Fallen for Me

Franka

 

I sat alone at a table in one of Valentine’s sitting rooms, looking into my crystal ball that sat atop its lovely pillow of sapphire-blue velvet.

I was trying to concentrate, but although I’d been in it now for a full five days, I didn’t know this world enough to understand the visions I was calling up.

Not to mention, I had on my mind the fact that the three homes Valentine’s agent had shown us the day before were not to my, Josette’s, or even Noc’s liking, something, in our depth of discussion of each we’d had over dinner the evening before, had become clear.

We had another “showing” that day and my mind was also on that, as I was finding more with each passing day the need to settle, not only myself but Josette.

Valentine had no opinion on the houses we’d seen since she was not there to view them with us.

In fact, I had not seen her since she introduced Josette and me to the wonders of the curling iron. Our only communication was through texts, notes she left and messages delivered to us by her secretary or the man who was her caretaker.

This irked me, greatly, and the longer it lasted the more irksome it became.

Yes, one could say that our time had been full since our arrival so our need of Valentine’s presence was not great. There was much to do, see and experience, and Noc was being lovely with offering us all of that.

This included his promise of taking Josette and me to Bourbon Street the evening before last, a place I knew was where I’d been spirited to upon entering this world due to the familiarity of its noise, but mostly its smell.

“Spilled booze, puke and bodies, baby, all baked in the sun,” Noc had explained the smell. “In other words, the aroma of a really fuckin’ good time.”

I did not agree.

That was I did not agree until he introduced Josette and I to hurricanes, which were delicious, and jazz, a music that was extraordinary.

Halfway through hurricane one, we’d commenced having great fun and met the many fast friends around us who were a delight (and who I would not then remember even if they walked up to me and offered me an embrace, such was the potency of hurricanes, something which Noc told us to stop partaking of at one, and Josette and I had each had three).

Through this experience I was realizing that my preference for my own world was partly my loyalty to it as well as my familiarity of it.

Fleuridia was much different than Hawkvale, which was much different than Lunwyn.

But they all were marvelous, in their own way.

As was this world, it’s liveliness, fast pace, music, food.

I simply had to open my mind to it.

And being on Bourbon Street there was no way you could keep your mind closed. You became one with the mood, that mood being revelry and frivolity, and were swept away by it. And one could most assuredly say being swept away with revelry and frivolity was a joyous thing.

But even if we had not liked what we had seen during the house showings we’d had, Josette and I would eventually find a home and then we would need to settle into the new lives we’d chosen. It couldn’t all be shopping, eating and frivolity.

It could, of course. We were wealthy enough to have this. But then it might become boring, and when frivolity became boring, what did you do after that?

So settling into the lives we’d chosen it was.

And for me to do this required Valentine.

Not to mention, we had plans for Circe and the Dax Lahn of this world and there had been no time to waste…now there was even less.

It was on that thought I sensed someone in the hall. I turned in my chair and saw Valentine walk past the doorway.

“Sister,” I called.

It was unlikely she didn’t hear me but there was a moment when I thought I would have to rise from my chair and follow her before she finally retraced her steps and filled the doorframe.

“Franka,” she greeted.

I sensed immediately all was not well.

This was not by look.

It was by feel.

I stood, examining her closely. “Are you well?”

Valentine walked but a foot into the room and lied, “I am.”

“We’ve not seen much of you,” I noted carefully.

“I’d been spending a good deal of time in your world,” she stated. “This means there’s a good deal to see to now that I’ve returned to my own.”

A likely explanation.

But not a truthful one.

Before I could ask after it, her eyes dropped to my crystal and came back to me.

“You practice?”

I shook my head. “I’m searching for Frey.”

She nodded. “Of course. You’re curious, as you would be. The child is born. A girl. They’ve named her Aurora Eugenie.”

I blinked at the brusque delivery of this important news.

“Frey and Finnie’s child has been born?”

“Yes. As has Circe and Lahn’s. A boy. They’ve named him Ashur. An odd choice, being of our world, but ancient, the Assyrian god of war. But perhaps it will become a prophetic one.” She offered me no opportunity to make comment, she carried on, “Tor and Cora have not yet been delivered of their joy but it could be any day now. And as you know, Apollo and Madeleine have had their Valentine.”

I could not believe what I was hearing.

“I knew no such thing,” I shared.

Her head twitched, but she replied simply, “Well, they have.”

“When did all this news come?” I asked.

“Circe and Lahn, just yesterday. Finnie and Frey, I found out later that it was occurring as I was spiriting you to this world. I’m afraid I was lax in keeping track of Madeleine but discovered that wonderful news prior to your departure from your world. I’m afraid I was also lax in sharing it.”

She was lax indeed!

“Did you not think we would wish to hear this news?” I queried, tamping down my annoyance due to her queer demeanor.

“You’re hearing it now.”

I studied her and repeated, again carefully, “Things are not well.”

“They are,” she returned and again shifted her gaze to my crystal before looking back to me. “And I’ll note, if you wish any news of the others, you simply have to seek them out yourself. You’ve been busy, this I know. But I’m not a messenger, my sister. If you want to know,” she tossed a hand lazily toward my crystal, “look.”

She was correct.

She still could have told me.

I let that go and shared, “I actually wasn’t looking for the Frey I know. I was looking for the Frey of this world.”

Her brows rose. “And why would you do that?”

“Curiosity,” I replied. “Noc has explained that the two worlds are unbalanced in regards to that part of the equation. Noc and I both are interested in understanding, as we provide a kind of balance to the loss of Cora and the loss of the me of this world, how the situation with the Frey of this world and the Sjofn once of my own balances between the universes.”

