Page 760 of End Game

Griffin squeezes my knee.

I look around at all four of them.

No chart required.

Chapter fifty-three

Expertise

Ronan

There was a time when the basement was concrete, exposed beams, and an idea I could not stop thinking about.

I remember standing upstairs with coffee in my hand while Micah casually pointed out that the beams were load-bearing and Dex reacted as if the phrase overhead attachment points was pornography. At the time, none of us had enough practical experience to do anything particularly ambitious with that information, but that did not stop my brain from immediately trying to design the room.

Now the design exists.

The suspension hardware was professionally installed, rated for considerably more weight than we will ever put on it, then tested anyway because the manufacturer says it's fine is not a safety protocol I am willing to rely on when another person will be hanging from it. There are mats beneath the rig, designated storage along one wall, the table we've used often enough that it no longer feels like new equipment, and an aftercare area that has gradually accumulated blankets, water, first-aid supplies, glucose, and the other things we've learned are useful enough to deserve permanent residence down here.

It is still recognizably our basement.

It is also finally the room I kept imagining.

Micah runs his fingers along one of the prepared lines beside me, checking something we both already checked twenty minutes ago, and I decide not to point out the redundancy because I have checked the suspension point three times myself.

We've completed another round of Shibari instruction since Cami's last suspension. She's been fully off the floor with an instructor present before, clothed and considerably less exposed than she is about to be. Tonight is the first time Micah and I are responsible for all of it without someone more experienced watching us.

That should make me more anxious than it does.

It doesn't, because we've prepared for it.

There is a meaningful difference between confidence and assuming nothing will go wrong. The second is dangerous. The first is what happens when you have considered what could go wrong and know what you will do about it.

Cami stands beneath the suspension point completely naked, arms folded loosely over her stomach while she looks up at the hardware.

The rest of us are still wearing pants because there is no practical reason not to. Cami's clothing had to come off before the rope went on; ours remains perfectly removable later.

She's smiling.

“You're excited,” I say.

Her attention drops from the ceiling to me. “Was I supposed to pretend I'm not?”

“No. I just wanted to make sure I was reading you correctly.”

“You are.”

Dex, behind us, says, “Dangerous thing to tell her while she's naked in a sex dungeon.”

“Playroom,” Griffin corrects.

“I stand by sex dungeon. Better branding.”

Micah doesn't even turn around. “Dex, stop touching that.”

There is a pause.

“I wasn't doing anything.”