Lucy felt like she was having an out of body experience. She’d always assumed they were imaginary, but she felt so light, so floaty, and when her body acted it didn’t seem to need her input at all.

“Team,” Leo said, “you are each attracted to every other person in this room.”

“Yes, Cox,” Lucy answered, her voice chorusing with the rest of the four. It was right to agree, of course, even though it was factually untrue; Lucy had no interest in women, and while Leo’s smirk showed an attractive confidence, he was otherwise not her type at all.

Her eyes swivelled slowly, almost lazily, to look at Rekha, certain that she would meet her friend’s eyes and see a shared amusement and disdain in them. Somehow she noticed Rekha’s tits before looking for her face, The word that appeared in her head was ripe, and Lucy found that her mouth was watering; her eyes began to trail up for Rekha’s eyes but caught on her lips, staring at them almost unbelieving, wondering what the softness of them would feel like against her own.

The lips curved into an almost shy smile and Lucy’s own gaze darted up to see if seeing where Rekha was looking could help her interpret that; their eyes met in a moment of contact which felt almost like an afterglow.

Lucy’s head spun. She wanted this woman, wanted to love her, wanted to take her to bed or push her to her knees and accept her worship. It was not a way she had ever felt about a woman before, and it came so close on the heels of Leo’s instruction that she felt somehow helpless, swept along, no longer out-of-body - in fact, so deeply grounded in her body now there was a physical desire to key off - but on puppet strings all the same.

She moaned, a full body expression of excitement and desire that seemed to shudder up from her hips until it escaped through her mouth.

As if they had simply been waiting for confirmation it was okay, the rest of the team gave vent to moans of arousal of their own, some short, some lingering, ragged, wobbling professions of inarticulate need.

It turned out it was impossible for Lucy just to stare at Rekha, as much as she wanted to; her head slowly swivelled back to face Leo with the same sense of inexorable inevitability as the hands on a clock advancing to the hour.

The charisma, the sheer confidence that had been the one thing she’d found sexy about him before, now it was just one of many things. The shape of his face, the set of his shoulders, even the fact he was only barely taller than her - these were all things she’d considered marks against him which were, now, points in his favour. What was it her friend Christine had said? We love a short king.

Except Leo wasn’t her king. He was her Cox. Much more important.

(Was that importance, she wondered fleetingly, why she seemed so content to be topless around her friends? And then she realised that being friends wasn’t relevant. They were a team, and that overruled everything else.)

“Pair off,” Leo continued. “By height.”

“Yes, Cox,” they all answered. Lucy’s nearest match in height was Rekha. She started moving toward her, found Rekha approaching her in turn. They stopped inches from each other. Lucy’s eyes drifted back to those impossibly desirable lips, but she was intensely conscious of the other woman’s breasts, below her line of sight, so close to her own. 

Her arms, as they had since releasing the boat after carrying it in, hung by her sides, limp without a command to animate them.

“Team,” Leo said. “Kiss the woman in front of you.”

“Yes, Cox.”

Lucy bent forward at the waist, as did Rekha. Their backs stayed as straight as before, but they moved closer, heads upright, until their lips touched. Rekha began puckering and pursing her lips, as if intending the chaste kiss one plants on a family member’s cheek, but Lucy’s mouth opened wider, her hungry tongue emerging.

Rekha must also have realised Leo was right about their attraction, as it took almost no further prompting for her mouth to open wider in turn, and their lips closed together, their bodies sagging into the kiss.

Lucy’s arms still hung limply from her shoulders, dangling straight down, but they moved slightly now, the bend forward having imparted a little momentum that she lacked the thought to halt. The back of her arm brushed against the back of Rekha’s, both of them sagging helplessly into a kiss born of obedience and desire.

The giddiness she felt at her own helplessness was intensifying with every passing moment. An inability to act for herself, a complete failure to resist the whim of another… it wasn’t supposed to feel so right, was it? It wasn’t supposed to be so delicious an experience?

She had no idea how long they had been hungrily kissing one another when Leo said “Team, straighten up. Form a line.”

“Yes, Cox,” they exclaimed even as they straightened. They turned, and without seeing more of each other than their peripheral vision, they fell into line facing him, Rekha and Lucy at one end, the taller duo of Ines and Miranda on the other.

“Three,” he continued. “You enjoyed kissing One.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“There is something natural and right about being sexual within your team.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“There is something natural and right about being tasked with sexual duties by your cox.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Everything I have just told you is true.”

“Yes, Cox.”

Leo turned his head and his focus up the line.

