“Nothing.”

“Something,” she said. “Come on. Tell me. If it helps…I’ve called Søren ‘Daddy’ during sex before.”

He should have said, I don’t need to hear this, Nora. What he did say was, “Really?”

“One of those fantasies you think you want to try out, and then you do and it’s so intense and awkward that you can barely handle it.”

“You couldn’t handle it?”

“I cried,” she said. “It was…” she paused and exhaled. “Intense. Intense and humiliating. And sexy. That’s where kink gets so complicated. That you hate it and love it at the same time.”

“Sounds intense,” Cyrus said. “Maybe too intense for me.”

“It’s okay. Paulina might not have any Daddy-kink in her at all. That’s why I asked if she did it in bed or just whenever. ‘Fuck me harder, Daddy’ is a slightly different scenario than ‘Pass the ketchup, Daddy.’”

Cyrus needed a few seconds to process all that. Finally, he said, “I don’t know.”

“Know what?”

“We, ah…” He took another few seconds, tried to figure out if he could say what he wanted to say. If he should say what he wanted to say. Then he just said it. “We’ve never had sex.”

Nora’s eyes nearly fell out of her head.

“Are you serious?”

“We’re waiting until our wedding night.”

“Holy…I knew she was Catholic but that’s…that’s too Catholic is what that is.”

Cyrus dropped his chin to his chest and shook his head.

“You are telling me, Mistress.”

“Oh God, poor you.”

“No, no.” He raised his head and exhaled. “It was my suggestion.”

“Were you on drugs?”

“Love,” he said. “Dumb stupid love.”

“That was my other guess.”

“I wanted her to know that I was in this for her, not using her for sex. You know, like I had with every other woman in my life since I was sixteen years old.”

“So offering to wait until you were married was a romantic gesture?”

“Right.”

“And you and Paulina have been dating how long?”

“Two years.”

“So you haven’t had sex in…”

“Over two years.”

Nora put the fingers of both hands on her temples, like her head was about to explode and she needed to contain the blast.

“I’ve never wanted to slap a man so hard in my life. I mean, a man who wasn’t Søren.”

Cyrus tilted his head to the side, offering her his cheek.

“Do it,” he said. “I deserve it.”

Nora rose off her throne and walked over to him. There was a damn good chance the woman really was going to slap him. She raised her hand and patted his shoulder.

“My sympathies, my friend.” She patted his shoulder again. “Been there.”

“Thank you. I needed that.”

Nora shook her head.

“Not even oral?”

“No.”

“Oh my Jesus,” Nora said.

Cyrus laughed hard enough he fell back on the bed. Then remembered this was a medical bed in a dungeon, and God only knew what went on there. He sat up very quickly.