The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Brooke waited until all the kids had gone to their rooms, to sleep, before she went to seek Tyler in his home office. She would tell him tonight; it made her nervous, but still she did hope her optimism was founded in something real. She told herself she knew her husband well enough after so many years of marriage to think it was.

She gave a light knock to the door that was ajar; and Tyler looked up with curiosity, maybe imagining one of their children had come out of bed to see him. When he saw it was Brooke, his wife, this look shifted into a smile of welcoming. Brooke tried not to be nervous; and when that failed, tried not to let her nervousness increase beyond the level it was already resting at.

His smile had been welcome enough; Brooke stepped into the room, and pulled the ajar door shut behind her. She didn’t want to risk anyone else in the house overhearing. She didn’t want anyone or anything to witness what had been shut in the room except what was already inside.

“Dear,” Tyler said. “It’s nice to see you, of course, but I thought you were going right to bed.”

She’d been toying with the idea of telling him all evening but hadn’t told him so. If he’d been expecting this conversation, even if he hadn’t known what the conversation would contain, it would have made this harder.

“I have to tell you something,” Brooke said, feeling her nerves rise within her.

“I hope it’s good news.” Tyler smiled, and leaned back in his deskchair. Brooke opened her mouth, but the words seemed a little stuck in her. She hoped— but she feared at the same time. The consequence if she was hoping wrong, believing wrong, was so large that it was freezing her. But she really did need to say it, so— “I’m sleeping with other men.”

The smile on Tyler’s face had been struck into a look of shock. He stared at her.

Brooke breathed in; the seconds seemed to crawl by. If there had been a clock in the room, she wouldn’t have missed a single tick of the hand.

“What are you saying?” Tyler finally expressed; his eyes still widened in surprise. “Is this— are you unhappy?” A look of concern creeping in. “Would you— is this your way of telling me you want a divorce?” He kept starting abortive sentences and then needing to regroup. And what he was saying made it easy for Brooke to know what she wanted to say; it made it rise up in her, and she was expressing, rushingly, desperate for him to understand.

“No, Tyler. No! I’m so happy with you, and I love you so much. It’s just— different— I want to find the way to explain.”

Now she found it easier if she paced a bit— she walked to her side a few steps, holding the side of her hand against her mouth as she looked at the floor under her feet. Then walked back.

“I love you,” Brooke repeated, because it seemed to her that this was the most important thing to stress out of all the present facts. “It’s just that this new side of me has been coming out. I was always so permissive before. Just going along with anything. But now I feel like; I’m getting what I want. I’m acting out my desires. I feel... powerful. And all the men I’ve been with; they respond, they like it. I feel stronger, and it’s so satisfying to win strangers over. To convince them they want to give me what I want—” her tone had gone huskier. She’d been gushing before, telling Tyler everything true. After all, she had married her best friend and it felt natural to dish to him about what was new and exciting in her life, what was new and exciting about her. Even if there was a particular conflict of interest in this case.

The look on Tyler’s face had shifted again, from one of surprise melding to concern to a frown.

“So I’m not satisfying you?”

“No,” Brooke huffed, frustrated. She wasn’t the one who had any right to be getting frustrated. This was the most serious, the most important conversation of their marriage and she had to get it right. Had to make him understand. She couldn’t cut corners because of her annoyance.

“It isn’t about you at all, or anything you’ve done,” she tried again. “I love you,” she repeated for the third time, because she didn’t want him to have any doubt. “I love you, and I’m so happy in our marriage. This is just… something that’s just for me. It’s only about the sex, there’s nothing emotional happening at all, I promise you. There’s just… such a thrill, in the chase. In seeing a man I want— pursuing him, telling him, convincing him— I said some of this already, I know. And I’m doing this conversation all wrong, and I know that, and I’m sorry for that too, but…” she took breath in, deeply breathing.

“It’s just something I need. For me. Now it’s something I crave, and I feel better— every time another encounter happens, I feel stronger. And before, I was doing everything for everyone else— but now I’m doing something just for myself, and that makes the everything I keep doing easier than it was. I have more energy to be your wife— to be the kids’ mother, to be the family member to our extended family. It replenishes me. I really need to keep doing it— so I hope you can find a way to be okay with it, because I don’t think I can stop now. I love you, but I don’t think I can stop now.”

