While Nora waited for Nico’s arrival, she unpacked and got settled into their temporary home. Their suite took up the entire third floor of The Painted Lady B&B. The floors were honey-colored hardwood, covered in faded rugs. The living room was cozy, with an antique sofa and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with tour guides, novels set in Salem and Boston, and non-fiction books about the town’s dark history with witches. The bedroom had a gas-log fireplace and a queen-sized Colonial canopy bed covered in an antique Amish bedspread. Nora tested the four posts of the bed. It was sturdy as iron. She hopped up and down on the mattress and heard nary a squeak. A well-made piece of furniture. She and Nico would have very good—and very quiet sex—in this bed. But she needed to remember to take the bedspread off first. The Amish might not appreciate it if they got semen stains on their handcrafted quilt. Or maybe they would? She’d never met an Amish person. They could be kinky motherfuckers, too. Who knew?

Evening came and Nora showered and changed into something more comfortable—her favorite short black silk nightgown and matching robe. When that was done there wasn’t much left to do but pace the suite while waiting for Nico’s cab to arrive.

She would have picked him up at the airport, but he declined the offer. He preferred to keep their reunions private. It was one of his little quirks. He was quiet and self-contained, but deeply emotional, and nothing made him more emotional than seeing her again after a long separation. He called the one time they reunited in an airport “miserable” (a word meant to be spoken with a French accent) and swore he’d never do it again. If he couldn’t kiss her in public the way he wanted to kiss her, what was even the point of kissing? She couldn’t argue with that, so she continued her pacing, phone in hand so she could answer long-neglected emails while she waited. Anything to distract from peeking out the window every thirty seconds.

At eight, it already looked like midnight outside. For Nico, on French time, it would be the wee hours of the morning. He’d either be exhausted from his flight and want to go to sleep immediately…or he’d be wide awake from sleeping on the plane and jump her the second they were alone.

Nora put her money on the jumping. There were perks to having a twenty-six-year-old boyfriend.

At last, she saw the flash of headlights on her window. She pushed back the white lace curtain and saw Nico standing next to the yellow cab, paying the driver. He must have seen movement in the corner of his eye because he looked up to her window and smiled.

Nora waved. He kissed the air to her in greeting before hefting his bag over his shoulder and walking to the house. Her heart leapt a few inches skyward in her chest. Her stomach twisted itself into a knot. Her hands trembled, ever so slightly.

“Grow up, Nora,” she told herself. It was a tiny bit embarrassing how infatuated she was with Nico. She hadn’t known how much she’d needed a submissive of her very own until he’d come into her life and she discovered what she’d been missing all along. Sometimes it seemed impossible he should be hers. He was handsome, of course, like his father. The longer she knew him, however, the less he resembled Kingsley and the more he became unique and incomparable. He had deep olive-skin, even darker than Kingsley’s, and celadon eyes inherited from his Persian mother. His dark hair was often unruly, especially when he’d been sweating in the sun.

He dressed nothing like Kingsley, which she found all the more appealing. No suits. No ties. No military coats. No boots except for work boots, the sorts with steel toes since he was often found in his vineyard with a rake or a hoe or a shovel in his calloused hands. Jeans. T-shirts, jackets in autumn, coats in winter. Mud on his boots in all seasons.

Her Nico.

Her property.

Her other heart.

Now she knew how Søren felt, with his twin love for her and Kingsley. Not a heart divided but a heart doubled. Maybe that was why her chest felt so tight when she heard Nico’s footsteps on the stairs. Loving Nico made her love Søren even more, because he gave her room to be herself, room to love with two hearts as she’d given him room to love her and Kingsley. When she got back from Salem and he from California, she would show him just how much that meant to her.

But meanwhile…Nico.

Before Nico could knock, she opened the door for him. He stepped across the threshold, the slightest smile on his lips.

“Happy Halloween,” Nora said.

“Trick or treat?” Nico asked.

Nora grinned. He was so good at this already.

“For you right now,” she said, “all treats. No tricks.” She reached for his hand, pulled him into the room, and shut the door behind them.

His arm was around her waist before his bag hit the floor. Nora put her hands on his face and kissed him. Eager and hungry as they both were for each other, it was something of a miracle that all they did in that first minute together was kiss.

It was no ordinary kiss. It was long and deep. Nora bit Nico’s bottom lip, tasted his tongue in her mouth. Her hands caught in his hair. His hands stroked her bare neck and shoulders. By the time the kiss ended she’d pushed his back against the door.

She couldn’t hold off touching him one second longer. Nora unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, and grazed her fingertips lightly, ever so lightly over the lowest part of his stomach, that nice little tender place right before things got interesting. Nico inhaled softly and Nora grinned.

“So...which do you want first?” she asked him. “Candy? Or mischief?”

Because he was such a smart man and a quick learner, he answered exactly the way she wanted him to.

“Both.”