Chapter 1

"Jack, Gloria would like to see you in her office."

It was the one thing that no one at Stearns Inc. wanted to hear because it usually meant that you were history. Gloria Stearns believed that she owed it to the people getting bad news to get it from her direct and not from some lower minion. The current economy sucked and Stearns was downsizing and it looked like I was on my way to the unemployment line.

I knocked on the door to Gloria's private office and heard her say "Come in." I opened the door and stepped into her office as she came out from behind the desk and walked toward me with her hand out-stretched in greeting. I felt the same tingle in my groin that I got every time I saw her. Tall, willowy and with runway model good looks she lit any number of fires as she walked through the office. I took her hand as she said, "Jack, how nice to see you. Have a seat."

After shaking hands she moved back behind the desk and sat down. As I took a seat she picked up a folder on her desk, glanced through it quickly, looked up at me and then back down at what I could only assume was a file on me.

"How long have you been here at Stearns Jack?"

Eleven years. I came to work for your father right out of high school."

"It must have been hard for you to work here full time while going to college at night."

"It wasn't easy Miss Stearns, but your father helped me a lot."

"Yes, I know. For some reason he never explained he looked on you almost as a son. He even loaned you the money for your education and then forgave the loan as a graduation present. Why did he do that Jack?"

"I don't know."

"Yes you do Jack, and what's more, so do I. Why did you do it Jack? Why did you stick your neck out like that?"

"Your father was a good man Miss Stearns and I wasn't about to let that bitch screw up your father's life."

"Was the money for your education a pay-off Jack?"

"No mam. Your father had already given me the loan and had already forgiven it as a graduation present. I guess that is one of the reasons that I did it. He didn't have to help me; he did it out of the goodness of his heart and you don't standby and watch a man like that get shafted by some money grubbing little bitch."

"You're lucky that they didn't have DNA testing back then; it could have blown your story out of the water."

"Not really. There was a fifty-fifty chance that it would have proven my story."

"You and daddy both did her?"

"I don't know that your father ever did, but half of the guys in the mail room did and anyone of us could have been the father."

"Still, what made you stand up when she said my father made her pregnant and say that she told you that she knew it wasn't his, but was going for the big bucks?"

"Loyalty."

"My, but you are old fashioned aren't you."

"As far as I'm concerned loyalty never goes out of style."

"Any chance that the loyalty you felt toward my father could extend to other family members?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just that Jack. Any chance that your loyalty to my dad could bleed over to me?"

"I still don't understand Miss Stearns."

"I'm in trouble Jack and I am in desperate need of a knight in shining armor to come to my rescue."

"I'll do what I can Miss Stearns."

"Maybe Jack, and maybe not. You need to know up front that my knight is going to be severely shit upon, will suffer outrageous indignities for almost five years and may very likely learn to hate the sight of me. I would like you to have dinner with me tonight Jack. We can discuss it someplace where I don't have to worry about the walls having ears. Can I pick you up around seven?"

"Yes, of course. I'll give you directions."

"I don't need directions Jack, I know where you live."

The curiosity must have been all over my face because she said, "You'll get the answers tonight Jack, just be patient."

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Just be patient! Easy for her to say, but not at all easy for me to do. How did she know where I lived? What did she mean with that comment about the wall having ears? What could she possibly want from me and why did she think I might do it knowing that I was going to be, as she put it, shit upon? I sat at my desk and didn't get a damned thing done for the rest of the day. I couldn't concentrate on my job for beans; all I could think about was our dinner that night and what she could possibly want me to do that would make me hate her on sight before it was over.

"I want you to marry me Jack."

I was stunned. I had expected something a little way out following our conversation in the limo on the way to the restaurant, but nothing anywhere close to that. I'd no sooner settled on the seat than she looked over at me and took a deep breath.

"I'm going to hang it all out tonight Jack and I praying that I can trust you to keep what we talk about in confidence even if you decide not to do what I'm about to ask of you. To be frank I do not expect that you will do it. God knows I wouldn't do it if it were me. The only reason I think I can ask it of you is your relationship with my dad. Do you know that it is in his will that you have a job for life at Stearns? That you can never be fired or laid off?"

"I had no idea."

"You were never supposed to know. The only reason that I'm telling you is so that won't fear for your job if you say no to what I'm going to ask. Can you do that Jack? Can you promise me that no matter what your decision is tonight what we talk about stays between the two of us?"

