Meeting Master

1 JAN -- MAR (party guest, first day)

"What do you like sexually?"

"Everything except pain," Sage replied, not knowing on that day in early January just how much her life was about to change in a very short period of time.

Sage was on a coffee date with the man who was to become her Master. His vanilla male self contacted her vanilla female self on a popular online dating website. They emailed back and forth a few times, chatted for about a week and discovered they seemed to be compatible. They at least both wanted the same thing: casual, uncomplicated sex with no strings and no commitments. The next logical step was meeting for coffee to see if there was a physical spark as well. Let's face it, you can chat with someone, exchange pictures and get along fine online but if there is no physical attraction when you meet face to face, sex is out of the question.

Sage was already at the coffee shop sipping a moccachino when D arrived. His windbreaker, polo shirt and jeans were a very good start, as casual as Sage's jeans and turtleneck. Being comfortably dressed helped on these coffee meets because it could be nerve wracking meeting someone with whom you've talked about sex and other intimate things for the past week. D's voice was soft and warm and it seemed incongruous to hear some of the things he said in that voice. They discussed their lives very basically, not prying or probing but just to get a feel for the other. A casual relationship meeting for sex once in awhile does not require a complete background check. In fact both parties are eager to leave their baggage at home as neither one wants to take on the other's and this type of friendship would help each escape their own for awhile.

The whole purpose of this meeting was to find out if they were physically attracted to each other and to discuss their sexual compatibility. So far so good, Sage thought, as she found D highly attractive. She liked big men, not fat men, just tall and substantial. D was very tall, 6'2" and she would estimate him a little over 200 pounds but he looked solid without an extra pound of fat anywhere. Broad shoulders, big hands, muscular looking legs under the jeans were all topped by a most pleasant, open face. He had short chestnut coloured hair and a full neatly trimmed beard. His eyes were a light hazel and as soft and gentle as his voice. Sage decided that if the package under the windbreaker was as nice as the outside, this one could be a keeper.

It all sounds so clinically sluttish but that was exactly what this dating site was for: people to find people for sex. Period. "Friends with benefits" was how they called each other. And online chatting made it so easy to talk openly: anonymity behind a keyboard went a long way. It cut out a lot of the bullshit of normal dating. Sage found out that her so-called slutty ways were quite normal for a woman in her mid-40's that just ended a 21 year marriage. "They" -- whoever "they" are -- liken it to a parolee after a long sentence hitting every fast food joint and hooker in town making up for lost time. Maybe it was the sudden and unaccustomed freedom that gave a heady euphoria. Maybe it was the affirmation by others, her peers, that she was still an attractive, sexual woman. Maybe it was the lack of sex over the last couple years of the marriage (and lack of

good

sex over many years before that). Maybe it was the realization of her mortality and that her life was half over and her sexually active life even shorter. Whatever the reason Sage was behaving typically according to "them" -- and enjoying every minute of it.

D brought up her interest in Domination and submission and the fact that she said she was highly experimental and asked her about that. Sage said that way back in her first single days she had a boyfriend with whom she engaged in light bondage sex. They had watched "The Story of O" and sort of played at it over one weekend. She enjoyed being tied up during sex and spending the time naked to be touched, fingered, probed -- to just be

available

everywhere at anytime. She had gone out for a walk with him wearing only lingerie and heels, with a collar and leash (in the middle of the night thank goodness) and she liked it. Sage had always been highly adventurous, willing to try almost anything at least once, "twice just to make sure" as she laughingly put it. D told her he liked bondage and asked if she would consider trying it again with him. Having no idea what she was letting herself in for, she said sure, of course she would try it.

Now it seems very dangerous to be talking about having bondage sex with someone you just met for the first time and it is -- highly dangerous. D asked her about that too. Sage drew on her intuition, which was very strong and very accurate. Her angels and her guides spoke to her often and she never got into trouble when she listened and obeyed them. When she looked at D the word

integrity

sprang to mind very strongly, very insistently. He was a black belt and so she knew he practiced self-discipline, honour and inner balance and harmony. She also knew some black belts were nothing more than lethal brutes and that's how a lot of women viewed them. Sage had taken some karate training herself and came to partially understand the Oriental martial mind. But D was different. He had taken the psychological teachings of martial arts to heart and his very character screamed integrity. The fact that he owned his own martial arts school and taught children was a sign of a balanced mind. She knew she could trust him, she

felt

she could trust him. Trying to explain it was difficult so she just told him the truth -- she was following her intuition. Over the course of their relationship, D proved time and time again that the trust she felt on that first day was not misplaced. She never had any reason to fear him in the least.

