The Cole, Kean, & Krupp Holiday Celebration was always held the first week of March, a radical move to fight the late winter and early spring madness that always crept into the lives of everyone in the city. Sure, they had year-end bonuses and were closed around Christmas and New Years, but someone in HR had that brilliant idea that the last thing anyone needed around the end of the year was another social engagement.

So, under the fading light of a dark gray sky a small army of lawyers, legal aids, office support staff, accountants, and countless others began their steady march into the rented out five star hotel’s lobby, then onward to the ballroom. The local was a famous one and a reflection of the firm’s profound affluence.

It was also the night Liz was going to be set loose.

Joan had kept her close for months now, and what had begun as nothing more than a predatory sexual rendezvous had turned into so much more. Of course, Joan hadn’t thought that she was ensnaring her future protégé when she beguiled Liz out of her own thoughts and into bed, but the gorgeous woman was sharp.

She was so sharp, and so wholly sexually talented, that Joan hadn’t even realized when Liz had turned the tables on her.

As she sat next to her prized pupil in the back of the town car, Joan’s pale blue eyes sparkled with the memory of that moment.

Trance was an interesting thing, it was a fluid state and not the binary condition people assumed it was thanks to movies. The predator had been seduced by her own prowess, lulled into vulnerability by her own ability, and Liz’s meticulously developed trap had sprung with a devious and all consuming heat.

* * *

“You taste tense,” Liz’s voice was soft and dull, muffled by the distance between her words and conscious thought, or so the woman who had been sexually dominating her for over a month had believed.

“Smoking relaxes you, “ that same distant voice spoke again after its owner’s tongue caressed Joan with a precision and mindless purpose that made her gasp.

“You should relax, you taste better when you relax,“ The voice was soft, delicate as the kissing caresses that were bringing Joan to the edge of ecstasy. “When you taste better, I make you feel better.”

Joan looked down between her legs and deep into the dark blue orbs looking up at her. They were flat and passive, docile as they were trained to be, “Why are you so talkative Lizzie?”

She let the last word stretch out.

Lizzie.

The pet name, the trigger, the keystone to Joan’s control over her thrall.

Liz gasped and moaned the way her mind and body had been trained and conditioned to.

“Your pleasure is my pleasure.” The words were what she had also been trained to say, trained to think, taught to believe, and Joan knew her subject’s speech was sincere.

What she didn’t know was that Liz had been acting.

Not a lot, because all of the triggers were still firing at full force, but over time the woman had become acclimated to the sensations and her naturally analytical and curious mind had solved the mystery of Joan’s grip on her.

It wasn’t enough to break the sensual spell, especially because the suggestions had taken hold and opened the emotional flood gates for feelings and desires Liz never would have thought she’d have, but it was enough to change the way she responded to some of those post hypnotic suggestions.

“Your smoke is so soothing to me,” again, her tongue stopped working its charms just long enough for these words to escape.

“You say it’s so relaxing for you,” now there was a pattern to the events.

Liz would speak, then she worship her lover in the most sensitive and satisfying ways, keeping her tone and the pressure of her tongue and kisses even, monotonous, like a metronome.

“Relaxation is sweet,“ then pleasure.

“Your pleasure is my pleasure, “ then pleasure.

“Smoke and relax, “ then even more pleasure.

These were repeated over and over until Joan was moaning, reflexively biting her lip, having been unwittingly brought to the very edge and kept there, her mind and body becoming drunk on those sensual ministrations, blind to the fact she’d been led to the edge.

Finally, the blonde reached over to her bedside table, and through gasps of bliss she lit her cigarette and took a drag.

As the smoke passed between her lips Joan’s body buckled and she came.

Liz slid a finger between Joan’s legs as her back arched, and she pressed gently in just the right way to make Joan shudder with over-stimulated excesses.

“Relax Joan, relax and let go. Smoke and let go Joan, enjoy your pleasure for me, your pleasure is my pleasure.”

Liz’s voice had become more full now, more deliberately gentle and authoritative, mimicking the inflection of Joan’s own delivery and techniques.

It hadn’t taken too long for Liz to realize she’d been hypnotized by Joan, and if it hadn’t been the best sex of her life she might have been mad. But it was, so she wasn’t, and instead, she become profoundly enthralled with the idea, especially the predatory way that Joan approached her.

Feeling the woman’s power, being tangled up in her thrall, had inspired fantasies that could only be called a sexual awakening.

