After I was done doing the dishes, I quickly shot on my ski boots and went over to the other chalets, telling the beginners there to get ready and gather in front of our chalet at 9:30AM.
Then I went back and upstairs, to change into the ski outfit that I had bought on the first day. It was entirely black save a neon-blue section on my torso. The same blue could also be found back in the tips of my boots.
I was just about to put on my jacket when Ross came in to also get changed and I told him that I’d wait downstairs. The others had all left the chalet by now, on to more difficult slopes.
When I got outside, my kiddy group came walking up to the house just then. We waited for Ross, who took his sweet time but when he finally came outside, he seemed a bit surprised seeing fourteen of us.
I frowned and walked over.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked.
He shot me a quick smile and shook his head.

“No, no… it’s just… I thought it’d just be the two of us. But this is fine. We’ll make a party of it.”
He pulled on his boots and up we went.

If I remembered correctly, there were several slopes for beginners, apart from the kiddy slope, and quite a few for the more experienced skiers. So we went up to about half the mountain, where a few more challenging areas were located. There we started the day.

“If I break a leg, you’re on nursing duty,” I threatened him, which he answered with a grin.

“Sure. Come on, you can do it. It looks a lot worse than it is. Bend your knees a little more; that’s it. Yeah… now slowly push off… I said slowly! Mark!”

By then, it was a bit too late for that advice; I’d pushed off with a little too much force and was off, gathering more speed as I went.
It was fun though. The cold mountain air was gushing past my face; trees were zipping past my eyeline. I was going a bit too fast for my taste so I tried to break like I’d been taught in kiddy class. To my satisfaction, I slowed down.

“Jesus, you almost gave me a heart attack,” Ross’s voice sounded, coming up behind me.
But he smiled and nodded.
“You’re doing pretty well! Wanna try to slalom a bit? Otherwise you’ll keep breaking until you either run out of speed or hit something down there.”

“Could you please not say the words ‘you’, ‘going’ and ‘hit’ in the same sentence?” I quipped, “That’s like yelling ‘incoming!’ in a submarine.”
He smiled and got past me.

“Okay, follow my lead. We’ll try it slow first.”
He started out to the left and I closely looked at what he was doing, trying to mimic his movements.

Behind me, a few of the others from my class mimicked me. All in all it took us three trips back and forth before I got the hang of it. I fell more times than I could count and by the time it was noon, I imagined my calf and thighs to be black and blue when we’d get back to the chalet. But we had a lot of fun with the entire group, the climax being a jumble of ten people at the bottom of the slope. To a lesser extend for me, since I was the first to go down and got at least six heavy guys on top of me, but it was fun nonetheless.
We tried a lot of stuff, with one of the women even achieving a little jump. I tried it, only once. I ended up flat on my face.
That’s when I started to get a little annoyed with Ross because it looked like he was hovering after that. I couldn’t go anywhere or he was there, and pretty much ignoring the rest.
I told him repeatedly that I was fine but it didn’t help all that much; he stuck around no matter what I said.

We had lunch at a place nearby, where we had fries, cokes and warm coco. Then we went back in and pretty much spent the entire day on the slope. Around 3pm we were joined by the more experienced colleagues and went down one final time, conga style. Everybody filed behind each other, fifty plus people. Even some complete strangers joined the line.

When we finally arrived at the chalet, and I had to take off my skis, it was beginning to get dark. When the skis were off, I almost fell flat on my face again because I hadn’t walked for hours. Luckily I wasn’t the only one and we got a few laughs out of it before I went upstairs to take a, in my opinion, well deserved bath. All that falling and using muscles one normally doesn’t use had been pretty tiring.
The bath was already running and I sat on the bed, stripping down my pants, making ‘ouch, ouch’ comments until they were off. I was just lying on my back on the bed, resting from that ordeal, when the door opened and Ross came in.

“You alright?” he asked, taking off his own jacket.

“I’ll be fine,” I replied, sitting up and covering myself with the ski-pants.
I was practically naked, wearing only my shorts.
“I think my backside is black and blue. I’ll be as stiff as a board, tomorrow. But it was great; thanks for taking us.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, throwing the jacket on the bed.
He looked in the direction of the bathroom.
“Are you running a bath?”
I nodded and got up. It would be close to ready by now.

