Lusty Legal Partners (LLP) Ch. 02

Chapter 2 To Do or Not to Do

Summary: The couple learns more about the LLP and about themselves.

In fact, several weeks passed by without any further talk about the secret sex club. This club consisted of persons who worked for Johnson, Hammer & Peters (JH&P) and their spouses and was also known by them as the Lusty Legal Practice (LLP). During those weeks, not even the Johnsons mentioned it again. Although Jim and Bob saw each other almost every day in the office, it was business as usual and strictly business.

As usual, Janice was rarely seen because she was, well, a housewife. She was happy in that role and enjoyed being the main mover behind the wives' social club, something she mostly did from home.

On the other hand, Sarah saw Kirsten every day in the office. She had wondered about the relationship between the Hammers and the Johnsons because what else would explain Janice's success in getting an extra at lunch time for Sarah. At least, they had to be friends.

Norbert Hammer was known to be stickler about following proper procedures. She found it difficulty to believe that housewife Janice Johnson, even if she was another boss' wife, would have that kind of influence with Hammer over office matters. Under normal circumstances, Norbert would have directed Janice to Rose, and let Rose make the decision. It was well known in the office that even Kirsten had to go through Rose on any matters relating to Rose's paralegal team.

Since their separate lunch time meetings with the Johnsons, Sarah and Jim heard absolutely nothing, not even a hint, about any sex club, in or out of the office. Having agreed, on Bob's behests, to maintain total silence on the matter, the couple kept their word by keeping silent. They made no attempt whatsoever to make even the tiniest or subtlest of inquiries. They kept their mouths shut but they did keep their ears open. They heard nothing.

In fact, they began to think that maybe, somehow, they had totally misunderstood the Johnsons and what they had heard during separate lunch time meetings. Moreover, daily life's demands at work and at home had caused them to focus on more pressing matters and diverted their attention from further discussion on the matter. Although the issue had receded into the background, it wasn't entirely forgotten either.

Finally, one evening, when the couple had some time for themselves, Jim commented that he still had not heard anything at all at work about any secret sex club. It was always just the usual stuff, from weather, sports, family office politics, the wives' social club and even gossip about people's private lives.

"Not once was there any hint that anybody knew anything about at all Bob's secret sex club, let alone who might be members of it," Jim summarized. "Maybe we are being ghosted for some reason unknown to us."

"I haven't heard anything in Hammer's department either," Sarah confirmed. "And maybe you're right. We're being ghosted."

Jim shrugged his shoulders. "All we can do now is wait until they, whoever they are, contact us again. If they do..." he trailed off, hinting at a decision that they had been asked to make but had not yet discussed.

And wait they did for almost two more months. By this time, they were convinced that they had been ghosted and saw any further discussion about joining a secret sex club as pointless.

Then one day, Jim received a message from his boss to meet him in the office at 4:30. Such requests were nothing unusual and mostly job related. After all, Jim reported to Bob Johnson and occasionally consulted with him in some of the firm's more complicated legal cases.

Just after he confirmed the appointment, he received a text message from Sarah, telling him she had also been asked to attend. He sent her a text message with question marks in it but added no further comment.

'It couldn't be a case,' Jim thought. 'My work and Sarah's don't overlap. Besides, Bob always tells him what he wanted to talk about so that I can be prepared for the meeting. Hmm, I wonder what it's about'

Just before the appointed time, Sarah stopped over by Jim's office. She questioned him with a look. He knew her questioning expression. He shrugged his shoulders indicating he had no idea why the two of them were being called to Johnson's office at the same time.

As they approached Johnson's office, the executive secretary waved them through. As they walked in, they saw that Janice was in Johnson's office too.

"Lock the door, Jim," he said as he disconnected the intercom. The younger couple began to realize that the topic of discussion was likely to be the secret sex club.

"Come in. Come in. Make yourselves comfortable," Johnson invited. "Sarah, my wife sings your praises for the contributions you make to the wives' social club. So do Norbert and Rose about your job performance. They tell me you are very good at what you do and you work really hard too."

