The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

1.

At first, Tegan didn’t even think what she saw was hypnosis.

She and her Little Black Dress had come to the gallery show early. The current artist didn’t really interest her, and she was only here to meet Dana and Dana’s new girlfriend, but there was no sign of them yet. Probably on Dana Standard Time, she thought wryly. She’d escaped quickly to the back areas where the longer-term work was in display.

She nodded to one of the gallery interns, doubling as waitstaff tonight, who bustled by on her way to the main exhibition area out front. The girl wore a white blouse and a short black skirt over black hose, as though she wasn’t used to uniforms but had done her best to concoct one. Tegan wondered if she’d gotten the nametag herself, too—a tasteful brushed-brass oblong that said Sasha.

Sasha’s flats and boyishly-cut blonde hair made her look even more like a student. She nodded gravely back at Tegan, not sure who she was but apparently reassured she wasn’t going to throw a VIP tantrum about something.

Tegan glanced at her. Demure and sexy at once. Sasha must know she’d get hit on, looking like that, but her face was too earnest to show what she felt about that.

Tegan stepped slowly into a shadowed portion of the middle of the room, into a statuary group interspersed with mirrors. The lifesize figures might be a mockery of gallery-goers, posed here and there, singly and in groups. In the dim light Tegan was one of them whenever she stood still, seeing herself in a mirror or two.

She shivered. The artist had probably been making some labored Statement—you are part of my art, patrons of this place are as lifeless as what they buy. But each time she visited this piece, her mind spent less time playing freeze-tag with the other statues, and more time telling her it could be a place to stalk someone.

She didn’t know if the gallery moved the statues around as part of the installation, but even now, turning a bit, she couldn’t be certain everything she saw had been there when she’d turned her back on it before.

At the far end of the room, a woman in a longskirted cocktail dress moved away from a large stabile of wood panels and intercepted Sasha. Tegan saw the girl’s shoulders tense, and turned her eyes away, not wanting to watch the sucking-up.

When she looked, back, though, they were still talking. They were too quiet for the sound to carry to Tegan and her clique of mannequins, but Sasha’s posture was more relaxed now. The dark-haired guest’s face was friendly and smiling, and what Tegan could see of the intern’s expression was calm. She nodded slowly now and then. Tegan wondered if the other patron were a benevolent pest instead, mentoring the young woman whether she liked it or not.

Still unaware that she watched them, the other women talked. The dark-haired guest stroked Sasha’s arm, and then her hair, while the intern stood passively. Hmm. Getting hit on before she’d even gotten to the main party—and by her own team.

Tegan, wondering at herself, stood still, invisible among the other statues. Sasha wasn’t objecting. Maybe this was her team, and that fresh-faced persona was how she attracted older women.

But the girl was practically at attention now—and at the same time she looked as though she was about to crumple to the floor, exhausted. She stared at her brunette inquisitor, who looked at her almost hungrily now, as though she’d sucked Sasha’s vitality from her.

Tegan shivered again. It really was like a vampiress mesmerizing a helpless ingenue.

Then, like a snake in no hurry at all, the brunette’s hand flowed upward and she spread her palm before the intern’s face. Sasha swayed a little but didn’t look away.

The brunette extended her fingertips and touched Sasha’s forehead.

Sasha closed her eyes and stood still.

Tegan stared and made no sound.

The other patron lowered her hand and just stood there, as motionless as her hypnotized prey. She blinked and peered at Sasha, her delicate mouth quirking into a smile as she seemed simply to enjoy how the blonde looked, lost in a trance. She ogled the motionless girl, cocking her head to consider the swell of her breast under the blouse, or the svelte line of her thigh. She didn’t lick her lips, but Tegan expected her to.

After this silent feast, the brunette narrowed her eyes and began to speak. It was still too soft for Tegan to hear, but she could tell the tone was lower, harder, more commanding. Now and then she would stop, and Sasha would nod meekly without opening her eyes. Whatever the hypnotist had done to her just now, it had left Sasha willing to accept anything she was told.

Suddenly Tegan wondered if she should do something.

No, she told herself. No one can be hypnotized against her will. Maybe they know each other and this is some little game they play. Maybe they’re even some sort of D/s couple. and they roleplay Vampire&Victim out here in plain sight among the vanilla—

Really? Tegan felt herself answer. Maybe a student who’s studying and getting used as slave-labor by the gallery and probably has to have another job to get actual money, who gets three hours of sleep when she’s lucky, who has to make nice to rich eccentric clients even when she can barely keep her eyes open—maybe a student like that can’t resist a soothing voice and friendly eyes so easily.