She was a little out of breath when she finished saying all of it— and Tyler had settled back in his seat again from where he’d leaned forward in concern, draped his arms over the armrests, considering her.

“Well,” he said, a little dryly. “I think we’ve established you love me. I can’t say that I understand,” he continued, a little uncertainly. “But I’d like to. And I want to tell you I still love you too. There’s no desire to end our marriage on my side either. I really do appreciate you telling me, instead of going on doing it in secret. I’m not going to ask you to stop. It sounds like this is important to you. It doesn’t threaten me; I want to support you. The only thing I’ll ask is for you to explain a little more. I really would like to understand. I want to hear more about this.”

Brooke stared. She’d thought Tyler might do okay with the revelation. She’d never dreamed he would do this well, as well as he was doing. He wanted; to support her! To stay married to her!

To hear more.

The one thing she was leaving out was Leslie’s part in all that had happened; but she didn’t think she would include him now. There was something so personal, so private in the way she’d changed that she didn’t even want to tell her husband. She wanted to keep it just for herself to know. That felt the most right.

The rest, though, it had been agony to keep from him, and she did want to tell him. She wanted him to know, and apparently he wanted to hear. She loved that, and loved him for it.

She’d stood for long enough. She stepped forward and sat herself half-facing him on the edge of the desk. She felt comfortable, as she sat there. Not only physically, but emotionally too— Tyler had always made her feel so safe, and even as she sat here, about to say things that would be a challenge for both of them, she felt safe as ever.

“I find men just wherever I am in my day,” she started. “When I went to the gun range a few months ago, I slept with the attendant there— or a stylist at the salon, or a trainer at the gym. But I only ever sleep with someone once; there are no second goes. I’m not doing it to prevent affairs, but it’s certainly good for that, also. I do it because once I’ve had a man I lose interest in him. I know all his quirks, I’ve already won him. Seconds are boring— your seconds are the only ones I want; for the rest of them, all those strangers, it’s only about the thrill, the newness. I prefer the challenge of getting a new guy, where I’m not sure if I can persuade him or not— where I don’t know how he’ll respond when I fuck him.”

Tyler smiled. “That’s all a relief to hear. A bit touching, actually. But you can go on,” he prompted again, listening to her with a focused look, clearly taking in every single thing that she said to him.

“I just never felt it before,” she went on. “That much power— but now every time one of these men is looking at me, I feel it. I just see myself in their eyes, and watch myself, how I behave around them. It’s like getting to win a prize any time I want. You know how competitive I am,” she diminished. She’d been about to slip off on another track, but she’d segued to a stop.

Tyler smiled a little shakily at her, and nodded his head. It was nice to be known so well, to have qualities and idiosyncrasies of herself remembered, found noteworthy. It still surprised her sometimes even after so long.

“So I just... see the reverence my temporary partners look at me with, and then it’s like I become more of that person they’re seeing. But the person they’re seeing is this best version of myself who is looked up to, and respected... and that stays with me. I feel the need to be seen this way. And it’s entirely another kind of satisfaction to just tell someone what I want, what I expect them to do, and just see it get done.”

Tyler looked a little heated; this might be an arousing conversation for him, actually, Brooke was realizing. But it was nice he was listening to her this way, so openly, so without judgement. It reminded her of how Leslie listened; her husband was acting as her confidant again, and Brooke was finding how much she liked that. She smiled back at him to show him that, and he flushed a little redder.

That was sweet.

He swallowed, and shifted a little where he was sitting.

“That’s… that sounds like it’s very important to you. I think I’m understanding a little better what you meant before.”

That made something in Brooke’s chest fly, lighter than air— but though Tyler looked interested in a way that wasn’t purely academic, she could still see that hearing this was stretching him, pushing him beyond his preconceptions, and she knew she had to be careful of that, of pushing too far. “We don’t have to talk about this anymore,” she said.

“If you have more you want to say, I want to hear,” he corrected her.

