One-hundred and ninety-one million turned out to be the amount Mr. Black owed to a syndicate of very scary men. Some were Russian, a few Chinese, some from Saudi Arabia and every single one of them on various government watch lists for organized crime. They were after Black personally, which was a relief and Jackson assured me they wouldn't kill Black over the money because they wanted it back.
Months and months ago, I had joined the records department with the intention of destroying Stone-Black. And now it was. Jackson had been clever enough in the months before Black made his play to split things up, move them around and begin to unwind the damage he'd done. Thanks to that and the flurry of transactions that had kicked into effect the moment Jackson gave it all up for me, things were going to be okay under the new Stone Corporation. Stone-Black didn't escape without harm though. Hundreds of millions of dollars were missing but Jackson refused to see a single person lose their job because of Black. He'd used his personal wealth to cover the shortfall and as he explained a week before our wedding, he was still a billionaire but now "just half the billionaire I was before". He may have been half the billionaire he was but he was a thousand times any man I'd ever known.
It wasn't going to be easy but the work to clean up Bedford had already begun. It would take years but with the new technology provided by the Stone corporation, eventually Bedford would thrive again.
None of this was on my mind though today...
We'd been married in the grounds of his mansion (Jackson telling me he'd swapped the very naughty statues in the maze over to innocent ones just in case any children ran in there).
Now the party was over and the guests all gone and we were finally alone.
He had carried me over the threshold of his dungeon more than once but never before as his wife. He stopped in the doorway with me over his shoulder. I had a view of his perfectly formed ass and not much else.
"Move it along!" I called out.
He swatted me on the backside and I laughed. "We're not in there yet ... sir."
He stepped across the threshold and set me down before slamming the door shut behind us. I jumped at the sound and nearly said something but then I saw the mocking look on his face. When I was in here, I was his to do with as he pleased. Would I disobey?
When he finally saw I was holding my tongue he grabbed me and kissed me like it was the last kiss of his life. When we broke apart, I felt like I was going to topple over I was so dizzy. I had seen this amazing man almost every day for the last three months and yet I still couldn't believe he was really mine. I was married to him.
He undid the top button of his shirt and flickered an eyebrow at me, daring me to laugh. I stifled a giggle. I knew this game. He undid another button and wriggled his other eyebrow and I had to bite my tongue and look down so I wouldn't laugh.
"Delilah," Jackson said.
I looked up just in time to see him poke his tongue out. I laughed and clapped my hand over my mouth.
He stepped closer to me. "Oh, and you were doing so well," he whispered, stroking his finger down my neck.
"You bastard, Mr. Stone."
"I love you, Mrs. Stone."
"I love you too, sir."
I felt a rush of heat across my body as his hand trailed down my back and then up again. "Turn around," he said.
I tilted my neck and turned around as he undid the diamond choker wrapped around my throat. Then his hands slid down to my wedding dress and he began to unbutton me from it. It was sleek, sexy and elegant thanks to Alma and the girls but it also had approximately one-point-four-million hidden buttons, hooks and other wedding dress tricks to make it look so good. But Jackson was skilled with his hands as I'd well learned and in no time at all he'd loosened it.
I stepped forward and turned around, allowing the dress to slide to the floor. I stepped out of it and as demurely as a girl now wearing nothing more than sheer white stockings and high heels could, picked up my dress and draped it over a side bench.
Jackson watched me the whole time, looking like a wolf ready to consume a meal. His eyes burned and I shivered in anticipation as I stood before him.
"Close your eyes," he commanded.
I closed them and like every time before, tried to hear him move around. I heard one footstep and that was it. I was getting better but the man was still silent and fast. I gently bit the inside of my cheek. There was no way he'd surprise me this-
"Open them,"
I gasped as I felt his hands on my throat. Again he'd done it!
When he removed his hands I felt the collar he'd wrapped around me. I turned around and saw it was pitch black leather, a band of night, inlaid with diamonds that twinkled like stars.
"It's too much, sir," I protested, stroking my fingers across it. It was so soft and already warming against my skin.
"I could give you the world and everything in it and it wouldn't be enough to show you how I feel," Jackson replied.
I turned around and kissed him, desperate for his body, desperate for his whole self. I was tugging at his suit, forgetting myself entirely.
Jackson stepped back and held my hands between his. I was panting and blew out a breath in frustration. I could feel my clit literally throbbing in beat with my heart.
"Wait, little slave," Jackson admonished. He paused long enough to ensure I simply wouldn't jump on his again and then released my hands.
"I have something to show you," he said.
He reached into his pocket and must have pressed a button. A panel in the back wall slid down while another moved sideways, disappearing behind another. Pieces moved like an intricate clock as a pitch-black wooden cross emerged. I shivered when I saw the leather cuffs, goose-bumps running across me and felt butterflies fluttering madly in my stomach. Finally the cross softly clicked into place, the last piece sliding into place.
"What kind of craftsmen do you have working for you?" I asked, aroused by what was in front of me but also amazed at the beauty of it all.
He bit his lip and gave me that look.
"Sir," I added hastily.
He took me by the hand and led me across the dungeon before turning me around and lifting my hands above my head as he pushed me back against the cross. He bound each wrist, enclosing it in the leather cuff.
"Only the very best. And discreet." Jackson said, a smile playing on his lips.
He turned away to a nearby drawer and then returned with a length of rope in one hand, an egg and a bottle of lubricant in the other.
I stayed silent as Jackson dabbed a cold dot on my rear entrance. I stayed silent even as it warmed and I felt heat pulsing through me. I stayed silent as he slipped the egg inside me and the pleasure magnified. Jackson kept his gaze locked with mine the entire time and once the egg was inside me, he nodded.