I’m In

Franka

 

“I’m thinking about beauty school,” Jo declared in Noc’s bathroom where I was leaned forward across his basin and putting on my lip gloss while she twitched and flipped strands of my hair that hung around my face, tucking pins more securely in the large chignon that rested at the side of my neck.

I shifted my eyes to hers in the mirror.

“Sorry?”

“Beauty school. I wish to go to one. After Noc teaches me how to drive, that is.”

I straightened, slid the wand into the gloss and turned fully to her.

She dropped her hands.

“Sorry?” I repeated.

“You know, for something to do,” she stated confusingly. “I’ve always enjoyed doing your hair, best part of what I do. You have lovely hair.” She grinned. “But it’s even more fun here with curling irons and straighteners and smoothing elixirs and—”

“Jo,” I cut her off.

“What?” she asked.

“Explain fully what you’re talking about,” I ordered.

“I need employment,” she declared.

I felt my head give a slight jerk with my surprise. “Whyever do you need that?”

It was then I saw Josette’s head jerk.

“Whyever do I need that?” she parroted.

“That was my query,” I confirmed, and at her look of bemusement, I explained, “You can imagine my confusion since you’re already in my employ.”

“There are showers here,” she said.

“There are,” I agreed.

And there were. Delightful rainfalls in the bathroom that were made more delightful when Noc led me to his and we both bathed together.

“And you enjoy doing your own face paint, I mean…erm, makeup.”

“I do indeed.”

“And they have washing machines for clothes. And irons that get hot by plugging them into the wall. You don’t have to suspend them over fires.”

I knew nothing of this, really, in this world or my other.

Noc had shown us how this was done, of course, in his pursuit of introducing us to as many things as he could before he had to go to work (something that would happen that Monday, two days away, something that I was not looking forward to because it would take him from me).

He was rather diligent in this endeavor in the hopes we’d be able to get along by ourselves when we’d be on our own.

But obviously, considering the subject matter, I paid scant attention.

“This isn’t explaining, Jo,” I informed her.

“Frannie,” she leaned a hip against Noc’s basin, “we’re staying here, aren’t we? In this world.”

“Yes, unless you don’t wish to remain,” I replied hesitantly.

“I do wish to remain.” Another grin. “I like it here. But eventually you’ll have the things you do with Valentine. And you’ll be with Noc. And I’ll be—”

“With me,” I finished for her.

She scooted an inch toward me and her expression turned gentle.

“Frannie, what I’m trying to say is, nearly everything is much easier here. It takes no time at all to do the things I do for you. I can’t sit around all day playing on my phone, watching the television and waiting for Glover to text when I can care for your clothes once a week and have that done in but hours, and I can arrange your hair in no time.”

She had a point.

“And people have employment here, jobs,” she continued. “Even wealthy people on the television have employment.”

“You have a job,” I reminded her.

“I do, but the only people I know are you and Noc, Circe, a little bit, and Valentine, and I don’t know her very well either. If I go to beauty school, I’ll make friends. If I get a job, I’ll meet people.”

She had a point about that too.

“So,” she forged on, “once I learn to drive and can get around on my own, I’ll go to beauty school and arrange hair as my employment. I’ll continue to take care of you, of course,” she hastened to add. “But then, once I start making this-world money, I’ll be able to get my own place to live and—”

She’d been making excellent points.

However, this last one alarmed me enough for my voice to rise as I interrupted her with, “Your own what?”

“My own place to live.”

I raised my brows. “And why would you need that?”

She opened her mouth to speak but got naught out when we heard, “Everything okay in here?”

I turned to see Noc at the doorway to his bathroom. He was wearing another suit. He looked decidedly handsome.

I would tell him that later.

I would also react later to the way his gaze became fixed on the lovely, feminine, flowy and elegant, but somewhat revealing (due to its slash from whimsical ruffled neckline to beltline) red dress that I wore.

Now, there were other things to attend to.

“Josette wishes to go to beauty school in order to obtain employment arranging hair for other people, doing this to make a living with the objective of eventually finding her own home,” I declared like I was saying, “Josette wishes to go on a violent rampage, murdering scores of people in the name of Meer, our god of war.”

It appeared to take physical effort for Noc to tear his eyes away from my dress. They moved briefly to Josette before coming to me.

“Baby, take a deep breath and think for five seconds about what you’re saying,” he urged quietly, going on, “And while you do that, think of how many people in your world get to pick the jobs they wanna have, getting paid well enough to do them that they’re able to afford places to call their own.”

I didn’t need five seconds to think on this. I had no idea how many of such people lived in my world who were able to do that. I didn’t even care.