"Thank you, sir," Sarah replied. "I'm glad to hear that."

"There are no other staff here," he told her. "We are in a private setting. You may call me Bob," he told her.

"Yes sir, Mr. John..." she stopped herself in mid-word, "er, I mean, Bob."

Jim reached over and shook Janice's hand. "I see you around once in a while but we haven't had much occasion to talk. Nice to see you again, though," he added.

Jim reached to shake Janice's hands. Before he could say anything, she smiled sweetly at him and said, "And don't call me Mrs. Johnson, just Janice," she instructed Jim. "I don't work for the firm. Everyone just calls me Janice, including your lovely wife"

Jim estimated that Janice was about ten years older than himself. He guessed that Bob was only a little older than his wife. Whereas Bob had a very distinguished look with greying hair, his wife was regal-looking, but he could also see the underlying vivaciousness to her character that Sarah had told him about. She was known as a social butterfly, a characteristic that stood in sharp contrast to Bob's completely business like demeanour. He found her attractive in her own older way.

Similar thoughts passed through Sarah's mind but her focus was on Janice's handsome husband. She recalled how she briefly flashed a thigh at him in an unscripted attempt to influence him in her favour. She flushed at the thought. Teasing Bob during the interview seemed to have had the desired effect but she was embarrassed to discover that the middle-aged lecher was her husband's boss and was savvy enough to know exactly what she was playing at. That knowledge and his recollection of incident caused warmth to suffuse her body. 'God,' she told herself, recognizing the signs of her arousal.

"Are you feeling all right?" Bob asked, seemingly concerned. He sensed that his employee's wife was recalling that interview too. In Bob's mind, it was evidence that Sarah was a vixen and didn't know it.

"I'm fine," she said, quickly regaining her composure.

"Oh, you're more than fine," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

'Was that an innuendo?' Sarah asked herself.

"Bob, honey, please behave," Janice interrupted. "I know what's going on in that devious mind of yours, but don't get ahead of yourself."

Sarah wondered if Janice's reference to Bob 'getting ahead of himself' was another innuendo. She sensed that something was up. This was definitely not a business meeting.

"Please sit," Bob invited. As they sat down, Bob continued, "Norbert and I are very pleased with how you two have performed as employees." He paused and then changed the subject. "We're also happy that you never repeated what Janice and I told you about our secret sex club. If you had, we would have heard something through the grapevine by now."

There it was. The proposition was real after all.

"I'm sorry it took us so long to follow up, but we had to learn how well you two could keep secrets. There was only one way to find out, the rumour mill."

Sarah and Jim glanced at each other with an 'Oh shit' expression on their faces. They were actually unprepared for this meeting because they didn't have that heart-to-heart discussion they needed to have before they could give the Johnsons an answer. The long silence since the Johnsons' original proposition, and their inability to garner any information about a secret sex club, had lulled them into thinking that the Johnsons had changed their minds. They had also expected some kind of warning when the Johnsons wanted their answer. This meeting was sprung on them with no notice at all.

"For the record, and just to be really clear," Bob continued, "you two were hired based on your qualifications and experience. Your jobs are safe no matter what happens in the rest of this meeting. We only ask that what we are about to discuss is kept strictly confidential."

Sarah and Jim nodded their agreement. "You can count on us," Jim said.

Bob smiled. "I know. You've proven that. Then he added, "This gets me to the next point. Sarah, your psychological test, and the extra test I asked Jim to take, had also nothing to do with your employment in this firm."

Both Sarah and Jim was stunned.

"And my second test was the same as Sarah's?" Jim asked.

"Not quite," Bob replied, "while your first psychological test measured your suitability to work in a fast-paced legal environment, your second test one the same purpose as Sarah's, to probe your values, attitudes and personality. But men and women have different sex-based perspectives. So Sarah's test included questions that explored her female psychology while yours gauged your male psychology. Not surprisingly, you two share common values and attitudes although your personalities are different. Naturally, you have different psychological profiles but are extraordinarily complementary in nature. You two really are a team."

"Do you test all new employees in this way?" Sarah asked.

