What Would You Choose Aftermath

This is the second part and conclusion to "What Would You Choose." You need to read that for "Aftermath" to make sense.

I self-edited this time and used Microsoft spell and grammar check. Please forward any spelling and grammar errors to Bill Gates directly.

Actually, I would love for all the readers to both score and comment on the story. Your feedback would be much appreciated.

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Jack watched Him as He was sitting on a chair, fully dressed, as if He was some kind of Sultan or Emperor sitting on His Imperial throne. He had a smug, confident, arrogant look on his face.

She was standing there completely nude in front of Him looking completely vulnerable and submissive. He the Predator, she the prey. She just stood there, with her head submissively bowed, apparently waiting for His next instruction. Her body was full of bruises, both old and new. This was obviously not her first time submitting to Him.

With an arrogant confident look on His face, taking for granted that she would obey, He pointed at her face with His index finger and moved the finger down pointing at the ground before her. She immediately got on her knees, clasped her hands behind her back, head still bowed submissively, eyes tilted up awaiting His next instruction. He completely owned her. He crooked that same finger and beckoned her towards Him. She gracefully bowed forward and crawled sensually in His direction. She didn't seem to be in fear of Him. At least not that Jack could see. She was obviously sexually turned on. She seemed completely immersed and enthralled in His power over her.

Jack was mesmerized. He was highly aroused, but he wanted to seem as inconspicuous as possible. He couldn't shake the fear of this side of him being discovered. No matter how much he tried he couldn't help his fascination and reaction to the scene playing out in front of him. He had kept this a secret for years. Tonight it was no longer going to be only his shameful secret. No matter how much he tried to suppress his arousal by the depraved scene playing out in front of him he couldn't hide it.

As distracted as she was at the moment, one look at his erect penis she would know how much of an effect watching Them was having on him.

Still with that arrogant, imperious look on His face, He spread His legs beckoning her to crawl even closer. Once her head was inches from His crotch, remaining on her hands and knees supplicant to Him, she looked up to His face adoringly. Jack could see that He wasn't merely her lover. He was Her God, Her Master.

He reached down, wound His fingers into her hair, and forced her head back sharply. She was forced to look up into His face with a pained expression on her face, and a lustful adoring look in her eyes. He told her something that Jack couldn't quite make out, but she reached forward and unzipped His pants taking out His oversized cock.

He was much better endowed than Jack anticipated. Jack wondered if that played a part in why she reacted so submissively towards Him. He was already hard and she stared at it as if in a trance, unable to look away. Using her hair He sharply moved her mouth towards His turgid cock breaking the trance she seemed to be under. As she sucked on Him He grabbed a leather whip resting on the side table next to His "throne," and began to sharply whip her. Pleasing Him was obviously extremely important to her because there was no pause or hesitation in her head rhythmically going up and down. She was accustomed to taking pain. This was obviously not her first time.

Jack watched as Amanda leaned forward bringing her head down to his cock. This was the moment of truth. She started sucking it. No, she wasn't merely sucking it. She was making love to it. Adoring it. Loving it. She wasn't merely sucking him to get him ready for intercourse as she had done with him a myriad of times in the past. She was definitely playing along as if paying homage to her deity, her superior. Her head was repeatedly bobbing up and down over and over again. To Jack it looked like she was repeatedly bowing, worshipping at the altar of a superior being.

Jack had imagined this exact scenario for years. Every time he fantasized about Amanda this way he felt a degree of shame at himself for desiring this. Now he was finally watching Amanda doing this for real and the shame was mixed with intense arousal unlike anything he had felt for years. Maybe ever. He felt like a teenage boy, who was in hiding, watching something he wasn't supposed to see. He knew this was it. No more hiding this side of him.

Amanda looked up lovingly, with lust in her eyes, and asked him, "God babe, you're so hard. How come I never knew you're so into this Dom/sub BDSM stuff? How come you never shared this with me before?"

