We had been at the party for over an hour when one of the waitresses came up and introduced herself as Sapphire. I took an immediate liking to Sapphire because, unlike all the others, she paid just as much attention to me as she did to Mike. After ascertaining that we were at our first Macleod party, she asked me how I was finding it. I gave a non-committal answer along the lines that it was proving to be an interesting experience.
“And we haven’t even reached the speeches yet,” said Sapphire.
Sapphire went on to compliment my dress, and I surprised myself by confessing to her how anxious I was about how cheap it was. She made me smile as she shared her opinions about how much money some of the women had wasted on looking only half as good as me. She then made me giggle when she told me, with a completely straight face, that she had been fortunate enough to borrow the dress she was wearing. I was disappointed when she excused herself and moved away through the crowd.
It wasn’t long after we met Sapphire that Mr Macleod stood up to speak. As part of his introductory remarks, he asked us all to give a round of applause to the waitresses. He explained that were members of the University of Auckland ‘South Island Snowsports Club’ raising money for their regular ski trips to Queenstown. He then went on to present a trophy to the top selling agent. While that person gave a thank you speech, Mike turned to me and asked “Didn’t some of your university friends belong to the snow sports club?”
“Yes, they did, but I don’t think it was the same club. The snow sports club I know of owns a lodge on Mount Ruapehu. I don’t think they ever went to the South Island. I think this is a different group.”
After the winning agent completed his speech, Mr Macleod took to the stage again and presented plaques to the rest of the top ten agents and certificates to the remainer of the top fifty. Finally, he spoke about the prizes.
“I am happy to announce that every one of you wonderful agents will go home with a prize, although only twenty of you will leave with one of the premium prizes. As always, my personal assistant Miss Cameron will meet with you one by one to match you up with the best available prize. Her assistant Miss Grant will come and get you when it is your turn to see Miss Cameron.” Here he pointed to a young woman dressed in normal office wear.
At the conclusion of the speech, I watched as Miss Grant approached the winning agent and took him and his wife through a door at the rear. A few minutes later they reappeared. Miss Grant then found the agent who had come second, a woman this time, and took her and her husband away to meet with Miss Cameron. This pattern repeated itself many times, although sometimes the agent went alone without their date. Finally, Miss Grant approached Mike and me.
“Good evening, Mr Irons,” she said. She then consulted her clipboard again before greeting me. “Good evening, Mrs Irons. It is important that both of you come together to meet with Miss Cameron. Mr Macleod is most insistent about this. He believes that if staff are in a committed relationship, then there must be openness and honesty when it comes to discussing the prizes.” While this surprised me, it certainly didn’t bother me. I was desperately keen to hear all about the prizes. We followed Miss Grant through to a small office where Heather Cameron was waiting for us.
“Hello again Mike and Jess. Please sit down. Since you are the first of seven first time winners tonight, it is important that we take our time. I’m expecting this to take at least twenty minutes. The first thing that we must do is sign a confidentiality agreement. Many of the prizes are available as the result of donations, sponsorships and promotional deals that are of a sensitive nature.” When Heather used the word ‘sensitive’ I immediately assumed that she meant ‘commercially sensitive’, but it seems that was only partly true.
The next thing that Heather did was show us what she called “the default prize pack”, which consisted of an assortment of goods including a watch, some jewellery, perfume, and various vouchers for luxury goods and services. She explained that the default prize pack was the minimum prize that guests would leave with if they didn’t leave with a premium prize. Since I already knew that Mike qualified for a premium prize, I didn’t understand why Heather was showing us this other than to make me excited about how much better a premium prize must be.
Finally, and I got a sense that Heather was approaching an awkward topic, she said that she would now talk to us about the premium prizes. “This next part isn’t so easy to talk about. I understand why Mr Macleod gets me to do this rather than doing it himself. Although they are increasing in popularity, I have to say that the premium prizes aren’t to everyone’s taste. To put this in perspective, of the nineteen people ahead of you tonight, eight have declined, so you will have the choice of nine options.”
