The Beast Enslaved

Catherina

AN: Hey you guys! I am so terribly sorry for not updating last week and everything. I'm having some nasty writers block right now and I'm trying to figure out in what direction I want this story to go. This is just a little filler chapter, but I promise there will be more action in the next one.

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xoxo m
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The next few weeks were fairly uneventful. Aram and I usually met up once a day for lunch or dinner, sometimes together with Carmen, and spent the weekends together. We got into a comfortable little routine of me calling him every morning I didn't wake up beside him and talking about the day to come. Since that first night, he hadn't mentioned a contract again, and by now I was fairly certain that we would do fine without one. For the most  part, this, whatever it was what we had, was the closest to a "normal" relationship I'd ever had, and I loved it.
It was now currently three weeks until Christmas and it was still unbelievably warm in LA. It had also been a while since Elliott and I had celebrated Christmas together, so it came as no surprise when he sent me an invite to his annual Christmas party. To be entirely honest, he sent one to me every year, but this was the first time I actually considered going back for it. Usually, El was the one to come visit me in LA, because I refused to go back to New York. There were just too many bad memories there.  However, with Aram by my side, I actually felt good enough to face them.
"What are you thinking so hard about, pet?" Aram asked.
I put the invitation down and turned around to face him. He stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his muscled chest and a lopsided smile on his face. I loved it when he was relaxed and flirty like this.
"We're invited to El's party." I explained.
For a second he seemed surprised, then worry slipped on his face.
"You're worried about going back." He deducted while stepping closer to me and laying a hand on my neck.
I turned back to the table and stared down at the invitation while he gently massaged the back of my neck with his warm, calloused hand.
"Well I was actually just thinking how together with you I might actually work up the guts to go." I told him.
In response he chuckled before turning me around to him and looking into my eyes sternly.
"If you want to go, I'll go with you." He told me, his brown eyes boring into my soul.
Behind the determination and care he was showing me, I could tell that he was at least as nervous about going back as I was.
"We can do this." I mumbled while reaching for his hand that was still resting on my shoulder and gently taking it into mine.
"We can do this." He agreed and forced a small, but genuine smile on his face.
With the way he was with me, I often forgot that Aram too had horrid memories of New York and probably wanted to go back even less than I did. It was so easy to forget the trauma he went through when he was always such a calm and collected Dominant. Sometimes I wondered if what he was doing was healthy, suppressing all that trauma for the sake of being a good Dominant. Often times he was more scared of triggering my trauma than his own. And Lord knows that while my father pulled quite the number on me, I most certainly did not carry away the level of PTSD that Aram did from that auction house. Part of me was always subconsciously waiting for the big break in his psyche, waiting for him to fall apart.
I was still musing on that about a week later while we were packing. We'd decided to spend the two weeks leading up to the party on Christmas Eve with El and then head back to LA on the 26th to celebrate a bit on our own.
I was both nervous and excited to visit El. In the past year he'd apparently met the love of his life and I had yet to meet her. However, at the same time, I knew for a fact that at the very least my mother would be there, if not a few other people I'd rather not meet.
"You ready?" Aram's voice pulled me out of my reverie.
With some effort I finally zipped closed the suitcase before turning around to him.
"Yes Sir."
"Good." He smiled warmly at me. "We're going to get some lunch on the way to the airport, so go get some shoes on and meet me at the car."
"Yes Sir." I grinned at him while slipping on the boots I'd dug up from the depths of my closet.
It was going to be so cold in New York while here in LA it was basically still summer (at least in my book). While I fought to get the boots on, I watched Aram pick up both his and my suitcase, shoulders and arms rippling with muscles. I had to check for drool before I could leave the room to follow him. I was still so insanely overwhelmed with happiness at times when I realized again that he was really mine.

AN: Don't forget to VOTE and COMMENT!

xoxo M