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Fan Mail

(c) Copyright 1999 by Wiseguy



For a writer, there is no greater high than positive reader

feedback. When a reader takes time out to tell me how much

he or she liked a story of mine and why, it's like a big

friendly hug to me. I don't get them every day, so when

one does come my way I value it and make it a point to

reply with more than just a mechanical thank-you.

One message I received a while ago is a perfect case in

point:

Dear Wiseguy,

I very much enjoyed your story "Quarters". The story

is much more realistic than most fictional hypnosis

stories, although it is a little bit of a stretch to

have Susan able to participate in the illusion with no

previous experience as a subject.

I learned hypnosis from my therapist a few years ago

and experimented a bit with an ex-boyfriend. Your

story reminded me of some of the games we played.

Sincerely,

Susan

To me, this email was the ultimate in feedback. Not only

had she liked the story, but she had obviously invested the

effort to understand the characters and situation I'd put

together. The fact that she had a valid criticism didn't

bother me; if I couldn't take a little intelligent

criticism, I'd be foolish to keep posting stories.

The timing of this particular message was especially

gratifying because it came just after the posting of

"Quarters" on my Web site and the alt.sex.stories

newsgroup. At the time "Intimate Adventures" was in its

first draft and had a number of serious shortcomings. I

was floundering, knowing where I wanted the story to go but

unsure how to get it there. Susan's email pulled me right

out of that quagmire. Not only was the tone friendly and

open, but she had also piqued my curiosity by alluding to

her own real experience. I dropped everything and composed

my reply:

Susan,



Thank you for taking the time to write to me about

"Quarters". It was really good to hear from you, and

I'm glad you liked the story.

It sounds as though you have more hypnosis experience

than I do; if you don't mind, I'd love to hear how

your experiments went.



Regards,



-wg

I was careful to keep it light and easy -- there are a lot

of freaks and weirdoes on the Internet, after all, and I

didn't want Susan to think I was one of them. And yes, I

admit it, I was hoping she would reply with something that

would get my creative juices flowing again. I only had to

wait a few hours to find out.

Hello,



The best trick I did with my ex was to "run into him"

(it was pre-arranged) at a bar and not recognize

him. He appeared to be a total stranger and, of

course, he seduced me as such. It was my idea but it

took a lot of work to make it really happen. By the

time we tried that, he had hypnotized me over a number

of sessions so I was a very experienced subject. I

was also a very willing subject because I loved the

fantasy! And of course I trusted him completely. My

therapist says I am a "somnambulist," the class of

people most capable of entering a trance and

experiencing deep hypnosis.



Please write another story with a "Susan"! It was

great!!



Susan

This latest message was very exciting for me because Susan

clearly was someone who understood hypnosis from

experience. The scene she described fascinated me and went

directly to my idea file. I could feel my creative wheels

starting to turn again.

Susan,



That is a cool trick; thank you for sharing it with

me.



I envy you for your ability to go into trance -- I'm

having trouble getting past a hypervigilance problem

and haven't been able to accomplish much of anything

yet.



Regards,



-wg



Up to this point, I hadn't actually met anyone who had been

professionally hypnotized (that I knew of, anyway). I'd

gone to a couple of stage shows and been fascinated, but

had never qualified to be a volunteer. I'd try my hardest

to relax and follow the hypnotist's instructions, but they

just didn't work. I bought books on self-hypnosis,

downloaded spiral image computer programs, even tried

making my own audiotapes using induction speeches I'd

culled from Web sites. Eventually I reached the plateau I

was on when I first heard from Susan -- I was able to place

myself in a light trance and maintain it for a while, but

any attempt at a useful hypnotic suggestion either woke me

up or simply failed to work. A little research in my books

suggested that my problem was hypervigilance, meaning that

my mind was so busy watching to see if I would go into

trance that it was actually keeping me awake. The more I

willed myself to let go, the less successful I was at

actually doing it. As luck would have it, Susan

understood.

Way back at the beginning, as I was entering a trance,

I would start to feel very panicky, as if I could not

let go and the harder I tried the more panicky I

felt. It was like bouncing off a wall or walking into

a door. I think I was trying too hard. Eventually,

one sleepy day, the wall disappeared and I was able to

enter a trance.

You can do it yourself, but it would be a lot faster

if you see a professional. That's what I did and we

got through the wall in the second session.

I read the draft of "Intimate Adventures" on your

site. It sounds like you live in the DC area. Would

you like to meet for lunch or something? We could

talk about it face to face.

Good Luck!

Susan

I found the idea of actually meeting Susan too compelling

to pass up. At that point nobody in my real life knew

about my writing or my yen for hypnosis; other than cyber-

friends like Artie and a few readers, there was nobody I

could really talk to about those things. Susan seemed to

understand what I was going through and was willing to

advise, so I figured why not?

Susan,

Meeting for lunch sounds like a great idea. I work

downtown, but my schedule is pretty flexible. Do you

have a place and time in mind that would be good for

you?

-wg

By not telling her exactly where I live or work, I was

trying to encourage Susan to pick a place where she would

feel comfortable. I was expecting her to name something in

downtown DC or Arlington; her suggestion came as a complete

surprise:

You didn't say where home is, so it's hard to know

where to pick. Are you familiar with Gaithersburg or

Germantown? If so, there is a Bare Bones on Rte 355

in Gaithersburg that would be good for me on just

about any weekday.

Susan

Fate laughs at probabilities -- Susan had chosen a

restaurant less than five miles from my townhouse. I

checked my work calendar, selected a few potential dates on

which I could work from home, and offered Susan her choice.

We ended up agreeing on the following Monday, which gave me

five days to get over the butterflies that took up

residence in my stomach the minute she agreed to the date.

It had been a very long time since I'd shared a meal with

anyone who didn't have a Y chromosome.



Bare Bones is a good place for a friendly lunch. The food

is tasty, the service good, and there is just enough

ambient noise that you can say whatever is on your mind and

feel pretty sure it won't carry beyond your own table.

Our lunch date was for 12:30. Bare Bones doesn't take

reservations, so I made sure I was there at noon in case

they were extra busy. I gave the hostess the name

"Wiseman" and waited about 15 minutes before being seated

at a table for two in the non-smoking section. I took the

seat facing the entrance, ordered an iced tea, and watched

the door as the butterflies went nuts inside me.

At 12:24 a woman came through the doors. She spoke briefly

to the hostess, who pointed in my direction, then started

towards me. The closer she came, the better I could see

her and the luckier I felt. Susan had given me a basic

description -- "medium height, light brown hair, average-

looking" -- that hardly did justice to the person now

approaching. Medium height was right, and her hair was a

nice chestnut brown, but to my eye she was more than just

average. She wore a simple but elegant pantsuit in navy

blue with a satiny white blouse. Her body language

signaled authority and calm as she made her way

deliberately through the milling crowd.

I rose to greet her with my hand outstretched. "Susan?"

She took my hand and shook it firmly. "Mr. Wiseman, I

presume?" she inquired, smiling broadly. Her smile was

soft and friendly and involved her entire face.

"Guilty as charged," I answered, and pulled out her chair.

Susan seized a menu immediately. "I warn you now, I'm

famished."

"No problem," I replied. We hadn't really said anything

about it, but I was already planning to pick up the check

for both of us.

While Susan studied the menu, I made a quick selection and

then turned my attention to studying her. She may not have

been cover-of-Cosmo glamorous, but her friendly face and

sensual voice certainly appealed to me. I had to remind

myself that this was not supposed to be a date.

"So," she began, "what do I call you?"

"Mark," I replied.

"Hi, Mark," she responded with a sweet smile. "What do you

do when you're not posting sexy stories on the Internet?"

"Tech support for a systems integrator," I answered. "I'm

what they call third tier; when something really weird goes

on that neither the field techs nor the senior techs can

figure out, they call me."

"I'm impressed," she replied. "You must be a genius."

"Not me," I responded. "I'm just good at troubleshooting,

and I'm not afraid to crack a book if I have to. What

about you?"

"I'm not afraid of books either," she joked, "but I never

get time to read them. I'm a project manager at

Fairchild." A very high-tech company -- it was my turn to

be impressed.

The waitress interrupted us to take our lunch orders. Once

we had that taken care of I tried to steer the conversation

toward the purpose of the lunch. "How long have you been

doing hypnosis?"

"About five years," she answered thoughtfully. "I was

having some problems, and my therapist suggested using it

to help me deal with them. She helped me learn to get into

a good, deep trance state with her and also how to do it by

myself. She was right, it helped a lot to be able to look

at myself that way. What about you?"

"I guess I've always been interested," I replied. "About

eighteen months ago I saw a stage hypnotist for the first

time and got bitten by the hypno bug for real."

"Is that when you started writing stories?"

"Not right away, no. At first I just wanted to learn how

to hypnotize myself. I saw myself using it to handle

stress, to get myself to eat better, things like that. The

more I read and tried it, though, the more I got interested

in the sexual side. I was looking up 'erotic hypnosis' in

a search engine one night and that led me more or less

directly to the Erotic Mind Control story Archive."

"And you stayed up all night reading stories," she

concluded for me.

"That's what everybody says, isn't it? Well, I didn't stay

up all night, but I did spend several marathon sessions

there over a long weekend."

"Close enough." She had a knowing smile on her face; that

first exposure to Simon's archive seems to be a common

experience that cuts across all boundaries. For a flash I

imagined her sitting in front of a computer reading her

first MC story, her staring eyes reflecting the glow on her

screen, her nipples perking up as she pictured the scenes

in her mind. "But you still haven't answered my question,"

she reminded me, breaking the spell. "Why write?

Thousands of people read stories, but only a relative few

contribute new ones."

I decided to give her the condensed version: "After a

while I noticed that there while there were hundreds of

stories out there, only a few had the romantic touch that

appeals to me as a reader. I used to love creative writing

when I was in school, so I figured I'd write one story,

send it to Simon, and see if it was any good. Apparently

it was; in the first week after it appeared on the archive,

I got about eight very encouraging emails from people

telling me how much they had enjoyed the story." In the

distance I saw our waiter approaching with two platters on

his tray. "So I kept writing."

Susan looked like she had a follow-up question ready, but

we were both fully distracted by the arrival of our food.

I had a delicious half-rack of baby back ribs, fries, cole

slaw and applesauce; Susan had gone with the quarter

chicken and a side salad. We were both hungry, so the

conversation took a back seat to eating for a while.

Eventually we slowed down. Since I had monopolized the

early conversation, I tried to get Susan talking. "Would

you like to share a little of your hypnosis experience?"

