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He grinned. “Go on.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s… complicated.”

“Most interesting things are.”

“It’s not the dynamic,” I said. “That part makes sense.”

Alex nodded slowly. “But?”

“But now there’s other stuff now.”

Alex waited.

I sighed. “I don’t want to stop being his sub.”

Alex looked surprised. “Why would you?”

I frowned. “Well… because of everything else.”

He studied me for a moment. “You think those things cancel each other out?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

He smiled. “Leo asked me something similar once.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. He asked if loving someone meant the power dynamic would disappear.”

“And?”

“And the answer turned out to be no.”

I blinked.

“If anything,” Alex continued, “it made it clearer.”

“How?”

“Because when submission is a choice, it doesn’t vanish when feelings show up.” Alex smiled. “It becomes part of how you trust each other.”

Warmth spread through me.

That’s exactly how it feels with Max.

Alex’s eyes lit up. “Aha. And there it is.”

“What?”

“That look.”

“What look?”

“The one where you realise you’ve already answered your own question.”

I groaned. “You’re very smug for someone who’s barely met me.”

Alex laughed. He glanced around the room. “Okay, so I don’t actually know Max, but I know that look too.”