Octavia looked in the mirror in her studio bathroom, wondering whether to let her hair down. Eddie would be here soon, he was out getting coffee, and he wasn't someone who wanted her to dress up and wear makeup. She hoped her striped dress and leggings were casual enough for him. She grabbed her hairbrush and sat down to brush her hair at the table in her studio as she waited for him.

Eddie was a heavyset man who kept his jet black hair and beard trimmed close to the skin. He opened and closed the door with his elbow and carried two big paper cups with lids into the studio. He was dressed in loose-fitting cargo pants and an extra large shirt that masked how big he really was. When he set down the coffee in front of Octavia on the table, he took off his hat and sat down.

"A fancy frappuccino with whipped cream for the lady." He pushed the cup with the whipped cream towards her before he took a sip from his own cup.

Octavia smiled at him and brought out a spoon to eat the whipped cream and stir some of it through the drink before she drank from it. "You're too kind. You don't need to buy me coffee. What can I do for you today? You look so good."

He ran his hand over his head and smiled with his eyes closed. "Work has been good to me. The discipline, the accountability, the money…" His eyes were large and bright as he looked at her. "Enough money to treat myself to a special date. Which brings us back to your question, I guess."

"A special date?" She smiled at him as she put the spoon down.

"I mean, every time I get to see you is special, of course!" He held out his hand across the table, and when she took his hand, he kissed her fingers. "Seeing you is such a privilege."

She gave him a cheeky smile. "Why do I get the feeling you're buttering me up, Eddie?"

He shrugged with an impish grin. "Because I am. Ever since we did that thing, I've had this idea running around in my brain and it's… a little weird."

She leaned across the table and grabbed him by the chin as she gave him a smouldering look. "Tell me."

He blinked at her, pinned by her eyes and her fingers touching his stubble. His lips moved and twitched, he was looking for the right words. "I eh… Well, you know how I can always talk my way out of everything."

"You have a smart mouth, my dear." She grinned and sat back in her seat.

"Well, fuck you too." He took a large swig of his coffee.

Octavia studied his face, his use of profanity as words of affection always amused her. It was funny how submissive women who behaved in this manner were often called brats, whereas for submissive men it simply wasn't acceptable behaviour. Octavia disagreed. She said in a thoughtful tone: "So, you want me to take your smart mouth away from you?"

He suddenly burst into a coughing fit and put his cup down. With a red face, he replied hoarsely: "Nah, man. That wasn't what I was getting at."

She chuckled and slowly shook her head. "Well, spit it out then."

"I just thought…" He stared into his coffee, avoiding her eyes. "You'd enjoy putting me in a situation I can't talk my way out of. A scene where I'm doomed."

Sipping her frappuccino through the straw, she reined in all the creative ideas that started to form in her mind. "Again? Stop beating about the bush, Eddie. You have something specific in mind."

"I just wanted you to understand where I'm coming from!" His voice was loud and a little intimidating combined with his size.

She raised an eyebrow at him, unfazed by his tone. "Are you perhaps embarrassed to admit what you want, my dear?" 

He hung his head. "Yeah, I am." He was uncharacteristically quiet for a few seconds.

"Think for a moment about the things you and I have done in this room together." She rose from her chair and walked to the door to make sure it was locked, and then she sauntered over to the counter, not making any eye-contact with him. "And then just allow yourself a moment to wonder about all the other people who have been in this room and the weird, embarrassing things I may have done with them. There is no judgement in this room."

"Only kinky shit…" He muttered. After drinking some more of his coffee, he took a deep breath and said: "I want to be a big skeptic who thinks hypnosis is bullshit, and then you do your thing and…"

"Reduce you to a drooling, submissive mess." She smiled as she looked at him, leaning against the counter. "You want some futile resistance, with a hint of humiliation."

He nodded. "Something along those lines…"

In a cheerful tone, she said: "That sounds like fun!"

He shoved the empty cup aside and sat up, looking at her with anticipation in his large eyes.

There was something devilish about her smile as she approached him. "Tell me something, Eddie. Why do you come up with the idea that you're going to resist me, when we both know you can't?"

He swallowed. His eyes were distracted by the swaying motion of her hips as she moved towards him. His cheeks flushed and his eyes widened.

Her voice was sultry and smooth as she continued: "You and I both know how quickly and effortlessly I hypnotised you last time. How woozy and weak you felt, and how hard it was to shake that feeling. How much you crave to feel that way again." She laid her hands on his shoulders and stared him down.

He sat so still as he stared up at her, his eyes wide and watery, his lips parted and his shoulders moved with his shallow breath.

She stared into his eyes, holding his attention for just a little longer than needed. "Well, my dear, you have my permission…" She paused for emphasis. "...to drop so deeply into trance now."

His eyes rolled up and she caught him as he slumped forward, holding his head gently against her bosom. "Very good. Just like last time, it's so easy to drop deeply into trance for me. Knowing that I can control you and you will enjoy every helpless second of it. Very good, all you have to do is listen and obey." She rocked him in her arms for a while, savouring every second as she watched this big, boisterous man sag and sink until he was a limp, heavy dummy. Then she tenderly helped him sit back in the chair, his chin resting on his chest and his arms hanging down by his sides.

