The Last Good Knight by Tiffany Reisz Page B

finish her suggestions. The kiss was passionate but not desperate, not like before. He kissed her easily, leisurely, as if tonight would be the first of an infinite number of nights together, so why hurry?
    “Why aren’t you mad that I have feelings for this other man?” she asked as he moved from her lips to her neck.
    “Because you’re here,” he said, holding himself over her. “And I’m here.” He bent and kissed her chest over her heart.
    “Why do I feel like Lance and I were supposed to meet? Like it was destiny?”
    “Destiny doesn’t always play matchmaker,” Søren said, caressing her lips, her chin and nose. “Sometimes destiny plays other games with us.”
    Nora tried not to think about Lance for the rest of the night. The things Søren did to her until about two in the morning helped keep anyone but her priest off her mind. Still when she snuck out before dawn, it was with Søren’s words ringing in her ears.
    There’s nothing you can do for him...
    True. She couldn’t help Lance, but knowing that didn’t take any of the sting out of that feeling of impotence. Being a Dominatrix meant men bent to her will. Why couldn’t the rest of the world follow suit?
    Back at home, Nora crawled into her own bed and slept for a few precious hours. Her body ached from the beatings Søren had given her but it was the ache in her heart that hurt the most. She’d known Lance all of two days and already felt that every child in the world would be blessed to have a man like him as a father. That his ex-wife and the courts judged him for what he did in private was an insult to their entire world. Kinky or not, Søren was the best priest on the planet. Why the church and the state couldn’t stay out of their goddamn bedrooms was beyond her. After all, the church and the state often visited her bedroom and her dungeon. She’d lost her virginity to a priest, but Søren certainly wasn’t the only member of the clergy in the Underground. She even had elected officials as her clients—congressmen, one senator, lots of lawyers and even Judge B.
    Judge B....
    Nora’s eyes flew open as she remembered the rest of what Søren had said to her last night.
    There’s nothing you can do to help him...unless you became a lawyer or judge and forgot to tell me...
    No, she was no judge, but she did have a judge who worshipped the ground she walked on and the feet that walked on it. Still she couldn’t think of a bigger breach of protocol than to ask a client to do her a favor—a likely illegal favor.
    Kingsley would flay her himself if he found out. Then again, what Kingsley didn’t know didn’t hurt him...
    At eleven sharp Lance knocked on her door again.
    “Are you going to come in this time?” Nora asked when she found him on her front porch looking unnecessarily handsome. She was going to have to talk to him about being less attractive.
    “Can I trust you?”
    “No.”
    “Then no.” Lance took a step back on her porch.
    “Wait...ask the question again. I’ll get it right this time.”
    Lance laughed and shook his head. Instead of asking the question, he simply came inside the house.
    “So this is the house of a Dominatrix?” He glanced around her living room.
    “Were you expecting more whips and chains? Dungeon chic?”
    “I was, actually.”
    Nora plopped down on her couch in her cozy living room decorated with overstuffed furniture and bookcases.
    “Those are all upstairs in the closet. And there’s some stuff in the office, but only because I keep my toy bag in there.”
    “You live alone?”
    Lance examined her bookcase. She wondered if they’d read any of the same books.
    “I do. I’m trying to imagine who could put up with me as a roommate. Maybe Job. I’d need someone patient.”
    “Job?”
    “The dude in the Bible with all the problems who just sat there and took it? ‘The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away—blessed be the name of the Lord’? That guy?”
    “Interesting. Never had a