The response was probably not what Leo had hoped for, Rekha thought. Lucy had burst out laughing, Miranda snorted in amusement. She couldn’t see Ines’ expression, but was pretty sure it would be a smirk.

Rekha figured Leo had been expecting the girls to be shocked. Maybe hoping to get some easy laughs with him, not at him, when he explained he was joking. That wasn’t what he’d got.

She rolled her eyes.

Leo just looked back at them calmly, and the quiet dragged out a little longer. And then it dawned on Rekha.

“Wait,” she said. “You were serious?”

Leo sat back a little in his chair, his shoulders relaxed, his hands easy in his lap. He gave the ghost of a shrug, but he nodded, too.

“But hypnosis isn’t real,” Lucy said. Rekha had been about to say something similar, in much less flattering terms, but decided not to pile on after her. This was enough of a misstep as it was.

“Any of you ever have trouble sleeping?” he asked. There was a pause, the four rowers wondering at the sudden left turn.

“It’s been known,” Miranda said. Her voice held heavy caution, as if she wasn’t sure she was comfortable admitting it.

Of course, that was Miranda for you in a nutshell, Rekha thought; she put on a big invulnerable front, but if someone actually caught her on an insecurity she hurt for weeks. Admitting to weaknesses was a rarity, it was the gesture she used to show she wanted to trust someone, and it was also a test to see whether she’d been right to try or not.

“Do you do anything to help?” he asked. “Any little rituals? I make myself a hot chocolate most nights, unless the weather’s too warm to justify. Sit and drink it, watch a video, then get into bed. Works wonders.”

“Well, I don’t do that,” Miranda answered. “But there are things I do when I can’t sleep, yes.”

She didn’t say what they were, but Rekha hadn’t expected her to. Again, Miranda didn’t really expose weaknesses. Admitting the existence of one would be enough for her.

“That ritual gets you into the right mindset for sleep,” Leo said. “You’re essentially hacking your own headspace, right?”

Miranda glanced back over her shoulder at Rekha, her expression uncertain. “I guess?”

It was a call for help in the only way Miranda could ever make them; quietly hidden. Rekha did her best to come to her aid. “Leo, I think we’re all just a bit surprised because we expected there to be a punchline by now.”

He laughed at that. “I guess so,” he said. “I think I’m just always going to be surprised when I mention it to someone and they think it doesn’t work, just because it’s all in their head.”

“That sounds like you’ve practiced that.”

“Not practiced. Said it once in a way I liked and remembered, though, for sure.”

“What’s it got to do with trouble sleeping, anyhow?” Miranda asked. Just that quick intervention, that shift away from the specific to the general, and she was feeling herself on better footing again, was willing to rejoin the conversation. Rekha smiled quietly.

“That’s more an example of the same thing,” was the answer. “We all have our little rituals, and they help us get into certain headspaces. The headspace hypnosis accesses just happens to be a useful one for reinforcing good habits, that kind of thing.”

“Rowing well is a good habit?” Rekha knew there was amusement in her voice, but couldn’t help that.

“On this team it is,” Ines put in, mock-stern, and Miranda let out a quick guffaw.

“I guess it just seems weird,” Lucy said. “My brain doesn’t work like that the rest of the time.”

“It doesn’t work like you’re awake when you’re asleep, either.” Leo shrugged. “Honestly it’s not a big deal. It’s just something I’ve had success with before.”

“How do you mean, success?” Ines asked, always asking the practical questions no matter what. Her focus, at times, could be terrifying.

He visibly collected his thoughts before answering. “Well,” he said at last, “Take what you were just saying. You and Rekha have a tendency to ease off when you’re sure you’re ahead. If Fatima brought it up a lot, I’m guessing it may have cost you guys a win or two. Or at least nearly.”

Rekha pursed her lips and nodded. She’d always dismissed the criticism when Fatima brought it up, but the words had stuck with her. She knew the truth, but didn’t like thinking about it, and that last-minute yell of “One, two, go hard!” had never managed to reverse it once she’d started easing off. After you’d stopped, starting again was twice as difficult.