Maybe this is real. Maybe Sasha is being taken.

She kept watching.

Then the hypnotist was done, and she touched the girl’s eyebrow, beaming at her victim as Sasha woke up, blinking. Sasha smiled.

Tegan felt a flutter deep inside. She has no idea. She doesn’t remember being hypnotized.

She was told not to. And from now on she has to obey.

Sasha walked off as briskly as before, thighs pert in black nylon under the high-hemmed skirt. The woman who’d just taken a joyride with her mind watched her go, then casually strolled out after her.

Tegan stayed in the shadows with her motionless friends for a while, alone in the room, wondering if either Sasha or her entrancer were just outside in the show area. If they saw her emerge, and knew she’d been a silent voyeur . . . she found another way out.

Dana still hadn’t shown up. Tegan found another intern, a boy this time, bearing a tray of wine glasses. She took one and traded nods. His eyes lingered on how she looked in the LBD, but he didn’t appeal to her. His eyebrow was pierced and it distracted Tegan. It was where the brunette had touched her—victim—to end the trance.

She tried to sort through the impressions to have a story ready to tell Dana.

Of course, Dana was bringing her girlfriend for Tegan to meet, and this wasn’t exactly first-acquaintance chat fodder. And Dana might have a whole different perspective on a lesbian D/s couple—Tegan was glad and proud that Dana had come out to her, but there was a world of things she didn’t know about what Dana’s orientation meant to Dana’s attitudes.

She might really like this tale about a sapphic svengali. But she might not.

Tegan turned for another survey of the room, but instead of Dana in the distance, she found herself face to face with Sasha the intern right in front of her. She smiled tentatively at Tegan, holding out her own tray of drinks. Tegan smiled back as she held up her glass and shook her head, feeling absurdly gentle toward Sasha, as though she’d just been hurt. It made her head spin to see how clear and unworried those eyes were. The stare that had glazed them before, and whatever it was in it that had held the girl in thrall, was gone.

Or else it had seeped into Sasha’s mind to stay.

They went their separate ways.

Another fifteen minutes without Dana. Tegan visited the statues again but found herself staying in the light and moving, so no one else could have themselves a private moment without knowing she was there. She smiled at the nearest statue, remembering when she and Dana had roomed together in college and Dana had taken forever to get ready. She smiled again, picturing Dana’s girlfriend getting more and more antsy, waiting for her.

Or maybe Dana’s new girlfriend was even worse about being on time, and Dana was starting to feel the lash of poetic justice.

Tegan stopped smiling. She hoped her friend wasn’t in the middle of a fight, or the tense silent car ride after one.

Back out in the main area, Tegan saw the hypnotist, and was oddly glad not to make eye contact. She didn’t fear she’d fall under the woman’s dubious spell, but she was irrationally certain she’d give herself away, somehow, and the woman would realize she’d had an audience.

But the hypnotist was scanning the crowd, herself, and Tegan wasn’t surprised to see her focus on Sasha.

Then Sasha paused, blinking slowly. Her bland waitress smile drained away to blankness. Her eyes were faraway now, and she turned, drifting gracefully to a table to set down her tray. She stood at attention, unnoticed by those around her, and looked at her wristwatch.

She turned, expressionless, her eyes filled with purpose now, and strode through the crowd. Tegan followed her.

As the crowd thinned out near the corridor to the restrooms, Tegan hung back. She’d lost sight of the brunette and felt reluctant to be caught.

Tegan found a display to hide beside and watched. Sasha kept marching to the ladies’.

The door opened and the hypnotist stepped out, leering at her prey before speaking a single word, her lips moving sensuously around it. The girl stopped and resumed attention, staring past the brunette at the opened restroom door. Tegan wondered if her eyes had closed—or just gone empty. Then Sasha stepped inside without seeming to see the other woman, who let the door close behind them.

Tegan wandered off. She tried to convince herself that she had no itch to slip in and listen to what—if anything—they were doing. She’d pretty much succeeded, by the time Dana finally found her by the hors d’oeuvres table.

Dana was flustered but happy. She was supposed to meet her girlfriend here, after they both got held up. Being almost religious about not using her cellphone while driving, she hadn’t been in touch.

“Just wait here,” she said, pointing firmly to a tray that held the faint remnants of something with salmon, and vanished again to search. Tegan sighed.

She looked out. The gallery was even more full, and none of the pretty drink-bearing interns were near. She looked at the table, seeking olives.

