S.H.E (Seduce, Hypnotise, Enslave) Ch. 08

I could relax.

I could trust Stephanie.

Sle-

**********

My mouth felt like someone had dried it with a towel from the inside.

"Bleugh" I grunted, dragging myself upright on Stephanie's couch.

"Welcome back, Adrian" she smiled warmly down at me. "How do you feel?"

"Like I just took a very badly timed nap," I groaned.

"I had to take you under very deep to overcome your resistance," Stephanie explained. "Your distrust of people is certainly deep-rooted."

"Okay, well, I trusted you not to do anything evil," I said, "so what did you do?"

"Probably my finest work yet," Stephanie admitted. "If I've succeeded, then I've made you immune to hypnosis. I could kiss you right now, and you would feel nothing."

I was stunned. That was almost the complete opposite of anything I'd expected. "Is that even possible??" I asked.

"It took a lot of work, but yes," she replied. "Would you like me to demonstrate?"

"Um... sure, I guess," I shrugged.

She took my face in her hands and planted her most passionate kiss yet onto my lips. It felt...

It felt... numb? That was weird. I could feel her lips there, but any sensation associated with kissing was gone completely. She broke it off and, noticing my complete lack of reaction, grinned.

"You see?" she said. "No pleasure, no hypnosis. And the best part is, it's completely reversible, like a little switch in your subconscious. Try thinking about wanting to kiss me, about trusting me, right now."

I did so. I want to kiss Stephanie. I want to kiss Stephanie. I trust Stephanie. I felt the hairs on my arm raise in anticipation of her lips, and I nodded at her.

She kissed me again, and this time I felt it, a pleasant haze through which there was only the sensation of her lips on mine. And, after a while, her tongue too. Before I knew it, we were making out right there in her office.

I blinked, coming back to myself as we broke apart. "W-what was that for?" I managed.

She shrugged, "I'm in a good mood. You've actually helped me out quite a lot. I've gained a considerable amount of notoriety, I've discovered something new I can do with hypnosis, and I've apparently helped revolutionise the sex work industry. And if that was going to be your last proper kiss for a while, I thought I'd make it just a little bit more enjoyable."

I thought about this. "So I really can resist hypnosis now?"

"So when you go out, and socialise with other people, particularly women," Stephanie completed, "you can rest assured that they cannot manipulate or control you, unless you trust them fully and you want them to. Not a bad start in managing your social anxiety."

Huh. I saw her point. I also realised that I was thinking of her as Stephanie rather than Dr. Thorpe now. Had she done that under hypnosis... or was it something I'd done myself when I'd decided to trust her?

"So, what happens now?" I asked. "Should I... come in for an appointment next week?"

Stephanie held my gaze for a long moment. "No. I think I've been more than generous to you already, while you've shown so little regard for my other patients. I've given you a tool to navigate the reality you live in. How you use it is up to you, but you will do it without further guidance from me."

"But what happened to doing your best to help me?" I protested.

"That was my best," she replied curtly, "and now I want you to leave my office. I'd advise you not to come back if you know what's good for you."

I held up my hands. "Alright, alright, fair enough. Goodbye, Doctor- uh, Stephanie. And thank you for your help."

I stood up, stretching my legs a little--apparently I'd been under hypnosis for a while--and walked towards the door.

"Beg me for it," she said softly, when I was halfway there.

I turned back around, not entirely sure I'd heard her correctly. "I'm sorry?"

"You love secrets, don't you?" she continued, eyes boring a hole right into my mind. "That's why you spend your time among conspiracy theories on the internet, because it lets you in on a secret nobody else knows."

I was thrown by this abrupt change of subject. "Um... I guess so? What does that have to do with anything?"

"It's not about wanting me to treat you," she answered, "it's about wanting to be close to me, close to the biggest conspiracy you've ever seen. You're hoping that next time, or the time after that, you'll come into my office and overhear a conversation, discover an important document, learn something new about mind control."

"I- alright, yes, that had occurred to me," I stammered, "but it's-"

"Then beg me," Stephanie shot back fiercely. "Beg me to tell you my little secrets."

Maybe I had to blame the hypnosis for her ability to read me, but she had me dead to rights. This was it. A genuine conspiracy in its infancy, and I had the chance to learn about it before it went global. Maybe it was undignified to beg, but far better than leaving empty-handed.

"Please," I said softly, "please tell me your secrets."

Stephanie inspected her nails. "Hmm, I'm sure you can do better than that."

"Please, I'm so close to the truth right now," I begged, "I just want to know something, anything, about what really goes on here."

Her cold stare was unrelenting. "Say it like you mean it. Say it on your knees."

I knew it was disgraceful, demeaning, but I sank to my knees anyway. This was more important than simple dignity. "Please," I whispered, "I'll do anything."

"No," she said simply, folding her arms, "you haven't earned it. You'll just have to live with knowing that you were this close."

It was getting ridiculous, and yet, she was right. I would never come close to knowledge like this ever again. "Please," I tried, "just tell me something, anything."

"Well, I suppose there is one thing you deserve to know," she mused, "but you won't like it."

I took a deep breath, steeling myself. "Alright. I'm ready to hear it."

She lowered her voice again, and whispered, "You made only one mistake. You involved my patients in your little scheme. I admit, my own work requires me to be unprofessional a lot of the time, but I take my clients' confidentiality very seriously. That, more than anything else, is what made me angry. If you had managed to get video or audio of only me, your little plan might have played out quite differently."

This wasn't exactly the kind of information I thought I would get, but my curiosity knew no bounds. "What do you mean?"

"I have... something of a blackmail kink," Stephanie admitted, and if I didn't know better, I could have sworn she was blushing. "Remember, it suited me just fine for you to show people the skeletons in my closet, so I might have been much more amenable to your demands... at least for a while. Imagine what you could have got away with if I'd been aroused instead of angry."

I gaped at her. "You're serious?!" Then I processed what she was trying to say. "You mean if I'd only... ah, fuck-"

Stephanie held one hand to her chest in shock, putting on a pantomime for my benefit. "What? You want me to conclude all of our sessions by sucking your dick, from now on? Wellll... I suppose, if you promise to keep the footage a secret. Why yes Adrian, I do have an extremely hypnotisable female friend, and now that you mention it, I suppose I could persuade her to have a threesome when she's in a trance-"

"I get the point!" I lurched up off my knees and staggered back towards the door. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"That's what they tell me," she grinned. "Consider that knowledge, and the begging, a fitting punishment."

I left without another word.

**********

I ended up deleting all the footage of Stephanie Thorpe's patients. There wasn't much left after that, and none of it was incriminating. Any damage it could do, it had already done anyway.

I texted her, to let her know what I'd done. Wondering if she might approve.

I didn't receive a reply.