Love this novella about Soren taking care of Nora when she feels out of place at the church she grew up in.

Takes place right after Nora and Soren are reuinited after the events in the book "The Siren". In bed Soren poses the question "If I do something nice for you, will you do something nice for me?" Soren makes go on Nora's "something nice", but when it comes for her to return the favor, she is left feeling pushed out on a ledge. Soren's "something nice" is Nora's attendence at the annual Sacred Heart church picknic, for the church that Nora had recently returned to - the church where Soren is the venerated priest. The church she grew up in and left when she and Soren fell out. Once reuinited, her attendence once again became manditory, although she still tried to stay on the fringe. Feeling like she no longer belongs - since she left she became a dominatrix, and a "smut writer". Soren knowing this decided that Nora needed to be reminded that she may have be the prodigal daughter, but she belongs there as much or even more so than anyone there.

At the picnic, Nora feels overwhemed with fears of saying something wrong, doing somehting wrong, or even being shunned. Soren picks up on this and confronts her privately and tells her that she needed to remember to rely on him as she had in the past. He knows she has been taking care of herself for the previous five years of their estrangement, but now she is his again, and she needs to turn her worries over (sounds familiar?) to him and he will "take care of it". At this Nora says she is scared no one likes her, that she will say or do somthing to cause problems (the fact that she is sleeping with the priest being the biggest), that she doesn't really belong there. She almost dares Soren to make good on his claim to take care of her.

This is a great novella that has a lot of humor when Nora and Soren are in public together outside of the church yet amongst the flock, playing parishinor and priest. Plus Soren in "relaxed mode" is a rate sight. Nora being free to speak her mind to her normally strict Domninant makes good use of the opportunity to try and throw a tiny bit of shade over the glare Soren throws when amonst his parish.

Something Nice was indeed, something nice. ( )