Forbidden

Everyone involved is 18 years of age or older...

*******

So what happened two days ago? What changed so drastically enough to cause me to put down things I've never told a soul in my life?

Well, the day started like any other. I came back from my morning run to find both my wife and daughter doing their morning yoga stretches in synch with the prerecorded DVD of a yoga instructor. I walked up behind my wife who was bent over with her head touching her knees as was my daughter. Casually, I brought my hands to her waist and pressed her ass against my groin.

"Stop it honey," she halfheartedly protested despite the smile that spread on her lips.

Her speaking up caused out daughter to turn her head from her knees in our direction. When she saw what I was doing she rolled her eyes fighting the smile that was tugging at the edges of her lips.

"What? Can't man say good morning to his beautiful wife? Especially when she's looking so damn sexy?" I answered knowing exactly what buttons to push. My wife has never been vain about her looks, but of late, she's grown a bit self conscious about her age. She's not the type to lie about her age, but she's been turning red in the face when she has to reveal it. While she she usually plays them down, I know that compliments I pay her mean a lot to her.

"Okay Romeo," she said rising from the position and turning her torso so that she was looking at me. "How about you let me finish and then you can say good morning all you want," she offered biting her lip suggestively as she ground her pelvis against my hardening meat rod.

Twenty plus years with this woman and she still could get me going. My hand rose from her waist to her chest pulling her back against me so that I could nibble at and plant kisses on her neck. "We could do that," I whispered into her ear. "Or I could just... stretch you out," I offered tweaking her left nipple. My wife has always had sensitive nipples.

"Joooob," she halfheartedly protested unable to keep slight chuckles from escaping her lips.

"Do you two need the room?" My daughter finally asked, she too rising from the position and turning fully towards us.

"No Kristi," my wife answered almost as if she'd just become aware of her existence. "Your dad's going to let us finish, right honey?" she said not moving from my embrace. This was another thing about my wife, she had a submissive streak to her and so she rarely ever made direct requests. Even when she wanted something, she'd ask it of me rather than ask me to do it.

"Only if jealous Kristi asks nicely," I say with a devilish grin at my daughter. While she was daddy's little girl,, my daughter also had her father's stubbornness. Unlike my wife, she could get quite strong-headed and unyielding at times. Teasing her like this was my way of always reminding her just who was top dog around here.

"I'm not jealous," my daughter countered a bit too quickly and defensively. My smile widened even as my daughter's cheeks burned pink.

My daughter has always been a daddy's girl, ever since she was in princess costumes up until now. Sure guys had tried to date her here and there, but the first person she always brought the guys to see was me. Though she might not have said it out loud, I knew it was a test. Any guy that was tough enough to look me in the eye and declare their intentions towards my daughter would pass it. Only so far, none had.

I know, unbelievable, isn't it? Though it might have something to do with the fact that I usually show the boys a my knife, sword and gun collections. I then give them a few stories about when I had to use some of those weapons, either during active duty or "one time when my house got broke into". By the time I'm done most of them can barely put two words together let alone come up with a way to convincingly lie to me that their interests in my daughter were purely platonic and not sexual in any way. One actually passed out before I got to the part where I cut a man's hand off with a katana.

The stories themselves are fictitious obviously, but I've been in war and seen enough carnage that I could tell the same stories to a soldier and they would believe me. Now, is it overkill? Probably. But I love my daughter and I'm very protective of her. And she doesn't seem to mind, she actually seems to like having me do this. It communicates my love to her that I'd care enough to make sure that boys that were only interested in her for sex didn't get that far with her.

Given that I am and always have been, very openly sexual towards my wife and that I also happen to be the most important guy in my daughter's life, I'd usually tease her that she was jealous of her mother when I got all handsy with my wife as I was now.

"Come on baby," My wife said whimpering as I gave her a hickey. "Ask your dad nicely and we can continue," one thing both ladies knew was how stubborn I could be. If Kristi didn't comply then I would just go on teasing my wife.

