Page 346 of End Game

“You are beginners,” Drake continues. “Not beginner Dominants. Not beginner sadists. Beginner riggers.”

There is something mildly irritating about hearing that. Which means I probably need to hear it.

“If any of you decide the experience you already have means the rules I'm giving you don't apply, you don't touch rope in my studio.”

“That’s fair,” Jeremiah says immediately.

Carter gestures toward the equipment. “Absolutely, we paid you specifically so none of us accidentally maim anyone.”

Drake's mouth barely moves. “That was the correct financial decision.”

Jeremiah glances at me.

I refuse to engage.

The argument over payment ended when he finally informed me that he makes seven figures and shares household expenses with three other men who also make seven figures, so I could please stop acting as though several private rope lessons were going to bankrupt him and that we needed the money more.

I stopped arguing—mostly.

Alexis leans toward Cami. “They fought about this for three days.”

“I know.”

“They're both exhausting.”

“I know.”

“I can hear you,” Jeremiah says.

Alexis smiles sweetly. “I know.”

Drake waits until we're quiet again. “The rope doesn't care how experienced you are.” He picks up a coil. “Neither does a nerve.”

That gets everyone's attention.

What follows is less a lecture than an extended explanation of everything that can go wrong when someone assumes pretty rope equals safe rope.

Pressure matters. Placement matters. Nerves matter more than whether something looks symmetrical.

Numbness, burning, electrical sensations, weakness, unexpected loss of movement—none of those get negotiated around because a tie is almost finished.

“If your bottom tells you something feels neurologically wrong,” Drake says, “the answer is not, ‘Can you give me thirty more seconds?’”

Carter laughs.

Drake looks at him. “I wasn't joking.”

The laugh dies.

Cami covers her mouth to conceal her own laugh.

Drake finally lets the corner of his mouth lift. “People make remarkably bad decisions when they're horny.”

“That is also fair,” Carter admits.

Emergency planning comes next.

Rope doesn't go on anyone unless it can come off quickly.