The Last Good Knight (8 page)

“I believe I warned you a long time ago about those sorts of men.”

“I know, I know. ‘When one is a monster, one does well to avoid knights in shining armor.’ Trust me, I don’t want to lose my head over this guy. Especially since...”

“Since what?”

Nora sighed heavily and with extreme frustration.

“He has a kid. A little girl. It’s so unfair.”

“That he has a child? It’s a fairly common occurrence although I can imagine that you having feelings for someone with a small child would be—”

“Holy fucking terrified?”

“That.”

She shook her head.

“The kid isn’t the unfair part although, yeah, it does scare me. The unfair part is that this guy, he’s so good. Like genuinely good—kind and protective and noble...”

Nora spent the next half hour telling Søren everything she knew about Lance. How he’d been injured serving his country and was medically discharged from the Navy, how he’d endured three surgeries, and had been thanked for his service and his sacrifice by being cut off sexually by his now ex-wife. Nora spared no details of the drama, telling Søren about the pornography that had lost Lance custody of his daughter. Søren was a priest, after all. Watching porn was akin to a parking ticket compared to what sorts of crimes he’d heard in the confessional.

“So I’m pissed,” she concluded. “Pissed at Lance for taking the bodyguard job, which means we can’t sleep together again. I’m pissed at the asshole who beat up Natasha. Pissed at the universe for beating up Lance. That’s my job.”

She gave a groan and rolled onto her side next to Søren.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said, tracing the scratches on his stomach with her fingertips. “I hate feeling like this.”

“Like what?” Søren covered her hand with his.

“I hate feeling. Period. I just met this guy and I actually care about him? He was really good in bed but no one’s that good.” She laughed but Søren didn’t. He always seemed to know when her jokes weren’t jokes.

“There is nothing you can do for him,” Søren said. “Not unless you became a lawyer or a judge and have forgotten to tell me. You say you care about him, then care about him. Be his friend if you can’t be his lover. You can’t give him his daughter back but you can give him your friendship.”

“Like that would do him any good.”

“I treasure our friendship more than anything, even more than these nights when you come back to me. No man in his right mind would spurn your love and loyalty.”

“Not if he knew what was good for him.” She raised her fist and play-punched Søren in the center of his chest. He caught her hand and kissed the back of it.

“Don’t do that,” she said. “I have to put up with enough stupid chivalry from Lance. He even calls me a lady.” She laughed as if that were the most ridiculous concept she’d ever heard.

“Does that bother you?”

Nora rolled her eyes.

“No. It doesn’t bother me. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?” Søren asked, a slight smile at the edge of his lips. “That he called you a lady, or that you liked it?”

Nora narrowed her eyes at him.

“I’d jump you more often if you didn’t make me talk to you afterwards,” she said, hating him for how well he knew her, how easily he could cut through her defenses with simply a question or two.

“Physical pain is only one of myriad forms of sadism,” he said, dragging her into his arms. “You take pain much better than you take interrogation.”

“I’m going to safe out if you don’t stop fucking with my psyche.”

“Is that so?” He pushed her onto her back and covered her with his body.

“Yes, especially since I can think of much more enjoyable parts of me you should be fucking with instead. For example, my c—”

He kissed her before she could finish her suggestions. The kiss was passionate but not desperate, not like before. He kissed her easily, leisurely, as if tonight would be the first of an infinite number of nights together, so why hurry?

“Why aren’t you mad that I have feelings for this other man?” she asked as he moved from her lips to her neck.

“Because you’re here,” he said, holding himself over her. “And I’m here.” He bent and kissed her chest over her heart.

“Why do I feel like Lance and I were supposed to meet? Like it was destiny?”

“Destiny doesn’t always play matchmaker,” Søren said, caressing her lips, her chin and nose. “Sometimes destiny plays other games with us.”

Nora tried not to think about Lance for the rest of the night. The things Søren did to her until about two in the morning helped keep anyone but her priest off her mind. Still when she snuck out before dawn, it was with Søren’s words ringing in her ears.

There’s nothing you can do for him...

