TIFFANY REISZ
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First Published 2013 First Australian Paperback Edition 2013 ISBN 978 174356444 8 THE MISTRESS © 2013 by Tiffany Reisz Philippine Copyright 2013 Australian Copyright 2013 New Zealand Copyright 2013 Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilisation of this work in w hole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography xerography,, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of the publisher, publisher, Harlequin Enterprises, Locked Bag 7002, Chatswood D.C. N.S.W., Australia 2067. This book is sold subject to the condition that shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published in arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.. This is a work of ction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’ author’s s imagination or are used ctitiously ctitiously,, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Published by Harlequin SPICE® An imprint of Harlequin Enterprises Level 5 15 Help Street CHATSWOOD NSW 2067 AUSTRALIA ® and ™ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its corporate afliates and used by others under licence. Trademarks Trademarks marked with an ® are registered in Australia and in other countries. Contact
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And we know that all things work together for for good to them that love lo ve God, God , to them who are the called according to His purpose. —Romans 8:28
The lady or the tiger? —Fran —F rank k Stockton
Part One
CAPTURE
1 THE QUEEN
W
hen Nora Nora came to she was fifteen fi fteen years old again. She had to be. be. What else could explain expla in the cold, industrial industr ial chair chai r she sat in, the unforgiv unforgiving ing metal of the handcuffs handcuff s on her wrists and the terror in her heart? Inside her aching and addled mind, Eleanor Schreiber opened her eyes and raised her head. Across from her in the interrogation room at the police station sat the new priest at Sacred Heart—3:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning and here he was before her, a mere twenty-nine years old in the face but with eyes ancient enough they’d probably seen Christ in the f lesh. She kind of hoped he had. She’d always wondered wondered how tall Jesus was. The priest—Father Stearns Stear ns to the church but Søren Søren to her— said nothing. He merely merely stared at her with a little l ittle smile smi le lurking on his lips. l ips. At least someone someone was enjoying her misery. m isery. Where was her father? f ather? Her dad should be here now. now. She needed her father, fat her, not her Father. Her dad was the reason she’d ended up
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arrested in Manhatt M anhattan an in the hours before dawn. But no, no, she only had her priest and the desire to wipe the smile off that perfect face of his. “So I’ve been meaning to ask you…” She decided to take control of the moment and be the first to break the silence. “Are you one of those priests who fucks the kids in the congregation?” Whatever reaction she’d hoped for from her priest, she didn’ did n’tt get it. “No.” Eleanor took a deep breath and exhaled heavily through her nose. “Too bad.” “Eleanor, perhaps we should discuss di scuss the predicament predica ment you’ you’re re in at the moment.” “I’m in a real pickle.” She nodded, hoping to annoy him. A useless plan. They’d met twice before tonight and she’d done her her damnedest dam nedest to get under his skin both times. t imes. No dice. He’d treated her with kindness and respect both times. She wasn’t wasn’t used to that. “You “Y ou were arrested arrest ed on suspicion of grand g rand theft t heft auto. Supposedly five luxury vehicles with a combined value of over a quarter of a million mi llion dollars have disappeared disappeared from Manhattan Manhatt an tonight. You wouldn’t wouldn’t know k now anything anyth ing about that, would you you?” ?” “I take the fifth. That’s what I’m supposed to say, right?” “To “T o the court, cour t, yes. To To me, you will wil l tell tel l the truth t ruth always.” “I don’t think you want to know the truth about me, Søren,” she said, her voice not much more than a whisper. She wasn’t stupid. She only had to look at him to know that he and she had nothin nothing g in common. com mon. He looked looked liked li ked money, money, talked tal ked like money money. He had the whitest fingerna f ingernails ils she she’d ’d ever seen and hands that belonged on a statue or something. All of him looked like a work of art—his hands, ha nds, his face f ace and lips,
