Page 95 of End Game

Then I add, “But if we’re doing this, everybody talks. Nobody silently agrees.”

“Obviously.” He looks at me with confusion.

“No.” I look directly at him. “I mean everybody. Griffin too.”

His brow furrows. “Of course Griffin.”

“Because I can already see where this could go.”

“Where?” he asks, genuinely curious.

“You, me, Dex, Cami—we have a power structure that’s starting to make sense. We have mostly defined it, but we haven’t officially named the whole thing yet.”

Ronan stays quiet.

“But Griffin isn’t part of that,” I add.

“No, he’s not.”

“And I don’t want us talking about the hierarchy in a way that accidentally turns into ‘the four kinky people have rules, and Griffin is Cami’s husband who occasionally visits.’”

Ronan’s expression tightens thoughtfully.

“Agreed. That’s part of why I know it needs to happen after last night.”

I nod. “And Cami is beginning to complicate it anyway.”

That finally makes him smile. “She’s getting toppier with Dex?”

“She’s getting much toppier with Dex. Only, I think she doesn't fully realize it.”

He grins.

I laugh. “You look proud of her.”

“I am proud of her.”

“Of course you are.”

He takes another drag, then looks at me through the smoke. “So.”

“So.”

“Tonight?”

I glance toward the house and think of five people with five sets of needs. More relationships between us than I can count with drawing a fucking diagram.

And somehow, that doesn’t feel terrifying.

It feels like something worth doing correctly.

“Yeah,” I agree. “Tonight.”

By the time we actually get everyone into the living room, I’m reconsidering every decision that led me here.

And not just because Ronan brought his fucking notebook.

Dex notices it at exactly the same time I do. “Oh, absolutely not.”