“Have you ever had sex in the back of a Rolls-Royce?” he asked her as he pushed his hips meaningfully into hers. What she felt pressing against her caused fear to jump ahead a few places on her emotions-currently-experiencing list. Fear and desire both shot right up her list.

“I’ve never had sex, you know, ever.”

“Poor girl. Would you like me to take care of that little problem for you?”

“I’m Catholic, so I’m waiting.”

“Until marriage?”

“No. I’m waiting for my priest to f**k me.”

“Are you tired of waiting?”

“Yes. There’s no reason to wait. He’s being overprotective.”

“He cares about you.”

“Wish he cared less and f**ked more.”

Kingsley laughed as he sat up and let her go.

“He said you and I would be friends. I didn’t believe him at first. I think he might be right.”

Eleanor moved to the seat across from Kingsley and smoothed her skirt down over her knees. A little distance between her and him would be a good idea.

“I hope we can be friends. He said you and me, we were his nonnegotiables. Oh, and God. Can’t forget Him.”

“We will be, j’espère. I want you to trust me. There are things you need to hear that you would not hear if he said them to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have fallen in love with the king of all the mind-fuckers.”

“Mind-fucking? Is that when you stick it in her ear?”

“Not quite. It’s when I stick it in her brain. The mind-fuck is one of many games the dominant plays. I might tie up a girl, blindfold her and then run my fingers so lightly across her stomach …” He raised his hand and tickled the air. Something inside Eleanor clenched at the erotic image. She couldn’t help but imagine Kingsley doing such a thing to her. “And then casually mention the word snake or spider. Watch her tense. Hear her laugh nervously. She knows it’s my fingers on her. Not a snake. Not a spider. But now the doubt is there … one sliver of a doubt in her brain.”

“That is so evil.” Eleanor grinned broadly. “But you don’t ever actually put snakes and spiders on people, do you?”

“Non. Of course not. Unless …”

“Unless what?”

“Unless she asks for it.”

Eleanor’s eyes widened. Kingsley only smiled.

“You see, the mind-fuck is simply this—I take your mind, I play with it, I make you think things you didn’t think you would think and then suddenly … you’re thinking them.”

“You can’t pull that stuff on me.”

“Non? Le prêtre is pulling a mind-fuck on you.”

“How?”

“By making you wait for him. You don’t want to wait for him, do you? You want to be his lover right now. Today even.”

“No. Not today. I wanted to be his lover yesterday. There’s no reason to wait.”

“I know the reason for it.”

“You do?”

“Oh, oui. He’s manipulating you. Here you are. So young. So beautiful. So ripe for the plucking. And yet you sit there … unplucked. This is how he proves he owns you like a dog on a leash. Heel. Sit. Roll over. Play dead. You’re not his lover. You’re his puppy and you follow him anywhere. He feeds you crumbs and you lap them out of his hand.”

Eleanor sat up straighter.

“He’s not manipulating me by making us wait, okay? I’m seventeen and he’s almost thirty-one. He’s a priest and I’m in high school. I’m not even on birth control yet, and if I was and my mom found it, I’d be dead. If he gets caught fooling around with a high school student, he’ll be dead. On top of all that, he’s a sadist. He cares about me so much he wants me to know what I’m getting into before I get into it. So fine. We’ll wait. I’ll learn what I need to learn. We’ll start having sex when he’s ready and he knows I’m ready. That’s not manipulation. That’s good sense. And you could learn a little something from him about good sense.”

“Moi?” Kingsley sounded positively scandalized at her insinuation.

“You. You picked me up from school in a Rolls-Royce? Do you know how much attention that’s going to get me? You and Søren are related—sort of. You have to be careful. We have to be careful. We can’t get him into trouble.”

“I’ll be more careful,” he pledged.

“Good.”

“I enjoyed your impassioned defense of your own lingering virginity.”

“I don’t want you thinking Søren is manipulating me when he’s not.”

“He’s not.”

“No, he isn’t.”

“But I am.” Kingsley put his feet in the seat next to her and smirked.

“You … you got me to argue why Søren and I should wait when I said five minutes ago I didn’t want to and there was no reason to.”

“It was almost too easy.”

“You mind-fucked me.”

“Does your brain hurt? I tried to be gentle since it was your first time.”

Eleanor picked up her combat boot and tossed it at Kingsley’s head. He caught it and rolled down the window.

“Don’t you dare. I love those damn boots.”

“You promise you will not throw them at me again?”