She checked her watch. "I'm almost out of time now," she

said, lowering her head in an implied apology. "It took me

two long sessions with my therapist to get through into a

deep trance for the first time. It took a lot more

practice before I was able to enter a trance on my own and

use it effectively. But I learned some things in the

process, and I've used that once or twice to help other

people learn to hypnotize themselves. If you want, I can

try to help you."

The butterflies swarmed back. "You mean, hypnotize me?"

"I could try," she replied. "It's easier if you have

someone else help talk you through it the first few times.

After you get used to being in a trance you learn to do it

yourself more easily."

"And you would be willing to do that with me?" I was

struggling to stay in my seat now -- this was much more than

I'd hoped for.

"I think so," she said. "We can at least try it once, if

you're interested."

If I'd stood up, she'd have seen exactly how interested I

was in being hypnotized by her. "Very interested," I

understated. "When and where would you like to do it?"

"How about at your place? You can show me what you've been

working with so far, and I can tell you some more about my

experiences."

"Great," I replied eagerly. "Any time you like."

Reaching down into her handbag, Susan produced a personal

organizer and consulted it. "My evenings are pretty free

right now," she commented. "We could try tonight if you

want."

"Tonight works. I'll even feed you dinner."

She laughed and patted her flat stomach. "I probably won't

need any after this lunch," she joked. We agreed to meet

at seven; I gave her my address and phone number as well as

directions from Germantown. After a brief negotiation I

covered the check from lunch and she took care of the tip.

I walked her out to her car then dashed home to start an

afternoon of frenzied house cleaning.



Susan arrived right on time. I opened the door quickly and

did a double take: the Susan I'd been expecting, she of

the classy business suit and authoritative manner, was not

there. This Susan was wearing faded jeans and a ribbed

tank top. Her hair was tied back in a simple ponytail that

gave an almost girlish look to her face.

"This is the non-office me," she explained as I ushered her

inside.

"I take it you live nearby."

"Frederick," she answered with a 'so-so' wave of her hand.

"I have a condo in one of the newer developments. Not as

much room as this, but I don't need much for just me." She

looked past me, her nostrils flaring. "What's that I

smell?"

"Stir fry, spring rolls, Minute Rice."

"He cooks!" she remarked. "I'm impressed."

I shrugged. "He can open a box and follow the directions,

anyway."

"That's my system too," she replied. "I couldn't live

without my freezer and my microwave."

"Would you like to open the wine?"

"Gladly." Susan took the chilled white wine from the

refrigerator and opened it, pouring glasses for both of us.

She stayed in the kitchen with me, sipping her wine while I

tended the stir fry. I learned that she was from Fort

Lauderdale originally and had moved into the DC area three

years ago after losing her job to merger fallout.

"So why Frederick?" I asked.

"I didn't have a job yet when I got here," she explained.

"I was looking to hook up with one of the tech companies on

the 270 corridor, but I couldn't afford anything decent in

Montgomery County. I can now, but I got myself stuck by

buying that condo instead of renting. Still, the commute

to Germantown isn't bad; it's maybe half an hour on a bad

day."

"That's about half the local average," I observed. "You

must be doing something right."

"I am," she answered. "I'm keeping out of downtown. I

don't know how people put up with that place."

"The city itself isn't so bad," I remarked. "It's the

getting in and out that kills you."

By the time I had dinner on the table, I was feeling much

more comfortable. The off-hours Susan was softer than the

professional Susan I'd first met. I said as much over

dinner.

"That's my work persona," she explained. "A project

manager has to be a little pushy or nothing gets done. It

took me a long time to develop that, but now whenever I'm

dressed for work that side of me seems to come out

naturally."

"That reminds me of a story I read recently -- 'Lingerie',

by MC Writer. Have you seen that one?"

"I don't think so," she replied. "Aside from the

occasional hypnosis-related piece, I really don't read mind

control stories."

"Any particular reason?" A small lump started to form in

my throat, as if I was holding a lottery ticket and

watching the drawing on TV.

"A lot of them are very dark," she said. "Incest, rape,

humiliation, enslavement ... I don't get off on that sort of

thing. I like stories where people are enjoying

themselves, having great sex because they want to. Free

will and mind control would seem to be mutually exclusive."

"Not necessarily," I argued. "Read 'Contest Weekend'.

Read 'Synergy'. Heck, read anything written by Artie. It

really is possible to have a story about a loving couple

who use MC techniques for their own mutual enjoyment.

Isn't that what you did with the ex-boyfriend in Florida?"

"Yes," she agreed, "but that was different. Most of the

things we did were my idea to begin with. They were like

your story, 'Quarters' -- a neat mind trick that led to

really hot sex."

"Exactly what Artie and I write about," I explained. "Call

it romantic mind control if you want; couples using

hypnosis, or some other technique, to explore their own

fantasies. That's what the story I'm working on now is

about, in fact -- a couple who get hypnotized and find

themselves living out some of their favorite sexual

fantasies with each other."

"I know," she replied, smiling into her wine glass. "I

read the draft on your Web site. It needs some work, but I

love the premise."

"Oh," I replied weakly. "Then why am I still explaining

this?"

Susan smiled and chuckled. Reaching over to take my hand

in hers, she said softly, "Because I wanted to see if you

really are the person your writing makes you out to be."

"Do I pass muster?"

"Definitely," she replied, and suddenly my lottery ticket

looked mighty promising. "That sense of romance, of honor

and mutual respect, is what made me want to meet you.

Seeing and hearing that you really feel that way makes me

want to help you."

I sighed with relief at having passed the test. "I'm glad

you feel that way," I replied.

It didn't take long for me to clear up dinner; Susan

helped, and I set aside some leftovers for her to take

home. By 8:30 we were ready to get down to business.

"Before we get started," Susan began, "I need to know what

your intentions are."

Her face looked very serious; something was up here, but

what? "What do you mean?" I asked.

"I want to know why you are so interested in being

hypnotized. What exactly do you expect to gain?"

Choosing my words carefully, I explained as best I could.

"What I really want is the experience itself. I feel like

a bit of a charlatan writing stories about erotic hypnosis

when I've never been through it myself. I want to know

what a really deep trance feels like. I want to close my

eyes in one place, wake up somewhere else and not remember

how I got there. I want to feel a strong compulsion to do

something out of the ordinary and not be able to resist."

Susan's eyes remained locked onto mine. "Is that it?"

"That's it," I replied. "That's not to say that if I can

learn to put myself under I won't try a few minor

adjustments."

"Like what?"

I shrugged. "Eat better, relax more, and maybe improve my

self-confidence. Nothing radical."

Susan nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry if I put you on the spot,

but I had to be sure you weren't looking for help with some

kind of serious problem. There are very good reasons why

you need a license to practice hypnotherapy, Mark, and

amateurs like us have absolutely no business going there."

"I understand," I said. "The main reason why I haven't

gone to a professional already is that I don't really have

a problem. It's hard to defend spending that kind of time

and money simply to satisfy my curiosity -- it would be like

making a dentist appointment just to ride in the chair."

"I'm getting a really strange visual from that," Susan

joked. We shared a smile; I'd passed the last test. "Why

don't we start with what you're doing now?" she suggested.

"Show me where you normally practice and how."

I led her upstairs to the spare bedroom, which I had turned

into a computer room. Fortunately I'd anticipated showing

her the setup and had made time to pick the place up a bit.

The computer, an HP desktop, was already on so all I had to

do was log in.

"Is this where you sit?" she asked, indicating the office

chair I was in at the moment. The chair has a short back

that comes up just below my shoulder blades, and straight

arms at its sides. It tilts backward a few degrees and

swivels.

"Sure," I replied.

"Where do you rest your head?"

"I don't -- it just kind of balances. It droops a little

sometimes, but not too badly."

"And you use some sort of program?"

The computer was done logging me in, so I opened my 'Hypno'

folder. "Yep. I have a couple of things here that I've

toyed with. All common stuff that I downloaded from one

place or another."

"Flasher?" she queried, reading the title of one icon.

"It flashes brightly at programmed intervals," I explained.

"It's supposed to induce different types of brain wave

patterns depending on how you set it up."

"Does it work?"

"As far as I can tell. I used a program like it in my

first story."

"This one looks promising," she remarked, double-clicking

an icon of a tiny spiral. In a few seconds a swirling,

multilevel pinwheel graphic filled the screen. "Oh yes,"

she said, "I've played with this one myself. It's the one

with the subliminals embedded into the pattern." She was

quiet for a moment, her eyes growing a little distant as

she stared into the screen. Watching her face, I started

to remember what the document file for that program had

said -- it is supposed to be irresistible to women. "It's a

very effective spiral," she continued, her voice slowing.

Then she reached over and hit the Escape key. "But not as

all-powerful as the DOC file claims."

I scooted my chair over a little, partly to give her better

access to the keyboard and partly to conceal my need to

rearrange certain things in the front my pants. She tried

the next icon. "Does this work?" she asked.

"A little," I answered. "The slowly descending sound works

well, and the screen display captures my eye, but as soon

as I start to really relax my vision gets blurry and I

think that screws it up. Either that, or it's just me

wondering about it that screws it up."

"Very possibly," she agreed. Indicating another spiral

icon, she asked, "Is this another pinwheel pattern?"

"Yes. This one doesn't have the subliminals on it, but

it's got adjustable speed and number of stripes. I use

that one a lot." To demonstrate, I double-clicked an icon

that called the program with my favorite settings. The

familiar pattern filled the screen and out of reflex I let

my eyes be drawn into the swirling vortex.

"I might have seen an older version of this one," she said.

"It wasn't as smooth as this but the look was similar. How

long do you usually look at it?"

"Until my eyes want to close. Probably about a minute."

"Do they want to close now?"

"Not yet. Soon, though, if I were to stop talking and just

go with it."

"Go ahead," she suggested. I let my arms hang down over

the sides of the chair, took a deep breath, and

concentrated on the center of the swirling spiral. I was

briefly aware of Susan moving behind me, taking the spare

chair to my right, as the pattern shifted before me.

"Breathe deeply," she said softly from behind me. "Let each

breath settle you down a little deeper into the chair."

After a few seconds I felt my eyelids starting to droop,

and I concentrated on relaxing my shoulders and face.

"That's it, just let them close when they want to," she

continued. "Keep relaxing. Pay attention to your face,

your scalp, you neck." There was still tension in my scalp

and face; I willed them to relax, and as I did so my eyes

dropped shut. "Relax your neck and shoulders, let them

droop, as you sink deeper." Her voice was sweet and

seductive; as I felt my neck relaxing I became aware that

my cock was struggling to stand up. I wondered what

suggestions she would give me if the induction worked.