“The Frey of this world was in need of money to start his own custom furniture business,” Valentine began to explain instantly. “Thus some time ago he sold his sperm to a sperm bank. Perhaps a rash thing to do, but with his IQ and other charms, a smart one for he was unsurprisingly remunerated very well for it. This sperm was selected by Sjofn and the lover she’s married since coming to this world, and it has been selected twice. They have a son, Viktor, and a daughter was just born to them, Aurora Eugenie, both children Sjofn carried. Quite the coincidence, unless you understand the destiny at work.”

I stared at her.

She carried on.

“To fully assuage your curiosity, Frey of this world lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife, who is barren. His custom furniture business is quite the success now that he’s put a goodly amount of time, effort and talent into it. He sells furniture across the country. And they’re raising three children, all of Vietnamese descent who they adopted from that land. He’s quite happy, quite in love and quite proud of his family, having no idea he has a son and daughter of his seed, nor will he ever know. However, Sjofn does know as she’s seen photos of the donor she selected, which was one of the reasons she selected him. If possible, balance must be maintained and that is not lost on our deposed princess.”

“Well, that answers that,” I murmured, and it did, even if some of it I didn’t quite understand.

“Now, if that’ll be all…” she trailed off doing it moving out the door.

If that’ll be all?

I hadn’t spoken directly to her in days!

I took a step toward her, calling, “Valentine.”

She stopped, turned to me and again lifted her brows, doing all with clear impatience.

“There are things we must see to,” I told her something she had to know.

“Agreed, and we shall, after I see to the things I need to see to,” she returned.

“Can you perhaps share when you feel this would be?” I requested.

She tipped her head to the side. “Do you not have enough to occupy your time?”

“Of course I do, however, in the case of Circe and Lahn—”

“Yes,” she interrupted me quickly. “If you’d like to carry on with that, be my guest and keep me apprised.”

She finished that again turning to leave.

“Sister,” I said sharply, keeping tight hold on my displeasure.

And concern.

She turned back on a sigh.

I held her gaze steady. “Things are not well.”

I saw her jaw tighten. “I’ll not answer that again.”

“Things are not well,” I repeated.

“Franka, I have little time for—”

I took a step toward her and quieted my voice. “I know things are not well. I don’t know what is not well, but I know whatever it is is troubling you. And you need to know I know, so you’ll also know I’m here to listen and help should you have the need.”

She turned her head away and it appeared she was collecting herself before she turned back and the remoteness was gone.

I did not have the Valentine I knew returned when she again gazed at me but at least she’d removed the shield she’d been holding up against me.

And what I saw made my breath catch, I couldn’t quite read it, but I most assuredly didn’t like it.

“You’re right, ma petite sorcière,” she said softly, “things are not well. I find I’m experiencing something I had not thought I ever would. And I’m having some difficulty finding my way around it. I wish to do that on my own, but,” she lifted a hand when I opened my mouth, “if I should fail to find that way, I will take you up on your offer.”

I nodded and pressed no more. I knew women of her ilk for, until very recently, I was just that kind of woman.

“You’re also correct,” she continued. “You’re here and our plans for Circe and Dax Lahn need to commence. I just…I simply…” Again it seemed she was collecting herself before she finished, “This is not something I can do right now.”

She’d been seeing to her business but she could not see to that business.

That business.

I studied her carefully and at what I finally read, I felt my throat constrict.

By the gods, she’d had her heart broken.

Gods, the despair I now saw hidden deep in her eyes was that she’d lost a lover.

I took a step toward her, whispering, “Valentine.”

I saw her body brace. “Please, Franka, don’t.”

I stopped moving.

“All will be well,” she lied.

I nodded and assured her of the only thing I could assure her of in that moment, or at least all she would allow.

“I shall begin with Circe and Lahn. I’ll keep you apprised.”

She dipped her chin. “Thank you.”

Before I could utter another word, without a glance back, she swept from the room.

I stood staring at the empty doorway for some time, my heart heavy for my friend, feeling some frustration her pride forced her to block the efforts of help of those who cared about her.

And it was not lost on me that perhaps, in the past, those who cared about me felt the same with my prideful ways.

If this was the case, it was good that Noc had delivered me of that on our first night of normal, for now I knew the pain of having pain without allowing oneself to seek solace was much akin to the pain of caring about someone who refused solace offered.

I heaved a sigh and moved back to my crystal ball, fluttering a hand over it to clear the blue smoke that drifted through it and called up the this-world Lahn.

When I did, regardless of how often I’d observed him, I found myself surprised at just how easy he was to observe.

Unlike losing my concentration earlier in attempting to understand the life of the this-world Frey, I got quite lost in watching the this-word Lahn.

So much so I jumped when I heard Noc’s voice saying, “Ready to go find a house, sugarlips?”

I looked to the door to see him sauntering through.

Therefore I smiled and rose again from my seat.

He walked right to me, smiling back, rounding me with an arm and dipping his head to mine to drop a closed-mouth kiss on my lips.

After delivering me that morning from his home so I could have breakfast with Josette and he could leave to give her and I time to spend together, as planned, he’d returned to take us, what he referred to as, “house hunting.”

We’d been apart perhaps three hours.

I’d missed him.

“I’m ready, darling,” I answered.

His arm around me gave me a squeeze and I could feel him preparing to let me go but I lifted a hand to his chest to forestall him.

“Before we go, you must know I have news,” I shared.

“And that would be?”

