Office Worker Ch. 03

"Don't worry though, you won't be doing a whole lot of that this trip. Go along, take notes, make your recommendations and points, and finalize the Power Points for me. The purpose of today's meeting is to get Ben to sign a consulting contract. Your role will be to take notes, and serve as the bargaining chip if needed. Questions?"

When there were none, Stephen waved his hand, and the papers were gathered up. Liz immediately came around to Laura and slipped the cowl neck off Laura's arms, allowing it to drop to the floor, then unfastened her skirt.

Laura's breathing quickened, and her breasts rose and fell enticingly with each breath. Liz latched her mouth onto one of them and Laura sighed in pleasure, even as Liz's hands caressed her sides, then down over her ass. One of Liz's fingertips grazed the plug in Laura's ass, and she turned Laura so that her back was to Stephen. Spreading Laura's cheeks, she displayed the jewel lodged in Laura's sphincter to the crude laughs of the men.

"Yessir, you picked a REAL winner this time! Don congratulated Stephen. Meanwhile, Liz's free hand drifted down to gently finger Laura's clit. Finding it well lubricated, she fingered until it was dry, then thoughtfully slid her finger back to Laura's opening to gather more juices before again fingering her to dryness. This time, she pulled her hand up and placed it between hers and Laura's faces so that the two women could kiss while licking it clean.

Once Liz was satisfied, she sat down on the chair and placed her legs on the arms, opening herself to Laura's talented tongue. In moments, Laura had her writhing in pleasure, even as she felt someone penetrating her from behind. Laura groaned in animal-like lust, lost in the heady scent and taste of Liz, as well as the feeling of both her lower holes being stuffed full. She realized that she was fantasizing about two men using her down there, and came from the thought.

When she had recovered, she realized that Don had finished, and Liz was pushing her away desperately.

"Enough!" the older marketing woman commanded, frantically. "I can't take any more! Too sensitive!"

Stephen, Don, and Toni all laughed at Liz, while Laura took it as a compliment that she hadn't neglected the other woman even in the throes of her own orgasm. Laura sat back on her heals and licked her lips, feeling like the cat who had gotten the cream.

"Ten minutes," Stephen announced. "Clean up, get dressed, and be ready to go before then."

Laura retrieved her top and skirt, then went into the bathroom. Once she was refreshed and dressed, she returned to the group, sitting in a seat between Don and Toni, where she'd been directed. Liz would be immediately to Stephen's left, and Laura assumed the guests would be on his right.

Moments after Liz had taken her seat, Tracey brought Ben and a man she introduced as Mark to the team. She made sure everyone had refreshments, then turned and left, closing the door behind her.

As the meeting went on, Laura felt conspicuous being the only one without any paperwork in front of her, and she wished desperately for at least a notepad so that she could keep her thoughts orderly. Don inadvertently obviated her position when he mindlessly dropped his hand to her thigh several times, stroking it thoughtfully. Both Ben and Mark noticed, with Mark being more discrete.

Liz brought up Laura's points of concern regarding Ben's expectations regarding having Stephen present to Ben's company, pointedly giving Laura the credit for those observations. Ben looked at her in obvious surprise, while Mark briefly glanced at her face, then down to Laura's leg which was being squeezed appreciatively by Don. Liz skillfully addressed the topic of Ben potentially losing a few of his staff, potentially to competitors, but also brought up that even with those losses his overall productivity stood to increase substantially and with less overhead by developing the remainder of the staff.

"In short, by having Stephen bring his organization to yours and following our recommendations, the worst case scenario is that you'll find yourself scrambling hard to keep ahead of the developments of your staff," Liz closed, winking at Laura.

Ben was floored by the suggestion, but Mark maintained a poker face. Discussion arose regarding the price Stephen was demanding. Ben was on the side of hesitantly accepting, while Mark was adamantly opposed. Now it was Stephen's turn to maintain a carefully neutral expression, while the two groups argued price points back and forth.

Laura was becoming impatient with the increasingly heated debating, and shifted in her seat. Stephen's eyes shot to her, and he raised a barely discernible eyebrow towards her. She flitted her eyes towards the potential clients, then back to Stephen, and slightly cocked an eyebrow of her own back to him. Stephen hesitated, then gave the barest of nods towards her.

