The Champagne Campaign Ch. 04

The dryer in the photo-lab ejected her shoot the next day and Cassie studied the results of her night's work. There hadn't been many erections in her life but the message her mouth had received was that they came in a surprisingly satisfying variety of lengths and girths. She spread her shoot out on the table and considered what Scotty had contributed to her knowledge. Limp he had been cute, erect impressive and it had been delicious getting him there. But artistically, she decided, the result left something to be desired. Clearly his was an organ intended more for function than aesthetics. Scotty could use some help Cassie decided and turned on the enlarger. By noon she had locked herself in her studio again with her airbrush and her newly realized aspirations.

A day later they took the show on the road. Harrison was eagerly aware of the opportunities for the agency if the Champagne Campaign took off and he had joined his account exec and creative team to demonstrate the wholehearted interest of the agency in the Bubbles Account.

When their commuter flight landed and they had disembarked Connors was awaiting them in the lounge. On the ride to the company Cassie found herself sandwiched between him and Scotty in the backseat of the van, their thighs pressing suggestively against hers as she tried to forget the intimate interludes she had spent with each of them while she focused on the presentation ahead. The small talk, desultory and convivial, eased them into the conference room and Cassie busied herself with setting up while the others entertained themselves with coffee and rolls.

When the company executives entered the room Connors stepped forward to make the introductions. By the time they got to her she had registered that the tall suave young man with the dark brown eyes was Leo Barbacchi, the CEO of Barbacchi Spirits.

And the woman in the black wrap-around dress was Barbacchi's administrative assistant, Margo Vasari. To Cassie she looked more like a model than a secretary. The handshakes went all around and the one that most stayed with Cassie was Margo's, mostly because of the candor her eyes.

Cassie observed that the woman was older than herself by some ten years perhaps and definitely taller. Her hair, a rich tawny blonde, fell over her shoulders and framed her face, emphasizing her wide-set dark brown eyes, which struck Cassie with their knowing frankness. Her wide fine sumptuous mouth offered a smile that always seemed to have a knowing touch of the ironic in it. Instantly Cassie felt herself to be rather intently scrutinized by Margo Vasari, almost as if she and this woman might have known each other, and Margo was trying to remember where and when.

As always Cassie felt the presentation jitters and she didn't need any coffee to make it worse, so she dawdled with her cup waiting for the show to start while she studied Margo's boss, Leo Barbacchi. His presence had transformed the room. The casual jocularity had subsided into the restraint of the 'business mode', and while the conversation was still disconnected it was clearly subdued and more formal.

She guessed that Barbacchi was in his early forties. He was well built and a good six feet tall with a certain easy elegance to his carriage, a scion of the Barbacchi fortune no doubt. He was unforgivably handsome Cassie decided in the way so many Italian men were, and though clearly involved in the proceedings around him yet detached in some way as well.

His gaze included everyone and drifted beyond to herself. It lingered on her with a certain casual appraisal and she was suddenly very conscious of how she had dressed for this occasion. Her choice had been as before, the beige silk suit that hinted not too subtly upon her curves, only his time her breasts nestled braless in her jacket her nipples neatly noticeable beneath the silky fabric. Considering what she was going to say the look she wanted was more than just a touch of glamour for this presentation.

When at last they turned to the business at hand and Harrison made his spiel, and the account exec had reviewed the marketing strategy, and Scotty had presented the tactics, it was her turn to introduce the ad campaign. She rose went to the screen and turned to face Leo Barbacchi. He would make the decision. She would talk to him. Within, her heart was thumping and somewhere in the unplumbed un-admitted depths of her being she was with him just the way she had been with Scotty that night when she had given him his rain-check. It had to be that way considering what she was going to say.

"Of all pleasures is there anything more pleasurable than making love?" Cassie looked right at Barbacchi and a faint smile touched his mouth. "I can tell you personally that Bubbles Champagne is more than a pleasure, it's a delight, and so of course is making love." Cassie let her gaze move to Connors and she picked up his incredulous grin as he tuned-in on her allusion to their own champagne party. Cassie returned her gaze to Barbacchi.

"What I am about to show you is a metaphor for pleasure." She clicked the remote and the long swelling upright image of the champagne flute filled the screen.