“There’s a couple of times another team caught us in the closing stretch,” Ines allowed. “Might have been us not holding the course. But it just as easily could have been their strategy to conserve energy and finish strong. Or both.”

Rekha saw Leo’s eyes flicked from over her shoulder toward Ines to instead take in the expressions on Miranda and Lucy’s faces after that. She decided she didn’t want to know what he read there.

Leo nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Now, you;re not going to be slacking deliberately. But something in your head says hey, we’re ahead, in fact we’re far enough ahead now and we’re so close so it’s safe. And that’d be fine if that was always accurate, but it won’t be, because knowledge is imperfect. But you’ve got that habit, powered by a belief, that it’s OK to give yourself some slack there, and even though that turns out not to be completely true, the belief stays and the habit gets stronger.

“So imagine if we just deleted that belief. Made it so the part of you that’s checking to see if you’re far enough ahead doesn’t do that, so you never give yourself a signal to relax. Maybe even re-link that signal to passing the finish line.

“Immediately, your time to complete any race where you get out in the lead is going to go down a bit. And being faster might mean winning that race, right?”

There was a moment of quiet. “This was a Simpsons thing,” Miranda said suddenly. “Right? Where the baseball team was hypnotised to give 110% effort.”

“Maybe,” Leo shrugged. “I’ve seen a lot of hypnotism in shows. Well, we all have, but because I’ve learned some, I notice. But I don’t remember all of them.”

“Why did you learn hypnotism?” Rekha asked. “It’s not exactly the usual.”

“Nor is my day job.” Leo grinned. “I’m a stage magician. I do a little bit of hypnosis in some shows, when I think it’ll go down well with the audience in front of me. Or if I have a volunteer up on stage and something about them tells me they’ll go under easy.”

“You’re a magician?” Miranda sounded amused. “Never would have guessed.”

“I don’t dress the part offstage,” he answered, smiling easily. “Would you?”

“Do you really think you could get us to push even when we don’t feel the need?” Ines asked. Rekha was surprised by how seriously she was taking it.

“It’ll depend on you, at least a little. But especially if you want to win more often, we have a good reinforcement for it all.”

“Hey, if you can stop those two quitting early, and get Lucy started faster, I’m all for it,” Miranda said. Rekha knew her tone, knew that was a joke. But she could also feel Ines bridling behind her.

“How about if he helps you work harder without having to get pissed off first?” Ines retorted. In front of her, Rekha saw Miranda stiffen, but Leo was nodding slightly. “It’s doable,” he said. “Maybe a little trickier. Depends how much you like getting pissed off.”

Miranda was quiet, and the rest of the team let her be. Rekha was waiting to see how she answered, knowing it would tell her how seriously her friend was taking all this. “I don’t actually have an answer to that,” she said eventually. “I don’t specifically go looking for it. But it does find me a lot.”

“I won’t promise anything,” Leo said softly, “but maybe we can ease your need for that anger to drive you.”

Rekha shivered. Something in his tone had her scalp tingling, and something in the way he’d paced the words, or perhaps the words themselves, sent that tingle up and down her backbone.

“I can’t imagine it’s easy to stay angry in a place like this, anyway,” Leo was continuing, his voice that same soft tone, almost seeming to be coaxing. “Nobody’s here but your team. The sun is shining. The breeze is soft. The river is tranquil. This is such a peaceful place.

“I can’t imagine not being relaxed here. Especially now we’ve stopped rowing. Your exertions are over. You are in the middle of beautiful, natural peace. And here we are, so small against it.

“People come to places like this for that lovely, tranquil feeling, something more than calm. It makes sense, the peace washes over you here, as sure as the current carries us downriver.