"I'm sorry," Laura broke in, interrupting. The conversation stopped immediately, shocked into silence.

"Ben, it seems to me that you're not fully understanding the implications of what is being offered. Stephen has a proven record of inspiring actual leaders in organizations to take on more responsibility, more tasks, and to increase their individual productivity. Productivity is where your organization has been lacking. In the last three quarters, you lost three major contracts due to not meeting your obligations, and from what I could find, that was not related to any supply chain issues. Your staff is similar in size to other organizations that are outperforming you, so that would indicate that you have a leadership problem that is keeping your people from maximizing the potential of your business.

"Yes, you're likely to lose some people. A few won't like the changes you're going to make, and some won't like the additional stress of keeping pace with the new normal. However, you should mostly be able to meet those roles from within your organization by allowing the natural leaders to show themselves. By working with Stephen to bring much of the additional training those leaders will need in-house, you'll end up dropping your overhead ultimately.

"As it stands, it looks like you've brought on two new senior administrators and sent them outside your company for the necessary training they needed in your field, and they still don't seem fully up to speed. If you'd had the ability to train them inside, they'd already know your goals and the finer points of your business, but you ended up putting them behind the eight ball by not having those capabilities.

"Yes, bringing Stephen in would be a huge up-front investment, but one that I can easily see being made back in less than two years if Stephen's approaches and recommendations are applied. As it stands, if you keep going as you are, you'll still be recouping the similar investment of the two administrators you hired, then paid to train at a similar cost to what Stephen is offering, for another three years."

Stephen glanced at Liz and cocked his eyebrow at her, with Laura picking up a chilly undertone, then glanced at Laura and back to Liz, and then back at Laura before again giving Laura the barest of grins. Liz was frozen in shocked silence.

Ben and Mark were silent for several long minutes, the silence of the room broken only by the sounds of the clock. Finally, Ben sighed and looked at Mark. Mark looked resigned, then asked if they could have additional time to consider.

"End of the day tomorrow," Stephen announced unceremoniously. "We'd love to work with you, but we have several other clients to court as well, and unfortunately with time being a limited commodity, we have to fit people in where we can." He stood abruptly, then glanced at Ben, a small smile briefly crossing his face.

"Or, we could leave you to talk between yourselves for a few moments privately, then send in our best negotiator for some extra discussion points," he suggested, glancing at Laura and looking her up and down. There was no doubt in Laura's mind what he meant by "discussion points", and felt truly degraded for the first time, but maintained her composure.

Ben, meanwhile, had followed Stephen's glance towards Laura, and immediately grasped the offering.

"How about we start with that," he agreed.

Stephen's team stood and filed out of the room, with Stephen waiting by the door until each one had passed. Once they were all huddled outside in the hallway, he gently led Laura to one of the nearby offices and pulled her inside.

"When you go back in, it's strictly business-just like you're used to," Stephen said, cutting off her argument before she could start. You may be trained as an editor, but you're a born saleswoman. Just do what comes naturally. I've seen enough to back you no matter what's said or done. My biggest hard lines on this are the price, which you're allowed to drop by up to $20,000, and the deadline of end of business tomorrow. Anything and everything else that goes on is up to you. Fair enough?"

Laura nodded, surprised at the sudden display of trust. What Stephen did next shocked her even more though. He pulled her into a glad embrace and whispered against her hair.

"I had you pegged for possibly joining my team while you were editing my last book. Your sex appeal made me have to have you, but I'd have been looking to have you join us with or without it."

With that, he stepped back and opened the door again, the group conversing softly among themselves. Liz looked wary and defeated, but everyone else merely tense. Laura got the impression that the deal resting on her shoulders represented a great deal of work and income for the company.

She leaned against the wall next to Liz.

"Sorry about speaking up like I did. If it's any consolation, I didn't have anything else going on at home the last few days and for some reason enjoy reading these sorts of things," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to step on your toes, I just wanted to be an asset."

