Chapter 16: Collected

Sandy watched Penny practically race past her and exclaim, "Please don't disturb me for a little bit, okay – I'm sorry."

Sandy wasn't sure what Penny had to be sorry about, but seeing Penny's disheveled state immediately ignited thoughts in her mind: had Penny just seen Mistress? These thoughts immediately warmed her sex and caused her nipples to jut out under shirt, even as they caused her eyes to fill with tears. It had been three days now, and she hadn't heard a word from her Mistress.

Mistress. That word felt so delicious, so erotic, every time she said or thought it. Submitting to Mistress on Friday night had been such a thrilling, erotic experience that Sandy found herself thinking about it, craving it, whenever she had idle to think. But since Friday, she had had no contact with Mistress at all, and Sandy had started to feel horrifying hints of doubt about why her Mistress hadn't summoned her. Had she not been submissive enough? Did Mistress not desire her? Was she not attractive enough?

On some level, she had to admit, the mystery of it all appealed to her. She was completely at Mistress's mercy. Of course, she could call Mistress's office, but somehow, Sandy knew that that wouldn't be right – submissive girls didn't do such things. She must wait. But how long would she have to wait?

When she had woken up on Saturday morning, she felt more complete and fulfilled than she ever had before, and not having any idea what was to come next only excited her more. As she rolled out of bed, her muscles aching from everything she had been through the night before, she had felt a warm glow surround her, and that glow didn't waver for most of the day – a day that she spent lounging around her apartment - naked.

By the evening, her thoughts had begun to drift to her Mistress – she thought of how submissive Mistress had made her feel, and how submissive she hoped to be in the future. The more she thought in this way, the wetter her sex got and the stiffer her nipples became. Other than idly stroking her breasts, though, she resisted the urge to masturbate. After all, she would rather wait until her Mistress gave her a command to orgasm – anything else would seem unsatisfying and ... wrong.

As Sandy had fallen asleep that night she had still felt wonderful – the ache in her sex just reminded her of her submission, and that warmed her, relaxed her. Still exhausted from the previous night, she had slept soundly and awoke very late the next day.

That was when she started to feel a bit nervous. Why hadn't Mistress contacted her? Every time Sandy thought about what had transpired she felt arousal begin to grow within her, and her own unwillingness to masturbate meant that the arousal would not be sated until Mistress returned. But what if she never returned? What if Mistress had decided she didn't want her?

To make matters worse, Sandy began to worry about Monday – when she had to see Penny again. Would her boss still want to work with her after what had happened? And what would happen to their professional relationship? Penny had been so wonderful, giving her a start at a big company where she would meet a lot of great contacts and have wonderful opportunities to learn and grow. Had Sandy ruined all of that in a single night?

As if all of that wasn't enough, Sandy also began to worry about Mindy. Late Sunday evening, with the stress and worry of everything bearing down on her, Sandy had called her friend – her friend whom she had had shared such an intense hypnotic experience with just two nights earlier. After all, they were close friends and surely they would be able to talk about what had happened between them. And if there was anyone that Sandy felt she could confide in now, it would be Mindy. They had both experienced the power of Mistress's hypnotic trance, and had both received tremendous pleasure as a result. Surely Mindy would be a sympathetic ear. Maybe Mindy was even having the same doubts, and needed comfort as well.

But when Sandy called Mindy, there was no answer. She left a message and even tried to call her again later, but she heard no response. Sandy knew that Mindy usually stayed in on Sunday nights, readying herself for her early work schedule during the week. Usually, Sandy could count on Mindy to call her with almost clocklike regularity. And if there were ever a night when Sandy would expect Mindy to follow her usual pattern it would be this one, when they had so much to talk about!

But Mindy never called; never responded to Sandy's messages. As Sandy went to bed, forcing herself to try to sleep before she went to work and saw Penny, she felt tears begin to flow out of her eyes. Eventually she slowly, fitfully, drifted off to sleep while gently sobbing into her pillow.

Monday morning, though, had brought her a new sense of hope and promise. She arose early and was ready to head to the office much faster than she usually was. As she was about to leave, she had a strange feeling that she had forgotten something important, so she returned to her room to look around and see if anything grabbed her attention. Eventually, she looked over her dresser, sure that there was something there that she needed, but she didn't find anything. Absent-mindedly she grabbed a note that was sitting there, but didn't really see anything that she would need for the day.

When she arrived at work the nerves had really started to settle in. She was quite early, but nevertheless, Penny would be in soon. She let herself into her boss's office to make sure that everything was organized and clean – ready for Penny to use. Showing that she was still eager to be the best assistant possible, Sandy figured, might help Penny realize that Sandy still wanted to be a hard-working and professional assistant.

Everything in Penny's office seemed to be in order, but Sandy felt that there was something that should be on her desk that wasn't. Not sure why, she decided that the note that she had carelessly taken with her from her apartment might need to be on Penny's desk, so she pulled it out of her pocket where she had stashed it and placed in the middle of Penny's workspace. As silly as it might have been to have done this, it made her feel good somehow – and the worry she felt about Mistress seemed to ease a bit.

