"Alright," she muttered. She nodded slightly, like we'd had a silent discussion and I'd convinced her. "Alright..." A breath. Then, a soft, uncertain chuckle that made her shoulders shiver under my f0rearms. "Here's my best guess." Her dark eyes were worried when they met mine. Like she was going to say something bad. "You broke my mind."

I froze. What...? But I couldn't have responded if I wanted to. The words were flooding out of her, now.

"I could feel it, when you and Lena and I were... when we were together all afternoon. It was intense. And crazy. And it was almost surreal. Whatever you did to me, it fuzzed everything. Made it seem okay. But as I came down from the high the only way my mind was able to rationalize it was to break off a part of itself and wall it off. Its own little micro-Danielle, a part of me that didn't think it was crazy for me to go crazy with two people I'd just met. Only that part wasn't really... me. So it became Raven."

So Danielle's conditioning... Because she only received a tiny amount of hypnosis her mind was only able to temporarily normalize the events. And then the normalizing effect faded away... I blew out a breath. I didn't have the time or psychological know how to figure this out. The best I could do was mitigate the damage. It sounded like this Raven persona had been triggered, somehow. Like Raven was her mind's way to justify everything she was doing.

"What brought Raven out?"

Danielle's lashes fluttered as she glanced up into my face. She frowned, concentrating. ""You touching me, I think..." She paused, and I could see her replaying events in her mind. "On the couch. You touched me after we watched Lena and Mr. St. John. And some part of me said, What? Why? And then the other part of me, the Raven part, said, Yes, more. I walked over to the kitchen to try and focus but I could already feel myself losing control. Like Raven was taking over, to stop me from worrying about what was happening. And she was so focused, so single minded... She just swept over everything until all of my inhibitions were gone, all of the rest of my personality except for my desire to fuck."

I couldn't help it. My body felt a surge of heat at the word fuck as it slipped between those soft lips. But I couldn't let myself be distracted. Focus. "And now? How do you feel now?"

The woman took a deep breath. "Calmer, I think. Like things aren't so crazy. Like it was okay... what we just did."

Huh. If Danielle was okay with what we'd done it probably meant that the conditioning Lena and I gave her this afternoon was still in place. At least, some of it. But, like I'd already realized, I didn't know enough about psychology to untangle this crazy skein. I was a mathematics guy. Numbers were never this confusing. "So..." I hesitated. "Are you still okay helping Lena and me?"

Danielle glanced up nervously.

I held my breath. My heart thumped in my ears. Danielle was biting her lower lip, and it was distractingly cute.

"Yes," the young woman murmured. "I don't understand all of what's happening, but I can tell that you two are doing something important. And that you're doing your best to protect her. And I've..." She shrugged and looked away. "I didn't ever have someone to protect me," she said. "It's good that she has you."

I honestly couldn't tell if Danielle was hypnotized right now or not, but she seemed to be on board. For now, I'd have to trust in appearances. "Alright," I said with a nod that hopefully looked more confident than it felt. I pushed myself up onto my elbow. "Then we need to get dressed."

I stared at the screen of the laptop, ignored for the past dozen minutes on the coffee table. "Because it looks like Lena is waiting for us."

* * *

Lena's expression turned from worried to shocked when she threw open the door to Harrison St. John's hotel room. She was still wearing the LucidSpecs, and looked from my undone fly to Danielle's obviously tousled hair and opened her mouth to indignantly ask what had happened.

I shook my head. "No time. Let us inside. Let's deal with Harrison, first."

Lena frowned, but nodded in agreement. "Right."

We hustled in, trying not to be too loud. Over the back of the couch, I could see the back of Harrison's head. Beyond him, I could see the corner of the laptop and a video playing on the screen. I stopped, turning so that neither me nor the two girls could see the computer. I didn't want any of us accidentally being dragged into the swirling pattern of hypnotic lights. All of us had already been exposed. That probably made us even more susceptible.

I blew out a long sigh, then looked at Lena. "Okay," I said. "First, I'm so, so glad you're alright. You did amazing."

The blonde's uncertain frown eased somewhat as she nodded, and I could see a bit of the tension ease from her shoulders. She had done amazing. She'd tricked Harrison and gotten him right where we wanted him.

"Second," I continued. "What's going on now? That's not still the first video, is it?"

Lena shook her head. "I didn't know what to do," she said, gesturing at the man. "You two didn't show up, but I didn't want to leave him alone. So I just pressed play on the next video in the series."

