"May I hypnotise you?"

My partner and his partner make encouraging noises. He got the first and most important step right. I'm giddy with anticipation because I don't know if I'm going to have to coach him through it by being superhelpful and willing, or if he's going to prove himself to be a naturally talented hypnotist.

"Please, give me your hands. I'm a little nervous, so I'm just going to sit here and talk to you, and that will calm us both down…"

As he keeps on talking, he holds my gaze the same way he holds my hands, tenderly but intensely intimate. This is the stuff I fear when I say forced eye-contact is a limit for me, the inescapability of it. The way I have to open up and just return the look, surrendering. That stuff is scary, and he takes me there with ease.

"I'm going to count from 20 down to 0 and with each count you'll close your eyes and then open them again. With each count it will become harder to keep your eyes open. When we reach 0 you will be in a deep trance. Let's begin with 20."

I close my eyes on the count. My focus narrows, I'm forgetting about our partners watching us. I'm listening, waiting for him to let me know that I can open them again.

"You can open your eyes. I'm going to take you by the hand and lead you into trance. I noticed your breathing as you closed your eyes. You're relaxing already. 19."

The blissful darkness shields me from his gaze, but only for a moment. Every count I feel my shoulders slump, but my hands are comfortable inside his. Every time he tells me I can open my eyes, it's a gentle command and after a few times I follow his rhythm, like a dance.

"Imagine I'm guiding you down the stairs. 15."

He describes the stairs in the building in comforting detail. When I open my eyes again, my vision is getting blurry. I know that light feeling in my forehead so well. I'm dropping like a stone and we're not even at 10 yet.

"It's dark downstairs and I'm guiding you to a place you can sit down, sink down. 12."

Dimly, I remind myself that I should compliment him on his patter. I can tell that my mouth has sagged open just a bit. But I have no urge to correct it or wipe away the impending drool. I'm just following, listening, opening my eyes when he tells me to. And closing them again on the next count.

"Look at me when you open your eyes. I'm with you, keep on following me down. 7."

I try to aim my unfocused eyes at his face using mostly my neck. A part of me is proud of my hypnotised zombiestare, and wonders what my partner thinks of it. But the rest of me hangs onto his every word, attentive and compliant.

"I can see that it's hard to open your eyes now. We're almost there. 2"

My mind has grown so quiet now that there is only his words, the buzz in my head and the arousal between my legs. Nothing else.

"And there you are. 0. Deeply hypnotised."

I didn't think I could drop any deeper, but apparently my body has even more slump in it. I'm drowsily aware that he's half-heartedly making it easy for me to return to this place with him. The memory is framed and stored in my mind for later use, despite the flustered hesitation in his patter.

"And now as I count down to 1 you can wake up again. 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1."

My eyes flutter open and I let go of his hands, retreating into a blushing mess. I compliment him as best I can, and my partner does too, in much more and better words than I can right now. I have no words. I haven't ever been hypnotised in such a hot way by a first timer I don't know very well.