The incessant touch, the merciless way Liz was playing with her, kept Joan off balance and buried under the euphoria of the moment, as well as the measured and deliberate power of the words she was hearing.

By the time she caught on to Liz’s plans and intentions, her mind had already been gently eased open and Liz’s influence had already brought many of Joan’s secrets to the surface.

“Tell me again what you did to me Joan?”

That was the final question, the final moment of dreamy delirium before Joan woke, “I hypnotized you Lizzie, now sleep. Deep sleep Lizzie.”

After that, Joan knew that she hadn’t just ensnared a beautiful toy, but a woman that could aid her in ways she hadn’t begun to consider.

* * *

"Remember Lizzie, we have a mission tonight, don’t get distracted by all the delicious toys you want to play with.” Joan’s voice was a playful whisper, the tone and cadence of an innocent joke in her friend’s ear. Not that she thought the driver was paying attention to what the women were saying, but there was nothing wrong with a little bit of secrecy and subtly.

Liz smiled as she felt the heat between her own legs just before they stepped out of the car. Their friendship, which had grown out of Joan’s lust, had very much become a real thing, and certainly more than just friendship at that. Both women, with so much in their lives in common, had started having lunch together, doing happy hour with coworkers from both floors, and just being gal palls all over the place. Neither one thought they were in love, but it didn’t matter.

Their friendship was, Joan realized, a perfect cover.

They stepped into the lobby and then into the ballroom, and as they mingled, weaving in and out of going their separate ways, Joan’s eyes followed Liz’s every step. More so, they followed the eyes of her peers as they watched Liz go by.

She was dazzling tonight, and even though no one knew it, it was because Joan was showing off her prize. Liz knew how to dress, but she always played down just enough to be almost inconspicuous. When Joan drew the reason why out of her, Liz said it was because she wanted her looks to settle in on people after they started talking, not before.

But now, she was on display. Black sleeveless dress that was plunging and high in all the right places, heels that did everything right, hair and makeup all done to flatter and show outwards instead of draw inward. Liz was weaponized tonight, drawing looks, and disrupting thoughts, her mission now was to create a certain kind of interest from as many people as possible.

Joan on the other hand, Joan who knew how to be her best pretty in any setting, was also dressed for the occasion, showing off cleavage, and softening her shape so it was hard to notice anything else about her. She knew her best asset, at least when it came to other people’s eyes. She also knew her best asset when it came to other people’s ears as well.

So, the night rolled on for the two of them.

They drank, they talked, they laughed, and then they converged on their target, Marcus Pollard the soon to be junior partner.

He was neither of their bosses, but he was someone they both knew and liked. He was charming in a deft sort of way, a deliberate and effective man who knew just who and what he was, but lacking the hubris that clung to so many of his peers. He was on the rise and easy on the eyes, and that was good because Joan had been counting his drinks all night, and he’d had a few.

“I am so glad we don’t have this thing in December.” Joan made her move as soon as he was distracted by the passing of Liz, a choreographed moment that was played out when no one else had his ear.

Joan’s words flowed quickly and she didn’t wait for him to respond. “It’s so hard to stay warm in formal wear don’t you think? And it’s terrible for me because I smoke, and I know it’s not the best thing for me, but we all have our vices. This whole party is a wonderful sort of vice though isn’t it? Squeezing around you, liquor pouring in from all directions, have you lost track of how many drinks you’ve had, I have. I mean, I have lost track of what I’ve had, have you had enough to have lost track of what you have right here’re my friend Liz.”

While she had been deliberately overloading him and confusing him with her rapid-fire delivery, she had also been using subtle body language cues to direct his eyes to her eyes, then over to Liz, then back to her, then over to Liz by shifting her eyes and by putting a hand on his arm.

“Liz you know Marcus, Marcus I’m sure you’ve seen Liz around, she’d hard to miss, and I know you wouldn’t miss out on a moment of her company and she’s going to keep me company when I go out for a smoke right now and I know you know you’d love some fresh air, after all you might not remember that you remember we were just talking about smoking, and vice, and how nice Liz looks tonight, doesn’t she look nice Marcus, look at Liz.”

“Hi Marcus,“ Liz made sure her voice was slow and melodic in contrast to Joan’s. She had been watching his eyes starting to glaze over as Joan spoke, stumbling at first to capture every word he had heard, then starting to break apart like an ice cube under running water, the edges dulling as the crack formed in the middle. “you don’t have to come outside with us if you don’t want to. It’s just so loud in here and it’s so much quieter…” she stepped closer to him and put her hand on his other arm “…and so much more private outside.”

