Nothing Personal [*Complete*]

21

The next morning we were woken up by a loud thumping on the door, and the squeals of a child's laughter. Steve and his son were running through the halls knocking on doors.

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" The Child declared after knocking haphazardly.

I pressed my face against Mr. Emery's side and grinned.

"Merry Christmas." He smiled sleepily down at me as the knocking continued.

"They're going to know..." Did I call him sir? Did I call him master? The conflict made me sigh.

"This is why you should have finished In Servitude," he whispered as he threaded his fingers back through my hair and lightly scratched along my scalp. "During social situations where it would be inappropriate for you to call me Mr. Emery or sir, you may call me Aidan or my love." I wet my lips and nodded.

"As you wish, My Love."

He kissed my cheek. "Now go take your meds, put on your night gown and robe, then come back here. We'll go downstairs together."

Blush warmed my cheeks and I beamed at him. "Of course, My Love."

After slipping from the bed I walked naked through the door that led to my room and put on my night gown and robe as suggested. As I looked at my nightgown in the full-length mirror I realized he probably wasn't going to approve of it. It was the sort of thing I thought was nice before, a floor length thin black faux satin—read polyester—that had a matching robe. I took my meds with the bottled water I always kept next to the bed and returned to him.

We exited his room together and he didn't say anything about my nightgown as we walked down to the first floor. Everyone else was already sitting around the tree in the great room. Off to the side there was an empty chair and I knew it was for Mr. Emery before he even crossed the room and sat it in. It felt so naughty to kneel beside him in such a public setting, but still it was incredibly right as I leaned my head against his knee and watched everyone else open their gifts.

Colin played the role of Lacy's gofer and fetched her presents from under the tree. It was about then that I realized maybe I should do the same so I waded the two feet or so over to the tree on my knees and went through the massive pile of gift searching out both Mr. Emery's gifts and my own. He had surprisingly few, but I could only imagine why that was. He probably told people he didn't like getting gifts that to him the holiday was about giving. The thought made me glance back at him and the moment I saw the self-satisfied look on his face I knew it to be true. Much to my shock I had piles and piles of boxes, most of which said FROM SANTA.

Once the gifts were sorted we went around one by one and opened all of our presents. Everyone got one of the giftbags from the WAKE Christmas party with the exception of Mr. Emery and myself. As I watched the others open everything I noticed one reoccurring theme. Mr. Emery knew how to shop for people. I'd always been under the impression that most CEOs had their PAs do their holiday shopping for them. It hadn't even really registered until then that he did it all himself. Everyone got something uniquely suited to them—even Lacy who got a box full of those stuffed animals with the tag that says YOUR DONATION JUST SAVED A BENGAL TIGER.

My impressive haul turned out to be a lot of clothing—an entire spring and winter wardrobe. From Colin I received a table top painting kit, and from Lacy I got a huge themed basket called "couples night" which I had to promptly hide under some of the clothing boxes due to the image on the label. Once I finished it was Mr. Emery's turn, he only had three gifts one from Lacy, one from Colin and one from myself. Lacy's gift to him was just a card, which had inside it a ten dollar gift certificate to the coffee place on the corner near WAKE Tower One and a threat scrawled at the bottom. HURT MY FRIEND AND I WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE HELL. MERRY CHRISTMAS! I couldn't help but to giggle as I read.

Mr. Emery nodded. "Well played. and I don't plan to," He said as he reached down and pulled me into his lap. I squealed a bit which prompted a chuckle from the others as I leaned against his chest and he opened Colin's gift which was a lump of coal. "Very funny, I think I might be regifting this next year." Then it was his turn to open my gift and I found myself instantly nervous as he unwrapped the small box and removed the lid.

"I just figured since yo—"

He cut off my words with a deep kiss that in the end left me blushing as bright read as the ornaments on the tree.

"I love it." As he said those three little words I couldn't help but think he was saying that he loved me too as he embraced me. Everything felt so right with the world in that moment as I sat there in his arms.

The few days between Christmas and New Years were perfect. I honestly didn't think being so happy was that possible. It even lasted all the way to the New Years party at The Society property Mr. Emery took me to before. We danced all night until the count down and then we watched the ball drop on a big screen in a ballroom. He hadn't allowed me to drink anything but water for the entire night. Once the dancing resumed and everyone was screaming happy new year to one another we retreated up the grand old Edwardian staircase and beyond the gates to Mr. Emery's private room.

It wasn't what I expected. Unlike the Temple at the Emporia here you could tell that someone was intended to sleep in the room. There was even a phone and a little room service beside it. On the small writing desk, beside the room service menu was a stack of papers and a pen. He pulled the chair out from under the desk and gestured for me to take a seat. I obeyed him as I did in all things and stared at the papers before me as he scooted the chair in.

"This is not our official contract." He picked up the pen and twisted the cap off, it was one of those old fountain pens that you used to have to draw ink into. "This is only for the counseling and trust retreat. What we've been doing thus far is somewhat frowned upon by The Society. As we are not expressly defined..." he took a breath. "What does being a slave mean to you, Natalia?"

"It means that I am at your pleasure. Your wants needs and desires should always be the forefront of my thoughts. I should always strive to obey you in all things, excepting those that are illegal or cause permanent physical damage. Like a housewife from the fifties but willingly and with more spankings." I bit my bottom lip and we shared a bit of a laugh.

"You are going to agree to continue as my slave then?"

"May I have the pen, Master?"

"Why?"

"So I can sign it, Master."

He leaned in and kissed my cheek. "We read contracts, Natalia. Always. And that doesn't answer my question."

"Yes, Master. I want to remain yours as I have been these last two weeks."

"Good. As I said before, this is what you were looking for all along. Now, the contract."

I drew a shuddered breath and bit my bottom lip. "Could you read it to me, Master?"

"Of course." He didn't pick up the document and walk away instead he lingered close. "Of my own free will, I Natalia Wilde, hereby surrender unto Aidan Emery, complete ownership and use of my body and mind from the signing of this contract until February 19th at midnight.

"For the duration of this agreement, I shall obey Master Aidan in all things and to place his pleasure and well-being above my own.

"By signing this contract, I, Natalia Wilde, agree to the following: To remold my body, habits, and attitude in accordance with the desires and wishes of Master Aidan; To accept all punishment should I not conform adequately to his desires; To be open and honest with Master Aidan and answer any and all questions he may ask to the best of my knowledge; To accept that it is Master Aidan's prerogative to do anything he wishes with me, punishment, amusement, or otherwise." He then held the pen out to me.

It was temporary but everything he read just made me want it to be more, to be his entirely and in all ways. I wanted to sign my life over to him—which was good since that was essentially what I was about to do albeit temporarily. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that we could work out the issues we had with a little time. Most of it wasn't due to each other but those residual fears from others who left their lingering marks on us.

So I kissed his pulse, took the pen and signed on the line.