Pride Comes Before a Fall

The money she would earn from her auction was going into building her own company, rather than starting at someone else's and having to work her way up.

"I was still living on the interest two years later when Alex came to visit me. It shook me to begin with since it was Alex that bought me at that auction and I was his for the year. But I listened to him. You wanted to leave The Auction now that your relationship with Kathrine was almost at the marriage stage. You were both months away from leaving college and you wanted to start afresh."

Tessa took the job as administrative assistant to Alex; the job was a smoke screen since all her time was now focused on the yearly auction. Three years later Donna turned up and Tessa really did move into the position of admin assistant to Alex.

She looked directly at me, her face lost its smile when she said, "I want you to know; I need you to know that I knew nothing of Alex's plan for Kathrine. Had I known, I would have ratted him out to everyone and he knows it."

To emphasize her point, her hand came across the table and gripped mine, causing me to look directly at her. "I swear on all that I hold holy to me Martin, I never knew what happened to Kathrine or even Alex's involvement in it."

I knew she didn't. My friends knew because they checked up on her when her name slipped into this mess.

We finished our meal and went back to the house. Katherine was on her back asleep on the couch; baby was face down on her stomach, asleep as well. Both still naked, well, until I pulled a fresh blanket from the bedroom and covered both with it.

Kathrine found us both watching her when she woke twenty minutes later. She stood and went into the baby's room and came back to us wrapped in a dressing gowned. There was a glow about her now. She seemed to walk with a slight bounce in her step.

Tessa watched as Kathrine sat on my lap, and then said. "Alex is sorting out birth certificates for the child, he wants to know what you want to put in the names sections."

Kathrine paused for a moment and then shifted her position on my lap to face me.

"She's ours Martin. You may not have stuck it in me, but I birthed her and I'm still married to you. If you can't accept her as ours, then I need to know that now."

We both watched each other. We knew, I don't know how, but we just knew."

The Auction for the ladies had to be about free will. It was the corner stone of the whole thing working and keeping the longevity that the people who started it. The dark side of my uncle clouded that ethos when he introduced Viper into the mix and sent her to Kathrine with the sole purpose of bending her own will. Alex knew that I would stand aside if Kathrine showed free will in this.

She still would have been divorced since free will is one thing, but stepping out on me had to have consequences and that would have been divorce. But Alex used Viper and her skills to make that 'free will' happen. She would have not ever heard of The Auction or have never even considered taking part, if she was allowed her own free will.

I'm sure that if I dug deep enough, I would find that uncle Alex had been given fare warning on his behavior from the others in some way. I know I sure didn't plan on getting on any plane he was traveling on for quite some time.

"She's our baby, just as the next two will be before one of us gets tied off.

My wife's arms came around my neck and her head rested on my shoulder as so many months of emotions poured from her very soul. I knew we were still on shaky ground, even more so when I asked her to sit next to me. Kathrine sensed something but sat there anyway. It was a gamble, but truth be told, I should have done this before we even got married. I was just grateful that Tessa knew what I was about to do and agreed to sit in on it.

For the next hour I told my wife about my involvement in The Auction. All about the conversation I initially had with Alexander Philips and his group of friends with regards the frat house auction, thinking that it would be an amusing anecdote, through to them asking me to produce a working model for them and my involvement with The Auction whilst we were still both at college. My conversation with them started just as a look into college life, but over time the rest of Alex's friends kept the questions coming. It was clear to see that the idea intrigued them.

His married friends passed on the conversation. But twelve of them still sat and listened. We even took the topic to another room and sheets of paper appeared, notes were being scribbled down and slowly over the course of an evening, The Auction was born. Alex figuratively took a step back claiming that since we were related it was best that one of the others in the group would head it. That man stood and held out his hand, every person in the group nodded their agreement and I shook the hand of the man whose had overall control ever since.

Two principles became established and were non-negotiable. The ladies were not to ever be mistreated or harmed in any way, and the names of all twelve people in that room would never appear on any records. A third principle became attached along the way, free will. They all knew that if those principals were adhered too, then what was only on paper that evening, could well become real.

