“I know a little hypnosis.” He smiled playfully, with an attractive confidence. “As a sex thing.”

“O-oh? Oh.” Virginia blinked. She was taken aback. But in a good way – she liked him enough to enjoy a flirty hint of a red flag, instead of immediately running. She had opened up tRisk because it made her nervous, after all. “What, like mind control?”

“If you want it to be.”

“But do you mean like as a pick-up artist thing or as a new age tantra thing or- ?” Virginia knew hypnosis was fake. She was a scientist. She thought he was, too. But what if he had been trying to hypnotize her all evening? What if he thought he had hypnotized her? What if he believed Virginia would do everything he commanded, now? The butterflies in her stomach drifted downward, deliciously.

“Okay. I’m sorry. Let me back up.” Dante held up his hand apologetically, eyes closed as he composed himself. He was picking his words carefully. “I shouldn’t have been so dramatic. I do mean, hypnosis is a sex thing, for me. I studied it, like, as a kink. And it’s not mind control. It’s a rhetorical trick, like a cold reading.”

“A cold reading?”

“A cold reading is when you lead a person on to make them think you know things that they assume it would be impossible for you to know. So, like, they buy it when you say you’re psychic.” His affect softened. He dropped the pretense. Instead, he was talking to Virginia like a colleague again, like they were back at the poster session. “Hypnotists sell themselves as being a special authority on unconscious processes – most of it, just pop psych going back to the eighteen hundreds and getting repackaged over and over – but they use rhetorical tricks to make the subject perceive their actions as driven by the hypnotist’s external influence.”

“So when people act like a chicken on stage-?”

“People will do some silly fucking shit if they vividly imagine they have no choice.” He leaned in and smiled conspiratorially. “It dovetails very nicely with kinky power exchange.”

He was fucking cute; and he looked at Virginia like a piece of meat; and she was here on the university’s dime and shouldn’t be screwing around; and he had the trick of talking like a serial killer; and what if what if what if he was just saying what might make Virginia drop her guard? She smiled back coyly and dipped a finger in her water glass, to lick it. “So what would you try and make me imagine?”

He laughed quietly. They had gotten dinner together in the hotel restaurant. He was broad shouldered, portly, with dark hair covering his gorilla arms and peaking out from his polo shirt. His face was round and boyish, with stubble so dark against his ruddy skin that he always had five o’ clock shadow. A bald spot cut through his thick, black hair that descended into curly side burns. He reminded Virginia of the kid who got teased in high school for looking like a pedophile. His eyes shined with the bottle cruelty of a restrained bully.

“I’d ruin you. I’d take away everything you value – your degree, your career, your dignity – and I’d make sure that you knew that you did it all to get fucked good for one night. I’d fuck your brains out. I’d leave you an idiot, unable to do anything with the rest of her life, in exchange for one good lay.” His eyes flicked over her face and chest. “It’d be easy, because – look at you, you want it so bad – you’re practically an idiot already if you’re turned on by this. I’d just be puncturing your pretensions, making it impossible to deny that you’re anything but a cunt-for-brains moron-”

Virginia, lips tight and face red, toppled the water glass she had been toying with.

The two of them were at the same conference on biological engineering. Virginia had been presenting a poster on acetone synthesis in clostidia. Dante’s poster had been on the inheritability of gene circuits. He messaged her on tRisk, the kinky hook-up app, during the poster reception – “I’m three posters down, on your left.” When Virginia looked, Dante gave her a little wave. She blushed and stammered when someone immediately asked her about her project. After answering ten minutes of questions, Virginia went over to the bar for a cocktail. He sidled up alongside her.

“Hi, I’m Dante.” His face had been equal parts hopeful and intimidated. “I hope I’m not disturbing you, but do you want to talk?”

“Yeah. Yes. Uh, hi, I mean, Virginia.” She awkwardly extended her hand. Viriginia was a short, pale waif with hawkish features, strong glasses, and dirty blonde hair in a severe ponytail. She had worn a graceless tweed suit-and-skirt with a loose polyester blouse, cream-colored nylons, and sensible pumps. Dante, the man approaching her, would have seen a pic on Virginia’s profile featuring a latex bodycon miniskirt and fuck-me-pumps, with Virginia sitting wide to reveal her lacy black panties and sucking suggestively on a lollipop. She had swiped right solely because she liked the way Dante held a dog leash.