Jack look down into her beautiful face and adoring eyes and stammered, "Umm, I don't know babe. I guess I was worried what you'd think. How you'd react. What if you were grossed out by it or thought that I was some kind of freak who wants to hurt you. From almost our first meeting you were too important to me to lose. I felt like I needed to hide this side of myself from you.

"Plus, all the D/s type of relationships I had before meeting you, which weren't that many by the way, ended badly. The relationships ended up becoming too one dimensional. I wanted so much more with you."

Amanda smiled, kissed the tip of his cock that was sticking straight up, "Hun, I actually think it's kind of hot. I like the idea of being your submissive little slave. Not all the time, but now and again it'll be fun. I think I've always had a little submissive in me anyway, and watching this porn and seeing your reaction to it is having quite the effect on me too. You're not the only one."

With that said, Amanda engulfed Jack's penis once again. Jack looked up one more time at the TV screen with the BDSM porn playing on it. He then closed his eyes, tilted his head back against the headboard of his king-sized bed, and finally allowed himself to completely relax. He gave into the moment, and enjoyed all the sensations Amanda was offering him. He did notice one significant difference between what Amanda and the porn actress were doing. They were both being very submissive, and he couldn't imagine that this porn star was that good an actress that being sexually submissive was a foreign concept to her. However, with Amanda there was true love and adoration on her face whenever she looked up at him. She was using his penis to express that love and adoration. With the woman on the screen it seemed to be all about lust.

Tonight had been another amazing night, among many amazing days and nights over the last couple of years. They had been preceded by the three hardest ever in all of Jack's life. Earlier that evening they had celebrated Jack's most recent success of getting the bid to be a major subcontractor on a $200 million apartment development project in town.

Brent and Jennifer were over to help celebrate. It had been a beautiful evening in the large backyard of their nearly 2-year-old home that Jack, Amanda, and the kids absolutely loved. Jack thought Jennifer looked so beautiful pregnant. She reminded him so much of Amanda. So beautiful in a girl next door, understated way. She was so genuine, lovely, feminine, and loving. She looked at Brent adoringly, the way Amanda looked at him. Jack thought to himself how lucky Brent was. How lucky he and Amanda were to have Brent as a friend.

He thought Brent was going to end up a lifelong bachelor. He seemed to only date women casually, as if simply passing time waiting for that special something or someone. Always with some woman Jack thought of as his "shiny penny" of the moment. Looked great on the outside, but didn't have that inner beauty and depth that Amanda and Jennifer had. Jack smiled to himself thinking that he must have been waiting for Jennifer to show up. She was certainly worth the wait.

Jack then smiled to himself thinking that maybe he and Amanda should have a baby too. Amanda just came over to the office 10 to 15 hours a week at this point to mostly look over the books. He could afford to hire an accountant full time now. She could stay home and raise their third child full time.

After Brent and Jennifer left and the kids went to bed, his deep "dark secrets" were finally revealed to Amanda. It had been a part of him ever since his teenage years. He experimented with a couple of girlfriends in college, but had mostly suppressed it when he met Amanda. Amanda was a keeper and he wanted to make sure she stayed around. Sure they had experimented a little bit here and there. A little spanking, some light hair pulling, but nothing like the side of him that he revealed to her tonight.

The revelation wasn't exactly Jack's idea. Amanda had stumbled onto his BDSM porn collection that he thought was well stashed away, and she confronted him about it. He had always assumed that Amanda would be repulsed and disappointed if she ever discovered his "dark side." Her reaction seemed to be the exact opposite. He shook his head and smiled to himself thinking of all the years they had wasted.

With these thoughts and a proud smile on his face Jack drifted off to sleep.

"Wake up, Jack, wake up. We need to talk again."

Jack slowly woke up and started becoming more and more lucid as he looked up at the Stranger.

"Hello again, Jack, been a while. Five years to be exact. It's been an interesting five years for you, hasn't it?"

