Chapter 14: The Presentation

The next morning, after another romp with Maria riding him, Jack rolled out of the bed. “I need to be going.” He looked around the sleazy room and decided against using the shower; he would go home and clean up.

Maria pouted at him. “I was hoping for more.”

He smiled. “Maria, I believe that making you one of my concubines was a terrible mistake.”

“Lord?”

“One night with you and I’m in worse shape than when we started! If I spent a weekend with you, I’d probably have to be hospitalized!” Maria laughed at that. He continued, “God help me if you teach any of your tricks to my other women! The funeral director will want to know why the corpse has a big smile on his face!”

She laughed. “I wonder if that is what killed Hugh Hefner.”

“What a way to go!” Jack dressed and then leaned over the bed and kissed Maria.

“When will I see you again?” she asked.

Jack shrugged. “My schedule is fluid at the moment. Probably not for another week or two, then maybe I could take a few days and spend time with both you and Valentina.”

“Thank you, Lord.”

Jack gave her another quick kiss and then left. Driving home, he debated stopping at a diner for breakfast, but decided he needed to wash up first. He found the house unoccupied, so Lisa had either spent another night at the office or had left for work very early. Jack was betting on another overnight. He showered, shaved, and redressed, before heading back out.

At the office he found Lisa at her workstation. She was in the same clothes as the previous day and looked like she had slept in them. She was drinking coffee and staring at the screen through bloodshot eyes. “Lisa, you were supposed to go home,” he said.

Lisa looked up at him. “I needed to do some edits, and they took longer than I expected. I got some sleep on the couch.”

Jack looked at the couch in the corner of the studio. “That is not the same thing.”

“I’m fine, Jack, really.”

“Lisa...”

“Jack, I’m fine.”

Jack considered commanding the beautiful artist to go home and get some sleep but decided that she needed to learn the lesson on her own. Will or Don would say something, he was sure.

Lunch was some more pizza and wings in the conference room, but by then it had become obvious that the project would be ready for Thursday morning. While there was still work being done, it was now at the level of moving slides around and checking punctuation. Around two, though, there was a cry from the art studio, and Tina ran into Jack’s office. “Jack, come quick! Lisa’s collapsed!”

Jack popped up from his desk and ran out into the hallway. Pushing his way through the crowd, he found Lisa’s assistant struggling to keep Lisa from falling out of her chair to the floor. Jack got his arms around her and they carried her to a couch in the corner. “Go get some water,” he asked.

“What happened?” asked Don, coming into the studio with Will on his heels.

“Not sure, yet,” Jack answered. “I’d bet she’s worked herself out. She’s been working late, sleeping here, and surviving on coffee for the last few days.”

“That’s true,” agreed Tina.

Bill Wanamaker, Lisa’s assistant, added, “We told her to go home and she kept saying she would, but Lisa can be pretty pig-headed at times.”

Lisa woke up at that and looked around. “What happened?” She looked confused. “Why am I on the couch?”

A cup of water was thrust into her hands, but Lisa asked for coffee instead. Jack told her, “No coffee. Drink the water. You’re going home.”

“I can’t. We have to finish...”

A collective sigh of relief went through the small crowd at the realization the collapse was simply overwork. Jack gave her a disapproving look and said, “No, you’re going home. I warned you about getting some sleep and a decent meal, and some other people did too, but you decided you were smarter than the rest of us. You are going home!”

“Jack, I’ll be fine.” Lisa climbed to her feet but was wobbly.

“Like hell!” Jack scooped the young woman up in his arms. “You can’t even drive in the condition you’re in.” He turned to Don and Will. “Listen, we’re selling ads, not curing cancer or defending the free world. Everybody gets out of here by five today. If anything needs to go later than that, our assistants and staff can fix it.”

Both Don and Will nodded in agreement. “I want all of the principals for tomorrow’s dog-and-pony show to get out of here and go home. Have a drink, meet the families you’ve forgotten, and get some sleep! If your staff can’t handle what’s left, we’ve hired the wrong people, and I don’t think that’s the case,” said Don. He looked at Jack. “What about Lisa?”