Sandy's outlook improved still more when Penny finally did arrive. At first Sandy felt intensely nervous and anxious but, as always, Penny seemed to know the best things to say. Sandy had blushed a bit when Penny mentioned that they shouldn't think much of it since they were both hypnotized – after all, there were two moments when they weren't hypnotized, but their desires had gotten the best of them nonetheless. Sandy, though, certainly wasn't going to bring this up – she was just happy that Penny was determined that they could still work together just fine, and that things didn't have to change.

They worked together all morning and Sandy was relieved that, just as they had discussed, they were able to remain professional and friendly without any awkwardness. Sure, whenever Sandy wasn't focused on a specific task she couldn't help but remember what her boss had looked like, naked and sweaty and crying out in climax. And, sure, these thoughts caused waves of arousal to wash over Sandy. But she suppressed those feelings and did her best not to allow Penny to see the effect that she was having on her personal assistant.

As the day had passed, Sandy had started to feel that perhaps all of her worrying was for naught. Things had worked out with Penny. Surely they would work out with Mistress, too – she simply had to be patient and submit to whatever Mistress desired for her in the coming days. Even her concerns over Mindy had started to pass a bit – she couldn't expect Mindy to be as mature and collected about it as Penny had been, but Sandy was confident that she would come around eventually.

But then, after lunch, Sandy found herself once again filled with anxiety. When Sandy saw the state of Penny's hair, and the flushed look that covered her face, she instantly knew that Penny must have just visited Mistress. She could tell, as Penny walked across the room, that she was no longer wearing a bra, and Sandy immediately pictured Mistress holding onto that bra as Penny kneeled before her – hypnotized.

The thought caused Sandy's sex to tingle, but it also made her start to doubt again. If Mistress was willing to summon Penny – to hypnotize her and, by the looks of it, fill her with arousal and desire – why had she seemingly abandoned Sandy? Sandy had submitted so openly and brazenly to her Mistress, and yet Mistress hadn't returned to accept any further submission on her part. Sandy began to wonder if she was somehow too submissive – maybe Mistress had wanted someone stronger. Maybe she wanted someone more like ... Penny.

The thought that this might be the case filled Sandy with anguish. Once again she briefly thought of calling her Mistress – of openly begging her to please continue to dominate her, entrance her, and make her feel the way she had felt a few days before. But she couldn't bring herself to do it – Mistress's will controlled her, and if it was Mistress's will not to contact her, then there was nothing she could do but fall into her despair.

She did her best to pull herself together, though. Sandy knew that if Penny saw her crying, she would want to know what was wrong, and that could lead to a conversation that might ruin the accord that they had come to earlier regarding putting Friday behind them. As much as Sandy wanted to run into Penny's office and talk to her about what she was feeling (and what had just happened to Penny – if for no other reason than to feel Mistress's power vicariously), she knew that if she did so it might change her relationship with her boss permanently, and Sandy didn't want that to happen.

So, she wiped away her tears and did her best to focus on work.

Fortunately, Penny didn't come out of her office for quite some time. Though a deep weight of sadness seemed lodged in Sandy's stomach, the time that she had to herself allowed her to get control of her outward behavior and act as though she were the usual untroubled, eager to please assistant that Penny was familiar with.

When Penny did finally emerge from her office, Sandy noted that her appearance was much closer to her usual professionalism than it had been when she came back from lunch. Her hair was no longer disheveled, and her eyes no longer had that lost, lustful, panicked look that Mistress could induce so well. Sandy could still tell that Penny wasn't wearing a bra – although with her clothes fully back in order that wasn't entirely obvious, either – Penny's breasts were firm and perky enough on their own that a bra wasn't entirely essential. Sandy felt herself blushing a bit as she realized just how much she knew about Penny's naked breasts.

Penny either didn't notice Sandy's blush or chose to ignore it and, instead, simply asked her assistant for some files that she needed as she continued to work on the presentation that she had to make the following week. Sandy handed her the files and Penny returned to her office. Sandy was amazed at Penny's control – after an encounter with Mistress, Sandy didn't think that she'd be able to focus on work for quite some time, but here was Penny, less than an hour after being hypnotized and aroused, getting back to work with her usual focus and determination.

At that moment, Sandy realized why she had been foolish to doubt whether or not she would be able to work with Penny after what had happened on Friday night. The only thing that could make their working relationship awkward would be a loss of respect and Sandy realized, without any doubt, that she still held Penny in the absolute highest respect that she could imagine. Even if they were to have similar experiences in the future, her respect would not waver...

Sandy caught herself as she started to imagine what future experiences they might have. Images of them bowing before their Mistress; offering themselves to her; submitting – all floated through Sandy's mind and, seemingly, licked across her sex. But with those feelings came the sinking feeling in her stomach as well – maybe Penny was the only one of them worthy of such a scene; maybe Sandy simply wasn't good enough.