Wife helps win Business 02.
Part 1
My business life took a distinct turn for the better after the trade convention. With more than a little help from my wife, Joanna, I had secured two good clients in Harry and Keith. They gave me a chance by granting contracts to my firm. As time progressed, they were pleased with the way I and my colleagues handled their business, so more contracts came along.
For a time, my increased sales meant I was the company's star employee and a major promotion followed with a significant salary rise. We were able to move house. It was my role to liaise with our better clients including of course, Harry and Keith. It was demanding; I was busy but life was good.
Harry was old school. He was formal but fair in his dealings. If you did a good job, he appreciated it and he was loyal to you. Securing the first contract from him had been the difficult part.
Keith was a different character. He had a very responsible position is his firm and he ran his section very well indeed. But his style was dictatorial. Internally, he treated many of his colleagues badly. He wouldn't have got away with it under modern employment practices. But then, results mattered more than methods.
He had favourites among his staff -- and others he disliked, sometimes for no discernible reason. If you were out of favour with him, he could make your life miserable. But he used his power to manipulate people. By pandering to him and doing what he wanted, employees could move into his inner circle. And the process worked the other way too.
It was a bit the same with his contractors. He had a small band of guys -- they were all men -- who he kept close to him and favoured with his business. It wasn't corruption, just an established pattern which worked well for everyone involved. And as his methods benefitted his company, no-one was going to challenge Keith. Especially as he had such a long-established position in his firm. As time went by, his success, authority and power grew. It got to the point where everyone knew that you didn't mess with Keith.
Most of the time, Keith was great fun. He smiled and joked. He liked to socialise. He was divorced so had few commitments. He liked to call together his band of suppliers, his mates, for drinks or a night out. It was a good idea to turn up when Keith summoned us. We had some great bar sessions, often moving on for a meal - curries were popular -- and sometimes then onto a night club afterwards. It was a male only group so the humour was sometimes crude and sexist. The qualities of female staff and colleagues were regularly discussed and speculated about.
If you weren't at his drinking sessions, you were likely to be the butt of his jokes. Regular attendance meant you were in his good books, so more or better business would come your way. Looking back, all this sounds terrible. But it was the way business was done at the time and everyone accepted it. This was how you won and retained business from some clients.
I learnt to be good at playing this game, being there when it mattered, buying drinks at the right time, cracking jokes but, above all, supporting Keith in everything he did and said. Slowly, I rose up the pecking order of favourites. The most loyal and favoured usually sat closest to him at social events. The most honoured would be his right-hand man, often literally sitting on his right hand side in meetings and in the bar. Some wag irreverently dubbed this the Holy Ghost position.
That was not to say that people were always completely in favour with Keith. Occasionally, guys did or said the wrong thing and were punished by being demeaned sometimes in front of others or losing out on new business. It was Keith's way of exercising power and keeping his guys under control. Whether we realised it or not, he kept us "on the leash" -- a concept I will return to later.
After a while, it happened to me. After a steady rise in my popularity, I did something to displease Keith so my rating with the boss had fallen. I didn't know what I'd done wrong -- maybe nothing -- but it was my turn to be shunned and ridiculed. I was in a hole and I had to find a way out.
My position in my company meant that I had an entertainment budget. This was available for spending on clients at my discretion. I was encouraged to take the budget up. Use it or lose it they said. With Harry, for instance, I used to take him to a good quality restaurant regularly and occasionally to football matches of the team he supported. He was very happy with that arrangement.
Entertaining Keith was more difficult. He liked to be pampered but going out for drinks, lunch and dinner with him was routine for him. He enjoyed football and cricket but went to matches anyway or was entertained by others, so this was not special. He didn't play golf and wasn't a great fan of the theatre which he regarded as either trite or pretentious. He was a man of basic tastes.
I needed to do something to ingratiate myself but I wasn't sure what. Time was pressing because Keith had new contracts to award shortly. I needed to win at least some of them. It was all very well being a star employee but I needed to continue to bring in new business for my employers and I couldn't do that if I was out of favour with Keith.
In exasperation at finding something suitable, I asked him directly one day what sort of entertainment I could provide for him. We were in a bar at the time. For once, I had caught him alone.
Keith looked at me through narrowed eyes. "There is one thing that you could arrange." He laughed. "In fact, there's only you can do it."
"Oh, yes?" I said, intrigued. "What's that?"
