.jpg)
I shot bolt upright in bed.
As abruptly as it started, the sound stopped, and I turned fearful eyes to Noc to see him stretched toward his nightstand, touching the clock there that I’d learned was illuminated by a magic known as “electricity.”
“By the gods, darling, what on earth was that?” I asked.
He rolled back to me, looked at my face and grinned a heavy-eyed grin before he curled up and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me down and rolling me to my back with his weight on me.
“It’s an alarm, Frannie,” he answered.
“I could tell that. Why was it sounding?”
“To wake me up. I gotta get ready for work and before I go in to do that, I gotta drop you at Valentine’s.”
This alarm contraption was clearly another amenity of this world and a needed one considering Noc did not have servants to wake him at the appropriate time.
Which gave rise to questions about how the servants in my past had woken at the appropriate time in order to do the same for me.
“Babe.”
I moved my focus from my thoughts to him.
His lids were still heavy with sleep but the look in his eyes was not sleepy in the slightest.
“Fuckin’ you first,” he declared, his head descending. “Start the day right.”
Oh yes. That would indeed start the day right. I knew this as a fact since Noc was a man and men on the whole tended to wish to start any day as such. It was just that Noc was the kind of man who did not wish something to happen, he made it happen.
He did so every morning and it absolutely started each day right.
This he set about doing right then and I would learn that prior to his going to his place of employment he would need to see to both our pleasures in limited time.
Noc had skill with this and it wasn’t the first time he’d demonstrated that to me.
However, it was the first time he’d situated my legs up his chest, my ankles to his shoulders, his hands in the bed for power and control, his eyes devouring me, his body positioned so my eyes could do the same.
This they did.
Deliciously.
“Fingers to your tit and clit, baby, wanna watch you help me take you there,” he growled his order, pulling out half way and circling while I positioned my hands as I’d been told.
His gaze dropped to them and he pulled out to the tip before he surged in and stayed.
My.
So lovely.
As lovely as it was, I needed more.
From Noc, I always needed more.
“Please move, darling,” I breathed.
“Pull at your nipple,” he demanded.
I gave him what he wished at the same time giving myself a bolt of beauty from breast to womb. The latter convulsed and I heard his grunt as it did. I dug my ankles into his shoulders uncontrollably.
I had more difficulty focusing on him when I repeated on a gasp, “Please, darling, move.”
He did as asked, going faster now and putting all his weight into one hand so his other could cover mine, his fingers over mine at my nipple, squeezing and pulling.
He needed do no more.
I ground into his strokes, my back arching, my lips parting and it quickly overwhelmed me, doing what Noc always made it do, consuming me.
“Keep at your clit, keep coming, baby,” Noc grunted, still driving deep and forcing my play at my nipple with his fingers.
“Noc,” I pushed out, continuing to toss on the waves of the climax he was giving me.
He made my fingers twist my nipple while he pulled and kept thrusting.
“Don’t stop coming,” he groaned.
“I…won’t,” I promised because I wasn’t.
I’d climax forever for him, if he wished, and do it gladly.
“Fuck,” he bit off. “Fuck,” he rasped.
He pulled my hand from my breast, forced his torso through my legs so they slid off his chest and he landed on me, burying his shaft deep and letting me watch the glorious spectacle from up close as his head snapped back and his own pleasure consumed him.
I rounded him with my limbs, twitching gently with the aftershocks and then stroking him through his.
When they’d left him, he dropped his mouth to mine and kissed me.
After he’d lifted his head, he asked quietly, “You wanna snooze while I shower and do your thing after I drop you at Valentine’s or you wanna get ready with me?”
“You’ll be away from me for the first time in this world that’ll last any amount of time, my dearest, heralding this being how it will continue to be. What do think I want to do?”
His face grew warm as he cupped my cheek in his palm and ran his thumb along my cheekbone.
“If that’s what you want, we gotta get a move on, sweetheart.”
I nodded.
Noc kissed me again.
After, we got a move on.
* * * * *
Early that evening, I nearly sprang from my seat in exaltation as, finally, after at least an hour of doing everything in my power to call it up, a vision formed in my crystal ball.
It was of a fine-looking, blond-haired, blue-eyed man with a tall, well-formed frame and a highly attractive manner.
Valentine’s lost lover.
It was no surprise she had good taste.
It was also no surprise she was clearly blocking me.
What was a surprise was that I broke through.
And now I somewhat understood her heartbreak for he was exceptionally handsome.
However, I could read no more because the image was fading fast, my blue smoke mingling with green taking it away at the same time I felt a presence join me.
At who I knew that presence was, I turned from my crystal and watched Noc sauntering in the room.
He smiled at me, glanced at my crystal ball then returned his smile to me.
I rose from my seat and offered him my own smile.
“Hello, darling. How was your first day with your new employers?” I asked.
