Ashi couldn't believe she'd let it slip out.

As she waited for Jack, she absent mindedly stirred her coffee, running her hand through her short, dark hair, and replaying what had happened over and over again in her head.

They had been seeing each other for a little over a year. It hadn't been their first time in bed together.

She couldn't believe how amazing he made her feel. She had been lost in the ecstasy they were sharing. In the heat of the moment, she had begged him to -

Oh, God. She couldn't even say it. He had stopped the second the words had left her lips. She became so embarrassed, she scrambled to get her clothes back on and ran out the front door of his apartment, repeatedly telling him she was sorry the entire time. She vaguely recalled him trying to stop her.

Afterwards, when she reached her car, she realized she had left her jacket inside. Still feeling humiliated over what she said, she had decided to leave it.

A few calls and texts later, Jack had managed to convince her to see him again. She agreed to meet him at the coffee shop near his office on the campus where he worked.

She hated waiting like this. Whenever the truth came out about her (what she called) unusual desires to her partners, it didn't end well. The first time she had come out, it had ended with her getting dumped. The second time, she had to do the dumping.

After that, she made a point to keep her secret knowledge to herself.

Jack would be the third partner she had told. The first two times, however, she had been ready to tell them, on her terms. This had been in the heat of the moment and caught them both off guard.

Ashi was certain their time as a couple was over. She wished he would just get here and get it over and done with.

When she finally saw him pull in the parking lot on his motorcycle, she braced herself for what she was sure was about to happen.

She watched him walk inside and then over to her.

"Hello, Ashi." He said in his deep, comforting voice. Ashi couldn't help thinking about how much she would miss the sound of his voice.

"Hello, Jack," she responded.

"May I sit?"

"Alright," she sighed. "Let's get it over with."

Jack looked at her with clear confusion in his face as he sat down. "Get what over with?"

"I did something embarrassing and now you've asked to meet me in a public place. It's not hard to figure out."

Jack just looked perplexed. "Ashi, what are you talking about?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You're not here to dump me?"

A look of alarm suddenly came to his features.

"Ashi! I have no intent to leave you," he shouted.

Realizing he'd done so, he ducked his head, blushed slightly, and continued quietly, "You know how I feel about you. I was just... surprised by what happened."

"You... probably have a few questions about that, but... I'm not sure you'd understand," she responded after a moment, holding her head down.

Jack slowly reached across the table to hold her hand.

"Then help me," he told her.

Ashi sighed and began, "I'm into BDSM."

"I... sort of figured out that much," he commented, recalling the events of the other night. The memory made him blush.

He had been buried inside of her, lost within her wet heat and the sound of her pitched voice crying out his name. As he continued thrusting, he felt her tightening and beginning to reach her peak. Then, she said something... odd. He had suddenly stopped because he wasn't sure he had heard her correctly.

It had sounded like she said, "Spank me."

"It's not a recent thing. I've known how I felt about it since high school. I never said anything about it or asked you how you felt about it because it's caused problems in my past relationships. My second girlfriend dumped me over it and I had to dump my third boyfriend because he got creepy about it.

I wasn't ready to know how you were going to react to it," she explained sadly.

Jack was silent for a moment. Then he reached up and brushed away a tear on her check she hadn't realized was there.

"I am sorry that your past partners made you feel ashamed of this part of yourself. If I have said or done anything that made you afraid to tell me, I am sorry for that as well.

"I don't really know enough about it to say if I would enjoy it or not, but if you are certain that you would, I would be willing to try it with you."

Ashi wasn't sure she was hearing him correctly. "R-really? You actually want to try?"

"Yes, but under one condition. Please don't ask me to strike you again. I can't stand the idea of doing something that would purposely hurt you."

Ashi smiled shyly at his request.

"Alright. Spanking is off the table," she agreed. "Anything else?"

"I'm... not entirely sure how this works," he confessed, bashfully. "I think we're supposed to make... lists, or something?"

"Our boundaries," she gently corrected, getting up and moving her chair closer to him. "We need to talk about what we want to do and what we're comfortable and uncomfortable doing."

"Well... you know it better than I do. So, what exactly do you want to do?"

Ashi thought for a moment. She wanted to try to talk more about spanking. More specifically, she wanted to correct him on what he seemed to think it entailed, but he'd already made it clear how he felt about it and she had no desire to push it.

"How do you feel about bondage? Like one of us being handcuffed to the bed or something like that?"

"Seems a bit odd, but I think I'd be OK with trying it."

"OK, um... what are your thoughts on leather?"

"What about it?"

"Like as clothes? I think you'd be sexy as hell in leather pants and I, uh..." Ashi blushed slightly. "I actually have a leather corset that I like to wear."

A slight blush returned to Jack's face as he imagined her in such a garment.

The thought of leather wasn't particularly exciting to him. The idea of her wearing something designed to enhance the curves of her body, on the other hand...

"I... " he laughed nervously, "I think I'd like to see that."

"Well, alright then," Ashi agreed with a smile. "What about domination and submission?"

A stern look came to Jack's features. "Ashi, I already told you. I don't want to do something that would purposely hurt you."

Ashi's smile faded. "Jack," she began. "That's not what domination and submission is. What you're thinking about is abuse and that 50 Shades bullshit, and I'm not interested in that, either."

Jack raised an eyebrow and thought for a moment.

"I think you're going to need to explain this to me, then."