, and, not to mention, all your appointments are about this girl."