"I would like to punch you in the face."

"It's Lewis Carroll. I found this in an antique bookstore in Rome."

"I hate it. I want to set it on fire."

"It's Through the Looking-Gla.s.s. I know how partial you are to the Jabberwocky."

"You are the Jabberwocky, you monster."

"It's a long book. Get comfortable. I'll read."

"And I'll murder you in my mind."

Eleanor entertained a few dozen violent fantasies of retribution on S0ren. He'd spanked her, aroused her, denied her an o.r.g.a.s.m and then tied her to the bed so she couldn't touch herself. And now he blithely ignored her fury as he flipped open the pages of the book and began to read.

"'One thing was certain,'" he began, "'that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it-it was the black kitten's fault entirely.'"

Trapped, Eleanor could do nothing but lie there and listen as S0ren read the story to her. Soon she'd lost herself in the story, in the moment, in the ludicrous pleasure of being almost twenty and having a bedtime story read to her. She forgot about the ropes on her wrists and the need in her stomach. After an hour she even forgot she'd planned to kill S0ren with a pickax the second he untied her.

He read to her until Eleanor yawned and her eyelids fluttered. She wanted to stay awake and keep listening but she fought a losing battle against her need to sleep. S0ren closed the book and sat it on the bedside table.

"Are you asleep, Little One?" S0ren asked.

She felt him untying her hands. Once free of the ropes he gently chafed her wrists.

"Almost, sir."

S0ren gathered her in his arms and she fell against his chest.

"I love that book." She sighed.

"I know you do. It's one of my favorites, too."

"I love you, too, sir. Even when I want to kill you with a pickax."

"That is all I can ask." He bent and kissed her on the forehead, the cheek. "Before you sleep, there's one thing we need to talk about."

"If it's not about us having s.e.x, I'm going to sleep right now."

"Then wake up."

Eleanor's eyes flew open and she sat up straight.

"When? How soon? Tonight?"

"When I decide, I will tell you." She had the face-punching fantasy again. Of course he would decide when. "But you'll be twenty soon. Not a teenager anymore. You'll need to be ready."

"I'll go to the school clinic and go on birth control."

"Good girl."

Eleanor grinned at the irony of a Catholic priest telling her to start birth control.

"You really are the weirdest priest on earth."

"Little One," S0ren said, "you don't even know the half of it."

She should have expected that.

"Now go to sleep," he ordered. "You need sleep to recover from what you've been through."

"Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?"

"That I can do," he said and sat on the bed, his back against the headboard. She lowered her head and rested it on his stomach. Never before had she felt so loved, so adored, so special and so cherished as she did at this moment. She'd spent the past week dating Wyatt. She'd spent last night fooling around with a stranger. S0ren had not only forgiven her, but he'd also absolved and then punished her in ways even s.e.xier than s.e.x. This morning she'd woken up in a hospital bed. Tonight she would fall asleep in S0ren's arms, the slow steady rhythm of his heart beating against her ear.

"Will you tell me another bedtime story?" she asked.

"I can. What story would you like?"

"A love story."

"I think I can provide that." He wrapped both arms around her and gently rubbed her back.

"Once upon a time," he began, "there was a beautiful girl named Eleanor who had secrets she wanted to keep. Eleanor had pulled her sleeves down over her hands. She was ashamed of the burns on her wrist and feared someone would see them and judge her for them. Then the time came for this girl to take communion. As she reached for the cup, her sleeve slipped back, and her priest saw what she was."

"What was she?" Eleanor asked.

S0ren kissed her on the top of her head and whispered.

"She was mine."

30.

Eleanor SOMETHING TICKLED ELEANOR'S NOSE. SHE SWIPED at it without opening her eyes. She flipped over in bed and pressed into her pillow. Her pillow didn't feel like her pillow, however. Instead of soft, it felt hard. Very hard.

"Bonne anniversaire," a voice whispered in her ear.

Her eyes flew open and Eleanor sat up in bed. Kingsley lay stretched out on his side next to her on her narrow dorm bed, a white rose in his fingers. He tickled her nose with it again and she batted it away.

"King, what the f.u.c.k? How did you get in here?"

She pulled the covers up to her chest. She'd gone to bed in a tank top and panties and nothing else.

"Your roommate let me in."

"Great. So my old roommate sees me getting kissed and calls the rape squad. My new roommate sends you an engraved invitation to jump in bed with me while I'm unconscious."

"It wasn't engraved."

"What time is it?"

"Seven."

"Seven? You're up at seven in the morning?"

"Up? I haven't been to bed yet. Not for sleeping anyway."

"Nice." She grabbed a ponytail holder off her nightstand and tried to tame her hair. "Are you going to tell me what you're doing here?"

"I brought gifts."

"Gifts?"

"Oui." Kingsley pointed to a chair piled high with gifts.

"All for me?"

"Pour toi."

As Eleanor reached out for the boxes, Kingsley grabbed her and pulled her across his lap. In shock she screamed and squirmed. Kingsley subdued her quickly and spanked her.

"This is the best part of birthdays. Stop fighting me, brat."

The word brat made her freeze immediately. She wasn't sure why except she had the sinking feeling she liked being called brat by Kingsley. As soon as her struggle ceased, he gave her twenty vicious swats to the bottom.

"Twenty," Kingsley said and gave her the last and hardest spank. She yelped and her bedroom door flew open. April, her buxom R.A., looked like she'd just crawled out of bed. She had nothing on but a bathrobe barely closed over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"Elle, you okay? I heard screaming."

Eleanor got up on her hands and knees.

"She's fine," Kingsley said, pulling Eleanor back down onto his lap. "Birthday spankings."

April looked hard at Kingsley and ran a hand through her disheveled hair.

"It's my birthday, too," April said to Kingsley.

"April, get out," Eleanor ordered.

"I'm out." April closed the door behind her.

"Are you done?" Eleanor looked over her shoulder at Kingsley.

"Non." He spanked her one more time. "One to grow on."

"I hate you almost as much as I hate S0ren."

"You won't hate me after you open your cadeaux."

Wincing, she sat back on her bed with the presents in her lap. Sitting in cla.s.s all day was going to be a challenge.

"Are these from you?" She sorted through the boxes of varying size. The smallest one intrigued her most.

"Three from me. One from Sam."

"Sam?" Eleanor couldn't help but grin. "Sam got me a present?"

"She did. You can open that one first." He picked up a small flat box wrapped in pink paper with a black ribbon. She untied the ribbon and opened the lid.

"Oh, my G.o.d ..." She held a leather journal in her hand and a fancy fountain pen.

"Sam read one of your stories. She says you should write more."

"Tell her to watch out. I might write about you and Sam someday."

"A good story. Open that one."

She tore off the wrapping and found nothing but tissue paper inside the box. She kept digging until she found an envelope all the way at the bottom.

Inside the envelope she found a stack of hundred-dollar bills.

"Kingsley. I don't want your money."

"It's a birthday gift."

"How much is this?"

"Five thousand dollars."

Eleanor glared at him.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Shop. You need a new wardrobe."

"My clothes are fine."

"Your clothes are fine for school. Your clothes are fine for the vanilla world. Your clothes are not fine for the world you're about to enter. Sam will take you shopping tomorrow at a few authorized locations." He gave her a meaningful look. "Only buy white. We have a dress code."

"I don't like taking money I didn't earn. I only took Dad's insurance money because S0ren ordered me to."