Liz hugged her and barked a quiet laugh. "And here I thought Stephen had given you inside information and was looking to push me out!" Stephen overheard the conversation and joined them, looking aggrieved.

"Liz, you know me better than that," he said. "If I wanted you out, I'd do it, but not by under cutting you. It seems though, that we all severely underestimated Laura's willingness to go all in for us."

He looked at Toni and Don. "Before she leaves, give her the manuscript and a blank contract. Whatever her organization is willing to give us, we'll take," Stephen instructed, then knocked on the door of the conference room. Opening it, he ducked inside for a few moments, then came back out and looked expectantly at Laura before turning on his heel and going into his office.

Laura took Toni's and Liz's notes, then walked in to take a seat across from Ben and Mark. Both men looked at her expectantly-Ben with desire, Mark waiting for her to speak. Laura took a moment to review the notes, then crossed her legs, leaned forward, steepled her fingers, and rested her chin on them. Both men's gazes became more intense, and for different reasons.

"I guess what I need to know, first of all, is about how far apart we are on agreeing financially on a contract," she said slowly.

"About fifty thousand," Mark stated emphatically. Laura immediately closed the notes and stood to leave, both men's gave dropping to where her skirt had ridden up to expose the lace tops of her stockings. Ben slapped Mark across the chest with the back of his hand.

"About twenty thousand," he said. Laura paused in gathering her borrowed materials.

"That's not an insignificant difference for this kind of job," she said. "With whom am I negotiating? I need to be clear on that to be respectful of the time of all involved."

Ben turned to Mark. "I know you're the financial wizard behind all this, but according to the books, I'm the CEO and Board President, and we have the money-even if it does make some things tight for a while," he said. "I was going by my gut before you came aboard and did well, and right now my gut is telling me to go for it."

"Your gut or your dick?" snorted Mark. "Isn't this the slut you shagged in this very room, the one who convinced you to keep pursuing this nonsense?"

For the second time today, Laura's hand struck the table with a resounding crack.

"For your information," she said coolly, "Yes, Ben had sex with me in this room. But I also have not had any contact with him-directly, indirectly, second hand, nor any other way since that time. I'm not here to manipulate nor take advantage, I'm here so that both organizations can reach a mutually beneficial BUSINESS arrangement.

"If you do not believe that Stephen's company can fulfill the promises made in the contract and presentation, then please let me know so that we can all go home. If instead, you feel it is a matter of value, then please let me know so that we can do some planning and refiguring. Or, if you're going to make this about sex, then you may simply leave."

Laura rested her notes on edge on the table but took a half a step to the side, indicating that the matter was indifferent to her. Mark stared emotionlessly into her eyes for several long minutes, then when she failed to move nor blink, dropped his and waved his hand in acquiescence.

Laura regained her seat, once again spreading out the notes. Hitching herself to the edge of her seat, she leaned far over the table, looking intently at Mark.

"I need to know exactly what your personal hang up is on this deal," she said seriously to him. "You and I both know that cutting the price by fifty k for what is being offered is insultingly low. That would put Stephen in the same class as freshly retired military officers who have only ever spoken to military staff or high school graduations, not with internationally known speakers in as high of a demand as Stephen. Even Ben's reduction of twenty thousand is a low ball."

"He can't be in that high demand, if he's having his staff entice customers by fucking them," snorted Mark in reply.

"At this time, I'm not a member of Stephen's staff, nor was I at that time," Laura shot back. This brought a moment of shocked silence from both men. "Granted, I was here to interview for a potential spot on his team, and today am here upon Stephen's request for a negotiator, but to the best of my knowledge I am not being paid for my efforts."

Mark frowned in thought for several moments, then asked for a few moments alone with Ben. Laura gathered her notes and stood, advising that she would be right outside the door when they were ready to speak again. Standing in the hallway, she reviewed the notes she'd received carefully, taking in the more minute details instead of the overview she'd done while at the conference table. It was only a few moments after she was done that Mark opened the door and beckoned her inside.