“You could almost imagine that the peace of this place fills you. That anger, worry, fear, concern… all of them melt away in the calmness in which you’re surrounded, so much larger than you are, a calm, relaxing, sleepiness settling over you all, a new reality covering you, the power of nature making you relax, making you calm, making you sleepy…”

Rekha was watching the riverside, enjoying how peaceful it all was. His voice ran through her thoughts, twined through them, especially as he continued to talk. But that was completely reasonable, she thought in his voice. A rowing team followed their cox’s words. His voice would go with them. His voice would steer them.

Her eyelids fluttered. She didn’t feel sleepy, exactly. There was no impulse to yawn. But she did feel strangely detached, as if she was somehow growing absent from the moment.

Nature, she thought, existed in pecking orders. There were those in charge, and those who followed. Followed and obeyed. Nature was so calming. Nature gave her peace.

Ines would be the one in charge. The one at the top of her pecking order. She followed Ines. Followed and obeyed. That was natural. That made her calm. She was filled with peace.

Her eyes drifted back from nature toward Leo. He had a smile on his lips, a confident smirk of a thing. A spark of something started in her groin and rose up her spine deliciously, where it met the lazy, blissful tingling in her head. He was still talking, but she had no idea what he was saying. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to hear him, and most of her thoughts sounded like him anyway.

She couldn’t remember ever relaxing so thoroughly. It felt good, felt calm. She was totally at peace.

Somehow she could tell they all were, the whole team.

Lucy had let go of the bank, so they were no longer braced against it, and the current was beginning to draw them back downriver, back toward the boathouse. They didn’t even have to do anything. Just listen to their cox.

Rekha now realised she had been wrong. Ines was not the one at the top of her pecking order. Rowers listened to their cox. They followed the cox. Followed and obeyed. She could feel the other three realise the same thing at the same time, coming to a shared understanding at a shared moment, so utterly at peace as they did.

Her scalp was tingling so much it felt like her whole head was tingling. She was smiling, she was suddenly sure.

Her attention was almost entirely on Leo, but she could still see Miranda and Lucy in the seats ahead. They weren’t as important - of course not, they were just like her, lower down the pecking order, followers like her.

Leo said “Four,” and she settled her oar across her lap, then took off her tee, letting it slip into the lees of the boat. Her bra was eggshell blue and even seen from the back Rekha knew it would be lacy and decorative.

Lucy took her oar in hand again, though she did not begin to row. The tingle in Rekha’s scalp intensified. Thoughts tangled up in it, the ones that weren’t in Leo’s voice. So her analysis of what was happening was almost nonexistent. All the same she knew the increased intensity of the feeling was somehow connected to what Lucy had done, was a response to it.

It felt so good that she didn’t mind either way.

Leo said “Three,” and Miranda settled her oar across her lap and reached up to her shoulders. Miranda preferred not to have anything tight across her shoulders, an opinion that Rekha shared, and her leotard straps swiftly slid from her shoulders. Miranda drew it down to rest just above her hips, no bra concealing her body, floating topless along the calm, peaceful river which, like them, followed and obeyed the pecking order.

Miranda took her oar in hand again, though she did not begin to row. There was a tattoo under her right shoulderblade, a sunflower. Rekha had never seen it before, and she felt as if she had become closer to her friend, although that was silly. Rekha and Miranda were on the same rank on the pecking order; they were already so close as to be components in the same machine.

Leo’s eyes turned to meet Rekha’s own. He was still smiling, but she understood it now. It wasn’t the smirk of a hunter in search of prey, it spoke of a man who knew his place and expected those below him to know theirs. His gaze brought her the certainty of peace.

She realised suddenly, for the first time, that her inner peace came from her cox. And all she had to do was follow and obey.

“Two,” he said, and she settled her oar across her lap. Her sports top was tight, so it was easier for her to reach up and cup her hands around her breasts and let her fingertips hook into the cups and to pull the cups down, tucking them under her tits as they spilled out, weighting the fabric down and keeping her breasts on display for Leo to enjoy.

