What do you think?
Rate this book


70 pages, ebook
First published July 28, 2016






“Is that an order?”
“Not an order. A humble request. Let me prove to you I’m worthy of your trust and your submission.”
“I know you’re drowning ,” he said. “I’m the reason you’re here, the reason you’re struggling. Why do you think I want you to struggle?”
“Because you’re a sadist?”
“Because you need to learn how to depend on me again, to need me again.”
“You do realize Kingsley is forty-five, yes?”
“I told them,” Nora said.
“Age is only a number,” Angie said.
“So is sixty-nine,”


“All is fair in love and sadism, he said.”
“He looked so handsome and relaxed with the sun in his hair and the smile on his face, that it caused Nora real physical pain not to be able to touch him.”
“I would never want you to be weak. It’s a fool’s errand.”

“You have to give yourself to me freely. I’m not going to throw you a lifeline until you ask for it.”

“I know you’re drowning,” he said. “I’m the reason you’re here, the reason you’re struggling. Why do you think I want you to struggle?”
“Because you’re a sadist?”
“Because you need to learn how to depend on me again, to need me again.”
...
“I know. I know it’s hard to give that up and let someone else take care of you. When you were mine before, I took care of you. If you let me, I’ll do again. And this time we’ll get it right. If you let me. And that’s nothing I can order you to do. You have to give yourself to me freely. I’m not going to throw you a lifeline until you ask for it. If you want to drown, that’s your choice. But if you want my help—”
“Fine. Help me, please,”
“No safe word can protect the heart,” Søren said. “If there was such a word I would have used it long ago, and then I would have given it to you.”
...
“You laugh as hard as you cry. And you give pain as beautifully as you take it. And when you love, you love harder than anyone I have ever known so it’s no surprise you hurt this much.”
“It hurts more than when I left you,” she said. “Somehow I always knew I’d come back to you. This feels so…so final. Like there’s no going back.”

“You’re going to make me a promise—a promise that you’ll always come back to me,” he said.
Nora shrugged. “Easy. Especially since I don’t plan on ever leaving you again.”
“But if you do, you will come back?” He met her eyes. He wasn’t joking. He wasn’t teasing. He was serious.
“Yes, Søren, my Sir, owner of my heart, master of my body, and keeper of my soul—I promise that I will always come back to you.”
“It has to be something nice? Could it be something naughty?”
“Aren’t those words synonymous in your vocabulary?”
“Trade, sir?”
“Yes. I’ll do something nice for you and you’ll do something nice for me.”
“Something nice?” she asked.
“Yes, something nice.”
“No offense , sir, but niceness really isn’t your strong suit.”
“I’m still the same person I was then. And I love you even more than I did then. You can trust me to help you. Try me.”
“Is that an order?”
“Not an order. A humble request. Let me prove to you I’m worthy of your trust and your submission.”
“You laugh as hard as you cry. And you give pain as beautifully as you take it. And when you love, you love harder than anyone I have ever known so it’s no surprise you hurt this much.”
“You were no saint either,” she said. “Remember that night when you and Kingsley got so drunk you ended up on the roof of the rectory.”
“No,” he said. “But only because I was too drunk to remember it.”
An old dork with a motorcycle much cooler than he was. That’s how Amelia saw Søren. That was hilarious. She couldn’t wait to tell him he was a dork and an old dork at that. Even better, she couldn’t wait to tell Kingsley.
“Kingsley, before you say anything that could land you or me in jail, you should know you’re on speaker phone with your fan club,” Nora said. “Did you know you had a fan club?”
“Non,” he said. “But I’m not surprised.”
No safe word can protect the heart.
All is fair in love and sadism.