True. She couldn’t help Lance, but knowing that didn’t take any of the sting out of that feeling of impotence. Being a Dominatrix meant men bent to her will. Why couldn’t the rest of the world follow suit?

Back at home, Nora crawled into her own bed and slept for a few precious hours. Her body ached from the beatings Søren had given her but it was the ache in her heart that hurt the most. She’d known Lance all of two days and already felt that every child in the world would be blessed to have a man like him as a father. That his ex-wife and the courts judged him for what he did in private was an insult to their entire world. Kinky or not, Søren was the best priest on the planet. Why the church and the state couldn’t stay out of their goddamn bedrooms was beyond her. After all, the church and the state often visited her bedroom and her dungeon. She’d lost her virginity to a priest, but Søren certainly wasn’t the only member of the clergy in the Underground. She even had elected officials as her clients—congressmen, one senator, lots of lawyers and even Judge B.

Judge B....

Nora’s eyes flew open as she remembered the rest of what Søren had said to her last night.

There’s nothing you can do to help him...unless you became a lawyer or judge and forgot to tell me...

No, she was no judge, but she did have a judge who worshipped the ground she walked on and the feet that walked on it. Still she couldn’t think of a bigger breach of protocol than to ask a client to do her a favor—a likely illegal favor.

Kingsley would flay her himself if he found out. Then again, what Kingsley didn’t know didn’t hurt him...

At eleven sharp Lance knocked on her door again.

“Are you going to come in this time?” Nora asked when she found him on her front porch looking unnecessarily handsome. She was going to have to talk to him about being less attractive.

“Can I trust you?”

“No.”

“Then no.” Lance took a step back on her porch.

“Wait...ask the question again. I’ll get it right this time.”

Lance laughed and shook his head. Instead of asking the question, he simply came inside the house.

“So this is the house of a Dominatrix?” He glanced around her living room.

“Were you expecting more whips and chains? Dungeon chic?”

“I was, actually.”

Nora plopped down on her couch in her cozy living room decorated with overstuffed furniture and bookcases.

“Those are all upstairs in the closet. And there’s some stuff in the office, but only because I keep my toy bag in there.”

“You live alone?”

Lance examined her bookcase. She wondered if they’d read any of the same books.

“I do. I’m trying to imagine who could put up with me as a roommate. Maybe Job. I’d need someone patient.”

“Job?”

“The dude in the Bible with all the problems who just sat there and took it? ‘The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away—blessed be the name of the Lord’? That guy?”

“Interesting. Never had a domme quote the Bible at me before.”

“Gets more interesting—my mom’s a nun.”

Lance’s eyes popped wide open.

“You’re kidding me.” He sat down on the chair by the couch. Nora had to feel a little flattered he didn’t feel safe enough to sit next to her on the sofa.

“My mother wanted to be a nun all her life. But she got knocked up with me as a teenager and that dream went out the window. But after my dad was killed—”

Lance started to say something and Nora held up her hand to stop him.

“No, we are not talking about my father today,” she said and Lance nodded his reluctant acquiesce. “Once I became a legal adult, there were no impediments to Mom joining a religious order. I thought she was crazy. We’d had some rough times when I was a teenager.”

“Now that doesn’t surprise me one bit.”

“Yeah, I put the woman through ten kinds of hell. But I thought a convent might be a little extreme. I moved back in with her for a few months hoping we could make up for some lost time. Maybe some mother-daughter bonding would change her mind about throwing her entire life away.”

“Didn’t work?”

Nora shrugged. “Mother and daughter did not good roommates make. Let’s just say when she found out about my lifestyle, who I was sleeping with and what we were doing, the proverbial excrement hit the metaphorical oscillator.”

“The shit hit the fan?”

“With gusto. That was the last straw for Mom. The world was depraved beyond redemption and the only hope for a woman of faith to remain pure in such a wasteland was to join a convent and never venture out into the world again. So she did.”

“Wow.” Lance gave an impressed whistle. “Catholic priest is a sadist and the sexiest Dominatrix on earth has a nun for a mother. Anything else?”

Nora only smiled.

“Nothing that matters.”

“So...” Lance stood up again. “What’s the plan for the day? You ready to go?”