"Just listen to me as I explain how this is going to go, my dear…" She licked her lips and moaned softly. All of this was getting her excited and she needed to focus on crafting this scene he asked for. "When you wake up in a moment, we're going to do some roleplay. You've thought about how you want this to go, so you can just be that big skeptic you had in mind. You can leave all of your memories of our previous date together on the table here." 

She took his limp hand and gently laid it on the table. "You can just leave all of the parts of you that the skeptic doesn't need here. He can have your filthy mouth and your personality, but he doesn't need your open-mindedness. I'll leave it up to you to select what parts of you he does and doesn't have. But you can just leave everything the skeptic doesn't need on the table here and I'll put it away for safekeeping."

There was some eye movement in his face as his hand pressed down on the table for a moment, but then the hand fell back down to his side and he sat still once more.

"Good, thank you. I'll take good care of all that." Octavia took a deep breath, trying to think what else she would need for this scene. "Now, for the duration of this scene, I want you to feel unconsciously, even though you're a skeptic and hypnosis is bullshit, every attempt I make at hypnotising you is just so compelling, so powerful. I know how you like to be dramatic and big, so feel free. And feel free to vehemently deny that hypnosis works on you. Because it's bullshit. And your mind is much too strong. I think you get the idea."

His head nodded slowly and it made her smile.

"Now that we have that all sorted out, you can just take a moment to let it all sink in and then you can wake up. I'll be over here grabbing a few props that might be fun to use in our scene." And she walked over to the chest at the foot of the bed to look inside the box that held her shiny hypnosis baubles. She rummaged around in the box for a second and then chose a big, smooth amethyst crystal on a long chain. She straightened up and dangled the crystal from her hand, admiring its weight and colours.

"So what's that supposed to do?" Eddie said as he rose from the chair and came towards her. "Is it a magic crystal?" He waved his fingers at the crystal, mocking its supposed magic powers by making a silly face.

Octavia suppressed the urge to swing it back and forth just to watch his eyes being drawn to it. She should let him talk for a bit before she started with shenanigans. "This?" She glanced at his grinning face. "This is just a pretty bauble." She dropped it into her hand and turned to face him. "The real magic happens inside your mind."

"You're right, it's all in your head." He laughed and crossed his arms. "Hypnosis is bullshit." He looked like a bouncer outside a nightclub in that pose, tough and unshakable. 

She chuckled and nodded her head. "Is that so? You've never been hypnotised then?"

"Nah, man." He made a dismissive gesture. "I know you get all kinds of people here, but that shit would never work on me. My mind is just too strong."

"So what do you think of the people who come to me and want to be hypnotised?" She raised her eyebrows at him to show her curiosity. 

He laughed again and waved his hand dismissively. "I don't wanna insult your customers, Octavia. I'm sure they're good people."

"No, mister." She said as she looked up at him. "I think you do want to insult them. So go ahead. Tell me what you think."

"Well, they're deluded, obviously." He spread his arms wide as he talked, very sure of himself. "You do your parlor trick with a sparkly prop and they fall for it. It means they're weak-willed. Gullible. And they pay good money for it too. Simps."

"Eddie." She shook her head at him. "That's exactly what you do. Pay me well because you want me to hypnotise you."

"It would never work." He crossed his arms again, back to that tough pose.

With a sly smile, she asked: "Will you humour me and let me try?"

He rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Fine. Just don't expect any results."

"Of course not." She stretched her arm with the crystal pendant all the way up in order to swing it from side to side just above his eye level. When she was confident she had the right motion and position, she shifted her gaze to him.

His big eyes locked onto the swinging crystal, following it helplessly from left to right. His voice sounded muted when he said: "You know this ain't working, don't you?"

"Oh, I know." She said in her characteristic, slow hypnotist voice. "I know you can't look away. I know exactly how hazy and blank your mind is getting as you follow the crystal with your eyes. I know that deep down, this feels familiar to you. And irresistible. I know that you're falling under my spell so quickly, your mind can't even keep up. That's ok. Just follow the crystal. The rest happens naturally."

As she slowly and surreptitiously moved the crystal a little lower and a little further away, his shoulders slumped and his head tilted forward ever so slightly. At first, the signs that he was entranced were subtle, but then with a big sigh, his arms relaxed and fell down to his sides, and he stood there like a zombie, his eyes trained on the crystal and the rest of him heavy and useless. It made Octavia's heart flutter with arousal.

"I know that you're deeply hypnotised, Eddie." She said with a smug smile.

His lips moved silently at first and then he said in a hoarse voice: "I'm deeply hypnotized."

Her breath hitched and she had trouble keeping the pendant swinging in the exact right way, it started to twirl but Eddie was too far gone to notice it. She took a deep breath to stay calm. "What did you say?" She asked.

He leaned forward towards the crystal but his eyes glazed over and rolled up, unable to see anything. He swayed on his feet ever so slightly as he said it again, in exactly the same tone. "I'm deeply hypnotized."

