Asher carries her to the door, then kisses her up against the wall.

She goes — sweet, and pliant, and relaxed, when Asher presses her to the wall. 

She's so so quiet but her breathing is even and soft and she's smiling, dreamy. 

He kisses her and says, "Are you all right?"

"I'm alright.

...we should go inside. But I wish you could tie me up." 

"Why?"

"I like — being vulnerable, and knowing I'm safe and you've got me and I can be vulnerable. And it just, feels good." 

"I don't want to-- hurt you."

"I trust you." Her eyes flutter open. "Let's go inside and talk tomorrow?" 

He kisses her cheek. "Okay."

He's lovely and Raine loves him and the next time they can slip away can't come fast enough. 

They can talk quietly tomorrow evening while Raine's sewing and Asher's pretending to work on his workbook and Andre is practicing throwing a football, close enough to make sure they can't kiss, far enough away that it's hard to hear what they're saying. 

"What was that all about last night?"

"...I really like getting tied up? I'm not sure what part of last night you're confused about." 

"I don't want to hurt you even if you trust me."

"I'm not saying you should be okay with hurting me because I trust you, I'm saying that I trust you not to hurt me in a way that matters, you'd stop if I said to and you'd be careful."

"I want to do things that you want, I just don't... understand why you want it. At all."

"...okay, so I know you know the word kinky, because I used it when I was feeding you worksheet answers." 

"They wear leather and whip people and make people wear collars and crawl around like dogs? It didn't really seem very interesting."

Okay, so she's starting with a totally fresh slate. 

"So I really like getting tied up, and a variety of things I'm putting under the banner of 'getting tied up' because I like them for the same reason, and — not whipping, but being bitten and thrown into walls, and if you gave me a collar you wouldn't be making me do anything. I can explain the appeal of most kinks but it's easier with ones I personally have, if you want me to." 

"Sure. I don't really care about the ones you don't have."

"Getting tied up, for me anyway, is about trust — it's okay, I can relax, you've got me, I'm safe — but the fact that it feels like a full-body hug and then you can also hug me doesn't hurt. You like being bitten and choked, I probably don't have to explain that one. The point of a collar, if I ever had a chance to wear one for somebody which I haven't, would be signalling that I'm theirs, it's like the thing you do with embroidery but it's a more recognized symbol. Does that make sense?" 

"...am I kinky?"

"Yes, and also you're adorable." 

"I don't want to hurt you but-- I like throwing you in the air because you trust me to catch you."

"What do you mean when you say you don't want to hurt me?" 

"I don't want you to feel sad or feel degraded or feel pain. Although I guess I like pain sometimes and that's okay so maybe not that one?"