Poor D was fighting a cold so it was about two weeks before they actually had their first encounter. They chatted more in the meantime and Sage just felt more and more comfortable with him -- and attracted. He had said that although she looked comfortable in her jeans and boots he was wondering if she could wear something a little more suited to the bedroom. This became a regular thing and Sage always dressed in corset and stockings for him. The day she chose black lace camisole and thong to go with garter and stockings. They chatted in the living room for a bit before he asked if she was still ready to try a little bondage. She was already turned on with anticipation and the question itself made her wet so she answered with a ready yes. They went downstairs to the 'playroom' and there Sage was blindfolded, cuffed and tied in various positions. There was no spanking, flogging, clips, clamps or other torture devices that she would come to know intimately over the next several months. It was straight, simple bondage sex. And Sage loved it.

The bondage added an air of the exotic to the erotic and she felt herself being lifted and responding in a way she'd never felt before and one she could easily become addicted to. It was a most intense sexual experience. After Master removed her bonds, she was able to participate. With nothing left of any shyness, she made love to him the only way she knew. After what he did to her, she felt it to be highly ineffectual but he must have enjoyed because he kept contact. Master was very busy running his own business but made a point of chatting with Sage online almost every day over the next few weeks if even only for a few minutes. They discussed their first meeting and whether or not Sage would like to continue exploring bondage and, later maybe, BDSM or D/s.

Sage, being totally naïve about it all, admitted to being fascinated by BDSM but doubted her ability to indulge because she really didn't like pain. She had a very high threshold and very high tolerance, coming from being in chronic pain, and in fact would just start to feel pain at the same level that would have a normal person screaming for drugs. But that didn't mean she liked it.

She did know that she liked bondage and the whole idea of sexual submission. The weekend she had once spent acting out parts of the movie "The Story of O" had been highly enjoyable. If that's what D/s was about, she'd like to try it again. And knowing that submission was a mind-set, she knew that if she was able to get into that mind-set, she'd be open to trying all kinds of things she'd never considered before. Like BDSM. Like pain.

Trying to ascertain her interest level, knowledge and experience levels, Master asked many questions that made Sage reach deep inside. She had to turn off her mind and speak to her self. What exactly

did

she like? How

did

she really feel about…? What really intrigued her about…? It definitely stretched her imagination to try to find these truths within herself. She surprised herself actually with what she found her deepest desires to be. They were definitely not in keeping with the solid, moral, upstanding citizen-wife-mother she'd been living for so long. It was like there was another 'her' underneath, buried and undiscovered but aching with the want to be found and released. And this man she would later come to call Master was slowly unearthing this being.

Finally, after almost a month, he asked her to tell him of a fantasy she'd had. Over the course of their relationship, he would ask many more times for her thoughts and fantasies for within a person's fantasy/dream mind lies a lot of truths about themselves. Master knew this and used fantasies as a tool to understand Sage better: what she wanted, how she felt about the different levels of submission she would delve through, how much deeper she wanted to go. This first one would give him an idea if she understood anything about D/s and how much, would help give him a direction in which to steer.

The fantasy Sage sent him she put into story form. It was one that she and her brief D/s boyfriend had wanted to play out after their "O" weekend but it had never come about. She'd held it in the back of her mind, in her secret little cave of dreams, for well over 20 years in the hopes that maybe, someday, it might come true. Of course, back when they'd first dreamed up the fantasy, Sage didn't know "she" was a sub, didn't even know there was such a thing. Now, however, she knew at least some of the terminology and so wrote it as such.

INSERT "PARTY GUEST"

"You are a very gifted writer." Master IM'd the next day. "I enjoyed your story."

"Thank you." typed Sage. "I have fun with it."

"Have you been thinking more about D/s? That story tells a lot about you if you were actually thinking of exploring it."