Despite rolling her eyes, my daughter was smiling as she said. "Please daddy, let mom go so we can finish our yoga routine," she asks feigning a pouty face.

My smile widened as I let my wife go. Still, she lingered for a bit , pressing herself against my hard body almost as if she wasn't aware that I'd let her go or wasn't willing to be let go just yet. When she did finally step away, I walked over to my daughter. "Of course I will princess," I answer her request despite the slight delay. "Now how about a kiss," I said turning my face and offering my cheek.

I was caught by surprise when my daughter threw her arms around me pulled me close so that her breasts were pushing against me as she gave me a long kiss on the cheek, intoning it just for effect. "Love you daddy," she said with a smile.

Love you too princess," I said. "Now, who's up for some of my world famous pan..." my work phone suddenly rang cutting me off. I have a particular phone for work and work related contacts. It's issued by the firm I work for because it's secured against tapping and hacking by third parties. It appears no different from your usual phone, only problem is it's got an annoying ringtone. My family all know the ringtone and know what it means. Some of my assignments take less than a day, others a few days, some a few weeks some could even go for a month. I once had a stint that took six months to complete. There was no way of knowing whether the call would tale me away for a few hours or more than a month.

"You have to go?" My wife more of says than asked unable to hide her disappointment. Clearly, she too had been looking forward to having an "exercise session" with me.

A sigh escaped me. "I'll be back before you know it," I say walking over to her and pulling her into a passionate kiss.

When I finally let my wife go, my daughter threw her hands around me, and rested her head on my wide chest. "Stay safe daddy," she said.

"I will," I said kissing the top of her head. I walk off pulling my phone from my pocket and bringing it to my ear. "What's up..."

*******

It was late in the afternoon when I pulled up to the gates of the compound. I'm not a modest person, and I can readily accept that I am rich, but this compound, and the mansion I could see about five hundred meters away, spoke of wealth of a kind I could never hope to achieve. This only made me more uneasy.

Apparently, the one that had employed our firms services had asked for me by name. This in itself was a red flag, given the fact that I didn't know the client and the security firm I work for doesn't give out a list of agents to choose from. But then, the firm also does a very thorough background check on all our clients so we know what to expect when we take any job, and they too had come up empty on this client. Not a single thing could be found out about them, only that they wanted me as security and that they had already paid upfront the requisite fees. If this wasn't bad enough, the client had requested that I come alone.

It was the firm's policy that all agents must have at least one other agent with them on any job. Most requests to hire only one agent were usually turned down. Also, as a disincentive, the price of hiring one security agent from the firm, was double that of hiring two. And given that the price of hiring two agents wasn't itself cheap, only a small class of elites could afford to hire one agent as a matter of convenience. Thus, the number of times anyone hired a solitary agent from the firm were few and far between. However, looking at the mansion before my eyes, the firms price tag was probably chump change to whoever owned this place.

I was on high alert as I drove past the automatic gates that had opened on their own even without me honking the horn. I didn't miss the cameras on both ends of the gate. They were being operated remotely.

As I drove up towards the mansion, I couldn't help but notice that there wasn't even a single soul in sight. When I pulled up to the mansion a few minutes later, I still hadn't seen anyone. Making sure that both my hand guns were loaded, I stepped out of the car and walked up to the front door. I was about to knock when they too opened. I was about to assume that they were automatic as well when I was greeted by what was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life.

The number of women that have ever made stop and stare like an idiot in my whole life, were exactly zero, up until this point. She had, long straight ginger red hair, reaching down all the way to the small of her back. It encased, her beautiful soft featured face that was something out of a Disney princess movie. Large doe eyes, a cute small nose and full lips that for whatever reason, made my dick twitch a bit. Her figure seemed to have been designed by a master crafter that would accept nothing short of perfection. She had a large but not overflowing bust and from the look of her waist and hips, an ass that had me just dying to see her walking away from me. By the looks of her, she couldn't e anywhere past thirty. She was the epitome of femininity, I daresay, a goddess among women.