"You already know that I will Miss Stearns or we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

"Under the circumstances Jack I think you should start calling me Gloria. Here we are," she said as we pulled up in front of the restaurant. "As soon as you get your first drink under your belt I'll hit you with the bomb."

The look on my face amused her and she smiled. "I know a thousand things have gone through your mind since this morning, but I'll bet that wasn't one of them, was it?"

"No mam, not anything close to that."

"I told you Jack, it's Gloria. So, how does the idea sound to you so far?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand Miss St... Gloria."

"I'll spell it out for you Jack. For purely financial reasons I need a husband and for purely personal reasons my lover can't be the man I marry."

"I still don't understand."

"I'm not going to explain why I can't marry my lover, but I will explain the rest. My father, for reasons known only to him, wrote his will in such a way that if I am not married by the time I reach thirty my trust funds, there are three of them, will revert to various charities and foundations. I will be thirty in seven months. I can not marry the man I love, but I am totally unwilling to let my money go to some group that wants to save whales, hug trees or secure habitat for some goddamned mouse. So, I need a husband, but it has to be a special kind of husband. He has to understand that he is a husband in name only and that sex in the marriage will be minimal and almost totally one sided. He will be verbally abused and humiliated and he will have to put up with it for five years before he can get a divorce and a some point in that five year period he will need to father a child. Does that sound like something that you might be interested in Jack?"

"Uh, no, not really."

"Well then, let me tell you the rest of it. Two point five million dollars deposited in a Cayman Islands bank account, which will make it tax-free. You will not be able to access it until the five years is up. You will live with me and I'll pay all the bills, furnish the cars, the country club memberships and anything else you will require, need or want and you will get an annual spending allowance of ten thousand a month. In return you have to promise to be a faithful husband for five years and put up with whatever indignities I send your way. Sound a little better now?"

"Some, but there are major concerns."

"What are they?"

"Minimal sex and I'm to remain totally faithful. No, not at my age and definitely not for five years."

"If I can do something about the sex part how does the rest sound?"

"What I would get sounds fine, but my concerns are the other things you mentioned; the indignities, the verbal abuse and the humiliation. I need to know more, much, much more about those things."

"There would be no physical abuse Jack, but there will be a lot of verbal abuse, most intended to humiliate you. It will be all mental Jack and it shouldn't bother you because you will know it is coming and you will also know that it is all bullshit because of your status. You won't be the cuckolded husband, just a play actor."

"I still want to know what I'm getting into."

Gloria looked at me and I saw that she was thinking of how to say the absolute least and still win me over so I said, "Okay, how about this. I'll agree in principal to do it, but only after full disclosure and to insure full disclosure I'll want an agreement in writing releasing me from the five year obligation to get the offshore money if you have not disclosed every thing. I also want the written agreement to release the money to me if the marriage does not go the full five years through no fault of mine."

She looked at me for almost a full minute with her piercing blue eyes and then she said, "Deal" and extended her hand to me and we shook on it."

It turned out to be something simple, but kinky. Her lover was a black man named Jumal Washington and for reasons she would not go into she could not marry him or let her relationship with him see the light of day. Her fathers will stipulated marriage by thirty, the marriage to last a least five years and a grandchild by the age of thirty-five. While married to her I would have to put up with Jumal and he was, quite frankly, an obnoxious asshole. Her few close friends who knew about Jumal could not stand him and they were constantly asking Gloria what she saw in him.

"Love is blind Jack. I know he is an asshole sometimes, but I still adore him even though I know it. It doesn't matter what he does Jack; I'll find excuses for him. You know about that don't you Jack? You've been there and done that with Shelly so you know what it is like."

"How did you know about Shelly?"

"I know everything about you Jack. I've had private detectives all over you since I chose you to be my husband. I try not to take chances Jack. I knew of the bond between you and my father and I gambled that it might work in my favor, but there is 31 million at stake here Jack so I made it my business to know everything about you that there was to know. Just out of curiosity, how long did you know about Shelly before you ended it?"

"Two years, eleven months, one week, three days, two hours and fifteen minutes."

"You let it go on that long?"

"You said it yourself; love is blind and you find excuses. I'd still be finding excuses if I hadn't walked in on them. Even then it was only because of who it was that I tossed her out. A lover I might have been able to handle, but her father and her brother and both of them at the same time? I just couldn't handle it."

"So, will you do it?"

"Full disclosure Gloria. There is still that little matter of sex that has to be talked about. I especially want to hear about the minimal and totally one sided part."