She shook her head. “I could gush about it forever but if you—”

“Then I want to hear,” Tyler repeated, pointedly; it was still strange-feeling to Brooke; not to speak and share at length to a listening audience, Leslie had acclimated her well enough to that— but for that audience to be her husband! It was only truly hitting her right now, but it was true there had been a time in her marriage where Tyler had been her confidant and no one else had been in that role. That time had been over for a period now, so it was odd to go back to it. It was taking getting used to, but she was remembering why she liked it. It was one thing to have Leslie with her— just some man, who’d slept with her once, and had then helped her change. It was different having Tyler as the listener— she heard his love for her in every silence.

She could still see the flush in his face.

“Do you find this hard to listen to, though? Does it make you uncomfortable, thinking of me fucking another man?”

She had leaned a little across the desk, a bit of a prowling motion, and Tyler visibly swallowed. She knew how to recognize arousal, interest in her by now, and she knew how to exploit it. It was a little too tempting, not to make a half-attempt at seduction when he was looking at her that way.

“Actually right now... it doesn’t bother me. It’s a little... exciting, thinking of you, thinking of those other men... they’re just there, and you use them... and they never get to touch you again. You wouldn’t let them.” He sounded certain.

She was looking at him with a lot of focus, feeling just a hint of her power showing itself. “No, I wouldn’t let them,” she said resolutely.

He nodded. “I see what you mean. You’re... different. In a good way. The woman I married; only more, like you’ve fully stepped into yourself. You didn’t used to be this bold. I think I like it.”

Brooke smiled and relaxed back, nodded to herself. She didn’t have to take the seducing any farther necessarily. She’d momentarily indulged. It was enough.

“I have a confession to make,” Tyler said and surprised her instead. “I always thought you were out of my league when we started dating so in my head it makes sense... you and other men. I don’t think I mind it.”

She’d already been surprised, and in hearing that, she was more surprised still. In some way it seemed like he believed she was worthy of the sideflings in her life, that she deserved them, or they were owed to her. It was touching, to see herself so well thought of.

“So you do full support me in this, then?” She just needed to hear it one more time.

He nodded. “If you’ve been sneaking around— you don’t have to. We won’t bring this to the kids obviously— but if you’ve got blocks of unaccounted time, or anyone else in the family gets suspicious, comes to me with questions, I can handle them for you. And… maybe sometime, only if it was something you wanted, too— I might even like to watch one of these encounters happen. If. You were interested.”

He was revealing a secret side of himself Brooke hadn’t seen before— she liked it— she liked thinking of not having to worry so much in public about getting caught by the family— if he was on her side and would make explanations for her— and maybe sometime she would like it if he watched.

They went back to their bedroom, and closed the door behind them.

“Now take off your clothes,” Brooke instructed, and watched. She’d always been attracted to Tyler, and seeing his body again was always a special treat. Given how pleasing to her eyes she found him, it struck her strangely thinking he had always viewed her as a level above him, completely out of her league. Funny, thinking that.

His tie had already been lost some hours ago; probably loosened and then eventually discarded as he was working in his office. Even now, it was probably still lying on the floor in there. He didn’t need to waste any time on it at least.

The same for his suit jacket; he was only in his dress shirt and pants and socks; and the cuffs of his sleeves were already unbuttoned.

He only had to undo the front fastening of his shirt, and his hands trembled still as he did it. Brooke watched him lazily, again luxuriating in her power, being able to say and make it so, to have someone else take care of everything and do the work of carrying out her vision. Every time Tyler glimpsed her, he seemed to take a little more of her power in, and become even more tremblingly affected by it. Slowly he revealed his body to her, even though he was moving as quickly as he could, the set task was the thing delaying him.

Off went the shirt; then the belt, then the pants, then the briefs, and finally the socks. He was standing totally naked for her now.

“And now come and undress me,” she said, a slow drawl, not even in any rush to speak. She had total control over everything, down to the pacing, and it relaxed her, knowing so.

He nodded quickly, and came to the bed.

She extended a hand to him, and he used it to pull her up by the arm into sitting; he took the hem of her shirt, and she put her arms up for him to pull it off. Such total power she didn’t even have to undress herself independently. She could make someone else do it; thrilled again in knowing so.

Her arms still up, he took off her bra; then she forcefully flopped herself onto her back without his say, feeling the pillows conforming to her back, everything bending to her, everything giving way. She lifted her hips completely into midair, feeling the sustaining pressure in the heels of her feet, and he pulled and pulled her skirt down until it was out from under her and down her legs. He pulled her underwear quickly after it, and she lowered her hips back to the bed; he pulled her clothing off over her feet; she’d only worn heels to go out that day so there’d never been anything on her feet to begin with that would have needed removal.

