Catalyst

She wore an eternity ring in addition to her wedding band and so I assumed that she had been married for some time. That usually worked to my advantage as, in my experience, married women were not as single-minded in the business arena.

I finally pitched the number that I had in mind but, to my total astonishment, Jade piped up from the side of the room.

"I think we ought to consider double that."

I was totally dumbstruck and it was a second or two before I noticed that her skirt had ridden a long way up her legs. She was wearing stay ups and the dark welts were clearly visible.

She rose from the couch and came to the table.

"Your share price has fallen steadily over the past six months and my guess is that you need us more than we need you."

I wanted to strangle her! I was aware of the share price, for which there were a number of explanations, and Jade's remark was not just impetuous it was impudent. I was about to close her down when Teal spoke.

"You're over reaching just a little don't you think."

Jade appeared unfazed and met Teal's gaze unwaveringly.

"Perhaps...but then why would you lie about there being no other offers on the table at present?"

I saw, immediately, that Jade was correct. Teal flinched, just enough to give herself away. I had boldly asked her outright about any other prospective offers and she had answered no. My first thought now was that she wanted to obtain my offer simply to use as a bargaining chip.

There was no harm done but I thought that we had developed a greater trust. I was wondering how to turn this revelation to my advantage when Jade spoke again.

"People give off subtle signs when they're not telling the truth. You tend to look away from the person you're speaking to. I noticed that you seemed to find my legs particularly fascinating."

I saw Teal tense and I wondered what the hell was going on. She looked more on edge than I felt and we both stared at Jade as if she were some kind of soothsayer. She turned her back on Teal and smiled at me.

"This was never about business. She finds you fascinating. You might not appreciate it but there is something about you that is very attractive to other women."

She was being totally outlandish and I had to remind myself that this was actually a client meeting but at the same time I was irrationally intrigued. She walked behind Teal and then my heart almost stopped.

Without missing a beat she reached over Teals shoulder and slipped her hand into the opening of her blouse to cup her breast.

Her victim sat there wide eyed, as disbelieving as I was. I waited long seconds expecting her to react explosively to this assault upon her person but she remained frozen in place as if hypnotized.

Jade's eyes held mine as her fingers gently flexed causing Teal to breathe a little more quickly.

"All the time you were talking business our friend here was wondering about the colour of my underwear..."

Teal's eyes widened fractionally and her face flushed but she still made no attempt to move. Jade laughed softly knowing that she had both of us enmeshed.

"....but what she would really like to know is the colour of yours."

I tried to keep the shock from my face not altogether successfully. Jade set her head slightly to one side as if pondering.

"I'm guessing black...something a little daring."

The girl was a witch. I was wearing a dark business suit over a navy blouse and there was no way she could have caught sight of me but she was uncannily accurate. I was wearing black and my panties were very sheer. There was something about my meetings with Geraldine that encouraged me not to dress to type and I usually kept it up for a day or two afterwards.

For a second or two I was embarrassingly aware of my immodest panties and I felt my labia stir. At the same time my nostrils flared very slightly and I had to tell myself not to be stupid. The redolent smell in the room was still wax polish.

Jade had paused but now continued as if everything she said was perfectly natural.

"Why don't you show us? You would make her very happy. It might even make her come."

I felt disembodied, as though it was no longer me in the room. I seemed to be looking down on myself as I eased the chair back from the table and reached for the hem of my skirt. I began to raise it inch by inch watching Teal's mouth slowly opening in shock.

My bare legs were still slightly tanned from my break in Sitges and I let my fingertips brush against the smoothness of my upper thighs. I was wantonly arousing myself but Teal's face was a picture as she swallowed hard and stifled a low moan.

With teasing deliberation I began to part my legs until my panties were lewdly on show and Jade spoke with genuine feeling.

"That is so beautiful."

Her words stirred me and I could feel my sex pulsing as a prelude to deliquescence. She slowly removed her hand from Teals blouse and whispered.

"Go to her..."

