He envied Nora.
10
Nora checked the time on the clock in her bedroom and made a quick mental calculation. Sunset hit at about nine o’clock and it was just six. She still had three hours to kill before Michael’s first session. She didn’t want to have sex with Griffin first. Knowing him, he’d wear her out and she wouldn’t have as much to give Michael. Too wound up to write, she decided to do the next best thing.
Digging into her purse, she found her cell phone and hit number three on her speed dial. A slightly groggy voice answered after three rings.
“Nora, do I need to remind you that it’s midnight in England?” came Zach Easton’s sexy British accent over the line.
“Were you dreaming about me again?” she teased as she sat on the floor and stretched her legs out in a V.
“God, I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”
“Your fault for telling me you had a sex dream about me,” she said, leaning over to stretch her back. A few weeks ago, Zach had sounded a little odd on the phone when she’d called him one morning. He’d confessed he’d just woken up from an intensely sexual dream about her. They’d been back at her S&M club, The 8th Circle, and playing in her old dungeon. She never got it out of him exactly what they’d been doing, but it must have been pretty steamy for him to tell her he needed a good five minutes alone before they could finish their conversation.
“I shall never do it again, I assure you,” Zach groused but Nora heard the smile in his voice.
Nora flipped over and raised her hips off the ground.
“I had this dream the other night that I was eating oysters at Sacred Heart, and Søren rode in on a unicorn. I thought it meant something, but when I told him about it, he said I wasn’t allowed to eat Cajun food before bed anymore. That man has no respect for Jungian archetypes.”
Zach sighed. “Yes, well, Gracie and I have the same problem.”
“Speaking of your wife, where is she? I want to ask her how to say ‘Roughly from behind’ in Welsh.”
“Gracie’s in the bathroom taking her temperature.”
“She has to do that in the bathroom?”
Zach coughed. Nora understood.
“Oh…I see. Also, now I’m wondering if they make butt plugs with built-in thermometers. You know, for when you might have a slight fever and the urge for anal penetration.”
“Your mind is both fascinating and repulsive,” Zach said.
“Thank you. I try. I’m guessing you two are still attempting to conceive?”
“Hence the constant temperature taking.”
“Try dominating Grace in bed.” Nora lowered her hips to the floor and twisted her knees to the side.
“Is kink your answer for everything, Eleanor?”
Nora winced at the use of her birth name. Retaliation was in order.
“No, Zechariah. It’s just the answer for everything sexual. For male dominants, kink causes a testosterone surge. That can up your sperm count. For female submissives, kink can cause the body to release opiate-like hormones. She relaxes deeply. Makes conceiving easier when you’re less stressed. There is a method to my madness. Tie her up. Knock her up. Doctor’s orders.”
“You may very well be my new favorite doctor.”
“You’re welcome. You can borrow my speculum. Borrow only. You have to give it back.” Nora twisted her legs to the other side and let out a small grunt of pain-pleasure as her back loudly popped.
“Are you having sex right now?” he asked in response to the sound.
“Nope. Just doing some pre-sex stretching,” she said, turning over into a yoga downward-dog position. “I’m f**king a teenager tonight. Gotta be prepared.”
“Fucking a teenager?” Zach asked, laughing. “Good to hear both you and Wesley have moved on.”
At the mention of Wesley’s name, Nora dropped the phone and collapsed onto her side.
She heard Zach saying her name and she grabbed the phone off the floor.
“Nora? Everything all right?” Zach asked.
“What did you say about Wesley?” she asked, her hands almost shaking. “Do you talk to him?”
She heard Zach exhale heavily. “I’m sorry. I’m still half-asleep. I shouldn’t have said anything. Yes, Wesley and I exchange emails on occasion. He said you won’t answer his calls so he emails me to check on you.”
Nora pulled herself off the floor and sat on the edge of her bed.
“You still talk to Wesley,” she repeated, stunned by the news. It never once occurred to her that Zach and Wesley would stay in touch.
“Just an email every few weeks,” Zach said. “He worries about you.”
“Why?” she asked, her heart pounding against her rib cage.
“Why? Oh, I don’t know. You’re sleeping with a sadist?”
“Søren’s the best man on the face of the earth,” Nora said sharply.
“You say that and I want to believe you,” Zach said. “And if any woman on the face of the earth can handle being with such a man, it’s you. But Wesley’s a teenage boy and rather romantically inclined. He simply sees Søren as dangerous and violent.”
Closing her eyes, Nora pictured Wesley’s face the last time she saw it. His beautiful golden-brown eyes had turned bloodred with unshed tears. His lips that she’d kissed too few times had gone bloodless. Her handsome, sweet-faced boy disappeared and was replaced by a broken man.