“One,” he said. “You enjoyed kissing Three.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“There is something natural and right about being sexual within your team.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“You are ready to be used by your team and by your cox.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Everything I have just told you is true.”

“Yes, Cox.”

Now Leo was looking directly at Lucy.

“Four, you enjoyed kissing Two.”

“Yes, Cox.” It was so true. She only wished she’d been able to really kiss her, properly; a kiss that didn’t use your hands as well as your head, if not your full body, was only half a kiss.

“There is something natural and right about being sexual within your team.”

“Yes, Cox.” It was so true. It was just as important as their ability on the river.

“There is something natural and right about being tasked with sexual duties by your cox.”

“Yes, Cox.” He told her nothing but truths, it seemed. He was her cox; his voice went with her, and she would follow and obey. Doing so sexually was just an added pleasure.

“Everything I have just told you is true.”

“Yes, Cox.” He hadn’t needed to add that. She knew now that anything he told her would turn out to be true, even if she had believed otherwise.

She almost regretted that he looked away, but it was his choice so she couldn’t.

“Two,” he continued. “You enjoyed kissing Four.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“There is something natural and right about being sexual within your team.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“There is something natural and right about pleasing your team and your cox sexually.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Everything I have just told you is true.”

“Yes, Cox.”

Leo stepped across to the stack of folded chairs leaning up against one side of the boathouse. He unfolded one and set it where he had been standing, then took two more, which he set up one at either side of the team line, facing inwards.

“Three,” he began, “and Two, stand by the chairs next to you.”

“Yes, Cox.” Miranda and Rekha turned inward, standing with their backs to the chairs, looking on at Ines and Lucy standing side-on and topless, as Leo sat down in his own chair.

“Strip down to your shoes,” Leo continued.

“Yes, Cox,” Miranda and Rekha acquiesced. By the sound of their activity, it was happening, but Lucy was looking at Leo. It seemed likely he was going to have her and Ines strip too. She regretted the comfortable white cotton underwear. It was never right for moments like these.

If there were other moments like these. Though the more she looked at Leo, at the certainty he was moving with speaking with, at the time he took to enjoy each new unveiling, the more she felt he had done this before, with some other group.

The sounds of movement around her ceased, Miranda before Rekha. 

“Sit down,” Leo told them, “and hook your ankles around the chair legs.”

“Yes, Cox,” they answered. Lucy didn’t need to look to know they had, but she glanced quickly to the side anyway, saw Rekha sitting on the chair, her thighs parted by the need to loop her feet around the chair legs, her delectable brown body bare from the top of her socks to the scrunchie tying back her long hair.

Lucy switched her gaze back to Leo, aware she was blushing and feeling that in some strange, indefinable way, she had crossed a boundary. That made no sense, of course; a team should be sexual together, it wasn’t just natural, it was right. But some part of her felt almost guilty for seeing it.

“Place your left hand ready to finger yourself,” their cox continued.

“Yes, Cox.”

It was important to any rowing team that they all understood clearly who any given communication was for. Part of the job of a cox was to make it clear. And Lucy knew instinctively that these instructions were only for Miranda and Rekha. Leo had never explained his system to them, but it was still clear.

She filed away the observation so she could offer Ines some useful feedback later. Thinking about Ines immediately jumped her mind to a new mental track.

“You will both begin fingering yourselves the moment you watch your friends touch,” Leo said.

“Yes, Cox.”

That would be Lucy and Ines touching, by inference. Lucy acknowledge that almost absently, because she was thinking about something else to do with Ines. She was thinking about what Leo had said while they were all still on the river. 

“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.”

He had picked up the theme later, while he was groping them all for the first time. 

“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.”

“Do you regret?”

“No, Cox.”

Therefore, Lucy thought, Ines had already been hypnotised. Had perhaps been under Leo’s control before the team agreed to him. No - later; Ines had argued at first that they should keep looking for another female cox. When they’d decided they had no good alternative to Leo, Ines had said she’d call him and go through the details.

Lucy imagined it must have happened then.

Ines had seemed no different on the drive to the boathouse that morning. 

“One,” Leo said, “strip Four to her shoes.”

“Yes, Cox,” Ines said, turning to Lucy. Lucy remained in position, looking at Leo. She was aware her mouth was watering again, though she didn’t understand exactly why. 

Ines’ hands found her waistband, drew her track pants down. Kneeling, the woman who had been the team leader lifted Lucy’s feet out of her pants, one at a time, leaving her standing there in trainers, socks, and her white nobody-will-see-these-today for-comfort panties. 

Ines stayed down on one knee to remove Lucy’s panties. She shifted round in front of Lucy so she could get a proper grip on her waistband, then rolled the material down until there was enough of a gap to let them drop.

