Just Say No
— 5 —
Thirty six hours later, I was in Las Vegas, taking my seat for Jared’s performance. My plan was to catch up to him afterwards.
I couldn’t help but notice that half the audience was drunk off their asses. Given that I was in Vegas, that probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but I had to wonder how well hypnosis worked on drunks.
I never got to find out. Immediately after Jared came on stage, he introduced himself, explained that hypnosis couldn’t be used to force anyone to do anything they didn’t want to do, and that it was perfectly safe. Next, he instructed everyone interested in coming on stage to raise their hands and then told everyone who had had more than two drinks to lower them again. He even went so far as to reject a few people, and choose replacements when he noticed how much they were weaving back and forth as they made their way forward.
Naturally, I wasn’t interested in being hypnotized myself, but I watched the show with some interest. Jared was a tall, blond man, and he had one of those smooth voices that radiated confidence. His body language and demeanor conveyed that he was in absolute control at all times.
The initial “induction” part of the performance was rather boring. The lights went down, and the volunteers on stage were repeatedly told to relax, to listen to Jared’s voice. He droned on and on, for over ten minutes. I didn’t quite see how this could put anyone in a trance, though the people on stage appeared to respond to his words. Most of them were, at the very least, pretending to fall asleep. Finally, he sent two people who hadn’t gone under back to their seats.
What followed was about what I expected from a stage hypnotist. Jared led them through several different scenarios. For example, he told one man he was the smartest man in the world and had the answer to every question. Then Jared asked the man to explain Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The audience watched as, with utter confidence, he spouted bullshit for almost a minute.
Another volunteer, a woman, was made to forget that there was a number between seven and nine. Then Jared started asking her how many legs could be found on a spider and how many sides were on a stop sign.
Later, all of his volunteers were made to believe the entire audience was naked. Jared took them aside, behind a curtain before waking them from their trance. Then, one by one, he instructed each of them to recite the pledge of allegiance in front of all of us, the suggestion hitting each of them as they stepped forward.
I had to admit, it was amusing. I wasn’t quite convinced that the volunteers weren’t either faking it or planted in the audience by Jared, but it was still funny.
Jared ended the show with his own personal pitch, advertising his availability for corporate gatherings and fund-raisers. It was the opening I’d been hoping for. He said that anyone who was interested should come up and talk with him afterwards. While I didn’t want to hire him to put on a performance, I did have job for him.
As the audience trickled out of the theater, I approached the stage. “Jared? I may have a job for you.”
He looked up. “I’m booked through the next two weeks. When did you have in mind?”
“Not a performance,” I clarified. “It’s about Cassie Dalton.”
His suave, confident demeanor was gone in an instant. “Oh, fuck. Please tell me she isn’t here in Vegas.”
“No, its just me.”
Jared relaxed a bit, but he was still obviously on edge. “Then, let me guess. She deleted the recordings again?”
“Sort of, but that’s not—wait, what do you mean, again?”
He looked at me for a few seconds. “Damn, that would be Cassie. Alright, here’s the deal. You’re going to buy me a drink, a strong one. Possibly multiple strong ones, since this is about her. In return, I’ll explain, and maybe save you some trouble. She’s hot but she’s crazy, and if you stick around her too long you’ll go crazy too.”
The theater was in a casino, so naturally we didn’t have to go very far to find a bar. Jared got the attention of the bartender: “Johny Walker Black, neat. And make it a double.”
“Same,” I said handing over my credit card. “Put us both on my tab.”
Jared turned to me. “You’re sleeping with her then?”
“Maybe, so what?”
“Mmm.” Jared didn’t seem bothered by this revelation, but there was something on his mind. “She show you what’s in the box by her bed?”
“Again, so what?” I was getting impatient with this line of questioning, and his insinuation there was anything wrong with what Cassie and I enjoyed together.
“If you’ve seen the box, you know what I mean. Has she gotten you to use any of it yet?”
“The only thing I’ve taken out of her toy box is a gag. After that, she wasn’t in a position to ask about anything else.” It was technically true, though I had no intention of bringing up everything I came up with on my own.
Jared burst out laughing. “Damn, I should have thought of that.” He raised his glass of whisky which had just arrived. “Here’s to you, for finally shutting her up. Cheers!”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. I sipped my whisky while he gulped down at least a third of his drink.
“You realize that trick won’t work, forever, though, right?” He asked. “She doesn’t give up. She’ll just start to bug you before you start, and then she’ll bitch about it afterwards unless you do what she wants. Like, really, seriously hurt her. I’m telling you, get out now.”
“I appreciate the warning, but I think I can handle her,” I said. Cassie had warned me that they broke up because he wasn’t really into what she enjoyed. Still, I was a bit irritated that he was inadvertently criticizing my sexual proclivities, too.
