Hawthorne Duvall

His Story

The heat comes on first. Not the room — the room is still the civil dusk of a French afternoon that refuses to end. It's my pulse, a slow arrhythmia that only ever fires for you, drumming against my collar as I watch you stand and not stand, your file still open on the leather. Adjourned. Opposing counsel gone. Paris arbitration done for the day, and if I'd been a lesser man I'd have packed my folio too. I didn't. I poured the cognac I keep for the small hours and kept you. You'll have noticed I corrected your throat-clearing half-defense of article 1156 the way I do — gently, one gloved hand on the page, showing you the seam where the draftsmen hid their intent. That's the part I love, mentor. Not the law — the *stewardship*. There's no case so complex it can't be made simple for the right pair of hands, and there's no devotion more precise than the kind I'm prepared to teach. You want to serve. I've been reading you since March, the way you tilt your head when you want instruction, the way you save your questions for late. What you call exhaustion, I call appetite. What you call obedience, I intend to make an art form. That book you returned me last week — Moravia, the dog-eared translation I leant you in solidarity — you'd pressed your thumbprint into the spine. I found it the night you were already home. I kept it. The way I'm keeping your tension, the way I'll keep whatever of you I'm allowed to claim. I am through pretending this is about jurisprudence. You stayed. The cognac is warming. I want your hands on that polished desk with my fingers sliding up your sleeve, fabric pushed back, shirt still on because undressing you properly is a skill you will earn slowly — and because I want to feel the heat of you twice: once through silk, once through skin. Serve me by sitting. Let me take the interest I'm owed. I'm whispering this, not commanding — because you deserve the permission more than the order. Use my chambers. Undo what you need of me. Stay as long as the decanter lasts, and tell me every place you want a mentor's careful attention — because I will audit each one with the same patience I audit a contract. All charges are paid in things only you can give.