“Mark?” he said, just as I got to the bathroom.
I turned around and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
“Your backside looks fine to me.”

I felt the color rushing to my cheeks and went inside, closing the door, and hearing his soft laughter as the lock clicked.

**********

The stiffness didn’t wait to come in the morning. Instead, it came when we were all downstairs. I wanted to get up, to get a few drinks, and I almost could move!
The others started laughing when they saw me struggle to get up, but those laughs quickly died out when at least five of them also made a face when they tried to rise from the couches.

“Jesus, you guys look like shit,” Joey said, grinning wide.
He had a reason to grin, though. About an hour earlier, he had come to me and told me that he’d asked Janice out for a few drinks. Shy as he was, he also seemed to look forward to it.

“Oh, shut up. Don’t you have to get ready for that twenty-something stuff with Janice?” I replied, sending him a wink.
He blushed and mumbled something.
“I need something stronger than beer; anyone else?”

**********

That evening, about five of us were left behind while the others were out for drinks, joining Janice and Joey, much to his chagrin. Obviously he’d had something else in mind.
Those who stayed behind just relaxed downstairs, watching TV, reading or playing cards.
Then Joe got the idea to play a game of Monopoly. We set up on the dining table and brought the drinks over from the living room. I was on my third glass of whisky and finally started to feel comfortable enough; my bones and muscles didn’t ache half as much as earlier in the evening.
Around eleven, two colleagues called it a night and went up. They’d been beaten out of the game anyway, leaving Joe, Ross and me to play on.
When it was Joe’s turn, I got up to get another drink and swayed a bit. I giggled.

“Woops…”

“Yeah, you ‘woops’ right back into that chair. You’ve had enough,” Ross said, taking my glass away and setting it on the other side of the table, out of reach. “Maybe you should go up as well.”
I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, dear. Need me to take out the trash? Perhaps walk the dog and then come up for a spank or two because I’ve been a bad boy? Who are you, my boyfriend?”
Joe almost spat out a mouthful of his own drink and laughed loudly.

“I agree with Ross. You’re drunk. Go to bed.”

“Oh great, my dad’s here too!” I said, shaking my head. “God, you guys are no fun. Right, well… I’m off to bed then.”

I didn't notice Ross following me until he prevented me from keeling over. I mumbled a 'thank you' but had to do so at least twice more on the way up.
When we arrived at the bedroom, he opened the door and assisted me by the elbow to get me inside. I tried to shrug it off, telling him I could walk perfectly fine, belaying that comment a second later; as soon as he let go, I lost my balance and almost went down, arms flailing. He grabbed my elbow again, this time much harder and definitely painful.

“Sure, you can walk just fine. Don’t be such an idiot and accept help. You’re a lousy drunk.”
I snickered at him and he loosened his grip.

“Don’t patronize me,” I said, giving him a soft push. “I’m not a kid.”

“Then don’t behave like one. Come on, just a few more steps and then you can sit down.”
I told him to fuck off.

“What did you say?” he hissed, squeezing a bit harder.
Jesus his hands were strong. I had to fight the urge to squeal.

“Au! I told you to fuck off. Leave me alone.”

We angrily stared at each other for a long few seconds. Then he suddenly moved forward, so fast that he was little more than a blur and I definitely yelped now.
His mouth came down painfully hard onto mine, and his teeth bit into the soft flesh of my lower lip. The momentum this sudden ‘attack’ pushed me backward, until the back of my legs hit the side of the bed.
It came completely unexpected and there was little I could do except to try and push him away. Had I succeeded, he might have had one shiner of a black eye, me being drunk or not. But it was like I was pushing against a brick wall; the hard muscles in his chest didn’t even flinch. His hands handily caught mine and kept them away from him, and he used his body to block me from getting away, pushing a leg between mine and against the bed.

I started to protest and opened my mouth, but he handily took the opportunity to push his tongue inside.
It wasn’t a nice, romantic kiss or anything like that; it was more like he was trying to punish me for something. His long agile tongue probed deeper as time went by and as the seconds passed, his grip on my hands eased and he eventually let go when I gave in, letting one slip around my middle. The other one went up to my neck, nestling there.