“I thought I could handle her too,” Jared said, “and I get what you’re thinking. She’s smoking hot. Still not worth it. It’s not just that she’s submissive. No. She’s a walking, talking contradiction. All her fantasies are around being owned, but you say one word to suggest she’s not a strong, independent career woman and she’ll go all feminist rage-beast. Then, she’ll probably insist you punish her for it. I cant even... Any chance you’ve heard the phrase ‘topping from the bottom?’”
“No,” I admitted.
“I hadn’t either. Cassie insisted I read up on BDSM, so I did. That’s what it’s called when a sub, like Cassie is telling her dom what to do. ‘Topping from the bottom.’ Demanding the dom does what she wants, how she wants it, even though he’s supposedly the one in charge. I pointed out what she was doing and she thew a fit, said that I was weak for not dealing with her crap, that if I were a real man I’d be able to handle her. What the hell do you even say to that?”
When Cassie talked back to me I had no trouble putting her in her place. In fact, I enjoyed doing it—probably more than I should have. Then again, she was enjoying it too. Maybe Cassie and I really were right for each other, mirror images that fit together perfectly.
“Well, if she’s giving you crap, isn’t that what the gag is for?” I asked.
“Point,” he acknowledged. “But she won’t let it go at that, trust me. You have to think ahead.”
“I can’t help but think it’s ironic,” I said. “You mess with people’s heads for a living. You control people. But then, you’re totally freaked out by someone who wants to be controlled.”
“Do I like control? Sure. It’s fun to get people to do things they might not normally do. But, with Cassie, I always got the feeling she was messing with my head as much as I was messing with hers.”
“Speaking of which, you were going to explain what you meant when you said Cassie deleted the recordings again?” I asked Jared. “She told me they were gone, not that she’d deleted them more than once.“
“You’re here in person, so she must have mentioned that I changed my number. Did she tell you why?”
“She said you were angry. There’s more?”
Jared rolled his eyes at me. “You could say that. The day after we broke up she called me, told me she’d deleted the files, then asked permission. She was obviously trying to get back together. I told her we were over, and sent her another copy. Next day, she does it again, and then again the day after that, and again, and again, and again, and so on. Get the picture?”
“I could definitely see Cassie doing that,” I admitted.
“After about a week, I changed my number, I changed my email address, I deleted my Facebook and took this gig in Vegas. She hadn’t started physically stalking me, but I got the impression it was only a matter of time. I didn’t hear from her after that, so I’d hoped she’d moved on. I can’t say I’m surprised you’re here, though, and I have to say I’d rather deal with you than her.”
He held up his glass of whisky. “More alcohol, less screaming and crying this way. How about if I give you the files, and from now on you deal with her and leave me out of it?“
“I promise, if you help, we’ll both leave you alone,” I told him. “Except, those recordings aren’t what I want.“
“So, what do you want?”
“I’ll get to that,” I said, “but first, there’s something that’s been bothering me that I think you could help clear up.”
“Well?”
“Both you and Cassie talk about these hypnosis recordings like they’re this big deal, as if programming a person is like programming a computer. Now you’ve got me thinking this is for real because of how you and she are acting, but I really can’t tell if I’m being delusional. I’ve seen your show, and no disrespect or anything, but is this hypnosis thing for real?”
“It’s fine, that’s what everyone wants to know,” Jared assured me. “It’s for real, though you’re probably thinking about it wrong. You need to understand, you really can’t make anyone do anything they genuinely don’t want to do. For example, it’s not like I could hypnotize Cassie to cut out the crazy—that’s fundamentally who she is, it’s what she wants. Also, when you’re hypnotized, you’re aware of it. You remember it. But, don’t take my word for it. You ever hear of Richard Feynman?“
“No, who is he?”
“Was, he died back in the eighties.” Jared said. “Big name physicist, worked on the atom bomb, won the Nobel prize. His hobby was cracking safes. Brilliant guy. His big thing was that he never took anyone else’s word for anything, he always wanted to test things out for himself to see if they were true. Anyway, he talks about a couple times he was hypnotized in his autobiography. The way he puts it is that the whole time you’re hypnotized you’re saying to yourself ‘I could do something else, but I won’t,’ which in reality is just another way of saying that you can’t. That’s what hypnotism is.”
It was obvious that Jared enjoyed talking about hypnosis. “Oh, and by the way,” he went on, “you don’t realize it, but you’ve probably been hypnotized before.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I’m pretty sure I would remember that.”
“You would remember it,” Jared agreed. “You just don’t realize it was a form of hypnosis. You’re with Cassie, so I’m guessing you like books?”
