The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Hot Blood: Sexiness and Lust in a Silicon Valley Startup

Chapter Six

A couple of way overdue author’s notes here: First of all, literally everything I’ve put on MCstories has been edited by Jennifer Kohl, without whom, for one example, Riley’s pronouns would be a mess. Also Jennifer is my real life submissive. Support her patreon and think about hunting up some other hypnofetishists in real life. We’re nice folks and we do have real life conventions in the actual world. (That might be a teaser for a future story.)

Oh, and shoutout to Justice Souter for his majority opinion in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569 (1994), without which this work would not exist. I’ll have other notes and sources at the end of the story, whenever it does end, which won’t be for awhile because my google alerts constantly bring me new material.

AskJeeves

2009

“Oh hey, Lavinia’s waiting for you.” Riley’s words were a little too casual. They made Abigail nervous. Also Abigail hadn’t been working for Lavinia for very long, but she’d never known her to wait for anyone. Riley led Abigail through Lavinia’s office door, then left the room quietly. Riley had a real talent for doing everything an assistant does without exactly coming off as an assistant. Appearances weren’t Abigail’s thing but she admired talent where she saw it.

Lavinia was in her usual Motivos pink top and tight black suit pants. She smiled. “I’m so glad you had time to come by today,” she said, as if her invitation to the meeting had been anything less than a command.

“Oh, of course. I’d love to have a status report to give you, but I’m really just getting up to speed on the engineering of the app? Obviously, I want to get those compliance numbers up, but to get there, I have to figure out what we’re doing wrong.”

Lavinia nodded without blinking. “You’re doing very well, though I hear you’re giving Ed some trouble about our information security protocols.”

Abigail gave Lavinia a long look, but she did eventually have to blink herself. So she looked away, pretending to be a little more awkward than she was. “Well,” she said, “we both know I’m new to the motivation technology industry. You hired me from Alight, a much more traditional tech company. My old boss, Derek, had a different philosophy of information security. I guess the culture has been a bit of a weird adjustment for me?” She searched Lavinia’s face, which revealed nothing, then turned slightly away again for good measure. “I’m sorry. I’m babbling aren’t it?”

She’d played her trump card as softly as she knew how to, but she’d played it.

“Can you tell me some more about your old boss?” Lavinia asked. Her tone was casual, but Abigail wasn’t fooled. Lots of people wanted to hear about Hux. He was a silicon valley legend.

“Well, you and he had a lot in common” Abigail said. Lavinia tossed her head slightly. “I’m happy to tell you what I know and can remember though, of course, if I can’t remember something or get distracted?” She gave Lavinia a dark look and Lavinia dipped her chin slightly. The soft approach hadn’t seem to work, so it was time to push. “Actually,” Abigail said, “I’d prefer to never get distracted? If I get distracted, I’m not going to be able to use my brain to its fullest potential to fix your app, and that’s what we both want, isn’t it? So maybe I should leave meetings with you with my mind on business. Don’t you think?”

If Abigail had expected the younger woman to look disappointed, she didn’t get that. Instead, Lavinia’s smile was slow and serene.

“I think we understand one another perfectly,” Lavinia said. The usual sexy lilt in her voice was gone. Was that a put-on too? Or maybe the all-business voice without the sexy lilt was the fake one.

“I’m not sure we do yet. I take it no one spies on this room?”

“No one spies on me, Nate doesn’t even have an office here and no one spies on Ed in IT because he’s the one spying on everyone else.” Lavinia said. She gave a little shrug as if that were the end of the list. But she didn’t directly say so. Lavinia really didn’t directly say all that much.

“Fine,” Abigail said. ‘Holy Fuck,’ she thought. If there was a time to play hardball, this was it. “Then it’s safe to be a little more straightforward. I don’t know how you can do what you do to people or why everyone wants to please you and fuck each other all the time. Maybe it’s your eyes and your voice and the way you talk, maybe it’s some hormonal thing that you’re distracting people from with your eyes and your voice and the way you talk. I don’t care. The point is, it doesn’t transfer. I know you don’t like your department heads talking, but I saw the numbers, as in, the real ones? It took me a while to figure it out, but making Motivos work on people you’re not directly talking to is what you hired me to do. And I’m trying to do it. And if I can do it, we’re both going to get rich beyond anything either of us can currently imagine. If I’m going to do my job, I’m going to need you to be straight with me about a few things.”