"That's right. Very good, my dear." She couldn't stop grinning because this gave her a brilliant idea. "Every time I ask you 'What did you say?' you respond with exactly those words in exactly that tone. What did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." His mouth remained open and his eyes started to blink and flutter.

"Very good. For our scene today, every time I ask you: what did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." He replied immediately.

She put the pendant away and stepped towards him to hug him. "Thank you, my dear. That was better than I ever could have hoped for." She buried her face in his shirt and firmly embraced him. 

After a few seconds, his arms wrapped around her to return the hug and he nuzzled her hair. In his usual raw smoker's voice, he said: "Told you it wouldn't work."

"Well, it was very gracious of you to let me try." She disentangled herself from the hug and turned to put the pendant back into the box. Glancing sideways, she noticed him casually leaning on the table. She decided to rummage in the box some more, mumbling: "Maybe if I tried a different one…"

"There's nothing in there that can hypnotize me." He said derisively, shaking his head.

Turning around to look at him, she asked: "I didn't hear you. What did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." For a split second, his eyes glazed over as he droned the correct response. Then he frowned and shook his head, he seemed unnerved by his own voice. Apparently, he was perfectly capable of forgetting or denying what had happened in trance, but he was aware of this.

She tilted her head at him as she approached. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I dunno." He said quickly as he ran his hand over his head and looked up at the ceiling. "Maybe it was nothing."

She stood with her hands on her hips as she observed him closely. "What did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." Again, his eyes changed for a second as he replied. And then he shook his head, trying to shake off that feeling.

"Are you really?" Octavia asked, grinning impishly.

"The hell I am!" He seemed to grow bigger as his voice became louder and more intimidating. The distressed look in his eyes turned Octavia on more than she'd like to admit.

"Then why did you say that?" She was eager to see how he was going to talk his way out of this interesting situation.

"Said what?" He pretended to calm down, but he avoided her eyes. "Maybe you heard it wrong."

"Maybe…" She drew up close to him and looked up into his eyes so he wouldn't be able to look away. "What did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." He closed his eyes immediately afterwards and his jaw clenched up. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

She cupped his jaw in her hand and kissed his other cheek. With her lips only an inch away from his ear, she whispered: "I thought you said you couldn't be hypnotised."

"Yeah well, maybe I'm just fucking with you." He grumbled under his breath.

"Is that so?" She ran her hand over his head and kissed his neck. "Say it again, then."

He silently underwent her kisses, his chest heaving with every breath. His eyes remained closed and his jaw remained tight.

"I'm actually playing with you, my dear." She whispered breathily as she groped his shoulders through his shirt. "I know exactly why you said that."

He inhaled sharply and then suddenly embraced her. With one hand on the back of her head, he started to kiss her passionately. This was not the way she expected him to use his mouth to get out of trouble, but it was enjoyable nonetheless, so she allowed it. For a while, she just revelled in his firm grip, his lips, his tongue and his stubble adding that delightful rough edge to it all. When his kiss moved on down to her neck and breasts, Octavia took the opportunity to continue in that breathy whisper.

"You say those words because you want me to hypnotise you. You came here because you want me to hypnotise you and render you helpless. Mindless. And deeply controlled."

"You make that bullshit sound so damn sexy." He grumbled with his lips brushing the skin of her cleavage.

"You can try to talk your way out of this." She planted a kiss on the top of his head. "You can try to distract me with kisses and groping. It won't change a thing. What did you say?"

He froze and his grip loosened. "I'm deeply hypnotized." After a second of conflicted silence, he let go of her and turned away, as if he was trying to escape.

"There really is no use in trying to pretend you're cool." She grabbed him by the shoulder. "Look at me when I'm talking to you."

Sullen and silent, he turned to face her. Obedience did not come easy to Eddie, it never did. That's why he was always such a foul-mouthed, difficult man. But this pained look on his face was familiar, it meant that she had almost won.

She grabbed him firmly just under the chin. "What did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." When his eyes changed back to that pained look, he blinked and swallowed, but he didn't say anything else.

"Yes, my dear. I think you are." Her voice slipped into that captivating tone again as she stared into his eyes. "Why don't you allow yourself to really feel how true that phrase is? Why don't you wallow for a moment in that feeling of trance? What did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." At the end of the monotonous phrase, he slowly blinked. His mouth stayed open and his eyes did not change back this time. He let out a long sigh and swayed on his feet.

"Very good, my dear." She smiled and let go of him. I want you down on your knees for me."

Immediately, he kneeled down on the floor. When he seemed to hesitate what to do with his hands, Octavia quickly asked: "What did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." His shoulders slumped and his head tilted involuntarily, even though he tried to aim his unfocused gaze in her general direction.

"Everything is so much easier when all you have to do is obey me. Isn't that right?" She moved closer to gently massage little circles on his temples. "This sweet surrender you're feeling right now, it was inevitable from the moment you stepped through that door. And the hurdles we threw up along the way only made this final moment of submission more satisfying. Thank you, Eddie. I'm proud of you. You're allowed to sink all the way down now. What did you say?"

"I'm deeply hypnotized." His eyes rolled up into his head and his head swayed as she massaged his temples. His arms hung limply down to the floor and his mouth sagged open. It was finally over. He was deeply hypnotised.