THE END IS HEREEEEE
Well, kind of. This will be the final post for Fifty Shades of Grey, but fear not! Fifty Shades Darker will commence in due time (probably tomorrow). Here we go!
Chapter 25
Ana leaves Georgia after a teary goodbye at the airport. She emails Christian on the plane and is concerned about the tone of his responses - clearly his "situation" isn't going well. As she relaxes into her first class accommodation, a thought strikes her.
"I become aware that once again the only empty seat is beside me. I shake my head as the thought crosses my mind that Christian might have purchased the adjacent seat so that I couldn't talk to anyone. I dismiss the idea as ridiculous - no one could be that controlling, that jealous, surely." -- uhhh, have you met him?
Taylor picks Ana up from SeaTac and drives her back to Christian's place. She asks that he play soothing music on the way because she's nervous that she'll find Christian in a less than welcoming mood.
"My inner goddess is hopeful for one type of mood; my subconscious, like me, is fraught with nerves." -- how many personalities can she have before it's a diagnosable condition?
She enters Christian's foyer, and it takes about a paragraph before they're naked. After, Ana tells him she has a job.
"'Congratulations, Miss Steele. Now will you tell me where?' he teases.
'You don't know?'
He shakes his head, frowning. 'Why would I know?'
'With your stalking capabilities, I thought you might have . . .' I trail off as his face falls.
'Anastasia, I wouldn't dream of interfering in your career, unless you ask me to, of course.' He looks wounded." -- what a manipulative fuck.
They have sex again, and eat dinner. Once dinner is over, Christian tells her he wants her in his playroom in 15 minutes for MORE SEX. Kneeling in just her underwear, Ana contemplates Christian.
"The man is insatiable, or maybe all men are like him. I have no idea, no one to compare him to. Closing my eyes, I try to calm myself down, to connect with my inner sub. She's there somewhere, hiding behind my inner goddess." -- We're up to four separate entities now, in case anyone was keeping track.
Christian walks in, and Ana's many personalities are excited.
"He's naked except for those soft ripped jeans, top button casually undone. Jeez, he looks so freaking hot. My subconscious is frantically fanning herself, and my inner goddess is swaying and writhing to some primal carnal rhythm." -- What about your inner sub?? How's she feeling? Inquiring minds want to know!
Christian walks to a chest and removes items from it. It takes all of her self control not to look, and soon he's standing in front of her.
"When he finishes what he's doing, he comes to stand in front of me. I can see his naked feet, and I want to kiss every inch of them . . . run my tongue over his instep, suck each of his toes. Holy shit."
He tells Ana to stand and asks her to tell him what the safe words are - I guess they'll be important later. She's bizarrely offended at him asking.
"And I can't help it . . . I raise my eyebrow at him and am about to remind him of my GPA, but the sudden frosty glint in his icy gray eyes stops me in my tracks." -- Does ELJ even know what GPAs measure? Like.... this is the equivalent of being asked if you remembered to take the garbage out and responding with, "Please. I had a 4.0 GPA." No one cares about your GPA. It's a pretty useless statistic and I can't think of a situation where it is MORE useless than in the middle of sex. Christian isn't going to get off on descriptions of your transcripts. No one uses their first B as dirty talk. I hate you.
They have sex for the next 8 pages. Christian has tied her at the wrists and ankles to the bed, blindfolded her, and given her headphones through which loud "ancient hymnal" music is playing. She can neither see him, hear him, nor physically fight him off and I just don't think I'm at the stage in this relationship where I'm willing accept this level of trust. As you'd expect, Christian expertly tailors the carnal experience to the rise and fall of the music, and Ana's consciousness abandons her (no seriously, "As my consciousness returns from wherever it's been....").
Chapter 26
We begin this chapter with Ana waking up suddenly in the night.
"Something has woken me, some nagging thought. I glance over at the alarm clock on his bedside. It is five in the morning, but I feel rested. Why is that? Oh - it's the time difference - it would be eight a.m. in Georgia. Holy crap . . . I need to take my pill." -- You were in Georgia for like 3 days???????? Also what the fuck happened to the alarm on your phone that reminds you to take your pill? Was that just there so you could blush over having to discuss contraception with the guy you're fucking?
She hears music and wanders out into the "great room" to find Christian playing the piano. It's sad and he looks troubled. Ana walks over and sits on the piano stool with him. He wants to have sex (again), but she wants to talk. She brings up that she still hasn't signed the contract (this book literally has 18 pages left but whatever), and he tells her he thinks the contract is basically moot at this point. He wanted her to sign the contract before more happened, but now that it has, he just wants her to follow the rules on her own volition... and if she doesn't, he'll still smack her around. So. I'm not totally sure what exactly has changed, but okay.
"'And if I break one of the Rules?'
'Then I'll punish you.'
'But won't you need my permission?'
'Yes, I will.'
'And if I say no?'
He gazes at me for a moment, with a confused expression.
'If you say no, you'll say no. I'll have to find a way to persuade you.'" -- *screams from the rooftops NO DOES NOT MEAN PERSUADE MEEEEEEE*
She tells Christian she needs to read the rules again, so he goes and gets them for her. She is amused to be told that "the obedience thing still stands", and rolls her eyes at him. This is a problem because he's told her a few times now that when she does that, he wants to hit her. So she runs from him. She tries turning it into a game of cat and mouse, but it doesn't really work.
"'Anyone would think you didn't want me to catch you.'
'I don't. That's the point. I feel about punishment the way you feel about me touching you.'
His entire demeanor changes in a nanosecond. Gone is playful Christian, and he stands staring at me as if I've slapped him. He's ashen.
........
'You hate it that much?' he breathes, his eyes filled with horror.
'Well . . . no,' I reassure him. Jeez - that's how he feels about people touching him? 'No. I feel ambivalent about it. I don't like it, but I don't hate it.'" -- then you obviously don't feel the same way about punishment that he does about being touched.
He tells her that he won't tell her why he wants to hurt her so much - there is a reason, but he's afraid she'd leave him if she knew. Not gonna lie, I feel like he'd have a better shot at keeping her if he just told her instead of actually hitting her on the next page, but hey, what do I know? Ana tells him she wants to know how bad the punishment can be and then they'll both find out whether she can handle it or not. He spends the next page beating her with a belt. Unsurprisingly, Ana is not pleased when the ordeal is over.
"'Don't touch me!' I hiss. I straighten and stare at him, and he's watching me as if I might bolt, eyes wide, bemused. I dash the tears angrily out of my eyes with the backs of my hands, glaring at him.
'This is what you really like? Me, like this?' I use the sleeve of the bathrobe to wipe my nose.
He gazes at me warily.
'Well, you are one fucked-up son of a bitch.'" -- he's only been telling you that for like 500 pages but sure, we'll all pretend you figured it out on your own.
She goes to her room and cries on her bed. Soon, she's joined by Christian. He asks her not to hate him, and she tells him she's fallen in love with him. He's horrified. He tells her it's wrong for her to love him, so she says she should go since there's no longer a reason for her to stay. She showers, gets dressed, packs her things, and leaves Christian the electronics he'd given her. Taylor tells her he'll get the car to take her home and she cries on the way there. Once home, she goes to her room and continues to cry.
"Grief. This is grief - and I've brought it on myself. Deep down, a nasty, unbidden thought comes from my inner goddess, her lips contorted in a snarl . . . the physical pain from the bite of a belt is nothing, nothing compared to this devastation. I curl up, desperately clutching the flat foil balloon and Taylor's handkerchief, and surrender myself to my grief."
Well, that was exhausting. The blog will continue with Fifty Shades Darker very soon.
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