"Job, I presume," she spoke with a British accent.

Had I any less discipline, I would have been unable to hide my embarrassment at having been caught ogling my client. She however, didn't seem to be perturbed by the indiscretion. In fact, going by her expression, she almost expected it. "Yes ma'am," I finally answered.

"This way please," she'd said turning and walking off.

I walked in after her, unable to keep my eyes off her ass. She was dressed in a long flowing evening dress with a slit on the side that came up almost to her waist. "Forgive me," I said forcing myself to look up as we walked past an opulently furnished living room on towards an unknown destination. "But where is everyone?" I asked. "I can't help but notice that I haven't seen a soul since passing the gate," I pointed out.

"Well, that's because I fired all my staff today morning, you and I are the only one's in this compound, " she stated simply as she came to a stop before a nondescript section of a wall in the hall we had turned into after the living room. She placed a palm on the wall and after a few seconds of nothing happening, a line of green light ran from an inch above where her palm was placed to an inch below. A biometric scanner on the wall, this was getting both weird and interesting much faster than I anticipated.

"May I ask why?" I posed.

"Yes, you may," she answered calmly before going silent. Unsurprisingly, a section of the wall started to pull apart like elevator doors opening.

"Why?" I asked when it became clear that she wasn't going to say anything further.

"Something is going to happen tonight," she said as we started down the flight of stairs revealed behind the hidden doors. "If all goes well, I'll just hire new staff in the morning tomorrow," she explained. "If not, I'll be dead," she stated plainly almost as if she was talking about the weather.

"I'm guessing that's why I'm here?" I said as we reached the bottom of the stairs. The second door at the bottom was not hidden but no less secure. Once again she placed a palm on a palm scanner. "To make sure you live to tomorrow?" I said as we walked through the second set of doors that automatically closed behind us as the first had.

Of all things I'd expected to find behind the door, an open area the size of an Olympic size swimming pool was not it. A lab of some kind, a secret base of operations, would have actually been less surprising. Guess I'm reading too much fiction. At the other end of the open space, behind a glass wall, was a small office desk.

"Yes and no," she finally answered my question enigmatically as she walked across the linoleum floor directly towards the office.

"I'm not sure I follow," I say as I walk after her towards the office.

She however doesn't say anything further until we are in the office and she is seated behind the desk. "Have a seat please," she said calmly offering the seat across from her.

So far, I wasn't yet sure what to make of this woman, apart from the fact that she was smoking hot and filthy rich. Neither of those two details helped me tactically at the moment. Her tone was neither friendly nor adversarial. Her expression had remained neutral all through even when she spoke of her own possible death. My gut feeling however was telling me something was up and that I needed to gather more intel and keep my guard up.

Once I was seated across from her, she pulled a drawer at her side and fished out a document from within it. After regarding it for a while, she placed it on the desk and pulled out a pen from the drawer then proceeded to sign it at the bottom on a dotted line. Turning it around so that it was facing me, she slid the document across the desk to me. "I'm going to need you to sign the second dotted line at the bottom beside your name," she said holding out the pen to me.

"What is this?" I posed neither looking down at the paper nor making any move to take the pen from her.

"A will," she said simply. "It says that, in case I don't live to see tomorrow, all my wealth in its entirety transfers to you," she said calmly as can be.

Of all answers I'd expected, this hadn't been anywhere on the list. I actually had to look down at the document to verify that she wasn't yanking my chain. My brows actually rose in surprise when I verified her claim, they however came together in suspicion a short while later.

"You are joking, right?" I asked not sure what she was trying to get at here. I hated being in situations where I didn't know what was going on or what to expect. Her expression however, remained neutral as she silently continued to hold out the pen to me.

"What are you? A millionaire who's grown tired of their money?"