Standing close together, I told him all I’d learned.

His joy at Finnie and Frey, Lahn and Circe and Apollo and Maddie’s news was unhidden, this one of the many things I loved about him.

There was no subterfuge with Noc. He did not feel it made him more of a man to hide his emotions. It was a thing of beauty, a gift he bestowed on anyone who was fortunate enough to witness it, and I treasured it for just that.

But when I told him of the Frey and Sjofn of this world, he burst out laughing.

When his mirth settled to chuckles, he said, “Well, that takes care of that.”

“Although I do believe I can put it together, can you explain what a sperm bank is?”

He grinned and explained.

When he did, it was I who burst out laughing.

When my mirth had settled to chuckles, I wondered if I looked upon him with the warmth that he was right then looking at me after he did the same.

I hoped so.

“This world has many conveniences,” I observed. “Many.”

“Yeah,” Noc agreed through a grin. “Now, after we look at places, we’ll go to the mall again. Get baby presents. See if we can wrangle five minutes with Valentine so she’ll deliver them.”

“What a lovely idea,” I murmured, not at all surprised that Noc had had it.

I had not shared with him about Valentine except to tell him I’d seen her and she’d given me the news I’d imparted on Noc.

I wouldn’t either, unless he asked about it.

That wasn’t what sisters did.

And I finally had sisters. I needed to take care of them.

And this, however I needed to do, specifically with Valentine, I would do.

 

* * * * *

 

“This is revolting,” I said under my breath to Noc.

“This is suburbia, Frannie,” he replied under his breath to me. “You told the agent you wanted greenspace, you aren’t gonna find much of that in a city.”

I tore my gaze from the personality-less room of what had been referred to as a “model home,” though my understanding of the word “model” did not reconcile with anything to do with the home we were in, and looked to Josette.

She felt my regard, turned to me and curled her lip.

I looked to the agent who was pretending she wasn’t trying to listen and stated, “I’m sorry for taking you so far away from the city to show us this property, but I’m afraid it won’t do.”

She forced a smile and moved my way, saying, “Well, now we’ve seen four properties so perhaps you can share what you liked, and didn’t, about each and maybe I can narrow my search.”

What I liked was Noc’s home and not because I wished that for Josette and me.

I liked it because there was great beauty in having all that was Noc surrounding me, making me feel safe and warm and peaceful, none of which I’d ever had. I loved being in his home in a way I knew that could be my home, far less grand than any I’d ever known, but indisputably far better as well.

But I couldn’t request from Noc that he allow Josette and me to live with him.

Firstly because it was far too small. For Noc and I to have what I wished Noc and I to have when we had our alone times, Josette obviously could not be with us.

Secondly, because this was an intimacy I felt—for some unfathomable reason I still understood as accurate—was one Noc needed to invite.

And he would not do that with Josette accompanying me.

However, I was Franka Drakkar and I knew what I liked.

So I shared it.

“The brick walkways of the first property you showed us, as well as the drive and garage, for Mr. Hawthorne will need somewhere to keep his vehicle that’s safer than the street for when he’s with us, as will Josette and I when we acquire our own conveyances,” I declared.

The woman stared fixedly at me, something she did often when I knew she found my speech odd.

I ignored it and carried on.

“The wrought iron around the veranda and balconies of the second, with the large tree in front that offered shade, its two stories and lovely cornices and ceiling roses. And the privacy and maturity of the garden in the courtyard of the third.” I drifted out a hand. “Alas, I’ve nothing to share that I like of this, except the large lawns, which I do believe I may need to relinquish in order to have other things that are priorities.”

“I like to find my clients exactly what they want, but I will say that’s likely,” she muttered.

“And lastly, proximity to Mr. Hawthorne, which I should have said first,” I finished.

At this, Noc slid an arm around me and pulled me close to his side. Therefore, I returned the gesture.

“I can work with this,” the agent said.

I should hope she could, she was being paid to do just that.

“I’ll sort some listings. Do you have a direct email or would you like me to continue sending them to Ms. Rousseau’s assistant?” she asked.

“Send them to me,” Noc answered. “It’ll all go faster that way. I’ll get your number from Franka and text you my email.”

“Excellent,” she replied.

“Not to hurry us along or anything,” Josette began. “But are we done here? Just because, you see, Noc said we’re going to the mall after this and there was that blouse I decided against that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind since, and I was hoping it’d still be there.”

“We’re done here,” Noc decreed, looked to the agent and lifted his chin. “Thanks for your time, and you send us some listings, we’ll be in touch.”

“My pleasure. I hope to see you again soon.”

Josette and I also gave our farewells and Noc guided us out.

We were in his SUV when he shared, “Babe, you don’t have to live in the city. You want nature around you, I’m sure they have places that might not be close but they’re not far.”

“Yes, but you’re in the city,” was my reply.

“Yeah, but I’m also not getting to you by sled, sweetheart,” he returned with humor. “It won’t take half a day to make an hour’s drive.”

I turned from viewing the road before us to look at Noc and only then did I repeat, but more definitively this time, “Yes, but you are in the city.”

He glanced at me and back to the road, but even with only having his profile, I watched his expression warm before he said, “Gotcha.”

I nodded smartly, looked behind me to smile at Josette, who smiled back, and then I looked back to the road.

 

* * * * *

 

I was engrossed in my perusal of a very attractive dress hanging on a rack in the mall when I heard Noc make a noise.

I looked up to him to see that his expression was no longer vacant (this being because I knew he was bored out of his mind, for we did not simply pick up some baby gifts and Josette’s blouse, we became distracted by other things so our quick trip to the mall was nothing of the like).