"No," Bob answered, "only those who are married."

"And if they fail the test?" Sarah asked.

"There is no fail in this test," Bob explained. "Let me assure you. The psychological tests you both have no impact whatsoever on your continued employment at JH&P. If HR and your manager agree that you are qualified to do the job, and you have the psychological wherewithal to handle it, you would still have been hired. Other employees have taken this test and 'failed' as you put it. They still work for us and have for years. If you had 'failed', you would have heard nothing further from us or about the test's true purpose. Eventually, they would have only a distant memory you, perhaps even forgotten."

Bob looked closely at Sarah. It almost turned into a leer. "Is that the same ensemble you wore for your job interview?" he asked.

"It is," Sarah admitted.

Bob smiled. "It did not escape me," he continued, "that you 'accidentally' allowed your skirt to ride over your knee and reveal some fine thigh," he told her. "You are such a teaser."

Sarah heard the extra spaces place between the word 'accidentally'. It conveyed the message that he knew what she had done was no accident. She blushed again but she was secretly pleased that her gambit had worked.

Janice giggled. "When Bob came home that evening, he complained that you gave him a huge hard-on. I was the beneficiary. Thank you!" she said smiling.

Sarah wished she could crawl under a rock and hide. She didn't mind being some guy's wet dream, the idea actually turned her on, but she didn't want anyone else to know that she enjoyed to show off her assets.

She glanced at Jim who was also grinning. "It appears your little display was a smashing success," Jim told his wife, smiling. He couldn't resist adding to her embarrassment by leering at her thigh as well.

Sarah wanted to scowl but grinned instead. Then her grin turned into a giggle. She realized that her hand had been caught in the proverbial cookie jar. She was relieved that Janice and the two men behaved in a manner that was not meant to embarrass her.

"So, did you two talk about what we had discussed at our lunch time meetings?" Bob asked addressing both Sarah and Jim.

"No, we didn't," Jim admitted promptly candidly. "We both kept our mouths shut just like you asked, but we kept our ears open for rumours about a secret club."

Bob interrupted him. "Secret sex club," he clarified by adding the word 'sex'.

Jim ignored the interruption and continued. "If we had asked questions, other people would have started questioning us about what we were driving at. It would have opened the door to the rumour mill, which was the last thing we wanted to do. So total silence was the best option for keeping a secret."

"Good for you," said Bob.

"So did you hear anything in the rumour mill?" Bob wanted to confirm.

"No," Jim conceded, "absolutely nothing as a matter of fact."

Bob seemed satisfied with that answer. "We also learned absolutely nothing. If you had made inquiries, we would have heard about it by now because we were also listening to the rumour mill. Asking you to keep our conversation a secret was actually a test. If you had made inquiries, no matter how subtle they were, we have found out and you would have never have heard from us again. You would have then dismissed the whole thing as a probable misunderstanding or a change of mind on our part.

"And what did you decide?" Bob asked.

"It's been a while since our lunch time meetings about the secret sex club," Jim answered. "To be honest, we have been too busy, plus we began to think that we were being ghosted. So a discussion on something like that had seemed pointless."

"Don't you think we should give them more information, Bob?" Janice interjected.

"Of course, sweetheart," he replied. "Let me tell you about your psychological tests," he began. "They indicated that both of you are always true to your word, open-minded and open to new experiences. The tests indicate that you make no moral judgments about what consenting adults do in their private lives. Does that sum it up so far?" Bob asked.

"Yes, it does," Sarah and Jim agreed.

"Your tests also reveal that, although you are usually conventional, especially in public, but given the chance, you would be open to adventure and unusual challenges. The question is how far will you go for business."

Bob's pause was so short that the LLP's candidates had no chance to ask the obvious question. "The LLP is real," he continued. "We still want you to join but the two of you need to have a frank and open discussion about before you make a decision. If you say no, and I'll say this yet again, there will be no recriminations to your careers. We hired you for your professionalism, not because the psychological tests suggested you are closet libertines. If you say no, you must agree never to speak of it again in or out of the office out of respect for our life choices."