At dinner, after the reception, they chatted about the talks that day, they complained about the keynote’s lack of data, they explained their research projects to each other, they laughed about dumb lab bullshit and how everything constantly went wrong and how they both wanted to quit science but never would because can you imagine quitting science?

As she came down from laughing at one of her own bad jokes, Virginia let her inner monologue slip. “God, I hope we have sex.”

“Yeah, I, uh, hope we do, too.”

“Shit.” Sasha turned tomato red. “So, maybe you can tell, I’m into some – uh- kink shit. Guess we should put that on the table now.”

“What’s your thing?”

“Being… um… being treated, uh, badly.” Virginia couldn’t look at Dante. Her fingers played with the table cloth. “Not bad, I mean. Treated like a slut. Humiliated. Getting tossed around, like, within reason.”

“Okay, yeah, I gathered.” Dante bobbled his head. “I sorta have a similar vibe, I guess, in a different direction.”

“Different how so?”

“In.” His hand, palm upward, lifted, then flipped and lowered. “And out.”

Dante’s hotel room had a king-sized bed and a L-shaped couch, next to a window that showed dark clouds over the Houston sprawl, underlit by the amber sunset. Virginia sat on the couch. They had had the quick usuals about safewords and boundries; that’s when Dante had told Virginia to go to the bathroom and remove her jacket, her skirt, and her bra. He said it would inspire him. Virginia had done so and even tucked the fabric under her breasts to help emphasize her attentive nipples.

“In and out, in and out, in and out – that’s good – focus on my voice and move with it – I say in and you breath in, I say out and you breath out – in – out – in – out. Like that, let me voice lead, in-out, in-out, following my voice, moving with my voice.” Dante’s voice was steady and resonant and close close close to Virginia’s neck. “Now, listen and follow and trust my voice, give into my instructions, flow with my instructions – lift your arm, let it rise, let it rise, let it come up up up, further and further, up and up and good good good – let it down, drifting down and down and down back down coming to a rest – so easy, so good, very good – now the other arm up and up let it rise let it float let it lift up and up and up and good coming up further and further and good – coming down drifting sinking easily down gently down gently gently down, yes—”

Dante’s voice tickled Virginia’s ear. “Such a good girl. So suggestible. So eager to please. I like you, a lot.”

Virginia gasped. Dante slid his hand along the inside of Virginia’s thigh. Her core tightened with arousal.

“Do you like that?” Dante asked.

“Mm, uh, yes.” Virginia licked her lips nervously.

“Do you like being treated this way?” His grip tightened, sinking into Virginia’s flesh.

“Y-yes…”

“Do you wanna be a good slut?”

“Yes!”

“Do you want to listen?”

“Yes!”

“Do you want to listen and obey?”

“Yes!” Virginia answered before a chaser of fear followed. She did want to listen, so badly, and she’d be doomed if she did. Allegedly.

“Do you want to listen, suggestible, open, malleable – do you want to listen and obey?” Dante slid his hand higher. He cupped his fingers over Virginia’s crotch, the slight pressure tangible through her panties. Dante loomed over her as he did. “Do you want to listen, obey, and get fucked?”

Virginia swallowed the lump in her throat. “Please, yes.”

“So good, such a good girl,” Dante took his hand from Virginia’s groin. He wrapped his other arm around her shoulder and, with one hand, began to work open the buttons of her blouse, starting from the top. Dante coo’ed in Virginia’s ear as he did. “That’s right. Such a good girl, open and obedient, enchanted, thoughts muddled by how badly she wants it, unable to trust herself because she’s such a slut. She has no choice. She’s going to listen and be hypnotized. Am I right?”

Virginia turned and looked Dante in the eyes. His gaze was relaxed, predatory, measuring the kill in advance. She nodded and said something, but her voice was too weak to make a sound. Dante chuckled and lightly ran his fingers over Virginia’s exposed breast. Back and forth, his fingers swayed, over and over her goosebumps, then he lifted the fingers and playfully tapped Virginia’s glasses.

“Look here, please.” His fingers danced, moving in a steady sine wave, tracing an infinite eight across Virginia’s world. “Watch and follow, follow and listen, listen to me, listen to be, following, following, responsive, suggestive, automatic, automative, unconscious, unchoosing, unflighting, unbeing – helpless and lost and sinking and falling and sleeping and down.”