Lavinia was nodding like an attentive student. Was that yet another way of drawing Abigail in? Probably. It was sort of working but at least Abigail was keeping her wits about her.

“I think I’m a good judge of what information you need to do your job,” Lavinia said.

“You haven’t proved to be so far?” Abigail said. Lavinia’s eyes narrowed. “But fine, answer some more questions and I’ll tell you more about Hux. We can both get what we want out of this meeting”

“Fine,” Lavinia snapped. The sexy voice was gone.

“What happened to Conrad? That guy was honest and he was also rich when he started working here. I don’t think he would have embezzled from anyone?”

“He didn’t. He and I had some business disagreements so I convinced him to retire. He really is off in the Greek Islands with his trophy wife and his money. He doesn’t want to be a ‘finance guy’ anymore, so he doesn’t need a spotless reputation. If his ex-coworkers got the idea that he embezzled and that kept them minding their own business, that’s the best thing for everyone.”

Abigail figured that wasn’t the entire truth but it was close enough. She ignored the dig about minding her own business. She’d left the best technology company in the world for this job. It was her business now.

“As you said, he was ‘the finance guy’ and he hasn’t been replaced. You like to surround yourself with brilliant people, the best of the best?”

“I do.”

“And if you hire another brilliant finance guy, he’s going to take one look at your finances and have the same disagreements with you that Conrad did.”

“Probably.”

“Do we really have a $50 million dollar contract with Slim Support?”

“Yes.” Lavinia hadn’t paused for a moment and was looking straight into her eyes.

“Can I see it?”

“It’s tied up in legal.” Lavinia’s gaze flicked to the left. Abigail didn’t see anything there. Maybe she was checking her computer screen. “No one is allowed to see it.”

“Ok, then I’m going to guess what’s in it. If they aren’t convinced Motivos works, then we don’t get paid.”

“We don’t get paid as much.”

“We don’t get paid very much at all?” Abigail had worked at Alight and knew how chancy experimental technology could be. She doubted anyone would pay very much for it unless they were sure it worked. And Motivos was still being sold as a prototype, for now.

“That’s correct.”

“And Slim Support only owns the personal training app. I’m guessing the other contracts with other companies to motivate people to do other things that you’ve told us about are real, too.”

“Yes,” Lavinia said.

“But they also aren’t worth anything if we can’t deliver a working device.”

“They’re worth something,” Lavinia said. Abigail didn’t pursue the point. She had the idea. Lavinia stood up, leaning across her desk. “Tell me about Hux.”

Abigail thought for a moment. “Every weird thing you ever heard about my old boss is true,” she said. “He was into fasting and weird food. You wear a pink cowl sweater every day,” Lavinia’s hand went unthinkingly to her chest, “because Hux work a black fake turtleneck every day? He wore the turtleneck because Japanese tech companies have uniforms. Hux thought about making Alight employees wear uniforms but he decided just to adopt one himself. Hux’s favorite book was ‘Meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius and he quoted it all the time. He had the design folks draw portraits of our users’ ideal selves and he hung them all over the executive suites. He was pure Silicon Valley asshole and we were all a little bit in love with him anyway. What else do you want to know?” Abigail’s breathy voice lost some of its uncertainty when she talked about Hux, but not all of it.

“I want to know everything,” Lavinia said. She was speaking slowly now. Abigail’s monologue about Hux had given her time to think. “But you can tell me over time if that’s what you want. You now know more about this company than anyone else except for Nate and me. Are you going to help me fix things, or are you going to forget it all and quit your job before you leave this room? It’s your choice.” She smiled. “And both choices have their rewards.”

Georgina Day had gone eight entire days without pleasing Lavinia. That was good. It wasn’t the longest she’d ever gone, but it was a nice healthy stretch. She could have texted Lavinia or called, around the end of the semester that generally had to do. But it was fall break, and both Lavinia and Nate had texted her back that salmon sounded wonderful. The idea that she would be serving Lavinia tonight had kept her buzzing with delight all day, damn it.