Now he looked alert and I turned to see what he was regarding.

It was Josette, skipping toward us, waving her telephone and looking joyous.

I couldn’t help it, her demeanor made me smile.

My lovely Josette, she so enjoyed the mall.

She stopped on a sway and cried, “I have a dinner date tomorrow!”

My smile died.

“I beg your pardon?” I queried.

“Say again?” Noc asked.

“Glover,” she stated, rolling up to her toes, and back, and again, grinning like a lunatic. “That man we met on Bourbon Street. You know. The large, tall, handsome Maroovian-non-Maroovian one with the lovely smile?”

I knew no such man.

“No, I do not know,” I stated.

“That guy, baby, the one Jo was talkin’ to for, like, two hours,” Noc explained.

I turned to him, vaguely remembering, and back to Josette when she started talking.

“He gave me his number. I texted. He texted back. We’ve been exchanging them, like, bunches. He’s been being very sweet. I was looking at the jeans over there,” she tossed an arm behind her but didn’t turn that direction, she kept grinning at Noc and me, “and he called and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner tomorrow night. And I said yes!” She nearly shouted her last. “Isn’t that divine? He’s coming to pick me up at seven at Valentine’s.”

“He’s doing nothing of the sort,” I spat.

Josette blinked and her smile faltered.

I felt Noc move closer to me.

“I’m sorry?” Josette whispered.

“Am I to understand he’s arriving at Valentine’s home to put you in a car and take you for a meal?” I inquired.

“Yes,” Josette kept whispering.

“That’s unacceptable,” I declared.

Josette blinked again and her shoulders fell.

“Frannie—” Noc started.

I jerked my head his way. “It’s unacceptable.”

“You were drunk and unnecessarily flirting with me so I think you missed she’s into the guy and he was way into her,” Noc replied.

“I do not care,” I retorted and again turned my attention to Josette. “I forbid this to happen.”

“Franka,” Noc clipped as Josette’s entire expression fell.

I again looked to Noc.

“Josette was not a common servant with no one to look after her even when she was a servant,” I bit out. “She’s a young woman of means with family who cares for her. Thus, he will behave like she is as such, which means he will behave appropriately. In other words, he’ll arrive at Valentine’s home at seven tomorrow to sit with us for drinks and dinner. Through this time spent with him, I’ll understand what he does to make his living. I’ll ask questions to ascertain his moral character. I’ll observe his behavior toward Josette. And only then will I allow the possibility of a future dinner date. This being after he’s proved himself a gentleman in his intentions toward Josette once we’ve spent some time with him and he has our approval.”

Noc stared down at me.

I looked to Josette.

“Telephone him back and share this,” I ordered.

Josette stared at me.

“Sweetheart, that’s not how it’s done in this world,” Noc told me.

I returned my gaze to him. “This matters not to me.”

“The dude is gonna think you’re crazy, worse, he’s gonna think Jo’s crazy and he’s totally gonna beg off.”

My brows snapped together. “Why on earth would he do that?”

“Because, Frannie, this is not how it’s done in this world,” he answered. “A guy likes a girl, he texts her, calls her, asks her out, takes her to dinner, gets to know her better. They like each other, that keeps happening. Beyond that,” his eyes slid to Josette and back to me, “we won’t go there right now.”

I considered this information.

Then I turned to Josette and decreed, “Fine. Then telephone him back and share that Noc and I will be attending this dinner with you.”

Josette’s mouth dropped open.

“Frannie…” My name from Noc’s lips was shaking with mirth.

I scowled at Noc finding nothing amusing.

“What?” I clipped.

“You can’t invite yourself on a double date if the guy didn’t ask us along, especially on a first date.”

My voice was rising. “Why not?”

He shook his head, his amusement plain. “You just can’t.”

“Then who’s going to look after her?” I demanded to know.

Noc’s amusement didn’t leave but the warmth in his expression heightened.

“We’ll make sure she texts us, tells us where she is, how she’s getting on, when he brings her safe home.” He looked to Josette. “That cool with you?”

“Definitely!” she chirped.

“It’s not cool with me,” I put in and Noc looked to me.

“He’s not asking you out,” he noted.

I continued scowling at him before I made a decision. “All right, then we shall go to this same restaurant and sit at another table so we’ll be close in case anything untoward happens or I observe something that displeases me in his behavior, or Josette needs me.”

Noc started chuckling as he got close and curved an arm around me.

Tipping his head down, he said quietly, “Right, Momma Bear, the gig is, you’re gonna have to let your little cub explore on her own eventually. I met the guy. We talked for a while. He seemed good to me. If he wasn’t, if I got a bad vibe from him, anything, I’d be the one throwing a wrench in on his action. But what I got from him, I liked. And what Jo got from him, she liked. So you’re just gonna have to stand down.”

I did not wish to stand down.

I stared into Noc’s eyes.

I turned my head toward Josette and saw the hope and excitement shining in hers.

Blast!

“Tell him he has you home by ten,” I demanded.

Noc burst into laughter.

Josette’s face became wreathed in smiles.

With the side of his fist under my chin, Noc turned my face to his and tipped it up so he could drop a short kiss on my lips.

When he finished doing that, he looked to Josette.

“I’ll talk her into letting you have until midnight,” he said.

Well!

“Now I gotta teach you two something else women do in this world,” Noc continued, no longer sounding entertained, now sounding beleaguered. “That being the fact that a woman has a first date with a guy, she uses it as an excuse to buy a new outfit. You both got more new outfits than you can get through in a month. But I’m thinking none of them at this point are the right one for dinner with Glover.”

