Most Natural Cologne

You know those people who are just not very good friends with deodorant? You run into them once in a while, maybe in a crowd, or on public transport - bonus points if it's on a hot day. Most people react to that by being disgusted, and honestly, I get that. Never have I thought that the smell of a sweaty man can be anything else but off-putting. That is until I ran into somebody who changed everything about that.

A year ago, when I was eighteen years old, two of my friends and I started a small tech company in our hometown. We had this idea in high school that we always wanted to explore and I never thought we would ever actually go through with it, but we did! Right after our graduation, we pulled up all the money we had saved and invested it all into this project. It was our baby. We were working on it hard, day and night. I can't stress how much time and energy we invested in this thing, so naturally, we were expecting to collect the fruits of our effort soon!

Sadly, you can probably guess how it goes for most companies like that. Great enthusiasm at the beginning, but then the reality hits you hard. With the few resources we had access to, we had trouble generating any kind of profit. A couple of customers were interested in our product, but it just wasn't enough to keep us above water, so we ended pouring more and more of our money into it.

A couple of months later, one of my friends dropped out of the whole thing and decided to get a regular job instead. The other one didn't say anything, but I could tell he was starting to have second thoughts too. I started becoming nervous. I didn't want this project to go south, especially since - in my eyes - we had barely even started.

The solution was obvious. Find an investor, so we could pour more money into marketing and get off the ground.

Finding somebody willing to invest in a small company like ours that only generates a few hundred dollars every month at best and which is also run by a pair of teenagers was not easy. I sent out emails, asked around, tried as hard as possible to find a good contact, but I was unsuccessful. Until one fateful day.

I didn't know this guy very much, but the friend of his friend told me he would put a good word in a company that he was in contact with somehow. I didn't know much about the company back then but I was grateful that he would do that for us. Then I kind of forgot about it and started looking elsewhere, because I didn't want to get my hopes up... until I received an email.

It was them! The company! They said in the email that they saw our website, that they were impressed with our product, and that they wanted to meet with me, personally, to discuss our future! I can't express how excited I felt after seeing that email. At first, I thought it was just a prank, but the more I looked into the company online, the more I was convinced that this was a real chance for us!

The company specialized in making perfumes and colognes. That kind of threw me off later when I calmed down from the excitement and started thinking about it. Our product was very tech-oriented, and I didn't see a lot of overlap between our fields. Why would they want to invest in us? However we were too desperate to question anything - my friend and business partner told me that he was thinking of dropping out as well and I knew I had to take action.

Over the next couple of days, I was in contact with various people from this company. The cooperation they had in mind was a large investment in our company in exchange for advertisement services and some shares. Specifically, they asked for fifteen percent. Even though I was very grateful for this opportunity, it was important for me to have our company as independent as possible, so I started negotiating that. I was pretty sure I could make them go down to ten percent. They seemed to be happy with the phone calls and finally, they told me that the CEO of the company wants to meet me personally to officially discuss and sign the deal.

That was the day when everything happened - and here is where I finally get back to my initial topic.

It was almost a hundred degrees outside and I was suffering in my tight suit while on the way to the basketball court. The CEO, Jim Wolf, was apparently really into baseball in his free time and wanted to meet me right after his game was over. He asked me to meet me at the court - I guess he was a very busy man who could only squeeze so many meetings into his already tight schedule. I took the bus there and walked up to the court, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Not a lot of people were at the bleachers, just a handful of onlookers looking at something that seemed like a casual game of baseball between a couple of friends. I didn't know which one of them was Jim, but the players noticed me soon enough - I was sticking out like a sore thumb with the suit I was wearing in that weather - and one of them quickly ran up to me.

He was a tall man with a very athletic build. Not overly buff, but with really nicely toned muscles that only regular workout and lots of running around could give you. He must have been in his late forties and didn't look like a CEO of anything, as much as a friendly uncle. Sharp blue eyes and a semi-kept beard that was a mixture of blonde and ginger. He was wearing a fitting baseball uniform, red and white stripes, complete with the cap and the tall socks. The hairy forearms and the patch of pubic hair coming out of his collar was a hint to me that Jim Wolf was very hairy and he wasn't about to let a blade of a razor change anything about that.

