Darker Chapter 6 (Part 1): Christian Continues to be Inappropriate at Work

Previously, Elena shows up unannounced to tell Christian she’s being blackmailed. Christian is “vexed” by the women in his life.

Darker Chapter 6 (Tuesday, June 14, 2011):

Christian wakes up in the middle of the night, worried that Leila is lurking. His security team – which I’m fairly certain is 100 men strong – assure him that nothing is wrong.

We get the classic scene of Christian playing piano (probably in the moonlight), and Ana showing up to tell him he’s sexy. He tells her she’s sexy. Everybody’s feeling sexy! The security team is probably monitoring this sexy situation right now.

They have sex on the piano, so maybe there aren’t security cameras in here? It’s pretty standard stuff, unfortunately. Although, this happens:

“This is my revenge, Ana. Argue with me and I am going to take it out on your body somehow.” I kiss her belly, feeling her muscles tighten beneath my lips.

I keep repeating to myself that this meant to be sexy and not sinister, but I’ve been trying to tell myself that for this whole series.

while my thumbs reach the junction of her thighs.

“Ah!” she lets out a gargled cry…

Is…is it just me or is gargled absolutely not the right word here? Isn’t the phrase “garbled cry”? I googled ‘gargled cry’ and I’m pretty much just getting the definition of the word ‘gargled’:”to wash or rinse the throat or mouth with a liquid held in the throat and kept in motion by a stream of air from the lungs.” SOMETHING APPEARS TO BE AMISS.

Christian continues to describe sex as though he’s writing an instruction manual: 

“I want you so badly,” I whisper, and slowly claim her. 

And ease back.

And ease in. 

The next morning, Ana tries to get to know Christian better. They talk a little bit about Christian’s family and reiterate how they don’t know each other, but nothing could change how much they love each other (sure), but then Christian tries to derail the conversation with more sex.

So far condoms have been mentioned about six hundred times this chapter, but at least Christian doesn’t remind us that he hates them, and I’m proud of them for practicing safe sex.

Afterwards they have breakfast and…an odd conversation:

“Andrea?”

“My PA.”

She’s back today. What a relief.

“One of your many blondes?”

“She’s not mine. She works for me. You’re mine.”

“I work for you.”

Oh yes! “So you do.”

What is Christian’s tone supposed to be with “Oh yes!” Is it this delightful realisation of his massive overstep? A sexy oh yes at his massive overstep? Who knows!

Before they head to work, Christian reminds Ana that Kate’s brother is coming to visit and that they should text on their blackberries instead of their work email. We are about 60% of the way through the book, and it’s not even pretending to have a plot anymore, is it?

“Ah, Mr. Grey, your perpetually twitching palm. What are we going to do with that?”

I laugh. She’s funny.

Or anything even slightly meaningful to say.

Elena calls and explains that…the note she received was from someone named Isaac…and it was “for a scene”. She and Christian laugh over what an obvious explanation this is, and I honestly have no fucking idea what’s going on. WHAT SCENE? WHY WAS THIS OBVIOUS? LOL????

Later, at work, Andrea returns and Christian confronts her about why she didn’t tell him she was getting married. It turns out she was marrying a man from the office, which broke some clause in her contract. Andrea further explains they got married because he needed a green card, but then clarifies that she also loves him. What the fuck is up with the “plots” in this book!

Marriage. I contemplate the institution when Andrea leaves. It obviously agrees with her. It’s what most women want. Isn’t it? I wonder what Ana would do if I asked her to marry me.

You…you JUST asked her to move in with you? Christian, please.

During one of Christian’s Super Important meetings, he gets a phone call from Ana:

“Are you on your own?”

I look around the table.  “No. There are six people staring at me right now wondering who the hell I’m talking to.” Everyone looks away.

“Really?” she squeaks.

“My girlfriend.” I tell the room. Ros shakes her head.

“They probably all thought you were gay, you know.”

I laugh as Ros and Marco exchange a look. “Yeah, probably.”

Ew. They all need to quit ASAP. It’s understandable that Christian is kind of going through this delayed, emotional adolescence with Ana, but I don’t buy that this ultra controlled, successful businessman would not just step out of the room for thirty seconds to take this call.

What’s even weirder is that after he gets off this call with Ana he excuses himself to make another call outside the room. This book is playing serious games with me!

Later, Christian is on a call when he sees Ethan (Kate’s brother) show up. But wait just a minute! Ethan was supposed to be upstairs letting Ana into the apartment. THAT MEANS SHE’S UPSTAIRS WITH LEILA!

 

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6 comments

  1. warpedmuse Reply

    I think Isaac is Elena’s submissive and he wrote the ‘blackmail note’ to her and I don’t know, so that she could punish him later?

  2. Jennifer Layton Reply

    OK, wait. Andrea married another guy in the office who needed a green card. That means one of Christian’s employees was having immigration issues, and Christian knew nothing about it, and he’s supposed to be totally into micromanaging (based on the interview he did with Ana when he first met her). So this crisis was happening with one of his employees, and he was so incompetent in dealing with it that Andrea had to come to the rescue and marry the guy. How exactly is Christian a great businessman? And please tell me Andrea’s salary is millions of dollars, because her job responsibilities are INSANE.

  3. Lya Reply

    “This is my revenge, Ana. Argue with me and I am going to take it out on your body somehow.”

    red flag!!!!!!!!!!

  4. Kerry Reply

    Which to be honest, now I want to hear more about Isaac and his weird schemes to disrupt Elena’s world with less rote BDSM play.

    Also, Andrea has a clause forbidding marriage? EL has lost the plot—that’s out of a 70s historical with the forbidding young lord and denying his staff marriage because he’s single and broody. And couldn’t his multinational HR department straighten out the dude’s visa problem?

  5. wordswithhannah Reply

    I laugh. She’s funny.

    WOMAN IS FUNNY???? WAT. I love it when women joke about how much they hate physical punishment, which I feel it is my divine right to give them! Ha ha, what a kidder you are, woman!

    Marriage. I contemplate the institution when Andrea leaves. It obviously agrees with her. It’s what most women want. Isn’t it? I wonder what Ana would do if I asked her to marry me.

    Yes, it is vital that I as a reader learn that Christian asks Ana to marry him because…his PA got married. Swoon.

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