Page 225 of End Game

Carter points toward him. “Okay. You have layers.”

Micah shrugs.

I've known him for years. I've kissed him. I've restrained him. I've watched him surrender enough control to accidentally fall into the edges of subspace.

Apparently there are still categories of information I have not collected.

He notices me watching him.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

His mouth curves.

Jeremiah moves toward a cabinet built into the opposite wall, and the conversation shifts with him. “This is what got me interested in suspension in the first place.”

He opens it and shows us a purpose-built harness system.

Not rope, but a functional swing.

Micah steps closer, immediately studying where the body would be supported.

“We needed positioning we couldn't safely maintain otherwise,” Jeremiah explains. “Support Alexis's weight, control her angle, and leave… access where we wanted it.”

“For how many people?” Micah asks.

Jeremiah doesn't hesitate, tone business-like. “Four of us at once. Three vaginal, one anal.”

Even Micah pauses at that.

Jeremiah adds, matter-of-factly, “Holden wasn't involved. He doesn't participate in group play or use this room. At least not yet.”

Carter nods. “He has his own relationship with her and is completely fine with the rest of us having this.”

The matter-of-factness is more notable than the logistics.

No defensiveness and no implication Holden's boundary diminishes anyone else's experience.

Jeremiah continues, describing the suspension setup with almost clinical detachment. They weren't trying to create anything artistic. It was a positioning problem they solved with equipment designed to hold Alexis's body safely while allowing several people access to her at once.

“The important part,” he says, “was that the equipment held the position instead of requiring her muscles to do it.”

“So she could actually let go,” Micah says.

“Exactly.”

I look at the harness again. “Where was your emergency release?”

Carter answers this time.

He shows me the hardware, then adds, “We've had to use emergency procedures before.”

That gets my attention. “How?”

His expression loses some of its humor. “She went unconscious during a scene.”

Jeremiah's jaw tightens almost imperceptibly.