“And this is my dearest friend Tegan.”

She turned to find Dana arm in arm with the hypnotist.

“Tegan, this is my girlfriend.” Dana’s eyes glowed as she savored saying it aloud. “This is Joss.”

2.

Tegan’s miniskirt drew a long and possibly interested glance from the hostess and from two men leaving the restaurant, but she barely looked at them. Before she could give her name to the hostess, she looked past her and saw Dana’s girlfriend, looking out at her.

Joss left her place at the bar to greet Tegan. At the gallery the other night she’d been in that long dress, but today she wore loose slacks under a top that subtly emphasized her slim body and small breasts. She might’ve planned her androgynous look to contrast with Tegan’s mini and ankle boots.

Tegan made herself look into the shorter woman’s eyes as they said hello, and felt nothing but a flutter she knew was self-induced. Joss had pretty eyes, but not supernatural ones. Could she really hypnotize someone with them?

Well—is she letting you see what Sasha looked into, the other night?

Joss looked back limpidly and didn’t try to stare her down. Instead, she went ahead and looked Tegan over, even more thoroughly and appreciatively than the hostess. Who was probably watching them now, when she could.

“Thank you for coming, Joss.” Tegan had meant to arrive early again, and wondered how long Dana’s girlfriend had been waiting. Behind those dark eyes there was nothing like insecurity. Joss might already be several steps ahead of her.

“Well, I had to come, didn’t I?” Joss chuckled, taking the edge off. “The SO always needs to stay on the best friend’s good side.

“But let’s go somewhere a little more private.” She led Tegan into a back room, dimmer but spacious. There was no door in the doorway, but they had it to themselves.

There was a candle on the glass-topped table. Joss was looking for a waitress, and didn’t see Tegan glance at it once and then away.

When she slid her legs under the table, she realized it would show them off, and smiled a little at Joss. Of course. She crossed them slowly.

A waitress appeared and looked first at Joss, who nodded to Tegan and let her order first.

“Are you on a schedule, Tegan? In case we get all wrapped up in things?” Dana had said Joss was living off some prescient investments, and Tegan tried to figure out if this were a subtle dig at someone who still had to work for a living.

But it was a good point, one she’d already thought of. “Thank you, but I’m free all afternoon.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful.” Joss appraised her. “I so hate to be rushed.”

Their drinks arrived, and Tegan moved first. “To Dana.”

Joss nodded and repeated it fervently, then set her glass down. “Does she know we’re meeting?”

Tegan shook her head.

“I see. Well, Tegan, she knows you have some kind of problem. With me.”

Now Tegan nodded. She could see Dana in a place like this—or even lying in bed with Joss—whispering painfully to her lover that her best friend was suspicious. But she could also see Dana sitting quietly, staring at a jewel Joss held before her eyes or just into space, reporting it calmly to Joss, not reacting to it until Joss told her how to feel.

Joss sat there, luminous and dark in the candlelight. Perhaps amused. Patient.

Did she see me? Tegan measured the other woman’s poise and decided that, yes, she seemed like one who might have enjoyed an audience—one too abashed to make a sound—as she’d made Sasha her thrall.

“I saw something the other night that made me wonder.”

Joss didn’t blink.

“That girl at the gallery—the intern.”

“Intern?”

Tegan looked at her. “They were the ones serving. Dressed as waitresses and waiters.”

“Oh!” Joss sounded mildly intrigued at the idea. “Well, she was a perfect waitress. Polite and eager. It suited her.” She smiled, in no hurry to know what Tegan was wondering.

Tegan realized she’d expected either evasion or an offbeat but rational explanation. She didn’t know what to do now. Joss was watching her, eyes reflecting the light. She thought wildly of matching tactics and saying nothing either, just staring back until Joss had to speak.

A glance into Joss’ dark eyes hinted at how far in she might have to gaze. How hard it might be to come back out of them.

She smiled at her glass instead. “The thing is, Joss,” she said to it, “that waitress-intern seemed quite the fan of yours.” She paused, teetering on the edge of accusation.

How did such a stupid idea as confronting her seem so clever before?

She looked up suddenly, and it was easy. “I may be an idiot for saying this, but Dana’s my friend and I love her. And I thought I saw my friend Dana’s girlfriend slip into the powder room with someone who wasn’t my friend Dana.” She took a sip without looking away from Joss.

“Please, Joss. Tell me why I’m an idiot for worrying, and make me believe it.”

