The Saint(143)

“Which one do you want? I have so many stories …”

“Tell me the one that you said would make me love Kingsley.”

“That’s a fun story. It involves a lesbian bartender in a three-piece suit, your father in a corset and high heels and a televangelist with a dirty secret.”

Nico’s chest rumbled with his laugh.

“Tell me,” he said. “Tell me all your stories.”

“This is the story they told me. And now I’m telling it to you.”

She settled in closer to Nico, as close as she could get. She would return home to America and to Søren eventually, but now this was her home—Nico’s bed, Nico’s body, Nico’s heart. Søren owned her and Kingsley. Kingsley owned Juliette. And now that she owned Nico it was as if the final tumbler had turned and the one locked door in her life opened. Time to walk through it.

She took a breath and began her tale.

“Once there lived a King without a kingdom …”