“Look into my eyes.”

The dark-haired woman in black was speaking to a tall, sandy-haired man, who, just a moment ago, turned to face her, the answer to her disarming question of “What time is it?” fading on his lips. Instead, he obeyed her command, looking down at her, down into her dark, shadowed eyes, and he fell silent as she spoke.

“Look deep into my eyes. Say nothing, do nothing, think nothing, only look.”

Her low, sultry voice was gentle and melodious, with an appealing French lilt, but also resonant and commanding. Her dark shadowed eyes with their long, fluttering black lashes widened but remained darkly mysterious and compelling. The man found himself beginning to lean closer to her, feeling the power of her magnetic presence.

“Look deeper and deeper into my eyes.”

Her voice grew softer, becoming more personal, more intimate, clearly enunciating every word, yet remained commanding, compelling, drawing him even closer to her. She stared steadily into his eyes, her eyes intense, unblinking, unwavering, and he returned her stare, his eyes watering as he fought to keep his eyes open to match her intense gaze.

“You are now in a deep hypnotic trance. You will obey my every command.”

As she spoke, her long, slender hands made a series of graceful mesmeric passes and gestures in the emptiness between their eyes.

“When you awaken, you will forget this encounter.”

She passed her right hand slowly from side to side before his eyes.

“You have already forgotten.”

She then passed her right hand down across his gaze.

“Now close your eyes, and sleep.”

His gaze flickered to look down at the badge the woman wore on her impressively rounded left breast, noting both her name and the name of her roleplaying game character: Melissa and Melisande. He then glanced back up to her right hand, which remained dramatically posed with two fingers outstretched before his eyes in a flamboyant yet commanding mesmeric gesture. She was palming a small white card in that hand, and on that card, underneath a bright red symbol of a blood-dripping “V” that signified that she was playing a vampire character, was the symbol of an ‘evil eye’ that indicated her character possessed the vampire’s legendary mesmerizing powers.

There was a momentary hesitation as he remembered the hot and cramped room earlier that afternoon, where the rules to the live-action roleplaying game he was now participating in were explained. According to the rules, if a vampire character with mesmerizing powers could get a mortal character to look into their eyes, then that vampire could entrance that mortal without resistance, and could also erase all memories of the encounter. In other words, by making the momentary mistake of looking into her eyes, his character was “entranced” by her character and now must “obey” her character’s commands, including the command to “forget” the encounter and even deny it occurred later, all as part of playing in the game. It was an aspect of the game that appealed to him but he didn’t expect that he would find himself encountering it so soon, or so pleasantly.

He sighed and obediently but reluctantly closed his eyes. In her sultry voice, ‘Melisande’ ordered him to lean over as she stepped forward and mimed biting him on the neck and drinking his blood. He responded with a long, slow moan that started out as an outcry of pain that turned into a deep sigh of pleasure.

“Enough,” said ‘Melisande’ after several moments. Without opening his eyes, he reached into his pocket and drew out several red poker chips, all marked with a paper sticker showing a drop of blood. She collected three of them and slipped them into her own pocket, leaving him to restore the remainder to his own pocket. She then commanded him to stand upright again as she stepped back to stand the arm’s length away from him where she was standing when he turned to face her.

“Awaken, Phillip, and forget.”

She dramatically snapped her fingers before his face, and he quickly opened his eyes. “It’s,” he started to say, blinking and pausing a moment to glance down at his watch, “uh, it’s 9:30.” He noted from hearing his own name that she must have read his own name badge.

She smiled warmly and pleasantly said “Thank you” before turning and walking toward the trio of similarly dressed people across the vacant hallway of the convention center. As she walked away, the man watched, fascinated by the metronome-like hypnotic sway of her hips. He smiled and nodded in appreciation to the woman and applauded quietly at her flamboyant style and theatrical skill.

Later, after midnight, Phillip relaxed in the second floor lounge of the hotel connected to the convention center, when he heard a familiar voice behind him ask “Pardon me, but is this seat taken?”

He turned his head to see ‘Melisande’, or rather Melissa, standing beside him. He smiled, slightly surprised, and gestured toward the empty chair beside him. “No, not at all; or at least not until now.”

