Without knocking but right on time, the door opened and Henry entered the studio wearing his workout clothes. He approached the table where Octavia sat with her laptop and kissed her on the forehead before she could get up to greet him. She was wearing her white dress with big purple flower print and a pair of comfortable slippers. She closed her laptop and rose from her seat, a little startled by his familiarity.

"Henry, your enthusiasm is flattering as always."

He smiled. "I have been looking forward to this." And he wrapped his arms around her to give her more kisses.

Octavia enjoyed the kiss for a moment, but stopped him when she felt his leg and his erection brush up against her. "Slow down, big man." She said with a grin. "Don't you want to warm up? I want to hypnotise you before we get to the sex."

"Oh alright." He said with mock reluctance, and he let go of her and crossed his arms. "What did you have in mind?"

She wiggled her eyebrows at him. "I just want to make an easy off-button to tease you with. A little delayed gratification, hm?" Or an emergency brake, was the thought in the back of her mind.

He nodded. "I meant: what do you need me to do?"

She reached up to massage his temples. "Nothing, Henry. Do you remember how I made you do nothing? How I made you think of nothing? Can you feel yourself relaxing and unwinding as you stand here and I'm hypnotising you? Nothing on your mind. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to do but surrender to me."

His eyes fluttered shut and his neck relaxed, his head sagging into her hands. He stood so still now he could have been a mannequin.

"Nothing, that's right." She smiled at how easily he dropped. "And for today's session, until you leave this room again, I would like the magic word to be Nothing. Whenever I say that word, Nothing, you just drop all the way back down here. Perhaps every time I say that word, it will happen a little faster. A little more automatic and unstoppable. It's like I can just snuff you out by saying Nothing. Now take a deep breath for me, and notice my fingers still massaging your head. Notice how you're standing here with me. And as you start to wake up, you remember why you're here, and what we're going to do."

With a sharp intake of breath, he shook his head as she let go of him and frowned at her. "What? That was…" He rubbed his face.

Octavia sauntered over to the bed and leaned against it. "You're getting so good at hypnosis, my dear."

"That was quick." He gave her a confused look. "What just happened?"

She chuckled. "Oh come now, are you serious?"

He came towards her with a grin, goading her into saying it. "What did you just do to me?"

With a careless shrug, she said: "Nothing."

He froze in his tracks. His eyes rolled up and closed before his head flopped forward. Then he just stood there, big and still.

It made her heart flutter and she drew up close to embrace him. "Wake up, mister. Remember what you're here for…"

He inhaled deeply. "Hm? Ah! Yes!" And he started kissing her once more, his big hands groping the back of her dress, looking for the zipper as he pushed her towards the bed.

Suddenly, Blake burst into the studio and slammed the door behind him. His leather jacket and pants looked dusty and scuffed and his hair was wet with sweat. He heaved a sigh as he leaned against the door before noticing Henry. 

"Oh Blake…" Octavia swallowed. "This is the worst time…"

Henry turned to face Blake, standing protectively between them.

Blake pushed off from the wall to go towards Octavia and then stumbled to the floor. "I done fucked up…" He said under his breath.

"Of course you have." She buried her face in her hands, trying to come up with a way to fix this situation.

Henry took a step towards Blake, asking: "What possessed you to come here now? Are you drunk?"

"I just fell is all." Blake slowly and clumsily rose to his feet.

"Get up. You're leaving." He grabbed Blake by the arm.

"Henry!" Octavia froze up, paralysed. "Don't..."

"Don't touch me!" Blake swiped at Henry to break free, but he avoided making eye-contact. "I don't wanna have to hurt you."

"Try it, fucker." Henry attempted to shove him back towards the door.

Despite whatever he had been drinking, the wrestling reflexes kicked in, and before Henry knew what was happening, Blake threw him to the floor. Huffing, he stepped over Henry and walked up to her. "I'm sorry, Octavia..."

"You're sorry?" She stared at him, wide-eyed as her heart beat in her throat.

He nodded, staring at the floor between her feet. She tensed up and then slapped him in the face. His knees gave out and he collapsed next to her on the floor just as Henry stood up. 

"I'm sorry too, Blake." She rubbed her eyes, still at a loss how to resolve this situation.

Henry drew up next to her and asked: "Do you want me to throw him out?"

She shook her head with a sad sigh. "He needs my help."

"He doesn't deserve your help." Henry scoffed. "I'm not going to let him ruin our date." 

"That's not your decision to make, Henry." She gave him a stern look. 

Blake groaned and crawled on his hands and knees towards her feet.

"He's a bum." Henry grumbled. "If you give him an inch, he'll take a mile."

Octavia's eyes widened in disbelief and she crossed her arms. "I'm sorry. We're going to have to reschedule another time." 

"I'm not leaving you alone with him." Henry attempted to pull Octavia away from Blake. "He's dangerous. Did you see what he did to me?"

"Not your decision, Henry!" She pushed his hands away. 

Blake rose to his feet and shed his leather jacket on the floor. "I'll show you dangerous..."

Henry turned towards him, and the tension in the room rose to an unbearable level as both men seemed to be flexing their muscles. Octavia quickly stepped between them and looked Henry in the eye. "Nothing!"

As he froze in place and his head flopped forward, she added: "You can wake up again when you can respect my decisions."

Blake snorted as he relaxed a little. "Who is this douchebag, Octavia?" 

She turned to face him with a cold stare. "He's a paying customer. Unlike you."

"I paid last time. I always pay in the end." He put his hands up in a defensive gesture.

"What do you expect of me?" She took a deep breath to stay calm. "I can't fix your problems for you."

