Page 97 of End Game

“And you’ve been drunk on power ever since.”

“I have not.”

“You threatened to buy your own rope.”

“Because apparently I need supplies.”

Ronan’s mouth twitches.

Griffin squeezes Cami’s knee to draw her attention. “You tied him up?”

“We’ll circle back.”

“We absolutely will.”

I laugh. “And that is actually kind of the point. Because there are two different hierarchies happening here, and sometimes we talk about them like they’re interchangeable.”

Griffin looks at Ronan. “You said something similar before.”

“Relationship hierarchy and power—dominant and submissive—hierarchy,” Ronan clarifies.

Dex raises his hand again.

Ronan sighs. “What?”

“Can we define our terms for the vanilla?”

Griffin flips him off.

“I meant me.”

That gets all of us—even Ronan laughs.

“Okay,” Cami says once we’ve settled down. “Actually, though. Explain. I really do think we all know, but I don’t want there to be assumptions.”

Ronan looks to me—he’s continuing to defer to me.

“Relationship hierarchy is basically what we’ve already been doing.”

“Helpful,” Dex says.

I ignore him. “In polyamory, some relationships are considered ‘primary’ and have more practical… entanglement than others. Marriage. Living together—which obviously isn’t involved here. Finances. Medical decisions. Family obligations. Things you’ve promised each other.”

Griffin’s hand squeezes Cami’s thigh almost absently.

I notice, and I’m pretty sure everyone else does too.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean you love that person more,” I continue. “It means that relationship has certain commitments built into it that the others don’t.”

Cami sits up straighter. “So, then Griffin is my primary.”

It’s not really a question.

“Yeah,” Ronan says. “I think he is.”

She looks at Griffin.

His expression is careful, like he is waiting to see how everyone else reacts before he’s willing to feel good about it.