Here’s the opening of The Revenge (Financial Domination Files #6 and the sequel to The Interview.
Just remain calm, Eric thought.
I’m an Ivy League graduate, an Olympic bronze medalist, the CFO of a Fortune 500 company. I can do this.
He heard the staccato clicks of approaching heels.
I am in control, he tried to convince himself.
He swallowed hard as she appeared in the doorway. Her hair was blonder than remembered.
She wore a clingy white blouse with one too many buttons undone. Her tight black leather skirt, cinched with a silver chain belt, ended well above the knee.
But his eyes were drawn to her stockings.Horizontal stripes, black and nude, circled her improbably long legs. The effect was mesmerizing. The contrast between dark and light caused his eyes to linger.
She fake coughed.With great effort Eric raised his gaze. From behind tortoise shell librarian spectacles, blue eyes the color of the sky before a storm stared back at him.
She smiled when she had his attention. She always had their attention.“Good evening, my toy. Did you forget the proper greeting position?” She extended a slender finger and pointed to the floor.
His knees buckled for a moment, before he regained his composure.
He took a deep breath. “My apologies, Godd—, er, Zusa. I’ve been doing a bit of soul searching, and I’ve come to the conclusion that my service to you has come to an end.” He stood up straighter.“Soul searching?” Zusa laughed as she collapsed on the couch. She slowly and deliberately crossed her legs. “But there’s no need to search. Your soul is in a jar on a shelf in my basement. Been there since the first time you laid eyes on me.” She smiled wickedly.
The CFO remained steady. He knew her tricks. How she could use her voice and her beauty to confuse him. He wouldn’t fall for it. Not this time.
“This will be my last visit.”
Zusa ran a shiny red fingernail the length of her thigh. “Tell me, Eric.” She dropped her voice an octave to a husky tone. “If you’re really done with me, why even bother showing up? Why not just disappear forever?”
“Doesn’t matter why. My work is suffering. My family. My life. I need to do this. I need to be free.”
“Yet you are here before me. Doesn’t sound very free to me. And I notice you can’t help but steal glances at my stockings.”
She was right. He was fascinated by her stockings. Again, she crossed and uncrossed her legs and he couldn’t do anything but gawk in helpless fascination.
“I wore them just for you, my toy.”His heart was pounding and his resolve slipping away. “Zusa, please…”
She rocked her foot back and forth. “Notice the patterns in my stockings. If you stare closely, you can almost see them spin, can’t you?”
He stared harder. Yes, he could see them spin.
“That’s right continue to watch and relax.”
Eric stared at Zusa’s legs, at the stockings, at the stripes, the rings… watching them all go around and around and around.
“Don’t you think you’d be more comfortable on the floor? You’d also have a much better view.”
“Yes, Zusa. You are right.”
“Yes, Goddess,” she corrected him.
“Yes, Goddess.” His body shook and he dropped to his knees.
Zusa rose from the couch and walked towards him.
He eyes stayed locked on her legs, the stockings, the spirals. The spirals were spinning faster now.
“Keep staring at my stockings and listening to my voice… Becoming weaker and weaker… Emptier and emptier.”
In his eyes, she could see the reflection of her legs. She could even see them the spinning spirals.
She giggled.
“That’s right, my pet…
“Stare in awe…
“Listen and obey…
“To all my words…
“All my suggestions…
“Penetrating your mind…
“So deeply…
“So deeply…
“Impossible to resist…
“Compelled to obey…
“Mind so empty…
“Feeling so weak…
“No thoughts…
“No worries…
“Just my voice…
“Echoing in your mind…
“My words…
“My suggestions…
“My commands…
“Controlling you…
“Taking you deeper…
“And deeper…
“Falling deeper than ever before…
“Under my hypnotic spell…
“Where nothing else matters…
“But my words…
“And my voice…
“Falling even deeper now…
“Into the deepest trance possible…
“So deep…
“Into your subconscious mind…
“Where I rule…
“Where my words rule…
“Counting down from ten…
“And when I reach zero…
“You will fall into deepest trance possible…
“One thousand times deeper…
“Than you have ever gone before…
“Ten…
“Deeper…
“Nine…
“Impossible to resist…
“Eight…
“Completely under my spell…
“Seven…
“Mind so empty…
“Six…
“So weak for me…
“Five…
“Utterly helpless…
“Four…
“Falling even faster…
“Three…
“No hope of escape…
“Two…
“Almost there…
“One…
My words consume you…
“Zero…
“Deep sleep now!”
