Thorny positioned himself at the entrance of her body and paused long enough to pick up the camera.
“Now what are you doing, Mister Thorny?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“This camera has a video setting. Let’s make some porn.” He aimed the camera down and eased inside her. Nora’s head fell back as he entered her completely. She’d been wet and wanting him for hours.
“Feel good?” Thorny asked as he moved in her with long sure stokes.
“So good...”
“You like being fucked, don’t you?”
“Who doesn’t?”
Thorny chuckled softly. “Good answer to a stupid question.”
“I usually do the fucking,” she said. “Nice to let someone else be in charge every now and then.”
“Who do you fuck?” Thorny asked as he moved the camera closer to her face and then back to their joined bodies.
“I fucked a college sophomore recently. Last week.”
“Boy or girl?”
“Boy.”
“Ever fuck an underage boy?”
“Yes.”
“Do you ever fuck girls?”
“I have. I do.”
“Client?”
“One is. The only client I fuck. I mean, other than you,” she said, smiling up at him. A lie. She fucked Kingsley, too, but Thorny didn’t need to know that.
“Do you fuck her with her strap-on?”
“Sometimes,” Nora said. “Sometimes a vibrator. Sometimes just my fingers. Sometimes I tie her up and have men fuck her while I supervise.”
“I shouldn’t ask these questions,” Thorny said.
“It’s not a breach of confidentiality if I don’t tell you who the client is.” She put her hands behind her head and relaxed as Thorny used his free hand to unbutton her blouse, unhook her bra in the front and bare her breasts.
“No, I mean I’m going to come immediately if you don’t stop talking about fucking girls.”
“Do you always talk this much when you fuck?”
“I do when I’m trying to keep myself from coming. I want to stay hard inside you for a very long time.”
“We could talk about the men I fuck.”
“Boring.”
Nora laughed. “Not to me...”
“Fine,” Thorny said, setting the camera on the nightstand and angling it to record the two of them together. “Who’s the most interesting person you ever fucked? I mean, other than the Catholic priest. You are still fucking him, aren’t you?”
“Occasionally. What about you? Who’s the most interesting person you’ve fucked?”
“A green-eyed dominatrix switch with the sexiest tits on the planet.”
Thorny bent low and sucked her nipples again. Her breasts felt heavy and full in his hands, sensitive in his mouth. She started to put her arms around him but he stopped her, grabbing her wrists and pushing them into the bed by her head.
“Told you—I’m in charge,” Thorny said. “I better tie your hands down. Otherwise you’re going to keep trying to take over.”
“Switches are known to do that,” she admitted.
Thorny pulled out of her and grabbed the discarded wrist cuffs off the floor. He found a snap hook in her toy bag, and Nora allowed Thorny to put the cuffs on her wrists and hook her to one of the metal slats.
“There. That’s better.” He mounted her again and entered her, pausing once he’d fully penetrated her to adjust the camera. “How does my cock feel in you?”
“Wonderful. You should keep it in me all night, Mister Thorny. Or is that not part of the Boyfriend Experience?”
“Fucking you all night is part of the Boyfriend Experience. If you want me to fuck you only once and then fall asleep five seconds after, that’s the Husband Experience.”
Thorny lowered himself onto her and kissed her mouth, hard and deep, before sitting up on his knees again between her thighs. Her body temperature rose inside and out. Thorny bore down on her, his hands on her waist, working her body up and down on his cock. No wonder women paid him thousands for a night with him. They paid him for the same reason they paid their hairstylists hundreds of dollars for a cut and color and their interior decorators thousands of dollars to give their home panache—they knew they deserved the best and they were more than happy to pay to get it. And Thorny was the best money could buy.
Thorny grasped her breasts in both hands and drove into her. The breath went out of her as he rammed into her almost cruelly.
“Yes...” She sighed.
“You give all the time,” he said, fucking her wildly. “Time to take.”
And she took it, every inch of him, hard and brutal, deep and punishing. The sex had turned to animal rutting where both of them were past the point of controlling what they did and said. Nora lifted her hips up and against him, digging her heels into the bed, so wet and open she felt fluid rushing out of her onto her thighs. And Thorny pounded her to the point of pain and beyond which was where she wanted to be. She felt her body rising off the bed, her head swimming, her vagina pulsing and clenching and contracting, and then the final explosion as every muscle quivered and every nerve fired. Her back bowed from the force of the orgasm and when she came down from the high she heard Thorny give a quiet grunt before he collapsed on top of her. She wrapped her legs around his back, needing to feel closer to him. He nuzzled her ear, gave her a few gentle kisses and unhooked her hands.
“So that was the Boyfriend Experience?” Nora sat up and winced. He’d fucked her so hard and deep she probably needed an hour or two before they went at it again. Not that she was complaining.
“That was...” Thorny paused and looked at the clock. “Shit.”
“What?”
“Pull yourself together. It’s almost time.”