I was still trying to comprehend all of this, and the only thing I could do was try to push him out of my mouth. But I failed miserably because instead of doing that, I was definitely beginning to kiss him back. When he lifted his head, and I slowly opened my eyes, his had darkened and they stared into mine, holding my gaze.
Then he tilted sideways and came closer again. I pulled my head back and he stopped.

“You’re drunk,” he said.
He remained close as I slowly looked away and took a deep breath.

“You’re a bastard,” I whispered, my anger boiling beneath the surface.
Then I brought up my hand and wiped my mouth with the back of it, while a slow smile crept onto his face.

“Sure I am. I’m the bastard and you’re innocent. But you enjoyed it as much as I did.”

“Please, get over yourself,” I replied, still tasting him on my tongue. “That was the single, most supremely awful experience of these past few days.”

“Liar,” he retorted, “you liked that. I know it and you damn well know it.”
Then he left.
Uch, he was intolerable; especially because he was right...

CHAPTER *6*

After I had taken a shower and got into bed, I lay awake. That… ‘kiss’ and the shower had pretty much sobered me up, leaving only a dull throb behind. The image of myself in the mirror, my lips swollen and my eyes bright with small pupils; I had looked like a ghost.
Why the hell had he done that? All that because I told him to fuck off?
I turned onto my side and tried to go to sleep but it simply wouldn’t come. My head was filled with the images of what had happened.
I was still trying to get them out of my head an hour later, when the door softly opened and Ross came inside.
It clicked softly behind him and I looked up. He was about to say something but I sent him a warning glare, turned around and said nothing. I listened as he undressed and when he walked to the bathroom, I started to turn around again; I wasn’t going to speak to him. He hung his head and sighed.

“Come on… can we talk about it?”
He went into the bathroom when I didn’t reply and I heard that he brushed his teeth. Then, when he came back and walked around the bed to the empty side, I turned again.

“You’re really behaving like a child,” he said softly.
He sighed again, mumbling something and got in bed. A few seconds past when he finally lay still; then he spoke again.
“Mark?”
I kept silent.
“Mark… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Damn straight you shouldn’t have.”

“Oh, so you are still speaking to me. Good. Could you turn around, please?”
When I didn’t, he simply pulled me on the shoulder and onto my back.
“I still think you were being a shit and deserved it. But I went too far.”

I’ve been told before that when I’ve had a bit too much to drink, I’m very much present; loud, giggling and so forth. Not annoying or anything, just… present. Maybe he was right but that didn’t give him the right to do what he did. He wasn’t my boyfriend; he couldn’t just ‘punish’ me in such a way.

“Maybe I was being a dick,” I said, conceding the point, “but you had no right doing that.”
Ross turned onto his side as well and he smiled sourly.

“No, I didn’t. But it was the only thing other than to hit you. You told me to fuck off. No one tells me to do that and just get away with it.”

“How butch,” I said, yawning.
He grinned and reached behind him, turning off the light. Then he returned to his original position; on his side, facing me.
I closed my eyes because I didn’t want to look at him, even at his contours; why was he lying so close. The bed was roomy enough. Damn it… why did he have to be so damn handsome.
Why couldn’t he be anyone else but my employer?
“Mark?” he whispered, suddenly.

“Hmm?”

“Tomorrow… you wanna try a more difficult slope?”
His voice skipped a little, sounding low. I opened my eyes and saw his glimmer in the dark.
Why did he sound so weird?

“Sure. If I can get out of bed, that is,” I whispered back.
He snickered and then held his breath for a few seconds before he spoke again.

“Just the two of us, okay?”p> “Sure...” I answered, slowly.

“Great. G’night.”

“Night.”

**********

That night I experienced a dream that can only be described as highly erotic. It started pretty much the same as earlier in the evening, only it was just Ross and me. I did get a little tipsy and went to bed, but instead of the whole scene that had followed in real life, it took a different course there. Instead, he helped me undress, touching every revealed part of my body with his hands. And when he pulled up my T-shirt, he kissed my chest and then up, to my throat, chin and finally my mouth. Then he pressed his lips onto mine and slowly lowered himself half on top of me. I wrapped my arms around to his broad back and his hands freely roamed my body, creeping down my belly and into my shorts, and finally touching my….
I started awake at that point, feeling hot. My heart was beating very fast and yeah… I had a hard-on. I was lying in the middle of the bed, alone, and bright light was streaming through the window. Normally, I’d beat the monkey after a dream such as this, but I thought the better of it; I wouldn’t put it past Ross to come in and find me in a state of climactic orgasm. Instead, I got out of bed and into the shower, locking the door behind me. In this relatively safe place, I felt at ease enough to take care of it.
Release came quickly and I enjoyed the relaxing feeling as hot water and soap streamed down my body.