"I know…" He hung his head as he backed away from her. "I just…"

She pointed to the bathroom door. "Go soak your head."

As he reluctantly stumbled into the bathroom, she turned around to look at Henry once more. He had composed himself and stood there with his hands in his pockets and a thoughtful look.

"I'm sorry, Henry." She said with a deep breath. "I lost my temper."

He cleared his throat. "Rightfully so. I was being a bit of an ass."

"And too forward." She gave him an uncomfortable look. "I hope you noticed that. Maybe you need to go home and think about that before we reschedule."

His jaw tightened and he stiffened up. "Too forward?"

"I realise you come from a place where your role is to be assertive and charming and a gentleman, and absolutely perfect." Octavia murmured as she shook her head. "That's a lot of pressure. I sympathise and I offer a safe place to leave that pressure behind. But it's like the prospect of finally havig sex with me changed you, Henry. And I don't like it."

"You're showing me the door?" His voice was full of angry disbelief. "After everything we've done already? After I've paid for this session?"

Suddenly very aware of how big Henry was, she backed away. "Henry… Please, just go home and think it over, alright?"

The bathroom door opened and Blake drew up next to Octavia. "Better do as the lady says," he muttered softly.

"Or what?!" Henry raised his voice and balled his fists.

Blake defensively took another step forward, glaring at Henry. 

After a moment of tense silence, Henry retreated to the door, grumbling: "You're lucky he's here…"

"Henry!" Octavia's voice broke. "Go home, and think about what you would have done if he wasn't here to protect me when I told you no."

The door slammed and he was gone. Octavia sank down on the bed with her head in her hands. Blake went down on his knees beside the bed and looked up at her.

"What would 've happened, you reckon?" His voice was almost a whisper. "If I wasn't here?"

She made a dismissive gesture. "Nothing terrible. He's always been pleasant and generous. But it would have gone at his pace, not mine."

After a moment of silence, Blake shook his head. "What he just said didn't sound pleasant at all."

She shrugged and pulled her legs up on the bed. "He felt threatened by you."

"What about you? Did you feel threatened by him?" Blake cautiously sat down besides her on the bed and offered to put his arm around her.

She curled up against him and muttered: "It's all par for the course. Most of my clients are perfectly pleasant until I say no to them."

He looked around her studio for a moment, as if he was seeing all the things she kept here and their uses for the first time. He nuzzled her hair and softly asked. "So why do you do it?"

"So I can be with people like you." She pulled him in for a tender kiss.

He enjoyed it at first but before long he froze, his eyes closed and their lips still touching. Then he turned away. "I ruined your date. And I'm still using you as a crutch."

"I have some time now." She caressed his beard. "I could spend it on making you feel better. I would enjoy that too."

"He was right about one thing…" Blake whispered under his breath. "I don't deserve that."

With her hand on his chin, she forced him to look at her. "I decide whether you deserve my gifts. Not you, and certainly not Henry."

"Yes, Octavia." He blushed and blinked under her gaze.

"Here's what we're going to do." She made herself more comfortable, sitting crosslegged on the bed. "If you're not in the mood for something sexual, you can just go over there to lock the door, and take off those dirty leather pants and boots and come back here to sit with me. But if you are in that mood…" She licked her lips slowly. "...you can take off all your clothes."

He got up from the bed, as if he only just now realised that the dirt on his pants and boots might soil the covers, and he walked over to the place where he had dropped his jacket on the floor. He moved quickly, self-conscious because she was watching him, as he locked the door and hung his jacket on the rack. He left his boots on the floor and took off his pants and socks. He hesitated for a moment and then pulled off his shirt and his underwear too. Then he came back to stand before her, as if he expected her to inspect him before he was allowed in the bed.

With a cheeky smile, She nodded at his erection and asked: "Where did that come from?"

"Pretty lady asked me to take my clothes off." He mumbled.

She patted the empty space beside her on the bed. "I want you to kneel for me here."

When he kneeled down on the bed, his eyes full on anticipation, she leaned in to run her hand through his hair, watching it cascade on his shoulders. She caressed and kissed his shoulder and then whispered to him:

"I want you to stroke your cock for me."

As his hand started to move, his eyes remained on her, waiting for what she was going to say next.

She cupped his jaw and watched him for a moment, taking in the entire image of this, tall, strong man kneeling for her, stroking his cock for her, and his handsome face looking at her. Finally, she said: "That is submission in its purest form, Blake. In this moment, you are so vulnerable. And so obedient. You're making me so happy, it's hard to describe. I want to remember this moment forever because it's so beautiful."

He swallowed and his lips moved, but he said nothing. His hand kept slowly stroking up and down as his shoulders rose and fell with every breath.

"And I'm sure it's not easy to keep looking at me like that. What with the pleasure growing inside you with every stroke, more and stronger with every stroke. But you have to keep looking at me. Because you're doing this for me. It's all you can think about really. Stroke for me. Masturbate for me. This pleasure is for me. These feelings are mine. And it keeps on growing with every stroke until it's all you're focused on, it's all you can think about."

His head swayed on his neck and a strand of hair fell in his face, but his eyes, though they were becoming heavy-lidded and vacant, were still trained on her.

Her voice grew more sultry with every word she spoke, lust plainly visible on her face. "And as you keep on growing hotter and hornier for me, it becomes harder and hard to think. You're getting too hard to think anything at all. No more thoughts. Only pleasure. For me. You are my empty-headed fucktoy." 

She grasped his wrist and pulled his hand away. He shook, his breathing quick and excited, but that was all. His cock jerked and a drop of liquid ran down the shaft. With a hungry smile, she placed his hand on her breast and leaned in to kiss him. And he remained silent and still.