He was breathing a little fast, looking at her draped on the bed, particularly her much larger breasts. But he knew his place. He didn’t reach, or make to touch her. Just sat waiting.

“Kiss me,” she breathed, but in no way abdicated authority, and welcomed him close to her body, invited his mouth to her lips.

He kissed her as he had never kissed her before, as if desperate to prove something, desperate to earn something. Perhaps trying to justify his position in her life, convince her never to trade him for another long-term partner.

To his frenzied silent pleas, and desperation, Brooke kissed back, hoping she was conveying in some sense that her power could be enough to hold him, that he didn’t need to lap after her this way, that his place would always be assured. She was certain of so much in herself that she could know factually that her heart would never stray from him, and if he could trust her enough to obey her, he could trust that. She tried to show him this in her kiss, meeting fevered fervor with surety in herself. He was unwinding himself on her mouth, only seeming to lose further control every time he came up against her power, saw the evidences for himself once again.

She moved her mouth aside of his but he didn’t want to lose momentum, clearly, kept hissing on her face.

“You can’t touch my breasts yet,” she murmured. “I’ll let you know when you’re allowed to, when you’ve been good enough to earn it.” If he wanted to earn favor with her, then she could play along with that impulse and give him a way to satisfy it.

He shuddered at her surely spoken words, finding her power in them again.

“You kissed me very nicely,” she said, and he seemed to shake from her praise. “I’d like you to kiss me somewhere else, and if you do a good job, I’ll reward you by giving you unrestrained access to my chest. Lick me up between the legs; show me a good time, and if I come...”

He understood perfectly, and now, more than before, clearly wanted to prove himself worthy of reward. He practically dived down the bed, in such a rush to reach the center of her being. He set his face near to her. She had no real concerns about what his performance would be like; he’d done this plenty of times for her before throughout their marriage, and he had always been more than adequate. But he seemed to have an added passion now that he’d lacked before.

He seemed to enjoy her powerstreak more than she could ever have predicted and he was showing her how much with his mouth; licking around, licking through her folds and wetness; bringing her orgasm to her. She could recline and do nothing, and her pleasure would be delivered to her. Again no effort was remotely necessary on her part, and that felt like a victory too. It was a victory every time his tongue traced her, every time he licked a spark of ecstasy into her. She lay there, completely relaxed and unwound, completely full of the pleasure that was getting licked into her continuingly. She adored it.

It took only two more licks of Tyler’s questing tongue for Brooke to find her shuddering release, and it was a relief that spun on and on, moving fully through every part of her body, every part of who she was, who she’d now become, completely receptive to it.

She pushed back on his shoulders when she felt her body turn too sensitive and smiled down at him.

“Wonderful job, Tyler. Put your hands on my breasts now. Do whatever you’d like with them.”

He had rarely yet had the chance to handle her breasts since she’d undergone her enhancement surgery, but he looked eager for the chance now. He moved back up the bed, one hand on each breast, both working together to stimulate her. It was nice, after feeling so much attention and pleasure below to have the focus drawn off to another part of her body.

He was watching her breasts, wide-eyed, kneeling between her legs, watching them shift under his fingers as if he couldn’t quite believe what he saw each time they responded to the motion of his hands; there was heat blooming at the roots of them and it deliciously uncurled itself as he continued to knead. Brooke looked back to where he kneeled and saw how good he was being. He was hard as a spear, but despite how turned on he must be, he never spilled himself over. He hadn’t come yet, and still seemed in control now, though little shaky breaths escaped him at the feel of her breasts.

He was staring with ever greater focus, his head dipping in, and finally he had lowered his face all the way to Brooke’s right breast, and wrapped his lips around a nipple. He swirled. He sucked; he kept his other hand moving as his tongue licked all over the bud he’d captured, and it was lightning, pure electric shock after shock interlaced into strings of feeling within her breast, where he licked and where he sucked. And where he kissed. Her breasts had been sensitive before her surgery, but never quite this sensitive. It was a different level of sensation. There was more flesh, more room to feel.