I just knew if Josette wanted that, I wanted that for her.

And she was saying she wanted that.

I drew in a breath and I did it turning to her.

“You do this knowing, when you leave me, if aught happens you don’t like, for instance you begin to feel lonely, you always have a home with me,” I declared.

Her upper lip started quivering.

“Do not weep,” I warned, feeling my own nose stinging.

The words were trembling when she returned, “I won’t.”

Noc interrupted our moment. “Right, before you two ruin your makeup, meaning you’ll have to wipe it all off and put it on again, can we get the hell outta here and get this fucked-up dinner done?”

I turned again to him as Josette said, “I’m ready. I just need to go grab my bag.”

She squeezed out of the space while I took in Noc’s expression.

Tonight was our dinner with Dax Lahn and the director of the organization he supported.

A dinner I’d arranged that Circe would attend.

She was attending, however she didn’t know Dax would be there.

I knew Noc was not anticipating this evening with glee.

Now, studying him, I saw he was actually dreading it.

I moved to him, lifting a hand and laying it on his chest, swaying close.

“You don’t need to go,” I told him softly.

“We’ve had this discussion,” he replied.

“We have, but Josette and I can easily take a taxi—”

He shook his head, his jaw getting hard. “You’re not gonna be sitting at a table with this Savage guy without me sitting right beside you.”

My Noctorno.

So protective.

“I don’t know him,” he carried on. “That means I don’t trust him. And that means you or Jo or Circe are not gonna be sitting at a table with him unless I’m there. And since you all are gonna be there, I’m gonna be there.”

Oh, my Noctorno.

So protective of all of those who had a place in his heart.

I smiled up at him.

“Babe, that dress, that smile, your perfume, your hand on me, knowin’ I can get right to your nipple just sliding a hand inside that slit because I can tell you’re not wearing a bra, you want this done tonight, you best go get your bag too. You don’t do that and fast, you’re gonna be bent over the sink, Jo is gonna get an earful and we’re gonna be way fuckin’ late,” he growled.

I felt a lovely tingle as my eyelids lowered and my smile changed, but, wisely, I moved away from him to enter the bedroom where my reticule was on the bed.

I did this deciding to share with him that I’d very much like to engage in the activity he’d threatened me with.

However, I’d do that later too.

I was making sure I had everything I needed, screwing the cap shut firmly and sliding the lip gloss I still held into a side pocket of the little clutch when Noc spoke again.

I looked to him as he did so and saw he’d turned my way and was leaning his shoulder into the doorjamb, watching me.

“You wanna tell me why Valentine has all but disappeared?”

I did.

Yet I didn’t.

“She’s seeing to business, Noc. She’d been in my old world training me for some time. Being home, there’s much she needs to catch up on.”

This was not a complete lie for Valentine had told me that same thing.

I watched Noc’s regard turn penetrating.

“Just to say, gorgeous,” he started in a low tone, “anytime you keep somethin’ from me, no matter what it’s about, you better have a really fuckin’ good reason.”

“She’s lost a lover,” I whispered.

I saw Noc’s body come alert as he bit out, “Fuck. Breakup? Or…lost?”

“I don’t believe he’s lost lost,” I answered. “Just lost to her. She’s quite heartsick.”

That, he looked like he didn’t believe. “Valentine? Heartsick?”

I nodded.

“Fuck,” he repeated, quieter this time.

“I, well, women tend to—”

He shook his head, pushing away from the jamb and coming to me. “Say no more, Frannie.” He made it to me and put a hand to my waist. “That’s you lookin’ after your girl. I don’t need to know her business. In other words, you keepin’ her situation to yourself is a really good reason.”

He understood.

And I loved that.

I smiled up at him again.

He looked to my smile then he dipped his head and put his lips to it.

When he lifted away, he asked, “You ready to go?”

“I have been for several days now, my dearest.” I tipped my head to the side. “Are you?”

He gave a slight shrug, stepped away but grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door stating, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

We collected Josette.

Noc helped us both into his SUV (for Josette was wearing heels as well this night and she actually needed his assistance as she didn’t have near as much practice as me).

Then he drove us to the restaurant where Dax Lahn would meet his Circe.

I sat mostly in silence as we rode, listening with half an ear to Josette chattering and Noc interjecting every once in a while.

I did this because I was relishing my anticipation for what was to come and tamping down my impatience that it would not come faster.

There was nothing better than the time before your carefully laid plans played out.

In other words, I could not wait.

 

* * * * *

 

I aimed my behind toward the seat as Noc held out my chair for me.

Drinks and final explanations to Dax out of the way, my generous donation would be anonymously forwarded to First Mother House in the next week.