"What I'm going to show you next is not a metaphor, it is the reality of pleasure." Cassie hoped they didn't catch the falter in her voice as her breath tightened with her tension. She clicked the remote and the beautifully embellished image of Scotty's erect phallus slowly emerged within the champagne flute in flawless perfection. She took a deep breath in the silence. The erection glowed before them. Her airbrush had caressed it into a godlike cock worthy of Eros himself. It merged marvelously with the flute.

"This is not the graphic we are proposing for the journal campaign," Cassie announced, "I just wanted you to get the point. The graphics we are proposing are rather more subtle." The phallus faded to be replaced by a cascade of champagne swirling up inside the flute to spill over the edge in a seminal cascade of bubbly foam.

"Aside from the taste a great pleasure of champagne is in the bubbles. They can do marvelous things to such sensitive areas of your body as your tongue...among other things." Cassie didn't have to look at Connors to catch his smile. Instead she kept her gaze on Leo Barbacchi who was looking as much at her as he was at the screen. "...and if we look closely at these champagne bubbles we can see some interesting things. For example they offer the opportunities to exploit what we designers call bi-lateral symmetry. Breasts come in pairs..."

Cassie offered the subtleties of her own naked images in the graphics that Bart had captured so sensuously with his cameras. "Buttocks come in pairs...thighs come in pairs...and labia come in pairs...among other things." She clicked rapidly though this inventory of her charms, "...and bubbles offer the opportunity to present these shapes in a subtle and suggestive way. We want our market to understand that Bubbles Champagne is a seductive toast to sex. As you can see from this graphic these sensuously erotic shapes are faintly suggested within the foam of the champagne bubbles."

Cassie pointed out the images that she had introduced into the bubbles. "These graphics are almost subliminal but for those who know to look for the erotic message, they are highly charged. Everyone will be looking at Bubbles Champagne ads, and the message will be unmistakable. We aim to broaden your market by making Bubbles Champagne pleasure personified."

"This is the journal campaign," she continued presenting the image of the man's hand offering the champagne flute to the woman's mouth, her hand resting on his as she sipped the erotic bubbles floating before her face. Beneath the graphic the simple headline,

BUBBLES CHAMPAGNE "The Best Of Taste"

wiped out the competition. "As you can see, on the surface this ad is simple and elegant. Beneath the surface it is steaming!"

Cassie left her audience staring openmouthed at the screen while she picked up the layouts and carried them to Leo Barbacchi. She tried to read his expression when she handed him the comps. He was certainly interested but was he full of doubts too? Connors had certainly prepared him for this campaign, but would he have the guts to go with it?

Barbacchi's gaze lifted to hers. Did she read something more than objective appraisal in that glance? Was there a certain assessment of her self in that quick candid flicker before his eyes lowered to her layouts. Cassie handed him the full-page-ad and waited.

Leo studied it, and she was sure she saw him nod ever so slightly. There was certainly the hint of a smile on that mouth that sent a twinge of anticipation into Cassie's heart. She held her breath with suspense and something else. Something that was melting in the wake of that brief brushing glance of his fingers against hers when she handed him the layout in the aura of that unfamiliar but delicious cologne emanating from him.

Warmth heated around her ribs and flowed upwards over her breasts tingling in her neck and that damned adolescent flush burned in her cheeks while she watched him turn the ad and view it from the side. She knew he was looking for the real images in the foam and would he know those were her breasts, her nipples, and God knows everything else that she had buried in those bubbles. She was positively sweltering and her silk jacket funneled the heat up into her crimsoning face.

"Do you have a loupe, Cassie?" Barbacchi asked without looking up. She did of course. She knew they would want to see the images magnified and she was prepared. Cassie slipped the magnifying glass out her pocket and placed it in the broad palm he had extended absently to her, his gaze fixed yet on the layout. The loupe bobbled in his hand and she held it there and then his fingers closed momentarily over hers. His touch dry, warm, and supple set off another flush rippling in her arm.

Holding the loupe to his eye Barbacchi pulled the buried images into focus. Cassie had known this would be the worst part, this waiting for the decision. But she hadn't known how much she suddenly cared whether anyone would approve of the images, her images that she had used in the ad. She was sure now that there were endless thousands of boobs and butts and cunts out there all better than hers, and she wished fervently that she had used them.

