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TIFFANY REISZ
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DID YOU PURCHASE THIS BOOK WITHOUT A COVER?If you did, you should be aware it is stolen property as it was
reported ‘unsold and destroyed’ by a retailer.Neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment
for this book.
First Published 2013First Australian Paperback Edition 2013ISBN 978 174356444 8
THE MISTRESS© 2013 by Tiffany ReiszPhilippine Copyright 2013 Australian Copyright 2013
New Zealand Copyright 2013
Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilisation of this work in wholeor in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now knownor hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or inany information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission ofthe 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 orotherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the priorconsent 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 imposedon the subsequent purchaser.
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in anyform. This edition is published in arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A..
This is a work of ction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either theproduct of the author’s imagination or are used ctitiously, and any resemblanceto actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales isentirely coincidental.
Published byHarlequin SPICE®
An imprint of Harlequin Enterprises
Level 515 Help StreetCHATSWOOD NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
® and ™ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its corporateafliates and used by others under licence. Trademarks marked with an ® areregistered in Australia and in other countries. Contact [email protected] details.
Cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.. All rights reserved.
Printed and bound in Australia by Grifn Press
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And we know that all things work
together for good to them that
love God,
to them who are the called
according to His purpose.
—Romans 8:28
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The lady or the tiger?
—Frank Stockton
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Part One
CAPTURE
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1
THE QUEEN
When Nora came to she was fifteen years old again.She had to be. What else could explain the cold,
industrial chair she sat in, the unforgiving metal of
the handcuffs 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 how
tall Jesus was.
The priest—Father Stearns to the church but Søren to her—
said nothing. He merely stared at her with a little smile lurking
on his lips. At least someone was enjoying her misery. Where
was her father? Her dad should be here now. She needed her
father, not her Father. Her dad was the reason she’d ended up
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TIFFANY REISZ14
arrested in Manhattan in the hours before dawn. But no, she
only had her priest and the desire to wipe the smile off thatperfect 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 con-
gregation?”
Whatever reaction she’d hoped for from her priest, she
didn’t get it.
“No.”
Eleanor took a deep breath and exhaled heavily through
her nose.
“Too bad.”
“Eleanor, perhaps we should discuss the predicament you’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’ddone her damnedest to get under his skin both times. No
dice. He’d treated her with kindness and respect both times.
She wasn’t used to that.
“You were arrested on suspicion of grand theft auto. Sup-
posedly five luxury vehicles with a combined value of over a
quarter of a million dollars have disappeared from Manhattan
tonight. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”“I take the fifth. That’s what I’m supposed to say, right?”
“To the court, yes. To me, you will tell the truth 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 nothing in common. He looked liked money,
talked like money. He had the whitest fingernails she’d ever
seen and hands that belonged on a statue or something. All
of him looked like a work of art—his hands, his face and lips,
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THE MISTRESS 15
his height and beauty… . And here she was, chipped black nail
polish, wet from the rain she’d been arrested in, hair falling inlank waves into her face, her school uniform a sodden mess,
no money, no hope, and her whole life a fucking train wreck.
“There is nothing I don’t want to know about 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
change my mind about 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 mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”
“Can we call it a ‘pickle’? Pickle sounds less scary than
mess.”
“It’s a disaster, young lady. You could easily spend years in
juvenile detention for what you did tonight. One of the cars
you stole belonged to someone important and inf luential, andhe’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 and expense will be considerable,” he
said in a tone that seemed to imply he relished the time and
expense, which made no sense. But nothing about the manor his interest in her made any sense at all.
“And you’ll go to all this trouble for me…why?” Eleanor
lifted her head a little higher and stared straight into his 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 feeling before. Now she did.
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TIFFANY REISZ16
“But my assistance doesn’t come without a price.”
“Right.” Eleanor smirked at him. “So this is when we getback to my first 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 the only thing I could possibly want from you is
sex?”
The question hit Eleanor so hard she almost f linched. But
she wouldn’t let him see he’d gotten to her. Her mom would
disown her for this. Her dad was 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, anyway.
“So that’s a no?”
Søren raised his eyebrow at her and she almost giggled. She
was beginning to like this guy. She’d fallen in love with himalready—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 require something of you, how-
ever, in exchange for my assistance.”
“Do you always talk like this?”
“You mean articulately?”
“Yes.”“Yes.”
“Weird. So what price am I paying? Hope it’s not my first-
born child. Don’t want kids.”
“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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THE MISTRESS 17
afraid but something in that smile… It was the first time that
night she felt safe.“Forever.”
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”
She heard a voice tinged with a French accent and tried to
ignore it as she always tried to ignore French-accented voices.
The last thing 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 begun. And she knew if she openedher 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 spider legs.
Nora opened her eyes.
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