“I’m fine!” she protested.

They ignored her protests. “I’ll take her home and lock her in her bedroom. She can call me in the morning, and I’ll pick her up. Without her car, she won’t be going anyplace anyway.”

“Good. Bye, bye, Lisa. Get some sleep!” answered Will.

Teresa ran ahead of Jack, opening doors as he carried the protesting artist to the parking lot. Jack ignored the protests, especially since by the time he climbed behind the driver’s wheel, she had fallen asleep again. He drove home and got Lisa inside. Lisa slept right through Jack undressing her and tucking her in.

Jack had a quiet bachelor night. Teresa called and checked on Lisa, but that was between her classes. Otherwise, he simply watched some television and went through his mail. Lisa appeared about eleven, wearing a terry cloth robe and rubbing her eyes. “Jack ... Lord ... what happened?”

Jack looked at her, rolling his eyes. “You collapsed at the office. Do you remember that?”

She gave him a confused look. “I collapsed?”

Jack pointed at the couch and she sat down. “You worked yourself unconscious. Everybody has been working too hard. Lisa, what we do isn’t all that important. We sell advertising. This is not defending mom, apple pie, and the girl next door.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“I brought you home. You were sleeping the entire way.”

She pulled the robe around herself. “You undressed me?”

“You had coffee spilled on your pants.”

“Did we...”

“I prefer the women in my life to be awake.”

She blushed. “Oh.”

“Hungry? I’m no great cook, but I can probably heat up some soup.”

“Please?” The headstrong and vibrant artist seemed rather vulnerable.

Jack smiled and warmed up some soup from the weekend, along with some bread. He found Lisa dozing on the couch again, but she woke when he came back in. “Lord, I should be doing that.”

“You should have been going home at a reasonable hour and getting some decent food and sleep,” he chided.

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay. I’ll simply have Sharley, Dakota, and Teresa punish you.”

Lisa grinned at that. “That’s not much of a threat, Lord. I like their punishments.”

“You misunderstand. The punishment won’t be what they do to you. The punishment will be that I won’t let them do that to you!”

“That’s mean!”

“Eat!”

Lisa ate her dinner, and then Jack sent her back to bed. By the time he had cleaned up dinner she was asleep again. He undressed and crawled into bed next to her.

Jack woke the next morning with Lisa’s naked body half-draped over his. She was snuggled up against him and a hand was playing with his morning erection. “Sorry about yesterday, Lord. Allow me to make it up to you.” She kissed her way down his torso and began a gentle but determined blowjob. As soon as Jack came in her mouth, she licked him back to full strength and then crawled on top, impaling herself on his cock. “I like apologizing this way,” she said.

Jack bucked his cock up into her. “I’ve had worse apologies, that’s for sure.”

Lisa rode Jack until they both came, then she lay down on him and kissed him. “I’m very sorry. You were right. It won’t happen again.”

“Good. You don’t want me to have to punish you.”

“We’ll see. Depending on the punishment, I might just enjoy it!” Lisa crawled out of bed and headed into the bathroom, followed by Jack. They needed to clean up and get to the office. It was the big day.

The actual presentation was almost anticlimactic. The Cortez Motors contingent arrived just before ten and were greeted by their opposite numbers in the big conference room. Don and Jack alternated, highlighting all the aspects of their original marketing plan, with much more professionally prepared storyboards and demo ads. For almost two hours they went through ways in which the entire Cortez Motors organization would be impacted positively by the ‘Cortez Motors, Of Course!’ campaign. The final slide, like before, was ‘Booker & Blakely, Of Course!’

At the end, Danny Cortez looked around at his management team, and after getting silent nods from all of them, he smiled and stood up. Holding his hand out to Don Blakely. “I like it, all of it. When can we start?”

