Octavia wiggled on her chair, watching Josie and Dan exchange flirty messages in the group chat on her phone. It made her smile and she thoughtfully turned the sound off so her next client would not be disturbed by the notifications. Just as she put the phone away, there was a knock on the door. She straightened her purple suit jacket and went to open the door for him.

The man who entered her studio was stocky and short. Small, rectangular glasses framed his eyes and rested on his big ears. He wore his dark hair in a ponytail and he had a fuzzy goatee. The light handshake and the way he didn't make full-on eye-contact told Octavia that he was nervous.

"Good afternoon, Miss. Thank ye for havin' me. Name's Fergus." The way his accent rolled off the tongue sounded like he was from Scotland or the Northern UK.

Looking down as she closed the door, she suddenly noticed she was still wearing her white woolly slippers. 

He followed her gaze and cracked a smile. "Looks comfortable."

"I'll put on some pretty heels straight away." She dashed off to the wardrobe beside the bed and waved her hand at the table. "Have a seat. I have some freshly brewed coffee, if you like."

He leaned his hand on the back of the chair and took a moment to really look at her. "Please, Miss. Wear whatever ye like. Don't make yerself even taller on my account."

She paused and turned around to face him. "Does your height bother you?"

His eyebrows moved but he didn't look away. With a half smile, he shrugged. "It doesn't work me favour, no. But I manage."

After a moment of thought, Octavia closed the wardrobe and went to the counter in the corner on her slippers to pour two cups of coffee. Fergus sat down at the table and folded his hands in front of him. "I suppose you want to have a little talk first."

"What can I do for you, Fergus?" She placed a steaming cup beside his hands and sat down to take a sip from her own cup.

"Honestly…" His folded hands moved, flexing the fingers as he tried to find words to express his thoughts. "I just want to be out of my head. Anxiety, you see. I haven't had much success finding a Domme with whom I can truly just… feel submissive, so to speak. And then a friend told me about you." He looked her in the eye as he warmed his hands around the coffee cup.

She smiled. "So you're not new to kink. Are you a masochist?"

"A little." Again that half smile as he shrugged. "I've been on this merry-go-round before. You have my consent for pain, my safeword is strawberries, but I doubt I'll use it. My friend said ye don't do impact or humiliation. Which is why I messaged you."

"I'm intrigued." She nodded as she studied him, listening intently. "You said something about training in your messages. Can you elaborate?"

He stared off into the distance, thinking. "I was picturing a scene where you determine whether I meet your standards for a good submissive, inspecting me… Something where you're fully dressed and you command me… and I was hoping for praise kink." He drank his coffee, blushing ever so slightly.

"That sounds marvellous." She put her empty cup down and leaned towards him. "Help me with something, Fergus. I'd like to call you by a pet name without belittling you. Is 'good boy' acceptable or is there something else you prefer?"

The room was silent for a second as he finished his coffee. "Lad." He said finally. "I'd prefer if you called me a lad." There was a glimpse of insecurity in his eyes as he briefly looked up at her.

"There's a good lad." Octavia smiled with approbation. "Thank you for helping me find the right words, that's so thoughtful of you."

He lowered his eyes. "Thank ye, Miss."

She rose from her seat and went to the middle of the room. "Get up. Let's get started. Come over here so I can take a look at you."

He snapped up from the chair and then hesitated for a moment. He took off his glasses and placed them on the table before he approached Octavia. With a nervous smile and lowered eyes, he stood in front of her, his hands folded behind his back.

She immediately touched him, groping his shoulders through the large, soft hoodie as she murmured: "There's a good lad." Her hands roamed over his shoulders and chest as he stood still, blushing with his eyes on the floor. After a while, she cupped his chin and forced him to look her in the eye. "Your clothes are too baggy. I can barely see how handsome your body is. But before you take them off, answer some questions for me, lad."

His head nodded in her hand as he stared at her with large eyes. "Yes, Miss."

"Do I have your consent to touch you and hurt you with my bare hands?" She asked, staring him down. "Tell me if any of this is unwanted: clawing, pinching and scratching, slaps in the face, on the back or on the butt."

There was a twinkle of excitement in his eyes. "Yes, Miss. That's all good stuff."

She inhaled deeply and showed him a hint of her hypnotic stare. "Do I have your consent to hypnotise you? You might fall down."

She could feel him swallow before he nodded again. "Yes, Miss. I'd be honoured."

"Do I have your consent to tease you about your looks and laugh at you?" She took a step back to let her eyes roam over his body all the way from his face to his hoodie and his jeans down to his boots.

"No, Miss. Strawberries. No humiliation whatsoever, please." He shook his head and gave her a pleading look. 

"There's a good lad." She reached out and tenderly touched his cheek. "Thank you for showing me where your boundaries are. Now, take that hoodie off."

He stared at her for second, a hint of a relieved smile on his lips. Then he caught himself. "Yes, Miss." And he pulled the hoodie off. 

She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows at him to indicate that she was still waiting. He quickly threw the hoodie on the chair and returned to the same spot with his hands folded behind his back. The skin-tight black shirt he wore had the logo of a video game Octavia didn't recognise, but she was far more interested in his nipples protruding on either side of the logo. The outline of his pectorals was clearly visible through the old shirt.

Grinning, she made eye-contact and then looked down at his nipples once more. "You have beautiful pecs, Fergus. You work out, don't you?"

He blushed deep red as she moved in close to grope them and tweak the nipples between her fingers. When she squeezed hard, he closed his eyes and grimaced.

"Thank ye, Miss." His voice was soft and unsteady. It made her smile; hurting a masochist in the right way was such a special kind of joy.

She wrapped one arm around him, whispering "I like your hair" as she reached up to firmly grab his ponytail. "And not just because it's handy for this…" She pulled him in for a long, hot kiss.