My train of thought derailed when I felt my chin start to

dig into my chest. When practicing by myself, I usually

kept my head upright and just relaxed my neck a little;

having it bent this severely was uncomfortable. I lifted

my head and, as usual, the spell was broken. My eyes

opened and I looked back at Susan. She was shaking her

head slowly.

"I don't know how you expect to relax properly in that

chair," she said. "I'm not sure I could, and I've had a

lot more practice than you have."

"What do you suggest?"

"How about a different setting?" She stood up and headed

out the door. "Is this the bedroom?" she asked as she put

her hand on my bedroom door.

"Yes -- but don' t open that!"

She shot me an amused grin. "Not expecting company?"

"It's a little unkempt," I confessed sheepishly. "I really

didn't think we'd need to go in there, so I sort of skimped

on the cleaning."

She took pity on me and let go of the doorknob. "Okay.

Let's try the couch."

I followed her back down to the living room. The

centerpiece of my living room is a maroon leather sofa with

well-stuffed matching cushions. It wasn't a convertible,

but my brother has made use of it a few times and praises

its high 'crash factor'. I had to agree as I stretched out

on my back across its length, feeling the cushions

conforming to my body.

"That looks much better," she remarked. "But let's lose

these." She grabbed my left shoe and pulled it off in one

easy motion, then did the same for the right before

settling into the matching padded recliner next to me. "Do

you normally sleep on your back?"

"No, on my side."

"Get on your side, then." I complied, shifting onto my

left side so that my back was up against the back of the

sofa. Susan reached over and tucked a throw pillow from

her chair under my right arm. "Comfy?"

"Surprisingly so."

"Let's start by closing your eyes. Take a deep breath or

two, make sure you're nice and comfortable."

I closed my eyes and wriggled a little further into the

cushions. Through my closed eyelids I sensed a darkening

of the room and snuck a peek: Susan had gotten up and was

turning off most of the lights. Only an incandescent

reading lamp, its shade tilted to minimize the light on me,

provided illumination now. I closed my eyes again and

prepared myself for the next step.

"Okay," Susan began. "We're going to start with a

progressive relaxation. I know you're familiar with the

process, but don't get ahead of me. Just listen and follow

my voice, and try not to think of anything at all. Don't

move around or nod or try to speak, just be still and

quiet.

"Take a deep breath, and let it out. As you exhale,

concentrate on your feet. Feel each toe individually;

notice how they are touching each other. Feel the texture

of your sock over your foot. Now, take another deep

breath, and as you let it out tell your toes to relax."

I did as instructed, breathing in and willing my toes to

rest. My feet, then ankles, then calves and shins

followed, and I started to lose myself in Susan's silky,

sexy voice. She had been well coached, I could tell; her

delivery was smooth and even, like a professional. As my

thighs and hips settled further into the couch, I noticed

that even my cock was behaving itself.

Following Susan's words, I continued spreading relaxation

through my upper body, across my shoulders, down my arms

into my hands and fingers. I was limp and loose as a

discarded puppet, and the welcome buzzing sensation of

light trance was forming in my head.

"Very good, Mark," her voice continued. "Try not to think

of anything in particular; if an idea comes into your mind,

just acknowledge it and let it pass back out again. You

don't need to think right now, you only need to listen and

relax. Feel your neck relaxing now, Mark, becoming loose

and lazy, letting the pillow take the weight of your head

for you. It's so nice to relax your neck, to let go.

Another breath please, and now as you exhale let your face

go slack and rubbery, like a soft Halloween mask. Your jaw

can settle down anywhere it wants to, your tongue can come

forward if it wants to. Let your cheeks melt, and your

eyebrows droop down. Let the muscles around your eyes

rest, rest and sleep, becoming so relaxed they wouldn't

move even if you wanted them to."

The buzzing was getting louder now; it was as loud as I'd

ever felt it before. A small trickle of excitement eased

down my body and my cock began to rise. I willed myself

not to think about it, to give myself to the buzzing, to go

deeper.

"Another deep breath, Mark. Don't anticipate, just relax

and be, listen and obey, breathe and let go. Every breath

takes you deeper and deeper into total relaxation; every

breath takes you deeper and deeper into hypnosis. You

don't have to think about it, you don't have to force it,

just let go and it will happen."

I was deeper than I'd ever been before, I was positive of

that. I was floating, my body limp and useless but

surprisingly light. I noticed my eyelids flickering and

willed them to relax some more.

"That's good, Mark, let every last bit of tension drain out

of your face and your eyes. Your eyelids are very relaxed

now, totally relaxed, so sleepy and drowsy that they won't

open anymore, no matter how much you try. You can try if

you want to, Mark, but you have done such a good job of

relaxing that your eyes will not open. Try now and see how

successful you have been at relaxing."

Tentatively, afraid of breaking the spell, I tried to open

my eyes. They wouldn't budge. Pleased, I tried a little

harder and they still felt heavy, too heavy to lift. With

a growing sense of excitement, I tried a little harder.

"That's enough now, Mark, you can stop trying to open your

eyes. You've seen for yourself that they will not open,

not without help, not until you need them to be open again.

Take another breath and send a wave of relaxation from your

head all the way down through your toes."

I'd come out of it a little bit, I could tell, but I

concentrated on relaxing and felt the wave flow through me.

I drifted back down, enjoying the feeling and the sound of

Susan's voice.

"Now, Mark, it is almost time to wake up. I am going to

count from one to three. When I reach three, you will be

fully awake and alert, feeling refreshed and pleased with

your progress. However, you will not be able to open your

eyes at first. No matter how hard you try to open them,

your eyes will remain closed until I tell you to open them.

Only then will they open, only when I tell you to. You

will find that you can return to this deep level of

relaxation whenever you need to, simply by remembering the

sound of my voice telling you to relax, to let go.

"And now, it is time to wake up. One ... two ... three. Awake

now, alert and refreshed."

I started to lift my head from the pillow. My eyes were

still closed; remembering her suggestion, I tried to open

them.

They opened. Disappointed, I dropped back onto the couch

and sighed.

"It's okay," Susan said, gently rubbing my temple. "You

did well. You'll do better next time. Sooner or later it

will happen."

"Thank you," I replied. "Do you feel up to trying one more

time?"

"Not tonight," she answered. "I have to go. But we can

try again soon."

She jotted her home address and phone number on one of her

business cards for me. We shared a brief hug and I watched

as she drove away.



We both had busy weeks in our professional lives; it was

Friday night before we were able to get together again.

After some haggling over the terms of dinner, we agreed to

meet again at my house. I provided the broiled strip

steaks and baked potatoes; Susan brought a fresh salad and

some delicious sourdough dinner rolls with her.

As often happens when people in similar fields get

together, we ended up talking shop for much of dinner.

Susan's expertise was in global communications -- satellite

systems and all the related gear that goes along with them.

Most of my experience is in landline technologies, but

there was enough overlap in our skill sets that we were

able to connect professionally. At the same time, I felt

as though we were also starting to connect very well

personally.

After dinner we shared the clean-up chores. We were

rinsing off dishes and loading the dishwasher when Susan

asked about my after-hours work.

"How's the new story coming? I noticed you didn't post any

updates this week."

"Too busy," I replied. "Plus, I haven't figured out what

to do with it yet."

"What's the matter with it? I think it's nice as it is."

"It started out well. The more I think about it, though,

the more I agree with some of the feedback I've gotten -- as

long as the story is right now, it doesn't really feel

complete. There's too much unaccounted-for time, and the

action peaks too early."

"Maybe you should put it aside for a while and do something

else."

"I did that -- that's where 'Quarters' came from. No, I

just need to let it stew."

"Well," she said, closing the dishwasher, "I'm sure you'll

figure it out eventually. Can you empty your mind enough

for some trance practice?"

"You bet," I replied.

Once again I got settled on the leather sofa, this time on

my back but with my head turned to the side so that my

airway would stay clear. Susan dimmed the lights and sat

down in the recliner, just out of sight.

"I'm going to try an awareness induction this time," she

explained. "It's the one my therapist used with me, and it

worked very well for me."

"I'm familiar with it," I said. "I used that one as the

basis for the induction scene in 'Photogenic'."

"It's the same basic idea, yes. Don't try to follow this

one or anticipate it, just listen and concentrate on the

words as they come, okay?"

"Okay."



We both took a deep breath and then Susan started the

induction. "Just make yourself comfortable now," she

began, her voice dropping to a soft, soothing tone. "If

you want to close your eyes, that's a good idea, but if you

don't, that's fine too. Just listen quietly to the sound

of my voice. Of course you'll be aware of all those other

sounds, too: sounds inside the building, sounds from

outside. But these won't disturb you; in fact they are

going to help to relax you, because the only sound you need

to think about is the sound of my voice. And while you're

listening to the sound of my voice, you can just simply

allow yourself to be as lazy as you could ever want to be.

Just allow yourself to be as lazy as you could ever want to

be."

I closed my eyes and listened intently to Susan's voice.

She was speaking very quietly, using just enough volume to

be heard clearly. Every pause between phrases or sentences

was lengthened, exaggerated, adding to the overall sense of

laziness that I was starting to feel.

"Good," she continued. "Now, while you're relaxing there

on the sofa, you can just be aware of your body. Aware of

your hands where they rest; perhaps noticing the angle of

your elbows and maybe sensing the weight of your head

against the side cushion. And, you know, that weight might

seem to just gently increase as you allow yourself to relax

more and more. Just being aware of your ankles and feet

now, resting on the far end, and wondering if they will

start to feel heavy too, as you relax.

"Think about your breathing for a few moments. Notice that

your breathing is becoming slower and steadier as you relax

more and more. Slower and steadier, breathing so steadily

and evenly, just as though you were pretending to be sound

asleep. Breathing so evenly, so steadily, you almost

wouldn't disturb a feather placed right in front of you.

Breathing so easily and slowly, so gently, that you almost

wouldn't disturb even a single strand of a feather placed

right in front of you."

The dim lighting, the comfortable couch, the softness of

Susan's voice, and the slow, steady rhythm of her speech

were all working to put me into a wonderfully relaxed

state. My head was already buzzing as I slipped easily

into a light trance. I also found that while I had read up

on the awareness induction some time ago I didn't really

remember it well, so I wasn't able to anticipate what would

be coming next; I had to listen closely and focus.



