“You look lovely,” I smile as, somehow, I find the strength to sit up on the bed.
“Don’t I?” he whispers and, two fingers under my chin, pulls me into him. Our lips touch and my eyelids droop by instinct as I feel the musky saltiness of his cum on me.
“I love you, Athena. I really do,” he breathes out as he pulls back from our kiss.
“So do I…” I reply, throwing myself on the bed and pulling him after me. I lay my head on his chest, and I can’t help but smile as he softly starts to run his fingers through my hair.
Ah, this is perfection.
27
Athena
I never thought I’d be this happy walking down the steps of a courthouse, but that’s exactly my state of mind right now. There’s a bright smile on my face, and it seems that today is going to be a beautiful day.
The sky is bright blue, and there’s not a cloud in sight. The streets, like always, are packed with crowds of busy New Yorkers. It seems that everything is exactly as it should be, and you know why? Because everything’s right with the world now; what was wrong has been made right.
“Well, that does it for him,” Malcolm says as he walks toward our limo, parked just in front of the courthouse, and opens the door for me. We step inside and he sits by my side, his thigh brushing up against mine. I lay my hand on top of his and squeeze his fingers softly, turning around to look him in the eyes.
“He’s finished, right? For good?” I ask Malcolm and, even though I already know the answer to my question, I want to hear it coming out of his lips.
“He’s finished. For good,” he says with a nod and a smile, and I throw my head back against the seat and let bright clear laughter erupt from my lips.
Finally, Ben has gotten what he deserves.
You see, after buying the tapes from Ben, Malcolm and I set up a whole operation to dig up every speck of dirt on Ben. He wasn’t sure what we'd find, but it turns out that a small investigation unearthed some big stuff. My lovely ex-boyfriend was involved in fraud, embezzlement, and insider trading.
And, more than that, it turned out that Ben was actively involved in harming Malcolm’s company. More than trying to make me play ball, Ben was leaking false information that harmed the companies where Malcolm held stock. It wasn’t exactly easy to gather all that information, but we just had to follow the money and start putting the pieces together to figure out what was really happening.
The moment we had all that on him, we did what any respectable American would do and we contacted the Department of Justice. You can imagine how eager they were to put their hands around the neck of another millionaire who thought himself to be above the law.
And that’s why Malcolm and I have just left the courthouse. Malcolm testified against Ben and, with the backing of the DoJ, I figure that Ben is going to spend a very long time behind bars.
Serves that bastard right.
Oh. And we’ve gotten back the $1 billion dollars that was apparently extorted from Malcolm in buying my tapes.
“Do you really have to go to the office now?” I ask him, running my tongue over my lips and offering him a lewd smile.
“I wish I didn’t,” he replies, running one hand through my hair and allowing his eyes to wander down to my cleavage. Even though I’m wearing a respectable (and very professional looking) pencil skirt and white blouse, I made sure I looked sexy enough in the eyes of the judges; it never hurts to be a sexy woman, right? “Sorry, babe. But I have another investor coming in this afternoon. You know, the usual.”
The usual, he says. I still remember when his company was struggling, and now look at him, surrounded by investors, all of them trying to throw money at him.
The moment I knew Ben didn’t have his foot on my neck anymore, I made the rounds with some former clients and started a little avalanche. It took some time, but I made some of my former clients invest in Malcolm. After that, it was only a matter of time until he had the ball rolling. He has even paid me back (even though I told him it wasn’t necessary).
Now that we’ve proven Ben was the puppet-master behind the scenes, Malcolm is master of the universe once more. And, more than master of the universe, he’s the master of my body, mind, and soul.
He’s my husband.
Or, well, soon-to-be husband. We haven’t exactly settled on a date for the wedding, but it’s going to happen soon. We’re still a bit undecided between a big ceremony, or something more intimate, just for our closest friends and family. But these are just details, right? Big ceremony or not, what matters is that soon enough we’ll be telling our vows to each other; I know that the vows are just words, but I can’t wait to hear the till death do us part bit. Yeah, at heart I’m just a little girl who dreamed of marrying Prince Charming.
“What are you thinking about?” Malcolm asks, laying one hand on my knee.
“Thinkin’ of you,” I reply. “Thinkin’ of us.”
“Good things, I hope.”
“The best things,” I laugh, resting my hand on top of his and parting my legs slightly. His fingers roam toward the hem of my skirt, and our eyes lock.