“Time for what?” Nora asked as Thorny disposed of the condom and pulled his jeans on. He grabbed her hand and led her out of the bedroom.
“It’s almost nine. House is on.”
“What is on?”
“You don’t watch House? Who doesn’t watch House?”
“What’s House?”
“You like men who are arrogant imperious assholes, right?”
“Right,” she said.
“Trust me. You’ll love House.” He half pushed, half tossed her onto her sofa. He picked up her remote control and flipped through a few channels. The theme music had only just started. Thorny sat on the couch and hauled her into his arms. He put a pillow on his lap. She rested her head on it and him.
“Comfortable?” he asked.
“Very.” She was lying on her sofa curled up with her head in the lap of a male escort while a TV show that was apparently about the rudest doctor on earth played on her television. Thorny wore only jeans. She had on nothing but her panties and Thorny’s T-shirt she’d thrown on. And she liked it.
“By the way,” Thorny said as the show went to commercial, “this right now...this is the Boyfriend Experience.”
Nora smiled up at him.
“I need a boyfriend.”
30
A Thorny Problem
THORNY SPENT THE NIGHT.
Not only did he spend the night he stayed the next morning and helped her cook breakfast. Together they stripped the stained sheets off the bed and Thorny helped her put on fresh ones. They took separate showers and since yesterday’s summer storm had broken the heat wave, they went for a walk in her neighborhood. She showed him all her favorite houses, all her favorite haunts. The coffee shop where she’d written her last book, the little historic library where she did most of her research, the pond where she went to feed the ducks when she’d worked so much the bread she’d bought had gone stale before she could eat it.
Arm in arm they walked back to her house. She knew Thorny would leave her soon. His own life waited for him back in the city, but he seemed in no hurry. Was this still part of the Boyfriend Experience? Or did he really want to be with her?
“So...” he said as they turned the corn
er onto her street. “Do I get to see you again?”
“You get to... Fuck.”
“That goes without saying.”
“No. I mean, fuck.” She pointed at a car in her driveway, a silver Rolls-Royce. “Kingsley is here.”
“Oh, fuck,” he said.
“Can you give us a few minutes? I’ll get rid of him,” she said.
“Half an hour? You’ll be okay?”
“I’m Mistress Fucking Nora, right?” she said, forcing a smile. “I’m always okay.”
He kissed her on the cheek and set off walking. Nora steeled herself for whatever it was that brought Kingsley over to her house. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t good. Kingsley hated leaving the city for the “wilderness,” as he called Connecticut, and only did so under duress.
“King?” she called out as she shut the front door behind her. “You here?”
“In your bedroom, Maîtresse,” he called back. “S’il vous plait.”
Nora sighed and marched upstairs. As she neared her bedroom she heard someone speaking. Her.
“Ever fuck an underage boy?”
“Yes.”
“Do you ever fuck girls?”
“I have. I do.”
“Client?”
“One is. The only client I fuck. I mean, other than you...”
Nora rushed into her bedroom and ripped the camera out of Kingsley’s hand.
Then she slapped him so hard her hand rang like a bell and five finger marks glowed bright red on his olive skin. His eyes blazed momentarily with fury as he raised his hand to his cheek and faced her.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
“You didn’t answer your phone,” Kingsley said.
“That’s why you’re here? That’s why you’re in my house without invitation going through my personal things? All without my consent?”
“You gave me the key to your house.”
“For emergencies. Not so you can come in and go through my stuff.” She hit the button and erased the tape before Kingsley could look at another single frame of it.
“When you fuck a client it’s my business.”
“I did not fuck a client.”
“Alec Thornberry, aka Thorny, paid me one thousand dollars for one hour of your time. And on that tape you call him your client.”
“That was a joke and it doesn’t matter. You should never have looked at that.”
“I’ve seen you fucking before, remember?”
“Fine. I’ll put a camera in your bedroom and secretly film you and Juliette. How much would she like that?”
“That’s entirely different.”
“Right. Because you respect Juliette and you clearly have no respect for me.”
“This has nothing to do with respect. I can’t trust you with your clients anymore. Not after Talel. And certainly not after this.”
“I had no appointments after Thorny, and I didn’t have to work this morning. I have a personal connection with Thorny that made it awkward to take money from him.”
“You gave him pity sex because he has a brain tumor?”
“It’s not a— Kingsley.” She pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes. She almost never had headaches but it felt as if she were about to have an aneurysm herself. She took two deep breaths and met Kingsley’s eyes. “I like Thorny.”
“I can tell,” he said. “You promised me you’d never sleep with a client again.”
“He canceled his session with me.”
“So you could fuck him with a clear conscience?”
“I decide who is and is not a client. I didn’t want him as a client. That is my right.”
“Fine. Fuck him then. But do you realize he could have taken that tape and blackmailed you with it? The Red Queen getting fucked by a notorious male escort while admitting she fucks her clients.” Kingsley pointed at the camera. “Do you mention Søren on the tape?”