Dante tapped Virginia’s brow between the eyes and gently pulled her – unresisting – onto his lap. Virginia collapsed into the warmth of Dante’s embrace, flopping face down against his legs.

“Good girl, falling into trance, sinking, dreaming, enchanted – filling with trance, swimming in trance, sinking in trance – body relaxed, mind empty, time sliding away – feeling my voice rolling through you, eroding you, dissolved in my voice, lost in my voice, enchanted by my voice – tranced, mindless, less and less of yourself, deeper and deeper, noticing how good it feels as you go deeper, how easy and right it is, deeper and better and deeper and better, realizing how much you enjoy being hypnotized, realizing how much you want to go deeper and deeper, always deeper, feeling better, going deeper, better better deeper deeper, so good deeper and deeper-”

Virginia blanked out. She suddenly awoke, to Dante’s voice asking, “Did you enjoy being hypnotized?”

Virginia knew the answer without thinking. “Yes.”

“Then down down down-” Virginia closed her eyes and willed herself back into that blissful sinking feeling before she registered she was doing it. ‘That’s interesting’, Virginia thought before she swung backwards into darkness-

-cycled back up to Dante’s voice. “Do you like being hypnotized?”

She did. Dante said down and Virginia cycled around again. Dante asked if she enjoyed being hypnotized. Virginia said yes. Dante said down. She rolled down through the thick darkness. Dante asked if Virginia enjoyed being hypnotized and she said Virginia did and Dante said down and then

And then it gradually filtered through, second hand information that Virginia dreamed in the depths of dissociation, filling her fields like silt from the river that flowed in through her head and out through her traitor cunt – She was deeply hypnotized. She was deeply receptive. Dante explained that when she heard words over and over, they lost all meaning. That was true. She would repeat after him and as she said the words, they would mean less.

Career. C*reer. C*r*er. C***er. C****r. C*****. ******.

Scientist. Sci*ntist. Sci*nt*st. Sc**n**st. *c**n**s*. *********.

Future. F*ture. F*tur*. F*t*r*. F*t***. F*****. ******.

Smart. Sm*rt. Sm**t. Sm***. *****.

That’s right. It was all gone, Dante explained, Virginia was a dumb whore.

Warmth swept through her, arousal corroding the trance – congealing into the pressure of a finger inside her vagina, a finger pumping hot and hard, quickening Virginia, setting fire to her senses, waking her up – She wasn’t draped over Dante’s lap anymore; she was lying flat on the couch, with Dante kneeling besides her. Her shirt was open, and his hand was inside her panties. Virginia realized, in horror, that she was half naked in a strange hotel room with a strange man, fingering her.

Virginia moaned like the dumb whore she was.

“Nice and wet,” Dante pulled his finger out of Virginia and smeared the discharge under her nose and over her top lip, as Virginia tried to pull back in disgust. Dante grabbed Virginia by the hair and dragged her off the couch. “On your feet, slut.”

Dante kissed Virginia, holding her tight as his mouth subsumed hers. He took hold of her ass, to pull her flush against him. His erection pressed against Virginia’s stomach. Virginia vibrated. The pit in her stomach stretched her arousal like an event horizon. This kiss was not an attempt to tease her nor seduce her, but an assault on her bodily autonomy, plowing over Virginia’s boundaries. Dante broke the kiss and pulled Virginia’s head back so she had to look him in the eyes. Excitement flashed in his predatory gaze.

“You want it.”

“Yes, please…”

“Why do you want it?”

“I’m a dumb whore, yes, I want it-”

“I gave you a hypnotic suggestion. If I fuck you, you’ll be an idiot and a slut, forever. No more science, no more career, no future.”

Those words meant nothing to Virginia. She pawed his chest and begged. “Whatever. Do it. Fuck me. I don’t care. Please.”

Dante let her go, stepped back, and pulled her shirt off. A hot crimson blush covered Virginia’s face, neck, and chest. Dante looked over her approvingly, then undid his crotch. Already erect, his dick whipped out. A soft rubber cock ring was already fitted into place around his dick and balls.

“Get on your knees. Get me real, real hard.”