Re-taking her seat across from the pair, Mark opened. "Since you've looked at our business, you know that we're currently on shaky financial standing." Laura nodded seriously. "The reduction of fifty thousand would put us at still having working capital moving forward. Twenty thousand in reduction takes us to the limits of what we can do before running into complications. The full asking price, unfortunately, is outside what we can currently financially handle." Mark sat back, uncomfortable with the information he'd volunteered.

Laura took a moment to process the information, covering herself by again looking through the notes, making a few of her own, but mostly mentally debating what Stephen had told her was within her power.

"What about if we make some allowances," she said slowly. "We'll take half now to guarantee Stephen's appearance and time, and half six months after he's there. Full asking price. But we'll throw in developing a few of the development courses you'll need in order to start bringing your education in-house. Not all of them, just enough to get you started and give you time to develop the rest of what you need.

However, that means that you endorse Stephen afterwards, without agreement of compensation beyond necessary travel expenses."

Mark shot Ben an indiscernible look, then looked back at Laura. "That would actually make things a lot more workable," he said carefully.

"Unfortunately, that's the best offer I can make that would be fair to all. You reduce your short-term liability risk and gain some time to make good on the deal, while Stephen would absorb some risk that you become may become insolvent in the meantime. However, once you're on a better track to succeed, he gains your endorsement for his services," Laura replied, then sat back in her chair.

Again, Mark looked at Ben, who nodded in reply. With a nod in return, Mark looked back at Laura and nodded. Making a quick note of the change in the deal, Laura stood, said she'd be back momentarily, then rushed the notes to Don's office. Talking him through the changes to the deal, he agreed to work on them. With that, Laura returned to the conference room.

"Don agreed to amend the contract to what we just discussed," she told both men while shaking Ben's hand with a broad smile. "He just needs a little bit of time to make the changes, if you're agreeable to waiting until he does so in order to sign today, so that everyone can go home satisfied with the deal."

Laura turned to shake Mark's hand in congratulations, while Ben ran his hand up the back of her thigh to the top of her stocking and teasing the bare skin at the top. "A little time..." Ben said suggestively.

"A little," Laura said, not moving, Mark's hand still held in hers. She felt Ben press up against her back, his hands moving around the front of her thighs, then sliding up, under her skirt and flipping it up to Mark's view, then continuing up underneath her blouse to her tits. He squeezed and kneaded the fleshy orbs, making Laura press back against him in pleasure. Mark's free hand slipped under her skirt to finger the cleft where her clit was just beginning to swell.

"I take it you're going to entertain us while we wait," Mark said aggressively.

"That can be arranged," replied Laura, her eyes becoming heavy-lidded with increasing arousal.

Mark dropped her hand, then gestured to her clothes. "Show us," he commanded. Laura immediately obeyed, her arms peeling her top over her head, revealing Ben's hands still playing with her tits, and tossing it onto the table top. She then unfastened the clasp on her skirt, dropping it to the floor. Mark switched hands, bringing the one that had been teasing her slit to her lips and tracing them with the finger that had been inside her.

"I hear you have quite a talented mouth," he said, coating her lips with her juices. Her tongue followed his finger, gathering them up. "Perhaps you'd like to demonstrate."

Laura's hands reached of their own volition to unfasten Mark's pants, then pushed him down into his chair. Reluctantly pulling from Ben's hands to drop to her knees, she stretched her arms along Mark's thighs before leaning forward to take him into her mouth. Behind her, Ben laughed.

"The slut's got a butt plug winking at me," he announced to his legal advisor.

Mark half moaned, half laughed in reply. Laura had just taken him fully into her mouth during the unexpected announcement. As she started to pull back a little, she heard Ben unfastening his own pants, then he pushed into her, pushing her back onto Mark's cock. She pushed back against Ben, allowing him to guide her on and off Mark. She used her vaginal muscles to stimulate Ben, who groaned in appreciation.

Ben quickly caught on to the rhythm she was seeking. As he pushed in, he pushed her mouth onto Mark. When he pulled off, Laura followed slightly behind, allowing her mouth to slide off Mark's cock. While she did, she tongued the sensitive underside. It was just as he was filling her mouth that Don walked in with the revised paperwork, Mark's hands full of Laura's hair, holding her mouth in place.