Page 105 of End Game

I look at him. “What’s bothering you?”

“Nothing.”

We all stare at him.

He sighs.

“Fine. Not bothering me. I’m still just figuring out where that leaves me.”

There it is—the exact reason I pushed Ronan on the porch.

Ronan starts to speak.

I shake my head slightly.

Let Griffin finish.

“I’m good not being anybody’s submissive. And I don’t need to be in charge of anybody.” He glances at Cami. “Except apparently I’ve discovered some things about myself that we’re all going to pretend didn’t happen last night.”

Cami beams. “We are absolutely not pretending.”

His ears turn red.

“But if you four have this whole structure…” He gestures vaguely between us. “I don’t want to be the guy standing outside waiting for somebody to tell me when I’m allowed in.”

“You aren’t,” Cami says immediately.

“I know that, but—”

“No.” She shifts even closer to him. “I mean you aren’t. You’re not outside anything.”

Ronan nods. “The D/s hierarchy doesn’t determine membership in the polycule.”

Dex points between Griffin and the rest of us. “We’re metamours.”

Griffin closes his eyes. “I’m already sick of that word.”

“You’ll learn to love it.”

“I won’t.”

I laugh.

“What Ronan means,” I say, “is that you don’t need a rank because you aren’t asking for one.”

Griffin looks at me.

“You don’t submit to Ronan. Ronan doesn’t submit to you. But you can still play alongside him. You can take control with Cami when that’s what you’ve all agreed to.”

“And if something doesn’t feel right,” Ronan adds, “you say so. Same as anyone else.”

Griffin nods. “Okay.”

Cami looks around the room. “So we’re hierarchical both in relationships and power.”

“Yes,” Ronan and I say in unison.

She wrinkles her nose again. “Still sounds kind of evil.”