I looked at her dubiously.
Over the next hour, I fell several more times. Sarah fell twice as well. I finally felt I had the hang of it and was easily keeping up with Sarah. I was hot from exertion, but my legs were wet from the snow. "We should go home," I told her. "I'm wet."
"Can you feel your fingers and toes?" she immediately asked. "Wriggle them."
"I'm fine," I said. "We can come out again after lunch."
She smiled. "Care for a wager?"
I squinted at her. "What kind of wager?"
"A race. First one back to the cabin with all her outer gear off wins." She paused. "I'll even give you a head start."
"A head start, huh? And what do I get when I win?"
"You get to have input in what position you're in when I tie you up."
I laughed. "And if you win?"
"Then I get to tie you up and do absolutely anything I want to you."
"Either way, it sounds like I'm getting tied up," I said. She nodded slowly. "What if I don't want to get tied up?"
"Why are we talking about hypothetical situations that have no basis in reality?"
I laughed. "How much of a head start do I get?"
"Fifteen seconds."
"One minute," I countered.
She paused then looked over at the distance to the cabin. Then she smiled. "All right, one minute. But if I win, then you have to kneel down and kiss my feet as soon as we're both ready for our warm up bath."
"Deal."
I turned around and pointed my skis for the shortest path to the cabin.
"Allison," she said. "If you go that route, you'll be skiing through powder the entire time."
"It's shortest."
"I will be staying on the snowmobile tracks most of the way back," she said. "Suit yourself. If I win by more than ten minutes, then I get to draw on your skin with a permanent marker."
I turned to look at her. "Not the face."
"Nothing visible to your clients," she agreed. "I wouldn't do that."
I looked back and forth between the two routes. "You're really staying on the hard packed?"
"Yep, most of the way."
I narrowed my eyes at her. "Are you trying to sucker me into the longer route?"
"If I take the direct route, I agree to answer any three questions you ask. Any three at all."
I smiled at her.
"I'll start counting to sixty as soon as you start skiing," she told me.
I lined myself with the hard packed snow and started skiing back. Step. Glide. Step. Glide. I went as fast as I could without falling, although I was soon panting.
Behind me I heard Sarah counting. The further away I got, the louder she counted so I could hear her. I heard her say, "Sixty, here I come."
After that all I heard was my skis in the snow and my own panting. The cabin was further away than I realized.
After a couple of minutes, I heard Sarah behind me, her skis making a swooshing sound in the snow. We were only halfway back to the cabin before she caught up to me. We skied side by side for a while. "I love you," she said quietly, then she pulled ahead of me.
I almost fell.
I chased after her retreating ass. God! She was beautiful, and so graceful. It was almost as if she'd been born on skies.
"You bitch!" I yelled at her. "You've done this before!"
I heard her laughing. "You'll pay for calling me names!" she yelled over her shoulder.
I avoided falling until it was time to turn off the packed snow. I fell making the turn. Sarah had already disappeared into the cabin, her skis and poles stuck in the snow in front of the deck. I climbed to my feet and did my best to avoid the permanent marker.
I fell again. Then I got to shore without falling, but as soon as I tried to ski up to the cabin, I fell again.
I lay in the snow, panting and frustrated. I didn't get up.
Sarah must have been watching, as the cabin door open and she came back out, pulling on her boots and jacket. She ran to me and crouched down.
"Hey," she said quietly. "Are you okay?"
I looked up at her. There must have been something in my expression.
"Oh honey," she said. "I used to race in school."
"Raced?"
"My teen years weren't completely horrible," she said. "Mom had money and would buy things to assuage her guilt over never having any time for me."
She moved to my feet and helped me out of the skis, then pulled me to my feet. She picked up my skis and we walked to the cabin. She stuck my skis into the snow, standing on their tails, and I added my poles. Then she led the way into the cabin and helped me climb out of my clothes. I hadn't said anything.
She stood up and looked at me. "Are you upset I suckered you?"
