It's Just Us Here discussion

If you have questions about the series, or some events that took place in this book, feel free to ask them.

If you just want to vent your frustrations, or gush about Chris and Mark you can do that too.

If you want to share you're personal thoughts about sexuality, we'd be happy to lend an ear.

This is a judgement-free zone, please keep that in mind and try not to hurt anyone.

Since I'm a sexual person I had no major problems with the liberal amount of sex and sexual situations in this instalment (even though one or two of them felt uncomfortable due to Chris being reluctant and Mark being pushy).

It did make me wonder what all you lovely ace readers were feeling while reading the book. I can imagine this being a diffucult stage to navigate in a real life relationship of an ace-allo couple.

I felt the same as you. To me the most uncomfortable was the time when Mark gave Chris the necklace just before their friends arrived Reading Chris' thoughts during sex, how he described the situation... that was not a happy scene for me. And it's interesting because I think they're always happy in general when making love, even if it's not what Chris wants.

I can see how that necklace scene can be tough to read. In all honesty, the mentions of pain and discomfort didn't sound great even to me as an allo reader.

On the other hand I can sort of understand from experience that a lover who's really revved up can miss silent body language clues that their partner isn't as into it. Especially if Mark was under the self-constructed illusion that Chris was 'learning to like sex' during this phase of their relationship.

I think Mark assumed pushing Chris would lead to him liking it more and more, when Chris was reaching (or had reached) his limits but didn't articulate them in a way Mark could fully understand. Hard talks in real life are a lot more difficult than in books though, so can't really say 'they should have done this or that'.

Yes! Chris said at the end that at the time he thought they communicated. Which I agree with. They certainly talked more than an average fictional couple. lol
Chris never outright said no! He was always reluctant, and voiced his displeasure, but I don't remember him putting his foot down, saying no. Soooo I understand why Mark thought what he thought, and came to false conclusions. And let's not forget about dear Marty who I assume tried to help Mark, give advice, but it backfired. :(

Occationally across all books in the series I wondered why Chris didn't do that, just say firmly no and not budge. Also I'm really keen to see how that future conversation goes where they get through to each other. :)

I'm re-reading the Stud at the moment (at the Thanksgiving chapter), so I have yet to read the section about Marty. I don't remember it from the first readthrough in Dec/Jan. *shameface*

The easy answer: he wanted to make Mark happy. I'm curious about that convo too. 😱 We'll find out soon enough. 😁

About Marty. I understand why you don't remember it, it was kind of just an offhanded comment. Though I highlighted something at the beginning that I think refers to Marty. Something about... Mark said something like he was reading from a script..

Anyway. In the end Marty's involvement wasn’t the dealbreaker, so.

Uhm.. that was the part when Mark was jealous of Dev and Marty an basically everyone who ever held a conversation with Chris. And they were talking about not being able to separate romance from sex. Right? And he felt really insecure.
That was an interesting argument though.

Gabriella (Gabi) wrote: "Uhm.. that was the part when Mark was jealous of Dev and Marty an basically everyone who ever held a conversation with Chris. And they were talking about not being able to separate romance from sex..."
Oh, yes! I asked Chris if he was broading that subject later on because it is really interesting.