She dropped herself into the low chair. “Thanks,” she replied. “I was wondering if anyone was still around at this late hour.”

In fact, there were still several clusters of people scattered around the lounge, but they were all quite engrossed in talking animatedly among themselves, oblivious to everyone else around them. Furthermore, they were all obviously just barely over the local legal drinking age, making them significantly younger than either Phillip or Melissa, both of whom evidently felt no interest in joining them.

“So how did the game go for you?” asked Phillip.

Melissa smiled like the Mona Lisa. “It had its moments, and I had mine,” she replied indulgently, punctuating her statement with a practiced toss of her head that flipped a stray forelock of glossy brown hair into place. “And how did you enjoy your first live-action roleplaying game?”

Phillip chuckled ruefully. “Was I that obvious?”

“Not really,” said Melissa, smiling. “Although when I mesmerized you, I could tell that you had to think for a moment about how the rules worked before you reacted. That’s usually a good sign that you’re a newbie.”

He nodded. “You’re right, I’m a newbie. I’ve played table-top roleplaying games for years, and I’ve always wanted to try a live‑action game. Plus, I always enjoyed playing the ‘dedicated seeker of the unknown’ type of character, so when I found out from a friend of mine that there was a pre-generated character like that in this game, I decided to give it a try. And I had a blast.”

Melissa, Phillip noted, liked to talk with her hands. A dazzling variety of silver rings in several shapes and settings adorned her fingers. Despite her hands’ constant motion, he could easily distinguish rings with settings of brilliant golden cat’s-eyes agates on her forefingers, a large, colorless crystal in a silver setting on her left index finger, and a ring with a large, flat onyx setting inlaid with a silver spiral on her right index finger. The rings on her smallest fingers were hinged and lidded, and on the lid was sculpted a tight spiral line. The bright silver rings and their multi-colored settings flashed in the light and competed with her expressive eyes and magnificent breasts for his attention.

“So, Phillip, what do you do when you’re not spending your weekends at gaming conventions?”

“I do web development for businesses. You know, setting up online stores and catalogs; I did a web site for a local city council candidate. No big stuff, but it’s a living.

“And what did you do?”

She laughed, brightly. “Oh, many things. A little writing here and there, some music, but I like the stage the most. I love the theater.”

He raised his almost-empty glass to her. “Speaking of theater, I really liked your hypnotic style: half Count Dracula and half Svengali. You do have quite the knack for theatrics.”

She raised her own glass to his in salute. “Thank you. I just couldn’t resist the opportunity of playing a vampire with mesmerizing powers as theatrically and as stereotypically as possible.”

“You enjoyed it, didn’t you?” asked Phillip. “Enjoyed playing a vampire and mesmerizing people?”

She smiled broadly. “Of course I enjoyed it. I loved being able to look into someone’s eyes and mesmerize them, even if it was only just part of the game. You weren’t the only one to look into the ‘mesmerizing eyes of Melisande’ this evening and surrender to their power.

“And you enjoyed it, too, playing at being a vampire’s victim, I could tell.”

“I have to admit feeling a certain vicarious thrill from it,” Phillip admitted sheepishly as he looked away for a brief moment. “Especially when the lovely lady vampire has such beautiful eyes,” he said as he turned back to look again at her, at her eyes, “such hypnotic eyes, as yours.”

Her lips curled briefly in a languid shadow of a smile.

“You know,” he continued, “speaking of hypnotic, you really were quite convincing. I almost felt like you really were putting me into a trance.”

She laughed, low. “If I had wanted to put you into a trance, you would have been in a trance,” she said matter-of-fact-ly.

“Oh, really?” he asked mockingly.

“Yes, really,” she replied quietly, confidently.

“How?” he continued, partly in disbelief but partly also in curiosity.

“Among my professions, I’m a stage hypnotist,” she said proudly. She pantomimed making a mesmeric gesture towards him, saying, “Look into my eyes,” while feigning a heavy Slavic accent. She ended the gesture by producing a business card by sleight-of-hand and holding it before his eyes. On it read “Mademoiselle Mesmerella, le Mesmeriste Magnifique” in a bold black cursive script against a blue prismatic background.

