Alex begins his presentation

“Spanking,” he begins to a beautiful stock photo of a crying woman over a man’s lap. “It’s the glue that holds our society together. Where the practice originated is unclear, but a lot of the harmony our society enjoys we owe to those daring innovators who are sadly lost to history”

You smile quietly at that part, wondering what this man would say if he knew that daring innovator was in the room today – from his tone, you imagine he feels some personal gratitude for your anonymous intervention.

“But there is no such thing as an unmitigated good. Repeated stress leads to adaptation, and nowhere is this as apparent as in the nerve endings of the female glutes” His next slide shows a busy chart. “This data is from a metastudy of women aged 18 to 48, comparing the effectiveness of objectively identical spankings”. The downward trend is clear. “After the microtrauma of a good spanking, less nervous tissue regrows compared to other tissues. Spanking, like so much else, suffers from diminishing returns”.

Alex switches slides, the next showing various bottoms in different states of distress – not one isn’t showing broken skin. You shudder imagining the unskilled administrators of these punishments. “Worse yet,” he continues, “A minority of physiologies respond to the trauma of a spanking by increasing blood flow to the area and growing thinner skin. Whether this is simply a repair mechanism in feedback with itself, or the body recognises it as a strategy to end the spanking more quickly is a matter of debate. Though as a biologist, my money’s always on ‘all of the above’, what we do know is that this all adds up to one thing…”

Though you’ve seen the next slide, the incongruity of it with the last still makes you smile. Gazing majestically down at you are portraits of some of history’s most noteworthy women arranged in a timeline, from Areta of Athens to Elizabeth of England. Next to each one is a quote making essentially the same complaint. “Nobody gets spankings as impactful as the ones they remember. This is rooted in more than nostalgia. A skilled disciplinarian can adjust to the changing conditions of their subject, but they’re fighting biology”.

“But for the first time since those early pioneers stumbled on the concept, it’s possible to work with biology instead,” he concludes, with the last slide finally showing the product you’re hoping to help him sell. “Our compound promotes nerve growth and a slower, more even healing of the kinds of trauma that come with a spanking. Used even a few times, it results in skin that’s both more supple and more sensitive. It can be infused into undergarments, organic paddles such as leather or wood, or simply applied as a topical cream before or after a disciplinary session. The results are noticeable fairly quickly – in fact, Lorelei, why don’t you show us the results of this morning’s session?”

Lorelei nods, turning to kneel on her chair with a quick “yes, sir” and sticking her bottom out as far as it can go. She lifts her short red skirt and tucks it into her waistband before carefully peeling off her tight blue smallclothes, wincing as she does. It’s a pretty sight – her bottom is a deep, even red, with something almost like a reverse tan line where the panties sat. “This is the result of an infused paddle over both bare skin and infused panties. Don’t be shy,” Alex encourages the three of you as you try to determine what level of scrutiny is appropriate. “In addition to her many other hats, Lorelei is also our chief product tester. She’s quite used to tactile inspections.”

Having put her forearms on the back of her chair, Lorelei looks back and, seeing you’re the closest, gives you an encouraging nod. Curiosity overcomes you and you run your hand over her outthrust bottom. You recognize what’s been discussed – Lorelei’s bottom is in a heated state, as would be expected, but to a greater degree than usual from what looks like a medium-strength spanking. You could swear you notice a difference in temperature between her lower buttocks and where the panties sat. But what catches your interest the most is the baby’s-bottom smoothness of her skin. You realize where you’ve felt it before – when shaking Alex’s hand.

“This is pretty interesting,” you remark, and Diana, perhaps encouraged by your initiative, runs her hand over Lorelei’s other buttock. As the two of you are getting a sense for how the skin’s been affected, your fingertips brush, almost accidentally, at the very top of her cleft. You look to Diana and she holds your gaze, smiling that mischievous smile of hers that leaves no doubt as to the state of her thoughts.

Chris clears his throat, obviously amused at the sorts of situations the two of you take as opportunities to flirt, and you both break off, not wanting to push your luck with company policy. You both give him some space as he moves closer to make his own inspection, eyebrow’s raising as he does. “This is quite dramatic,” he says, seemingly a little surprised. “I assume this isn’t from a single application, right?”

“Recent applications have an outsized effect, but you’re quite right,” Alex says, “We expect repeat customers. Speaking of which – I’m looking forward to seeing the strategy you propose”

You and Diana share a glance as you head to the front of the room, and another smile passes between you. As she leans over to insert her datastick, you feel incredibly lucky to love a woman’s who’s also fun to work with.

Diana begins her presentation, and you again feel lucky to have the love of such a smart woman. Your client is clearly a numbers guy, and he asks several probing questions about the results of her research – which she answers with aplomb. By the time it’s time to you to take over and explain what concrete steps are going to come as a result of this fact-finding mission, Alex is nodding, clearly impressed with the depth of her knowledge.

You begin your own presentation, launching into the key sectors and how you plan to reach out to each of them. You’ve got a healthy dose of the nerves – it’s a bigger client than you usually take point on, and Chris is clearly clearing the way for you, letting you take credit for whatever the outcome turns out to be. And in addition to that… you realise that the rules change took effect so recently, you didn’t have time to work your request for demonstration into your presentation. You catch Diana’s eye, seeing the quiet look of panic as she comes to the realisation in the same instant as you. She obviously thinks she should have made reference to it, and is now wondering how to signal to you so you won’t forget it. As you’re wondering why the old demonstration rule wasn’t enough for it to already be on your slide deck, you realise you’ve lost your spot, and the small audience is looking at you curiously. Diana, at least, realises you’ve had the same thought as her, but she doesn’t look any less panicked now that you’re obviously at a loss for words.

Clearing your throat in the sudden silence, you stall for time, moving over to the bottle of water you have on the podium and taking a slow sip. You glance at the slide out of the corner of your eye, drawing inspiration from it as you turn to face your audience.

“Pardon me,” you say, clearing your throat again and setting the glass of water aside. “As I was saying, with such a high lifetime value per customer, we can employ a wide range of strategies. One I have personal experience with from my student days and look forward to seeing in action being the old-school sampler giveaway. In fact, if it please the audience…” You give a look to see how your proposal is going down, “I would like to propose we combine the traditional product demonstration with a bit of role play to demonstrate this aspect of our marketing strategy”