Jack was going through too much inner turmoil to immediately answer the Stranger's question. Somehow he remembered the conversation he had with this Stranger years ago that he wasn't aware he ever had until this moment. He remembered the choice he made. The helplessness and hopelessness he felt at the end of their conversation. He remembered the Stranger telling him the following eighteen months or so would be some of the worst in his life, but it had really been closer to two and a half to three years. While the Stranger's prediction about the hard times in his future ended up being correct, timeline notwithstanding, he was completely wrong about his predictions of Amanda having an affair with Brent and leaving him. Also, the Stranger didn't predict the enormous business success he now enjoyed. Nor the even more closeness and intimacy he now shared with his wife and children.

Jack chose this point to speak for the first time, "Last time we spoke you told me Amanda would take the kids and leave me for Brent. Which did not happen, and you told me it would be a shitty eighteen months, but it was closer to three years. And you said nothing about my success now. You're batting almost zero," Jack smiled as he finished speaking.

"Well, why don't we start with your second point, Jack. The eighteen-month mark was pretty significant. Do you remember why?"

Jack thought about this for a minute and then he remembered. "You mean when Brent invested in the business?"

"Exactly, Jack. Without his investment your business was done. You were going out of business with all this debt that you couldn't file bankruptcy against since you had already filed one of those five years earlier. Brent's investment didn't change things overnight, but it was the beginning of where you are now. His investment gave you renewed hope. Re-energized you, and renewed your purpose and direction."

"His investment did come in right on time. Yes, it did re-energize me, but what also helped was that the marketplace for the construction business was much better in 2015 than it was in 2013 when I first got into it. I had learned from my father that a good businessman must be agnostic to make good decisions. But I hadn't been agnostic. I hated my insurance job too much and had allowed those emotions to cloud my judgement about where real estate was in 2013. I got into it way too early.

"At the time I felt Brent had invested mostly because he had a soft spot for Amanda and wanted to help us out. But it ended up being the smart decision of a shrewd businessman on top of that. He has made out several-fold on his 20% equity in my business.

"But you said Brent was going to make a play for Amanda. Take her and my kids away from me. Use my business failure to lure them away. That he had wanted her forever. He did the exact opposite, he saved my business, and my family."

Jack saw that smirk again on the Stranger's face. The same smirk that had troubled him so much the first time around.

"Well, maybe I exaggerated certain aspects. Not the part about Brent wanting her forever. Brent had fallen for Amanda pretty shortly after she started working for him. The part I MAY have exaggerated a tiny bit about is the lengths he would go to get what he wanted.

"He came across his own crossroads when your relationship with Amanda was strained. While you were unsure of yourself, short with her and the kids, stressed out, the bills were piling up, Amanda was being your rock, your support. Well, at that time Brent was her rock, her support. She needed an outlet. A friend she could vent to, who could cheer her up. A friend who would tell her everything will be fine one day. And since Brent was a successful man his opinion went a long way in consoling her, in picking her up."

Jack's thoughts immediately turned darker and he interjected, "So do you mean they had an affair after all?"

"Surprisingly, no, Jack, they did not. Surprised the heck out of us too! They came close to starting one, but never did." The stranger shook his head and his smile/smirk got larger with this admission.

"But you said Brent's wanted her forever. That would have been the perfect opportunity."

"Let me turn the question back on you, Jack. I think you have always been slightly intimidated by Brent. I mean you've always liked him well enough, but he was more educated than you, certainly had a lot more money than you, really handsome guy, funny, all that stuff. Last time we spoke you told me you thought that he had made a play for Amanda when she first started working there, but that he quickly backed off. Knowing all of this, why did you let Amanda continue to work for him? I mean besides the obvious that you guys needed the money, and he was paying her more than she could get someplace else."

Jack thought for a second. "Amanda is beautiful and wherever she worked men were going to be interested in her. I met Brent and he came across as a pretty decent guy. I felt I could trust him. I knew he was fond of Amanda, but he hadn't got creepy about it or anything. More importantly, I guess I felt I could trust Amanda."