She took her oar in hand again, though she did not begin to row. She continued to float downstream in the boat, unsteered, under the power of nature itself, gazing blankly back at Leo’s appreciative grin.

His eyes drifted on from her chest, looking behind her. “One,” he said. Rekha felt the minute shift in the boat, knew Ines had rested her oar on her lap. She assumed Ines’ tee was being removed and discarded behind her.

Leo chuckled. “You did as you were told yesterday,” he said.

“Yes, Cox,” Ines’ voice agreed.

“You’d forgotten, hadn’t you?”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Good girl.”

“Thank you, Cox.”

“You’ll remember once we’re back on the banks.”

“Yes, Cox.”

None of it meant anything to Rekha but her head stored the information away anyway. It was something her cox had said to her, so it might be important later.

“Team,” Leo said, “turn this boat around. We’re going back to the boathouse.”

“Yes, Cox,” Rekha chorused along with the other three. It was such a natural way to respond. She’d never been told to respond that way. At least, she didn’t think so.

The boat was brought around with skill and panache, but the tingles and fog in Rekha’s head didn’t leave. They seemed only to get stronger with every stroke of her oar.

*

The boat eased up to the riverbank near the boathouse, and Miranda reached out a hand to steady them against the bank. Rekha realised, with a start, that her mouth must have been open the whole trip back, a long rope of drool trailing from her lower lip to her chin and beyond; when she started a sudden jolt of motion was imparted into it, which left it splashing against her bare breast.

Why are my tits out? she wondered. Then she noticed that Miranda’s leotard was down around her waist, that Lucy was just in her bra. Probably, she thought, Lucy and Ines had bothered with bras, and she and her friend hadn’t, and that was the difference.

It felt different once she realised that the team were all bare. Suddenly it was natural.

Leo got up and stepped out of the boat onto the bank, then turned back to them. They looked up at him, all resting in their seats, waiting.

“Three,” he said. Miranda rose from her seat and stepped out of the boat onto the riverbank. Leo stepped up close to her, the top of his head coming up to her shoulders. He took one of her nipples between thumb and forefinger, pinched it gently, tugged it. Miranda gasped.

“Does that anger you, Three?” he asked.

“No, Cox.”

“Why not?”

“I have your voice, Cox.”

“And what does my voice do?”

“Your voice turns my anger into calm, Cox.”

“And my voice will go with you.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“What do you offer in return?”

“In return I will follow and obey, Cox.”

He dipped his head, kissed first one of Miranda’s nipples, then the other.

“Two,” Leo said. Rekha rose and stepped out of the boat. It was such a natural step that she barely noticed herself doing it. He turned to her, their eyes almost level, and cupped one of her bare tits in his hand, testing its weight. “Very good,” he said.

“Thank you, Cox.”

He squeezed. The tingling in her scalp became a flooding of her head with sensation; surprise, discomfort, ecstasy, all rolled into one and mingling together. It was all completely natural, she thought. She moaned, because every part of that sensation merited a moan.

“Will you give your all for me?”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Without hesitation?”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Without question?”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Why?”

“It’s only natural, Cox.”

“What is?”

“To follow and obey, Cox.”

He stepped forward, kissed her lips. Her mouth was partly open; the tip of his tongue darted in, slipped past her teeth, touched her own tongue. Her pussy clenched with desire, but she did not respond otherwise.

She had nothing to obey to make her do so.

“Four,” Leo said, and Lucy rose to her feet and stepped out onto the bank.

“Take off your bra, Four,” Leo said.

“Yes, Cox,” Lucy agreed, reaching behind her back to unsnap the hooks, then lifting the bra cups from her chest, bottom-first. Her arms settled back to her sides, bra snagged between thumb and forefinger.

Rekha had known that Lucy’s breasts would be bigger than the others on the team, not in so many words, and not because she’d spent any time thinking about it; simply that it was information that naturally followed from the time the four of them had spent together. She felt no jealousy. Lucy’s breasts were just another reason their cox would keep and control them, which was necessary for them to be able to follow and obey him.

