Søren seemed to mull that over for a moment.

“Were you planning on telling me any of this?”

“It crossed my mind,” Nora said. A half-truth but still, a truth.

Søren narrowed his eyes at her.

“You were supposed to be with King,” she reminded him. “I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Tonight we were having dinner. Last night I might not have answered any calls.” He smiled, but she knew it wasn’t a real smile. “I am glad you had Cyrus to bring you here. Although I’m not happy with you helping him on this case. It’s keeping me up at night for the wrong reasons.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Same here. But I don’t want to stop either. We’re getting closer.”

He kissed her forehead. “We’ll discuss it tomorrow.”

As it was well after two now, they decided to sleep there in the dungeon. Nora had the bed. Might as well put it to use.

Søren went downstairs to reset the alarm. Nora went into her dungeon bedroom and switched on the lights. The bed was a Moroccan daybed with a canopy. She’d strung copper-wire LED lights all through the slats of the canopy, creating a low and gentle glow in the little room.

Nora undressed down to her panties and t-shirt and climbed into bed. Søren returned and undressed and slid in next to her.

“Very nice,” he said, glancing up at her lights.

“Perfect light to do wicked things to Sheridan’s body by,” she said. “Speaking of…did you and King have fun last night?”

“Fun was had by all.”

“How did the engraved handcuffs work out?”

“As well as non-engraved handcuffs.”

“And what does King think of the beard?”

“He’s coping.”

“I guess you’ve decided to keep the house?”

“For now,” he said. “Seems a shame to let it go to waste. Oh, housewarming party Sunday. Not my idea, but I can’t seem to stop it.”

Nora smiled and curled up on his chest, resting her head at the sturdy center under his collar bone. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close and tight. His strong arms were always her favorite sort of bondage.

“I’m never going to leave you,” she said.

Søren cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her face up to him.

“Where did that come from?”

“I just wanted to tell you that.”

Søren pushed her onto her back and he lay on his side, propped on one elbow and gazing down at her.

“Are you worried you’re going to, Little One?”

Nora wasn’t about to tell Søren about Mercedes and her insane prediction. No reason to upset him, too.

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel like telling you I love you is enough. I was in love with you when I left you. And I was in love with you the whole time we were apart. Saying I’ll never leave you means more than just ‘I love you.’ Besides,” she said, lightly tracing his bottom lip, “you already know and believe I love you. But I’m not sure you believe I’ll never leave you again.”