Page 227 of End Game

He leans back against the cabinet. “Physically, she usually wants contact. Pressure. Being held. Sometimes skin-to-skin, sometimes wrapped up in something warm with somebody touching her. She likes reassurance, but not a fucking TED Talk about how well she did. Simple praise works better when she's still under.”

That sounds familiar enough that Micah glances at me.

Jeremiah goes on.

“Then there's the later part. People forget drop doesn't always happen immediately. Sometimes she feels amazing for an hour and crashes afterward. Sometimes the next morning is when she needs reassurance. So I check again.”

“Baseline matters,” I say.

Jeremiah looks at me.

“What someone can tolerate regulated isn't necessarily what they can tolerate exhausted, sick, overstimulated, or already emotionally depleted. Same equipment. Same person. Different nervous system,” I explain.

His expression changes slightly.

There it is again.

Recognition.

“Exactly.”

The resemblance between us isn't perfect.

I suspect Jeremiah's sadism extends further than mine. Micah may actually have more in common with him on that particular axis.

But the underlying principle is familiar.

Control is not primarily about what someone allows you to do to them.

It's about accepting responsibility for what happens when they allow it.

Carter folds his arms. “This really is a fucking board meeting.”

Micah looks around the room. “The visual aids are better.”

That gets an actual laugh out of Jeremiah.

His attention eventually returns to the harness. “Using that got me interested in what else suspension could do.”

“Shibari?” Micah asks.

“Eventually, yeah. What we did wasn't anything close to it. It was engineering a sex position.” Jeremiah taps one of the harness straps. “But afterward I started looking into suspension more generally.”

Micah looks at me.

I look at him.

Carter catches the exchange immediately. “You two already have thoughts.”

“We've been discussing shibari,” I say.

“For a while,” Micah adds.

Jeremiah's interest sharpens. “You ever rig?”

“No.”

“Neither of us has shibari training,” Micah says. “That's why it's stayed theoretical for now.”