“You’re correct, Noc, I’ve been going through all of them in my head since I said yes, and Frannie, we must find something he will most like to see me in,” Josette declared.

Gods, now Josette was calling me Frannie.

I sighed.

But she was quite right.

Nothing we’d bought previously would do.

Thus it was time to get to work.

 

* * * * *

 

“Have you lost your mind?”

Much later, after Josette had insisted Noc and I have an evening alone together, we left her at Valentine’s and returned to Noc’s where I now sat on the sofa staring up at him standing in front of me holding one glass of wine (mine, which he had halted in delivering to me after I’d said what I’d just said) and one bottle of ale (his).

“No, I have not,” I pointed out the obvious.

“You are not gonna do that,” he declared, still standing several feet away from me and not offering me my glass. “More, I’m not gonna do that, but you definitely aren’t gonna do that so to make myself perfectly clear, we are not gonna do that.”

“May I have my wine, darling?” I requested quietly.

He looked down to his hand like he forgot he was holding it before he took the last step toward me and offered me my wine.

I took it and immediately sipped.

“Confirm you heard me, Frannie,” he demanded, not sipping his beer, instead glowering down at me.

“Come sit beside me,” I invited cajolingly.

“Nope,” he shook his head. “I gotta cook but I’m not doin’ that either until I know we’re both on the same page with this.”

“Noc, my dearest, I am quite good at this,” I assured. “I’ve had years of practice and I can’t imagine the skills I have do not translate to this world. I’ve watched carefully and I’ve planned everything precisely.”

“Right, this is the deal, babe,” Noc returned tersely. “You go into an attorney’s office, any attorney, but definitely an attorney known as the fuckin’ Savage, of all fuckin’ things, create a distraction in hopes that I’ll be able to follow you and go unseen into his office to hack into his computer to get his schedule so you can set something up so he runs into Circe, you’re an accessory to the crime I’m committing. A crime the fuckin’ Savage will lose his fuckin’ mind about if one of us is caught. And you do not piss off an attorney, Frannie. My guess, and I’m betting a pretty damn good one, you especially don’t piss off one known as the Savage.”

“It’s a crime to look at someone’s, erm…computer diary?” I asked.

“It’s a crime to break and enter, even if you don’t do any breaking in order to enter, and it’s also a crime to help yourself to unauthorized access of a private or business computer.”

I thought of all the many times I had found my way (stealthily, I will admit) into someone’s study to peruse their engagement diary (or into another room to view an altogether different kind of diary) and shivered at the idea of it being a criminal act.

“Find another way,” Noc demanded as he turned and prowled toward the kitchen.

I pushed up from his sofa and followed him, explaining, “I’m uncertain how to do that if I don’t know where he’ll be. In my crystal ball, they’re always tapping at their computers, but obviously they don’t dictate aloud what they’re tapping. I can hone in on it but when I succeed, I don’t understand what I’m seeing, and most of the time, by the time I acquire the vision, the screen doesn’t display the diary since the person I’m watching has moved on to something else.”

He opened his refrigerator, sticking his head into it and replying to its interior, “This is not my gig, baby, it’s yours. Find another way.”

I stopped at his counter-esque/cupboard-esque area (known, Noc explained, as an “island,” which it was, in a small sea of kitchen) and shifted my bum up to one of the attractive stools there, murmuring thoughtfully, “Well, from what I know of this towing business where Circe works, such a service would be needed if I could arrange for Dax Lahn’s vehicle to be incapacitated.”

I heard the slam and rattle of the refrigerator door closing and then Noc muttering, “And now she plans vandalism, at best, destruction of property, at worst.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Are all aspects of intrigue illegal in this world?” I snapped.

“Uh, yeah,” he fired back, coming to a stop opposite me at the island.

“This is most exasperating,” I shared, doing it most exasperated. “I simply wish to plot a love match. How can that be a crime?”

“Again, Frannie, I’ll suggest that you just let be what’s gonna be. If they’re fated for each other, that shit is gonna happen. Just let it happen and try to be cool even if you hate the bridesmaid gown she’ll eventually choose for you.”

His words took me out of our conversation.

“Bridesmaid’s gown?”

“You’re gonna get to know her, she’s gonna get to know you. Fact is, she texted me yesterday to suggest we all get together for dinner, including Valentine and Josette. We should do that. We do that, she gets to know you, she’ll love you. She’s awesome so you’ll do the same. When she falls in love with this guy, gets married, she’ll want bridesmaids and I suspect that time comes, one of them will be you.”

“What’s a bridesmaid?”

He gave a slight shrug that, with his broad shoulders, still was a powerful one.

“You wear a fancy dress and walk down the aisle in front of her before she gets married. As far as I can tell, this position has three duties. One, to get the bride slaughtered during the bachelorette party, and by slaughtered I don’t mean dead, obviously. I mean drop-dead drunk. Two, to throw a shower for her so, and I’m speaking from the viewpoint of the man here, she gets really fuckin’ good lingerie and not a bunch of mixing bowls for the kitchen. And three, to hold her wedding bouquet when her new husband puts the ring on her finger.”

Fascinating.

“A wife gets a ring too?” I queried.

He shook his head but said, “No. She gets two. The engagement ring, usually a diamond but it can be whatever, just as long as she loves it, and the wedding band.”

One thing was quite clear about the difference in our worlds, the bestowal of jewelry upon marriage was one I very much liked, the significance of the symbol and the fact the wife gets a diamond.

