beta
....the final few ending chapters with the rut thing towards the end was toeing that line between sexy and not ngl but then i was willing to brush it off and enjoy the kink play (the art's hot too so, a bonus) as a one-time/first-time thing. Now, with these side chapters (including the smexy scenes that i read ahead) however... gotta say Ash is rubbing me the wrong way and upping that wee-woo alarm notch with how pushy/forceful/coercive/manipulative he's being :"( he might not be intentionally so, but still, despite the sweet nothings, it feels like Karlyle is being pushed into a corner (not cool, man) and not really being given the choice to say no iykwim (actually better said by another person below me vvv)
Giving the benefit of the doubt, if the author is trying to portray real mutual consent with Lyle "just being tsundere", it is being done poorly smh cuz honestly? i dont truly feel like they're both there. With a dynamic like this, you 2 rlly need to talk it out n agree on a safe word you're both comfortable saying asap cuz this rn? is pushing into not sexy dubcon territory (¬_¬") very not demure, very not green flag behavior
as a pushover who's highly introverted and also raised with societal pressure to "be polite and not hurt ppl's feelings" myself, sometimes when i dont rlly want to say yes and yet feel pressured to, i act a lot like Karlyle, being dragged along with flow but hoping my silence/lack of (enthusiastic) affirmation is enough to let the other person understand my implicit refusal and at least give me that time and space to think it over iykwim..... To reiterate, y'all need to understand that consent is sexy and silence/lack of refusal does not imply consent (￣∇￣")