He shifted his mouth to her left breast. It was as though he was drinking from her desperately. Trying to draw on that sure, satisfying essence of power that made her base now, to draw it into himself.

Internalize it, taste it. She liked to see his hunger; it was endearing to her.

He didn’t seem to grow tired, though his mouth was working fast and his tongue never stopped swirling, even momentarily. She might have expected a weariness in his jaw, but it wasn’t there. His desperation only seemed to grow, and in the position he had sprawled himself into, she could feel his cock twitching where it was pressed up against her leg.

She never grew tired of seeing how much her lovers wanted her, how she affected them. She liked seeing Tyler felt the same way. She stroked the back of his head.

She decided that he’d been doing that for long enough now, and that she’d recovered herself enough to want more from him. Again she pushed back on his shoulders, and he retreated; the same as all her others would have. But she would let Tyler back into her bed many more times than just this once. The specialness of him touched her again.

“I want you,” she told him, and watched him flush again. “In me, now,” she instructed, and he finally sunk his straining cock home inside of her. She could feel him spasming and twitching within her.

“Don’t come,” she warned, before he could even make his first thrust. “Wait until I tell you.”

He nodded, but this was clearly taking a lot more effort than the restraint he’d otherwise shown so far. But she trusted him. Tyler could be very determined when he wanted to be, it was in part what made him such a good real estate agent, and she knew he wanted to do as she wished.

He gave a first stuttering thrust. He usually wasn’t quite this turned on by the time they came around to vaginal intercourse in their sexual routine. It was clear that that made this harder for him, but he was successfully thrusting in and out of her, gaining more momentum and improving with each new thrust. There was more pleasure, all through her, and it wouldn’t take her long to reach the second orgasm of the night. She let herself enjoy his thrusts for a moment.

“Faster,” she told him. She only needed a few strokes more to know she was there.

He drove into her harder, with the energy of a much younger man.

He fucked her the way he’d once done it, when they’d first started dating each other in their twenties. It was pleasant to feel the memory in the current sensation, but then she was only thinking of the sensation itself, him pushing in so deep, stretching her out, feeling herself be filled so totally. She was moving with him, and he seemed to be spasming faster and faster inside her, but he still had not come. He was holding himself back; waiting for her permission, and just thinking of that, just one more time, set her off.

She was coming, and clenching on him, and murmured to him: “Come,” and then he was pumping all his ejaculate inside her, and the added sensation pushed her into a welcome third orgasm.

They collapsed under the covers together, close to sleep but not quite there.

“All those phone calls have been for me; men looking for encounters.”

Tyler yawned. “We can have a second phone line put in.”

A few more weeks passed; Brooke was relieved, every day, that she had told Tyler the truth, and so, so grateful to him that he had been more than willing to gladly accommodate her. As Tyler had suggested, they did put in a second phone line, in a small room at the back of the house they decided only Brooke would go in; that way it would be less disruptive to the rest of the family, and Brooke could take care of things herself.

For the week or so before the phone line went in, Tyler was good about the calls coming to the house, though. He always made sure he was the one who answered the phone if he was the one home while Brooke was not, so none of the kids had to do it, and he always told the caller when Brooke would be home so they could call her back at that specific time.

He helped her with the aims of her new life in other ways too— she let herself flirt much more openly in public, and inevitably when she was spotted, and when concerns were brought to him by family members or family members, he made it clear that he was in full support of Brooke’s behavior, whatever had been seen; it made such a difference to be free, not to have skulk around trying to avoid notice, and it was all a wonderful gift that Tyler had given to her.

Her meetings, in those three weeks, were very brief.

She went, she saw Leslie, she gave him short accounts, and then left. It was as if, for those three weeks, some part of her understood and was trying to wind down, and prepare for the end, while the majority of her brain tried to figure out what she was going to say in goodbye.

He had been such an important figure in her life, an important listener, someone who had been just on her side— in her mind, someone who had cared about her, and cared about helping her actualize. It was hard to let such a therapeutic, caring person go, so even in those three weeks when she knew the end was approaching, the truth of that never fully arrived for her; she kept her accounts brief, and in her mind believed it was just like every other time she’d given briefer report while her mind had worked on understanding other things. The idea that a last session might be approaching seemed too ridiculous to be real.