“I see you like that idea,” Noc observed, and I stopped thinking of diamonds and focused on him to see he no longer looked annoyed but now amused.

“Any idea that includes diamonds I’ll like,” I replied.

“I bet,” he muttered, his eyes crinkling, then he declared, “Choices. Steaks. Chops. Hamburgers. Or spaghetti. Got potatoes I can do up whatever way you want and veggies. Also got frozen garlic bread and salad. Just gotta know which way you want me to go.”

“I’ll eat whatever you wish to cook, my love.”

“Good answer,” he said, turning back to the refrigerator.

He started taking things from it and piling them on the island before me when I reminded him, “We have yet to fall upon a solution to this problem for, I shall assert, we won’t be leaving Circe and Lahn to the fates.”

“We aren’t fallin’ upon anything, sugarlips,” he returned. “Again, this is your gig, not mine.”

“I’m afraid I’ll need your assistance, darling,” I shared. “I cannot yet drive and I have yet to acquire any skills with a computer. I’ll definitely need you for the first, I’m sure, and I may need you for the last.”

“Frannie, I’m not gonna be your wheel man either.”

“Wheel man?”

“The getaway driver after you go off and commit a crime.”

Balls!

“You’re not being very helpful, my love,” I pointed out, seeking patience.

“And you’re finally getting my point, sweetheart.”

We stared at each other over the island for long moments before Noc broke the silence.

“You think you can help out by cutting up a tomato for our salad?”

I was aghast.

“They’re slimy,” I declared with revulsion.

“You eat them,” he returned.

“I eat them. I don’t touch them. I eat escargot too but I don’t touch those either.”

At my words, Noc burst out laughing, doing it rounding the island and arriving at me whereupon he captured my head at the sides in both hands, tipped it back and delivered a very deep, very wet, very long kiss on me.

He lifted away and looked into my eyes. “Cora, the dead, was a pain in my ass. Every minute I spent with her and then everything I learned about her was not good. But I’ll always be thankful for the day she crossed my path because her doin’ that led to you sitting right here being you. If you told me I was gonna fall for an uppity, blue blood, snobby chick who won’t even slice a tomato, I’d tell you you were crazy. But here you are and thank fuck for that.”

My heart was fluttering, my knees were trembling (even seated!) and I feared I was about to burst into tears or fall from my stool in a dead faint.

I could certainly not do either of the last and to cover how all he’d said made me feel, I ordered, “Stop being charming after you’ve denied me something I very much desire.”

His hands slid down to the sides of my neck. “Baby, you can’t best the challenge of setting up Circe and Lahn in this world, then you better hang up your gloves as the heavyweight champion of scheming.”

My back straightened. “I’ll do no such thing.”

“Then time to get creative,” he dared.

I glared at him. “You don’t think I can do it.”

“What I think is, you can’t drive. You’ve no idea how else to get around. If you commit a crime, I’ll spank your ass, after I bail it out of jail, of course. You don’t know how to use a computer, and even if you did, no way you’re gonna acquire hacking skills in a matter of hours. You do know how to use a phone but you still peck at it biting the side of your bottom lip with concentration so I’m not thinking you’ll be surfing the web on it anytime soon. And last, for whatever Valentine reason Valentine has, she’s left the building so you’re flying solo. Although you probably could do this blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back in your world, in this one, you’re just gonna eventually have to give up and let nature take its course.”

“I do not give up,” I retorted.

“Then this is gonna be interesting,” he decreed.

“And I do not peck at my phone biting my lip,” I carried on.

I mean really. How gauche!

“You texted Josette when we got home to tell her we got here safe and to make sure she was good, and you bit your lip the whole time you did it,” he shot back.

I feared he spoke truth.

Thus, I harrumphed even as I made a silent vow to cease doing such immediately.

Noc grinned.

I went back to glaring.

His grin became a white smile.

I returned a different kind of smile and informed him, “You do know, darling, that when I’m perturbed, I’m not in the mood for intimacy.”

He didn’t hesitate a moment with his rejoinder.

“You do know, baby, that you trying to use denying me that body of yours as punishment for me not giving you your way means, after you suck me while I play with you for a really fuckin’ long time, you’re gonna have to beg real pretty for me to make you come.”

Vexing.

And titillating.

Blast!

I stopped smiling insincerely at him and again glared.

“You’re good, you know it,” he murmured, his eyes dropping to my mouth. “But don’t think for one second I don’t know you want what I just said and you want it now.”

We’d enjoyed our lovemaking quite thoroughly since it began but I had yet to taste him there.

I’d wanted to do it before his threat.

And he was drattedly correct. I wanted it more now.

I did not deny what he said or confirm it. Mostly because I knew denying it would eventually be proved wrong and that would be irksome and confirming it would make him smug, which would be equally irksome.

So I did neither.

When he again looked into my eyes, I said, “It’s good to know you don’t fight fair.”

“Like you had any intention of ever fighting fair,” he replied.

“Of course I didn’t,” I confirmed blithely.

His smile came back. “That’s my Frannie.”

“Indeed it is,” I stated arrogantly.

In a dizzying shift, his mood changed from audacious to tender as he agreed softly, “Yeah, indeed it is.”

After that, he tilted in and took my mouth. This time it was short, not deep, but very sweet.

When he moved away, he murmured, “Gotta feed my girl.”

I drew in breath and nodded.

He let one hand slide lingeringly along my jaw as he removed both. And while he walked away, to hide my response to his words and caress, I took a fortifying sip of my wine.