Both women were holding him softly by the arm.

Liz’s voice was like a soft cloud, breathy almost as she leaned in closer, “And you’d feel so much more comfortable outside with us wouldn’t you Marcus? I know I’d love to be comfortable with you. Alone and focused only on you, wouldn’t that be nice? Nice to let go of everything else and come with me, following me now.”

Joan watched as Marcus’s eyes become more distant, carried away on the sweet sounding words of the gorgeous woman in front of him. She looked over at Liz and nodded slightly, and together, like bouncers made of the softest silk they escorted Marcus out into the chill night air.

As the cold washed over them, Joan let go of the arm she was holding and reached into her bag for her lighter and cigarette holder. Meanwhile, as they had planned, Liz pressed up against him and exaggerated the shiver that was creeping through her.

The sensation of her warmth and her body pressed against him, her closeness intertwined with and smothered the sudden sensation of cool air that woke him from his daze. He felt disoriented, but before he could speak a waft of sweet smelling smoke fluttered before his eyes and Joan’s voice swallowed his world again.

“Someone’s been having a good time tonight, and someone’s so happy to get some fresh air because their head could have started spinning and it’s so much easier to be out here, enjoying their drinks and the warmth, so warm from all those drinks and so happy to be out here, away from everything with nothing to do, nothing to say, nowhere else to be, just being here and relaxing with me because cigarettes help everyone relax, even if you just smell the smoke you’re feeling more and more relaxed aren’t you?”

“Isn’t it nice to let go of everything Marcus? I’m sure you’re great at compartmentalizing and prioritizing everything, and that’s a wonderful tool for relaxation too.” Liz’s voice was crawling over him in a methodical sweep of tenderness and support as Joan pressed herself up against him from the other side.

Her voice was a purr in his ear as she pressed herself a little closer, “Your ability to sort out everything inside your head is just like Joan’s cigarettes, look at her, watch how calm she is, see the way the smoke blows out and carries away her cares. I love to watch her smoke Marcus, and let your mind sort out all of my words, word by word, cataloging the ones that make you feel good, and the ones that help you let go.”

She ran a finger down his cheek, then turned his head to face Joan.

The three of them were almost impossibly close, and every time Joan exhaled the smoke wafted inches from his face. Liz’s lips were almost pressed to his ear as she sighed.

“The smell is so soothing for me, I don’t smoke but I love to just breathe it in. It’s easy to forget about what’s bad for you when you do so much that’s good for you Marcus, like relaxing. Relaxing is good, enjoying the warmth you’re feeling is very good, and you’re warm right now Marcus, safe and warm with us.” Liz let her voice roll in a gentle wave, not rushing her words like Joan, but stretching out the sound of her voice to fill his mind and all of the moments where he could try and think or try and respond.

In his mind, Marcus was indeed cataloging everything that was being said, but the divisions he was supposed to follow in sorting their words, the suggestion that Liz’s soft lips had slipped past his critical thinking barrier guided by her beauty and by the alcohol in his system, seemed too nebulous and too similar. It felt like the words were piling up in both boxes, spilling from one to the other, like everything felt good, and everything was relaxing, then some things felt better, then some things were more relaxing. His head was swimming and he felt like his mind was physically swaying.

A sweet smelling cloud of Joan’s smoke blew past him and he found himself staring deep into her soft pale eyes. “You’re so sleepy Marcus, I can see it in your eyes, I can see right inside your sleepy mind, drunk and sleepy, so tired and heavy, all the relaxation inside you is pulling you down, you need to sleep, rest your head on my shoulder Marcus, rest your head and sleep. Sleep now Marcus.”

Liz had started to whisper “sleep” in his ear as Joan closed the trap on him, and they both felt his body go limp between the two of them. They hailed a cab and he remained out cold for the entire journey, sleepwalking from the vehicle into Joan’s apartment, then onto her couch, sandwiched once again between the two women.

All the while, whenever his mind would try to wake, their voices would smother him. Joan’s endless rapid-fire words in one ear and Liz’s smooth and delicate lullaby in his other ear, melting his concerns as they led him deeper.

He didn’t know, and in truth he didn’t really know anything that was happening to him, that every time he started to wake his abductors would let him rise out of trance just enough so that the next time they dropped him the fractionation effect would send him plunging even deeper.

They didn’t need more than that though, just to keep him docile and disoriented long enough to get him to where they were.

Now the real work would begin.