Lucy stepped out of her panties that time, moving automatically. Technically it had not been part of the directions she’d been given, but it was a sensible, natural step that she made without thinking.

After a moment, Ines rose to her feet in front of her. Lucy’s gaze tracked immediately to Ines’ lips, which she found herself reacting to with the same immediate excitement as she had done for Rekha’s. It was true, then; the whole team were incredibly attractive to her.

Her eyes darted down to Ines’ breasts. The piercings were both a surprise and somehow incredibly exciting. It was as if the other woman had been marked as owned.

No, she realised. That wasn’t right. The other woman had marked herself as owned. Lucy moaned softly at the thought, and heard an answering moan from Rekha.

Of course; they had touched now. Like good teammates, Rekha and Miranda would follow and obey the directions given by their cox.

“Back in place,” Leo said.

“Yes, Cox,” Ines said. Her eyes lit up, her lips curved into a vacant, bright smile. Lucy wondered if she had the same reaction, or whether there was more to come, more that had already happened to Ines.

Ines pivoted and fell back in line alongside Lucy, facing Leo. “Four,” Leo continued, “strip One down to her shoes.”

“Yes, Cox,” Lucy assented. Now it was her turn to act; her arms, which it had seemed so natural to allow to hang limply by her side, were active and ready even as she turned to Ines, beyond whom she could see Miranda settled on the chair, legs spread wide, two fingers buried in her pussy.

It wasn’t the ideal position to finger herself - the leverage wouldn’t be so good - but it was the posture her cox had directed her to assume, and she would not go against his direction. He was the cox. She was part of the team. Her role was to follow and obey.

Ines’ leggings were expensive. Near-waterproof, the fabric they were made from clung tight and resisted attempts to stretch it. The thought occurred to her, as she worked them down over Ines’ rear - which seemed delighted to emerge, spilling over the descending waistband in a way that seemed half taunt and half invitation - that it might be shapewear, that her team captain might have been sensitive about those cheeks, as hard as it was to imagine that when you stared at it.

Getting them over her shoes was tricky, but because she was kneeling in front of Ines and pulling from that angle, it was doable. It would not be easy for her to put them back on without taking her shoes off. Lucy was sure somehow that this was intentional on Leo’s part. Perhaps they would drive back to their homes in partial or complete undress.

She whimpered at the thought. It should not excite her, she knew. And it was not the idea itself that excited her; it was the way she knew that would make her feel. Not a person, but a part of a machine, being used exactly how the machine’s owner wished.

Lucy was relieved that Ines too had worn underwear for comfort rather than aesthetics. These she disposed of quickly.

“Back in place.”

“Yes, Cox.”

She rose and fell back into position beside Ines, looking directly at him. She wondered what Leo thought of what he saw. Her tits were bigger than Ines’, were also (she thought without any hint of glee, spite, or sympathy) perkier and perhaps more eyecatching. She knew now though that her butt would never match up to Ines’. Not that that mattered.

Leo would make the decisions. She liked that.

He had his phone out. He took photos of the two standing women next to one another, turned his phone on the side for a group shot of the four of them. 

He got up and walked to the far side of the boathouse, where Lucy presumed he took a duplicate set of photos before returning to stand in front of his chair.

“Team,” he said, “you have all done well so far.”

“Thank you, Cox,” they chorused.

“You all follow and obey.”

“Yes, Cox.”

“Whose voice goes with you?”

“Yours, Cox.”

“Whose voice leads you?”

“Yours, Cox.”

“Whose voice fulfills you?”

“Yours, Cox.”

“Whose voice shapes you?”

“Yours, Cox.”

“Whose voice will you always hear, even in a crowded room?”

“Yours, Cox.”

It was all true, Lucy knew. Just as Ines had marked herself part of the team with her piercings, they were all marked indelibly now with his voice. They were his team.

They would do whatever he wished, and they would always give their all.

“It’s time for your first assessment,” Leo said. He unbuttoned his pants, took out his cock in one hand, then sat. “One and Four, make out. Put on a show for me.”

“Yes, Cox,” Lucy and Ines chorused. They were already turning to face one another, and Lucy thought briefly It’s not fair, she has so much more practice with women, and then their lips met, mouths open, tongues seeking, and Lucy had more important uses for her head than thinking; Ines’ hands were roving over her, and she responded eagerly, but part of herself too was paying attention to what Ines did, was learning how to imitate it, studying so she could pleasure her teammate better.