"Who did these graphics?" Leo asked.

"I did," Cassie managed weakly.

"And the phallus?"

"Yes," her voice trembled in an unfamiliar throaty croak.

He dropped the loupe and looked up into her eyes, his pupils were wide and dark in those gorgeous brown iris's that seemed to fill the space between his lids. "Margo," he said without moving his eyes from Cassie's. "What do you think?"

Cassie blinked and shifted her glance to this handsome woman when Leo handed her the layout and the loupe. Clearly he wanted her reaction. After all she was the other half of the market. It was obvious that he valued her opinion, and highly.

"I think I'll never look at a glass of champagne the same way again," Margo offered, her knowing eyes trapping Cassie's, and that wry smile that shaped her lips broadened into a tease. Margo jostled the loupe in her hand and studied the ad. "Do you have the final art for the image in the glass, Cassie?" she asked.

"I think so," Cassie stammered.

"Well can we see it please? It looks like a girl sipping champagne, but she might be sipping something else."

'Oh God!' Cassie groaned to herself fumbling for the right image knowing all too well what it offered. She had retouched the shot blurring her features for use in the champagne glass but the result looked all to familiar to her now. Cringing she clicked the button, the image filled the screen and she prayed no one would recognize her lips and her tongue wrapped around David's dick. A profound silence filled the room as everyone studied the revelation.

"It's great if you're into oral sex," Margo opined at last, and a knowing smolder warmed her eyes as she passed the layout back to Leo and dropped the loupe into Cassie's hand with a lift of her exquisite eyebrows.

"Well who isn't?" Cassie ventured. "Oral sex is just the beginning for the market segment we want and that includes just about everybody," she laughed.

Barabacchi turned to Harrison. "I like your strategy. I like your campaign. But I've got some problems."

'Oh God!', Cassie thought miserably, 'Here it comes'.

Leo turned to her with a smile. "Your approach is...well it's stunning! But I can't go with those images in the bubbles."

Cassie writhed inside with embarrassment and struggled to hold her cool. Using her body for the graphics had been an unpardonable blunder. "I'm sure I can find more suitable models," she exclaimed over her confusion and her blush deepened even more if possible.

Leo shook his head. "I want more exposure than the media you've suggested. I want to go into mainline journals with this, not just the men's magazines where we could get away with it."

A wave of dismay diluted her relief. He was buying her approach but sacrificing the sizzle. "If I might suggest one thing," she said. "We could do the bubbles less suggestively in the mainline mags and go for the really erotic images in the men's insertions. The men's market could serve as a test. If there was a problem with acceptability we could drop the erotic images and go less sexily everywhere. One thing for sure, everyone will be looking at this campaign to see what they can see."

Barbacchi stared down at her layout again. "Possibly, possibly," he muttered.

"And perhaps a different model would be more ... effective," she added and then could have kicked herself for bringing it up again.

"Why would a different model be more effective?" he probed.

"Well...we might want more...variety..." she stammered awkwardly feeling what was left of her poise crumbling into disarray. "But we can certainly produce two versions of the ad," she added, scrambling to get back to high ground.

Pursing his splendid lips, Leo nodded speculatively and Cassie found herself wondering what it would be like to have that mouth pressed feverishly on her own. "That's something that we should discuss," he smiled warmly, stirring Cassie's sybarite libido with a mixture of gratitude that was almost anticipation. "But for now let's go with the bubbles alone," Leo finished.

Harrison stepped in, wrapped up the presentation, and while the men talked and drifted from the room Cassie collected her paraphernalia, and her wits.

"That was some show, Cassie."

Glancing up she saw Margo Visari looking at the layouts on the table before them. Cassie blew a sigh of relief. "I'm just grateful I got through it," she said honestly.

Margo moved languidly to sit on the table. "So was this presentation your idea?"

Cassie nodded and her subsiding blush burned again in her cheeks. "I suppose it was overkill," she murmured "...with the cock in the glass and all, but I couldn't think of a more effective way to make the point."