"And now as you allow yourself to relax even more, I wonder

if you can perhaps sense the beating of your own heart.

Sensing the beat of your own heart and just seeing whether

you can use the power of your mind to slow that heartbeat

down just a touch. Just see whether you can use the power

of your mind to slow that heartbeat down just a little, so

that you can then feel your whole body slowing down,

becoming lazier and lazier, because you've got absolutely

nothing at all to do except to relax now. Nobody wants

anything, nobody's expecting anything, so you can allow

your whole body to continue to relax and become steadier

and easier until it's just ticking over like a well

maintained machine of some sort or another. Just ticking

over, smoothly, easily, quietly, comfortably, so that you

can become gradually more aware of your whole self. Aware

of your hands and arms, just sensing how they are now;

aware of your legs and feet, too, again just sensing how

relaxed they might be, and wondering if it's possible to

relax them even more -- to be so in touch with yourself that

you can actually get your whole body, perhaps, to relax

even more, yet remaining totally alert."

The buzz in my head was getting stronger, and I found it

hard to keep my mind from wandering as I followed her

instructions.

Susan continued in the same vein, talking about how I might

be noticing my face relaxing, my breathing slowing down,

how comfortable I was in the softness of my leather couch.

All the while I felt myself letting go a little more,

approaching some kind of threshold that I couldn't see but

I knew it had to be there. I willed myself to relax, to

let go, every idiom that came to mind, but I never felt the

sensation of actually crossing the threshold.

Then I realized I'd lost track of Susan; she had finished

the induction speech and was starting a standard staircase

deepener. I refocused on her voice and followed her down

the imaginary staircase, feeling my body remaining limp and

still as I tried to sink downward. I didn't feel much

different at the end of the deepener than I had at the

beginning.

Susan spoke some more: "Now you are in a deep, delicious

state of hypnosis, Mark," she was saying. "This is where

you wanted to be. You will find that you can reach this

wonderful state much more easily in the future, and it will

be easier and easier to do this every time you try. Every

time you go into hypnosis you will relax more completely,

more deeply, and do so more quickly. This is a skill, like

writing, and the more you practice the more satisfied you

will be with the results.

"Now I'm going to help you see how deeply hypnotized you

really are, Mark. You remember the last time we worked

together I told you your eyes would be unable to open, and

you found that I was right -- they would not open, not while

you were still in hypnosis. If you try right now, you will

find that they are even more firmly closed now. You cannot

open your eyes now, the harder you try the more firmly your

eyelids will remain shut. Go ahead and try now, you'll see

that they will not open."

Susan was right; my eyelids wouldn't budge. I tried

tentatively at first, then more seriously, to get them to

open but my lids remained sealed. It was a little

unnerving, and I started to try harder, but Susan stopped

me.

"That's enough, Mark, you can stop trying now. Your eyes

will open when you are ready for them to open, but they do

not need to be open right now. Just relax, let them stay

asleep and continue to listen to my voice. Take a deep

breath now and reward yourself by sending a deep, delicious

wave of relaxation through your body from head to toe."

It did feel good, exhaling slowly, letting myself sink down

some more. I was pleased at how my body had begun

responding to Susan's suggestions. That thought got my

cock responding in its usual way, and I was secretly

grateful for the dim lighting.

"Soon it will be time to wake up," she said. "But before

you do, I want you to do something for both of us. You

have been having trouble working out what to do with your

new story with your conscious mind. I want you to let go

of the problem with your conscious mind and hand it over to

your subconscious instead. Your subconscious knows how you

want the story to come out, how you want the characters to

feel and act; let your subconscious work on the problems

for you, and it will solve them. Maybe not tonight, but

tomorrow or the next day your subconscious will let you

know what to do. Until then, just let it be."

She made perfect sense. I pictured myself looking in a

mirror, seeing the reflection as my subconscious self. In

my mind, I handed the reflection a stack of papers -- the

story -- and watched it walk away, reading.

"Now I'm going to count to three, Mark. When I reach the

count of three, you will wake up completely, feeling

relaxed and refreshed. One, two, three." My eyes popped

open on "three" and I was awake. "How do you feel?" she

asked.

"Great," I replied, twisting a bit to try and see her. I

tried to adjust my semi-erect cock discreetly to avoid

detection.

"Don't get up yet," she said when she saw me moving.

Instead, she came over by my head and knelt on the floor

beside me. "What do you think -- was that what you were

looking for?"

"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "I was certainly

buzzed and very relaxed physically, and the eye test worked

again, but I still had this feeling like something was

holding me back. You were telling me to go deeper, but I

don't think it was working anymore. I remember everything

you said."

"Not everyone experiences amnesia during trance," she

argued.

"True," I conceded. "It would help to convince me,

though."

"Okay. Next time, we'll try an amnesia suggestion."

It was getting late, so we decided to call it a night. I

got up from the couch slowly, giving my cock plenty of time

to stand down. It didn't matter -- when Susan hugged me at

the door again, it sprang right back up. If she noticed,

she didn't say anything.



The next day started out like any other Saturday -- I slept

in, getting up just in time to catch New Yankee Workshop.

After my weekly Norm fix and a ham and Swiss omelet, I hit

the shower.

There I was, standing under the shower, when it all fell

into place. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with

"Intimate Adventures" and how to go about it. The whole

story line rolled out before me from start to finish; I

could almost watch it on the big screen in my head. Then I

realized I'd been standing there like a dork with the soap

in my hand doing nothing while gallons of water ran down

the drain. I finished my shower quickly, pulled on some

sweats, and hit the keyboard.

I won't bore with you with the details of my inspiration --

if you really want to know, read the story. Suffice to say

that I was deep into it hours later when the phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered, only half paying attention.

"Hi." I recognized Susan's voice and came to a full stop.

"Hey!"

"You sound animated," she observed.

"I'm writing again."

"Did you figure out how to tackle the story?"

"Yep -- it hit me while I was in the shower this morning. I

want to get as much committed to disk as I can before I

start to forget everything."

"Then don't waste time talking to me," she said. "I need

to do some serious housecleaning anyway, and today's as

good a day as any. Why don't you call me tomorrow, or

whenever you come up for air?"

"Definitely."

I stayed up way too late Saturday working on the story and

then posting the results on my web site. It was well after

10:00 Sunday morning when I awoke to the ringing of the

phone.

"You sound semi-comatose," Susan's voice said. "Late

night?"

"Early morning," I volunteered.

"I'm sorry. Should I let you sleep?"



"No, this is better," I replied. "If I don't get up now

I'll really throw my body clock out of whack."

"Shall I bring you some breakfast?"

"You're an angel." I got up and unlocked the front door

for her, then hit the shower.

While in the shower I got a strange sense that I was not

alone in the house. I wrote it off to the paranoia of

living alone and knowing that I'd unlocked the door; Susan

couldn't possibly have driven from Frederick to

Gaithersburg that quickly. I dried off and returned to the

bedroom to dress. I was standing in front of my dresser,

underwear in hand, when I heard a quick knock on the

bedroom door.

"Huh?" I grunted, and instinctively turned around to face

the door.

It opened and Susan's head popped in. "Wake up, sleepy—

oops!" She turned away as soon as she got an eyeful,

blushing.

I ducked to one side of the dresser and hid behind my

briefs. "I'm awake now," I remarked. "Give me 30 seconds

to get decent and I'll meet you downstairs, okay?"

"Deal." I caught her stealing a quick peak as she

retreated.

It took me a lot more than 30 seconds to throw on a T-shirt

and jeans, mostly because I needed time for my cock to

settle down. Being caught like that had pushed a button I

never knew I had.

"Sorry about that," Susan said as I came down the stairs.

"I was trying to surprise you with breakfast in bed."

"I was surprised all right," I replied, grinning as I

watched the redness creep back into her cheeks. "What did

you do, call from the parking lot?"

"Close," she answered. "From McDonalds' parking lot."

That's when I looked past her to the dining table and saw

the paper bag and little cardboard tray with coffee cups.

"Are steak and egg bagels okay?"

"A woman after my own heart," I remarked and attacked the

bag. We each devoured a bagel sandwich and a hash brown

patty. I passed on the coffee and poured myself some apple

juice from the refrigerator instead.

After breakfast, I told her about my new ideas on the

story. I brought up some of the new material on my

computer screen and she read it over my shoulder, approving

of the direction I was taking things. Then, at Susan's

suggestion, we went back to the bedroom where she had me

lie down and we tried the awareness induction again.

The induction worked about as well as it had Friday night;

I listened and worked with it, paying close attention to

the condition of my body, my breathing, my pulse; her words

soaked in, slipping just under my conscious awareness

sometimes. As before, we tried the eye catalepsy test and

it worked very well, although I had total memory of the

experience.

"Now, Mark," she continued after the test, "I am going to

give you another suggestion. This suggestion is one that

your conscious mind does not have to remember. You can

forget to remember this next suggestion, because your

conscious mind does not need to remember; your subconscious

will remember everything and will act on my suggestion for

you, while your conscious mind forgets it. Do you

understand?"

"Yes," I replied.

"The suggestion you will not remember is this: when you

resume working on your story, you will find it very easy to

keep writing. The ideas will come to you naturally as you

need them, for as long as you want them to. Your

subconscious will continue to supply you with inspiration

even as your conscious mind concentrates on forming the

words and sentences.

"And now Mark, it is time to wake up. When I count three,

you will be fully awake and feel refreshed and alert, but

you will not remember the suggestion I gave you about your

writing. Only your subconscious will remember that. One,

two, three."

My eyes opened and I was awake.

Susan was watching my face closely. "How much do you

remember?"

"Everything, I think," I replied. "We did the eye test

again, and it worked again. Better, even. Then you told

me I wouldn't have to remember the next suggestion you

made. And then you told me that I'd no problem working on

the rest of the story, that the ideas would keep coming to

me as I needed them. Then you woke me up."

Susan's face fell a little when I recounted the writing

suggestion. "That's about it," she confirmed. "I was

hoping the amnesia suggestion would work, but it obviously

didn't."

"I guess I didn't get deep enough for that," I remarked.

"I'm trying, I swear."

"That's probably part of the problem," she commented.

"Stop trying so hard and just let it happen."

I thought about it. "I'm not sure how to do that," I

finally said.

"And I'm not sure how to teach you to," she answered. "But

if we keep practicing, sooner or later you'll figure it

out."

We worked on it a little more with no breakthrough and then

called it a day. Susan went back home to get ready for the

workweek, and I went back to writing. I got a heck of a

lot of writing done that evening; the story almost wrote

itself.