"I want to see your wife again. When you introduced us at that conventon, she was very .... accommodating, shall we say." He smiled and looked directly at me. I tried to look impassive but I knew my face was colouring.
Since that night at the convention with my wife, Keith had never mentioned what happened. He hadn't boasted to others or even made insinuations. It had been a shared confidence between us but I had a feeling this was about to change.
"You see, you need to remember your position and be aware who's boss here. If I can be sure you'll do what I tell you, then I might be able to trust you with some more business"
"What do you mean?" I asked, genuinely puzzled and not a little alarmed.
"You need to arrange another session for me with your lovely wife. I'm in need of a woman and you both need to show me that you understand that I'm in control of the important things in your life."
I must still have looked confused. Keith leant forward and said quietly in my face "Listen. Me feeding you business makes you into a success. If you want that to continue, I'm going to be the boss in your bedroom too. So, tell your wife to expect a visit from a real man. And you are going to be put in your place while I fuck your wife."
Having asserted his power, he leant back with a satisfied smile on his face, waiting to see my reaction.
My mind was in turmoil. I knew he liked to make people feel small but this went further than anything I'd imagined. Give him my wife? Just to make me feel small? And what about Joanna? She'd been prepared to have sex before to help me along -- but that was on her terms. This was completely different. He was basically making a whore of her. She wouldn't like that at all. Would she do it? I hardly dared ask.
Keith was absolutely right that I depended on the contracts he awarded to my firm. Without them, my standing and my earnings would plummet. I needed Keith. He didn't need me but he had the power to make me do exactly what he wanted.
And what did he want from me? Just to gift him my wife for the taking - or did he want to really humiliate me -- in my own bedroom? My thoughts went back to that night at the convention when I was so turned on to see another man fucking my wife. I loved it but thought it could never happen again. But did I want it to be forced on me? To be subservient to a man whose patronage I badly needed?
Keith could see me trying to think it all through. In a slightly more sympathetic tone he said, "Look, you know what sort of guy I am. You offered me entertainment. If you and your lovely wife give me what I want for an evening; I'll give you what you need. Deal?"
There was nothing else for it but to put it to my wife.
Part 2
Joanna's career as a writer was also going well. She had columns in several magazines and had recently had a novel published. It was a futuristic story, with some sex scenes, I was pleased to see. I was always suggesting erotic scenarios she might include but she didn't pay much attention.
She was a vivacious, confident, fun loving sort of woman and writing is a solitary business. So, Joanna was always keen for a night out and meeting people. I'm pleased to say that she enjoyed sex as much as ever and we had a good time in the bedroom (and a few other places as well!). She was generally keen on new ideas to spice matters up -- but they had always been our own ideas.
Keith's demands did not go down well. In fact, she went ballistic. What did he think she was? She was a married woman. She was not his plaything. The whole idea was totally unethical and out of the question.
I stood back and let her rant. She cooled down eventually and by bedtime, she at least accepted my dilemma. The trappings of our good lifestyle were dependent on keeping one man happy. I wanted to say that she'd already seduced the guy once but I kept quiet.
We didn't talk about the subject all the next day and it was two days later that Keith's deal was raised again. The first move had to come from her. When she started to ask questions about how the meeting might work, I knew we were moving in the right direction.
It would be acting out a role, we agreed, for both of us. We'd be characters in a scenario -- it wouldn't be real life. Our roles were unclear but we'd both certainly have to do as we were told or at least be passive. We'd have to act as our Director (and star actor) commanded but there'd be scope to ad lib. It would be a sexual adventure for us, we reassured ourselves. And we liked adventures.
As we got used to the idea, we called the play "The Boss in our Bedroom". We'd be subservient to our new Boss. But there was no script so we couldn't know how it would go until the play began. Joanna set out some rules. No violence; not at our home; one night only and condoms to be used. So, at last, we agreed that we would do what Keith wanted, what our Boss commanded us.
Speaking to Keith the next day, I told him that we were happy to progress with his "entertainment" but that Joanna had a few rules. He looked at me very calmly.
"I don't think you quite get the idea of this. I make the rules and you both obey. Understand? Now, book a good hotel room. When I arrive, you do exactly what I say whether you like it or not. She'll be my woman. Get her to wear that red dress. You, boy, will be the servant who waits on us. Here are some dates -- get on with it."