“You’re kidding,” he said, looking at the card but still obviously not quite believing her.

“I never kid.” She struck a pose, her head turned and bent back slightly and her arms spread out wide. Her pose gave him both the opportunity and the excuse to take a closer and more appreciative look at her. When she first approached him, he was pleased to see that her game‑play gothgirl grunge attire of baggy black T-shirt, black sleeveless leather jacket, tight jeans and leather boots were replaced with an elegant and expensive off-one-shoulder black silk dress. Now he could see that her dress’ skin-tight fabric revealed the curvaceous body that the previous attire could not completely obscure. The silver ankh she wore was replaced by a brilliant crystal pendant hanging on a silver chain to rest against the curve of fabric between her splendid breasts. Half-hidden amidst the darkness of the waves of her long dark brown hair could be seen matching earrings dangling on shining silver chains. An elegant silver armband wound several times around her upper left arm, its ends twisted into a bright tight spiral. A glossy black leather belt with a round silver buckle further accentuated her slender waist. Her shiny black leather boots ended just below the dress at mid-thigh.

“This is a variation of my stage costume: do you like it?”

“It’s rather … dazzling. That’s intentional, isn’t it?”

Her only answer was a self-indulgent smile. She dropped her pose and gazed at Phillip directly.

Phillip shook his head. “Well, all right, okay, I believe you. But even so: I still don’t think you could have hypnotized me.”

Her only response was an elegantly arched eyebrow in polite skepticism.

“You see, no one’s ever been able to hypnotize me. I’ve been interested in hypnosis for several years, and I’ve had several people try to hypnotize me, some of the best, but it’s just never worked. Even inductions that are supposed to work on people that are difficult to hypnotize haven’t worked. I’ve been told that I’m an excellent hypnotic subject; I guess I’ve always been so interested in how I was being hypnotized that it interfered with actually being hypnotized.”

Melissa gazed at Phillip for several moments with an unreadable look in her eyes. Then she said, “I could hypnotize you. I can hypnotize you. Do you want me to try?”

Phillip hesitated only a moment. “Sure. Let’s give it a try. But where could we go? I’m sharing my room with a couple of my friends …”

Melissa nodded and leered at him. “There’s always my room … Step into my parlor …?” she said as she ran her tongue sensuously over her deep red lips. “I think that can be arranged. I do like privacy.”

Melissa took Phillip’s arm and together they left the bar. The trip to Melissa’s room was mostly a blur for Phillip as he concentrated on his silently smiling companion. When she was not busy with sliding her passcard into the slot of the elevator or pushing the button to select her floor, she would look back at him with an enigmatic stare and sultry smile that captivated his attention.

Eventually, however, they entered Melissa’s room. Melissa stood in the center of the room, saying “Do you like it?” as she turned about in a circle, gesturing towards all corners of the room.

It was a much larger room than the one he shared with his friends, with a table and chairs to one side of the door, and on the other side, a large king-sized bed. Through the open door of the closet beside the bed he could see a surprisingly large collection of costumes, the gothgirl costume Melissa wore earlier being perhaps the most mundane of the collection. Through the doorway beside the closet was the bathroom, and he could see a large Jacuzzi in the mirror: he mentally hoped that he and Melissa would be able to share some time within it.

“I like it,” he said. He looked expectantly back at Melissa.

She closed the drapes, walked over to the door and turned down the overhead lights, then turned on the light on the table beside the bed. When she was satisfied she crooked her finger towards Phillip.

Melissa directed Phillip to sit on the bed with his feet firmly on the floor and his hands in his lap. She was shorter than he, but now she towered over him. She shook her long dark hair so that it that framed her face in shadow, as she artfully positioned herself before him so that her head was dramatically back‑lit in the dim light from the ceiling, and so that her face was illuminated by the glow of the bedside lamp. The slight humming of the air conditioning system dampened out all other sounds.

She reached out to remove his glasses, but he raised his hands to fend her off. “I won’t be able to see you without them,” he said.