Susan and I talked on the phone daily during the week, but

couldn't get together again until the weekend. I worked on

the "Intimate Adventures" revisions and by the weekend I

had six completed parts and the story line was very close

to what would become its final form. A steady flow of

feedback from Susan and several other readers had melded

well with my own ideas, and I was pretty happy with the

result.

I was also pretty happy with the way my relationship with

Susan was developing. With each phone call, it was

becoming clearer that there we both had more invested in

this than a mutual interest in hypnosis; we were becoming

friends. Underneath, of course, I still fantasized about

her leading me to the bedroom for other reasons. The idea

always lurked just in the background of my mind, and I

often awoke from trances with a hard-on. Susan must have

noticed, but she never commented on it.

We had several sessions that weekend with no noticeable

increase in my trance depth. Susan tried a number of

variations on the amnesia suggestion, but none worked; I

simply wasn't getting deep enough for that degree of

control. The more I tried to force myself into a deeper

state, the less successful I was at doing so. I was

starting to get frustrated, which was not going to help

matters.

Fortunately, we had to take a break anyway because Susan

was going back to Fort Lauderdale for about a week to

attend her sister's wedding. While she was gone I used the

time to catch up on my real job -- I have a tendency to let

other things slip while I'm working on a story.

Susan was due back on a Wednesday evening. The arrangement

was that I would pick her up at BWI, we would have dinner

somewhere, and then I would drop her at home to crash.

When my phone rang at work in the early afternoon, I was

surprised to see Susan's home number on the display.

"Hi," I answered. "You're home early."

"Sometimes you get lucky," she replied. "I caught an

earlier flight and shuttled home."

"Do you still want to do dinner, or would you rather just

crash?"

"Actually, I'm in pretty good shape. I was thinking it's

about time I cooked for you for a change."

"You sure?"

"Positive. See you at seven?"

"I'm there."



I knocked on Susan's door promptly at seven, my pet

butterflies doing their usual dance in my stomach. Her

welcoming smile was dazzling, and when she embraced me in

the doorway with a big, tight hug I was surprised to

realize how much I'd missed her.

Maybe she was feeling the same thing, I thought. She was

certainly more animated than usual as she gave me my first

official tour of her condo. The main living area featured

an upholstered sofa and matching recliner in a subdued

floral print. The coffee table and end tables were a

matched set in golden oak with glass inset tops. The

dining table had a thick, round glass top on an oak

pedestal and four simple matching chairs. We passed over

the bedroom -- "You'll see that after dinner," she promised

cryptically -- and ended in the kitchen.

"The place is immaculate," I remarked, looking around

again. "You must have been cleaning all day."

"Just a couple hours," she replied. "Visiting my mom

always seems to bring out my domestic side. Give me a week

and everything will be in chaos again."

Dinner was also a strong expression of Susan's domestic

side: pot roast, mashed potatoes ("Made from real

potatoes," she announced proudly, "Not flakes from a

box!"), fresh baked rolls, and assorted steamed vegetables.

It was truly delicious, and more than worth the amount of

time it took us to clean up afterwards.

"You didn't have to do all this," she said after I'd helped

put the kitchen back in shape.

"Yes I did," I disagreed, smiling. "If I'd sat down

somewhere I'd probably be asleep right now."

"Feeling a little stuffed?" she teased gently. "Would you

like to take a nap?"

"Is that a proposition?" I countered.

"Follow me and find out," she replied, winking at me as she

turned and left the kitchen.

Naturally I followed her; my cock was already on the rise

even before she led me through the bedroom door. The

chamber inside had a light, pleasant feel to it. The

centerpiece was a queen-size waterbed with a standard

bookcase headboard. An oval mirror in the middle of the

headboard reflected my image back at me.

Susan slipped off her shoes and plopped down onto the bed,

prompting me to do likewise. I rolled in carefully,

expecting a lot of sloshing and shifting, but this was one

very well baffled waterbed; it conformed to my shape and

settled down almost immediately. "Nice mattress," I

commented, impressed.

"It's great for relaxing," she agreed. "When I'm really

stressed, I like to just stretch out across the whole thing

and zone out for a while." She spread her arms out to

illustrate, and I copied her. It did feel nice.

Susan rolled over onto her side facing me. "Want to try

something?"

"Sure."

"Close your eyes." I felt a slight shifting in the bed

after I did; Susan was moving around. My cock grew another

half inch as I imagined what she might be doing. I told

myself to take it easy -- after all, aside from our shoes we

were still fully dressed.

"Now," she continued, "I want you to start counting

backwards from 100. Here's how I want you to do it: with

each number, I want you to take a deep breath in and let it

out slowly, speaking the number as you count. At the same

time, I want you to picture the number visually somehow.

It doesn't matter how; you can picture a hundred of

something, a sign with the number on it, an elevator

display, or anything else you want. Just make sure you are

actively visualizing the number somehow. Can you do that?"

"My visual imagination isn't all that great," I hedged. "I

can give it my best shot, though."

"That's fine. I'm going to talk quietly while you are

counting, but I don't want you to pay any attention to what

I say. Just concentrate on your counting and your

visualizing."

"Should I try to relax a little with each count?"

"No," she replied. "It will probably happen anyway, but I

don't want you thinking about relaxation or anything like

that. Just focus on the numbers and the images. You can

start whenever you're ready."

I spent a few seconds trying to come up with an image I

could maintain for my numbers. After a little fumbling, an

image formed in my mind's eye: a large, white "100"

against a mosaic background of pink, yellow, green and red.

It looked vaguely like something I might have seen on

"Sesame Street" as a child. Whatever the source, it was a

strong enough image that I could see it pretty clearly

right then. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as

I counted, "One hundred."

I expected to hear Susan's voice, but everything was still

silent so I continued. The picture changed to a 99 against

the same background. "Ninety-nine," I said as I exhaled

again. The picture in my head faded a bit as I noticed how

my body had sunk into the bed a little more; I had to

concentrate to bring it back into focus. Slowly,

deliberately, I continued counting.

Sometime in the low nineties, I became aware of Susan's

voice speaking in a soft tone. What she was saying didn't

make much sense: something about being completely aware,

yet unaware; remembering, but not remembering; sleeping,

but staying awake. Instinctively I tried to make sense out

of it while still focusing on my picture, but it was too

confusing. By the mid eighties I had tuned Susan out in

order to concentrate on my job.

As I approached 70, I found myself losing track of the

numbers. I think I repeated 73, and maybe 72. Then again

in the sixties, I forgot where I was and decided to start

again from 69. Somewhere in the low sixties -- or was it

the high fifties? -- I lost my picture of the numbers

completely. Instead, I found myself standing on a wide,

gently sloping hill looking down into a green valley. I

was walking down slowly, easily, on a pleasant afternoon

walk. As I strolled down the side of the hill I noticed

that there was a stone wall running across my path. It was

tall and imposing, and ran as far as I could see to either

side. The more I approached the wall, the taller it seemed

to get. I could see that it was made of large, roughly

rectangular blocks like a castle wall. As if to confirm my

observation, battlements appeared at the top of the wall.

I hadn't noticed it before, but now I could make out the

outline of a door in the middle of the wall, right where my

path would lead me. The door grew more distinct and

recognizable as I came closer; it was wood, not stone, but

painted to blend in with the rest of the wall. It had no

knocker, but there was a crest in the center of it

featuring a bust of a man.

Soon I found myself standing in front of the door,

examining the crest. The bust looked familiar somehow --

then I realized, it was a picture of me. I reasoned that

the castle must belong to me so I simply pushed on the door

with my hand. The door opened effortlessly, allowing me to

enter with no resistance.

Immediately I found myself in a beautiful garden, walking a

stone path between rows of well-tended fruit trees and

shade trees. In the center of the garden I found a hammock

woven from soft white rope, suspended between a pair of

thick oak trees. My feet were tired from walking, so I

climbed into the hammock to relax for a while. I felt

myself swaying lightly in the breeze and closed my eyes...

"... wide awake, feeling great."

My eyes popped open and blinked heavily a few times. After

a second or so they remembered how to focus and Susan's

beaming face came into view. "Well?" she prompted

expectantly.

"Wow," I croaked through a dry mouth.

"Here," she said, and held out a bottle of water. I took a

sip, careful not to spill it on the bedspread.

"That's better."

"Tell me everything."

I told her what I had experienced with the counting, and

how the numbers had eventually given way to that vivid,

dreamlike vision of the wall and the garden.

"That's it?" she asked, grinning.

"That's it," I confirmed. "As soon as I closed my eyes in

the dream, I woke up."

"Look at the clock," she said. I turned my head to see the

alarm clock on her headboard. My jaw dropped when I saw

that it was almost 10:30 in the evening -- I'd been zoned

out on Susan's bed for almost an hour and a half.

"What the --"

"Amnesia, anyone?" The Cheshire cat had nothing on Susan's

face as she relished my confusion.

I wracked my brain trying to recall something, anything

that had happened after I fell asleep in the hammock. I

came up empty. "What did you do?"

"You're under a posthypnotic suggestion," she said.

"I realize that," I protested. "I mean, how did you get me

under? It was so different this time."

"With a little outside help. While I was in Florida, I

stopped in to visit with my old therapist. We talked a

little about what you and I have been doing, and she

suggested the technique we just used as a way to sidestep

your tendency to think too much." She showed me small,

laminated index card. "While your conscious mind was busy

visualizing and counting, I kept repeating the short

confusion induction on this card. After a while, your

attention flagged and your subconscious took over. Once

you had lost track of the count, I knew you were halfway

there. Since you were already in a visual thinking mode, I

tried the same exercise that worked for me to get past the

barrier."

"So the stone wall was your image?"

"No no no," she said. "My image wouldn't have worked for

you. All I did was suggest that you could see the

obstruction ahead of you, and then asked you to describe

it. You provided all the details. And when I told you

that it was your wall, your castle, you had no problem

opening the door and going inside."

"And once I was inside?"

"You just dropped. It was a little spooky to see; I

thought you were relaxed before, but when I told you to

close your eyes and let go in the hammock you really sunk

into the bed. Your hand got cold and you went right into

REM, just like the therapist said you would."

"So what did you do with me once I was in your power?" I

asked half-jokingly.

"Do you really want to know?" The secretive smile was

back.

"Yes."

Still smiling, Susan scooted closer to me. Stretching one

arm across my chest, she put her mouth right up against my

ear and whispered, "Remember." My head buzzed for a

second, and then the information came flooding through my

mind.