The Stranger's smirk seemed to get a little sheepish when he said, "Well, Jack, like I said, I may have exaggerated a bit Brent's reaction to your misfortune. Although to be fair, we were surprised by his sense of decency and fair play, as you humans call it. I had told you last time that Amanda truly loved you. Well, during that whole time when you were at your worst she was never thinking about abandoning you, and that was obvious to Brent as well. I'm sure if he wanted to he could have slowly played on everything that was going wrong and tried to steal Amanda away from you, but he didn't want to win her that way.

"Also, I told you the kids would be a major consideration for Amanda. At that time you assumed that meant that she would want to go with the man that could give them a better lifestyle and financial security. Well, the kids had the opposite effect on Amanda. They bonded her more to you, not less.

"Don't misunderstand me, Jack, there definitely was the danger of losing Amanda to Brent. He had always harbored, shall we say, an admiration for Amanda. And Amanda has always been very fond of him. On top of all that you were poor, he was rich. He's a man that had a lot going for him. Honestly, I thought the likelihood was better than 50-50 that she would choose him. Not as much certainty as I tried to make you think last time, but certainly more than it ended up being."

Jack, now upset, snapped at the Stranger, "But why did you want me to think it was an almost certainty? And if you're my guardian angel, like you said, why did you exaggerate the danger of my not only losing her but losing the kids too? What the fuck kind of guardian angel are you?"

The Stranger hesitated a moment, finally seeming to have made a decision, answered Jack. "Well, to be exact, I said something like a guardian angel. I'm going to give you three examples to maybe help you understand who we are, and who we are as it relates to you, Jack.

"First example is the ant and the anthill. The ants build their anthill and one day there is a strong and sudden downpour of rain. The water floods the anthill. Some of the ants that happened to be on their way out or were outside the little pit survive. The ones deeper inside die. The surviving ants mourn for the lost ones and think this was the gods punishing them for some kind of wrongdoing. They obsess about, and try to find meaning into why they survived and why the others died. Well, they happened to survive because of where they were when the downpour happened. Maybe it makes a difference of how fit or aggressive the ones on the borderline were in who survived and who died. But there was no cosmic meaning. It just rained, and they happened to be in a location that was survivable!

"Second example is the male lion that comes across a lioness with a cub. The lion will often kill another lion's cub so the lioness would be receptive to his mating advances. Doesn't do it because he hates the cub or for some kind of sense of justice, but the cub was simply in the way of what he wanted.

"Third example is a cat and a mouse. The cat doesn't simply kill the mouse and eat it out of self-preservation. It will toy with the mouse, striking it back and forth like a toy. Play with it for a long time, to the utter terror of the mouse, until it kills and eats it. A well-fed housecat will actually not even eat the mouse.

"So, Jack, sometimes it had nothing to do with you. It was simply a coincidence that your minds, which are predisposed to always look for connections between things, make too much of and give too much meaning to things that happen.

"Sometimes you're simply in the way.

"And sometimes, well..."

Jack cut in, "Sometimes we're just entertainment or distraction for you. Simply toys to amuse yourself with!?"

"You make us sound so petty, Jack. Your species created the idea of gods, angels and demons, these higher beings. You'd think these higher beings would have their own self-interests to give much thought to the little insects you must seem to them. But instead, to you, they're constantly obsessed with, and their whole reason for being is your ill or well-being. Self-absorbed much, Jack?"

Jack smirked back, "Well, if we created them, wouldn't we make them be obsessed with us?"

Jack felt like this conversation was starting to get over his head, but another thought worried him. "Ok, I get why you came the first time. I was some kind of test or experiment to see if you added or subtracted a little stimulus or incentive, like you said the first time around, you wanted to see how I'd react and how the rest of your little toys in your little experiment will react. But why are you here now. Is there another choice or another test?"

The Stranger laughed at Jack's question, enjoying his discomfort, "Well, Jack, sometimes you bring some of these animals into your households. You take a special concern with one or two of them."

"Ah, so I've become some kind of prized pet to you now?"

The Stranger smirked once again, "Let's not go that far, Jack. Remember what I said about your species being self-absorbed."

Jack laughed at this and it calmed him down, "So was Choice Two never going to happen as well?"