When he approached me, he was drenched in sweat and wearing a smile on his face.

"You must be Andy," he said when he saw me and immediately stuck out his hand to greet me, "Pleasure to meet you. The name is Jim Wolf, but feel free to just call me Jim."

His friendly attitude was a pleasant surprise - I thought I would have to deal with some kind of cold-blooded corporate shark, but this guy seemed nice enough. Another thing that I noticed about him was his musk, that hit me from a mile away. That kind of honest, sweaty smell you could only get if you were a man running around all day in this weather. That was nothing surprising though and I didn't want to be rude, so I pretended I didn't notice anything.

"Yeah, that's me... Um... It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wo... I mean, Jim. I hope I'm not too early?"

"Oh, no worries," he replied, waving his hand, "The boys and I were just wrapping this up. Tell you what - my driver just pulled up in my car in front of the other entrance. He's going to drive us to my office to discuss our deal. Would you mind waiting for me in my car? I will only take a minute."

Of course, I had no issue with that. I nodded and assured him that I will be waiting for him there and told him to take as much time as he needed. Then he ran back to the court while I walked off to the entrance.

I knew that a CEO would drive something fancy, but I wasn't expecting a full-blown limousine to be waiting for us in front of the basketball court! A huge, black, shiny beautiful limo was just there, waiting for us, contrasting the empty field behind it. It looked so out of place! I felt intimidated the minute I saw it, but then I put it together and walked up to it. Before I could even knock on the window, one of the doors in the back opened for me itself.

"Good afternoon," the driver said to me in a cheerful, professional tone, "Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable. Mr. Wolf will be here in a minute."

I greeted the driver and took a seat at the left, leaving some space for Jim for when he gets back. The leather seats were very comfortable and the whole car was nice and cozy. The interior of it matched the shiny front. It was luxurious - not in a kitsch way, but you could just tell that everything was top quality. The driver was sitting in the front with the window pulled down. He didn't look like he had anything else to say to me and just kept a professional smile. Fair enough.

I was expecting that it would take a while before Jim showed up - I assumed that even if he finished up the game already and said goodbye to his friends quickly, it would take him a while to shower and change into some fresh clothes. It was searing hot outside, after all. Imagine my surprise when the door opened and I saw Jim there in the exact same state as when I met him!

He was still drenched in sweat and was about to sit on these expensive seats in his dirty, sweaty baseball uniform! I tried to hide my shock out of fear of seeming rude and handwave it away, thinking that it was probably normal for rich people to do weird things like that. I didn't understand how he could be comfortable though!

"Ah, what a good game..." he said to himself while fetching a towel that was waiting for him at the seat to - at least - wipe his face. It didn't help much with the overall sweating obviously, but he still got in and closed the door behind him. He shot me a smile before turning to the driver.

"The office, Reggie. And would you please turn the AC off? It's hot outside and I would hate to catch a cold."

"Right away, sir," Reggie complied, to my horror. No AC? It didn't seem like he was about to open the windows either - the three of us were going to hotbox in this car with Jim still wearing his dirty clothes from the baseball game! I gulped and hoped the ride wouldn't last too long, but the robotic voice of the GPS navigation booting up confirmed my worst fears.

"Your journey has started. Please, drive forward and merge into the highway. Your destination is one hour and twenty minutes away."

"It's a bit of a drive," Jim turned to me when the car started moving, "But I still like to come here often. I have fond memories of this baseball court. I was about your age when we started playing here with my friends. Do you play baseball, Andy?"

"Um... no," I said, somehow finding myself more nervous than before, "But I did play soccer - a little bit, in high school."

He chuckled loudly at that.