“Don’t worry …” she said softly. She slid his glasses off and set them down on the bed stand, then leaned closer, until her eyes were only a foot or so away from his own. “Now can you see me?” she asked softly.

Her face seemed paler than he remembered, but that only served to emphasize by contrast her full, blood-red lips and her dark, shadowed, mysterious eyes. Her eyes were truly dark, a deep gray that was almost black. They were framed by long, fluttering black lashes and outlined in black that was expanded into an Eye of Horus symbol about her right eye. Her eyelids were brushed in shimmering soft gray that sparkled and glittered every time she blinked. Crowning her eyes were two elegantly arched eyebrows, half circles that would surround her eyes if completed.

“Y … yes, I can.”

“Good.”

Her gaze quickly flicked across him. “You’re nervous, or anxious, or both,” she said, noting his rapid breathing. “I want you to close your eyes and take three long, slow, deep breaths.”

He hesitated, and she continued. “I’m not going to hypnotize you with your eyes closed. I just want you to relax a little.” She quirked him a slight grin. “Trust me on this,” she said softly.

He nodded and smiled in apology and then obediently closed his eyes.

“Breathe in through your nose, hold it, and then breathe out again.”

He took one long, deep breath. This close to her, he could detect an exotic, almost erotic fragrance about her. “You know,” he said absently, “I didn’t notice it before. Your perfume. Its quite delightful.”

“It’s my own private fragrance: I call it Hypnotic Surrender.” Her voice softened, becoming more intimate. “I think the name’s very appropriate, don’t you? Don’t you think its helping you surrender to my hypnotic power?”

He inhaled the fragrance again. Now that he focused on it, he noted that the musky scent of exotic oils and rare spices. On the third breath he could feel the fragrance begin kindling unconscious fantasies of hypnotic aphrodisiacs, all brought on by the fragrance’s evocative name. On another level of thought, he realized that the fragrance made him concentrate on her without him realizing it at first. It was an appropriate name, he realized, and said so to Melissa.

He could tell Melissa was pleased at his response by the sultry tone of her reply. “Now, are you willing to let me hypnotize you?” she asked in a sensual and very familiar voice, and Phillip responded with an earnest nod of his head. “Are you ready to be hypnotized?”

He nodded again in reply.

“Then open your eyes, and look at me.” Her sultry voice, if anything, suddenly became even more gentle and melodious, even more resonant and commanding than it was when she was only playing at mesmerizing him.

Phillip opened his eyes and stared up at Melissa. She returned his stare with her own intense, unwavering, unblinking gaze as she reached down and took his head in her hands, starting to gently trace slow circles on his temples.

“Look into my eyes. Look deep into my eyes,” she said in her gentle and commanding voice.

He looked, looked deeply into her eyes. Her pupils were wide in the dim light, almost indistinguishable from the deep gray iris around them, and very magnetic. He didn’t know if it was his own imagination, but he felt as though her eyes getting larger, felt as though they were compelling him to fall in to their dark depths. He blinked rapidly several times to clear his eyes when it seemed that her eyes began to swirl and spin, forming dark whirlpools that were pulling his will into their depths. But when his eyes cleared, all he saw were two lovely, dark eyes staring intently into his own, yet he still felt a power within them that demanded, commanded his attention.

Fascinated, without thinking, he surrendered to that feeling. In so doing, without realizing it, Phillip was drifting into a light trance. Melissa could tell from the way his expectant expression faded into tranquility, from the way his eyes never left hers, and she smiled inwardly as she continued her induction.

“Deeper and deeper … looking deeper into my eyes,” continued Melissa, patiently enunciating every word, every syllable: the faint French lilt to her voice that was absent during their previous conversation now returned. “Concentrate on my eyes, on my voice. Keep breathing deeply. Empty your mind: let your thoughts drift through your mind until there are no thoughts at all. Just look into my eyes and listen to my voice. Relax; listen and relax.”