Heather took a deep breath and continued. “It may help to tell you some of the history of South Island version of the university ski club. It started naturally enough with some of the members of the original club complaining about the long drive to Mount Ruapehu and the basic accommodation on offer there. They started talking about how it would be quicker to fly to Queenstown where the slopes are world class, as are the hotels. The only problem they could see was the cost, so they started brainstorming some fundraising ideas.”
“One of the ideas they went ahead with was a slave auction which they held in the student union building. Thirty-seven men and women were auctioned off for twenty-four hours of service. It was all intended to be innocent enough with the expectation they would be doing cooking, cleaning, gardening and suchlike. However, they decided it would be good for business to roleplay a bit during the auction, and it turned out that four of the women got into the role playing so much that they allowed their slavery to become quite sexual in nature. By all accounts, all four of the women enjoyed the experience so much that, once their stories had spread around the rest of the group, it was less than a month before they were having another auction. This time there were nine women and a large number of men who put themselves up for auction, and it was clearly understood that the slavery could include a certain amount of sexual contact. The auction itself included sexier clothing and flashes of underwear and skin.”
“Of the men, I’m told that only six attracted bids, and of those six only two found themselves in any kind of sexual situation, and neither of them got any sexual satisfaction. However, the results for the women were much different. All nine sold, although since their bidders were other students, they still didn’t make much money. However, they found enough excitement for the idea to gather momentum.”
“As they planned another auction, something happened which ended up working in their favour. The Student Union found out what was going on and banned them from using their building for the auction. One of them had the idea to come into the central city office of Macleod Realty to ask about hiring our auction room. They were thinking of organising two auctions a month. Their request was passed all the way up the chain until a group of them ended up meeting with Mr Macleod himself. Hamish was intrigued, and he ended up having a long conversation with them about their auctions and their entire business model. He asked what motivated them, and he listened when they talked about their initial desire to raise money for luxury ski trips, and how that was starting to take second place to the excitement of living out sexual fantasies. He then asked about their concerns, and he listened when they talked about safety concerns, low bids, and some resentment that some of them had raised less money than others.”
“Hamish arranged another meeting with them the following day, and at that meeting he put forward a proposal that he thought would meet their needs, as well as his own, since he is always looking out for creative ways to reward his staff. He proposed that every second month, instead of one of their planned auctions, that up to twenty of their group would attend these staff parties. He offered a flat rate payment for their services, both at the party and afterwards.”
As I listened, I could see that Heather was blushing.
“While he couldn’t do much about the safety concerns at their regular auctions, he could minimise these concerns where his own employees were involved. He also explained that they could expect some careful word-of-mouth promotion through his staff to potential bidders who had a lot more money to spend. I understand that their regular auctions are now far more successful. This has been going on for about two years now.”
“Let me come right to the point now,” she said. “I have here the profiles of nine of tonight’s waitresses, including any limits they may have. If you wish, you may pick one to join you in your home until midday on Sunday. It is to be clearly understood by all parties that this entails sexual slavery to you both up to the limits stated in the profile. This prize also includes a small bag of other prizes, some of which can be used to enhance the experience. Naturally, you are free to decline the premium prize and take one of the default prizes instead. Would you like to look through the profiles?”
Mike and I sat in stunned silence. I was in turmoil. My head was spinning, my stomach was churning, but I also knew my panties were feeling wet. I was excited, but I had no idea how to react. I had no idea what Mike was thinking, although I presumed that most men would be turned on by what was happening. However, his reaction was exactly what any woman would want from a loving and devoted husband. “Surely you can’t be serious,” he said. “Surely that would only be of interest to single men.”
Heather gave a wry smile. “That was my initial reaction too. I must admit, however, that Mr Macleod is not only open-minded, but he also has a better understanding of the human psyche than I do. I have been proved wrong time and time again. Obviously, plenty of couples have walked out at this point, particularly when it’s their first time at one of our parties. Even then, I’ve found that some of these couples have accepted the offer at their second or third party. I have also been surprised by the reactions of our female staff. A fair proportion of them have given the prize to their husbands, maybe as a compensation for the long hours, or sometimes because their husbands are wanting a sexual experience that they don’t want to provide themselves. And, of course, some of our female staff have taken a girl home for themselves.”
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