“Afternoon, love,” River’s boyfriend called out without looking round from his desk, where he was typing rapidly. She didn’t know what he was working on, and honestly, she didn’t particularly care. “How’s you?”

“Stressed,” she replied flatly, sitting down heavily on the end of their bed.

“Oh? I’m sorry to hear that,” he said sympathetically. He swivelled around in his revolving chair, so he was now facing away from the desk that was once River’s, before he had moved in and requisitioned it. “What happened?”

“Too much,” she said with a snort of bitter laughter. “I was so busy and overwhelmed, I got my timetables muddled and forgot I was supposed to be covering a class. I was twenty minutes late.”

“Damn. That’s unlucky!”

“Could be worse,” she muttered. “I was half-expecting a riot by the time I walked in. Instead I found ’em playing Hangman.”

Her boyfriend surveyed her thoughtfully, still grimacing in consolation. His gaze made her shiver a little - it always felt like he could see right through her, deep into her mind and soul. She supposed that was a mark of how close they’d become in such a short time, how much they had in common, how strongly they’d been in accord ever since their first date. Although she couldn’t really respond with a similar stare, much as she’d like to - even now, since they’d been sharing the same home, he remained as inscrutable to her as he ever had been. She couldn’t begin to guess what he was thinking as he studied her. She still knew so little about him.

Not even his name.

“Maybe you’re in the wrong line of work,” he mused, tapping a finger against his chin. “Maybe you need to do something less stressful - something you actually enjoy...”

“I mean, I do enjoy it,” River said quickly, and then reluctantly added, “At least, I did...” She exhaled deeply. “It’s just been a long term, y’know. I’ve been doing so much, and it doesn’t feel like I’m being appreciated. By the head, or the other teachers. They can’t even get my name right.” Not that I’ve done anything to correct them, she admitted inwardly. Her colleagues had been calling her ‘Brooke’ for so long - to the point where it was even the name on her ID badge - it’d just be embarrassing if she told them her real name now.

“Well, that’s just rude,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “You should be in a job where you’re valued! You have so much to offer. But if you’re running yourself ragged, you should have a job with a lighter workload, so you have the energy and the breathing space to show what you’re capable of.”

She nodded placidly, agreeing with every word. He was right so much of the time, she’d found. Even when he said something she found controversial at first, she always came round to his way of thinking in the end. This time, though, not much persuasion was required - he was making total sense.

He snapped his fingers in a flash of sudden inspiration. “You know what - I heard the Angel had an opening for a new dancer. Maybe you could give that a go...”

River burst out laughing. “A strip club?! No way!”

“Why not?” he asked innocently, raising an eyebrow. “You’d be appreciated there, I can assure you. By the owners and the patrons.”

She squirmed a little. She knew her new partner frequented the club - he made no secret of it - and she had no issue with it. She wasn’t insecure about their relationship, no matter how many girls flaunted their naked bodies in front of him (or came back to their house and fucked him in front of her). But the idea of her up on that stage, swaying and gyrating and showing off her body to a bunch of total strangers...? She didn’t much like the sound of that.

But it didn’t feel like she could use this argument - it felt so... anti-feminist. There was nothing wrong with stripping, after all - it was empowering, and sexy. She knew that - she felt that way herself, when she performed stripteases in the privacy of her bedroom, for her boyfriend’s benefit. So her reason felt more like an excuse, and quite a feeble one to present to the one man who had seen her ‘routines’ in the past.

So instead she said, “I’d - I’d get paid a lot less. However difficult teaching can be, at least it’s a steady wage...”

“Come on, love, you know money’s not an issue,” he pointed out. “I’ve got plenty - more than I could ever spend in one lifetime. I’ll give you a fair allowance.”

“I... hmm.” With her objection so easily dismissed, River bit her lip. “Can we - d’you mind if we stop talking about this?”

“OK, no problem. We can discuss it again later,” he replied calmly, with the easy confidence of someone who was certain the other person would change their mind. “You should chill out,” he added, beginning to turn back to his desk. “Do something to destress.”

River sat up a little straighter, half-smiling. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. If she hadn’t already been feeling pent-up, the conversation they’d just had about her potential career change - however uncomfortable it had made her - had also strongly stirred her lust. She wanted - needed - relief. There was just one problem - if she was going to get it, she needed her boyfriend’s cooperation.

Standing up, she sidled over to the revolving chair, running her outstretched arm over the leather back as she came to a halt at his side. “Maybe we could do some... destressing... together,” she said in her most sultry purr, gazing down at him with smouldering eyes.

He glanced up at her, grinned slightly for a moment, and then returned his attention to his laptop screen. “Sorry, babe. Not really in the mood right now. Bit surprised you are, to be honest, after the day you’ve had.”

She pouted. He did have a point - considering how stressful today was, there was no good reason for her to be this horny. And yet, it seemed that recently, no matter how poorly her day had gone, she was always in the mood. Particularly if she was in the same room as her new lover.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on the reason for her increased libido. She kept getting a flicker of insight, a notion that it had been happening since she’d started dating him, that he somehow had something to do with it - but the thought always slipped away before she could properly pin in down. Right now, she was too aroused and needy to care about why she was so aroused and needy. She had to get him to take part. She couldn’t do it without him. And for all his dubious powers of persuasion, she knew just how to convince him to give her what she wanted.

She leaned down, bringing her lips close to his ear. “Not in the mood to use your pathetic sex slave?” she whispered. “Not in the mood to take advantage of your desperate, mind-controlled slut?”

Sure enough, that got his attention. He looked up in time to see her pulling off her school shirt over her head, unveiling C-cup breasts in a sleek black bra.

“I am your obedient sex toy, after all,” she crooned, sliding her trousers over her hips and down her shapely legs. “I’m your brainless whore. I’m your witless fuckpuppet. I’m your exclusive fleshlight, your personal cocksleeve, your warm, wet set of holes...” She slipped her finger beneath her knickers to tease at one of the aforementioned holes, before raising her hand high to reach another, licking her own moisture off her fingertip.

Her boyfriend was breathing heavily, his eyes roving over her body - although they soon locked onto two targets directly in his line of sight, as she straddled him and hooked her thumbs under her bra straps.

“I’m so mindfucked, I don’t even know I am,” she chuckled softly, as she exposed her ample boobs and let him bury his face in them. “I think this is all an act. I think I’m just pretending to be mind-controlled because I know it turns you on - but I actually am, and I have no idea...” She let out a whimper as he tenderly bit her tit, marking it with a hickey. “That’s how under your thumb I am. Under your boot. Under your heel...”

She slid down his torso, falling to her knees before him - narrowly avoiding scraping her back against the underside of the desk as she did so - and looked up at him with pleading doe eyes. Seeming to deliberate for a moment, he finally patted her on the head and said, “Alright. But I need to get on with my work while you do it.”

River beamed broadly, tucking herself further under the desk as he scooted his chair forwards. As he resumed typing above her, she nestled her head between his legs and undid his flies. Within moments she was voraciously licking and sucking her own clit on the end of his cock, giving herself the stress relief she sorely needed.