Then she trembled and swallowed—as soon as she’d said that last, she pictured herself hypnotized. Listening, as open and helpless as Sasha had been, while Joss made her believe it.

Joss looked at her for a few moments, then nodded. “I love Dana too, Tegan. And I’m glad she has a friend like you.” It sounded warm, and right. Tegan waited.

Joss turned her head a little, to look at her askance. “But if two women heed nature’s call at the same time, I don’t know that it amounts to a tryst.”

Her mouth quirked. “Unless you also think we’re both into—what do they call it, watersports?”

Tegan didn’t laugh. This, now, didn’t sound right, not for the SO trying to stay on the best friend’s good side. It made her sad. How could Dana fall for someone this callous?

“Unless the two women discuss it, beforehand,” Tegan said. She sounded deliberate, to herself, but she wasn’t even sure she’d decided to speak.

“What?” Joss straightened a little, and perversely it made Tegan feel a bit better about her. Something could pierce that languid calm, apparently.

“I saw you talk to her, before.”

A smile crept out under Joss’ dark eyes.

“Are you a little jealous, Tegan?”

Clever, and something Tegan had to respond to. “Nothing to be jealous of, Joss. We’re best friends, but I’m not Dana’s entire life. I’m not losing anything if she’s chosen someone.”

“What I meant, Tegan, was: are you hurt that she didn’t choose you? In all this time?”

Tegan swallowed. “Dana is gay. I’m not. There are friends, and there are lovers. Sometimes they’re the same, sometimes not. I’m what Dana needs me to be.” It was what she’d said to Dana when Dana had come out to her.

But she remembered that day again. Watching Dana watch her, as she took in for the first time that the woman she’d shared a room with for years, swapped clothes with—liked women. Had liked them back then. It had made her dizzy, and even oddly aroused her, though she’d never felt more than mildly bi-curious. But there had been no groping, no drunken passes, no furtive peeks or missing dirty underwear. Not even any wistful hints.

Tegan had realized she was thinking like the homophobes she despised. Lesbians didn’t constantly scope out every woman they saw. Tegan hadn’t coveted every male ass she’d seen in her coed dwellings back then. Even the nice ones.

Maybe, she’d told herself, Dana roomed with her because Tegan didn’t attract her.

Now, she was wondering if that disappointed her. She was starting to dislike Joss for making her wonder.

“It’s intriguing, though.” Joss kept looking at her. “You’re a very pretty woman, Tegan.” Now she dropped her gaze to look openly, and steadily, through the glass at the line of Tegan’s legs. Tegan trembled a little. The other woman’s gaze was almost palpable as it lingered on her hemline.

“If I were you, I’d certainly wonder why a girl who likes girls wouldn’t have tried you, at least. Whether or not I was lesbian, or bi.”

Tegan felt the flutter again as she met Joss’ gaze and held it.

“I certainly might try you,” Joss said, looking steadily back at her. “But I’m spoken for.”

She leaned forward. Reaching under the table she put a fingertip to Tegan’s knee, and Tegan let her. “You were lovely in that dress, Tegan. In the gallery that night. It showed off your legs wonderfully, and your body. I noticed that, and I’m sure you knew it.

“And here you are again, like a daydream.” Now it was her palm on Tegan’s thigh, light and firm. Her fingers seemed to know just where to touch. Despite herself it turned Tegan on.

Her eyes were on Tegan’s now, and Tegan didn’t look away, or pull back from the hand on her thigh. She wondered if anyone was watching from the doorway. They might think Joss was seducing her. She suspected they wouldn’t give her long before she yielded.

“I wonder, Tegan. Are you testing me? For Dana?”

Tegan stared back at her, feeling her heart race as Dana’s girlfriend caressed her.

“Because I might have thought you were.”

3.

Joss smiled.

“I might have thought Dana’s best friend would try to seduce me, to see if I’d be unfaithful to her.” Her hand tightened and released. Tegan’s thigh was cold now, where its warmth had been. “A honey trap, as they say. It would be especially gallant of you to try, too, if you’re not into girlsex yourself.”

Joss’ grin was suddenly elfin and mischievous. “Of course, I don’t know what you’d have told Dana, if you did. And then I did. And then we did.

“And how would she react, if her best friend seduced me like that?” Joss sat back, taking a sip from her glass. “Or if I just told her that you tried to?

“No telling which way she’d interpret it. Which of us she’d think betrayed her trust. We could both lose her.

“And you’re the kind of woman who anticipates those things, Tegan.” Dana would have told Joss that about her, and Joss let that sink in, too.