We’d met Patricia, and a check Noc showed me how to write for fifty thousand dollars that I’d be presenting to her that night was in my bag.

All seemed to be going well.

Dax was being friendly and respectful.

And after some circling of the savages, Noc and Dax seemed to settle in with each other.

I wasn’t certain if Dax had worn him down and gained his trust with his manner, but Noc was no longer eyeing him with unhidden intensity. This was something that Dax, at first, seemed to take as his due (likely as he’d expect I would share the awkwardness of our first meeting with Noc and Noc would react to that). When his friendliness to Josette and myself didn’t diminish Noc’s focus, it caused Dax’s alertness to increase until the sheer maleness wafting around us felt like it might cause me to choke.

Josette did very well at hiding it (from all but me, then again, neither man was paying much mind to Josette considering they were using so much of their own to size each other up) but I saw she found this amusing.

I did not.

Although it was attractive, from both men, especially Noc because I knew why he was behaving in such a way, it went on so long, it was also trying.

Fortunately, Patricia arrived. We met her. She was lovely. Her addition to our party meant the men were forced to be outwardly civil to each other. And not long after we were told our table was ready.

The problem was, Circe had not yet arrived and she was supposed to do just that ten minutes ago.

I sat but tipped my head back to look up at Noc who was standing behind me with his hand on my chair.

“I think I may need to text someone, darling,” I murmured.

“Leave it,” he said.

“Noc—”

He bent toward me.

“Circe got a crystal ball too?” he asked in a voice only I could hear.

Oh balls.

Would she look into it to see us, or where we were to have dinner to ascertain what she should wear (something I would do), or for any reason, therefore see Dax and decide not to come?

“Perhaps,” I answered.

“Then leave it,” Noc repeated. “If she figured out what you’re up to, we’ll put that fire out later. Now, I’m hungry. I want to eat. I want this night done. And I want you in that dress at my house, just you and me.”

I pressed my lips together.

He touched his to my jaw, straightened, pushed my chair to the table and then took his seat beside me.

I set my purse on the table beside my place setting, noting that as Noc and I spoke Dax had helped Josette and Patricia to their seats. Now he was watching Noc and me both closely.

When his regard finally settled only on me, he did not look alert and attuned to any action of the other alpha in his proximity.

His look was kind and warm, clearly communicating he was pleased I had such a protector after all he’d assumed I’d suffered.

Taking in that look, I gave him a small smile, hiding the triumph I felt inside for he was just perfect for Circe at the same time hiding a far more irritable thought.

This being…where the bloody hell was Circe?

“We seem to have an extra chair,” Patricia noted.

“Yes, we do,” Josette said quickly. “I forgot to mention, we invited a friend of ours. I hope you don’t mind. We thought she, too, would be interested in the work you do.”

Patricia smiled at Josette. “I don’t mind. I’d shout about the First Mother House from the rooftops if I could.”

I smiled at her benignly as she spoke.

Then I felt something. Something sudden and something fierce. It made me look away from Patricia and cut my eyes to Dax.

When I did, I felt my insides seize.

“Shit, fuck,” Noc muttered under his breath.

He felt it too.

Or saw it.

Or both.

Dax had been in the process of flipping open his menu.

He was no longer in this process.

Indeed, I didn’t think he even knew he held a menu in his hand.

Indeed, I didn’t think he even knew he was seated at a table in an eating establishment with company.

His eyes were locked at a point across the room.

And his expression was…

Well it was…

Savage.

I felt another tingle as I tore my gaze from him and looked across the room.

At what I saw, I nearly crowed aloud with delight.

Circe was wearing a champagne-colored dress with a tiered skirt made of the most extraordinary lace, an unusual embroidered bodice and very thin straps. It was delicate, chic, but flirty.

And obviously expensive.

Someone had been using their treasure well and it wasn’t just me.

Her hair was down in a tousled riot of curls that fell over her shoulders and even in her face.

Which was what she was seeing to as she moved toward our table, flipping her hair out of her eyes in a manner I’d seen several times from women espousing hair products during what Noc explained were “commercials” on the television.

Her makeup glinted with peachy-bronze beauty.

She was divine.

That was, she was divine until she got her hair out of her face, started to drop her hand, looked fully at our table with a smile, and obviously just then noticed one particular member of our party.

Thus she tripped.

Badly.

Her bag held in one hand went flying, her other hand went out to find purchase to save herself from falling and caught on a seated, elderly man’s shoulder.

He cried out in surprise as he took some of her weight.

Noc grunted, “Shit, fuck,” and I felt his movements.

I looked his way to see he was pushing his chair back, preparing to go in aid of Circe.

He was too late.

