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.”