There's always been a strange impulse, any time Keltham is asked to do anything during sex, for him to want to do something else instead; like he wants to not do anything that could be remotely seen as doing what somebody else says.  Keltham has always chalked this up to an excessive level of individualism, even for himself, and gone on trading pleasures and fairly providing that which he trades.  Now he's starting to suspect it's something else entirely.

"I guess I could," Keltham says, and as his fingers go down Carissa's pants, his fingernails move aside and dig hard into her thighs instead.

(The thought that Carissa was inviting him to monitor and enforce her obedience, or to punish her if she hadn't done as requested, does not occur to Keltham yet, not at all; there are still ideas that are long sentences in his native language, and it may take him some time to cache those concepts.)

There's always been a strange impulse, any time Keltham is asked to do anything during sex, for him to want to do something else instead; like he wants to not do anything that could be remotely seen as doing what somebody else says.  Keltham has always chalked this up to an excessive level of individualism, even for himself, and gone on trading pleasures and fairly providing that which he trades.  Now he's starting to suspect it's something else entirely.

"I guess I could," Keltham says, and as his fingers go down Carissa's pants, his fingernails move aside and dig hard into her thighs instead.

(The thought that Carissa was inviting him to monitor and enforce her obedience, or to punish her if she hadn't done as requested, does not occur to Keltham yet, not at all; there are still ideas that require much longer codes in his native language of thought, for he has not seen their pieces.)

There's always been a strange impulse, any time Keltham is asked to do anything during sex, for him to want to do something else instead; like he wants to not do anything that could be remotely seen as doing what somebody else says.  Keltham has always chalked this up to an excessive level of individualism, even for himself, and gone on trading pleasures and fairly providing that which he trades.  Now he's starting to suspect it's something else entirely.

"I guess I could," Keltham says, and as his fingers go down Carissa's pants, his fingernails move aside and dig hard into her thighs instead.

(The thought that Carissa was inviting him to monitor and enforce her obedience, or to punish her if she hadn't done as requested, does not occur to Keltham yet, not at all; those are still ideas that require much longer codes in his native language of thought, for he has not seen all their pieces.)

There's always been a strange impulse, any time Keltham is asked to do anything during sex, for him to want to do something else instead; like he wants to not do anything that could be remotely seen as doing what somebody else says.  Keltham has always chalked this up to an excessive level of individualism, even for himself; and gone on trading pleasures and fairly providing that which he trades, since he can't afford yet to routinely pay in money instead.  Now he's starting to suspect it's something else entirely.

"I guess I could," Keltham says, and as his fingers go down Carissa's pants, his fingernails move aside and dig hard into her thighs instead.

(The thought that Carissa was inviting him to monitor and enforce her obedience, or to punish her if she hadn't done as requested, does not occur to Keltham yet, not at all; those are still ideas that require much longer codes in his native language of thought, for he has not seen all their pieces.)

There's always been a strange impulse, any time Keltham is asked to do anything during sex, for him to want to do something else instead; like he wants to not do anything that could be remotely seen as doing what somebody else says.  Keltham has always chalked this up to an excessive level of individualism, even for himself; and gone on trading pleasures and fairly providing that which he trades, since he can't afford yet to routinely trade money instead.  Now he's starting to suspect it's something else entirely.

"I guess I could," Keltham says, and as his fingers go down Carissa's pants, his fingernails move aside and dig hard into her thighs instead.

(The thought that Carissa was inviting him to monitor and enforce her obedience, or to punish her if she hadn't done as requested, does not occur to Keltham yet, not at all; those are still ideas that require much longer codes in his native language of thought, for he has not seen all their pieces.)