Leo stepped behind Lucy, reached around her limp arms, took her tits in his hands as he might if he was fucking her from behind (where did that thought come from? Rekha wondered, but after a moment she concluded that she must simply be the kind of woman who thinks in those terms) and she moaned immediately, her whole body quivering.

“It seems like you’re ready to go right now?” Leo teased.

“Yes, Cox.”

“You don’t need to be primed to be ready to give your all, do you?”

“No, Cox.”

“What do you need?”

“Your word, Cox.”

“And what is my word?”

“Your voice, Cox.”

“And my voice will go with you.”

“Yes, Cox.”

He’d begun toying with her nipples, was tugging and teasing them, low-key milking her. Lucy breathed heavily, eyelids fluttering, moaning quietly between gasps, but she stood otherwise unmoving. Rekha felt an approving glow toward her junior crewmate.

“What do you offer in return?”

“In return I will follow and obey, Cox.”

He tucked his head in against her neck, his lips and teeth meeting her skin. Lucy moaned. Rekha’s pussy twitched again, needy for her cox.

It was only natural.

“One,” Leo said at last. Ines rose to her feet and stepped out onto the riverbank.

Rekha was moving, suddenly, and so were Lucy and Miranda. They reached down, took hold of the boat, and hauled it onto the bank before it could drift away without an inhabitant. It was only after they had completed the movement that Rekha noticed there had been no thought, no moment of decision, involved. She had simply acted because it was correct to do so at that moment.

She wondered if this was like being hypnotised.

She could see now that, in defiance of her speculation, Ines had not been wearing a bra. Her breasts were full, heavy, attractive, as Rekha had known they would be from more than one drunken party in the past, but that was not what drew her notice. What stood out was the glittering silver catching sunlight on either side of each nipple.

They had been pierced and were decorated with bars shaped to look like double-bladed canoe oars.

The last time Ines had been drunk enough to flash people in Rekha’s presence, those hadn’t been there.

Leo didn’t seem surprised to see them. He had stepped up close to their former unofficial leader, had his fingertips under her breasts, hefting them, weighing and assessing them. “I like them a lot better in person,” he said, “but they were great in the photos too.”

“Thank you, Cox,” Ines answered.

“You remember sending me the photos now?”

“Yes, Cox.”

“You understand why you decided to get piercings?”

“Yes, Cox.”

Leo sounded as if he was gloating. Standing with her tits exposed alongside two other friends who stood motionless with their bodies just as clearly on display, watching him stroke and fondle a fourth friend, Rekha noted his attitude but did not understand it. Everything that was happening was perfectly natural. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, and therefore there was nothing to gloat over.

She filed that away, too. It was about her cox, and it might be important to help her understand his decisions in future.

“So you already know you will give your all for me?”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Without hesitation?”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Without question?”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Why?”

“It’s only natural, Cox.”

“What is?”

“To follow and obey, Cox.”

“What is the first thing you gave me?”

“My mind, Cox.”

“What is the second?”

“My body, Cox.”

“What is the third?”

“My team, Cox.” Which made no sense to Rekha, but that didn’t matter.

“Do you regret?”

“No, Cox.”

“Very good.” Rekha saw Ines’ expression soften into an almost naive smile. Happiness without question, hesitation, or regret, she thought, and then: my panties are wet.

Leo looked around the four of them, then out toward the small gravel parking area by the boathouse. “Team,” he said, “take the boat into our boathouse.”

“Yes, Cox,” they chorused, and the four of them picked up the boat together and carried it in. It was lopsided through their differences in height, and they were not used to managing it as a group of four, so it gave them more trouble than it did when they carried it in twos; all the same, their cox had given them direction, so they followed and obeyed.

Leo entered the boathouse after them and closed the heavy doors behind them, and for the first time since baring their breasts there was no chance that a passer by would see them revealed.

Rekha felt a curious mingling of relief and disappointment, and then Leo began to speak again.