But her accounts were so brief she had yet to tell Leslie even about the very passionate sex she had had with her husband— she had barely told him the entire story of Tyler’s acceptance. Her mind was trying to process— it would know when it was time.

And until then, there were plenty of encounters to enjoy, and then tell her husband about afterwards. The calls that came from her newly printed business cards, with the house’s second phone line number, were not just calls any longer.

Now each call led to an encounter— the business cards were working better than ever. She didn’t need them for the same reason— she could openly seduce in public and Tyler would back her up, but she liked using them anyway. There was just something more organized about it. Neater. She liked that.

When she told Tyler about encounter after encounter, at the end of the night, grateful for all the soundproofing they’d paid to have put in the walls years ago, he always listened with interest. Sometimes when she gave particularly detailed accounts — he usually always asked her to elaborate— her reporting led to them fucking again. He found what she told him exciting, sometimes; and seeing him excited, while remembering whatever she’d been telling of, made her excited too. She was so glad to finally be sharing this part of her life with him, and not only because the sex that resulted was both entertaining and satisfying.

She was glad because she’d never felt more secure in her marriage. She loved Tyler and he loved her, loved her in all her facets, and she truly believed now that they had found the way to make their marriage last all the rest of their lives. If Tyler would stand by her through this, he would stand by her through anything, and if she would stand by Tyler through so much temptation and never stray in her heart, or return to a temporary partner for any kind of second time; then she would stand by him always.

At the end of a fourth week, still full of the enjoyment her new life provided for her, Brooke went once more to see Leslie; but when she arrived, as she was going up to his house, she felt instinctively that today was going to be different. She was ready to say things she’d been waiting three weeks to say; things she’d been figuring out for three weeks. This was going to be it today— she was sure.

Leslie was waiting for her on the couch in his living room where she’d grown to expect seeing him. It was so familiar, she’d seen it so many times before, but it was strange thinking that this time was going to be the last; and after this she would never see it again. It seemed right, though, too.

“Tell me about your week,” Leslie said, when Brooke had reached the spot centered in the room and ahead of him where she always stood— and as soon as he said it, Brooke slipped into trance the way she always did. Familiarity layered over familiarity, and she loved the way the drifting felt inside her head— she always did. But she knew it was a love that she could let go of; she didn’t need to cling to it. It had served its purpose, it had helped her, but she didn’t need to have this feeling every week for the rest of her life. She could let it go. It was, however, nice to feel it one last time first.

“Everything has been going well,” Brooke dutifully reported, because it was true. She enjoyed being able to say that it was— it made her realize all over again how wonderful her life was at present. “We put a second phone line in the house— I don’t think I mentioned that before.”

Leslie shook his head; as she expected. There were a lot of things that had been building up the past few weeks which she hadn’t mentioned before. There’d be more surprises for Leslie than just that one.

“So now I don’t have to worry about anyone else in my family getting my calls; and I don’t have to worry about clogging up the phone lines. They just call my private line now, and leave a message if I happen to miss them. It’s a much better system.”

Leslie nodded in understanding; Brooke enjoyed the way he listened to her— but now that she had Tyler to listen to her— she couldn’t help but think Leslie had served his purpose. Standing on the other side of the consideration, she was sure that she really did prefer Tyler as an audience to Leslie.

But again, she didn’t mind addressing Leslie as her audience one last time.

“So I’ve been using my business cards a lot. I threw the rest of the last batch out and had a new one made, with the new phone number on it. I’m getting something like six flings a week; some weeks it’s more, but the more I do it, the more energy I seem to have. It only gets easier the more men I sleep with; and I’m excelling in the other areas of my life; there’s no drawback, even when I’m more actively engaging in my side encounters— it’s having no cost on my energy, my responsibilities, my relationships. It just improves me; makes me better able to handle everything that I need to.”

Leslie nodded in that same way again, showing he was paying her his full attention, and she did feel a pang. Maybe she would miss that a little after all; it too was familiar, and it too would never again happen after this day.

“But I didn’t tell you before,” she said. “I told Tyler what I’ve been doing. I didn’t tell him about you, but I told him about—the men I sleep with, why I do it, the way it makes feel, how it makes me feel better; and he took it really well. He wasn’t angry, or hurt or betrayed. He just accepted it— accepted this newest version of myself. It made me feel so loved,” Brooke admitted with a sigh.