I could see that Teal was being assailed by the same conflicting emotions that I was and, like me, she was overwhelmed by a temporary insanity. She slipped from her chair to her knees and eased between my opened legs.

As she pressed her face to my panties the warmth of her breath was deliciously arousing and as she brushed softly with her nose my constricted labia felt impossibly sensitized. For a moment or two she was content simply to nuzzle me but I wanted more.

I put my hand to the back of her head and applied a gentle, but insistent, pressure until I was rewarded with the first hesitant flick of her tongue. There was something wickedly sordid about having her lick me through my panties but the sensation was incredible.

My sex was held closed but I could feel myself leaking and, as I looked down on her, I could see her taking up the creamy ooze as it seeped through.

Any final hesitation was vanquished as she licked with the same unseemly relish that I had evinced that very first time. Her eyes were closed but I could tell that there was no way back for her. She had tasted the forbidden fruit and was already on the road to addiction.

That thought was discomforting for, even now, I believed that my salvation was in my own hands but to what extent was I deluding myself? I chose that moment to look up at Jade who was watching with quiet amusement.

I was on the verge of regaining control, ready to make Teal stop, but Jade prised my fingertips from the edge of sanity. She lifted her skirt to reveal white underwear sodden with arousal and then slipped her fingers inside.

That single image sent a thrill of excitement through my whole body and I surrendered to Teals enthusiastic tongue. She licked frantically whilst groaning in appreciation and I felt the guilty pleasure of coming in my panties.

My orgasm was intense but I was not entirely sated. Teal began to slip away but I told her to stay exactly where she was. I lifted myself and quickly dispensed with my ruined panties before retaking my seat.

My sex was flushed, it's covering damp and matted, and Teal no longer looked quite so enthusiastic but I gave her no time to think about it. I roughly pulled her back into place desperate to feel her mouth against my bare flesh.

She remained hesitant at first but then she began to explore in a way that had been denied to her to begin with.

I held my breath as I felt the first sinuous intrusion of her tongue. She worked to part my lips with an endearing inexperience but, having found her way, she then slid greedily inside. She moaned as she encountered the wetness within and I felt the flexing of her tongue as she enjoyed the taste to the full.

As she continued to probe I could feel my climax beginning to build once more. My nipples were achingly firm and I yearned to give them some attention but I was now using both hands to guide her mouth.

She was quickly learning how to arouse me but I could feel the pulse of my excited clitoris and I was a little forceful as I tugged her head upwards. For a second or two I regretted my decision as her tongue withdrew from within but then I shivered as she reapplied herself to the apex of my sex.

To begin with her touch was uncertain but she slowly familiarized herself and then began to draw teasing circles with the very tip of her tongue. Driven by some innate feminine instinct she was reading me better than any man. My body was drawn taut as a bowstring and I was frighteningly aware of the frantic beating of my heart.

I could feel perspiration sheening my body and I continued to hold her close as I uttered imprecations under my breath and urged her to greater effort.

The end, when it came, left me gasping for breath as I strained every sinew to hold my place on a previously unattained plateau of pleasure. It was some time before I was completely compos mentis and I only slowly became aware of the heated scent of my arousal and the soothing sensation of Teal softly sucking at my relaxed sex.

In those ensuing moments I was shocked by the realization that, whilst drained, I was still greedy for more but Jade now beckoned from the couch.

"Which of you two ladies is going to come and finish me off?"

Chapter 5

Some last remnant of sanity prevailed and I held myself in check as I watched Teal crawl to meet her fate. Over the next two days I anguished knowing that the only rational thing to do was to fire Jade; I had made the great mistake of allowing my personal desires to cloud my professional judgement.

Her short term of employment meant that she was not entitled to a severance package but, nevertheless, I felt I owed her something and so I organized a one off ex gratia payment. I called in my accounts manager to hand over the authority, with the request that it be kept confidential, but he diverted me with a new billings form.