He shuddered, freezing in place with his eyes still closed when he felt her hand in his hair, and surprised by the kiss. Some of the nervous tension in his body started to melt away and he tentatively embraced her as they kissed.

Finally, she let go of his nipple and grabbed one of his wrists instead, pushing it behind his back again. "I'm not done inspecting you, lad." She whispered between kisses.

There was a nod and his hands returned behind his back. 

After one last kiss on his cheek, she softly cleared her throat and said: "You're a pretty good kisser. Very nice."

"I nary did a thing, Miss." He muttered under his breath. "That was all you."

"Lift up your shirt." She commanded as she gave him a piercing look.

He immediately complied, exposing his belly and his nipples.

She clenched her thumbs down on them as she stared into his eyes. "Don't dodge my compliments."

His breath quickened and his eyes grew wider. His voice went up in pitch as he wheezed: "I'm sorry, Miss. I won't do it again."

"There's a good lad." 

She let go and wrapped her arms around him to grope his back, immbolising him with his hands still holding his shirt up. His eyes closed and he let out a sigh, involuntarily relaxing under her touch. People who like bondage often relax when they're immobilised, and it seemed Fergus was no different.

With her lips brushing his big ear, she whispered: "Do you like pain?"

He shuddered in her arms and there was a flinching, as if he had the urge to try to escape. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he clenched his mouth and eyes shut.

Searching the skin of his back with her fingertips, she found the soft areas on his back just above the hips and pressed her claws into his flesh there. Her whisper turned hot and breathy. "Answer me, lad. Do you enjoy it when I hurt you like this?"

"Fuck yes…" His voice was hoarse and his chest heaved in her arms with every quick breath. "I mean… Yes, Miss. I'm sorry." He stuttered, he didn't want to swear in front of a lady.

"There's a good lad." She stepped back to look at him for a moment, in all his sweaty glory. "Just remove the shirt now. And I want you barefoot."

She paced the room as she waited for him to remove his shoes, making sure he felt her impatience. When he returned to that spot in the middle of the room with his hands folded behind his back, she paced around him, just looking.

"You butt looks real nice in those jeans." She smiled. "You have a very good-looking body, Fergus. I like what I see."

"Thank ye, Miss." His eyes were downcast again, but the corners of his mouth curled up with excitement.

"Now comes the part where I hypnotise you, my dear." She stood in front of him and touched his goatee to make him look up at her. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, Miss." He blinked but he kept looking into her eyes.

"Good lad." She gave him an intense stare as she started to speak fast and smoothly. "I want you to stand to attention for me as you look into my eyes. I want you to clench your fists and straighten your shoulders. Clench you butt. Legs straight. Stand up straight as you listen and obey me. Tighten all your muscles for me. All tense and obedient. There's a good lad."

As his body clenched up, his eyes stopped blinking, just staring into hers. He was trembling and his shallow breaths were hardly noticeable as he stood there all rigid and still for her.

"Feel that tension building up inside you, winding itself into a tight ball. So focused on me, fascinated and captivated by my eyes. I've wrapped you around my finger, haven't I?" She watched him like a hawk as she surreptitiously touched his ponytail, waiting for the right moment as she continued to bespell him with her words. "Feel that tension in your body. Winding itself tighter and tighter for me. There's a good lad. You're no longer in control, are you? I'm pulling your strings now. Winding tighter and tighter that tension, can you feel it?"

He was positively vibrating now. His jaw and neck were clenched as he looked up at her, but his eyes started to blur and that was what she had been waiting for.

"Good lad. I'm holding your strings, and I can just choose to pull them loose. Now." She tugged on his hair.

His eyes rolled up and slammed shut. He seemed to turn into a rag doll and she stepped in closer to catch him and guide his heavy body to the floor as she murmured softly.

"Drop down. All the way deep down into trance for me. Can you just feel yourself drop? Enjoy that feeling, my lad. All the way down into trance."

None of his muscles seemed to work anymore as he lay there on the floor. He was limp and useless, with an utterly vacant expression on his unconscious face.

She sat down on the floor beside him as she spoke to him in a soft voice. "You're so deeply hypnotised now. You're such a good obedient lad. For today, you'll find that it'll be so easy to come back to this feeling of deep trance whenever I tell you to drop. Just that word. Drop. It will help you return to this deep feeling of surrender. And even when I wake you up in a moment, there will be a lingering feeling. It's so easy and natural to focus on me and obey me. Even when you wake up. Now take a deep breath and let that energise you so you can wake up and sit up. There's a good lad."

First, he frowned, and then his eyes blinked and his lips curled into a dreamy smile. "That was… Thank you, Miss." To her surprise, he sat up and then crouched. He reached out to offer her his hand and help her up.

She grinned wickedly. "Did I tell you to do that?" And before he could react, she tugged on his hand. "Drop!"

He collapsed with his face in her lap and his legs bent at awkward angles. She hooked her arm around him and dragged him across the floor to lay him out more comfortably. Feeling how limp and heavy he was excited her, and she just sat there stroking his unconscious face for a moment.

"There's a good lad. You surrender to me so beautifully. It's so easy and natural, isn't it? And just as easily, you take a deep breath now and you feel yourself waking up."

He jolted and scrambled up to a crouch. "I'm sorry, Miss." He apologised hoarsely.

"What are you apologising for, silly lad?" This time she took his hand and allowed him to help her stand up. 

"I fell on top of you." He lowered his eyes and folded his hand behind his back.

Octavia touched his chin and made him look at her. "I'm very pleased that you did. That was my intention. You did everything right."

He was tense with excitement, his eyes large and hopeful.

She sighed. "Yes. You're a good submissive. I can't wait to make you do more tricks."