Miranda and Rekha both moaned, and Lucy was reminded that it wasn’t just their cox who was getting a show, before Ines’ fingers found her nipple and that line of thought came apart in messy, wet shreds, her body arching to press against the other woman. One of her own hands found Ines’ buttock and squeezed, prompting a cry of arousal to bubble up through Ines’ throat and escape the seal of their lips.

It was too much to do this and to think of anything else, except to ensure that they stayed positioned so Leo could see everything.

“Three,” Leo said. “Come here.”

“Yes, Cox.”

Lucy was in no position to track her friend’s motion, but she didn’t need to; when Leo said “Kneel,” Lucy knew where Miranda must be.

“Yes, Cox,” Miranda said, and presumably knelt, and Lucy was oddly relieved. Miranda was taller than their cox, but his view of herself and Ines would now be uninterrupted again.

“Your goal,” Leo was saying to Miranda, “is to please me with your mouth for as long as you can without actually making me cum, do you understand? I want to see how good your self control is.”

“Yes, Cox,” Miranda answered.

“Begin.”

“Yes, Cccf,” Miranda answered, muffling herself in obedience before she had even completed the sentence. Off to one side, Lucy knew, Rekha would be getting progressively more excited.

Lucy also knew that as independent as Rekha liked to be in other ways, in matters of the team she took her duty to the other three very seriously. As much as she must want to, Lucy knew she wouldn’t move from where she had been placed until told otherwise.

She wasn’t at all sure how long she and Ines had been going at it (not long enough, the back of her head supplied reluctantly) when Leo said “Team, halt.”

Lucy and Ines stopped moving at almost the same instant. Their hands were still on one another, Ines’ tongue was still inside Lucy’s mouth. 

Her head was still spinning with how good she felt, her muscles had been pushed hard by a long hard row followed by this new challenge and her body wanted to quiver. But she had been told to halt and so she kept herself from moving, but it was a drain to do so, even more so amid the echoes of her pleasure.

“By the numbers,” Leo said, “I will call for you to rotate positions.”

“Yes, Cox,” Rekha answered. Nobody else had their mouth free to respond.

“Look around as best you can,” Leo continued. “Spot the position you will be adopting.”

“Yes, Cox.” Lucy craned her neck, seeing just how deeply down Leo’s cock Miranda had sunk.

“Rotate in order of number,” Leo said.

“Yes, Cox.”

“One,” he said. Ines disengaged from Lucy’s embrace - reluctantly? - Lucy might have flattered herself to think so, but she doubted it. She trotted behind Lucy, to where Rekha must have been seated. Lucy remained in the same embracing posture as before, holding herself from overbalancing only by the certainty that Leo would be disappointed if she did.

“Two,” Leo said.

“Yes. Cox,” Rekha said, rising and making her way across to the chair where Leo sat. 

Before she could get there, Leo said “Three,” and Miranda lifted her head and throat off his cock with an audible sound and rose to her feet, staggering slightly toward Lucy in time for Rekha to sink to her knees in Miranda’s kneeprints, her mouth opening to envelope Leo’s cock as best she could at the same time.

“Four,” Leo said,

Lucy answered “Yes, Cox,” as her mouth had not been occupied at the moment that he spoke, and twisted, moving on the floor to take the posture that Ines had occupied, reaching that position just in time for Miranda to wrap her arms around her, lifting her slightly so that they could still kiss in those poses with the height difference reversed.

“Fuck, that’s teamwork,” Leo said. “Team, all ahead.”

“Yes, Cox,” Ines answered from her chair. But Lucy, following and obeying, was already too busy kissing Miranda to pay that much heed.

*

That Monday evening, Ines collected Lucy from her office and drove over to meet Rekha and Miranda. The team fitted into Ines’ car, but only just - still, there were warm smiles only with no hint of annoyance at any discomfort, a fact Ines was oddly proud of.

“I’m glad you were all available,” Ines said, and Rekha chuckled.

“You don’t think I’m going to refuse a request from our cox, do you?” she asked.

“I wish he was here,” Lucy said dreamily.

“His voice goes with us,” Ines reassured her. There were contented sighs from the other three, and Ines had to squeeze her thighs together to contain her own reaction to their reactions.

She didn’t feel guilty about it, of course. Leo had seen to that. 

He’d entranced her during the phone call, then had her send an Uber for him to take him to her home, where he’d spent the evening working on her further. She’d slept that night listening to a recording of her own voice telling her what she now believed, over and over.

So Ines understood how important Leo’s work on them all was. She was motivated by the pleasure it gave her to fulfil his intent.

“Where are we going?” Miranda asked.

Ines smiled.

“Leo wants you three to get some piercings,” she said. “For team bonding.”