When I looked at it my mouth opened in shock. Teal had contracted with us for twice the figure I had proposed on a rolling twelve month basis. I scanned to the bottom of the document and a second surprise awaited. Jade was named at the client manager.

"Is this correct?"

For a new account of this size I would normally have appointed one of two senior managers to act as client liaison.

"It was at Teal's insistence."

I looked at the form and came very close to tearing it in two. Teal's was a perfect fit with my company but the unwritten sub-text was extremely disquieting.

I could afford to lose Teal's business but I was reluctant to do so. In the end I found an unsatisfactory compromise. The profits from the contract were several times Jade's salary and so I could rationalize setting her up to deal with just the single portfolio and keep her away from anything else.

It was not a full time position by any stretch of the imagination and so there was also the prospect that she would grow bored and leave of her own volition.

It was going to take a while to come on stream and so, in the meanwhile, I followed up on my original plan to have her man the phones and drum up repeat business. Over the following weeks I checked up on her figures and was relieved to find that, whilst they were better than average, they were nothing out of the ordinary. I was even smug enough to contemplate winning my bet with Geraldine.

The earthquake came when I took a call from the trade press. The question was simple and direct. Had we signed Levensons?

It was late in the day but I managed to raise my accounts manager, He confirmed that Levensons had placed an order based on 'the agreed terms' but he had yet to see a billings form.

I was furious. At the monthly meetings with the two senior accounts managers we always discuss prospects that might be poached but when Andrea put up Levensons for discussion I slapped her down.

Levensons was one of Geraldine's core clients and we had an unspoken agreement that some accounts were sacrosanct. In truth, it was a form of cartel arrangement but we both recognized that we needed a degree of mutual co-operation in a male dominated, dog eat dog, industry.

There was nothing more I could do before the morning and so I left for home in a mood of angry frustration. I forced down some food with a couple of glasses of much needed red wine when my mobile phone rang.

In a day of shocks this was a further jolt. The caller was Ben Kaye another of Geraldine's clients. He thanked me for my e-mail and said he would be interested in meeting up. I had not sent an e-mail and I desperately wanted to ask for more details but I did not want to appear uninformed.

The situation was further complicated because I had always assumed that his business relationship with Geraldine was cemented on more than just commercial considerations. I told him that I would have my secretary speak to his and ended the call.

It was late but I made myself some strong coffee and headed back to the office to try and get to the root of it.

My immediate assumption was that Andrea was becoming over ambitious and had exceeded her authority and so I headed for her office to check her files. As I approached I was surprised to see her desk lamp illuminated as she was at the forefront of our green campaign to cut down on electrical usage.

As I drew closer I froze as I heard a distinct whimper. It was not unknown for staff to be working this late at year end but we were in our slower third quarter and I encouraged everyone to moderate their hours and achieve a good work life balance.

I approached slowly and cautiously but as I reached the open doorway I had to suppress a gasp. The naked body sprawled across the meeting table was obviously female as evidenced by the outstretched ankles which were sellotaped to the chromed steel legs.

The wave of long blonde hair had me convinced it was Andrea but, unclothed, she was much slimmer than I would have imagined. Her head moved as she heard me but I could now see that she was both blindfolded and gagged.

My immediate thought was that she had been overcome by someone intending to rob the office but why such elaborate restraint? Her wrists, too, were sellotaped to the table's front legs bending her over and making her completely helpless.

I checked her desk for a pair of scissors but then I heard the sound of the toilet door opening across the corridor. Panicked, I desperately looked for somewhere to conceal myself and took the only immediate option which was underneath the desk itself.

It had a modesty board but it did not offer complete concealment as it had a six inch gap at both top and bottom. Fortunately, the desk lamp had been turned around to illuminate the table casting the desk into shadow.

Peering through the gap I took a sharp intake of breath as I watched Jade enter the room. I started to break cover to demand to know what was going on but as Jade spoke I held myself in check.

"Now, where were we? Ah, yes, I remember..."