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his height and beauty beaut y… . And here she was, wa s, chipped black nail na il polish, wet from from the rain she’d been been arrested in, hair hai r falling fal ling in lank waves into her face, her school uniform a sodden mess, no money money, no hope, and her whole whole life a fucking f ucking train t rain wreck. “There is i s nothing nothi ng I don’t don’t want to know k now about you,” you,” Søren said, and seemed to mean it. “And I assure you, nothing you tell me will shock or disgust me. Nothing will make me changee my mind chang m ind about you.” you.” “Change your mind? You’ve already made up your mind about me? What’s the verdict?” “The verdict is simply this—I am willing and capable of helping you out of this th is mess you you’v ’vee gotten gott en yourself into. into.” ” “Can we call it a ‘pickle’? Pickle sounds less scary than mess.” “It’ss a disaster, “It’ di saster, young lady lad y. You You could easily easi ly spend years year s in juvenile detention for what you did tonight. ton ight. One of the cars ca rs you stole belonged belonged to someone impor importa tant nt and inf luentia luential, l, and he’s apparently determined that you don’t see sunlight until age twenty-one. Keeping you out of juvenile detention will take a great deal of doing on my part. Blessedly, I have some connections. Or, more accurately, I have someone who has connections. The time ti me and expense will wi ll be considerable, consider able,” ” he said in a tone that seemed to imply he relished the time and expense, which made no sense. But nothing about the man or his interest in her made any sense at all. “And you’ll go to all this trouble for me…why?” Eleanor lifted lif ted her head head a little higher h igher and stared straight into his hi s eyes. “Because there is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect you, Eleanor. Nothing I wouldn’t do to help you. And nothing I wouldn’t do to save you. Nothing.” A chill passed through Eleanor’s whole body. Someone walked over her grave, as her grandmother would say. She never understood that phrase, that t hat feeling feeli ng before. Now Now she did.
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“But my assista as sistance nce doesn’t doesn’t come without a price. pr ice.” ” “Right.” Eleanor smirked at him. “So this is when we get back to my my fir f irst st question and the fucking of the kids at church. Oh, well, if you insist.” “Do you value your worth as a child of God so little that you think thi nk the only on ly thi t hing ng I could possibly pos sibly want wa nt from f rom you is sex?” The question question hit Eleanor so hard she almost al most f linched. But she wouldn’t wouldn’t let him hi m see he’d gotten got ten to her. Her mom would would disown her for this. th is. Her dad was wa s probably eight states away by now. Her grandparents were seven minutes from death. Her entire future was about six feet under. Still she wasn’t about to let anyone take away her pride. She at least had that. For now,, any now a nyway way.. “So that’ th at’ss a no?” Søren raised his eyebrow at her her and she almost gigg g iggled. led. She was beginning beginn ing to like li ke this guy. She She’d ’d fallen fal len in love love with him already—utterly, completely and until the end of the world or even after. Never guessed she’d end up liking him, too. “That would be a no. I will wil l require something someth ing of you, howhowever, in exchange for my assistance.” “Do you you always talk tal k like li ke this?” “You mean articulately?” “Yes.” “Yes.” “Weird. “W eird. So what price pr ice am I paying? payin g? Hope it’ it’s not my firstf irstborn child. ch ild. Don Don’’t want kids. k ids.” ” “My price is simply this—in exchange for my assistance, I only ask that you do what I tell you to do from now on.” “Do what you tell me to do?” “Yes. I want you to obey me.” “From now on? Like…how long?” And he smiled then and she knew she should have been
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afra id but afraid but something something in i n that smile… It was was the first f irst time ti me that night she felt safe. “Forever.” “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.” She heard a voice voice tinged ting ed with a French accent and tried to ignore it as she always tried tr ied to ignore French-accented voices. voices. The last thing th ing Nora wanted to do was wake up. In her dream she was with Søren and he was twenty-nine and she fifteen and their story had only on ly begun. And A nd she knew if she opened opened her eyes, she could very well be facing the end of their story. She wanted to stay in her dream and would have stayed in it forever but for the cold, delicate fingers dancing across her face like li ke spider spider legs. Nora opened her eyes.
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