Technically, Matthew had an office to himself now, but that felt like an inaccurate statement. He spent most of his time at H,Y,P in communal areas working on cases technically overseen by Lauren, the Junior Partner with authority over him. But there was a place he could go when he needed to shut out the world and focus on paperwork, and it had four walls and a door.

It was barely big enough for the desk, the office chair, and for the door to open without getting stuck on either, but it was his, and it was a source of great pride.

It was also where he had developed a habit of summoning Jessica to at around 3pm every day. Lauren had begun teasing him about it, so it was quite clear to him that he was being very obvious. On the other hand, she was teasing him rather than censuring him, so it was probably alright.

At 3:32 that Wednesday, Jessica knelt in front of him, her charcoal power suit neatly folded and resting in the space on his desk that usually held his in tray, her bra lost (having fallen from the monitor down the back of his desk), her tights starting to split around the knees, her panties soaked, and her eyes glazed. Matthew was taking advantage of her complete lack of thought to do something he’d enjoyed when they first started dating, but which neither of them had been able to find the time for since the second year of law school; he was brushing her hair.

Most H,Y,P interns had it easy, when it came to their jobs - at least compared to interns at other law firms. Yes, the workload was intense, but their superiors didn’t feel the need to play politics, didn’t add to the stresses they felt. But as the losers in the moot court, it was expected that Jessica and Nick would be Junior Partners before too long. And when H,Y,P had expectations, they did what lawyers everywhere were taught to; they codified them as rules and bylaws.

Bylaw 17: Interns on Partner track will hold themselves to standards as high or higher than their assigned lawyer.

To Matthew’s slight frustration, this had left him wildly outclassed, and Jessica would be working well into the night most evenings. Citing Bylaw 5 to her hadn’t helped.

These moments, when he could lawfully have her to himself, and ease her into that blissful mindless state, were the moments when he could actually slow her down again. When they could enjoy each other’s company in peace.

Until he saw how much effort she was putting into catching him up on the Partner track, Matthew hadn’t realised just how competitive Jessica was until she’d lost the moot court. Before, they’d always been competing as a team, and he hadn’t realised how much it meant to her, had taken for granted a drive that now seemed much more powerful than his own. They’d fed off each other, and her determination had powered them to many mutual victories.

He wondered, now, if that had been what Professor Nolan had been looking for when he’d arranged to have them set against each other. To make them both learn to function on their own.

He didn’t have to wonder when he’d developed his taste for taking charge. The Bylaws made sense to him now in a way they never could to an outsider. Like every living member of H,Y,P, Matthew experienced the Bylaws as part of his thought process every day.

*

Jessica had spent the days after the moot court in a daze. The lesson she seemed to have been taught was not to trust anyone else, even though, deep down, she was confident that this couldn’t be true. She’d left part of the preparation to Nick and they’d lost, and at first, it had seemed to her as if they’d lost everything. As much as she knew that if a case went to court, trying to do it on your own wasn’t really possible, it felt like that might have to be the way. And with Matthew and Madison having celebrated their victory by kissing in court - to applause from every single one of the final-year students Professor Nolan had co-opted as jurors, witnesses, or audience - she’d felt like she’d lost her relationship at the same time.

It had been terrible. Madison walking over after the kiss to embrace her tightly and congratulate her on putting up a good case had been the brightest spot in the entire day. Matt, hanging back looking nervous, hadn’t helped; it had taken her a while to see how awkward he would have felt, too, and to understand why he might have been scared to come forward.

Two days later, Lauren and David had called all four of them into the same room. By the time they left, Jessica had no concerns, and no doubts, and she loved her assigned lawyer for her own drive and passion. Being assigned to Madison was new and unusual, but she knew Madison respected her, and now she respected Madison in turn. The differences in their history were no longer reasons to be jealous, nor justifications in her own head when Madison achieved something Jessica hadn’t been able to. They were areas where each of them might be able to help the other.

She only remembered one thing from that meeting, near the end; Madison standing over her as she sat, leaning forward to meet her, her hand on Jessica’s cheek, and taking a kiss from her, one which seemed to give as much as it had taken.

That was the moment when her daze went away. She hadn’t yet graduated, but she was an intern at H,Y,P now, and as a result she had a purpose and a drive that was almost new to her.

She found peace in that kiss, and she found peace every time it was repeated, every time Madison reached out and touched her with a smile at work. It became the thing that steadied and motivated her.

In her first week of actual work with H,Y,P she answered a summons from Madison’s colleague Matthew, and it startled her how their awkwardness and discomfort was gone. They were colleagues now, and while there was emotion charging the air between them, it was all from the good times; the bad was gone, forgotten in accordance with Bylaw 4.

Bylaw 4: There is no ill will among H,Y,P staff. Your colleagues are your friends; their pleasure is yours.