He arrived at me, rounding me with an arm and bending his head to touch his lips to mine, all before he replied, “Paperwork. Meetings with clients. Going over cases they’re assigning me. Not exactly fun but they aren’t fucking around. They want me in the field tomorrow so I’ll be getting to the good stuff right away.”
I had no idea what “the good stuff” was but seeing as he’d described it thus, I lifted a hand to his biceps and murmured, “Excellent.”
Noc again looked to my magical orb, his smile having dimmed, his eyes speculative when he returned his attention to me.
“You spyin’ on Circe?” he queried.
I felt my frame stiffen slightly in affront as my mouth tightened. “Of course not.”
“Then what are you up to with your crystal ball?”
“Although time has passed, it would seem Valentine is not healing from her heartbreak so I was looking into that situation,” I shared.
Noc turned his gaze to the ceiling and declared there, “She’s barely done meddling with one, she’s starting in on the other.”
I put my other hand to his chest and gave it a slight push, again earning his regard.
“She’s suffering,” I stated.
“Give it a rest,” he returned.
“If I can do something—”
His arm tightened and his other hand came up to cup my jaw. “Baby, give it a rest. Circe is Circe. Sweet and loving and unable to hold a grudge. Valentine is an entirely different animal. I told you the play you made with Circe wasn’t the right one and we both know how that went. Not gonna back down on this. Valentine will lose her mind, you insinuate yourself in her situation. She means something to you. She’s a good woman, even if she doesn’t like to let that show. Don’t fuck with this. Straight up, Frannie. Don’t. You do, she’ll carry that grudge, if she can make it happen, she’ll do it magically from beyond the grave. And what I mean by that is you’ll lose her.”
I felt my mouth
tighten again because he was probably right (probably).
Noc noted my nonverbal acceptance of his statement and changed the subject.
“You get Circe sorted at the mall?”
I nodded, moving past what we’d just discussed and I did it excitedly. “Yes, we bought her the most divine set of underwear. I’m quite certain Dax will be most affected when he uncovers—”
Noc took one arm from around me and lifted it, palm out. “Stop right there. That’s woman shit. I don’t need to know about Circe’s underwear or what you figure Dax will do when he sees it. I’ll go on to say that if she shares what he actually gets down to doin’, I don’t wanna know that either.”
I decided to say no more.
Noc decided the opposite.
“I’m hungry and don’t feel like cooking or hanging at a restaurant so you good with Chinese takeaway?”
I had no idea what Chinese takeaway was.
I still nodded.
“Josette with us?” he inquired.
I shook my head. “Glover’s picking her up soon to take her to dinner.” I made my thoughts clear on the subject of my next with my tone, “She’s spending the night tonight at his place. As she did last night.”
Noc grinned.
I did not.
Noc noticed my lack of enthusiasm for this and his grin got bigger.
However, he made no mention of it and simply said, “Then let’s get home.”
Home.
Yes.
I wanted to go there.
But only because that was where Noc wanted to be.
For me home was a different thing.
For me, home was simply Noc.
* * * * *
I liked Chinese takeaway.
Very much.
The utensils Noc had great skill in using to eat it I did not like because they were awkward. But I was determined to master them because Noc said, “You should eat any food the way it was meant to be eaten. Chinese doesn’t taste the same with a fork. Trust me, it’s better with chopsticks.”
It was excellent as it was.
Therefore I was definitely going to master chopsticks.
Dinner consumed, minimal cleanup achieved (I’d even helped, but as it was simply rinsing plates to put in the dishwasher, this was not difficult), we were lazing, cuddled on Noc’s couch, watching what he called a “crime drama.”
I was inattentive to this drama.
Instead, I was what I’d been on and off all day.
This being completely at a loss as to how to broach the subject in a meaningful way (this being in a way I could change his thinking entirely on the subject) of the issues I knew in my soul were coloring Noc’s world.
Or more to the point, the way Noc viewed himself in our world.
Issues I had no idea from where they stemmed.
When approaching this same subject with me, Noc faced it head on and made me do the same.
I did not think this same approach would be welcomed from me.
I just knew I had to find an approach.
But for the first time in my lifetime, prying into someone’s affairs, their emotions, their past, was not coming easy.
Which made matters worse, since this time was the most important I’d ever faced.
“She’s gonna be fine.”
Noc’s words pulled me from my reverie and I turned my head to look at him where he was snuggled into me, his front to my back.
“Sorry?”
His expression was gentle as was his tone.
“Circe, sweetheart. You don’t have to worry. She’s gonna be fine.”
I knew this. She was with Dax. He’d sink a blade in his own heart before he’d do that first thing to make her not fine.
However, I hesitated sharing this with Noc since I didn’t wish him to know what actually was on my mind.
“You’re a million miles away, but you can come back home. She’ll be good,” he continued to assure me.
“Of course,” I murmured noncommittally, feeling some guilt I wasn’t assuaging his concerns by sharing the truth.