Sometimes, Georgina wished she’d kept a diary in the years before she’d met Lavinia. At this point her emotional life had centered around Lavinia for so long that she wasn’t sure how she used to get through a tough faculty meeting or days working on a paper without promising herself pleasing Lavinia at the end.

She was on the Motivos board, and their meetings were as refreshing as vacations. A day spent in the same room with Lavinia was like a day in the sun. So many little opportunities to do just what Lavinia wanted. Georgina was always twice as productive in the weeks afterward. Her latest book advance had bought her a Lexus. Some of that had to be credited to how much better her concentration was. A second-wave feminist, she’d always thought that relationships would distract her from her work. If anything, pleasing Lavinia had the opposite effect.

If she willed herself to not think about the pleasure, to focus on the pure evil manipulation, Georgina could resent it. She did, of course, but resentment couldn’t take away the deep erotic joy she felt just this morning as she’d carefully cut slits into salmon filets, putting coriander and cayenne pepper into Lavinia’s, black pepper into a filet for Nate and garlic into her own.

She never dry-brined salmon when she was cooking just for herself, but it felt so good to do it for Lavinia. Damn it.

Georgina had keys to Nate’s place. He was usually upstairs in his office. Lavinia would be home at ten, so Georgina let herself in the back door with a pan of salmon by nine. She set the pan down in the kitchen, palatial by San Francisco standards, then unbuttoned her blouse. It and her skirt went into the basket kept next to the door, where her outside clothes belonged. Since Nate’s daughter Daphne had moved out, they didn’t even pretend once Georginia was in the house. She took a deep sigh. Taking off her clothes to serve Lavinia was a dive into a deep pool of pleasure.

Lavinia had never ensnared someone as completely as she’d ensnared Georgina. She’d overdone it. She hadn’t needed to own her professor so completely. But she’d been very young, just learning how to use her personal strengths. Georgina understood all of that. In the years since, Lavinia had tried to reduce her control and Georgina had experimented with what gave her the most pleasure and helped her focus the most. Working together, they’d been able come to this balance.

Georgina Day, Motivos Board Member, bestselling author, lauded academic, stood barefoot in Nate’s kitchen, pan-searing salmon, her head full of bliss. The only things she wore, the only things she ever wore in Nate’s house, were a bra and panties in Motivos pink.

“This was perfect,” Nate said, leaning back in his chair. His dining table and chairs were some kind of over built farmhouse style that his ex-wife had paid way too much for, but they were perfect for the room so he’d kept them. Now his young lover and her, well, Georgina, were eating perfect dinners off of pale yellow china plates that made the dark wood of his furniture look even better. Nate was good at just about everything he put his mind to. Things had always worked out well for him. But this seemed like an unfairly rich life even for him.

He was into intermittent fasting these days, all the guys he played squash with were, but he always scheduled a meal for when Georgina was coming over. Lavinia had never told him exactly what she did to Georgina. He tried not to think about those things too hard, but cooking for the two of them seemed to particularly satisfy Georgina’s needs, though Nate was well aware that his own pleasure was just collateral damage.

Lavinia hadn’t been eating much, she rarely did. But she was sure to take big bites when Georgina was paying attention. Nate smiled but pretended not to have noticed. He knew better than to love Lavinia, but moments like that made him like her.

They usually talked about Motivos when the three of them were together. It was something they all had in common. Over dinner, Lavinia had filled them in on her conversation with Abigail. Nate hadn’t met Abigail yet but liked her a lot just from Lavinia’s story. No matter how good Lavinia was with individuals and small groups, they needed a working prototype at some point and if anyone could build it, it was someone with Abigail’s engineering pedigree and the people smarts she’d shown that afternoon. The meeting Lavinia described sounded like as far an exchange as anyone ever had with Lavinia.

“Are you ready for the board meeting next week?” Nate asked

Lavinia smiled, “No, but I don’t need to be.” That was true enough. Lavinia held the Motivos board like it was a baby chick. “But we need more time. Abigail’s good but she needs to have a chance to code something up.”