* * *

“Marcus,“ Liz and Joan had taken off their coats and snuggled up very close to him on the couch before they started to speak again.

As she called to him, her lips almost brushing his ear, Liz let her tone become more normal, more conversational than the smothering and seductive softness she had used in her part of the induction. “Marcus wake up.”

Joan waited until his eyes fluttered open before she took a drag and then exhaled a slow curling plume of smoke in front of his face.

“We brought you back here because we didn’t really know where else to take you. You were a little out of it, a little lost in the moment and we didn’t want to send you home alone. But you’re here with us and you’re feeling much better.”

Liz didn’t let him ask where “here” was or why, didn’t give him a chance to establish any agency in their conversation. They had talked about taking him under and keeping him under for the duration, simply burying as many suggestions in his mind as possible and telling him he’d had too much to drink. They’d talked about engaging him in a three-way, but his physical and emotional responses might not be what they wanted.

Joan had explained this to her student, that the three way may be too over-stimulating for him, that his conscious mind wouldn’t want to disengage from an experience like that, and they couldn’t risk it.

It was true, but Joan also didn’t want to share her Lizzie with anyone else, even someone she would be enjoying too. There was something else at work in Joan’s mind, the idea of this becoming a real quid-pro-quo and what that would mean for her as a person and as a professional woman. That and the thought she might feel like a pimp sicking her girl on him like he was a “Jon” to be played, or blackmailed, or otherwise leveraged.

Hypnotizing, brainwashing and manipulating someone for her benefit was one thing, but trading sex for favors just seemed cheap.

“Listen to Liz Marcus, she wants you to listen to her and focus on her. Try not to let me distract you from the sound of her voice, and if your mind starts to wander over to me, to my words, you can find yourself becoming more and more soothed by the smell of my smoke because smoking is a great way for me to relax and the more relaxed I am, the more I smoke, the more comfortable you’ll be, here with us, only with us.”

Joan watched him as he looked over at her, and she saw the far away look in his eyes become more solidified, just where they wanted him.

They had brought him up to the surface for just a breath of consciousness, but not enough to let his critical mind come back into control. They wanted his mind, or at least the softest and most malleable parts of it to be an active participant, and Joan had coached Liz to believe that if they did everything right his body would also respond in the right ways as well.

“I know you’re very confused Marcus, “ Liz was purring “but that’s already fading away, drifting down and down, and you can follow my voice and listen to my words, compartmentalizing them now just like before, relaxing wonders, pleasurable words, one and the other.”

Joan had to remind herself not to become too caught up in her protégé’s voice. Liz was talented in a way neither of them would have ever imagined she was, and the teacher was not going to tell the student just how good she had become. Liz’s delivery and her poise made her naturally dominant, and her dominance was just like her beauty, you didn’t realize how overwhelming it was at first, but once you did it was irresistible.

“You feel so good don’t you Marcus?” Joan let out a long drag and let her voice become more stern, almost like an encouraging boss or a teacher. She’d done most of the heavy lifting with her rapid speech and deliberate overloading of his mind at the party, but now it was time for her to sit back and be who she was, completely and totally in charge.

Otherwise, Liz might carry everyone away, and Joan didn’t want to admit it but she knew it would only take one moment of weakness before her sweet submissive Lizzie became Mistress Liz.

“We know you do,” Liz’s voice was dripping with honey, “we know you’re almost overflowing with pleasure.”

Both women watched as a happy smile started to creep across his subdued and docile face.

“That’s right Marcus, you’re feeling very good right now, “ Liz and Joan agreed to no overt touching except for the press of their bodies against his, “very warm and very happy to be here in this relaxing pleasurable place, surrounded by so much softness and warmth.”

He let out a dreamy sigh as she continued with her sugary seduction of his mind and boy.

“It feels so good to be here with us, between us, listening to us and hearing only our voices now, that it’s impossible to compartmentalize all of your pleasure. It’s starting to spill out into every corner of your mind now, spreading into your body too.”

Joan help up a finger that Marcus didn’t see, stopping Liz before she could truly hit her stride, “Every time I smoke I feel a tingle through my body, like a wave of warmth, and it’s easy to imagine isn’t it Marcus? I’m sure you could watch me now, watch the smoke and imagine feeling what I feel as you listen to Liz now.”

Liz’s eyes widened slightly as Joan too a drag and then exhaled, it was something the smoking woman had said to her more than once in their time together.