“Not by name.”
“So you did?”
“I’m not having this conversation with you. I know you think you’re protecting me. I know you think this is your job. But you don’t seem to realize what a gross violation of my privacy this is. I am disgusted with you right now. You could have at least waited until I came home and asked me what was on the tape. I would have told you.”
“No, you wouldn’t have. You don’t even answer the phone when I call you, and I’ve called you two dozen times in the past twelve hours.”
“I turned off my phone since it was my night off, and I didn’t want to be interrupted because I was on a date.”
“A date? You don’t date.”
“Of course I don’t date. When I try to date anybody, you and this fucking job get in the way of it. I have to fuck clients because they’re the only men I ever see.”
“You want more free time?”
“I’d love it,” she said.
“Fine. You’re fired.”
Nora was speechless.
For all of one second.
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck me all you want. I’m calling Detective Cooper on your friend Thorny.”
“You’re having Thorny arrested? By one of my own clients?”
“I am.”
“I spent the night with him so you’re having him arrested? You can’t punish Thorny to punish me.”
“If it’s the only way I can punish you, then so be it.”
“You’re as sanctimonious as Søren, and he gets paid to be holier-than-thou. Have you forgotten you have no room to talk? Who have you not fucked in this city? Or blackmailed for that matter? At least what Thorny does is consensual. You have fucked many a person over without asking permission first.”
“I swore to Søren I would protect you. You’re not making that job very easy, Maîtresse.”
“You fired me and you’re having Thorny arrested and for no reason other than I slept with him without asking your permission first. Kingsley, you are out of control. You came into my house without permission and violated my privacy and Thorny’s in a way that is borderline unforgivable. I love you. You are now and always my King and I would step in front of a bullet for you. But if you ever do anything like this again, it won’t be Søren you’ll have to worry about. I will castrate you and hang your balls on the rearview mirror of my Aston Martin and take everyone in the tri-state area for a ride. Do you understand that?”
Kingsley lifted his chin and looked into her eyes.
“Do you even care why I came over here?” he asked. “Do you want to know why I called you twenty times?”
“Do I?” she asked, caring but not wanting to, not when Kingsley was acting like a madman.
“Our priest takes his Final Vows in a few days.”
“I know.”
“He asked me to go,” Kingsley said.
“He asked me to go, too. Is that why you freaked out? Because he’s taking Final Vows?”
“No, it’s not,” he said, biting off the words. “I don’t want him staying in the church but that’s the least of our worries now.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s leaving after he takes his vows.”
“Leaving? What do you mean he’s leaving?”
“He came by yesterday and asked me if I would send someone to pick up his steamer trunk. I asked him why. He told me he’s been offered a new church assignment, helping troubled youth who live on the streets.”
“What youth?” Nora asked. “What streets?’
“The troubled youth of Syria. Syria—one of the most dangerous countries in the world. A few days after he takes his Final Vows he’s going. That’s why he wants us there. Because it’s the last time we might ever see him.”
“No.” She raised her hands as if to push away his words. “No way. He paid them a massive amount of his father’s money so they’d keep him at Sacred Heart. He would never let them send him away.”
“He’s not letting them send him away. He volunteered,” Kingsley said. �
��He’s leaving, and he’s not coming back.”
Nora’s legs couldn’t support her anymore. Her knees shook, her heart pounded, her head swam and she sat down on the ottoman by the foot of the armchair.
“He’s leaving us,” she said, looking up at Kingsley.
“I suppose it’s only fair considering you and I both left him.”
“He wouldn’t leave us only to punish us. He might leave a week or two to punish us but not...not forever.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Kingsley said.
“He said...”
“What? What did he say?”
“I asked him if things would change if he took his Final Vows,” Nora said. “He said yes, he’d keep his vow of chastity from now on. I never thought... I never thought he’d leave me. Us.” She looked at Kingsley, her hand over her mouth. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Possibly for the same reason you didn’t tell him when you left for a year without a word to either of us.”
Nora winced but didn’t defend herself. She had no defense.
“What do we do?” she asked. “How do we make him stay?”
“I don’t think we can. I’m sending someone to his house Sunday evening to pick up the trunk.”
The steamer trunk stood at the foot of Søren’s bed. Underneath one layer of innocent-looking linens and quilts was a black leather toy bag that contained the finest collection of canes, whips, floggers and spreader bars in Connecticut. The second-finest collection was in her closet upstairs.
“He’ll go nuts without someone around to play with,” Nora said. “Even when he was in seminary he had his friend Magdalena.”
“I imagine he’ll be going on a lot of long runs. Probably dodging bullets the entire time.”
“I’ll stop him from going,” Nora said, standing up. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Bonne chance. I already tried every argument I could think of to talk him out of it. Unless you’re willing to go back to him...”
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