24

TWENTY-FOURTH HOUR

"I need to take you on Charlie Tango some time." He mused out loud, staring out of the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the entire Seattle. She didn't even bother questioning what he was talking about, because she didn't bother knowing that he'd only bring it up again but her mind was also preoccupied with other things.

"And, I should call my father." She announced, attempting a posh British accent but failing miserably. "Join me?" She asked the man who was trailing behind her to his study.

"Yes, madam," he said in the perfect accent that she previously failed to imitate.

"Have you met the Royal family before?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"You can totally pull off being a Brit."

"I'm good with accents, I know that."

"Cocky."

"Not as much as you."

"Why are you good at it? Apart from talent."

"Well, I mean, I do travel a lot, so I talk to people from all over the place. God, you should hear some of their accents. Not only were they hard to understand, but they were awfully hard to keep a straight face to when you hear them."

"Like which one?"

"People think Indian accents are funny, but they just haven't heard people from England speaking. The dialects are the funniest, not the accent."

"Which one do you think is the funniest then?" She asked curiously while silently asking him for permission to use his iPad to set up the video with Ray. As long as her phone acted as a hotspot, their connection should be secure enough to not let Morton find out. She was certain that Christian's team of computer geeks would've broken it in a matter of minutes.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Humor me."

"I liked," he smoothed the pad of his finger over his hairless, clean-shaven and toned chin. "I liked the Geordie accent."

"Oh, from the north east of England?" She laughed and he nodded. "Yeah, I can never understand them. The last time I went there I met this two Newcastle brothers, and with a bunch of people from America around me I had a little trouble understanding them."

"Oh yeah, I nearly laughed out loud when they first started speaking. Ros had to kick me under the table and I think that was probably the only time she had to do that." He laughed along with her.

"Hey daddy," she greeted, not wasting a second or telling Christian what she was up to. The big screen on his wall soon displayed the face of her father. From his perspective he could see the entire room since the camera was situated near the ceiling.

"Where are you?"

"Escala. The penthouse suite."

"You know what I mean." He said with a huff.

"Uh, no, I don't. I answered your question." She grinned cheekily, standing up to open the door and shouted for Luke.

"You're Christian Grey." The man didn't waste a minute to acquaint himself with the man that made headline news with her daughter.

"I am. A pleasure to meet you, Mr Steele."

Ray responded with a gruff but with no words, his attention was obviously not on him. Minutes later Luke entered.

"Ray, hey." He greeted the old man the minute he saw him.

"You work for Grey?" Ray didn't beat around the bush.