"A little," I admitted.
"Just a little?"
"Maybe more than a little."
She didn't respond to that, but she reached for my hand. "Come on. Hot bath is ready."
I let her pull me into the bathroom then stood there while she undressed me. I stepped into the tub, and it hurt against my cold legs. I lowered myself slowly. By the time I was completely in the water, she was undressed and joining me, sitting at the other end of the tub facing me.
"I'll accept your punishment for being a bitch," she said, looking away from me.
"You weren't being a bitch," I told her. "I just get a little competitive."
"I'll give you one question," she said very quietly. "But I'm still tying you up, if I can cajole you back into a good mood."
I tried studying her face, but she ignored me and was doing something with the soap under the water.
"You're really going to let me ask a question?"
"Yes," she said, looking back at me. "Make it count. If it's about something from before I was twenty-one, frame it so I can answer in only a few words."
I didn't say anything for a minute. She slithered a foot over to me and tried sticking it in my crotch.
"Hey!" I said, capturing it. "Not yet, okay?"
"Sorry."
I took her foot, pulled it out of the water, and kissed the big toe before placing it back somewhere a little less intimate.
"I don't want to ask you anything if it's going to make you run," I told her.
"One question."
I thought about it and finally asked, "Who hurt you?"
She looked away for a while and didn't answer.
"Sarah, you don't have to answer."
She didn't respond immediately but turned back to me and looked me straight in the eye. "My aunt."
"Oh honey," I said.
"Hush." She paused. "She was the first. She caught me looking at girls when I was twelve. She was determined to 'cure' me of being gay." She paused. "I'm going to skip parts." She looked away and looked back. "After that, much after that, there was a series of boyfriends. Four. One was a nice guy. Three were total assholes. Only one of them hurt me physically, but all three hurt me emotionally. I felt I didn't deserve any better. So. My aunt and three boyfriends. Plus indirectly the people who should have been protecting me and didn't. Including Mom, the great psychiatrist, whose own daughter attempted suicide not once, but twice."
She looked away for a while, neither of us saying anything. I hadn't been expecting those particular details, but the basic story didn't surprise me very much. I didn't have a clue how to help her.
She turned back. "Have I paid my bitch debt?"
"Yes."
"Good. We're changing the subject. Did you enjoy skiing?"
I smiled. "Yes." I paused. "Is it safe to ask you about the skiing?"
She smiled back. "Actually, that's about the only safe subject. I skied in high school. I was on the cross country ski race team. I wasn't the most athletic person on the team, but it was a good solo sport. I could get lost in myself while skiing. It's how I learned to love winter. The only bad part about it is the short season."
She paused. "You did well today."
"You kicked my pants."
"It was your first day. You did well. Are we going out again later?"
"Not if I'm all tied up."
She laughed, and everything was okay again. She shifted around in the tub and we curled up together, soaking in the hot water.
* * *
After our bath, she wouldn't let me get dressed.
"I'm hungry," I told her.
"You'll eat naked," she said.
"You're getting dressed."
She looked at me. "Kneel."
I hesitated.
"Now! Kneel!"
I lowered myself to the floor.
"Head down, Slave!"
I lowered my head, but I was getting a little angry.
She walked around me. "Why are you fighting me?"
I didn't say anything.
She stopped in front of me, looking down at me, inches away from me. "Is this getting old for you?"
I still didn't answer.
She turned away, finished getting dressed, then left the bedroom. "Do what you want, Allison," she said as she left, closing the door.
I stayed there on my knees for another minute before I stood up. I found a pair of panties and a bathrobe and put them on, then went out to find her. She was standing at the window, looking out at the lake, her arms crossed. When I came out of the bathroom, she glanced at me but immediately turned back to the window.
I walked up next to her and was going to put my arm around her.
"Don't touch me," she said.
I stepped away from her. I sensed if I didn't fix this, she was going to leave. I didn't want her to go, both for my own selfish reasons, but also for hers. We needed each other. I didn't think this need of hers to be so dominant was healthy, but she retreated to it so fiercely. It wasn't something I could fight head on. It might not be something I could fight at all.