Joss narrowed her eyes a little and her nostrils flared delicately. “Or do I have it wrong?” She enjoyed Tegan’s legs once more before looking back up at her. “Maybe it’s much simpler. Dana’s straight friend is a little curious, and she thinks she wants me.”

Tegan was suddenly very warm, in the predatory look Joss gave her. She’d never been coveted that way before. She’d never felt so naked.

The warmth stayed in her. She was being seduced, and it seemed so easy, if she wanted it. She could be with a woman for the first time, with this lithe, smooth body. Joss was so cool, with such feline unconcern for it.

This was the woman Dana was falling in love with, but now Tegan couldn’t get the idea out of her head. She watched Joss watching her try, and Joss was too good at this even to laugh at her. She imagined Dana catching them in bed, being mortified, and looking up to see how unbothered Joss was, staring calmly over Tegan’s bare ass and starting to soothe Dana out of—

She started to blink and suppressed it. She just smiled. She decided not to wonder why her own daydream cast her on the bottom.

“Curious, yes.” She was calmer now. The pure weirdness of the come-on had gotten to her, and there was something compelling in the way Joss could look at her.

But Joss would have sex with her, if she said yes. She knew it, and once they’d done it, it didn’t matter if Joss blew it off, or else held it over her head. Whatever scary thrill part of her got from it, it told her very drastically how little Joss must care about Dana. This was so much worse than she’d thought.

“Just not curious about that.” She smiled sweetly. “But I’m flattered, Joss.”

Joss smiled back. She looked as though she might be ready to enjoy this.

“No.” Tegan shook her head. “Actually, it was that intern.

“How hard was it to hypnotize her?”

Joss moved slightly—almost subliminally. Tegan wanted to laugh. Got her!

“Not hard at all, Tegan.”

Damn. Tegan smiled to cover her own chagrin. It was like learning chess while playing an expert—there were entire moves she wasn’t seeing, and Joss just kept not being trapped. She didn’t even challenge Tegan or ask how she knew. Had Joss seen her after all, hiding among the mannequins?

“Some people are very easy to hypnotize.”

Like me? Tegan nearly asked aloud. She didn’t worry that Joss could actually overcome her, but she wondered if Joss would try. Stare her into helpless attention and then speak to her the way she’d spoken to Sasha, words becoming utter truth behind Tegan’s glassy eyes. You are no longer worried, Tegan. You hear and believe only my voice. You saw nothing, Tegan. You will remember only that I am the friend you trust more than anyone . . .

But the realistic worry pushed that aside.

“Is Dana one of those people who are easy to hypnotize?” she asked.

Joss frowned, and now Tegan saw everything from yet another perspective—a limb she hadn’t even known she was going out on.

“I wouldn’t know, Tegan. She’s never asked me to.”

Tegan looked at Dana’s girlfriend and tried to ignore all the mindgames. “You didn’t say no. Maybe you didn’t care if she asked.”

She waited for Joss to slide out of her chair and leave, or just glare at her. Or tell her she was full of shit and that Dana would think so too, when she heard.

Joss didn’t glare.

“I saw you with that girl, Joss. I don’t know what it was, but I know what it looked like. I don’t know if she’s an old friend and this is an old game, or if you really do get your jollies playing with pretty girls’ heads when they let you.

“But if Dana trusts you, she may have trusted you enough to do that to her. She’s never talked about you hypnotizing her. Not that you did or offered to, not that she asked to be.” She looked over the candle at Joss. “And maybe you just haven’t.

“But you’d only have to convince her to let you hypnotize her once. And you put her so deep that she doesn’t even remember it.”

Tegan swallowed and held Joss’ gaze, suddenly feeling warm. “Or ordered her not to.”

Joss took another drink. “Don’t stop there, Tegan. ‘Maybe’ she didn’t fall in love with me at all.”

She spoke quietly, and Tegan was lost, trying to decide if it was mortal affront or psychopathic calm. “’Maybe’ I just hypnotized her deeply, and brainwashed her into believing she was.

“’Maybe’ we met professionally, and I tricked her into letting me entrance her for ‘relaxation’ or ‘focus.’ Or letting me do something she didn’t even recognize as a hypnotic induction.”

She smiled. “That would make me pretty pathetic, Tegan, wouldn’t it? If I had to mindbend a woman into loving me? Or just thinking she did?” Posing a little, she looked sidelong. “Be honest. Do you think I really need to enslave women to make them sleep with me?

“Or just want to spend time with me?”