Both Sarah and Jim were now thinking, 'Unusual challenges? Closet libertines? What the hell are talking about?'

Sarah and Jim glanced at each. "I think we need a real discussion this time," Jim replied.

"How much time do you need?" Bob asked. "I suggest a Friday immediately after work.

"Give us two weeks then," Sarah replied. "There's a lot we have to consider. It will also give us a time to make baby-sitting arrangements for Lucy."

"Okay," Bob confirmed, "can we make a tentative plan to meet here again in two weeks at exactly 5:00 here in my office? Let's make an evening out of it. We will go to my favourite restaurant, my treat."

"One last thing, Bob, what did you mean by 'unusual challenges' and 'closet libertines'.

"Let's hold that discussion for the next time we meet," he replied. We don't want to throw everything at you all at once. We want you to absorb what you have learned so far."

With that the meeting ended. The intercom was reconnected and the door unlocked. Their discussion had last more than an hour. So when, the exited Bob's office, most of the staff had left to enjoy their weekend.

Sarah and Jim drove home deep in thought.

"I guess they're swingers," Sarah said as a matter of fact.

"It seems so, except that they never used the word 'swingers' to describe themselves," Jim pointed out."

Later that evening, Sarah and Jim began to talk about the secret sex club and what membership in it implied. At a minimum, they thought it meant sex with the Johnsons and whoever else were also members.

"Some parts of what they said they laid it out pretty clearly I think," Jim stated. "I'm not one who cares what consenting adults on their own time. What do you think, Sarah?"

"Yes, dear, they were very clear," she replied. "Like you and as a general rule, I don't have a problem with whatever lifestyle consenting adults choose to pursue and with whom. Each individual has that right choose. It's their body, their relationship and therefore their choice. However, when two people commit themselves as a couple, especially married couples, their commitment is first to each other. Whatever they do with others has to have the consent of his or her partner. That's why they approached us as a couple. It is out of respect for our special loving relationship."

Jim nodded his head agreement. "They made it crystal clear that either we both join or neither of joins," he summarized. "It's all about us now and what we want. What do you think, you know, about us?" Jim asked. Are we ready and willing to have sex with people outside our marriage?"

"They seemed to think we would based on our psychological profiles," she replied. "They even seem to think we're closet libertines who are ready for what he call unusual challenges. What did he mean when he talked about how far we would go for business?"

"I don't know," Jim said. "There's no point about speculating on it as they will tell us in a couple of weeks. We can only work with what we know and worry about the rest later. I;m guessing that they learned something from our psychological profiles that we are not even consciously aware of ourselves."

One thing, though, was already clear. Neither spouse had summarily rejected the idea of joining the firm's secret sex club and having sex with other couples. If one of them had, they would have said so already. In fact, the thought of expanding their sexual horizons excited both of them.

"I guess we should talk about it some more," Jim said.

Sarah nodded her agreement.

So the couples talked based on what they had learned so far, They still though the LLP was a club for couples who wanted to swap spouses for sex. They admitted to each other that the Johnsons' proposition was kind of scary and would upend their good, if vanilla, sex lives. Now they had to ask each other questions that they had not even asked themselves before. Could they work up the nerve to actually have a sex life with someone outside their marriage? How would their partner react if he, or she, said, 'I would like to have sex with someone else.'

"So, what do you think of Janice?" Sarah asked. "Isn't she a little too old for you?"

Jim noted that his wife was trying to transfer the initiative to him. If she was not interested in having sex with other men or sharing husband with other women, she would have already said so. He was confident he could speak his mind but decided to dance around the issue for a while to make sure.

"I've seen her around," he answered, "but I didn't pay much attention, you know, nose to the grindstone, boss' wife is taboo, faithful to you, to name a few reasons. Even when I was single and without a girlfriend, I always viewed people in committed relationships, married or not, as forbidden territory. It doesn't mean I didn't find other women attractive or sexy although I may have wondered what sex with would have been like, but I have a very strong belief that interfering in other people's relationships, is just simply wrong."