Phillip thought that her reminding him of trying to empty his mind only served to keep his mind all the more occupied. Memories kept surfacing to distract him: disappointed memories of past hypnotic sessions where someone else said the same things to him, embarrassing memories of erotic hypnotic fantasies he kept deeply locked away in the dark corners of his mind.

Melissa continued to stroke his temples, widening the circles until her gentle fingertips stroked down to his jaw and back: Phillip found the sensation incredibly erotic and yet also incredibly soothing. “Listen only to my voice: any other sounds you hear will help you to relax more and more. Empty your mind. Look into my eyes. Listen to my voice; listen only to my voice. There are no other sounds now, only my voice. My eyes. My voice.”

The humming seemed to fade away, along with all other sounds, except for her voice. Phillip was mildly surprised to discover that with the fading sounds went most of the distracting thoughts and memories. He also began to feel pleasantly light-headed and just a little dizzy. Pleased by this reaction, Phillip realized in some far corner of his mind that he was being hypnotized, and what was wary and dubious expectation rapidly became confidence and conviction.

“Breathe deeply. You are relaxing with every breath. Every muscle in your body is becoming more and more relaxed. Your legs and your arms are becoming relaxed, your chest is becoming relaxed, and your head and neck are becoming relaxed. Your whole body is becoming more and more relaxed with each breath.”

His breathing stuttered for a moment, but then he inhaled a long, deep breath, then exhaled. His arms and legs tingled for a long moment, then became numb. He visibly relaxed, his shoulders beginning to slouch, his head starting to lean forward. His whole body seemed distant, yet he also felt a growing erection, one that throbbed with every stroke of Melissa’s fingers. Strangely, even that feeling made him feel more relaxed.

“You are now very relaxed. You are feeling very sleepy: you are going to go to sleep now. You are going deeper and deeper to sleep with each breath.”

He continued breathing deeply. Each time he inhaled, she said, “Relax …” and each time he exhaled, she said, “… and sleep.”

“Relax … and sleep …” she said coaxingly, her voice rising and falling, rising and falling, “relax … and sleep … relaaaax … and sleeeep … relaaaax … and sleeeep … “ Every time he paused between breaths she slowly, deliberately blinked her eyes: her eyelids seemed to sparkle and shimmer in the light, hypnotically holding his attention. Soon, she began pausing longer and longer between blinks, and he was completely unaware that his breathing slowed and deepened to follow, or that he began to blink his eyes exactly in time with her own.

But soon his eyes began blinking heavily. Each time he blinked his eyelids took longer and longer to open. And when they were open, he could hardly keep them open, but some small part of him wanted, needed to keep looking into her fascinating eyes for as long as he could.

As his breathing slowed and deepened, Phillip became more and more relaxed. He became unable to consciously concentrate on her suggestions, leaving them to drift uncontested into his receptive unconscious mind. What thoughts remained became disorganized; random thoughts began to tumble uncontrolled through his mind. When even those thoughts became too disorganized, he gave up trying to think entirely, and just relaxed.

Phillip gave a small sigh as he relaxed completely, body and mind. He was on the verge of surrendering to a deep hypnotic trance, and all that he would need was just a little nudge to send him all the way down. Melissa delayed, savoring the moment, holding him on the delicious edge of a deep trance as she held his gaze, but ultimately she whispered softly to him “Sleep … deep sleep … close your eyes and sleep … sleep for me, Phillip … close your eyes … sleep … deep sleep …” She stopped stroking Phillip’s temples and paused for a moment, then snapped her fingers before his heavy eyes, commanding “Sleep!”

Phillip jerked his head back at the power of her command as his eyes closed tightly altogether, and then his head dropped forward to rest his chin on his chest. Melissa, smiling proudly, picked up his right hand and held it out, then released it; instead of dropping into his lap it remained fixed. “Excellent,” she said softly to herself as she took his hand and returned it to his lap.

Grinning, she sat down next to him and started speaking softly to him.

“… and awake!”

Melissa snapped her fingers, and Phillip found himself blinking himself awake. He looked around to find Melissa sitting on the bed next to him.

“How do you feel, Phillip?” she asked him.

He struggled to find the words as he put on his glasses, but the grin on his face was sufficient. She smiled triumphantly in return.

