Caitlyn leaned over the edge of the couch, her eyes twinkling with amusement at the way Philip's eyes suddenly tried very hard to be looking anywhere but into the valley of her cleavage. "Want to see my new necklace?"
Philip stiffened slightly. He also tensed slightly. He tried to hold eye contact with her, determined not to give her any hint that he noticed her breasts (her extremely large, well-shaped, pendulous, hanging almost in his face breasts...) but his plan was stymied by the fact that she was looking down at his crotch. Awkwardly, he shifted in an attempt to make his half-erection a little less obvious. "Um, no. No thanks. I'm sure it's nice."
Caitlyn curled her lip in a mock pout. "You haven't even seen me put it on yet, Phil," she replied in a hurt tone. "I think you'll find it's very...attention-getting."
That's what I'm worried about,
Philip thought to himself as he squirmed on the couch. Out loud, though, he simply said, "Um...so what did you say you and Jane were doing tonight?" He wanted to get up and flee to his bedroom, but until his cousin got back from her boyfriend's house, he was stuck playing host. Social pressure held him in his seat as firmly as if he was tied there.
Caitlyn shrugged. "I dunno. We hadn't really made plans." Caitlyn giggled, her laughter making her chest heave in disconcertingly interesting ways. "I just figured I'd find something fun to do until she got back, like last time."
Philip tensed up even more. "I, um...I'm sure she'll be back any minute." It was a bluff and they both knew it. Philip might be living in Jane's apartment while he was in America, but she spent every second or third night over at her boyfriend's house ever since the two of them started dating. She might not walk through that door until tomorrow, maybe not even until the next day, and Philip couldn't help feeling like Caitlyn had known that when she came over.
It wasn't that he wasn't...or that he wouldn't...that is, it wasn't like he was
saving
himself or anything...it was just that, well, she shouldn't...that is, not that she shouldn't, because women could nowadays and there was nothing wrong with wanting to...but she shouldn't the way she did because it wasn't that he wouldn't but he always felt like if he didn't want to he wouldn't be able to tell her she couldn't because she wanted to so much that she wouldn't let him. Or something like that. Caitlyn always threw Philip off-balance, that was the problem. She was nothing like the women back home in Yorkshire. She made him feel like he was powerless to stop her from doing whatever she wanted, even before...
She reached into her pocket and took out the necklace. It looked like a chunk of polished malachite, with swirls of bright and vivid green standing out against the dark green of its surface. It hung from a simple leather cord, and Caitlyn tied it around her neck without even standing up. "What do you think?" she asked.
Philip tried to look anywhere but at the necklace. "It's lovely. Please put it away now," he said urgently.
"Why?" Caitlyn asked in tones of mock confusion. Then she put a finger to her lips in a show of sudden understanding. "Oh!" she said. "Surely you don't think I might hypnotize you again!"
Philip swallowed. It took a surprising amount of effort. "I...um, the thought had, um." He licked his lips nervously, his mouth too dry to wet them effectively. "Briefly occurred to me, yes, but...I mean, I'm sure that this time, now that I'm...on my guard, it wouldn't..." He caught a glimpse of the pendant swaying gently between Caitlyn's hanging breasts, and for a long moment he forgot what he was talking about. "Um, affect me," he said at last.
"I'm sure it wouldn't," Caitlyn said, rocking gently from side to side as if dancing to unheard music. "I'm sure you'd never let yourself get lost in the gentle motion, watching as it goes back and forth, back and forth...the slow, endless, easy rhythm, back and forth." Her voice sounded like thick honey might taste.
"Well, no, I wouldn't, but I-" Philip tried to look straight ahead, stare at the wall or the floor or the ceiling or anywhere but at Caitlyn's pendant, but he kept spotting the motion of the pendant out of the corner of his eye, and it was just instinct to want to follow a moving object with your eyes. He looked away for the third time.
"Exactly," Caitlyn said, reassurance dripping from her words. "So this time, you won't need to worry about watching my pendant move back and forth...you won't feel like you did last time, gradually losing control of your thoughts as you watch it sway back and forth...you remember what that felt like, don't you, Phil?"
"Not...um...really..." Philip realized he'd stopped trying to look away, and refocused his energy on not following the pendant with his eyes. Focus, that was the key. He remembered that from last time, even if he didn't remember all that much else. He remembered how sure Caitlyn had sounded when she'd said she could hypnotize him, almost smug about it. He remembered the feeling of dizziness...no, not dizziness. Giddiness. Lightheaded, like he was about to fall. It felt strangely terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time, like that strange attraction you got when you were close to the edge in high places. As if you weren't fully in control of yourself...
"That's okay, Phil," Caitlyn said, breaking into his train of thought. "I'm sure you'll remember. Just look at the back and forth motion, the back and forth sway and I'm sure it will all come back to you." Philip felt his body shudder involuntarily, although he wasn't quite sure why. He wasn't afraid of Caitlyn; she wasn't going to hurt him. But something in her eyes...there was a hunger there, just like last time. He felt powerless to resist that hunger. He didn't want to feel powerless like that and yet it felt so exciting to know that what he wanted didn't entirely matter right now.
But it did. Philip blinked rapidly, trying to clear the cobwebs from his thoughts.
Focus,
he told himself. That was what had gone wrong last time. He'd listened too much to Caitlyn's soft, honeyed voice, and let her lull him into watching the necklace slowly swing in front of his eyes as he followed it back and forth, back and forth- Abruptly, he realized those were Caitlyn's words and he was mouthing along with them. "I'd like you to take the necklace off," he said thickly. His voice sounded muzzy and dazed in his ears. He fought off the slow, lazy exhaustion he felt and focused on staring straight ahead.