“Then when we talked about it more, he got excited— it turned him on to think about, so then we had I think the best sex we’ve ever had. And since then he’s been helping me— putting the phone line in, taking all the calls until it went in, making it clear to family and friends that he’s in support of my public flirtation. Hiding isn’t necessary anymore. I can openly seduce men in public, and if it gets back to Tyler, then he just covers for me. It’s such a relief, not having to sneak around. He was the only one I ever worried would find out; my only real fear was that our marriage would fall apart. But it’s stronger than ever, and I’m having so much good sex; with Tyler, and with other men. I don’t technically need to keep using my business card strategy, but I find it’s neat, and efficient. And a bit fun, too. So I’m still making use of it. I like it.”

Leslie had taken this all in with a thoughtful look. “And you’re sure Tyler is really in full support of this?” He prompted her again, as he usually did.

Even in trance, Brooke was still able to think clearly enough to make her head nod. “I’m sure. When I told him, he said it made sense in his head, because he’s always seen me as out of his league, from ever since we started dating.”

Leslie made a noise of interest, and it spurred Brooke on to share more.

“That struck me as so amazing that I brought it up with him again just a few days ago; I told him I couldn’t believe he’d always thought I was so much better than him, but he just said he wanted to explain. Then he went on and said how he’d always found me so incredibly beautiful— and how when we were younger, there had been lots of other guys around who wanted me; he’d been very aware of them, just before he’d asked me out for the first time himself. It had seemed to him like all the guys wanted me, and it is true that in those days I went on a lot of casual dates. He was worried he’d miss his chance— that some other man would get to have me in the end. He felt he had so much competition that there was no possible way he could come out victorious. So the whole relationship— when we fell in love, when we got married, had the kids, he was waiting, he said. Waiting for me to realize that I only got more beautiful every year and that the men around me were still looking at me the way they used to when I was younger, wishing for a chance, all of them wanting me.

“Then when I got my breast enlargement surgery, he was sure that would make me realize— he said he’s been waiting all these years either for me to cheat or to just divorce him and pick someone better. He’s actually very happy with the way things have added up. It turns out he’s got a bit of a competitive streak too. I think it does something for him, to know I’m getting with all of his competition, and afterwards still choosing to come back to him night after night, still choosing his marriage. He said that feels like winning over all of them every time, and he really enjoys that. So he’s not just supportive, or just tolerating what I’m doing. He’s actually glad I’m doing it,” Brooke finished, a little short of breath. She’d gotten rolled into the telling of it and had gone on a little faster than she’d needed to.

Leslie smiled. “That was just what I was hoping to hear. You remember, don’t you, that I did all of this for you as a thanks to Tyler, in the beginning? I’m glad to hear my gift gave him exactly what he wanted; he did actually hint at some of these insecurities to me in the time we were collaborating on the search for my house.

“And now he has an even more attractive wife than he did before; with whom he’s having even better sex than he was having before; and who always makes him feel he comes first, and makes him feel their marriage is secure. And you yourself said— filling your own personal needs makes you better in all the other aspects of your life, so he has a better wife in that sense, too. I’ve given exactly what I’d hoped for, and my gift to him is complete.”

When Brooke thought of that, she realized it was true— it only made her grateful, that Leslie had arranged things so nicely for Tyler, and for her too.

And on that note, she knew what she wanted to say next.

“I don’t need to come and see you anymore,” she told him quite plainly.

“I’ve finished changing, I am fully the new self you showed me, and my transformation is done. There’s nothing more I need your help with; our time working together is done. I’ll never forget you, and I’ll always appreciate you, but I can say goodbye now, forever.”

Leslie nodded. “I was thinking just the same thing— I know for a fact that Tyler has received the exact gift I wanted him to have; and as you say, your transformational process is finished. You’re free to go out and enjoy your life. It was pleasant working with you, on my side as well, but all the best to you, and goodbye.”

That roused Brooke from her trance for the last time, and she gave Leslie a smile, a slight dip of her head in acknowledgement. She was standing there, on the brink of leaving him behind forever, and the next smile she smiled was at the thought of the woman who had first come into this house many months ago, clueless as to what was in store for her. She really had changed so much, all thanks to this man.

Then she stepped outside into her new life.

THE END