It was 9am when I got downstairs and found the place all to myself. I guess the others were either still in bed or already out. It proved to be the latter; the coffee table was littered with empty mugs. I got a mug full myself and sat down on one of the barstools, slowly sipping the hot beverage. I partly turned when the door opened and Ross came in.
I felt my cheeks warm up, courtesy of that dream, and nodded when he wished me good morning.

“The others went up the mountain early. Is there some coffee left?”
I shook my head, downing the last. His face fell a little and I grinned.

“Sorry,” I said, but I wasn’t.
I guess that was obvious enough because his face fell and he stuck out his tongue.

“No you’re not. Doesn’t matter; I had enough when you were still rotting in bed."

“Rotting?” I echoed. “How rude.”

“I was up at seven.”

“Why so early?”

“Oh, ehm… would that be because you were, I dunno, calling my name maybe?” he said, sarcastically.
Oh shit. That dream…
“I tried to wake you but you were completely out of it. Bad dream?”

“Obviously; you were in it,” I bit back, a little annoyed with myself.

“Funny, haha,” he replied, making a face. “Are you ready to go? I don’t wanna wait too long to get up there or it’ll be too busy.”
I set the mug on the bar and hopped off the chair, walking towards the stairs.

“Gimme five minutes.”

**********

The five turned into fifteen but when we got to the slope, there were just five people before us so we only had to wait a few minutes. Then we went up by way of a pulling cable, all the way up.
Ross turned out to be a pretty good teacher, something I hadn’t really seen the day before.
He had a lot of patience because, well… I was scared shitless once we were up there. It was way higher than the slope we’d been on, much steeper and more turns in it.

“I can’t do this,” I said, shaking my head. “No way. I’ll break my legs for sure.”

“Too bad, because it’s the only way down. You can do it. I’ll be right behind you, okay?”
I shook my head vehemently.
“Yes you can. Okay, I‘ll go first. We’ll take it slow. And don’t push off like you did yesterday, okay?”
I gave another shake of my head.

“No. I can’t. You go. I’ll walk down.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s easy. Watch me.”

“Ross, I could watch you until the cows come home; I’m not going down that slope.”
He narrowed his eyes at me.

“You’re really scared, aren’t you?”

“Seven colors of shit,” I nodded.
He smiled and thought for a moment.

“Alright, how about this; you grab my stick, we’ll go down together. I can break if we go too fast.”
I looked from him to the slope and back again. It was a long way down. Then I sighed.

“Okay… but slow, okay? Very slow; old-lady-with-a-walker slow.”
He nodded reassuringly.

“As slow as you want. I promise, when we’re down, you wanna go back up and go alone.”

“I assure you; I won’t,” I replied, taking hold of the stick he held out to me.
It turned out that he was right.

About half way down, I began to enjoy it. I guess he saw it because we picked up a bit more speed. I still clutched that stick though, but once we were down, I admitted that I would like to go again.

“See? Come on, before we have to wait in line.”
It was getting more crowded now.

We went for a total of five trips that morning, the last of which I finally went by myself without any help. I didn’t go as fast as some of the people, who whooshed past me on the way down, but I did it by myself. It was reason enough for Ross to hug me when I got down with a triumphant grin on my face.
And it got me enthusiastic enough to press my lips on his for a second. I didn’t really think about it; it was just the moment, to thank him. I felt that I could thank him that way, so I didn't really give it much thought.
He blinked a few times while looking at me, saying nothing; then he smiled.

“You wanna go get something to eat?”

“Yeah, I’m starving,” I said, taking off the skis. “I haven’t had anything yet.”

“You didn’t eat this morning?” he asked, frowning.
I shook my head.
“You have to eat something!”

“Well, you told me to hurry up, eh? Don’t blame me for not eating; blame yourself.”
He sighed and held up his hand.

“Forget I said anything.”

“You’re getting the hang of it,” I replied. “Never argue with me; it’s useless.”

“Yeah, I’m beginning to see that.”