“The relaxation you feel from watching Joan smoke is just going to open the pathways through your body for all that pleasure to flood through you. Breathing in deep relaxation, and feeling the physical bliss of deep warmth spreading now as you breathe you. Look at the smoke and breathe in, look at how relaxed Joan is and breathe out. Feel the pleasure spreading now, feel it starting to fill you up now, from the tip of your toes to the top of your head.”

Joan’s smooth nurturing voice swallowed up the room as she spoke again, “Pleasure like warm honey flowing through body now Marcus, and every plume of smoke that crosses your eyes sends waves of relaxation through you, doubling the pleasure until it starts to press deeper into you, like too much water poured into a cup.”

Liz followed Joan’s set up but was curious why the woman wouldn’t let her work, still, this was too important to lose focus, or get distracted. “Just like the way my words spilled out of all of those compartments, pressing pleasure through every inch of your body, drowning your mind in sweet bliss.”

Her eyes flickered down between his legs when he moaned, and she saw what she had been waiting for, a full stiff tent pole in his slacks. As a gentle curl of smoke blew past his face and Liz caught the smell, she also felt her own body instinctively relax at that moment.

It took her longer than she wanted to start speaking again, but her voice was just as sweet and smothering as she intended, “The pleasure is flooding you, pooling up in the sweetest places now, and eventually it will have to burst out of you. You can feel it already, the warm sticky pull of release, the pulse of pleasure bubbling up from down deep inside of you.”

Liz’s eyes had been drawn to Joan’s lips and were magnetized by the swirling smoke. She was feeling everything she was saying, and even though Liz had learned Joan’s techniques and triggers, the knowledge didn’t insulate her the way she thought it would.

“The hot,” she gasped as she realized her panties were soaked, like her own erotic floodgates had been opened, “sticky pleasure swelling up from deep inside you, ” she was struggling now and the sudden onset of this pleasure was leaving her almost as disoriented as her subject.

“Lizzie likes to watch the relaxing smoke too Marcus, she’s also feeling wonderfully relaxed and is swimming in pleasure. Listen to her; she knows exactly how you feel now. Don’t you Lizzie?”

She gasped out a “Yes” and didn’t know how Joan had done it.

She didn’t realize it was just a combination of her own desires, well-worn complimentary triggers, and the irresistible sound of Joan’s authoritative tone, and Liz’s own sympathetic understanding of the position she had put Marcus in all added up to a sympathetic hypnotic experience, but Liz would not let go of her desire to finish her part.

“It’s so good, feels so good.” It took all of her will and all of her focus to get those words out, and just like that, for all of her ambition and all of her studies, for all of her plans, Liz couldn’t remember what she was going to say next when she watched Joan take a deep long drag and then exhale.

Between the two women Marcus was whimpering with pleasure as his subconscious mind agreed unquestioningly with everything he heard. This was  especially because everything was overtly directed towards him, even the phrases Joan had really been targeting at Liz.

“You look like you need a smoke Lizzie, why don’t you take a drag and let it all go.” Joan put her cigarette in her protégé’s hand and watched as she took a drag.

“Watch her Marcus, see how wonderful she feels, Lizzie feels just like you Marcus, and you can see her pleasure overflow and feel it now.”

Joan’s wicked victorious smile was seen by no one, as the other two were swallowed in orgasmic release, their eyes closed and their bodies writhing in ecstasy while Joan enjoyed her triumph.

“You’re completely empty now Marcus, empty of everything just like Lizzie, so empty and ready for my words to fill you up again, fill you up with even sweeter pleasure as Lizzie sleeps for me, pleasure and purpose Marcus, more pleasure than what you just experienced, and a new purpose at work, a new way to help me and my Lizzie…”

When Liz finally woke, Marcus was gone.

“What did you… why did you change the plan?”

She could feel Joan close to her on the couch and didn’t bother to open her eyes.

“Because I’m in charge Lizzie, I’m always in charge.” And it was true, Liz knew, thanks to a series of suggestions that had just been slipped in her sleeping mind, that no matter what she did or tried, not matter how many slaves of her own she would make, everything was always just more proof of Joan’s dominance.

It made Liz wet just thinking about it.

“How may I serve you Mistress?”

As the words left Liz’s lips she understood that things had changed, that she could always be more submissive and more obedient.

She also understood that it meant Joan could become even more dominant, which meant, in the back of her programmed mind, in the place where her wits were always sharp and ready, that if she could somehow get the upper hand she too could become more powerful and more controlling.

The logic only complimented the state of her suggestible mind for the time being, but once a seed was planted it would always have to grow.