“It’s a palace compared to the house I grew up in. Do you like it here?”
Michael shrugged. “Things aren’t great with Mom,” he said. “She’ll probably be glad when I start college.”
“Where are you going?”
“Yorke. Got a full ride. Faxed in my scholarship acceptance letter this morning.”
“Yorke? Good school. My old roommate used to go there. Anyway,” she said and seemed to brush off a sudden sadness, “Søren said this summer might be our last chance to help you. Help you—what did he mean by that?”
Michael didn’t answer at first. But everything within him told him Nora could be trusted. That not only could he trust her but he should trust her.
He leaned back in the seat and shut the car off.
“Two weeks ago … I almost hooked up with someone I met on the web.”
“A dominatrix?” Nora asked.
Michael nodded and said nothing.
“Michael, do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”
“I know, I know. Father S gave me hell for it too. I was just …”
“What, Angel?”
“Lonely. For you.”
Nora reached out and touched his face. His heart fluttered in his chest as her gentle fingers traced the line of his lips, the curve of his jaw.
“Now you don’t have to be lonely anymore. You’ll get me the whole summer. Søren thinks you’re ready to be trained. I think so too.”
“Trained?”
“To be a submissive.” Nora let her hand drop from his face. She got out of the car and Michael followed suit.
“I thought I was …” Michael glanced around to make sure none of his neighbors were out. He’d die if anybody found out what he was. “I thought I was a submissive.”
Nora leaned back against her car and crossed her shapely legs at the ankles.
“Søren trained me for two years before he ever hit me or fucked me the first time, kid. Subs have to be as well trained as dominants if you’re going to do it right and not get hurt.”
“I want to get hurt.”
“Different kind of hurt.”
Michael hazarded a smile.
“Michael,” Nora began and all the mirth had left her voice, “being a sub is hard. Being a male sub is even harder. A woman says she wants to be tied up, everybody thinks it’s sexy. A man says that and everybody thinks—”
“He’s a fag,” Michael finished for her. “At least that’s what my dad thinks. Says I need therapy for my fetish.”
“Forget what your dad thinks. I’ll teach you how to be the best damn sub in the Underground. And to quote the wise and powerful Kingsley on the subject of fetishes,” Nora began and then slipped into an exaggerated but sexy French accent, “‘Fetishes … they’re the pet you feed or the beast that eats you. We’ll feed your beast until it’s tamed. Oui?’”
Michael laughed. Feeding that beast sounded like a great idea to him.
“Oui.”
“Good. So you’re in?”
“I’ve been dreaming about this for … ever. If you and Father S think I’m ready—”
“That doesn’t matter. Do you think you’re ready?”
Was he ready? God, for Nora Sutherlin he’d been born ready. Michael nodded. “I’m in.”
“Great. Now how do we get you out of Dodge without your mom calling the cops?”
Michael scoffed. “You don’t know my mom. She’ll be relieved if I disappeared for a few months. Or forever.”
Nora pushed her sunglasses on top of her head. Empathy shone in her green eyes.
“I’m sure she loves you, Angel. If she doesn’t come around, you’ve always got us. I got in trouble when I was fifteen—big trouble. My mom totally washed her hands of me. Our priest practically raised me after that. How do you think I turned out?”
“Amazing,” he said, and Nora curtsied.
“Your mom will come around, maybe. Hell, maybe my mom will eventually come around.”
Michael hoped it was true. He missed his mom. They lived under the same roof but they existed in two different worlds.
“I’ll just tell her I got a summer job upstate. I was gone most of last summer working as a camp counselor.”
Nora mulled it over.
“When’s graduation?” she asked. “You have to be there if you’re valedictorian, right?”
“It’s Wednesday night. I can skip though. I’m not valedictorian. I flunked AP physics.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Michael.”
“I’m not. I flunked it on purpose.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t want to give the speech.”
He expected Nora to chew him out for his willful stupidity. Instead she just laughed.
“I like your style. Look, don’t skip graduation. Even I went to mine. I’ll send a car for you Thursday morning.” She pulled a pen and notebook from her purse. “Here. This is my email address. Keep in touch, okay? Ask me anything.”
Michael took the sheet of paper with subtly trembling fingers.
She traded the sheet of paper for her keys.
“Nora?” Michael said as she opened her car door.
“What, Angel?”
Michael looked down at the paper in his hands.
“Thank you.”
She smiled at him. “You’re welcome.”
“Father S … it’s going to be okay with him? He’s going to fix it, right?”
“He has his ways of getting anyone to bend to his will. If he doesn’t want to be bishop, he’ll find a way out of it.”
Michael nodded, wanting to believe her. He hated the thought that Nora and Father S would get in trouble just for being in love with each other.
“You really