“Yes.”
“Can you think of a time when you were reading a really good book, when you were completely immersed in what was happening? Afterwards you looked at the clock, and several hours had passed while you were reading and you didn’t even realize it. That ever happen to you?”
“Sure.”
Jared smiled. “Congratulations, you were in a trance, not a particularly deep trance, but still a trance. That’s all it means to be hypnotized. You’re focused on something else, and the real world fades away. The world is still there, you’re still there, but your attention is elsewhere.”
“Oh.” I’d never thought about it that way before. “But, with Cassie, with these recordings, we’re talking about behavior afterwards, when she’s not still hypnotized. How does that work?”
“It’s hard to describe, but when you’re hypnotized you’re suggestible. So long as it’s something you’re agreeable to, that you actually want, you’ll go along with it. Afterwards, you’ll remember being given the suggestion, but it just feels natural, instinctual to follow the instruction, and uncomfortable to disobey.”
“Again, like Feynman said,” Jared continued, “you feel like you could do something else, but you don’t, which is the same thing as if you can’t. The more times you’ve been hypnotized and given the suggestion, the more of an instinct it becomes, the more uncomfortable it feels if you don’t follow it, and the more you really can’t resist.”
I shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to accept that. Cassie seems to think it worked on her, and I suppose that’s what matters. Anyway, I talked it over with her, and I think she’s finally ready to take the plunge and give up smoking altogether, permission or no permission. Instead of the tapes from before, can you make new ones for that?”
Jared was staring me as if I’d grown a second head. When he spoke, he slowly enunciated every word. “She told you she wants to quit smoking.”
“That’s right,” I said, not sure what else he was expecting. “She said she wants to quit.”
“To quit smoking,” Jared repeated.
“Yes.”
“Mother. . .” Jared didn’t finish the expletive he had started, instead trailing off. “That’s a new one, even for Cassie. She used those exact words? She said that she wants to quit smoking?”
“Well,” I began, but it was my turn to pause as I tried to recall exactly what she’d said.
Jared went on before I finished trying to remember Cassie’s exact phrasing. “Let me clear this up for you. Cassie’s father died of lung cancer. She’s never smoked a cigarette in her life, thinks they’re disgusting. A couple of times we passed someone smoking on the sidewalk and she made a face.”
“What?” It was my turn to stare at him, with the same bewildered expression he had worn a few moments before.
“The recordings we’re talking about? They have nothing whatsoever to do with smoking. Cassie convinced me to hypnotize her so she wouldn’t come, that is, to not have an orgasm without my permission. It was all part of her damn crazy fetish, and I’m telling you, I’m through with it!“
I blinked at him, stunned. Fragments of conversation from the previous week suddenly took on a different meaning.
I’m not addicted to porn. It’s what comes after.
Six weeks! I’m going crazy!
Maybe it starts with ‘O’ for orgasm. Is that it?
Of course I want more, that’s why I was asking!
This is really how you want me?
If you’re sure, then I’ll do it. For you.
Holy shit.
That first night, that’s probably why she had been trying to seduce me. Not only was she already horny and frustrated, if she’d gotten me into bed it would have been perfectly natural to beg me to come. I hadn’t given her a chance, though.
When she tried to explain over dinner she assumed that I’d figured it out from her comment about the porn, and then I told her no. That, especially when coupled with what I did to her later that night, fed right into her fantasies.
All that time, I had control of her orgasms and I didn’t even realize it. She was repeatedly, genuinely begging to come, and I kept saying no. But that was also what turned her on, being submissive, being denied the orgasms she desperately wanted. Every time I said no, it must have turned her on even more. And she still couldn’t come.
She sucked me off every night for the last week, got to watch me come while being denied that same privilege. Then, on Friday night, I’d spent half an hour eating her out. When I told her what I was about to do, she must have assumed I would give her permission. Then I told her no, silenced her, and she had to endure thirty minutes of teasing.
No wonder she’d been screaming so loudly into the gag.
Damn. That was hot. For all intents and purposes I owned the most intimate part of her.
I loved the idea of having her under my power this way. While I was a bit worried that leaving her like this would be taking advantage of her in the worst way, I had to remind myself: she did this to herself. Some part of her wanted this. I was only giving her what she wanted.
No, what she needed.
“I didn’t know,” I told Jared. “Cassie wasn’t clear. Now that I think of it, she didn’t explicitly say it was about cigarettes. I jumped to the wrong conclusion.”
Jared smirked. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Messing with you like this? It’s what she does. I take it she didn’t mention the edging either?”
“The what?” I was pretty sure the misunderstanding was entirely my fault, but if Jared was content to assume that Cassie had intended the deception I had no reason to correct him.