So when he said “Mind adjourned” for the first time, there was a smile on her lips as she fell silent, coming to attention in the approved manner.

They were lovers again by the time she was dismissed from his office, and she was now learning the same peace in Madison’s smile was found on her knees before him.

She was aware that, as less a couple and more a triad, they were the object of some office gossip; it was usual in H,Y,P to see structures largely consist of couples each with hypnotic links to individuals in other couples up and down the hierarchy.

It was certainly possible that Nick would help to round this out into something more traditional, but it remained to be seen.

However, enjoying herself on her knees before Matthew, she was willing to admit she would, now, be happy enough if Nick made it. He was far from the person who had lost them their first case.

*

Technically, Madison had an office all to herself now. It was barely big enough for the desk, the office chair, and for the door to open without getting stuck on either, but it was hers, and it was a source of great pride.

It was also just about big enough for Madison to enjoy being fucked at her desk in a variety of different configurations. She’d straddled Matthew on her chair, reaching back and bracing herself with both hands on the edge of the desk (with her in trance, him in trance, or - rarely - neither), she’d pushed him back onto her desk, monitor and keyboard pushed back against the wall, and climbed on top of him; and, as she was doing at 3:32 that Wednesday, she’d taken Nick in, adjourned his mind, and had him bend her over the desk so she could get the satisfaction out of him that she wanted and needed.

And that was the part of all this that she could reconcile reasonably easily with her upbringing. A van Hoyt had the best of everything; she was prepared to acknowledge that her H,Y,P lovers were better than her lovers had been before coming under Professor Nolan’s spell. They didn’t just want a van Hoyt-shaped notch on their bedpost; they wanted pleasure from her and they wanted her pleasure in turn. She no longer had the awkward, uncomfortable sense that she was being collected - something so universal in her experiences before this that she’d assumed it to be a necessary part of sex.

She took the pleasure she wanted, from Matthew and from Nick, whenever she triggered them. She was learning to take pleasure from Jessica, too. And she had begun to understand how much bliss there was to be found when you let go; when you weren’t in control, and especially when another was. Matthew seemed nervous to adjourn her mind, but she could persuade him to; she knew the buttons to push. Lauren and David had no such concerns, and if they had time free, they were perfectly happy to. Lauren in particular was quite open that Madison and her people were currently new toys she was breaking in - that was exactly the phrase she used, and Madison’s reaction to that was extremely un-van Hoyt.

So was her position in the firm, and so was the deference she had for Lauren, but honestly, that seemed to be making everything better. And if it was making everything better, then why would she complain?

Nick was very, very good, when he was transformed to a cock and a passion to serve, and was pretty good as an assistant when Matthew loaned him to her. But it was one of those days; her mind wasn’t fully away in the sensations, but was still pondering the future.

For Madison, the big issue on the horizon would be explaining to her parents that this was no short-lived act of childish rebellion; she would not be joining their law firm later.

That was the part of all this least like her upbringing. Her path had been written for her, and she had known with certainty where her upbringing would lead from as far back as she could remember - but all of that had changed when Professor Nolan put her name forward as a candidate and Lauren decided she should be on a trial team.

As a full staff member at H,Y,P, Madison would absolutely agree that Lauren had made the correct decision for her. On the other hand, explaining that to her family without violating some of the secrecy bylaws would be near-enough impossible.

Yet still she continued trying to find the combination of words which would resolve everything amicably.

*

As he always did between three and four, if he wasn’t in court or scheduled for a meeting, Jonathan was enjoying himself doing very little. There was a debriefing going on with Louise, Lauren, and Professor Nolan, but he’d chosen to skip it. It wasn’t something he directly needed to know about, and in any case, Louise would fill him in on anything interesting when they got in the car to head home for the evening.

Instead he was taking some time with David to celebrate the young man achieving Junior Partnership, just as he would later with Lauren - and as Louise would with David.

All four of them knew that second celebration would be less talkative but more directly enjoyable. But H,Y,P didn’t want anyone who only thought of reward in terms of rank, money, or sex; being part of a positive community was just as important.

Diana, Jonathan’s PA of long-standing, kept the silver strands creeping into her blond hair hidden by tying that hair up in a taut, well-regulated bun. Time was something she wore with dignity, shifting from short skirts, close-fitting business jackets and tights to floor-length skirts, loose but provocative blouses, and stockings on garter belts. She might have been called matronly, but seen walking on errands outside H,Y,P, others might call her a cougar. Five years or so older than Jonathan, she had expected by now to be turned aside in favour of a younger model - but Jonathan had not yet lost a fascination with her, and she was beginning to accept that he wouldn’t.

As David slipped into Jonathan’s office, Diana took her cue. She efficiently unbuttoned her blouse and shed it, placing it on a hangar from the coatstand and revealing a transparent white bustier underneath. Her eyes had that glassy tone, her body moving in the approved manner.