Dax was out of his seat and charging in her direction.

He didn’t even know she was coming in ours.

I looked to Josette.

She felt my regard and looked to me.

I smiled.

She let out a giggle.

“Are you all right?”

At his rumble, my attention returned to five feet away where Dax had one hand (now unnecessarily) on her waist steadying her, the other one held her clutch, which he’d clearly collected on his way.

Circe had her head tipped back, staring up at him, wide-eyed with lips parted, taking the clutch from him and doing this like her hand was moving through molasses.

Enchanting.

However, in his care, Dax misinterpreted her look for he moved into her protectively, bent his neck and cast his concerned gaze down to her feet, asking, “Did you twist an ankle? Are you hurt?”

Circe stared mutely at his profile.

He looked again to her.

“Do you need some ice?” he queried.

She remained silent, staring at him.

Then, suddenly, she appeared to get visibly woozy, her torso swaying gracefully (if a bit drunkenly) and in order not to collapse at his feet, she lifted a hand and placed it on his biceps.

At her touch, they both froze.

In fact, it felt like the entirety of the room froze.

I held my breath.

They gazed into each other’s eyes.

Circe started swaying again.

This time…

Forward.

I felt my lips curl up in what I knew was undisguised glee.

I barely heard Dax’s next.

But I heard it.

“Honey,” he whispered, a teasing lilt to his deep voice, most assuredly a man who knew his effect on women, and right then most assuredly pleased he was having that effect on Circe. “You need to speak.”

“You’re…” Circe trailed off but began again. “You are…”

Not taking his one hand from her waist, Dax lifted his other in the (minimal) space between them, an offer for her to take it in greeting.

“Dax Lahn,” he introduced at the same exact time she breathed, “Mine.”

I saw his very broad shoulders straighten with surprise at her assertion.

Then I saw the color drain from her face.

“Shit, fuck, fuck,” Noc bit out low, the vicinity of his voice telling me he was standing behind my chair.

“I’m sorry,” Circe said, swaying again.

This time back.

Drat!

“So, so sorry. So…very…sorry,” she chanted, her cheeks now flaming.

She took a hasty step away out of Dax’s hold, glanced at our table and then turned on her attractive champagne-colored, spike-heeled sandal and dashed gracefully (thank the Goddess Adele, no trips, or worse, falls) out of the restaurant.

Drat!

I quickly pushed back my chair, aiming it away from Noc who was still standing behind me. I rose and darted after her.

“Frannie,” Noc called on a clip.

“Do you know her?” Dax asked as I passed him.

I kept darting even as I looked over my shoulder and assured, “Give me but a moment. We’ll be back.”

I only caught half a glance at Noc, and seeing in that scant second his expression, I had a feeling he might also offer spankings for other reasons.

I couldn’t think of that.

I had to get to Circe, calm her down and then get her to our table, smooth things out and do what clearly would be minimal work at finishing making a match.

I made it through the seating area, the bar, the reception and out the front door.

I looked right.

No Circe.

I looked left and saw her rolling up on her toes with impatience as she shouted after the black-short-pants-white-shirt-wearing fellow who took Noc’s SUV when we’d arrived and drove it away (Noc’s explanation: a “valet”).

“Please hurry!” I heard her cry after him. “It’s an emergency!”

Blast!

“Circe,” I called.

She whipped my way, looking at me, beyond me fearfully, then at me, all in a blink of an eye.

And then her beautiful face grew hard.

I hurried to her (as much as I hurried, it was undignified to do thus so I didn’t do it, shall we say, noticeably) and I was three feet away when she lifted a hand, jabbed a pointed finger at the restaurant and accused, “This is what Valentine was up to and I can see she roped you into it too.”

I stopped walking and started speaking, “Circe, we—”

She leaned toward me, jabbing her hand again at the building, and hissed, “I made a fool of myself in there.”

Ah.

That was her concern.

I smiled at her. “You absolutely did not. You couldn’t have made a more effective entrance if we’d practiced it.”

She leaned back, her face still set. “Yes. However, we didn’t practice it because I had no idea what I was walking into.”

“I think it’s pretty clear it went better this way,” I shared as if I was a teacher instructing a student.

“You do?” she asked, but she didn’t wish an answer for she immediately did that herself. “Well I don’t.”

I didn’t understand.

“He’s clearly taken with you,” I noted. “And he’s thus and you barely spoke a word.”

“Has it occurred to you I don’t want him to be taken with me?” she shot back.

How absurd.

I’d simply witnessed what had happened in there.

She felt it.

“Circe, you may try to convince yourself—”

I only got half of that out and stopped talking altogether for she was talking over me.