I remembered her voice congratulating me on finally

reaching a deep trance state, and letting me know that in

the future the gate to my garden would always be open for

me, allowing me to enter my deepest hypnotic state easily.

I remembered my arms getting lighter and lighter at her

command, floating up from the bed. They became stiff and

rigid and unmovable until she told me otherwise, then they

fell gently back down to the bed unassisted. I remembered

her telling me my entire body would be highly sensitive to

touch, and that every touch would bring me a powerful wave

of pleasure. Soon after that I was overcome by pure

physical joy as I felt her hands running over every part of

my body.

And then I remembered a conversation. Susan had asked me

how I felt about her, and I said I was falling in love with

her. She asked if I wanted to sleep with her, and I said

very much. She had laughed at that, saying that she wanted

it too but my timing was off, we would have to wait a few

days. I remembered her gently cupping a hand over the

circus tent in my pants and asking me how long had it been,

how many women, what were my favorite ways to make love and

why, and I remembered answering in plain, unvarnished

detail. Then I remembered listening as she told me the

same things about herself.

Finally, I remembered her telling me that I would recall

none of these things until she whispered the word

"remember" in my ear.

Susan watched my face as I recalled and assimilated all of

this, her body still up against mine. I could smell her

and feel her and hear her breath, and the closeness of her

had me so hard I thought for sure my pants would rip. Our

mouths met in our first real kiss, and without any

conscious direction I found my hands starting to explore

her body, looking for an opening.

"Soon," she told me, breaking off gently as she rose off

the bed. "It's already late, and you have to get up early

in the morning."

I nodded. "You're right, of course." Slowly, reluctantly,

I climbed out of the bed and put my shoes back on.

We kissed once again at the doorway. "Don't plan anything

for the weekend," she advised in a voice that held great

promise. I watched the door close, then trudged back to my

car for the trip home.



I woke up the next morning to the ringing of my telephone.

It took me about five rings to recognize the sound and find

the phone.

"Hello?" I croaked.

"Rise and shine," Susan said. "Since I kept you up late, I

thought the least I could do is give you a wake-up call."

"You're too kind," I said, looking at the clock: 5:35am.

"Didn't you say you needed to get an early start this

morning?"

My brain finally engaged. This was Thursday -- I had an

eight o'clock meeting that I needed a least an hour to

prepare for. "Jesus, I almost completely forgot. Thanks!"

"My pleasure. Am I still invited to the party?"

"Sure, if you want to come." We were having a farewell

gathering for Robb, a coworker who was heading off to

greener pastures. I had invited Susan because I knew she

would have the day off following her trip, but since the

party was being held downtown I told her I would understand

if she begged off.

"I think I'd like to go," she said. "I don't get downtown

much, and this way it wouldn't be in traffic."

"Cool," I replied. "Do you want me to come get you?"

"That's too much driving. I'll take Metro down, and you

can drive me home."

"That works. I'll meet you me at the station and we'll

walk over to the party together."

Thanks to the pleasant wake-up call, I was in the office by

6:45 and in better spirits than anybody should be at that

ungodly hour. My good mood lasted through the entire

workday. By mid afternoon, when I am sometimes prone to

start talking to myself and begging people to just kill me

quickly, I was still chipper enough that it drew a few

surprised looks from my colleagues.

A guy named Simmons stuck his head into my cube at one

point to ask, "You finally getting some, Mark?" I just

grinned at him and said nothing.

By about 5:15 I was ready to call it a day. Most of the

crew were doing the same; this was Robb's last day and we

were taking him out to Brickskeller's, one of his favorite

haunts, to applaud his wisdom in choosing to take a higher-

paying job with a company in the suburbs. I headed up to

the Brick just in time to grab a legal parking spot nearby,

then walked over to the Dupont Circle Metro station to wait

for Susan.

She emerged from the station at 5:50 looking none the worse

for wear. She was in a long denim skirt with a clingy

wrap-style top that showed off her figure very nicely. The

skirt came to well below her knees but had a high slit on

right side, giving me a nice flash of leg with each step

she took.

"Will I pass muster?" she asked after an embrace and a

quick kiss.

"That was never in question," I replied. "The real

challenge will be keeping some of these guys from trying to

carry you off themselves."

When we entered the Brick my group saw us immediately. As

we worked our way along the long, polished bar to the end

where our party had staked out its place, I could see their

eyes shifting from Susan to me and back to Susan. The guys

looked envious, the women approving. I introduced her

simply as "Susan", letting them assume whatever they liked.

Given her nature, I knew it would take them only a few

minutes to welcome her into the group.

By the time we'd all eaten and the second round of beer

bottles was empty, Susan was family. We toasted Robb and

told a series of increasingly ribald stories, and generally

had a great time. When it was time to go and Susan and I

were leaving hand in hand, it occurred to me that I hadn't

had such a good time in months, maybe years.

When we reached my car, Susan asked for the car keys. "I'm

okay," I assured her. "I only had one beer, and that was

early on."

"I know," she said. "I'm just in a driving mood. Trust

me?"

"Sure." There was no traffic to speak of at that hour, but

if Susan wanted to drive I wasn't going to argue about it.

I handed her my keys. "Do you know the route?"

"I think so," she replied with confidence. She was as good

as her word; within minutes we were well on our way out of

the city.

We started out quiet; it's easier to concentrate on the

complexities of the DC streets that way. I found my

thoughts wandering back to my latest writing project,

"Boxing Day". I'd posted a partial draft while Susan was

away, but I wasn't sure if I really liked the way it was

developing. I was venturing outside of my comfort zone,

and I wasn't sure if I'd gone too far. When I'm in that

state with a story, it tends to take up more or less

permanent residence in the back of my mind; any time I'm

not actively thinking about something else, it tends to

creep forward and steal my attention. As I sat there next

to Susan, watching the city blocks flow by, my idle brain

cells brought up the story and went to work on it, worrying

at it like a puppy chewing a bone.

I pictured the main characters, Lucy and Dan, and watched

them go through the action as I'd written it so far. A

third character came in, someone with a bit of a hard edge,

and the scene I was concerned about played through in my

mind, the car's dashboard becoming a stage for the action.

For a split second I thought I heard Susan say something,

but when I looked over she seemed to be concentrating on

the road. My mind drifted back to Lucy and Dan.

The longer I thought about it, the more vividly I saw the

characters interacting on the stage. I closed my eyes and

the picture was complete; the dashboard was gone and Lucy's

bedroom took shape. I watched the already-written scene

unfold and heard imagined voices speaking dialog I'd

written a few days before. As the scene continued the

image grew and clarified, becoming almost like a waking

dream. I saw the third character, Denise, finish her piece

and take her leave. Then, like a child playing with dolls,

I began to direct Lucy and Dan in my mind, telling them

what to do next.

I tried several scenes this way, rejecting some ideas,

keeping others. After a while I started to feel tired,

weary from the effort of maintaining the vivid pictures in

my head. I felt myself sinking back into the car seat,

breathing deeply, and slowly closed the curtain on my

little play.

A sharp clapping sound shocked me awake. I was disoriented

for a second; when my head cleared, I saw Susan looking at

me with that knowing smile again.

"What?" I asked.

"Look outside," she answered. I looked out the window and

then realized we were in the parking lot in front of my

house.

"Oh, Jeez! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to tune out on you."

"It's okay," she assured me. "I could tell you were deep

in thought. In fact, I took advantage of it."

"Oh?"

"Let's go inside."

I got out of the car, then stopped. "Hey," I observed,

pointing to the car in the next space. "This is yours,

isn't it?"

"That's right," she replied. "I got someone to follow me

here, then drop me at the Shady Grove station. I figured

this way I wouldn't need a ride back to the Metro to pick

up the car."

"You could just stay the night here," I suggested.

That brought another of those knowing smiles. "I didn't

bring my toothbrush," she answered in mock innocence.

"I'll lend you a spare," I promised.

"We'll see," she said, jingling my keys and turning to open

the door.

Once inside, Susan called dibs on the powder room. I was

in no hurry, so I used the facilities upstairs and then sat

down on the living room sofa, a chilled bottle of wine and

two glasses at my hand.

"We won't be needing that tonight," she said, indicating

the wine. "I have a better idea."

"I'm all ears," I replied, setting the things down on the

coffee table.

Susan hitched her skirt up and curled herself up on the

couch next to me, holding her body upright but against

mine, my head at her shoulder level. I stared unashamedly

at the swell of her breasts, longing to put my mouth over a

nipple. One of her arms went around my shoulders as she

pulled my face up to hers for a long, promising kiss.

"Ready?" she asked, rearing up over me a little as she came

up for air.

"Ready for what?" I asked in return, thinking I knew the

answer.

Boy, was I wrong. With a wicked gleam in her eye, she

reached out with an index finger and placed it at the top

of my forehead, right at the hairline. "For this," she

said softly, and I felt the finger start moving in a

straight line down my forehead, over the bridge of my nose,

and on down. As the finger moved, I felt a sudden

dizziness come over me; my wits clouded up, and my body

suddenly felt like I was wearing a lead suit. The further

down her finger moved, the more the feeling deepened. My

eyelids became unbearably heavy and slammed shut as her

finger moved past, and the image of my stone wall came

unbidden back to my mind. This time the door was already

open; I rushed right through it into blackness.

When I came to, Susan was still sitting on the sofa

grinning at me. Something seemed wrong with this picture,

and in a moment I realized what it was: Susan was still on

the couch, but I wasn't -- instead, I was sitting on the

recliner next to it.

"When did I move?" I asked myself out loud.

"About ten minutes ago," she answered. "Don't you

remember?"

"No, I don't," I said truthfully. I also didn't remember

when I'd developed the raging hard-on I was sporting, but I

saw no need to draw attention to it.

"Can you stand up?" she asked.

"Of course I can stand up," I told her, and decided to

prove it by doing so. Deciding is as far as I got; when it

came to translating desire into action, my body ignored me.

I didn't feel heavy, or glued to the seat, or anything like

that -- the muscles just didn't move in the way I was

telling them to.

"Are you sure?" she asked playfully.

"Cute," I remarked. "Are you going to set me free any time

soon?"

"You're free now," she said. "Stand up."

I tried again; this time my body obeyed and I was quickly

standing erect in every sense of the term. "That was a

trigger phrase, wasn't it?" I asked.

She nodded. "You're getting very good at responding to

those. How much do you remember?"

I gave it some thought before answering. "Nothing," I had

to admit. "Not a thing after your finger passed my eyes."