I asked myself as simple question. What was I willing to do for her? The answer was immediately obvious. Anything.
I dropped the robe in a puddle around my feet before stepping in front of her, kneeling, lowering my head, and saying, "I am very sorry, Mistress. I am still learning, and I am sorry for my mistakes."
"I told you that you didn't need to call me that." She paused. "Please don't do it again."
"Yes, Sarah."
She stepped forward, closing the distance between us, and wrapped her arms around my head. I wrapped mine around her waist, and we held each other.
"You need to remain submissive, Allison," she said quietly. "Not forever, but for now."
"I'm trying, Sarah."
"Did you tell Emily about this part?"
"Yes. But not Jim. She was very surprised and amused."
She hugged me a little tighter. "I will allow the panties during lunch." She lifted my chin and kissed me.
* * *
For lunch we had sandwiches. We were both very quiet to start. Sarah told me to sit in a stool while she made our lunch. Neither of us were saying anything until she stopped and looked at me. She smiled. "Tell me three things you like about me, and then three things you most hope I like about you."
"I love your hair, Sarah," I replied. "It's so you. Wild and passionate."
"That's one."
"I love your way of looking at things. The meditation and breathing, and how you can live so simply when everyone else thinks she needs a huge walk in closet and four hundred pair of shoes."
Then I leered at her. "I love hearing you gasp when I'm pleasuring you."
She laughed. "You're the one who is going to be gasping shortly. Now, three about you."
I thought about it for a moment. "I hope you will always think I'm sexy."
"I do," she said, offering her own leer. "You are the sexiest woman I've ever been with."
"I hope that you'll like my willingness to approach new activities and attitudes with an open mind."
She cocked her head. "I'll admit I was worried about that, but yes, you've been very open. I've been struggling to stay ahead of you."
I looked away for a moment. "This last one is stupid."
"That's okay," she said. "What is it?"
"I hope you'll like my home, and my success. I'm proud of how far I've come."
She walked around the island and kissed me. "I love your cabin, and I am very proud to be in your life."
We ate lunch quietly, but from the looks we were exchanging with each other, the confused moods from earlier had melted away. Once we were done eating, she cleared our plates and washed them. I walked up behind her and put my hand on her ass. She wriggled a little for me.
"Are we okay?" I asked quietly.
"I want to tie you up. How does that make you feel?"
"Sexy."
She turned to me and pulled me into a hug, her wet soapy hands on my back. Sarah kissed me, her tongue sliding between my lips to caress my own tongue. Her hands slid down my back and cupped my ass. She pulled me more firmly against her.
She broke the kiss, and we both had wild expressions as we looked at each other. "Go to the bedroom. When you arrive, remove your undies and leave them on the bed. Kneel on the bed, facing the foot. When I arrive, you will continue to look straight ahead. You will at no time turn to look at me. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sarah."
"Are you going to obey?"
"Yes, Sarah."
She kissed me again then broke the kiss and said, "Go."
I smiled hesitantly and walked to the bedroom. I felt her eyes on me, and I wriggled for her as I went. When I got to the bedroom, I removed my undies and climbed onto the bed, kneeling the way she'd indicated.
I wasn't sure how I felt about all of this, but I knew how my body felt. I was dripping wet for her. I had suggested to her that I'd always wanted to be tied up, but the reality was, I'd never given it a second thought.
But she was teaching me that obeying her gave me what I wanted, too. She was here, and I was enjoying everything we did together, in and out of the bed. I certainly had enjoyed the skiing, up until the end.
Thinking about her tying me up made me more excited. My lips parted, and I found myself wondering what she would do to me.
She left me kneeling there for several minutes before I heard her walking down the hallway towards me. I stared straight ahead, exactly as she had ordered.
"No peeking, Allison. Pick a point on the wall or out the window and focus on it."