Nate nodded. “Everyone I’ve talked to says she’s a genius, but even geniuses need time, and you know that time is going to be expensive.” Nate sincerely hoped Lavinia wasn’t planning another dip into his finances. Lavinia’s gaze flicked over to Georgina, who looked relaxed. And hot. God, that shade of pink seemed to look amazing on every woman.

“Georgina?” Lavinia said, as if she’d suddenly had an idea.

“Yes?” Georgina used to try to hide how obviously good it felt to do what Lavinia told her to. The dignified professor didn’t bother anymore.

“Would you like to seduce Nate tonight?”

Georgina looked down, but the words spilled out of her mouth. “Yes, Lavinia. You know I enjoy having sex with him and cooking for you tonight left me very excited. That I’d be doing it at your request only makes it better.”

Once Nate would have been embarrassed for Georgina, but he knew what was coming.

“Nate? Would you like to be seduced by Georgina?”

Nate was one of Silicon Valley’s more accomplished liars, but when Lavinia used that tone on him, even he told the truth. “I was just thinking how hot Georgina looks in Motivos Pink. There are lots of women I enjoy fucking and Georgina is one of them,” his mouth had told Lavinia the complete truth like it was operated by a puppeteer. Lavinia hadn’t put the words in, but the effect was the same.

“Georgina, taking the dishes into the kitchen, then seduce Nate for me right here in the dining room while I talk to you two.”

Nate smiled. It wasn’t like they hadn’t done this before, but doing it in the dining room was a new twist. Waiting for Georgina to do the dishes was going be the best kind of agony. Georgina moaned slightly as she stood up, giving them both a nice look at her breasts as she bent over to collect the plates. More than a mouthful, but only just. Still hot, though.

Lavinia looked back at Nate deadpan.

“Jaiyana has an idea for the basic design, and of course, Abigail is going to be engineering, but I need someone to work on the user interface. I want it as smooth and perfect as something Alight would put out.”

Nate’s thinking was behind hers, but only a second behind. “No,” he said.

Lavinia smiled. “Oh don’t be silly, Nate. It’s business. You know she’s the reason why everything Alight puts out is so fucking beautiful. Can you imagine what she’d do with the face of the youngest CEO in Silicon Valley?” Lavinia widened her already-large eyes and held up her phone, posing like she was going to be on the cover of Fortune Magazine.

Shit. She was going to be on the cover of Fortune Magazine. Not that Nate wanted to stop her.

“You’re right, you’d be a fucking muse to her, but we still can’t use her.”

Lavinia’s tone was suddenly mock innocent “Who’s ‘we,’ again?”

Nate grunted. “Do you want to make payroll or not? I thought you wanted more money. Even if you can persuade her, she’s going to expensive.” The perfect salmon was going weird in his stomach as the information soaked in. Lavinia was better than he was. And what she wanted, she tended to get. If she wanted this, well...

“Oh, I have a plan for the money, too.”

Fuck, of course she did. He smiled despite himself when Georgina slid back into the room, looking suddenly shy. If the fact that she was ten years older than he was made her nervous, it shouldn’t. She was in great shape, like one of those chicks who had grown up too tall for ballet but kept all the ways of moving. Lavinia was the kid in the room and she sure didn’t seem to mind her naughty professor.

Georgina came up behind Nate and started rubbing his neck. Good God, did the Ivy Leagues give PhDs in that? Georgina deserved one. He hadn’t forgotten Lavinia’s next planned hire, but he let himself enjoy the feeling.

“Georgina?” Lavinia said. Georgina snapped to attention, but her hands were working on the buttons of Nate’s shirt. “I know we’ve talked a lot about your past, but I had Riley run a more complete background check, to see if there’s anyone you hadn’t mentioned yet.” Nate felt Georgina’s fingertips stiffen against his skin. It still felt good, but it was there. “Tell me about your roommate your Junior and Senior years at Bryn Mawr.”

Nate reached up, delicately stroking the edge of Georgina’s bra, teasing the tops of her breasts. Georgina’s body stiffened for just a beat, then relaxed as she gave it.

