Stephanie stared at him. It went beyond disinterest, beyond rude, it was down right odd. He knew damn well she was in the room with him. It had been 45 minutes, and he hadn't said a word to her. If the media hadn't exploited his playboy status so much, she might have thought he was gay. When he first came into the room, he took notice of her standing there, shook his head, gave a quick snicker, then sat down and started working. She tried to get him to acnowledge her, telling him her name, and that the Dacopulous Brothers had sent her as a gift. He did not respond.

After over an hour of awkard avoidance, the silence was broken by a ringing phone. Dover Anderson III answered, "Hello - Ahh, Mr. Dacopulous - Yes, she is here now - Yes, she is quite lovely, but you are quite foolish. If you think a two dollar whore is somehow going to distract me from the takeover, or make me change my mind, you are sorely mistaken. It is poor stategies like these that have put you in prime position for a takeover Mr. Dacopulous. You can share that with your brother. Now, if you don't mind, I want to finish going over these contracts. Good day."

Dover hung up the phone completely unaffected. He was stone cold. Taking a family business away from two brothers who had dedicated their lives to it didn't disturb him at all. It disturbed Stephanie though, Stephanie Dacopulous was very disturbed. Her uncles were about to loose their business. The business they and her father started. Stephanie was their only chance now. She had hoped it would be easier than this. It was now or never. Her techniques had worked on dozens of people at the university. The were all ready for it though. She had never done it to anyone against their will.

"Well Mr. Anderson, I can't sit here in silence anymore. I just feel I need to talk. Is that all right with you?" "It is a woman's right. To talk incessently to a man that is not listening, that is. I don't care what you do. You should probably stick around though, when I finish these contracts, I'll give you a chance to earn your fee." Stephanie couldn't believe someone could be this unlikeable, "Yeah, right. Umm, well you don't have to listen to me, I'll just talk.", she said, laying groundwork.

"I mean, it's cool if you don't respond. I wouldn't want to waste your time. I know you are very busy. Any distractions, or interests outside of your main goal only serve to waste energy. You are such a busy man though. Busy men like yourself need all the energy they can get. Once you start loosing your energy, you begin to feel drained, tired, lethargic. Sometimes, when you have been working so hard, you start to feel tired.You try to concentrate on what you are doing, but you feel drowsy and tired. Your vision starts to blur, the room starts to feel warm.

The room is so warm and comfortable. You must be feeling tired, sleepy. You are feeling so tired and sleepy all you want to do is rest. You need to rest, your eyes are fighting to stay open. You eyes need to close. Your eyes are closing, they are closing tighter and tighter. You are feeling more and more tired.", Stephanie couldn't believe it, it was actually working. It was quite fascinating, clinically that was. The fact that his concious mind was ignoring her, made it all the easier for her words to go straight to his concious mind. It was as if those papers he was so concerned with were

acting as a fixation object. Those contracts were basically a big swinging watch to the rude business man. Stephanie continued, feeling more confident, "Your eyes are so heavy as you struggle to read, struggle to comprehend what you are looking at. Your eyes and your mind are soo tired now. So tired now, you need to rest them. You need to close your eyes, and let your mind rest. Let your mind rest Dover. Close your eyes now." Standing behind him, she wasn't sure if his eyes were shut or not. Trying to act casual, she backed

away from the plant stand where she had spent the last hour or so. She wasn't sure if she would get a look at him only to see an expression of pure mockery. His breathing and posture indicated that he was in trance, but that wouldn't be good enough for what she needed. She needed him to go real deep, there was a lot she needed to manipulate within his psyche. It wasn't very ethical, she knew that, but then again, what he was doing was not any where near ethical. Still, if her father could see her now, dressed like a woman of the night, trying to hypnotize a man into doing something he normally wouldn't, it was shameful.

Bingo! Shameful or not, Stephanie had hit the jackpot. As she circled around enough to see his face, she saw her subject sat slumped in his chair, totally asleep. She had butterflies. It was time to get on with the show before something went wrong. "Dover, you are deeply asleep now. You are deeply asleep, but you can still hear my words and respond to me, do you understand?" "Mmm", he mumbled. Good enough. "Excellent, your doing very well. Now Dover, I want you to listen very carefully. In a moment I'm going to relax you more completely. In a moment

I'm going to begin counting backwards from 10 to 1. The moment I say the number 10 you will allow your eyelids to remain closed. The moment I say the number 10, you will, in your minds eye, see yourself at the top of a small set of stairs. The moment I say the number 9, and each additional number, you will simply move down those stairs relaxing more completely. At the base of the stairs is a large feather bed, with a comfortable feather pillow. The moment I say the number one you will simply sink into that bed, resting your head on that feather pillow. Number 10, eyes closed at the top of those stairs."

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