“You can call her in the morning,” he stated.
I nodded.
I also studied his face.
He liked that I was concerned about Circe (he thought). He liked being nestled with me on the couch watching TV.
And he loved me.
He was in what I thought was a Noc Mood. A sweet one. An attentive one. A gentle one.
A mood that might be conducive to a certain kind of discussion.
I should face the issue head on. Tell him what I saw in him. All that I saw. Then ask him to share with me the pain he was holding, pain no longer hidden.
But it would seem I had the courage to commit treason for my country. I also had the courage to face three witches who could have obliterated me with a blink. And I had the courage to leave my entire world to travel to one that was all new to me.
But I didn’t have the courage to do one thing to force Noc to face whatever caused his pain by making him share that pain with me.
Blast.
“I’ll call her in the morning,” I told him.
“Good,” he muttered.
“I love you,” I blurted and his head gave a slight, surprised jerk before his eyes warmed and he bent his face closer to mine.
“I love you too, Frannie,” he whispered.
I wanted to use that opening to go on and find the right words to erase whatever was causing him harm without making him face it. To share with him all he meant to me and make him know he could release it just like he’d given that same gift to me.
I had many talents in many areas.
This just wasn’t one.
And I found it immensely frustrating.
Noc took us out of the moment by bending even deeper and kissing my nose.
He then turned back to the TV, lifting the remote to rewind the action to when he took his attention from it.
He was interested in this program.
Thus now was not the time.
But I had to find the time.
And I had to find a way.
I just didn’t know how to do either.
* * * * *
The next afternoon, the phone to my ear, the fifth time I’d called, I finally connected.
“’Lo?” sounded in my ear slumberously.
“Well?” I demanded.
“Frannie?”
I was no longer annoyed that yet another person was addressing me thus, this time Circe.
I had other things on my mind.
“Yes, Frannie,” I confirmed, even though I knew my name came up on her phone like all the names of the callers came up on mine and I didn’t need to do so. “I’ve been trying to reach you all day,” I snapped.
“Sorry. I’ve been busy,” she told me.
“You don’t sound busy. Are you napping at work?” I asked, not entirely incredulously. Circe seemed rather industrious. However, it could be that she was exhausted for a particular reason.
“Well, I’m not at work.”
I looked to my watch, surprised at this for I’d learned working hours in that world were eight in the morning until five in the evening (normally) and these were Circe’s hours. And right then, it was a quarter after three.
“Is something amiss at your employment?” I asked.
“No. It’s just I didn’t go into work today.”
I had no reply.
Her voice dipped when she said, “Dax hasn’t either.”
Oh my.
“Right,” I stated smartly. “Carry on,” I bid and concluded with, “Goodbye.”
And I hung up.
Then I started chuckling.
Still doing it, I reengaged my phone and called Noc.
“In other words, like I said,” he began after I relayed this information to him, “she’s not only fine, she’s more than fine.”
I could not argue that, didn’t even want to, so I said nothing.
“We done gossiping ab
out Circe?” he queried with humor in his voice.
“For now,” I replied.
“Right,” he said. “Later, babe. Love you.”
“And I you.”
We hung up.
I was, indeed, done gossiping about Circe.
To Noc.
But I moved from where I was to Valentine’s kitchen to find Josette, who was practicing her this-world culinary skills.
Because I was not actually done gossiping about Circe.
News this good was news too good not to share.
* * * * *
Two days later, in the afternoon, I moved through a room in the home the agent was showing us, feeling it.
Feeling everything.
She’d found it.
It was perfect.
I had my phone to my ear and it was ringing.
“Sweetheart,” Noc answered.
“I think we’ve found it,” I whispered, having removed myself from Josette, the agent, and Valentine, who had driven us to the showing.
“It’s good?” he asked.
“It’s perfect, darling. The courtyard. The ceiling roses. A magic room for me. And many bedrooms.”
He was silent a second before he asked, “How you feelin’ like fillin’ those up?”
My voice dropped lower. “You know how.”
“Tell the agent I wanna see it. I got shit on with the job on Saturday so it’ll have to be Sunday.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Josette like it?” he queried.
“Yes,” I told him.
“Valentine with you?”
“Yes.”
“What’s she say?”
“She said, ‘it’ll do.’”
There was amusement in his voice when he replied, “So she likes it.”
“That’s my read.”
“Right. Good. I’ll look at it Sunday and we’ll discuss your offer.”
“Excellent, darling. Now I’ll let you get back to work.”
“Okay, sweetheart. Valentine dropping you at my place?”
“No, her caretaker is giving Josette and me driving lessons after this. Then he’s dropping me at your place. Josette is making dinner for Glover at Valentine’s. Trying her hand at her skills in the kitchen. Valentine is absenting herself. She hasn’t shared where she’s going.”
“Not a surprise,” he muttered. “I’ll see you when I get home then, yeah?”