"Ha! That's funny, I remember we were in some serious competition with the soccer team at my high school. Not going to lie, we bullied them a little. We used to call them 'cocksuckers'," he said, while he leaned in to slap my thigh, "Yeah, I know, not proud of it... It was all in good fun though."

I thought at that moment that I expected a lot of things from meeting Jim Wolf, except for this super friendly attitude. It was throwing me off a little. Was this laid back approach his way of somehow fooling me into a false sense of security to negotiate? Or was he just a friendly guy, making it so far in his field because of his charisma?

More importantly, his musk was starting to slowly get to me, even more so now when he leaned closer to me. The longer we were in the car, the harder it was for me to ignore it. He didn't seem to be wearing any deodorant at all. Wasn't that weird for a guy in charge of a perfume company?

"Well, enough chit-chat," he said, "I know you didn't come here to talk about high school. Let's get down to business. To open up, I must say that I find your business very impressive. I looked into your project and your team's achievements so far and I was very intrigued by the idea of cooperating with you."

"That's... very flattering, Jim," I responded, with a smile, "We put a lot of hard work into our company. Thank you."

"You remind me of myself, back in the day," he said, "I was just like you. Young, ambitious, full of spunk. I wasn't as young as you when I started my company, but still pretty young. Having to climb my way up through the competition taught me a lot. Not only about being ambitious and going after what I wanted. It helped me learn lots of different qualities too. Like... humility."

"Right," I nodded, only getting about half of what he was saying. I was so distracted by his smell. It stopped being annoying about a minute ago and now started becoming something else. Like... it demanded my attention somehow.

"That's why I would like to help you out. And to cooperate with you, closely and personally. A young man like you has a future, and people like you are always the best investments."

He was very friendly. Too friendly, maybe? Was he buttering me up? Was the mix of his nice attitude and the fact that he didn't take a shower on purpose some kind of an alpha move? Like, maybe he wanted me to be uncomfortable. But the look in his eyes... he seemed like he was genuinely interested in me as a person. What was going on?!

"Of course," he said, "I'm still a businessman. I have to look after my needs too. Let me just get a little comfortable here..."

I looked down and couldn't believe what I was seeing - his feet were kicking off the sneakers. He was about to go barefoot in this car! The shoes flew on the other side of the limo and I was staring at his feet, wrapped tightly in his high, red socks, with dark, wet patches of potent sweat. Needless to say, the air was much more intense right now, the smell of sweat mixing with the distinct aroma of feet that were running all day trapped in very non-breathing sneakers.

Very slowly, as if he was doing it to tease me, his soles started pulling down the socks on both the opposite feet, revealing his hairy knuckles and insteps. I also noticed that his feet were very large, even for a man his size. The smell doubled once the socks hit the floor.

"Aaah," Jim Wolf groaned as he stretched his legs and toes for a while before crossing his legs, hanging his left foot to dangle over to my side, "Now where were we?"

I mean, how rude was this guy?! This was clearly intentional and he was definitely going somewhere with this! Only... I wasn't sure where that was. If it was to make me feel uncomfortable, it worked only partially. The smell got deep into my nostrils and while I was disgusted at the very beginning of this, not it just seemed... I don't know. I just knew that I wasn't able to take my eyes off Jim and the smell was the only thing I could focus on.

It was weirdly invigorating, like if you could somehow inhale coffee. It felt like Jim Wolf's essence was entering my bloodstream somehow, like he was inside me. Up until now, I was trying to hold my breath so I wouldn't have to smell it, but now I was breathing harder than normal. My blood was pumping, I could feel my heart beating and my thinking becoming more and more clouded. At one very weird moment, I even felt a small twitch in my dick.

"The exclusive advertising rights, as well as a 15% share of your company," Jim Wolf continued, seemingly oblivious to me being very overwhelmed at that time, "In exchange for a complex partnership. I'm not just talking about a one-off sum of money. I'm talking about more regular investments, as well as a close partnership and a personal mentorship, from me to you. I'm not interested in just a transaction, Andy, I'm interested in close cooperation between us two."

