She bought the house.

Therefore Mistress Nora she would remain until the house was paid off. Unless Kingsley fired her, of course. So far the silent treatment seemed to be the extent of her punishment, but that could change with the very next phone call from Kingsley—if it ever came.

She poured a cup of coffee and carried it into her office. She sat down at her computer and tried to work on her new book. When the words didn’t come she gave up and tried writing something completely different.

She was going back to Him.

Nora stared at the words. Where had that come from?

She kept writing just to see where this was going.

* * *

She drove to His house and found Him at His piano. He was playing Beethoven—a good sign. It meant He’d been thinking of her.

“Why did you come here, Little One?” He asked, closing the fallboard over the keys.

“I came to give you a gift,” she said. “Sir.”

“Did you?”

“Hold out your hand. Close your eyes.”

“I don’t play this game,” He said.

“Trust me, please. You can’t win this game if you don’t play it.”

He smiled. “Just once, then. For you.”

He closed His eyes and held out His hand. She laid her white collar on His palm.

“Open your eyes,” she said.

He opened them and saw the collar in His hand.

“I give up. I surrender.”

At first He did nothing but gaze upon her as if He’d never seen her before. Then a smile spread across a face so handsome it was hard to believe it belonged to a mortal human. He unbuckled the collar with dexterous fingers and raised it to her neck. Instinctively she pulled back, skittish as an unbroken horse afraid of the bridle.

“Trust me,” He whispered. “Please.”

She closed her eyes and let Him place the collar onto her neck. He locked it at the back. There it was. She was His again. That hadn’t hurt too much, had it?

“Tell me I own you,” He whispered in her ear.

“You own me, sir.”

“Tell me your heart and your body are mine to do with whatever I please.”

“I am yours, heart and body. Do with me whatever you please, sir.”

“Tell me you love me.”

“I love you, sir.”

“I love you, too...Nora.”

Her eyes flew open. He had called her Nora.

“Sir?”

“I know how much it hurt me to lose you. I wouldn’t ask you to lose you, either. You can be Nora with everyone else as long as you are Eleanor, my Little One, with me.”

“I can still...”

“Yes.”

“Even Kingsley?”

“Yes.”

“Simone? Sheridan?”

“If I can watch sometime,” He said with a wink.

“Every time.” She threw herself into His arms, and He gathered her to Him. “I didn’t think... I thought you’d make me give it all up.”

“I promised you everything, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did.” She looked at up Him.

“Now you know, Little One...when I make a promise, I keep it.”

* * *

Nora stared at the scene she’d just written. She highlighted it and was about to hit Delete when her hotline phone rang.

“Mistress Nora’s House of Ill Repute. How may I direct your cock?”

“You aren’t cute,” Kingsley said.

“I beg to differ. I’m fucking precious. Are you finally speaking to me again?”

“I am, but not because I want to.”

“Juliette finally wore you down, did she?” Nora asked, her hands shaking despite her jocular tone.

“She’s not happy with me when I’m not happy with you.”

“I knew I liked that woman for a reason.”

“Are you alone?” he asked.

“Sort of. Alone in my office.”

“You have company? Is it Talel?” Kingsley asked.

“I have company. It’s not Talel. Did you call to yell at me again?” she asked.

“Are you done sleeping with clients?” Kingsley asked.

“I didn’t sleep with a client,” Nora said for possibly the one hundredth time since their fight began. “Let’s review the facts of the case. Talel had a domme. He didn’t like her. He went looking for a new domme. He came to you. You booked him with me. I’d never met him until I walked into his hotel suite. Since he’d had a falling-out with his last domme he wanted to talk before we played. He’s handsome, he’s interesting, he’s a sheikh, which I didn’t even know actually existed outside romance novels...so of course I fucked him. But he didn’t pay me for it.”

“He paid me. He paid me two thousand dollars for one hour of your time. Paid up front.”

“I paid him back. Therefore net zero money was exchanged.”

“You could have at least charged him for the sex,” Kingsley said in a chiding tone. Was his anger finally starting to thaw?

“Don’t worry. I might not have charged him for kink or sex, but he did leave me a very good tip,” she said, peeking out the window blinds and looking at the car in her driveway, an inferno-red Aston Martin. “Do you forgive me?”

“I’m considering it.”

“I work all the time,” Nora said. “I needed a vacation.”

“And it had to be a vacation with the son of a billionaire who owns Middle Eastern oil fields—plural?”

“I liked him,” Nora said, smiling at the memories of her nights with Talel.

Three weeks ago he’d come to New York and made discreet inquiries with Kingsley about hiring a dominatrix to see to his personal submissive needs. Kingsley had sent her to his hotel suite, a suite that cost more a night than her entire monthly mortgage payment. She’d taken one look at him and known she couldn’t take his money. She hadn’t wanted Talel’s money. She’d wanted him. She’d beaten him and they had sex in his hotel suite afterward. The next day they were on his private plane to Jordan where they holed up in an even more luxurious hotel suite, more luxurious than anything America had to offer. She’d used him, abused him, beaten him, fucked him and let him cater to all her sexual needs and desires. They’d spent almost seven straight days in bed, coming up for air only to eat enough food to give them the energy to fuck again. Kingsley had been livid. She’d had sex with a client, a very wealthy client who stood to inherit billions as long as his father never learned about his sexual proclivities. When Nora came back to the city, Kingsley refused to see her or speak to her. When she thought of everything she’d done to Talel and everything he’d done to her, she considered it a small price to pay.

“I liked him, too,” Kingsley said. “I especially liked his bank balance.”

“You saw dollar signs when you looked at him. I saw a man. I wanted him. I took him. Now he’s gone home and he won’t be visiting again for a good long while. So either forgive me or you fire me. I’m done being punished by you for doing something you would have done in my boots.”

Kingsley didn’t say anything at first. She waited, not speaking, letting him mull it over.

“You left and I didn’t know where you’d gone,” Kingsley finally said.

“Is that why you were so angry at me?”

“It was part of it. I don’t like having to say ‘I don’t know’ when le prêtre asks me where you are.”

“I’m allowed to have a personal life, aren’t I? Or do I need you to sign a permission slip for me every time I want to have sex?”

“I would prefer to sign a permission slip,” Kingsley said.

Nora laughed softly. “So you forgive me?”

“If I must. And I must. Juliette’s furious at me for not talking to you. I had to sleep in the guest room with the dogs last night. She locked me out of my own bedroom.”

“Tell Juliette I owe her lunch. So are we good? You and me? King and queen back together?”

“Yes,” he said. “But don’t do it again. If your priest finds out I sent you to have sex with a client, I’m a dead man. I’m not a pimp. You fuck on your own time. Not company time. You do it one more time, and I will find a new queen.”