Lance pressed down and pushed up inside her and Nora flinched from the pleasure. Working his fingers in wide spirals, he scraped her inner walls with just enough pressure to send her to the edge of ecstasy again. A fourth finger pushing into her sent her right over. She dug her hands into the sheets and came hard and loud.

Carefully Lance pulled out of her as she crumbled onto the bed, spent and laughing.

“Oh, my God...” she breathed, rolling onto her back. “I think you killed me. Am I dead? You can talk again.”

“You’re not dead.”

“That’s a relief. I have stuff to do.”

“I don’t want to go prison for killing you with orgasms. I’d really never get to see my kid again.”

Nora laughed, low and tired. “All you would have to do is give the women of the jury orgasms like that and you’d get a life sentence chained to their bed.”

“I’d rather spend my life chained to your bed.”

Lance crawled over Nora’s spent body and kissed her long and deep. He pulled back and she looked up at him.

“I gotta get some damn chains.”

They napped again and when Nora woke up she found the bed empty. She didn’t worry. Lance could be in the bathroom, in the kitchen. She hadn’t given him permission to leave so she knew she would find him somewhere in the house.

She dragged herself from her bed and picked her gray robe off the floor.

A pleasant sort of soreness suffused her hips and lower back. Sex with both Søren and Lance in less than twenty-four hours? She knew some people might disapprove but she couldn’t care less. In fact, she decided she deserved a medal for her distinguished sexual service to mankind. At least a Purple Something to match her purple bruises.

Quietly and on bare feet, she padded down the stairs following the sound of Lance’s voice. He seemed to be on the phone somewhere so she didn’t want to interrupt. She’d much rather eavesdrop.

She found him in her kitchen sitting at the table wearing nothing but his jeans again. He had his cell phone to his ear and his back to the door.

“How’s school going?” he asked. “Do you like your teacher?”

He paused and Nora smiled, knowing his daughter was on the other end of the line.

“That’s good. She sounds nice. Whose birthday was it?”

Again a pause.

“That sounds like so much fun,” he agreed, his voice going so soft and tender Nora’s heart tightened as if someone had wrapped a fist around it. “I’m jealous. I want to play in a bouncy house, too.”

Lance listened again for a moment.

“No, Daddy can’t come to your school party. I know, baby. I know. Daddy’s so sorry he can’t make it...No, don’t be mad at Mommy, this isn’t her fault. She wants you to be happy, too.”

Nora covered her mouth with her hand to silence her tears. She saw Lance’s back heaving as he raised a hand to his face. She couldn’t stand seeing men cry—not unless it was in her dungeon. Her own father hadn’t give two shits about her. Oh, he’d put on a good act, an act she’d believe for sixteen years until he finally showed his true colors. But she knew in her heart he’d never cared enough about her to shed a single tear over her. He hadn’t even tried for joint custody when her parents divorced. That should have been her first sign that her dad hadn’t wanted her. If he’d once sat at a kitchen table on the phone in the dark weeping because he couldn’t see her, she would have forgiven him everything.