With her hair in a towel

She slowly worked her way down the stairs, still clearly a bit sore. Other than her hair wrapped in a towel, she was naked as the day she was born. I was just putting the food on the table, and she smiled a little when she saw the coffee and the spread before her.

“Thanks,” she said, her voice hoarse.

“My pleasure,” I said, “Eat up, you must be starved.”

She sat and we both started eating, her a bit faster than usual. We didn’t really say anything until she’d cleared her plate. She drained the last of her coffee and sat back in the chair contentedly.

“I can’t believe you did that to me,” she said finally. I looked up at her, and was surprised to see just the hint of a wry, uncertain smile.

“I hope I don’t have to do it again,” I said, then put the last piece of bacon in my mouth.

Her eyes never left mine as I crunched away. They seemed to be full of challenge somehow. The power game continued. It was like she wanted to surrender but wasn’t willing to do so without making me continue to work for it. There was something in that hint of a smile that seemed somehow… satisfied? Not that she’d enjoyed it exactly, but like it scratched some kind of deep itch for her. I finished the bacon and then my coffee.

“I told you that you wouldn’t enjoy it.”

She frowned at that. “I didn’t expect that you’d go that far. My whole body hurts. You could have really hurt me.”

“I know,” I said, “I really would have rather had you in bed with me. Next time I hope you’ll do what you’re told.”

“Seriously, that was actually dangerous. Physically dangerous. If that thing had been bigger I could have choked… I could have gotten nerve damage in my arms if you’d left me there any longer. You can’t just do that to me whenever I fuck up.”

“I didn’t say I would. I might punish you if you make a mistake or fail at a task, but not like that. That was for disobedience and for trying to break your word to me. What we have… whatever this is… it’s based on clearly defined roles. Without obedience and commitment to our roles, it will fall apart. We’ll be back to where we were a few weeks ago, maybe worse. There won’t be any trust. I want us to make this work, and this is the only way I know how it can after everything that's happened, especially after what we agreed to.”

She broke the eye contact and looked down at her empty plate with a blank face. The silence stretched out again for a time before she spoke.

“Okay,” she said quietly without looking up. I let the word of her acceptance hang there for a while before I moved on.