Free Under His Spell by Jade Lee, Kathy Lyons Page A

he set it spinning, reflecting the light like a strobe.
    She wanted to say something, was mentally reaching for some sort of joke or quip that would dismiss the tension she felt coiling in her belly, but she couldn’t form the words. Her mind was already embracing the strobing light, emptying of everything but the steady flash.
    Click. There it was, her mental off switch. As soon as the power was cut to her brain, everything slipped away—her fears, her tensions, her constant thinking. And just like before, her island paradise surrounded her and she felt free, free, free!
    “You’re smiling,” he observed. “Why?”
    “No more thinking. Just being. It’s wonderful.” Was that her voice? Deep. Slow. Sultry, even, in a not-quite-awake way.
    “Hmmm. Okay, let’s start with the basics. Say your safety word just to make sure it works.”
    “No.”
    He frowned. “Why not?”
    “I like this. I don’t need the word.”
    “Because it will break you out of the hypnosis?”
    “Yes. Mmmmm…” Nicky felt her head tilt back. It was weird the way this worked. She didn’t think about tilting her head back, then actually do it. She just experienced the sensation of her head dropping back against his lush couch. Then she felt her legs stretch out before her as her chest expanded in a full breath. “Ahhhh,” she said as she exhaled. “I can breathe again.”
    “Good. Now tell me why you followed me home last night.”
    She rolled her head on the couch to look directly at him. “Because you said to.”
    He frowned. “So it was the hypnosis.”
    She laughed, and the sound was throaty and dark. “No. It was because I liked it.”
    “You liked what we did?”
    “Of course.”
    “But there’s something else?”
    She stretched her hands high above her head. “Of course.”
    “What did you like, Nicky? What specifically did you like?”
    “I liked being told what to do.” Then she peered around her elbow. “I didn’t like that you failed to make me come.”
    He stiffened. “Um, not true. I made you come—”
    “From just nipple play alone.”
    “Ah.” He dropped his chin on his hand. “You’re right that I failed there. Did you want to try again?”
    She took another deep breath and let her arms flop open with a sigh of disgust. “You’re not as good at this as you were last night.”
    “Why?”
    She looked at him, and she felt her eyebrows arch in disdain. “Is that a command?”
    “Uh…yeah.” Then he straightened, lifted his pocket watch again and spun it. What little remained of her mind burned away beneath the strobe. All that was left was this moment, this exact second and his voice as it filled her thoughts. “Nicky,” he said sternly, “I command you to tell me why I was better last night than I am now.”
    “Because last night you told me exactly what to say and do.”
    “I told you to tell me your fantasy.”
    “Yes.”
    “And I told you where to put your hands on the railing.”
    She smiled. “And to not let go.”
    “And you like being commanded?”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “Why?” And when she didn’t answer at first, he strengthened his tone. “Nicky! Tell me why!”
    “All day long, I order people around. Hundreds of employees jump when I say boo, ten thousand reports that tell my bosses what to do. I even order myself around. Sit up straight! Work late! Get it done!”
    “And now?”
    She grinned and felt her head fall backward again. “Now I don’t make any orders. I don’t think them up. I just do them.”
    “And you like that? Being ordered around?” He paused a moment. “Being dominated?”
    “Oh, yes.” She purred the words.
    “And what if I ordered you to do something immoral? Something bad.”
    She lifted her head, her bottom lip thrust forward into a pout. “You won’t, will you?”
    “You have your safety word, remember? Will it work?”
    She thought about that for a moment. She almost thought the word, but she didn’t. It was right there at the edge of her