"Billionaire," she corrected me. "And no, I haven't grown tired of anything, " she stated calmly. "Now please sign the document and we can get on with this," she requested.

"Why would you give the person who is supposed to protect you an incentive to see you dead?" I posed still not making any move to take the pen from her.

"Believe me, before this is over, you will have way more incentive to see me dead than just my wealth," she answered me and for the first time since I saw the hint of a smile playing on her lips.

"Why?" I posed in a brusque tone, I do not like having games played with me.

"Simple, because you and I will fight to the death," she answered. "If I win, I burn this document and go on with my life, if you win, you get all that I possess and become rich beyond your wildest imaginations and then more, a lot more!" she added.

This was getting more and more bizzare with every answer that she gave. "And why would I fight you?" I posed.

"Because of this," she said pulling out a small box from the desk with her free hand and placing it on the desk. "It was the kind of box that held a ring inside "My most valuable possession," she said.

"You think I will fight you to the death over a ring?" I asked unable to help the incredulity in my tone of voice.

A smile came on to her face almost as if she had expected this answer. Putting the pen down, she brought both her hands to the box, she pulled it open. As expected, there was a ring inside, what I hadn't expected, what the reaction I'd have on seeing it.

When the box opened, the whole room crackled with power. I could actually feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand on ends and my pupils dilate to the max as I looked at the golden ring with intricate carvings both on the outside and inside of it. Visions started to flash in my mind, a thousand beautiful naked women at my feet all worshipping me. It was as if I had stepped out of myself and was looking at another version of me. Strength and power flowed in waves from the me I saw in those visions, even I as I presently was, paled and was pathetic in comparison.

Overwhelming shame filled me when I considered the other version of myself. As I had considered this woman to be the epitome of femininity when I first saw her, so the version of me I could see in my mind was the epitome of masculinity. Anything less that 'he' was, was pathetic, unworthy, undeserving. I had to have that ring, I would do anything to have it. No one would stand in my way, I would destroy anyone who thought to even try and keep me from...

The sound of the box snapping shut snapped me out of my trance making me aware of the thought train running through my mind.

The smile on her face widened almost knowingly as she picked the pen and held it out to me. "What is that?" I posed taking the pen from her.

"Sign the document and I'll tell you what you need to know," she said simply.

The sound of pen scratching paper was heard as I signed the papers. "Talk," I more of commanded than asked, placing the pen down after I'd signed the document.

"This is the ring of desire," she said looking at the box with the same burning desire he'd probably had in his eyes when he was looking at the ring. "It will grant you almost anything you want, except for immortality, of course," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Only three rules apply to its bearer," she went on. "One, you must take what you want," she said emphasizing the 'must'. "Two, you must grow," she went on still emphasizing the fact that this wasn't optional. "Three, you must tell someone everything you do," she stated also making sure that this too was mandatory.

After a while of silence, my brows came together in confusion. "Wait, that's it?" I posed incredulously. "That tells me absolutely nothing," I said almost feeling cheated.

"That's all I'm allowed to tell you," she said. "The ring will reveal all else, " she went on. "That is of course, If you manage to kill me first, and take it for yourself" she said still calm and neutral about the subject of her potential death as she put the box back in the drawer and locked it.

"Can you answer me this then, why me?" I posed. "You could have chosen anyone to give this chance, why me?" I repeated.

"Actually, I couldn't have," she replied. "The ring chooses its own bearer. However, it chooses own bearer," she informed him. "It has chosen you as it once chose me," she explained. "It does however, allow me the chance to contest for the right to keep on bearing it. And given the fact that the only way I intend to part with it is death, we will have a duel to the death," she said.

"And what if I choose not to fight you?" I asked despite the fact that I knew there was no way I was walking out of this place without that ring on my finger.

"This place is a nuclear bunker, and my palm print is the only key in and out. The only way you get out is if my palm print. Neither one of us is leaving until the other submits or dies," she informed him.