“You actually did it, didn’t you?” he said finally, glancing at her once he put his glasses back on.

“I said I could, didn’t I?”

He nodded. “That you did, that you did.”

“I left a few things behind, just in case you didn’t believe me.”

Phillip’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?” he said inquiringly.

“And it sounds like you may have a few doubts left.”

Phillip started to shake his head in denial, but Melissa simply snapped her fingers and said “One.”

Phillip blinked, suddenly realizing that his arms were slowly rising into the air, and that he couldn’t stop them. “Okay, okay,” he said, as his arms finally stopped when they were sticking straight up. “Enough, already!”

Melissa chuckled. “That’s not all. Two,” she continued, adding another finger snap.

Phillips arms slowly lowered until they were straight out from his body. Try as he might, he still couldn’t move them. “I feel like Frankenstein,” he said in annoyance.

“Or a sleepwalker.” snap “Three!”

Phillip’s eyes went blank, and he stood up and started walking slowly forward, his arms still held stiffly before him. Melissa directed him to walk several feet away, turn, walk some more, turn again, and walk back to her, then turn around and sit back down on the bed. When he sat down, Phillip’s arms dropped to his lap and he blinked several times, shaking his head.

“Do you want me to repeat the demonstration?” asked Melissa, smiling proudly.

“No, no! I believe you, I believe you!”

“Good,” she replied silkily. “You see, you sold yourself short, Phillip: you aren’t just an excellent hypnotic subject, you are a fantastic hypnotic subject, one of the best I’ve ever encountered, once you got past that little hang-up about not being able to be hypnotized.”

Phillip didn’t answer. He was staring into space in front of him, his eyes wide. Melissa turned her head to look into the empty place he was staring at and then looked back at him. “Is something the matter?” she asked innocently.

Phillip raised a trembling arm to point into the center of the room. “There’s a … pink elephant there.” He reached out his hand. “He’s offering me a bag of roasted peanuts.” He sniffed the air. “I can smell them.”

“And how do they taste?” asked Melissa guilelessly.

Phillip reached into the empty air, then moved his hand to his mouth. He chewed and swallowed. “Excellent,” he replied in surprise.

Melissa snapped her fingers several times before Phillip. He blinked once and the elephant and peanuts vanished.

“I told you: you are a fantastic subject. You have an extremely vivid imagination: you saw and heard and even felt and smelled and tasted a post-hypnotic illusion. That’s a rare talent.”

“Did you leave anything else behind?”

“Nothing else that dramatic: I think you’re convinced.”

“I suppose you left a post-hypnotic suggestion behind that can put me back into a trance,” he said, somewhat petulantly.

Melissa chuckled. “Something like that, yes,” she said mysteriously.

“I don’t suppose the trigger is something stereotypical like ‘look into my eyes’, is it?”

She merely looked aside at him, continuing to smile mysteriously. Phillip hadn’t noticed before, but he dreamily contemplated how her beguiling smile accentuated her high, rounded cheekbones. In fact, her lips always seemed to be faintly smiling: her full red lips were naturally turned up at the corners, giving her a certain mysterious allure. An allure that, combined with her piercing gaze, gave her the unmistakable appearance that she saw all of his secrets, even more than he did himself, and was somehow amused at what she saw. He blinked, feeling as though he was falling back into a trance just by gazing at her beautiful face, and another thought struck him.

Phillip breathed deeply. He felt like he had been asleep for hours, feeling energized and confident. So confident that he considered her with an unmistakable look in his eyes, which he found mirrored in her own.

He leaned towards her, and she responded languidly but eagerly. Her lips were warm and soft against his, and they teased the slight moustache on his upper lip until he firmly clamped his lips down onto her own. In response, she drove her tongue between his lips and tantalized his tongue until he responded in kind.

He embraced her and pressed her body against his own. Her heavy breasts pressed pleasantly against his chest. He ran his fingers through the soft, heavy mass of her hair, and the hypnotic fragrance he noted in her presence returned, doubled and redoubled in strength. He breathed in the fragrance with a deep sigh of pleasure as he buried his face in the shadows of her hair. He then reached out with his tongue and lightly caressed her ear.