Virginia obediently knelt down. She took Dante’s cock in one hand, pumped it, and began to kiss it up and down the side. Virginia extended her tongue and ran it along the underside of his shaft. She could feel the heat building under in the soft skin. Virginia slipped her mouth over the head of Dante’s cock. Her hand slid down to the base and over to his balls, as she took the weight of his cock between her lips. She eased Dante’s dick in, teasing with her lips and tongue as it entered, then back out the same way, repeating the pattern. The instrument of her doom, turgid and feverish, pulsed with blood. Virginia could taste Dante’s heartbeat.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s good, whore,” Dante groaned. Her lightly tapped the top of Virginia’s head. “That’s really good. Bend over the bed.”

Virginia felt the faintest pause. A submissive nerve quivered in response to the threat/promise. “Yes, sir.”

Dante cackled at that, ugly and manic. He slapped Virginia in the face with his erection. “Get up, already! I wanna fuck your useless brains out.”

Virginia got to her feet, unable to shake the trepidation. She wanted this little death, more than anything in the world, but death it would be – a nervous ending, a great forgetting, a dark atrophy. ("But I'm an idiot, and I don't know what any of that means," Virginia reminded herself.) Virginia pulled her panties down – hands trembling – and positioned herself on the edge of the bed. She was afraid. Something in her screamed. Virginia really believed that if Dante fucked her, then her mind would be annihilated. The adrenaline telling Virginia to flee made her pussy wet and her clit painfully hard.

“Please, sir.” Virginia squeezed her wet eyes shut.

Virginia heard the pop-crinkle of a condom being unwrapped, the quiet rustle of it being unrolled, and plop of lube being squeezed out. Dante ran a hand down Virginia’s ass, to her taint, and then found her lips, before pulling them aside and easing his cock – slick, a little cool – along her wet flesh until he found her hole. Dante pushed himself inside Virginia. She whimpered. In and out, he used her, massage his hard shaft with her folds, reveling in her tightness and warmth – and in turn, she enjoyed the delicious friction against the walls of her cunt and pressure, over and over, hitting her sensitive nerves from the inside. Dante sped up, grunting with pleasure as he did, devouring every sensation he could get from her. Faster and faster, the stimulation came, stoking Virginia’s fires with the mechanical power of inevitability.

“Say you want me to fuck you stupid, slut!” Dante roared behind her. “Say it, goddamnit!”

“I want it! I want it!” Virginia cried, her hands clawing at the bed spread. “Fuck my brains out! Fuck me into a dumb stupid idiot whore!”

Dante came, his voice choking on itself. He didn’t stop. He tightened his grip on Virginia’s hips and slowed down, savoring the feeling of Virginia squeezing his full dick, using her to milk himself. When he finally began to flag, Dante pulled out and flipped Virginia over.

“I’m not done with you, yet.” Dante promised. Climbing onto the bed, he stuck one hand in Virginia’s mouth and stuck the other inside her cunt – two fingers hooked into her hole, the thumb pressed just under her clit. Dante pushed Virginia’s head into the mattress while he alternated finger-fucking her and playing with her clit. His wild gaze bored into her.

Virginia closed her eyes and lost everything.

Once her head cleared, Virginia felt a bit silly. “I can’t believe that worked.”

She lay with her head in the crook of Dante’s arm, spooned up against him on the bed. Fat raindrops tapped on the window. His bear-like body had a certain pillowy quality to it. His toes stroked hers affectionately.

“What, you don’t feel like you let yourself get lobotomized for dick?”

“You wish.” Virginia playfully bopped him on the nose. “But I really thought I was.”

“A person can believe a lot of things in the throes of passion. They could even believe that hypnosis is real.”

Virginia chuckled contentedly. “Are you free to help me ruin my future again some time? I fly out on Thursday.”

“Oh, certainly. In fact, I gave you a post-hypnotic suggestion that will turn you back into a brainless slut.”

“...what?” Virginia arched an eyebrow.

“I snap my fingers and you forget about everything except getting my dick in you.” Dante smirked and held up his fingers for show. “Anywhere. The hall way. The auditorium. The lobby.”

“You aren’t serious.” Virginia chided him. “You were just explaining to me that it doesn’t work that way.”

“Buh-bye, brain.” Dante curled his fingers together with exaggerated slowness. “In three… two… one…”

A flicker of doubt passed over Virginia. “Now, wait.”

Snap.