"Good thinking." I chewed my lip thoughtfully. "I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to interrupt him halfway through. So I guess..." I glanced at Danielle. "While we wait we can try to explain what happened over on our side of things."

My student looked back and forth between us. "Yes," she agreed. Her tone was neutral. "That sounds like a very good idea."

* * *

"Alright, then," Lena said. She adjusted the glasses, and I found the unconscious tic surprisingly hot. Lena really did pull off the sexy librarian look.

"Do you have any idea what might have happened?" I asked. "Have you felt or experienced anything like that after watching the videos?"

The blonde frowned slightly, brushing her hair back behind one ear. "I don't know." She glanced apologetically at Danielle. "I'm sorry... But I think for now we just have to assume that your first theory is best. That your psyche created this Raven persona to shield you from the repercussions of doing something that would usually be entirely unlike you." She shrugged. "It's your mind. You probably have the best intuitive understanding of what's going on."

The brunette nodded. She was still calm, but her hands were wound together in her lap and I could tell she was squeezing them tightly. "So..." She blew out a breath. "I now need to be careful about getting overwhelmed and-or being touched in a sexual way, because it might trigger my brain to overrun my normal personality with the personality a desperate, horny nymphomaniac."

I felt a twist of guilt in my gut.

Lena obviously felt the same way. She reached out and gently touched Danielle's clenched hands. "I'm so sorry..." She glanced over at me with a meaningful look, and I echoed her statement.

"So am I, of course..." I scowled at myself. I had been trying to solve the problem instead of giving Danielle what she probably needed most right now. Support.

Danielle nodded. "I appreciate it," she murmured. But then she shook her head and unclenched her hands. She pushed her hair back from her face, squaring her shoulders. "But right now I know what needs to happen." She gestured at the man sitting on the couch. "I need to help you interrogate him. Because, whether I like it or not, I'm in this now. If I want to figure out what exactly happened to me..."

She trailed off, but I nodded. Danielle was right. Now, it seemed, the only way out for the gorgeous brunette was through. "Then let's do this."

Lena turned to me and reached for the frame of the LucidSpecs, but I forestalled her with a shake of my head.

"Probably best if you question him," I told her. I was sensitive now. More cautious. "We don't want to jar him by having someone new show up in his hotel room. We need him to stay calm and under the influence of Clayton's videos."

Lena hesitated, then slowly nodded. "Okay," she agreed. She wet her lips, then nodded again, this time to herself. "Okay."

So with Danielle and I watching from off to one side, she sidled in front of the couch and sat back on the coffee table. She gently closed the laptop with one hand, and then reached out and pulled the earbuds from his ears. "Harrison," she said quietly, gently. "You can hear me, can't you?"

The man blinked, slowly. Then, his head turned ever so slightly as he readjusted his focus onto her. "Yes..."

"Good..." Lena paused, shot me a glance. Then, her mouth setting itself into a firm line, she said, "Now, you're going to tell me exactly how you came to know Principal Joseph Clayton of the Brighton Barnsworth Academy. Tell me everything..."

* * *

"I met a man..." Harrison St. John's voice was toneless, his eyes flat.

When Lena or Danielle got that look there was still something there that grabbed me by the core and revved my arousal. With Harrison, there was nothing. No burning ember of desire in his gaze. Just blank, empty obedience. "A sheikh. We ran in the same circles, the same parties and society events, and every night he would appear with another woman on his arm." Now a faint glimmer of something flickered in his eyes. "Always gorgeous. Always doting on him. Always, it was obvious, just waiting to get him alone so they could do all sorts of things to him, and let him do whatever he wanted with them..."

My brow creased as I listened, but I didn't want to interrupt. Where is this going?

"I assumed what I usually do. That they loved him for his wealth and his foreign charm. Maybe he had a harem, of sorts. Maybe they were just paid for their company. But that changed when we met one night and we were both quite drunk. It was just the two of us, and we were having a ball. Well, the two of us and his companion. An absolutely ravishing..." Harrison trailed off for a moment.

I saw Lena bending forward, a concerned frown touching the corner of her mouth. Was the conditioning slipping? Was it happening again? But no... I relaxed as he continued. The man had just gotten lost in the memory of a beautiful woman.