Kathrine had pulled her hands away from mine after the first ten minutes.

Tessa watched her do it, but nodded at me to continue. With my uncle's encouragement I was given a fancy job name at his offices, I was even give an office of my own. The building for The Auction was purchased and the title owned by some dummy corporation in the Cayman Islands that the group of twelve owned. The taxes, insurance as well as 'administrative' payments, were paid through said corporation.

Security was also paramount, if the press ever got wind of this then twelve very rich people would look really foolish. But all twelve still wanted to go ahead with it, I was on a wage and had an expense account that blew my mind. I was also introduced to a man that gave me sleepless nights. As head of security for the auction he was invaluable and between us, we had The Auction running within eighteen months.

She was still looking at me for five minutes after I finished speaking.

Kathrine stood and asked me to stand. When I stood in front of her, instinctively I started to raise my hands so that I could hug her. The slap across the face quickly halted that thought.

"You fucking bastard, all of this was because of you." Her voice lowered in volume, yet the anger seemed to increase. "It was you that did this to me, not Charlotte."

She turned to Tessa and pointed at her before saying, "Let me guess, you were one of the ladies as well? You must have been, you're hot enough to be."

Tessa just stood and nodded her head in agreement. We both heard her tell us both through gritted teeth, to get out.

I drove Tessa back to her apartment. Neither of us spoke until the wheels of my car stopped in one of the visitors parking bays.

Her hand was on the door when she said, "What are you going to do now?"

We both knew the answer to that, it was curios why she had asked. I suppose she wanted me to put it into words.

"Leave her in peace, give it a day or so, and then tell my lawyer to contact her for the terms she wants for a quick divorce."

Her hand grasped my arm, "I'm sorry Martin."

I quickly looked at her; her pain was easy to see. "Don't be. You went to The Auction with open eyes and a clear knowledge of what you planned to do with your money. It may have altered slightly, but you have a good life. Those that I checked up on before I left managing The Auction have pretty much done better for themselves as well."

"That's not what I meant."

I smiled, "I know."

Tessa leaned over and kissed my cheek; she knew she was saying goodbye.

*******

Two Years Later...

The knock on the door was foreign to me, this was my office and my home. I simply don't get visitors, ever. When I opened it Tessa was standing there. The smile was strained since she wasn't sure how I would take her knowing where I now lived. All I did was smile and take a step back, allowing her to come in.

She still looked as good as always; it must be in her genes. I offered her a drink, even though that offer was restricted to coffee or water, she settled for coffee. Tessa sat on the stool by the kitchen, I placed her cup on the island and joined her.

Tessa wriggled her ass on the stool and then announced that she had a tale to tell and couldn't do it perched on a stick. She needed comfort, so we adjourned to the day room properly and both sat either end of the couch. With one leg under her she was now angled to look directly at me.

"Have you ever met, Jeremy Smithers?"

I nodded my head once and placed my coffee cup on the table before replying.

"Yes, he's Malcom Browning's go-to man. He looks like he weighs about a hundred and thirty pounds standing in a rain storm and yet when all the men of the group that make up The Auction are together, all the personal bodyguards give him a wide birth."

Jeremy Smithers had one of those looks about him. He could definitely pull the legs off a spider and sleep soundly the night after. There was something in his makeup that makes three-hundred-pound, battle hardened ex-forces guys, finish every sentence they have with him, with the word, sir.

The other thing about Mister Smithers was that he used to be in charge of security for The Auction. It was his own network of associates that originally put the word out about The Auction, vetting even those they were about to tell. Using key people in all the right places to recruit ladies for The Auction.

"Well, he came to see me at my home. I don't even know how he got in through the main door and something tells me I'm better off not knowing. He just showed up at my apartment and knocked. He introduced himself and asked me to come with him, that his boss, a Mister Malcom Browning wished to see me."