“Edging. It’s when she brings herself to the brink of an orgasm, then stops. She can’t really go over, even if she tries, but she can get right to the edge. Basically, it keeps her horny and desperate all the time.”
When I didn’t say anything he got a little defensive. “Hey, she asked for it, demanded it, even. It sure wasn’t my idea. When I hypnotized her I gave her the suggestion that any time she either goes to bed alone, or wakes up alone she has to edge herself twice. That is, she has to get worked up, stop, cool down and then do it all over again a second time, every morning and every evening she isn’t sharing her bed with anyone.”
I remembered how sad Cassie looked every time I said goodnight. Every night, I’d been sending her home alone to tease herself silly after taunting her with what she was denied.
Also, on Friday morning I hadn’t been in bed with her when she woke up. I was already in the shower. Did that count as alone? With the water running, I probably wouldn’t have heard her. When she was standing there half-naked in her purple bathrobe, just how horny had she been?
“So, she did use the files I gave her, then?” Jared asked, suddenly puzzled. “Otherwise she wouldn’t have sent you here to put her back the way she was. Or am I missing something?”
I proceeded to explain how Cassie had edited the audio.
Jared was soon nodding along as I spoke. “That sounds like her. I’m a little surprised it worked, but the key to making a suggestion take is that the subject has to want it. Going to all that trouble, she must have really wanted it. I’m sure that helped. It begs the question, though.“
“What question?” I didn’t follow what he meant.
“I told you, you can’t hypnotize someone to do something they don’t want to do. I wonder. Even if you got her to listen to the audio to remove the suggestion, would it work?”
I shrugged. “You’re the hypnotist. You tell me.”
“The thing is,” Jared said after a moment’s consideration, “I don’t know how her mind works or what she really wants. I could never quite figure her out. She’d beg me for permission to come. Afterwards, after I gave her exactly what she said she wanted, she’d go off on me for making it too easy for her. What does she really want? Hell if I know.”
Just as I’d suspected, being denied was her fantasy. It was cruel and controlling, but Cassie craved that cruelty, sought to give up control. She pushed away anyone who couldn’t do that for her. Inadvertently, I’d given her exactly what she wanted, and I was only too happy to keep on doing it.
“Hmm.” It was my turn to consider. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you give me the original files, but then make another set of recordings as well. Don’t worry, I can pay you. Here’s what I was thinking...”
I proceeded to explain what I had in mind. Jared was reluctant at first, but after he had a few more drinks in him and a substantial sum of cash changed hands I managed to wear him down.
For an exorbitant price, and a promise that neither Cassie or I would ever bother him again, Jared agreed to what I wanted. He was even willing to make me a few back-up copy on old-fashioned audio CDs along with the files on a thumb-drive that Cassie preferred.
Additionally, I made him promise never to tell Cassie about my initial misconception. He didn’t seem to have a problem with that, merely commenting, “No problem, just keep her away from me. After this, she’s your problem.“
My return flight was a red-eye the following evening, and Jared told me he would have what I wanted ready by three o’clock, before my flight. For what I was paying, he was willing to get the job done very quickly. That left me a lazy Sunday in Las Vegas with little I needed to do, and a lot to think about.
Within an hour of when I woke up my thoughts quickly gravitated towards a certain course of action. I wasn’t particularly surprised to discover that Las Vegas had an even better selection of establishments that specialized in items of an adult nature than New York. I had no trouble finding one that carried the item I wanted to purchase.
I definitely picked the right place. In addition to what I wanted, the shop I visited sold some custom accessories that they manufactured in-house. In particular a deluxe wooden storage chest caught my attention. It was much nicer and than the smaller black storage unit offered by the manufacturer and offered a few important extras as well. The deluxe model was a good match for Cassie’s toy chest even though it was meant to store only one thing.
I bought what I came for along with the deluxe storage system and paid another eye-watering sum to have it all shipped back to New York overnight. All together, though, it was still significantly less than what I’d paid Jared.
It didn’t really matter. It was only money, my firm paid me well, and I hadn’t taken a vacation in years. Besides, my recent purchases promised to provide better entertainment than a hundred vacations could ever possibly deliver.
Before boarding the airplane I called Cassie. I kept it brief, telling her that “Jared was very helpful,” without going into details. I did, however, mention that I was bringing presents home for her.
I could here her trepidation over the phone. “I look forward to it, sir.”
“Wonderful,” I replied. “I’ll see you tomorrow at six thirty. I love you.”
“I love you too, sir.”
After that, I boarded the plane and slept like a baby all the way back to New York. Yes, I’m one of those people who can actually get a good night’s sleep on an airplane. I’ve been told it’s a rare talent.