“Is he as much of an asshole as I hope he is?”

“No,” she said with a sigh. ”He’s just very good at playing one when he’s in the mood.”

“Then why all the hate?”

Nora weighed her words. She could give Lance the usual bullshit answers. Søren was a total hardass as a Dominant—true. He loved playing mind games—also true. He’s a sadist who couldn’t get aroused without causing pain or severe humiliation—very true. But still...none of those were reasons to hate him. Not for her anyway. And Lance deserved better than a half-truth or a full lie.

“Hate’s like lube,” she finally said. “Makes it easier to get in and get out. If it was all love with Søren, if I didn’t make myself hate him, I don’t think I could get out again.”

Lance looked at her and, although it took all her willpower, she managed not to turn away from his intense stare. With her answer, she’d let him see a part of her soul she rarely shared with anyone, the part that still loved Søren even though she didn’t want to. In the Underground, she played the part of the invincible Dominatrix perfectly. Even leaving Søren had become part of her legend, her mythos. She’d defeated the Dominant of Dominants by leaving him and his collar behind. At the club she and Søren treated each other like equals, like rivals. It was Sheriff Pat Garrett versus Billy the Kid down there sometimes and everyone did love an outlaw. Søren stood for law and order in the Underground. Nora caused as much playful chaos as she could. And no one knew how often Nora returned to Søren’s bed by cover of darkness and slipped out again before sunrise.

Now Lance knew, and knowing he knew lifted a weight off her shoulders, one she didn’t know she’d been carrying.

“It’s hard to pretend to be something you’re not,” Lance said, taking her hand in his and rubbing her palm in a manner both soothing and erotic. “The guys I served with, they thought I was old-fashioned the way I treated women. They didn’t know about what I really was. They wouldn’t have understood.”

“I understand.”

They said nothing for a moment, a long moment that allowed for the temperature in the room to rise, Nora’s heart to beat faster, and the hunger for each other to build. Nora leaned forward to kiss Lance, not giving a damn anymore what Kingsley had decreed. Lance didn’t seem to care anymore, either. Cupping the back of Nora’s head, he brought his mouth to hers. But before their lips could touch a sound like a klaxon broke the moment in half.

“Fuck...” Nora growled.

“What the hell is that?”

“My hotline. Kingsley set the ringtone to something I couldn’t ignore. Now I can’t figure out how to change it.”

She got up and grabbed her hotline phone off the charger in the kitchen. “This better be good,” she said to Kingsley, now in no mood for polite hellos.