That would be Jeremy Smithers way of doing things. Tessa shrugged her shoulders and told me she had nothing else to do. I smiled, but going on past experience with the man, I'm sure Mister Smithers didn't.

The conversation got really interesting after that. Malcom Browning sat Tessa down and told her the group's plans for Alexander Philips following his manipulation of Kathrine's inclusion into The Auction and the pregnancy at the hands of one of its former members.

Inwardly I smiled. Rich Boy was only a by-line in this conversation. His demise at the hands of the group sent out a warning. Now it was Alex's turn. Good to see they let him sweat a little first.

It seems Malcom didn't even bother with pleasantries when he said. "In three days the company's lawyer will approach you. They are under orders from Alexander Philips to move you into his seat as CEO for the next three years. I strongly suggest you take the position, because Alexander Philips is going to spend some time re-evaluating his life and past actions."

I laughed, eventually I asked if she did it.

"Fuck yes. It was the most surreal thing. We all sat in his office and for an hour he and I signed next to the yellow tabs on the paperwork. Occasionally he would look up at Jeremy Smithers standing in a corner and looking very businesslike in a very expensive suit, before quickly going back to signing the rest of the documents in front of him."

However, there was one aspect to owning the company that she hadn't foreseen. She was part of the group now, and as such, now had a seat at The Auction. I was bent double laughing and despite Tessa slapping me I just couldn't help myself.

"I was reminded that if I didn't bid, using Alex's money by the way, that one person wouldn't be auctioned that day."

She sure looked cute when she thought about how to say what she wanted to say next. It was more of a whisper than the confident voice I've heard so many times.

"She looked so cute and just so frightened. She was the last to be auctioned that evening. When she stood on that podium I just had to bid for her. The others beefed up the price since I was using Alex's money, but I got her."

This was sure getting interesting and I just couldn't figure out what my involvement in this was going to be. Her hand left her thigh and reached for mine. She was my friend and I could see she was troubled about something.

"I confess I've had girl on girl sex at college. I suppose it was the freedom to experiment that sent me there." Tessa's eyes carried water in them, with unshed tears and I was still struggling to figure out why.

I'm not even sure she knew that she was now stopping the flow of blood in my arm, since she was gripping it that hard.

"Martin, I'm in trouble."

Tessa now had my undivided attention.

"She said her name was Candy." The fire in her eyes was just a flicker, but the venom in her voice sure carried her anger. "What fucking mother would do that to her child?"

She seemed to wait for me to say something, damned if I knew what.

"Anyway, I took her home with me. I swear Martin, she was just going to be company for me; I still had an uphill climb keeping the company going while Alex was in exile."

Her neck caught my attention. The blush rose to her ears and then her cheeks. Her whole face was in full embarrassed blush.

"The first time I tasted her Martin, my heart just knew. I tried to keep this on a business level, the same way I did when I was Alex's slave, but she tasted so damn sweet. Every orgasm I pulled out of her didn't exhaust her, it just re-energized her. The bitch is insatiable. At the end of an evening with her, I was usually the one laying in the middle of the bed wheezing like an old woman and having lost all feeling in my body."

In a weird way I was enjoying this, this sure wasn't the Tessa I've known for some years now.

"Hoping to slow her libido down I collared her." It was that faraway look that caught my attention, then the grimace. I got the feeling that didn't work either. "Candy dropped like a stone to her knees and called me Mistress."

This time I blushed when Tessa told me that she knew the rules with regards to slaves, even more so since she was one herself. But that didn't stop Tessa using six-inch dicks on Candy, then seven and then eight. The girl would attempt to scream the house down and keep coming back for more. No hole was out of bounds, and as a good slave, she would always say thank you when they both went into a hug before sleep took them away from each other.

My conversation with Tessa was still going on an hour later. Apart from the peak into her sex life and the raging hard on I now found myself with, I was at a loss as to why she was here and what she wanted from me.

Then she stopped talking, her eyes bored into me, and she finally came to the reason why.