All the while she ran her fingernails lightly up and down his back. Her stroking sank lower and lower, until she was running her hands around his trim buttocks.

“I want you,” he whispered into her ear, “I want you more than any woman I’ve ever known.”

She pushed herself back, holding him at near‑arms length with her hands on his shoulders even though his arms were still curled possessively around her waist. “Then,” she replied provocatively, staring back at him with broad grin of pleasure, “you can have me.”

He started by standing and gallantly helping Melissa to her feet. Then came an awkward pause, until Melissa said “You can start by helping me out of my dress.”

He unzipped the back of her dress and folded it down past her slender waist, revealing her beautifully rounded breasts. As revealing as her dress was, it was obvious to him long ago that she did not wear anything underneath it. Unfettered, her nipples stood erect, and her sparkling crystal pendant now dangled in the now-revealed cleavage, a sight that captured his gaze and his attention, until Melissa said “ahem”.

She planted her fists on her hips. Her posture thrust out her breasts, and Phillip took advantage of the momentary opportunity to enjoy the splendid sight. He then knelt and slid the gown down around her feet, then looked up. Just at eye level was a pair of lacy black silk panties. He reached up to remove them but she gently slapped his hands away. “My turn,” she said.

As he stood, she made an erotic game of unbuttoning his shirt and drawing it off his shoulders. She took advantage of the opportunity to embrace him once again as she slipped his shirt off his arms and dropped it behind him. Then she slithered her hands underneath his T-shirt and began to slowly lift it over his head. When it was over his head, he leaned down and placed a quick kiss on her forehead.

She then knelt in front of him and started removing his jeans: in a moment his belt was loosened and they fell to the floor. She made a teasing hypnotic gesture before his groin as she pulled down his trunks, and his member obediently sprang forth erect as if at her command. She made several more teasing gestures, and Phillip could almost believe he was getting harder and more aroused with each gesture. Then suddenly an unwrapped condom appeared between her fingers, and she quickly slipped it over his waiting member.

That was apparently the signal: he leaned over and lifted her up to a standing position. She kicked off her shoes and slipped off her panties, the black silk marked by a spot of deeper blackness. Phillip quickly untied his shoes, then joined Melissa on the bed. She motioned for him to roll onto his back, and she mounted above him. There was another moment of awkward hesitation, then Melissa stared directly into Phillip’s eyes as she passed the palm of her hand in a slow circling motion before his eyes, saying softly “Look into my eyes, Phillip. Concentrate on my eyes, my voice, my self. Nothing else matters, nothing else exists for you.”

When she stopped speaking, after a timeless, mindless moment, the world suddenly turned strange in Phillip’s perception: Melissa stood out in sharp clarity to all of his senses while the rest of the world faded to a soft blur. He didn’t care: she was the only thing that he cared to see, to hear, to feel.

The merest touch of her hand on his arm made him all the more conscious of his painful erection. It was if every soft caress of her cool hand on his arm, every sleek brush of her silken skin against his hip, every feathery touch of her long hair upon his body, every breath of her enticing perfume, all went directly to his cock and then radiated outward to every part of his body. And when she spoke gently to him, her voice seemed to echo in his ears.

“Now, come to me,” whispered Melissa in her sultry voice, “come for me.”

The sensation of her slowly sliding up and down on his cock was ecstasy beyond measure, but even that feeling was overwhelmed when he could no longer contain himself. He moaned through clenched teeth as his orgasm seemingly exploded forth, matched by her own mewling cry. At that moment, he somehow knew that their feelings, their sensations were united, that somehow they were bound together in mutual pleasure.

When it was over at last, Phillip discovered Melissa lying atop and beside him. She lifted her head to stare at him, noting he was looking at her. “Look into my eyes, Phillip. Sleep … rest … sleep,” she said. Phillip surrendered to her eyes; it was so easy to comply: he needed the rest after his exertions, after all. He quickly drifted off into a deep slumber, so he didn’t hear her continue: “you’ll need it.”