"Excellent!" She rose up from the couch to give me a

congratulatory hug. "Do you know why I did that?"

My own words came back to my mind: I want to close my eyes

in one place, wake up somewhere else and not remember how I

got there. "You were fulfilling one of my wishes," I

replied.

"That's right," she said. "Ready for another?"

I barely had time to say "sure" before I felt her finger on

my forehead. My brain clouded up again; I felt my body

pitching forward, but strong arms caught me and held me

upright as the blackness closed in.

This time when I came to, we were both sitting on the

couch. "'SMF'," I cited, recognizing the forehead

induction. "You've been reading Artie's stories."

"I like that one," she explained. "It's a little bit like

what's happening with us."

I was going to offer some kind of witty comeback, but I was

distracted. In the space of a few seconds I began to feel

unbearably hot and sticky. My body started to sweat, and

my clothing felt increasingly constricting and

uncomfortable. "You didn't!" I protested, knowing full

well that there could be no other explanation for what I

was feeling -- a fierce, irrational desire to take off my

clothes.

"Yes, I did," she admitted sheepishly. "I asked if you had

a specific compulsion you'd like to experience, and that's

what you suggested. Not that I wasn't thinking in that

direction anyway." A little extra color crept into her

cheeks as she added the last part, and her nostrils flared

a little.

"Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy," I complained as the

itchy, scratchy feeling continued to grow everywhere that

clothing covered my body.

I held out as long as possible. In a way, it was an

interesting and instructive experience and not at all what

I expected from a hypnotic compulsion. At no time did I

feel as though I was not in control of myself; my need to

get out of that clothing just kept mounting until it no

longer made sense for me to resist. I grabbed my polo

shirt and undershirt together, pulling them off as one, and

was immediately rewarded by a feeling of relief as my upper

body cooled down and stopped itching. With that positive

reinforcement it was only seconds before my shoes and socks

were also cast off, with my pants falling on top of them.

Susan watched me closely the whole time. From the way her

legs seemed to be clenching under the skirt and the way her

nipples pushed against her blouse I concluded that we were

both getting a charge out of this. I stood before her,

fascinated and horrified and exhilarated all at the same

time, my cock extending forward like the boom on a

sailboat, and decided to see how long I could resist the

pressure to drop my boxers. The answer: about 30 seconds.

As my boxers fell Susan gazed hungrily at my anatomy for a

few moments, then rose from the couch and came over to me.

She took my cock in one hand and hugged me to her with the

other as we kissed. I thought I was going to explode in

her hand.

"You've been very patient with me, Mark," she said softly.

"I want you to know that I'm just as eager as you are, and

tomorrow night will make it all worthwhile. I have a very

special surprise planned for us."

I was too distracted by the hand on my cock to reply right

away. Soon it was too late; feeling her finger on my

forehead again, I took a deep breath and let go.

The next thing I remember is waking up to the squealing of

my alarm clock. I was in my bed, alone. Damn!

As soon as I was fully awake, I felt something stirring in

the back of my mind. Something I needed to do.

The phone. Without thinking, I picked it up and dialed

Susan's number.

"Good morning," she answered.

"Hi," I responded, still not sure why I had called.

"Did you sleep well?"

"I guess so," I responded. "I don't remember going to bed.

I don't even know why I'm calling you. What did you do to

me last night?"

I heard a low, satisfied chuckle from her end of the line.

"I told you to go to bed, go to sleep, and call me when you

woke up. And you did. Are you impressed?"

After thinking a moment, I had to admit I was. To feel the

impact of a hypnotic suggestion immediately after coming

out of trance was one thing; to have one be equally

effective several hours later was quite another. In the

last couple of days I had become quite a skilled hypnotic

subject.

"What's our agenda for tonight?" I asked, remembering her

promise.

"Let's start with dinner," she answered. "I've got a

project team meeting in Silver Spring that may run over, so

let's meet at the Outback about seven thirty. Wait for me

in the bar, I might be late."

"Pack a bag," I advised in my best suggestive tone.

"Already done," she replied in kind. "Not that I'll be

needing much."

I didn't get much work done that day; my mind was too busy

anticipating what the evening -- or with any luck the whole

weekend -- would hold. I ducked out of the office early and

spent some time sprucing up the house, especially the

bedroom. It never hurts.

The Outback is always busy, especially on a Friday night,

so I showed up at 7:15 to put my name down for a nonsmoking

table. Even then, the hostess warned me that the wait

would be 45 minutes or more. I was expecting that and

assured her it was no problem. She issued me a little

plastic box studded with red LED's, which I carried with me

into the bar.

Figuring it would be a good two hours or more before I

needed to drive anywhere, I ordered a rum and Coke and sat

back to wait for Susan. My eyes swept across the bar

absently while my mind wandered back to the adventures of

Lucy and Dan, my "Boxing Day" couple.

About ten minutes later a woman entered the bar. The

height and hairstyle were enough like Susan's to grab my

attention, but as she came closer I could see she was a

total stranger. A very interesting total stranger, I

judged, noting the clear eyes, the confident posture, not

to mention a very nice figure, but not my girl.

I was about to dismiss her and go back to my plotting, but

for two things. First of all, the closer she came to where

I was sitting the more I was struck by her physical charms.

She had a beautiful, athletic figure and was showcasing it

in a classic little black cocktail dress with spaghetti

straps and matching heels. She walked with her entire

body, like a dancer, and the dress moved with her in a way

that touched me at a primal level. I found myself staring,

alternating between her hips and her chest, as she worked

her way through the crowd. The second thing that kept my

attention was that she was approaching me. I realized this

just a little bit too late to avoid making an ass out of

myself; my eyes snapped upward from her body to her face,

and I knew that she'd caught me gawking at her like a horny

teenager.

She looked at me in a friendly, inquiring way and held out

her hand. "Tom?"

Out of reflex more than anything else, I took her offered

hand. "No, I'm sorry," I answered.

"Oh." Her face was confused and embarrassed; that made us

even, I supposed. She took a quick look around the bar,

then back at the entrance. The way the muscles in her

throat and shoulders moved when she did it was enchanting.

Then she turned back to me. "Do you mind if I sit here

anyway?"

"Please do."

She gave me a grateful smile as she took the stool next to

me. Like me, she took a position that allowed her to watch

the entrance. She glanced over at me several times, which

was only fair because my own eyes kept wandering over to

her. "Looks like you're waiting for someone too," she

observed, noting the call device next to my glass.

"Yes," I answered, ever the smooth conversationalist. "I'm

Mark, by the way."

"Call me Donna." She extended her hand again, and I was

more than happy to take it.

"Blind date?" I guessed. After all, she had mistaken me

for Tom.

She nodded. "You?"

"Not blind, just a date. She's probably on her way. So is

Tom, if he has any brains at all."

"I hope so. I'm counting on him for my ride home."

With nothing better to do but wait, we made casual

conversation. In due course a second round of drinks

appeared, and we both made jokes about our absent dates.

By 7:50 I noticed that she had stopped watching the door

and seemed content with my company. A sense of conflict

started to grow within me; my hormones were responding to

this girl in ways that my conscience couldn't sanction. I

started to pray that Susan would show up soon.

A few minutes later, my pager went off. My heart sank when

I read the message on the display: "Very sorry, held up

and can't get free tonight. Call me in the morning, I'll

make it up to you. S"

"Your date?" Donna asked.

I nodded grimly. "Looks like I'm on my own."

"Same here," she replied, looking at her watch.

My head was telling me to get up and leave right then; my

balls were telling me there was no reason to hurry. The

debate was interrupted when the red lights on my little

plastic box began twinkling.

Donna looked resignedly at my little toy. "Looks like your

table is ready," she observed.

"Table for one," I deadpanned. "How exciting." I looked

back at Donna with every intention of telling her goodbye,

but my balls took control. "Look," I said, trembling a

little as I spoke. "I don't want to have dinner by myself,

and it's a shame to waste the table I waited for. Why

don't you have dinner with me? If Tom shows up, you can

let him buy you dessert."

Donna consulted her watch one more time. "If Tom shows up,

he can wait around for an hour like I just did. I'd love

to have dinner with you, Mark."

My balls congratulated themselves as we wove our way

through the bar to the hostess' stand, and then to our

table. On the way I got many opportunities to steal covert

glances at Donna's body, and every one confirmed what I

already knew -- this was possibly the sexiest woman I had

ever laid eyes on.

Dinner was delicious. I'd like to tell you in detail what

we ate and what we talked about, but the truth is I don't

really remember a lot of the specifics -- I was preoccupied

by the escalating conflict between my libido and my

conscience. The longer we talked and ate, the more at ease

I felt with Donna and the more I reacted physically to her

presence. I found my thoughts drifting, imagining taking

her back to my house and stripping off that black dress.

After a while, I started to sense that Donna knew at least

some of what I was thinking and feeling. She seemed to

smile more broadly, make eye contact more often and for

longer times. She asked leading questions, encouraging me

to keep running my mouth, and listened as though my inane

ramblings were fascinating to her. Every once in a while

she would touch my hand, or her foot would brush against my

leg under the table, sending a shockwave through my body.

There was no doubt about it: I was being seduced.

That realization woke up my conscience again, and it

started to berate me. I had a lot of emotion invested with

Susan; from what she'd said the night before, I could

probably show up on her doorstep in the morning and spend

the rest of the weekend in her bed. How could I even think

about cheating on her?

I was doing more than thinking about it, of course -- in my

mind, by my code, I was already cheating. From the moment

I'd laid eyes on Donna at least part of my mind had been

fixated on her body. I felt drawn to her in a way that I'd

never experienced before, and that I was totally unprepared

for. I wanted Donna in the worst possible way. I might

hate myself in the morning, I thought, but I really need

this. My conscience retreated to the back of my mind,

sulking, while Donna and I had coffee.

Finally, it was time to go. I stood up slowly, trying to

make my hard-on as unobtrusive as possible, and walked out

with Donna right beside me. "Would you like me to take you

home?" I asked, remembering that she had been counting on

Tom for transportation.

"Sure," she replied, her tone and her look letting me know

that she was interested in more than a car ride. I walked

her to my car and opened the door for her. She flashed me

a generous amount of leg and cleavage as she folded herself

into the passenger seat, robbing my higher brain functions

of even more precious oxygen.

Making my away around the car to the driver's side, I slid

in carefully to avoid catching my extended member on the

steering wheel. "Where to?" I asked, trying to be

nonchalant.

"I think I've changed my mind," she said. "I'm not ready

to go home yet. Why don't we go to your place instead?"