"With this being the second year, I'm on my second slave. Brenda is so sweet and I love the girl's company. We do the girl bonding and shopping thing, but two days ago, I got a letter from Candy and my life fell apart again. Martin, I want her in my life permanently and she wants the same. Martin, she wrote and told me that if swapping the money she made from The Auction would win me back, she would hand me the check tomorrow."

Her eyes told me of her plea for help, anything. The longer I said nothing the more concerned she became. Finally, the dilemma she had was very real as she spent this time telling me, one didn't just want the other, they both wanted each other. Tessa was worried that the rules governing The Auction could send her into exile like it did Alex.

"What was the date of the second auction?"

Her brow creased at the seemingly odd question. "August 15."

I nodded then straightened up, thankful that my hard on had subsided now.

"Ok, first off, do not contact Candy at all. Do you really want her back in your life, permanently I mean?"

Tessa quickly nodded her head.

I reminded Tessa that there is always a month between the end of one auction and the start of another. The day after the fifteenth she needed to go and see Malcom Browning.

"Tell him your invoking rule twenty-five, paragraph seven. I had written that paragraph while in a more romantic mood. Only after a year has passed; after joint participation in The Auction, a member of the group can go back to a slave and continue a relationship. BUT, said slave must appear in front of the whole board, or said board's representatives, to prove she is under no duress to do so."

Tessa almost skipped around the room. I caught her and sat her back down again.

"You need to listen to me, as a member of the group you are entitled to do this and Malcom has to listen, but I strongly suspect he will get Jeremy Smithers to talk to Candy. Only on his nod will the rest agree that you two can be together."

I also had to remind Tessa that she would still be expected to bid at the next auction. She paled and soon figured out that nothing in this world comes easy. She left not long after our conversation, looking just as worried as when she came here.

*******

The expected knock on my door came a few days later. Jeremy Smithers' diminutive figure could never fill the door frame, the aura that followed him sure did though. I'm sure if I had a guard dog, it would be diving for cover right about now. I did wonder for all of a second if anyone had ever slammed a door in his face. That thought burst into flames and vanished from my thoughts as ridiculous.

I took a step back holding the door; it gave him more room to enter my apartment.

"Want anything the drink Jeremy?"

The soft voice that passed me as its owner entered carried a chill with it. "No thanks, it's been a while Martin. Are you well?"

As I grabbed my coffee off of the kitchen island and sat in the day room, Jeremy Smithers leaned against the far wall, watching me.

"I'm all good, thank you Jeremy. What can I do for you?"

With someone like Jeremy Smithers you can only ever look at his eyes, perhaps because you're desperate to see if any life exists in them. I felt the sweat start to run down my back when I looked at him that evening.

"I know Tessa came to you for advice, just as I know you gave her the information that seems to have blindsided my boss."

For just a brief second he smiled, I was still watching his eyes and almost missed it. That warmth that we all looked for in his eyes, suddenly appeared, then slid back into obscurity, as did his smile.

"My boss was furious with Tessa, but they all signed the agreement so its binding them all to this. I feel like I owe you Martin. I took my eyes off the ball with the one you always call, Rich Boy. I regret what he did to your wife Martin."

This was new ground for me. In these last few minutes, Jeremy Smithers had said more to me than in the years it took for me to get The Auction up and running. He had also apologized. No one, and I mean no one, was ever going to believe this conversation, even if I had been able to record it.

"What do you want Martin?"

In that single moment, I truly understood the power I had in my hands while Jeremy stood in the room.

I pulled air into my lungs and said. "Let Candy keep her money. Let Tessa keep or even marry Candy, and also make Tessa continue to bid in The Auction. Even if it is for the one more year she's CEO."

I paused, shrugged and then added.

"Failing that, can I have world peace please."

Again, those lifeless eyes watched me, just as I knew he had listened to everything I had said. After an age, he nodded his head and walked to the door, opened it and left. It took me a second to realize it was still open, so I walked over to close it. I could have sworn I heard laughter coming up from the fire exit stairs.