Kingsley stared at Søren and found he couldn’t speak.

Søren smiled at his sudden muteness.

“Don’t get into a scriptural pissing contest with a Jesuit priest, Kingsley,” Søren chided. “You’ll lose every time.”

“I’m happy to lose this contest.”

“Go back to bed,” Søren said. “Obey me one more night.”

Kingsley knelt down at Søren’s feet and rested his hand on Nora’s hip right under where she’d been kicked. They’d both been wounded for their sins, and both found their healing at his feet and in his arms.

“Every night.”

45

THE QUEEN

The next morning Nora woke up and knew she would be all right. It might take a while, might take a few more midnight crying jags in Søren’s arms, but she’d get there. She’d get her spunk back, her spirit. Right now she just felt empty and tired and really f**king hungry.

She took a long shower and dressed in her own clothes that Grace had washed for her. Jeans, a white T-shirt and her boots. Finally she felt almost human again.

That human feeling momentarily faltered when she walked past Wesley’s room. She wanted to talk to him again, make sure he was okay. When she reached his bedroom door, she heard the sound of lascivious laughter, a sigh of pleasure, followed by the unmistakable sound of a teenage girl having an orgasm. It hurt to hear but she made herself listen, anyway. She took it like penance. She’d hurt Wesley...worse, she’d harmed him. Now he found healing with someone else. Good for him. He deserved it.

She kissed her fingertips, and touched the door. She walked away and let Wes and Laila take their comfort in each other.

Grace had taken it upon herself to cook a big breakfast for them all. They assembled in the dining room, she and Søren, Kingsley and Grace. Nora studied Grace for any signs of awkwardness or regret about submitting to Søren last night. But instead Grace appeared radiant. She looked rested and happy and she and Søren acted like old friends and nothing more. She still couldn’t believe Grace had gone through with it, but not many women after getting to know Søren could resist the temptation of a few hours alone with him, even if it meant submitting to pain. And although Grace had been doing Søren and Nora a favor by giving him an outlet for his sadism, Nora had made sure to get something out of the deal herself.

“You get my priest for a night, I get one more night with Zach,” Nora had said last night.

And Grace, who never ceased to surprise her, had only laughed and said, “A night? For one night with your priest, you can have Zachary all week.”

“Bring it,” Nora said, and they’d sealed the deal with a fist bump.

They all gathered around the table for what promised to be a gluttonous full English breakfast. But the peace of the moment shattered when Søren posed a question that left them all quiet.

“Where’s Laila?” he asked. No one answered.

Nora reached for the toast and Søren intercepted her hand. He took it, kissed it and looked at her with quiet determination.

“Eleanor, where is my niece?”

“Still in bed.”

“Her flight leaves in a few hours. I’ll go wake her up.”

“No, I’ll do it,” Nora said, standing up.

“And where is Wesley?”

“Probably sleeping, too.”

“Eleanor, answer me.”

“I’m not one hundred percent certain I know where Laila and Wesley are.”

It was true. After all, a point-one percent chance existed they might have been abducted by aliens in the past five minutes.

Søren rose out of his seat and headed to the entryway. Nora had to run to beat him.

“Don’t.” She braced herself in the doorway barring his exit.

“Eleanor, get out of my way.”

“They’re together right now—Laila and Wes. They spent the night together. They’re still together. And if you don’t want to traumatize your niece for the rest of her life, you’ll leave them alone.”

“Me, traumatize her? She spent the night with someone she barely knows who is in love with someone else.”

“And she had a damn good time doing it from what I overheard.”

“Eleanor...” Søren said in a tone so sharp she could have cut herself on it. “If you don’t get out of my way right now—”

“You’ll what? Beat me up? Or, as we call it, foreplay?”

“I’m not joking. Get out of my way this instant.” He eyed her with barely restrained fury.

“No. You and I have put Wes through enough pain and drama to last a goddamn lifetime. If spending some private time with Laila makes him feel better, then fine. Laila got kidnapped and held at gunpoint. If she wants a few hours’ distraction with a gorgeous, sweet kid like Wes, we’re not going to stop them.”

“You aren’t. I am. So help me God, Eleanor, she is only eighteen—”

“So the f**k what? I was seventeen when you and I fooled around the first time. Remember that night? You didn’t seem to mind I was a seventeen-year-old virgin. And you also didn’t mind you were a thirty-one-year-old Catholic priest. My priest. You remember that?”

“This is an entirely different situation.” Søren took a menacing step forward but Nora stood her ground.

“Why? Because she’s your niece? Fuck you, I’m somebody’s daughter. I know Mom would love to come do what you want to do to Wesley right now.”