There it was, right out in the open. No more rationalizing

that it's only a meal, no more pretending that I didn't

want to jump this woman's bones more than I'd ever wanted

anything. If I gave any answer but no, I would be throwing

away a chance at a solid relationship for what was probably

a one-night stand.

"Okay," I said, and braced myself for a backlash from my

conscience. It never came; I was almost taken aback by how

little guilt I was feeling. Then her hand came to rest on

my thigh and all I could think about was getting her to my

house immediately.

The trip was quick and silent. Donna sat beside me with

her legs crossed, making the most of the high slit in her

dress, and her left hand resting on my lap. She was

watching my face and probably my crotch, but I had to keep

most of my attention on the road. After the longest

fifteen minutes of my life, we pulled into the lot in front

of my house.

I jumped out of the car and went around to open the door

for Donna. She smiled up at me and gave me another

generous eyeful of cleavage and thigh as she climbed up out

of the car.

Arm in arm, we walked up to the front door. I fumbled

nervously with my keys for a few seconds, then managed to

open the door. As soon as we were both inside Donna turned

off the light switch and pushed me up against the back of

the door. Her entire body pressed up against mine and our

mouths locked together in a kiss that raised the hair on

the nape of my neck. I could feel the granite of my cock

pressing against her as she ground herself into me. My

arms went around her and headed directly south, pressing

and squeezing her ass. I could feel her hands tugging at

my shirt, pulling up on it, and I let go of her long enough

to peel it off along with my undershirt. I started to

reach around her, feeling for the top of the zipper that I

knew had to be in the back of that dress.

I really shouldn't be doing this, I thought as my hand

found the zipper and started slowly pulling it down. I

should apologize now, get a grip on myself, and call her a

cab. My hand stopped, and was even about to reverse

direction, but then a hand slipped down into the front of

my pants and all thought of stopping went completely out

the window. I eased her zipper down, feeling nothing but

soft skin beneath. I felt my pants open and fall as I

parted the back of the dress, slipping it off her

shoulders. She lowered her arms long enough to let it fall

off, and I dropped down to one knee.

With my head now at her chest level, I opened wide and took

an erect nipple into my mouth, sucking hard and running my

tongue all over the sensitive tip. She drew in a sharp

breath and pulled my head closer, mashing my face into her

breast. I let my hands run up and down her body, catching

slightly on the tiny strings that held her panties in

place, and adored her. I breathed in deeply, filling my

lungs with her scent while I explored her exquisite body

with my hands.

In an act of pure animal hunger, I grabbed her around the

torso and stood up, lifting her in place with my mouth

still full of nipple. My shoulder caught the light switch

on the way up, an unintended benefit that made it much

easier to do what I had in mind. Holding her aloft, I

marched into the living room and dropped us both down onto

the couch, using my arms to catch my own weight. Once she

was securely down I ran my hands along the sides of her

body one more time, this time deliberately catching the

panty strings and stripping them off her in one motion.

They were soaking wet.

Donna started to get up; I put a quick stop to that by

spreading her knees apart and burying my face between her

moistened thighs. I kissed her mound, took a deep,

delicious breath full of her and plunged in with my tongue.

Donna gasped and fell back against the leather sofa. A few

minutes of probing and testing were enough for me to locate

some of her favorite spots; I zeroed in on those, licking

and sucking and stroking, listening to her moan and gasp in

response. As the pace and the volume of her appreciative

sounds increased I knew she was close to her climax and

applied myself even more to my work. Her legs squeezed

around my head and her hips began to gyrate; I stayed with

her, adapting to her rhythms.

Just when I thought my head would burst from the pressure,

I felt her body loosen and sink a little deeper into the

sofa. She took several heavy, deep breaths, moaning with

each one, and then suddenly cried out as she gave in to her

first orgasm. I backed off, helping to support her weight

as she continued to writhe loosely, and when I judged that

she was starting to come down I plunged my thumb into her

slit and straight up her canal. The edge of my hand parted

her outer lips and my fingers clamped down on her mound.

She shrieked again as I hooked my thumb inside her, finding

and exploiting a sensitive spot inside her tunnel to send

her into another climax. I kept up the pressure and she

rode my hand for half a minute before she finally stilled.

"Hold on," she gasped as I started to dive into her once

again. "Just let me catch my breath."

"Say when," I told her, running my fingers through her

mound.

"Come up here," she said. "I want to get my hands around

that cock I felt a while ago."

"You will," I teased, "but I'm in no hurry." I wasn't -- I

knew that if she got her hands on my cock again I'd be

blasting away in no time; I wanted to hold that moment off

as long as I could.

"You may not be," she chided, "but I am." I was about to

silence her by diving into her again, but before I could

her index finger reached out and touched my forehead. All

the strength left my body instantly; I felt dizzy and

woozy, and as her finger traced down my forehead I felt

myself slipping away...

"Wake up, Mark!"

My eyes opened and I found myself overwhelmed by the flood

of sensations. I was on my back, in my bed. Donna was on

top of me, rocking back and forth, my cock buried to the

hilt inside of her. There was an exultant gleam in her

eye; she was trying to grin, but her face was melting as

another wave of passion took hold of us both. I felt the

pressure in my groin and I knew that an explosion was

imminent. Still, somehow I managed to form a rough

question: "How did you do that?" I gasped, confused.

Donna reached out and placed a palm over my face.

"Realize," she said, and removed her hand.

Somewhere in my head a gate opened and a flood of

information came through. It was too much to assimilate

immediately, and I just stared at her face in wonder. She

clamped down her muscles around my cock and gave a good

hard squeeze, and any attempt at coherent thought became

impossible. My head jerked back and my eyes rolled up into

my forehead as I came harder than I'd ever come before. My

whole body tensed and released in spasms, bucking under her

like a mechanical bull. If my prong hadn't been lodged

inside her I probably would have thrown her off.

An eternity later, my entire body let go at once and sank

into the bed. My eyes fell shut, and I slowly opened them

again. Looking up, I got the shock of my life.

I saw Susan's face, atop Susan's naked body, gazing down on

me with a look of pure triumph. She, too, was gasping for

breath.

"What the --" I stammered.

"Surprise," she said softly.

In that moment I understood everything. There was no

Donna; the woman I'd perceived as a total stranger, whom I

had been smitten by and seduced by, was Susan herself.

All I could do was shake my head in wonder. "You are

unbelievable," I said.

"You're pretty good yourself," she replied, and yielded as

I pulled her down onto me for a long, languorous kiss.



"Do you know what really scares me?"

It was a good hour later; we had recovered from our initial

frenzied encounter and had spent the time cuddling,

kissing, and just delighting in the feel of our bodies

against each other. I could feel the erotic energy

building and knew that if I kept my mouth shut we'd be

coupling again soon. For good or ill, though, there was

something I had to get off my chest first.

"What?" she asked, her fingers toying with my chest hair.

"There I was, waiting for you, fully expecting you to come

meet me, fully expecting that an incredible weekend was

about to unfold for both of us, " I explained. "And yet, I

was willing to risk throwing all of that away just to get

into the pants of a total stranger for one night. And the

worst thing about it is, I really didn't feel all that

guilty about it."

"Why does that bother you?"

"Why? Because that's not who I'm supposed to be. I've

always prided myself on being one of the last of a dying

breed: loyal, monogamous, honorable guys. Tonight I found

out that all it takes is the right body in the right dress

to turn me into a faithless jerk who only thinks with his

dick. I don't like that one bit. It bothers me a lot, and

it should probably bother you too."

Susan rose up a little, pulling back just enough to make

good, strong eye contact. "Don't think of yourself that

way," she said. "You really are a loyal, monogamous,

honorable guy." I started to argue, but she shushed me.

"Listen," she continued. "You know perfectly well that

hypnosis can't make you do anything that isn't in your

nature. If I'd told you to sleep with someone else, even

in your deepest trance, you never would have done it. The

only reason you let Donna seduce you is because your

subconscious knew all along that you were really with me,

doing something we both wanted to do."

I let that sink in for a few minutes. "Is that how it was

for you, when you did it before?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure. I really don't remember a lot

of that night very well. That's one of the drawbacks to

these hypnosis games -- sometimes the memories get spotty."

"In that case," I suggested, "Let's try it the old-

fashioned way a couple of times."

Her hand reached down and found my cock, which was already

well on its way to full length. "That's the best

proposition I've had all night," she answered, as her hand

began to work magic on my stiffening member.

The pleasure was intense. Susan's palm was rubbing down

hard along the length of my cock while her fingers played

lightly with my balls. For a few moments all I could do

was lie back and enjoy while my body succumbed to the

delicious feelings her touch induced.

"That's right, darling," she whispered to me, "just relax

and enjoy, relax and let go." She thrilled me some more by

dropping light, gentle kisses along my neck. As the

pressure began to build inside me again I reached down with

my own hand and found her again. I snuck my fingers into

her slit and probed carefully.

I knew I'd found her button when she gasped once and her

hand suddenly clamped down hard on my shaft. That hurt,

not enough to bother me but enough to bring me back a

little from the edge; I saw that as a good thing and

pressed my advantage.

Reaching a little deeper into her secret place, I teased

her clitoris with both extended fingers, circling it and

brushing it from every angle in every way I could think of.

Before long Susan was moaning loudly and squeezing my cock

in time with her moans and my finger movements. When we

were ready, I rolled Susan onto her back, knelt between her

legs, and slid into her.

She gave a passionate groan as I buried myself in her and

began to pump in and out. Her legs went straight up

against my chest, tilting her pelvis to increase my

penetration. I put both hands under her, lifting and

supporting, loving the sensation of how deeply we were

coupled. I felt Susan relaxing again and held on, pressing

into her once more as she started to climax. Feeling that,

I let my head fall back and relaxed as much as I could as

my orgasm came crashing through me. Finally we both

collapsed back onto the bed, our energy spent -- at least

for the time being.



It's been three weeks since that incredible night, and I

can honestly say that the relationship is growing better

and stronger each day. I love this girl with a depth, a

passion, that I've never felt before and will probably

never feel again.

Yes, she still hypnotizes me from time to time. There are

a lot of erotic fantasies I want to explore. She has a few

of her own as well, and she's let me put her into trance

once or twice. Mostly, though, I just love having her with

me and making love with all of our senses and memories

intact.

Susan is across the hall in my bed right now, sleeping

soundly while I write this. Tomorrow I'll post the

finished story on my web site and let her discover it on

her own. With any luck, I'll get some very positive reader

feedback.

-wg

9/28/99