Page 455 of End Game

The simple certainty in her answer hits me harder than I expect.

And stiffens my cock a bit more, if I’m honest.

Dex proceeds to turn unbuttoning another man's jeans into some kind of elaborate performance, because apparently there is no task so straightforward that he can't add unnecessary flair.

Micah eventually puts a hand on his shoulder. “Don't make this weird.”

Dex looks up at him. “You say that like you haven’t met me.”

Cami laughs again.

Ronan finally moves off the arm of the couch and settles beside Micah, close enough that their thighs touch. He still doesn't take over. I've watched Ronan enough now to know exactly what it feels like when he decides a room belongs to him.

This isn't that.

He leans over and kisses Micah because he wants to kiss Micah.

Dex watches them for all of three seconds before reaching toward Ronan.

Ronan catches his wrist. “Wait.”

Dex stops.

No resistance. No joke.

His body simply stills because Ronan told him to.

Cami's breathing changes against me.

Mine probably does too.

I understand now why she likes this part.

It isn't necessarily the power itself. It's the visible choice underneath it.

Dex could move—he doesn't because he wants to listen.

Ronan releases his wrist a moment later, and Dex reaches for him again.

That time Ronan lets him.

No discussion. No hierarchy announcement. No pause to explain which relationship permits what.

They already know.

That may be the strangest thing about tonight. We spent so much time getting here by talking through every possible boundary that now we can finally exist inside those boundaries without constantly naming them.

Cami eventually shifts away from me and crawls farther onto the couch.

I notice the movement because I notice everything she does, but my body doesn't tighten around it. There is no little spike of resentment because she moved toward someone else.

She moved three feet—that's all.

Dex catches her around the waist and pulls her down beside him, and her surprised laugh fills the room. Micah shifts to make space, Ronan moves one leg out of the way, and somebody's elbow nearly catches me in the face.

I jerk backward.

“Fuck.”