The two men shook hands as Diana opened Jonathan’s drinks cabinet. She fixed each man’s favourite drink, priding herself on getting them exactly how they liked. These glasses were then provided to the lawyers as they sat and talked.

Diana took a couple of steps back, waiting for guidance; Jonathan met her gaze and gestured toward David with a drink. There were a dozen or more things he could request, but the two of them knew each other well enough now that she read his intent in the most minor aspects of his gestures. She moved to stand behind David, resting hands on his shoulders before beginning to massage. She stood close enough he could feel the warm curves of her breasts at the back of his head, giving him the choice whether or not to tilt his head back and enjoy her as a pillow.

“All seems to have gone well,” Jonathan said.

David, settling down to enjoy himself, nodded and raised his glass in salute. “I think they’re going to make the firm stronger, once they’ve had time to get used to things,” he said, and smiled. “Is that what you and Louise said about us?”

Jonathan laughed. “We may have been a bit less… poetic, but we had the same basic idea in mind. If you really want to know, I believe what I had to say was ‘They’ll do’, and Louise laughed and agreed.”

“I’ll take it,” David said, accepting with good grace. He rolled his shoulders, luxuriating in the skilled touch Diana had to offer. “I would have preferred the other side to win, of course. Better suited for my team’s next year.”

“Oh, but you should see this for an opportunity,” Jonathan countered. “Whatever you do this year, the Partners will know was all on the team you deliberately built. There can be no doubt that you’re behind its achievements.”

David pursed his lips thoughtfully, but smiled in the end. “I’ll drink to that.”

The two raised their glasses and toasted. It wasn’t productive working time, but it was mutual pleasure, and therefore completely legitimate under the Bylaws.

*

Clink… clunk… clink… clunk…

In the living room in Professor Nolan’s house two women sat side by side, their eyes on the grandfather clock on the far wall. Nolan had removed the wooden door covering the internals and replaced it with an open glass door, leaving the counterweight and the ticking pendulum on clear display.

Clink… clunk… clink… clunk…

Lauren and Louise sat on the two wooden chairs Nolan kept for just this purpose, their legs identically crossed, hands clasped across their upper thigh, beatific expressions on their faces as they sank down deeper into trance. Professor Nolan was bustling around in the kitchen, vaguely audible, but the sound of his activity wasn’t nearly so important as the

Clink… clunk… clink… clunk…

At moments like this, Nolan always took his time. The three of them had each other for the rest of the afternoon, so why not allow the H,Y,P reps the chance to sink so much deeper than they usually had time for?

He could see them through the open kitchen door as he busied himself with the coffee grounds. They sat in the approved manner, but with the level of experience Nolan had, he expected to see a little extra droop to the shoulders soon, a slackness to the limbs even as they held their posture.

Clink… clunk… clink… clunk…

The aroma of coffee filled the kitchen by the time he saw it. He transferred the cafetiere to the tray and carried it through, setting it down on a side table.

Nolan stepped behind the two enthralled lawyers, pausing for a moment to admire the product of his handiwork. He put a hand gently on Lauren’s shoulder and stroked Louise’s hair, then nodded to himself, moving across to his own armchair just to the side of the grandfather clock.

“Turn to one another,” he directed, and watched as they did so, their mannerisms mirror images. “Now kiss.” The two women’s bodies came together as they leaned forward, embracing and kissing for his entertainment and their own pleasure.

Nolan continued to direct their puppet show until the coffee was ready to be served, then called them to attention. They sat upright now in suit skirts, stockings, and bras, though one of Louise’s bra cups had been tugged down in Lauren’s quest for better access. Their eyes were now on him, but they didn’t need to watch the pendulum any longer.

Clink… clunk… clink… clunk…

After all, they could still hear it.

Nolan had Lauren press the plunger - after all, she was the lowest ranked H,Y,P at this meeting, and so would naturally want to provide service in accordance with Bylaw 8.

Bylaw 8: In informal meetings, pleasure follows hierarchy protocols.

Then he snapped his fingers and the two women woke up, though the steady sound of the pendulum kept them comfortably in a delightful subspace.

Professor Nolan hadn’t had to interact with others without assuming a dominant role in quite some time. He was used to assigning himself the upper hand.

“So,” he began. “Firstly, Lauren, congratulations on your ascension.”

She smiled, eyes flicking up to him and then deferentially away again, and nodded her thanks. The coffee was poured and passed out.

Clink… clunk… clink… clunk…

Louise cleared her throat. “To business, then,” she said. “That way we’ll have time for pleasure afterwards.

“Who else is worth recruiting from this year’s class? We have two intern spaces this year.”

Professor Nolan sat back in his chair and picked up his notes. “I should raise one other item before we turn to this,” he said. “I’ve made the decision that next academic year will be my last, and I’ll be retiring from Orton. We’ll need to appoint and properly train a replacement.”