"Well, my new friend offered to share her with me, to take us both back to his penthouse and let me do whatever I wished with her. That was the kind of man he was, I suppose. I think he wished to flaunt his power. I was stunned, of course. But even more stunned more by her response." Harrison's breath grew heavier, and his face flushed darker. "She barely hesitated. Before he even ordered her, she was... touching me. She was all over me. We were in a VIP room at a high-end club, so there was no one else around, and her hands were under my shirt and down my pants..."

A quick glance at Lena, and I could see that my student was frowning slightly. I could assume Danielle felt the same. "Skip to the end," I ordered without thinking. The girls didn't need to hear this.

But the man simply nodded his round head, not questioning the voice that came from outside his vision. "We went back to his penthouse. I assumed by now that she was paid, an escort, and since she was being paid anyway... I did as my new friend suggested, whatever I wanted with her..." He paused again, the memory obviously playing across the cinema screen of his imagination. But before I could hustle him along, he continued. "Afterwards, I wanted more. She had been so responsive. So obedient. Either she was the best actress I'd ever met, or she actually enjoyed being loaned out and used by a virtual stranger. So I asked my new friend where he'd met her. Did the escort service have a card? Or a phone number I could call? But the sheikh just smiled his irritatingly perfect smile at me. 'I know a gentleman,' he told me. I remember his smile, because it was the kind of smile you give someone before you tell them something illegal. And because he had these bright white teeth that stood out against his black beard. 'Several men, in fact. I will put you in touch, St. John.' He always called me that. St. John. Like I was a saint, or something. He found it quite the joke."

Lena ignored the commentary. "And the man he put you in touch with," she pressed. "It was Joseph Clayton? At the Academy?"

"There were several men," Harrison answered, his voice slipping back to the dull monotone now that his story had wound to a close. "One was a company, I think. Their game plan was turning your favorite pornstar into your personal sextoy. But Joseph Clayton's offer was somewhat more unique. He said he'd been experimenting for years, working out all the kinks in a very special system. He promised to create the girl of your fantasies..."

I glanced at Lena, inadvertently. Her face was tight and closed off, but she was too focused on the man in front of us for me to give her a reassuring look.

"What does that mean?" she asked, her voice sharp. "Create the girl of your fantasies?" Her arms were crossed, protectively, in front of her chest.

If Harrison noticed her tone, he didn't react to it. "Tell him what you like. What kind of body, what color hair... But more than that. What style of clothes do you like on a woman? How does she talk? How do you want her to treat you? What do I want to do with her in bed? A laundry list. Not like you were looking for the perfect woman. Like you were designing the perfect woman. A woman who wanted to be perfect, just for me. Who loved being that way. Just like the sheikh's woman that night, who wanted nothing more than to be the perfect, obedient plaything for her lover's friend."

Lena's mouth was working, silently. But, with a visible effort, she got herself under control. "So you told him. Then what? How did he find this... fantasy girl?" It was obvious that she was fishing for knowledge of her past, a past that she literally couldn't think about without being hypnotically triggered.

I perked up. Was it possible that Harrison knew where the Academy principal had found her?

But the man's soft chin just swayed with the short shake of his head. "No idea," he said. "I paid a fee up front. He found several... candidates, he called them. I approved one. And then I paid more, installments. He kept me up to date. 'There's no telling how long the process will take,' he told me. 'If you want the perfect woman to stay perfect, then she needs time to be shaped.' It was some time after that that he told me about the process, and the hypnosis. The words to say. But I never knew how he did it to them."

Lena's shoulders sagged, and I bit back a curse. Dammit.

Lena sighed, and looked up at me. She was at a loss. So was I.

For now, Lena was safe from Harrison St. John. But there was still Natalie to think about. Not to mention all the other women under Clayton's control. We needed to come up with a plan, and time was running out. But planning wasn't my forte. I needed more information. I needed to know the numbers and the variables we were working with so I could put them in their proper places and solve the problem in front of me. And now, there really was only one man with the information we needed.

I saw the light of understanding in Lena's eyes as the blonde looked at me, and I knew she had come to the same conclusion.

It was time to go back to the Academy.

We needed to see the principal.

* * *

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Thank you so much for reading the tenth chapter in this series — Bimbo Builder Academy.

I really hope you enjoyed it, and if you did then please rate and comment. It means the world to me and even if I don't respond to all my comments, please know that I read every one. When I feel like my work doesn't matter, I come back and am reminded that wonderful people out there really are reading what I publish.

You can find me elsewhere online if you want to get early access to stories (multiple weeks ahead of Literotica).

Lots of love, and I'll see you soon for my next publication!!!

JC