“My roommate’s name was Barbara Waterbury, but we called her Buffy. Her father was the head of Waterbury Electric. She was a history major. She liked Tequila Sunrises and I think she was cheating on her boyfriend with one of the janitors.” Georgina paused for a moment. She didn’t know what information Lavinia actually wanted. Nate could sympathize, God knows he’d been there when Lavinia made him spill his guts about one tech company or another. He slid his fingers into the cups of that wicked pink bra and Georgina squirmed.

“Did you have sex with your roommate Buffy?”

“We kissed once.”

“Would you like to have sex with her now?” Lavinia’s tone was like she was taking a survey. When Georgina only moaned in response, Lavinia kept talking. “Was that boyfriend Buffy was cheating on Roderick Joseph Harrington or did she meet him later?” Lavinia asked.

“That was him,” Nate rolled her nipples and Georgina whined. “She married him after graduation.”

“You were in the wedding” Lavinia said. So she’d known all this all along? If Nate hadn’t been about to get into Georgina’s panties he would have rolled his eyes. Lavinia loved to play with her food. But if she just persuaded people, he’d be a mindless ATM himself. Thank God she liked making it fun for everyone.

“Yes...” Georgina said. Nate ran his hands to Georgina’s trim backside, even tighter than Lavinia’s, and put his thumbs into Georgina’s panties.

Motivos pink panties. That color made his cock throb these days and he’d given up trying to fight it. Had he ever tried to fight it?

“So if you were coming to Washington DC for, say, the American Psychological Association conference, which is in DC next month, and you were bringing a promising student, do you think that Admiral Harrington and his wife Barbara would invite the both of us to dinner?”

“She’d invite me in a moment, but my bringing you would be strange.”

“But you could make it work?”

Georgina’s panties were on the floor. She turned toward the dining room table, toward Lavinia, and pushed back against him. Lavinia was working up to her big finish, and Nate unbuckled his pants for it.

“Please,” Georgina moaned. They all knew she was about to agree to do Lavinia a big favor. Nate didn’t have the same wiring she did, but he knew enough to pull out a condom and wrap his dick in Motivos pink.

“I can appreciate that bringing me along will be socially awkward, but I trust your old friend will do you a favor and invite me. I want us to have dinner with Barbara and Rod Harrington. I want an Admiral in the United States Navy on my corporate board,” Lavinia said, a waver in her voice. She wasn’t excited by what they were doing, but she was so into making them do it, she might as well be rubbing her pussy in front of him. Nate enjoyed that thought for a minute. “And you’re going to organize lunch or drinks or whatever you have to for that to happen.”

“Fuck, yes, I’ll do it.” Georgina said. Nate slid his cock into her. Even through the condom he could feel how wet she was. He’d fucked a lot of women who were like Ferraris and he loved that, but there was something about taking the Rolls Royce. Such a soft and easy ride. She was cumming already. Serving Lavinia had given her a hair trigger.

“I still need a designer, Nate.” God damn it, Lavinia. “And I want the best one.” He thrust into Georgina. There was no stopping him now.

“No, I mean, don’t do anything to her. She’s a genius. You need that brain. We all need that beautiful brain,” Georgina’s pussy was squeezing him and the words were spilling out of him now, almost like Lavinia were interrogating him. But she wasn’t. She hadn’t asked him for that information.

He looked up at Lavinia, though he was almost bleary-eyed with arousal. She did those wide eyes again, looking into his fucking soul. “I’m not going to persuade M to leave Alight, Nate. You are.”

Nate pulled Georgina’s body up against his and his orgasm hit like a Goddamned train. The hottest porn stars in the Valley, and he’d had a few, could only make his body cum. Lavinia could make him cum inside his mind.

Yeah, he was going to call her.

Georgina had crawled up onto the heavy oak table. That suddenly looked like a good idea. Nate followed her and curled his body around Georgina’s. She was still quaking slightly every few seconds and Nate loved the feel of a woman doing that.

Lavinia still sat at her place at the table, never having moved.

After a moment, Georgina spoke up. “I’ve missed something,” she said. “Who on earth is M?”

“Senior Vice President for User Interface Design at Alight Technologies,” Nate said, and then with a note of exhaustion in his voice, “and Daphne’s mother.”