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He clasped her throat but didn’t grip it Instinctively she understood why he made love to her with his hand on her neck He owned her, possessed her Her very life beat against the pal in her neck, pounding against his fingertips I own you, that hand on her neck said Every part of you The part I’ in and out of your lungs isquickened as he increased the pace of his thrusts Her back arched off the desk as an orgash her Her clitoris throbbed and her innerht as a fist They released in wild flutters through her stohs…

Eleanor sat up on the desk, all alone, her head aching froiven herself She picked her clothes up off the floor and dressed quickly She ran her hand over the top of the desk She felt a few drops of fluid, her own, that had fallen there With the bottom of her shirt, she wiped it off and prayed Søren wouldn’t notice anything amiss the next time he sat at his desk She couldn’t believe she’d done what she’d done on his desk What if he’d needed so in his office and found the door locked? Would he have heard the sounds of her breathing through the door, heard her coinity on his desk with God and the portrait of Pope John Paul II hanging on the atching them?

She shoved her feet into her shoes, slipped out into the hall and carefully closed the door behind her

And then she heard it

Piano music

She wasn’t alone in the church, after all

Eleanor knew she should run for it, head straight ho had happened But theand drew her inexorably to it It came from the sanctuary The notes slid under the door and out into the hallway They wrapped their fingers around her and drew her in She slipped through the doors of the sanctuary and followed the ht piano tucked to the right of the sacristy where he and the deacons changed in and out of their vestments

She stood just feet away from him and watched as he played No, that wasn’t it He didn’t play the piano He enslaved it His fingers ility across the keys He seeht now Did he even know she was standing there listening and watching and wanting hinize the piece, but she wished she did She wished she knehat he was playing and why he played it so intensely, as if he would die if he stopped

Minutes passed Maybe an hour She never grew tired of watching him The music pinned her to floor the way his hand had pinned her to the desk in her fantasy She couldn’t move if she tried She didn’t try

Finally the piece ended and Søren lifted his hands off the keys He kept his head bowed as if in prayer before lifting it He didn’t look at her

"I can’t talk to you right now, Eleanor," he said

"Can you look at me?" she asked, and despite the echo in the nave, her voice sounded small and timid

"No"

She stuffed her hands in her pockets

"Are youin the air between them She wanted to believe hiht and his posture stiff

"Please talk to ed

"What would you likeI don’t know" She grasped for words So told her he knew exactly what she’d done in his office, but surely if he did he would say so to her about it, yell at her, punish her

He looked up at the ceiling