Don reached out and shook the hand. “Today, but not until after a little celebration.” He motioned Tina out of the room. Before she returned, yells and screams broke out in the building, and Tina returned with a couple of fellows bringing a bucket full of ice and champagne. Don and Cortez opened the first two bottles and posed for pictures, and then everybody had some champagne. Afterward, Will and Don took Danny Cortez and Henry Green out for lunch, and the rest of the Cortez Motors staff took off, after swapping business cards with the agency staff they would be working with directly.

Tina came to Jack’s office after the presentation. “Congratulations, Lord. Can I help you celebrate?”

“Remove your blouse and bra, and kneel before me,” he ordered.

“Thank you, Lord!”

Jack undid his pants and pushed them and his shorts down. Moments after Tina had taken her top off, she was sucking his cock. She quickly drained him, and then waited for her next orders.

“That was very good, Tina. Is your pussy as talented as your mouth?”

“I’ve never had anybody complain, Lord.”

He chuckled. “No, probably not. Listen, next Tuesday night, I want you to plan on being out all night. You are not to tell anybody else. Make reservations somewhere downtown for dinner, and for a hotel room for the night. Find a nice slutty dress, something that shows you off and lets people know you don’t have anything on underneath it. Make sure you are completely prepared. Do you understand that?”

“Completely prepared, Lord? Do you mean...”

“We will be spending the entire night together, Tina. You will become my full concubine. I will use you completely. Completely. Do you understand?”

Tina nervously nodded. She knew Jack meant he would be using her ass, which meant she would need to clean there first. She had never done that, but the thought of the taboo excited her, and her bare nipples stiffened.

“You may get dressed and go back to work.”

Will and Don returned mid-afternoon and headed directly to Jack’s office. “That went so smoothly it was almost scary!” commented Will.

Jack nodded. “Everybody went over and above.”

“We told them we would start today, but that’s pretty much bullshit,” commented Don. “I think everybody needs a weekend to decompress. Lisa’s not the only one with a fried brain. She okay?”

“She’s good. She just needed a decent night’s sleep and some food. I threatened her six ways from Sunday never to do that again,” laughed Jack.

“Next week we can start converting the storyboards into scripts and actors, get production cranking. Same with the first round of print and social media ads,” said Will.

Jack smiled at that; in addition to the overrides the agency received for placing advertising, they also charged production fees for creating the ads in the first place.

“We definitely need to take it to the next level,” commented Don.

Hearing that remark made Jack start thinking. His eyes unfocused and he looked off into the distance. Will and Don both noticed, and Will said, “Jack what’s up?”

When Jack didn’t answer, Don reached over and gave him a nudge. “You there, Jack?”

Jack looked at the other two and smiled. Looking at Will, he said, “Remember a few days ago when we were talking about Metrobank?”

“Yes.”

“I’m stealing one of his lines,” Jack said, nodding towards Don. “Metrobank, Next Level Banking!” The two partners looked at Jack curiously. Will motioned for Jack to continue. Jack popped up and went to the white board in his office and began laying out a marketing campaign. “Everything is Next Level. That’s the tag line, Next Level. We can use it all over the place. ‘Metrobank, next level banking.’ ‘You deserve next level banking; you deserve Metrobank.’ ‘Take your banking to the next level; take your banking to Metrobank!’”

Jack was writing ideas on the white board as fast as he could. “Everything they do, we tie Next Level in with it. They come up with an upgrade on their online stuff, we call it Next Level. We plaster their branches with Next Level signs. They come up with a new product or account, we call it Next Level.”

Jack moved to erase the board and start writing more ideas down, but Don stopped him. “Hold it, Jack. Let me get a snap of this. We can use it for our notes. You and Will can work on this next week.” He pulled his phone and took a couple of shots, as Jack and Will laughed. “Okay, back to mad scientist mode.”

“I’m going to need a few more white boards in here,” said Jack to considerable laughter.

Over the next half hour, Jack and Will built an outline of a marketing campaign for Metrobank, with Don kibitzing, taking shots, and making notes. Jack also mentioned that he was taking off Friday, since he had to go out of town. He headed out after a long and productive day.