"Beloved, would you mind just-" Darlene's voice trailed off into silence as she glanced over to where her husband was sitting and saw the distracted, vacant look in his eyes again. She knew there wasn't much point in finishing her sentence, not without first giving him a shake or a shout or possibly a shot from the foam dart gun she kept for that exact purpose. Sam was off in his own little world again, so lost in thought that he didn't even hear her speaking. His lips were slightly parted, his face expressionless and blank as he stared sightlessly off into the middle distance. Darlene might as well have been in another room for all that he noticed her. Or planet, for that matter.
She thought about getting up and getting the remote control herself, but something about the adorable spaced-out look in Sam's gray-blue eyes made Darlene decide not to turn on the television just yet. She didn't want to snap him out of his hyperfocused state too early; he might lose his train of thought, and she liked the places his mind went to when he wandered like this. It was sometimes creative, sometimes whimsical, sometimes downright absurd-she still remembered the time he mumbled sheepishly that he was trying to come up with Mythbusters-themed lyrics to Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible". (Even now, when it came on the radio she couldn't stop herself from singing, "I used to believe the myth, but now I find it... rigorously testable!")
Instead, Darlene leaned over the arm of the couch and watched her husband with quiet adoration, marveling at his cute, quirky brain. There was always something so amazing about the way he chased down the implications of even the tiniest little observation, following his own thoughts down the rabbit hole and into the wonderland inside his head. She didn't let on just how often she sat next to him and smiled softly while she stared at his cute, vacant eyes and felt her heart swell with pride at owning such an incredible mind.
Which was, of course, the other reason Darlene wasn't quite so eager to snap Sam out of his reverie just yet. There was something so deliciously vulnerable about the way he looked right now, utterly oblivious to his surroundings and unable to consciously process any of the information his senses were taking in. It reminded Darlene of nothing so much as the way he looked when she hypnotized him. He had that same total focus, that same disassociation from reality... but when she took his willing, open, delightfully obedient mind, that concentration was collared and leashed to her control. And she loved every second of it.
So did Sam. Which was why Darlene didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about pitching her voice in a low, soft, sultry tone that didn't risk breaking her husband's concentration and saying, "Your deep self is listening to every word I say now. Your waking mind can stay nice and focused, letting everything else flow past it without even noticing, but your unconscious mind is tuning into my words and giving me a tiny little nod to show that it's paying attention. Just like the good boy I know you are."
Darlene felt a shiver of arousal run down her spine as she watched Sam's head move in a slow, lazy, almost imperceptible nod. There was something so impossibly sexy about having that kind of control over another person; no matter how simple or subtle the action, she always got a deep sexual thrill out of knowing that it was her command, her will that made it happen. It didn't matter that Sam was the kind of loving husband who would happily climb out of bed at three in the morning to run to the grocery store and get her ice cream-he wasn't nodding because he loved her, he was nodding because he was compelled to obey. Hypnosis made the tiniest acts feel so much more potently erotic.
She couldn't help craving more. "That's my obedient good boy," she cooed, reveling in the sleepy smile that quirked at the corners of his mouth. "Sinking deeper and deeper for me now, letting yourself chase those thoughts down... and down... and down into the center of your mind and finding that they naturally lead you into that warm, soft place inside your head that you know so well. That place where you find yourself relaxing into drowsy, docile surrender to me."
She watched Sam's brow furrow for just a moment, as he began to realize that whatever he was thinking about shouldn't lead quite so easily and effortlessly to thoughts of sinking into his chair and letting his mind fade into warm, blank submission to his hypnotic Goddess... but he was too well-trained to struggle for long, and he loved going into trance too much to truly want to resist. He let out a slow, sleepy sigh and the vacancy in his eyes took on a different cast. Darlene knew she had him now.