"You made it all right." Margo lifted the layout and stroked her fingers over the foam filled flute. "And you executed all these graphics as well?"

"Yes, we've got a wonderful photo-lab at the agency and I'm handy with an airbrush."

"That erection in the glass is a marvel any girl would crave to caress. Is it your dream-cock, Cassie? I thought you might have just dreamed it up that's why I asked to see the final art of the blow-job shot in the bubbles and you didn't just dream that up did you?" Margo smiled knowingly, "May I see unretouched shot?" she queried. With a sigh Cassie flicked to the image and together they stared at the close-up of her mouth and her tongue wrapped luxuriously over the length of David's erection while the flush spread up from Cassie's bosom to suffuse her face.

"That girl has a lovely mouth, and such a sexy tongue," Margo observed, "Much like yours Cassie," she added with a knowing lift of her lovely eyebrows. "How long have you worked at the agency?"

"I'm interning there this year."

"And before that?"

"Design School."

"You don't look old enough to be a career woman already. You look like a teenager ready for her first prom."

"I know," Cassie sighed. "It's hard to get people to take me seriously. That's why I dressed like this today. I thought the glamour might age me a little."

"Why did you go into commercial art?"

"I love art, and I needed to make a living to support my habit." Cassie replied.

"What's your addiction?" Margo smiled.

"Fine art. I love to paint."

"Oh, I thought it might be like mine, 'The Perfect Penis'," Margo laughed, "Let's see it again." Cassie flicked the control and her marvel of penile fantasy filled the screen once more. "You appear to be well acquainted with magnificently endowed males," Margo sighed.

"I've been thinking about Mister Right for a long time I guess but I haven't had that much experience in finding him yet. I suppose you could call this a 'figment of my ambition' ", Cassie giggled.

Margo raised her arms to arrange her hair and Cassie saw the combination of natural grace and studied elegance of the professional model in the woman's carriage. "I'll bet you paint the human figure don't you?" Margo observed.

Cassie nodded. "But my debut among collectors is a long way off I'm afraid. My first offering is still languishing at Bollen's Gallery and I think they're about to dump me."

"Well I'm sure that's a mistake," Margo offered with a nice note of sincerity in her voice. "I suppose we should leave this feast for the eyes and fill our tummies. Shall we go to lunch and dine on something a bit less appetizing than that fantastic cock you've created?"

With a giggle Cassie shut down the projector and glanced at Margo. Clearly the woman had recognized her mouth in the blow-job shot with David and it had amused not shocked her. Obviously Margo Visari was a warm woman of the world and Cassie felt drawn to her.

They joined the men in the company dining room where every table was decorated with a champagne flute filled with a bouquet of flowers. Cassie passed the next hour amidst these reminders of her lubricious presentation basking in a shower of approving glances from her boss, who was thoroughly pleased with this performance, and from Scotty and Connors who undoubtedly had high expectations for her next performance. As for Leo Barbacchi, she'd hoped for a glimmer of radiance from him too but he was sitting at the other end of the table deep in conversation with Margo Visari.

Cassie found herself seated beside Scotty and across from Connors, whose toe had contacted hers and remained insistently against it. She tried to ignore the suggestion, and to make matters more distracting Scotty was sitting so close to her that his thigh snuggled against hers. These constant reminders of her trysts with these two men filled her with echoes of her arousal with Bart and David and it was with relief that she saw the waiter arriving with the drinks they had ordered.

Daintily she lifted the maraschino cherry from her whisky sour and placed it on the napkin before raising her glass. As Scotty, eager to scarf up such delights, reached for it she restrained him with her hand. "I'm saving my cherry for later," she protested.

"That's a good girl," Conners laughed with a wise-ass lift of his brows.

"Damn!" Scotty mumbled while Conners enjoyed the instant blush suffusing Cassie's lovely face tumbling to her own entendre. Lifting her glass she took a healthy sip sure that everyone had heard her gaffe, and cast a sideways glance at Barbacchi. To her relief he was still distracted by his conversation with Margo Visari but then he threw a sober glance in her direction. 'God, he's so unforgivably good-looking,' she thought dropping her eyes, wondering if they were talking about herself, and the next thought that popped into her mind was so bawdy she hardly dared consider it.