“Now you’re catching on.” She smiled tiredly. He only looked at her. Nothing got a suspect talking faster than silence. “It doesn’t get old, being with him. It never gets old. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Søren is the most powerful man I know. Therefore and ergo, Søren is the ultimate aphrodisiac. But…just once might be nice. There. You got me to confess. Now your turn.”

“No.”

“You acted very strange the day we met when I mentioned the word ‘Daddy.’ Why?”

“No,” he said. “No way. I am not having this conversation with you.”

“You’re in my dungeon now. My dungeon. My rules. We’re having this conversation. You brought it up.”

He glared at her.

“Who called you ‘Daddy’? Ex-girlfriend. Ex-wife? First lover? Tell me. The Mistress is listening…” She put her hand to her ear and leaned in.

He exhaled, hard and heavy, but he said it anyway. “Paulina.”

Nora’s eyebrow raised half an inch. “Really?”

Cyrus nodded.

“You like that?”

Cyrus nodded again.

“Nice,” Nora said.

“You think she’s kinky?” he asked.

“Because she calls you ‘Daddy’? Maybe. Maybe just a pet name. Now if she calls you ‘Dad’…that’s definitely kinky.”

“What happened to you as a child?”

“Nothing,” Nora said with a shrug. “Totally normal childhood. I mean, other than getting arrested for grand-theft auto, my Catholic priest falling in love with me when I was fifteen, and my father getting whacked by the mob. Why do you ask?”

Cyrus groaned and rubbed his forehead. There was a lot that needed unpacking in what Nora just said. He decided to leave it packed.

“Do you think she’s kinky?” Nora asked, sounding suddenly—and eerily—like Cyrus’s therapist.

He looked for a place to sit. Nothing except for the medical bed. Ah, hell. Why not?

“Her father is career Navy,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed and letting his feet dangle. He felt like a kid again about to get a tetanus shot. “He runs the house like he’s captain of a ship. Everything on schedule. Everything in its place. Everybody behaves and does their job. No backtalk. No tears. Paulina never called him ‘Dad’ or ‘Daddy.’ She always called him ‘Sir.’ Still does. She says he’s gotten more affectionate as he’s gotten older, but he’s still more ‘Sir’ to her than ‘Dad.’”

“That’s gotta be tough.”

“She loves her father. Respects the hell out of him. But yeah, not a lot of hugging and kissing and laughing and goofing together. She says she calls me ‘Daddy’ because I make her feel safe and loved and, you know, we’re goofs together. Always laughing. I don’t know if I’ve ever even heard her father laugh. I think that’s all it is. She just, you know, that word to her means ‘the man who loves me, takes care of me, and we play together.’”

“Does she call you ‘Daddy’ in bed?”

Cyrus barked a laugh. He didn’t mean to. It just came out.

“What?” Nora asked. “That was a weird reaction.”