Tegan felt cold now. Her skin crawled as this veered in a wholly unexpected direction. She pictured Dana, awake and unhypnotized, listening as Joss quietly told her about this conversation.

“Pathetic Dana, for that matter—being that easy to deceive. And then to control.”

Joss leaned forward slowly, gracefully. “On the other hand, Tegan, what if you’re right?

“You’ve known Dana longer than I have. She’s sweet, but she’s nobody’s fool. Getting into her head and bending her mind wouldn’t be easy. She’d fight like hell if she knew, even if it were someone she trusted. Or loved.”

Her hand floated across the table and rested on Tegan’s. “Turning Dana into my slave would take some doing.

“But then, you’ve suggested yourself into thinking you watched me hypnotize a complete stranger into joining me in a toilet stall for sex and amnesia.”

Her eyes were riveting over the candlelight.

“So if you’re right, Tegan, then Dana is under the spell of a very clever, very powerful, very dangerous hypnotic predator.

“And you are sitting across from her, in a quiet dark place, hearing nothing but her voice.

“Do you think I could hypnotize you, Tegan?”

Tegan shivered, but didn’t try to pull her hand away. She gazed back at Joss’ face, shining above the candle like a beautiful moon.

“No, Joss. You can’t. I don’t trust you at all.”

“Trust me? If I’m the vampire you’re talking about, that won’t matter.” Joss smiled at her and Tegan was coveted again. “It would just make enslaving you a little tastier, that’s all.”

Now Joss lifted her hand off of Tegan’s, and Tegan couldn’t stop herself from sighing.

It made her angry enough to focus. “You’re not a vampire, Joss. You’re dating my friend but you’re screwing around on her. You’d fuck me if I let you. I don’t know if you’ve got her hypnotized or if you just lie to her the old-fashioned way.”

Joss wasn’t reacting, just watching her. It let Tegan keep herself to a soft hiss. Then she noticed that Joss still had that covetous look, as though Tegan’s fury just made her more interesting.

A little tastier.

“I know you can play dirty. I think I have an idea what you are, Joss, and it scares the shit out of me.” She’d decided not to say psychopath aloud. “But it scares me more to think of what you could do to Dana, before she figures it out and cuts you loose.”

Joss nodded.

“So I’m not going to let you.”

Joss nodded again.

“All right.” Joss took another sip of her drink. Tegan felt her reassert control as she did. Joss was genuinely enjoying the taste, not escaping into gesture.

“Then I will make a deal with you. A bet. If you win, I’ll find a way to bow gracefully out of Dana’s life. With minimal hurt to her—I can come up with something.”

She looked at her glass and smiled. “You shouldn’t overestimate your ability to damage me, Tegan, but we both know you can make things a lot messier than my amusement would be worth. So that’s a good selfish motive you can rely on, for me to withdraw.”

Tegan knew she was supposed to ask what the bet was, and suspected she knew. Instead she asked, “And what do I have to do if you win, Joss?”

Joss looked up, not smiling at all. “If I win, Tegan, you’ll do whatever I tell you to.

“The bet is this.

“I will hypnotize you. You will let me do it.

“If you still hate me when you awaken, you’re free and you win, and I disappear. But instead, if I convert you into my willing slave . . .”

Now Joss did smile. “Then you still win, Tegan. Because you’ll wake up loving slavery, and not wanting anything else. There’s no downside for you.”

They stared at each other.

“I can’t cheat, Tegan.

“You don’t really believe I can hypnotize you at all. If I never take real control of your will, it’s not as though I can reprogram you to forget the bet, or fall in love with me.”

Tegan’s heart skipped a beat. Seen through its very impossibility, like a deadly snake through thick glass, the image still hit her: lost under the spell, lulled into accepting what Joss told her to think.

She frowned. She knew there was a catch, but Joss was right—if the whole thing relied on the limits what hypnosis could really do to her, then it was as good as finished now. And it might be worth a few minutes of mindgames, if Joss really would leave Dana alone.

Would she?

She realized she didn’t know what Joss really wanted from Dana, but if her feelings were that offhanded she might really be willing to walk away.

God—why was she feeling offended that this woman would drop Dana so easily? Did she want Dana to have a stalker instead?

She tried to think of Dana, but what she kept seeing instead was Sasha in trance. Sasha must be a submissive, and one who was already into pretending to let other women mesmerize her. But she’d just stood there. Obediently.

“On the off chance these are your last moments of free will, Tegan, can I buy you another drink?”

Tegan looked over at her.

“No, thank you, Joss.”

Joss grinned. “Good girl.”