“I actually don’t have any clients today. Rarely see clients on Sunday unless it’s an emergency.”

Lance narrowed his eyes at her.

“Do I want to know what constitutes a kink emergency?”

Nora laughed. Good question.

“Hard to explain. For some of my clients, kink is not a choice. It’s like a drug. And I don’t mean that in the bad way. I’m not talking a drug like cocaine or heroin. I mean it’s a drug like, I don’t know...insulin or Prozac. Our sadist priest, for example. Inflicting pain for him works like Lithium. He can get surly as fuck if he goes without too long. You get him a steady supply of kink—maybe once a week—and the man has the patience of the aforementioned Job. So I have a client or two who need kink like someone with asthma needs an inhaler. That’s one kind of kink emergency.”

“What’s the other?”

“The person is rich and horny and Kingsley wants to keep him happy.”

“That, I can understand. But if you don’t have appointments, why am I here today?”

“Kingsley’s orders. If I go out and about, he wants someone with me.”

“Even when you aren’t working?”

Nora didn’t really have a good answer for that.

“Nora?”

She started humming.

“Kingsley didn’t say I had to guard you when you weren’t working, did he?”

“What was that? I didn’t hear you over my humming?”

“I said—”

Nora started humming again.

“Nora.”

“If I flashed you my breasts would you be shocked into forgetting this line of questioning?”

“I’ve already seen your breasts,” Lance reminded her.

“Dammit.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that wouldn’t work. I’m just saying I’ve already seen them.”

Nora got off the couch and came to stand in front of Lance. She pulled her T-shirt off over her head. Underneath she wore a red push-up bra.

“Nora, I was just—”

“Too late,” she said, unhooking her bra in the front.

Lance covered her hands with his before she could finish.

“I don’t want to lose this job,” Lance said.

“You think if I show you my breasts you’ll fuck me right here on the floor? ‘Yes’ is a perfectly acceptable answer.”

“I think...” Lance took a ragged breath. “If you take off any more clothing, I’ll beg you to take me to your bedroom, and I’ll worship your body until the world ends.”

“That’s a long time, Sailor,” Nora said, pressing closer to Lance.

“Your body deserves all the attention it can get. So please don’t ask me to pay it any more attention because I will.”

It was moments like this that Nora wanted to curse Søren for making it impossible for her to be completely selfish 100 percent of the time like she wanted to be. Knowing Kingsley, he would ask Lance if he and Nora slept together. Knowing Lance, he’d fess up. Lance would get fired. Nora would get a slap on the wrist.

“Fucking conscience,” Nora sighed. “Always cock-blocking me.”

“Pesky thing, consciences,” Lance agreed.

“Yes, I would be a much happier person—” Nora fastened her bra and bent over to scoop up her T-shirt.

“Nora, what the fuck?” Lance grabbed her by the arm so quickly she flinched.

“Jesus, what?”

“What happened to you?” He spun her around and Nora groaned.

Oops. Caught.

“Nothing. Just kink.”

She pulled her arm out of Lance’s grasp.

“Kink? That’s not kink. You got the shit beat out of you. Those welts are deep. Who did this to you?” he demanded.

“Nobody you know. I wasn’t mugged. I played last night.”

Nora pulled her T-shirt on.

“With who? Vlad the Impaler?”

“He’s not into impaling. Not even he is that kinky. Wait, what kind of impaling are we talking about?”

“Nora, I’m not joking. Your back is a mass of bruises.”

“Yeah, so what? Take your shirt off. Show me your bruises.”

“I know what my back looks like. That’s not the point.”

Nora crossed her arms over her chest.

“I think it is the point. It’s okay for me to beat the shit out of you, but I’m not allowed to submit to the same kind of pain?”

“No, it’s not okay. You’re a woman. You don’t play that hard on women.”

“Are you judging me?”

“I’m judging him.”

“It was a woman,” Nora lied. She raised her chin and gave Lance her coldest, most Dominant stare. “What are you going to do now? Go beat up a woman on my behalf?”

“You just said ‘He’s not into impaling.’ Was it a man or a woman you played with?”

“Both. He/She is a hermaphrodite. I think. I never asked. Personal questions, you know.”