If you told me I was gonna fall for an uppity, blue blood, snobby chick who won’t even slice a tomato, I’d tell you you were crazy. But here you are and thank fuck for that.

Well then.

Fine.

So he wouldn’t assist me in making a love match of Circe and Lahn.

And yes, Valentine was no longer there to lead the charge because she was nursing a broken heart.

And it was true I was in a new world and had only been in it for five days. I knew very little, and of the very little I knew, much of it were things I would need to know in order to carry out any plan (should I eventually fall on one that wasn’t unlawful).

But Noctorno Hawthorne had fallen for me.

Fallen for me.

So I figured I could do pretty much anything.

And so I figured I would.

 

* * * * *

 

“Frannie.”

Noc had made a mistake.

In all our lovemaking, at which he was exceptionally talented, and dominant, he had not yet allowed me to demonstrate the fullness of my skills.

And thus, when I finally got my mouth on him, I was able to do just this.

Needless to say, I was very good at it. And thus, needless to say, Noc had become consumed by it and had thus been unable to bring to fruition his earlier plan.

Even though his voice communicated something very clearly, I was much enjoying what I was doing. The taste of him. The weight of him. The rigidity. Each ridge and vein tantalizing my tongue. Each grunt and groan urging me to move faster, draw deeper. The feel of him straining to hold his control.

“Baby,” he gritted, and I lifted my eyes to his from where I lay curled between his widespread legs, his knees up. I felt the wash of wetness at the heart of me witnessing the darkness in his face even as I carried on and he reached out to me, his fingertips skimming my cheek on their journey to glide into my hair and cup the side of my head. “Warning,” he finished thickly, in a way it was clear he could not force out more.

I felt my eyes turn lazy (or lazier), did not heed his warning but instead increased my ministrations.

“Right,” he bit out and it happened.

Without losing purchase of his cock in my mouth, he shifted to his knees, drawing my head up with his hand fisted in my hair so I was no longer curled between his legs but up on my hands and knees.

And then I was no longer in control of pleasuring his shaft.

He was thrusting it into my mouth.

Yes.

Noc.

Dominant.

And divine.

I closed my eyes and moaned, feeling my inner thighs tremble.

“Fuck, shit, fuck,” he grunted, his one hand staying fisted in my hair, his other one cupping my head to assist in holding me steady. “Take me, Frannie.”

Oh, I’d take him. Any way he’d give himself to me.

Including like this.

Especially like this.

I moaned around his cock and reached a hand between my legs, my finger just skimming through the wet to where I needed it when Noc forced out, “Unh-unh.”

He then pulled out of my mouth, reached down to me, and with a hand at my wrist yanking me up, he cast his other arm around my waist, lifting me so my naked body collided with his own.

With no choice, I rounded him with my legs. When I did, he fell back to his calves, held me to him with his arm at my waist, leaning our bodies and reaching with the other hand to the nightstand.

He opened the drawer so violently the lamp on top tumbled and fell, coins clinked and dropped to the floor, things I didn’t know what they were came out of the drawer, all this before Noc straightened us, coming back on his knees and handing me a condom.

“Fast,” he growled.

I looked into his eyes, shivered in his hold and nodded my head quickly.

My fingers fumbled but I went fast, finally rolling it on his beautiful shaft successfully. I barely had it to the root before Noc shoved my hand aside, wrapping his around his cock.

He found me and drove inside.

I grasped his shoulders as my spine formed an arc, my head falling back. The low moan ripping from my throat, he pummeled me with his thrusts and I did my best to hold on for the ride.

“God, fuck, fuck, my Frannie, so goddamned hot,” Noc rumbled, beginning to lift me and drive me down to meet his lunges.

I righted my head with a snap and lifted my hands to the sides of his neck, gripping him there, my forehead hitting his, my body lurching at his command.

“Fuck me, Noc,” I demanded.

“I am, baby,” he grunted.

I seized his jaw in both hands, my voice throaty. “Fuck me, my love.”

He stared into my eyes. His flaring, burning, blazing, he fell forward so I was on my back in his bed, Noc covering me. With me stationary and Noc able to center all his power at his hips, he fucked me.

It took no time at all before I came, dragging my nails down his shoulders, crying out loudly, clenching my legs around his driving hips, lost in Noc. His filling me, claiming me, fucking me in a way no one could come after him, no one could have me again. I was no one but his, he was no one but mine, destined to be together, connected, balancing…bloody…worlds.

I heard it, felt it, the tension, the increased rhythm, the shorter strokes.

My climax began to fade and I opened my eyes just in time to see the beauty of Noc’s head slanting back sharply, the veins in his corded neck popping, the quick succession of grunts that led to a low rumble. I watched, fascinated, feeling him pour this beauty inside me, wishing there was no barrier to keep me from absorbing it, until his head fell and he buried his face in my neck.

I held his weight and stroked him while the tension in his body released, and finally I felt the workings of his mouth at my neck as he rested himself on a forearm in the bed, his other arm curved under me, around me, the fingers idly caressing the skin of my hip.

I turned my lips to his ear. “I want you.”

For a brief second, Noc grew still then he lifted his head and looked down at me, smiling.

“Babe, still deep inside you, on top of you, not sure how much more of me you can get,” he teased.

I moved a hand to his face, mine, I knew, was serious.

“I hope you feel it as little as me, but even so, I don’t like it there. I don’t like it between us. When you give me your seed, I want it. Even if it doesn’t take root, I want it in my womb. I want it to be a part of me. Thus I need to ask Valentine to return to my world and acquire some pennyrium for me.”

