Page 191 of Naughty November

Dramatic.

Ashton’s first thoughts were dramatic based on the ridiculous sound effects he was letting out and I had to remind myself that smiling would not be an appropriate response. I got sighs and whines and a huff, but eventually he shrugged.

So I waited longer.

When I was at the point where I was going to have to pull out the rules portion of our slightly half-assed contract, he finally curled into me again. “Um, my first thought is that you’re mean for not letting me avoid this.”

Since I could handle that, I nodded. “I can see how that would be your first thought. I should’ve asked for your second.”

I wasn’t sure if he would make us go through another round of sound effects, but after only a few seconds, he made hisI’m getting ready to talknoises.

He was the loudest person I’d ever dated and he could have a whole conversation with just noises.

“I guess my second thoughts were that I shouldn’t have any moremargaritas.” My chest jerked at that one. I just couldn’t help myself, but thankfully it didn’t derail my ridiculous partner. “Then I thought you were mean again and then I was back to wondering why I’d done this to myself.”

He’d been feeling wonderfully confident when we’d made our lists and put the papers in the jar. That’d been during his kinky craft period and he’d been feeling curious and just tipsy enough not to second-guess himself.

And that was also right before we’d tried doing the munches and meetups side of the BDSM community.

So yeah, I could see where things had gone off the rails after that.

“Do you realize none of what you said had a color attached to it?” He knew the way to get out of the conversation but he wasn’t using any of his options.

I got another shrug.

That wasnota safeword and the basic contract we’d put together once we’d both realized we weren’t vanilla said as much.

“Are those activities things that were going to go together or were they separate in your head?” I thought it was a logical question and one that wouldn’t add too much stress, but he went still.

So maybe not?

I was starting to think he was at the point where anything I said was going to add stress, so I decided to do my best to tone down my worries. He was the one who’d put the papers in the jar, so it wasn’t my fault in any way.

“Alright, if they were separate, I’m going to point out that they can be done together. If they were together in your head, I’m going to remind you that I have no problem with either of those things.” I’d never dated or had a scene with anyone that had a tickling kink but I wasn’t surprised by it.

Ashton had a thing for anything that would take away control from him, but he didn’t always like admitting that.

He hadn’t moved or safeworded, so I took that as an okay to keep talking. “If we’re doing the tickling as a standalone, I think we should tie you up and have you be helpless for it. You’d be able to move around and squirm but not actually get away from me.”

The shiver that raced through him said I was on the right track about some of it at the very least.

“The wetting can go with the tickling too. I’m sure you’ve thought about that, but I’m working my way through it. I could restrain you and tickle you until you lose control.” He’d like that. “We came close to that a few times, didn’t we?”

I hadn’t really thought about it in that way, but he’d initiated wrestling and tickling with me more than a few times. I’d just always stopped before it’d gotten to that point because that was what I thought I was supposed to do.

If people liked being tickled, then you could play like that but you had to stop when they started doing potty dance squeals.

I needed to learn to make less assumptions when it came to what Ashton was trying to tell me.

“If we prepped the bed right, that could work, or we could figure out another way to do it.” The tub maybe if I got in with him to keep him from killing himself? “I’ll have to think about other locations that could work.”

Him getting hurt was out of the question but he wouldn’t want to ruin the mattress.

He liked that mattress.

“What else? Oh. Yes, we said they could be together or separate. I’m going to need more information on the tickling if you don’t want to lose control. The only next step I can think of beyond just playing with you is that loss of control step.” I didn’t think I was missing anything but he liked reading interesting things, so he might’ve seen something fun.

Silence.