Søren stroked her cheek, ran his fingers through her hair.

“Eleanor, you really should know better by now,” he said. “Never flirt with a sadist in a well-stocked dungeon.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Cyrus arrived back at Paulina’s and found she’d unlocked the door for him.

He went inside, into the darkened house, and locked the door behind him. He slipped out of his shoes and walked down the hallway toward the light coming from her bedroom.

Paulina had turned on her bedside lamp and lay there on her side, pillow clutched to her chest like a teddy bear.

“I thought I heard you,” she said, blinking.

“You’re half-asleep,” he said, sitting down at her side. “I should let you sleep.”

“No, no…” She shook her head. “Talk to me. I know when you need to talk.”

He caught her up to speed—again—fast as he could. The whole time he talked, he rubbed her back. She was in her pajamas now, cute pink t-shirt and shorts. She didn’t seem to mind the back rub one bit, not even when he slipped his hand under her t-shirt to rub the warm bare skin of her back.

“Cyrus…” Paulina said with a sigh. “This is getting a little crazy.”

“You said it. But I’ve had crazy cases before.”

“Now that’s for sure. How’s Nora?” Paulina asked. “She okay?”

“She seemed okay when I left her with her man.”

“He mad that she called you instead of him?”

“Didn’t seem mad. He thanked me, shook my hand. He’s a good guy, I think. Good enough.”

“Good enough?”

“Good enough for her, I mean.”

Paulina rolled onto her back.

“Good enough for her?” she asked.

He shrugged. “She’s, you know…different. She’d get bored with a normal kind of dude, I think. And smart as she is, she needs somebody smart. Her guy’s really smart, you can tell. About as calm as she is crazy. I like him for her.”

Paulina shook her head, laughing to herself.

“What?” he asked.

“I love you.”

“Do you? Where’d that come from?”

“Listen to you—you sound like her big brother.” Paulina dropped her voice an octave, mocking his deeper voice. “‘He’s good enough for her, I suppose. She needs a man like that. I suppose I approve of this match.’”

Paulina laughed again, laughed herself silly. Cyrus grabbed a pillow and dropped it on her laughing face.

From under the pillow, she kept laughing.

He took the pillow off her face.

“You’re so cute,” she said. “I like this side of you. Not sure I’ve seen it before.”

“What side is that?”

“Cyrus Tremont, big brother,” she said. “It’s nice. Kind of sexy, too.”

“Is it?”

“Oh, it is.” She took his face in her hands and brought it down for a kiss.

If she wanted only a little kiss, he surprised her with a big one. A long kiss, long and deep. His tongue pressed into her mouth and she readily opened to the kiss. It nearly killed him to break it, but he had to. He had things to say to her.