Noc said nothing.

But he no longer looked teasing. He was staring at me in a way I could not decipher but it warmed me to my toes.

“Noc,” I called when his silence lengthened.

“I wanna go the distance with you.”

My body around his tightened and I opened my mouth to speak.

He was not done.

“I wanna make a baby with you.”

I clamped my mouth shut.

Noc did not.

“I wanna make as many as we can as long as they know we love each of them with everything we are. I don’t give a fuck if you’ve got my baby growing in you year after year until your body won’t do it anymore.” He drew his attention to our continued connection by flexing his hips. “If I could, I’d fuck you for hours, days, goddamned years, nonstop. I want part of me in you every breath you take. I can’t do that so I want it that any time your mind wanders, you think of me inside you however that can be. My cock taking you. My cum buried deep. My kid growing in your belly. What that means. What we got. What we made. What we built between us. The fact that I love you so fuckin’ much, I’d commit treason for you. I’d perpetrate crimes for you. I’d go to prison for you. I’d break my back to give you everything you wanted from cutting the damned tomatoes in your salad and pouring you a glass of wine to wrestling the world into my arms and laying it at your feet.”

I lay under him, frozen.

Then I burst into tears.

Loud, obnoxious tears.

Noc pulled out (alas) and rolled us to our sides, gathering me into his arms, holding me close, his hand stroking deep at my back, his other arm tight around my waist as I sobbed against his chest, my body shaking uncontrollably with the power of emotion sweeping through me.

And with deep regret, this happened for a long time.

And with even deeper regret, when it began to subside, I started hiccoughing with the wealth of emotion still needing to be expressed.

I loathed crying.

And worse, hiccoughing.

Ulk.

The mortification.

“So, to end,” Noc said, and I kept my face buried in his chest, feeling his voice rumble even as I heard it, “I don’t know what this pennyrium stuff is but an easier fix is to get your ass on the Pill so I can be inside you without a condom. In other words, I’m down with that until we decide no birth control is needed and whenever that happens, I’m down with that too.”

I tipped my head back and gazed upon him with watery eyes.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“Thank fuck,” he whispered back.

“I’ll cut tomatoes for you,” I shared.

I watched his wavy mouth smile as he stopped stroking my back and tightened both his arms around me.

“No need to make that great a sacrifice, sweetheart,” he muttered.

“I have a golden soul,” I told him softly.

His arms flexed so powerfully they pushed all the air out of me before it seemed he forced them to relax.

“Yeah you do,” he finally replied.

“I have a golden soul,” I repeated.

“I know, baby.”

“I have a golden soul,” I said again, and he opened his mouth to speak but I carried on. “I know this because the gods in my world and the God in yours would never tether a soul that was anything less than golden to the perfection that is you.”

“Fuck,” he growled, rolling me again to my back with him on me.

“I love you, Noc,” I breathed as his weight pressed it out of me.

“Fuck,” he growled again.

And then he kissed me.

We had need of several condoms that night for our avowals commenced the belated sexual marathon Noc had promised days before.

And dawn was kissing the sky when, exhausted, sated and deliriously happy, I let all my weight settle into the man who lay under me, holding me close, taking my weight, my worries, my demons, my dreams.

The man who showed me my golden soul in a way I knew truly I carried it inside me.

The man who loved me.

 

* * * * *

 

The next evening, I stood at the back of Valentine’s foyer, arms crossed on my chest, giving my best forbidding stare to the intensely handsome (I had to admit) Glover as he put a hand to the small of Josette’s back to start to lead her out the door.

He smiled at me and shared, “She’ll be in good hands.”

“She better,” I retorted, moving forward and catching the door before he could close it so I could continue to glare at them as they moved down Valentine’s walk in order to be absolutely certain I’d made my point.

He nodded, his lips now just quirking, and I moved my gaze, my face softening, when Josette looked back and said, “’Night, Frannie.”

“Good night, my sweet,” I bid.

She looked ahead as Glover moved them both forward.

I knew he did not intend for me to hear it but I had honed exceptional eavesdropping skills in my lifetime so I heard it when he spoke after he had her halfway down the walk.

“Your sister’s kinda protective, yeah?” he asked.

“Er, well…we’ve been through a lot together,” Josette replied quietly. “And she loves me.”

“Right,” Glover returned, not sounding disgruntled, sounding pleased.

Although I quite liked the fact that Josette understood my feelings for her, and the fact that Glover was not put off by a protective family member, I harrumphed.

“Shut the door, sugarlips,” came from behind me.

I turned to see Noc leaned against the wall at the side of the entry to the hall appearing like he didn’t know whether to come fetch me or let loose his hilarity.

“I’ll see them safe in his car,” I returned.

“Shut the door, baby,” he said softly.

I liked his soft so I stepped out of the door and shut it.

Only then did Noc come to me.

Putting his hands to my hips, he pulled me close and tipped his head down.

“So, my guess, we’re hanging here until you know she’s home all right,” he noted.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

He grinned and murmured, “Momma bear.”

“You say this as a tease you think might get a rise out of me when I have no issue you think this way at all.”

“Just to say, not teaching you how to use a gun considering you’re like this with Josette, it’ll be you and not me the boys will have a problem with when our daughters start dating.”

I could actually feel myself blanch.

Noc burst out laughing, hauling me into his embrace as he did it and putting his mouth to mine.

“Christ, I love you,” he said there through his mirth.

“Thank fuck,” I replied and lost Noc’s dancing, happy eyes.

I did for he was kissing me.

Obviously, I kissed him back.