He was maintaining eye contact the whole time he was talking, and his tone was still friendly, but very confident and direct. After he said all that, he smirked.

"But I do need you to be okay with the deal as it is, Andy. Nothing in life is free, right?"

Ugh... I knew this negotiation was going to come and was preparing for it at home for hours, why couldn't the words just come into my mind?! That fucking smell...

"Jim," I began, my voice shaky, "I can tell you right now that the advertisement is no issue. I'm even prepared to go further than the original deal and I'm more than happy just advertising for you. However, the shares..."

"I understand," he interrupted me, "You are a small, new company. You have big dreams. The last thing you want is to have a big corporation meddling with everything at every other board meeting. I can assure you we're reasonable, we've been doing this for a while and we're confident with letting you make your decisions yourselves. But we also require trust. Are you able to provide us, to provide ME, with that trust, Andy?"

He was good at talking. Or... I don't know, he was probably good with talking but he was even better with...

I was trying so hard not to pant. My suit started feeling very stuffy and the air was so... heavy...

Instead of answering directly, I started taking off my suit jacket - something I should have done when I got into the damn car. This heat needed to be dealt with. Needless to say, it didn't help much.

"Sorry, I just... it's a little stuffy in here," I said, sheepishly, in hopes that me speaking out would be enough of an encouragement for Jim - or the driver - to at least open the window. No success.

"By all means, Andy," Jim responded with a wide smile while putting his arm over my seat, exposing his armpit to me. With the way the sleeve was rolled up, the bushy armpit hair was partially out and the whole area was wet with sweat. My lips became weirdly dry watching that.

"Can I have a question, Mr... I mean, Jim?"

"Of course, Andy, ask away."

"Why us?" I turned to face him again, "I mean, we're a tech company. We don't really sell anything that goes with perfumes or... anything like that. Our target group is very different from yours. I don't want to discourage you from the cooperation of course, but I need to ask... why?"

He smirked at me, showing his perfect teeth and leaned a couple of inches closer. His musk started to give me a... tingling sensation. Like something was crawling under my skin, teasing and stimulating me from the inside. And that something was slowly making its way to my dick.

"No offense, Andy, but I think you are a little misguided. Our business is relevant to everybody - including your customer and you personally. Smells and aromas control our everyday life more than you might think. We judge and form opinions on people sometimes just on the basis of. Especially at the first impression."

I was visibly breathing at that point. The air was heavy, physically, but the atmosphere felt even heavier. Jim's tone was changing. He was still friendly and still smiling. But there was something new to his voice. Or... maybe not new, but much more intense now.

"We like to pretend we're better than that but at our most basic level, we're just animals," he almost whispered, "And smell affects us all. Pheromones. Me, you... it can make us feel content, agitated, or even... heh. Let's just say it has power. But I think you are starting to understand that."

My whole body was shaking. I wanted nothing more than...

"I think this negotiation is over," he said, "Thank you for being so reasonable, Andy. You won't regret us closing this deal."

"Mr. Wolf..." I said, remembering we were on a first-name basis, but feeling like this salutation was way more fitting now.

He didn't correct me. He just lifted his left arm even more, opening up his armpit to me completely.

"Go for it. You know you want to."

That was the order that tipped me over. My dignity stepped aside to make room for something much, much more powerful. I didn't care that the driver was there, most likely watching us through the driving mirror. I leaned in to take in that powerful source of the thing that was driving me insane since we drove off.

My face landed right in his sweaty, manly armpit and my nose inhaled a large dose of that masculine goodness. I breathed in and let the stink creep up my nostrils only to have fireworks set off in my brain. I whimpered, loudly, definitely loudly enough for the driver to hear. That information got lost somewhere in my brain, in the sea of hormones.

"Let me help you out, kid," he said, while he rolled up the sleeve even more with his free hand, providing me complete access to his naked, sweaty skin. His unshaved armpit was so ripe and so fucking good - I couldn't help but show my gratitude for letting me have this. I buried my nose deep into it and just stayed there.