Sage and Master talked more specifically over the next week with Sage reading everything she could find and asking a cozillion questions. Master, with the patience of Job, proved to be a wealth of knowledge and his answers were clear and well-written. Sage, at this stage, still didn't differentiate D/s from BDSM; one involved the other in her mind. One day Master sent her a BDSM checklist to complete. It was huge, 5 pages long in two columns, and covered virtually all the different ways to 'play'. She was to mark her interest level only, not experience, in everything from asphyxiation, cock/foot/shoe worship, whipping/flogging, human toilet and public humiliation to name but a few. When she'd finished and sent it back Master said it was very close to his own interests. Sage didn't really have a lot of hard and fast limits; she was pretty adventurous and would usually try almost anything once. She would not tolerate sex with children or animals, scat play or blood play, i.e., piercings/knives. She wasn't keen on pee play, puppy/pony play or some forms of humiliation like face slapping but would try them if he really wanted her to. Her fear of pain showed up in that first checklist as she gave candle waxing, caning, pussy torture, etc only a 1 out of 5. The rest she was pretty open to trying, some more than others of course.

Master discussed his feelings on the different aspects she'd marked as having low interest in, and he told her of various areas which he found fun that she might not. Overall it seemed as if they were highly compatible that way. Knowing he had some concrete limits as well and that they mostly matched hers had a big impact on the trust issue: she had no fear of being forced to go where she didn't want to because he wouldn't anyway.

The more they talked, the more Sage read and learned, the more she knew deep down inside she wanted this. She wanted to submit to this man. She asked one day what the next step was.

"You would make a formal declaration of submission. By doing so you would relinquish any and all control of your sexual life to me. If I accept you for training there would be rules and standards of conduct." Came the IM message that day.

"Think about it and get back to me."

Sage already knew but did as he asked. Her day, spent doing mundane chores around home passed slowly even though her mind was busy and occupied, with very pleasant thoughts at that. She emailed Master that night before work offering her submission, having done the proverbial 'sleeping on it' and waking with the answer firmly planted. The next morning, his answering email said he would be pleased to accept her for training. Online a couple hours later, he started giving her instructions to begin. She needed to choose a new name by which she would be known and submit it for his approval; go shopping for a collar that she would find comfortable but that she thought would please him as well. She was to spend time in the stores talking to the staff, asking questions she might have and looking over the cuffs and toys and various floggers and whips. Of course, Sage had a ball doing as she was told. Her new collar was very simple and soft in black leather with a triangular attachment point dangling on the front instead of a normal ring. She wasn't especially pleased with the choices in any of the stores so got the best for the moment and made plans to design her own. The store up the hill was one of her favourite places in the city anyway and she had gotten to know some of the staff there, W and L. So when she told them she was a brand new sub shopping for a collar, they were excited for her and fussed around like mother hens.

When she reported her findings to Master the next morning he was happy she found something even though she wasn't exactly satisfied with it. He offered to help her design a new collar to be made; he also said he had outfit designs in his head that they could have made by a leather seamstress Sage knew. Sage was ecstatic to think that Master would work with her to design things unique to their very unique relationship.

He had also chosen two of the four sub names she had submitted and told her to make the final choice. She chose "Sage". When he asked why that one, she replied,

"Sage is a small plant that lives in mostly arid climate. Sturdy, hardy and will take root wherever it can find a mall foothold. Withstands harsh environment, where others would wither and die, sage will thrive and grow. Used by spiritual circles for incense and smudging through its ability to stay lit and burn long; it is best for cleansing. Sage uses its inner strength for protection.

Before ending their chat, Master set collaring day for the next week and gave explicit instructions. Sage was to enter the house without knocking and go straight downstairs to the playroom. There she would strip off to her lingerie, kneel on the bed facing the foot with her collar beside her and put the blindfold on.

It was an extremely long week to wait though but the next Thursday finally arrived. Sage did all as she was told then she heard the door open and close and sensed Master in the room. She heard the light tinkle as he picked up her collar from the nest of blue tissue. Then his soft voice close by asked,

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Sir, I am." She replied with no hesitation.

"You realize that once this collar is placed around your neck that you are mine to do with as I please."

"Yes, Sir," said Sage with a silent

woohoo!

So began Sage's submissive life and she has never looked back.

INSERT FIRST DAY