"Oh that."

"Yes, that."

"I love Jumal and I intend to stay faithful to him, at least after a fashion. You and I will have sex one time after the ceremony to legally consummate the marriage and then we won't have sex again until it is time to make the baby. That said, I have a certain need that Jumal absolutely refuses to meet. He is willing to let you do it to me and not consider it cheating, but only under certain circumstances."

"What is it and what are those certain circumstances?"

"Do we have to go into it now Jack?"

"Full disclosure Gloria. I am going to have to know sooner or later and anything that you don't want to talk about makes me nervous."

"I love to have my pussy eaten Jack, but Jumal absolutely refuses to do it. He says that it is beneath him to do such a thing. He will let me have you do it to me and not consider it cheating, but only after he has made love to me first. And there will be times he will want to watch."

"You can't be serious!"

"I am Jack, dead serious. Think of it Jack, one hundred and twenty thousand a year for five years as spending money and a 2 point five million dollar pot of gold at the end of a five year rainbow. You've done before Jack. You know that you have gone down on Shelly after she had been screwed and it hasn't killed you and you didn't have a pot of gold waiting for you after you did it. I'll make sure that you have a sex life Jack, it just won't be with me. So, will you do it?'

It was pretty much a no brainer. Five years of bullshit in exchange for almost three million dollars. Hell, I'd be thirty-six years old and set for life to say nothing of the life of luxury I'd live for five years. All I had to do was put up with some bullshit three or four times a week from some obnoxious asshole. I should be able to do that standing on my head.

I stared at Gloria as the wheels turned in my head and finally I said, "Three conditions. One, the signed agreement. Secondly, I get to approve whatever plan you come up with to see that I have a sex life. Last, but by no means least, our wedding night is mine and only mine."

"What does that mean?"

"Two things. You have already said that your boyfriend will want to watch when I go down on you so I wouldn't put it past him to want to horn in on our wedding night. That will be a no-no. I don't want him within five miles of us on our wedding night. The second thing about it being my night is that you are mine for the night. Not just a quickie so you can honestly and with a straight face say that the marriage was consummated, but the entire night and we will do it all. I'll want anal, oral and vaginal sex with you on that night."

"I can't do that Jack; I would be cheating on Jumal."

"Yes you can Gloria. You have already accepted that you have to have sex with me on our wedding night and you have already decided that since you have to do it that it isn't cheating. What's the difference? One time or all night, it is all the same."

"I can't do it Jack. It just wouldn't be right."

"Your choice Gloria, but it is a deal breaker as far as I am concerned."

"You would throw away almost three million over that?"

"You would throw away almost thirty-one million over it?"

"I can always get someone else Jack."

"Yes, you could."

I picked up the menu and looked at it. "Is the prime rib any good here?"

"Don't change the subject Jack."

"No subject change Gloria. I told you what I have to have and you said that I couldn't have it. Subject closed. We came here for dinner and when we are done eating I'll catch a cab home and save you the trouble of having to drop me off."

"Why is that one thing so important to you Jack?"

"It is for my mental health Gloria."

"That doesn't make sense Jack."

"Not to you maybe, but it does to me."

"Can you explain it to me?"

"It is quite simple Gloria. You have already put me on notice that part of my earning the money is putting up with your asshole of a boyfriend for the next five years. I'm no dummy Gloria, I can even write the script for the next five years. It will start out with him rubbing my nose in the fact that he is fucking my wife and I'm not. It will move to him wanting me in the next room when he screws you so I can be on call to eat you when his stuff is still hot and fresh in you. He'll get tired of that after a while and he will want me to be in the room when he does it so I'm forced to watch. Then he will talk you into having me go sixty-nine with you while he screws you from behind so I can see him ramming you from only inches away from my face. Somewhere along the way, after he has seen me eat you a dozen times or so he will make the comment, "Wouldn't you just like to cut out the middleman and come over here and get it fresh from my dick?"

"And all the time I'm supposed to smile and take his shit. Well, I'll do it, but I want to be able to look at him and be able to say to myself, "I fucked your woman asshole. I came in her mouth, I pounded her butt hole and I did my best to fill her womb with my cum. Your woman asshole — I took your woman every way it was possible to take her so go ahead and babble because it don't mean shit to me." Like I said Gloria, it is a mental health issue with me and it costs you nothing because you were already going to have sex with me that night anyway."