“Yeah, I do. But first things first.”
“What comes first?”
“First, we are going to talk,” I tell her. “After that, I am going to kiss you. If you still want to take it further, you can decide then.”
“What are we going to talk about?”
“A lot of things,” I say. I quickly finish up the protein bar and shove the wrapper in my backpack. I take a deep breath, knowing the question I need to ask but not wanting to at the same time. “I’d like to ask you something very personal first though. It’s just something I need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“I need to know if you have any…triggers.”
“Triggers?” Kas narrows her eyes.
I take her confusion as a good sign and feel a little better about pressing.
“I just want to make sure you don’t have any, well, any sexual abuse in your history. If you do, I won’t ask you about it. It just changes how I proceed.”
“Oh! That kind of trigger. No, I don’t. Nothing like that.”
“Good.” I let out a sigh of relief. “I know it’s common, and I just don’t want to be the guy who’s pushing a button you don’t want pushed, you know?”
“Yeah, I get it. Is that all you wanted to ask?”
“Far from it.” I grin at her. I reach over and grab a strand of rope, quickly twisting it back and forth with my hands until it’s neatly coiled.
“Okay, then. Shoot.”
“I want to know how you felt about being tied up,” I say, making a knot around the coiled rope before putting it to the side and grabbing another. “I also want to know what you have tried sexually and what you think you might like to try.”
“Oh.” She looks down at the protein bar in her hands. “Okay.”
“There’s no reason to feel embarrassed,” I say. “I know we’re all very repressed around here, but it’s much better to get it out in the open. I swear, nothing you can possibly say is going to shock me.”
“I think it’s more likely to bore you,” she mumbles.
“I guess you haven’t tried a lot?”
“Not a lot, no. What I did try was…well, let’s just say this has already been better and leave it at that.”
“I’d rather you be completely open with me. I know it isn’t easy to talk about, so maybe we should just start with talking about how you felt about your first rope experience.”
“I really liked it.”
“Tell me what you liked about it,” I say.
“Most all of it.”
“Specifics. What was the very first thing you remember enjoying?”
“I liked it when you, uh…” She stops, giggling.
“What?”
“When you ran your nose over my neck.” She giggles again. “It was like you were smelling me.”
I press my lips together, knowing exactly what she means. It’s a completely intentional move and really does seem to drive women crazy. I debate telling her there is an actual term for it but decide that might ruin the magic. Instead, I pick up the last piece of rope that needs to be coiled up.