She approached the desk and, for a moment, her legs were within touching distance through the gap. When she walked away again I saw that she had picked up the eighteen inch ruler that Andrea habitually used when proof reading contracts.

I now understood exactly what she intended to do. My natural impulse was to bring these bizarre proceedings to an abrupt halt but I remained awkwardly crouched with my heart still beating fast.

Jade slapped the weighty length of plastic against her own hand and my body mimicked Andrea's as she visibly flinched. My eyes were drawn to the smooth curves of her taut backside and for reasons that I could not explain her vulnerability sent a thrill of excitement through my body.

As if reading my mind Jade traced the contour with the flat of the ruler as she spoke again.

"Six...to begin with."

She raised the ruler to a height of twelve inches and then, with a practised snap of the wrist, she brought it down.

Andrea squealed as the sharp slap reverberated from the walls creating a sympathetic vibration that seemed centred on my sex.

I could see Jade smiling as she changed her position and prepared to strike again and I found myself tensed in anticipation. It must have taken at least five minutes, although it seemed a lot longer, for her to deliver all six but at the finish I was horribly conscious of the state of my panties.

There had been no pattern to the strokes and Andrea cried out as each one tortured her flesh. Even with the subdued lighting I could see the glow of her heated skin which was mirrored by the increased temperature of my sex.

Had anyone told me that watching someone else's anguish in this way would affect me as it did I would have called them insane but I had to fight back a groan as Jade checked with her fingertips the damage she had caused.

"No great harm done...I think you can take a little more...perhaps a little harder this time."

Andrea squirmed to the extent that she could and made a muted entreaty but Jade simply laughed and waited until her victim had exhausted herself.

She raised the ruler higher this time and struck with noticeably more venom but before the point of impact my fingers were already at work.

Jade had not specified a number which only made my own torment even more exquisite. Andrea was screaming louder with each drawn lash of the ruler stoking the flames of my inevitable orgasm but I did not want to finish before the last stroke had been delivered.

She reached six and I was willing her to continue giving a muted sob as she delivered a seventh and then an eighth. I was hating myself as I was spurred myself on but then, in an eye opening moment, I saw that Andrea was not crying out in pain but as a harbinger of her own climax.

As Jade delivered a series of strokes in quick succession Andrea's spine became rigid before her whole body shook uncontrollably. She gave a long suffocated wail which helped to cover my own suppressed cries.

Jade waited for the final tremors to abate and then began to remove the gag. I saw now that her face was bound with pantyhose but I then watched in disbelief as she deftly removed a wadded pair of white panties from inside her mouth.

Any doubts as to whom they belonged were dispelled as Jade unfastened her skirt and casually let it fall to the floor. She then turned to Andrea's office chair and retrieved the cushion that she used for lumber support before placing it on the table.

With a gymnast's agility she mounted the table and made herself comfortable on the cushion before easing herself forward. Andrea uttered a groan of greedy desire causing Jade to take hold of her hair.

"Take your time...you've had your pleasure now concentrate on mine."

Andrea looked extremely uncomfortable but Jade was not to be hurried. My own body was cramping badly by the time, half an hour later, she melted into a second leisurely orgasm.

She did not remove Andrea's blindfold throughout and she left it in place as she leisurely got herself dressed and put a brush through her hair. As a parting gesture she pushed the cushion under Andrea's chin.

"Sorry, it's wet, but it will give you something to remember me by."

I stopped breathing as she approached the desk once more but she quickly found what she was looking for. She used a pair of scissors to free one of Andrea's wrists and then simply walked out leaving her to it.

Andrea groaned in discomfort as she cut herself free and she had difficulty in standing upright. She still had sellotape stuck to her skin and she left the room heading for the toilets.

As soon as I heard the door I extricated myself and quickly tried to work some life back into my cramped legs before I dashed from the office.

Chapter 6

That night I hardly slept. Andrea had been with me for a long time and it now seemed clear that Jade was using her to generate leads but I did not know how I was going to deal with it without revealing what I had witnessed.