Marina flopped down on the couch next to Josie, a wide smile on her face and a gleam of enthusiasm in her deep brown eyes. "So, what do you say, champ?" she asked, opening her fist to let a crystal pendant dangle from her outstretched fingers. "You up for a rematch? I know your record this week is 0-5, but I really think you can break the streak with a good show tonight. You're tough, you're strong, you've got what it takes to resist me!"
Josie had to snicker at that, even if her pride was a little stung by her roommate's implications. "First, it's only two o'clock. That's kind of early for shenanigans, don't you think?" Josie knew full well that the answer was 'no', especially on a Saturday afternoon, but there was always something about her that loved the way Marina took Josie's firm resolve to steer clear of sexual hypnosis and slowly dissolved it in a sea of temptation. It was insanely hot, hot enough to make Josie stretch the definition of 'firm' well beyond what the dictionary would allow simply to give Marina something to work with.
But she wasn't about to let Marina get away with overconfidence. "And second," she said, before Marina could distract her with any arguments about when it was early enough for sex, "I absolutely do have what it takes to resist you. I'm not some kind of, of weak-willed pushover who crumbles at the first sight of a... a pendulum." Josie felt suddenly, uncomfortably aware that the rose quartz crystal that dangled from Marina's fingers was swaying from side to side in a slow, measured, and incredibly eye-catching swing.
Josie forced herself to look away, locking her gaze onto Marina's glittering eyes just in time to remember that it wouldn't be much of an improvement. "I'm very strong-willed. I'm extremely determined. I'm incredibly disciplined. And I could resist any time I wanted to. Absolutely any time," she said firmly, forcing herself to enunciate each syllable clearly and carefully to avoid slurring her words. "You only win because I let you win." It sounded like a dare, even to her.
But Marina didn't rise to it. "Oh, honey, of course I do," she purred, her voice lightly oiled with condescension until it slid easily through Josie's distracted brain. "That's just how hypnosis works. I provide your conscious mind with something to focus on, and I offer your subconscious something that it already wants... like, say, complete relaxation. Or freedom from responsibility for a little while. Or deep, powerful sexual pleasure."
Marina rested her hand on Josie's leg and began to lightly stroke her fingernails against Josie's ivory skin. "All things you already want, all things you enjoy. Your deep self wants to give in and relax. Your subconscious mind wants all that dreamy, drowsy bliss that you know is waiting for you every time you slip into an obedient trance for me. And like you said, you're very strong-willed. You're very determined. Once your unconscious has made the decision to accept all the delicious, sensual pleasure that my pretty pink pendant promises you... then that determination will lead you right into a deep hypnotic trance for me."
Josie's eyes watered with the effort of ignoring the swinging crystal that dangled just at the edge of her field of vision. "That's all it is, sweetie," Marina purred, her carefully-trimmed fingernails tracing a line of sensation along the inside of Josie's smooth, creamy thighs. "I'm not doing anything to you. I'm just sitting here and talking to you, letting the silver chain hang down from my fingers and letting the pretty pink crystal hang down from the end of the chain. You're too strong to let something as simple as that tease your brain into soft, foggy, mindless surrender. Isn't that right?"
Josie nodded slowly. She realized that somehow, without exactly noticing when it had happened, her eyes had drifted back over to the pendant. It was like there was this tiny little slip in her memories, a gap where nothing particularly important happened and Josie knew she didn't need to pay attention, and at the other end of the gap her gaze was following the crystal again. Following it back and forth. Back. And forth. She let out a slow, lazy sigh, the tension escaping her with a whoosh of breath as her muscles began to relax.