Zusa snapped her fingers and his eyes slammed shut.
She looked down at him and smiled with contempt. “Now my completely enthralled slave, your mind is completely open to me. No more resistance. No more defenses.
Nothing more than my plaything. An amusing diversion. An experiment to prove just how powerful I am.”His body trembled.
Zusa laughed. “That’s right, you should shake. And do you know why?”
Eric was silent.
Zusa leaned down and whispered, “Because I am going to take it all. Everything you have. Complete and utter financial destruction.”
His body shook harder now.
Her hot breath tickled his ear as she continued. “That’s right toy: checking, savings, 401-k, stock options, your daughter’s college fund. All of it is going to be mine…
“Because you can’t say no to me…
“Because you want me to destroy you…
“Because I want it…
“Because I can…”
She stood back up and giggled at the quivering executive.
“Bringing you up on the count of five…
“But still under my spell…
“And in my power…
“Eager to obey…
“Helpless to resist…
“One… Two… Three… Four… Five!”
She snapped her fingers three times in quick succession.
His eyelids fluttered open. A blank look on his face.
Zusa grabbed his tie and yanked him forward. She peered into his eyes and saw complete and utter submission. She released the tie and he tumbled forward. “Oops!”
She grabbed a tablet from the coffee table and thrust it into his hands. “This app is called The Vacuum Cleaner. Custom made by a Byelo-Russian hacker who loves to be forced to bark like a dog.” She laughed. “Go ahead and fill in your details. The program will do the rest: draining all your accounts and adding them to mine.”
The tablet shook in his hands.Her voice reverberated in his head.
She was deep in his mind.
His will twisted and contorted by her words.
He was sick to his stomach at the thought of losing everything.
But it was what she wanted.
And he had to obey.
Even at this price.
He must do this for her.
He couldn’t say no.
He didn’t want to say no.
He wanted her to do this to him.
With tears streaming down his face he entered the data: name, SSN, account and financial institutions. “Zusa, please…”
“There, there, my toy. Almost done. Go ahead and make me happy by destroying yourself.”
His finger quivered as it hovered over ‘Complete’ and then he tapped.
Zusa took the tablet back and looked at the screen. “Shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds.”
The executive silently sobbed.
The tablet beeped.
Zusa giggled and showed him the screen. His accounts all listed zero balances.
“Don’t you just feel wonderful, my toy?”He was bankrupt. Financially ruined. Devastated. But all he could think about was how good it felt that Zusa had done this to him. “Thank you, Goddess.”
“Yes!” exclaimed Zusa. “I’ve taken everything you’ve owned. Looks like I’m up close to two and a half million, but nothing gets me hotter than when a slave thanks me for ruining him.” She burst out laughing. “Oh, who am I kidding. The cash is always better, but still to be thanked for destroying you is always a thrill.”
She checked her watch. “Looks like our time is up. Guess you were right, my toy. This will be your final visit. There’s nothing left to take. I have no further use for you.”
She leaned close.
He could smell her perfume.
Her hot breath on his neck. Her lips brushed the lobe of his ear.
In a breathy whisper Zusa told him, “I always win.”
She giggled and snapped her fingers.
The penniless man slumped to the floor.
The Revenge will be published later this month.
13 Black Cats Publishing Company 