“No. It hasn’t occurred to you, or Valentine. If it had, you wouldn’t have orchestrated that debacle I was just forced to perpetrate.”

It was then I felt the tickle of unease in my belly.

“My dear, that was not a debacle. It was—”

“Humiliating,” she spat.

I swung back at the emotion in her tone then took a step forward, lifting a hand her way.

“Please, let me expla—”

She didn’t even allow me to finish that.

“No explanation needed,” she snapped, looked high above my shoulder and a change came over her face that cut straight through to the bone. “Did you know?” she asked, her voice no longer angry, but broken.

Oh no.

“Circe,” Noc said gently.

“You knew,” she whispered, the expression on her face now one of a woman betrayed.

Bloody hell.

Keeping my focus on Circe and not looking at Noc, who I felt now at my back, I shook my still-lifted hand, stating swiftly, “He tried to talk me out of it.”

Her attention sliced to me, she hid the hurt and her face twisted. “Of course he did. He’s not that kind of man. But you’re just that kind of woman, aren’t you?”

The verbal strike came so unexpected I couldn’t stop myself from reacting physically, doing this like I’d been slapped.

“Circe.” Her name from Noc’s lips now came as a growl.

A disappointed one.

And a warning one.

She turned her gaze to him. “She is,” she bit off. “And you should know that.” She looked to me. “I know all about you. Baldur used to talk about you. He thought you were magnificent. Any time he mentioned you it seemed he was half in love with you.”

This was not a compliment.

Far from it.

And the idea of King Baldur, the Loathsome-But-Thankfully-Now-Dead finding me magnificent turned my stomach nauseatingly.

“I see you think what happened in there was not what actually happened in there,” Noc returned, “seeing as Lahn is right now prowling the foyer like a caged animal, looking for any excuse to march out here to check on you.”

Her pallor rose instantly as her eyes darted toward the doors to the restaurant.

This was not the right thing to say.

I stepped closer to her and immediately tried to soothe her fears. “He won’t. Noc will go to him.” I looked up at him. “And now might be a good time to do that, darling,” I suggested.

“No fuckin’ way,” he denied.

“I’ll be all right,” I assured him.

“You always are,” Circe cut in. “Wreaking havoc then blithely going on your way.”

I looked to her.

“My intention tonight was—” I began to explain.

“Your usual,” she intervened. “Malice. Wickedness. Toying with human beings just for sport.”

Without telling my feet to do so, at the force of her vitriol, I took a step back and ran into Noc.

His hand fell warm and reassuring on my waist.

I did not feel reassured.

“Your car, ma’am,” the valet said.

Circe turned to him and didn’t hesitate marching to her car where another black-short-pants-white-shirt-wearing young man was holding open her door.

“Circe, let me drive you home,” Noc called. “You’re upset. I’ll get you home safe and we can talk while I do.” His voice dipped and his fingers on me squeezed as he said, “We’ll call you and Josette a taxi.”

“Absolutely not,” Circe refused, swinging around the opened door to her car.

“It’s not smart to drive in your state,” Noc told her.

“I die in a fiery crash, that’s on her too,” she retorted, jerking her glorious head of hair my way before she folded into her car and slammed the door.

Noc pulled me out of the way even if we were of a safe distance, not to mention on the pavement, as she raced off in her vehicle starting fast and going faster.

I stared after her.

“You wanna tell me what in the fuck is going on?”

Still unrecovered from the altercation with Circe, I did not want to turn at Dax’s angry voice.

I had no choice but to turn at Dax’s angry voice.

Noc turned with me.

And oh yes.

Dax was angry.

My.

“Didn’t take a mind reader to see she was distraught and you let her get in her car and drive away?” Dax asked Noc incredulously and more than a little hostilely.

“She wasn’t in the mood to let cooler heads prevail,” Noc returned, doing this bitingly. “And now I gotta get my girls, my car and go after her to make sure she gets home okay.”

“Yeah, you do that, but do it knowing I’ll be wanting an explanation about why I feel like I’ve just been played and worse,” he lifted a long arm and stabbed a strong finger in the direction Circe roared off, “she was.”

“Fuck, shit, fuck,” Noc swore.

“You standing there being pissed is not making sure she gets home okay,” Dax informed him impatiently.

“Go get Josette,” Noc ordered to me.

Oh no.

I looked up at him. “I think I’d rather not leave you two alone.”

“Go get Jo, Frannie.”

And let the man I love get torn apart by a savage in front of an elegant other-world restaurant (or, he could try, Noc could likely defend himself quite well, still, they both could get hurt in the process)?

Categorically…

No.

I stared up at him and didn’t move.

He growled, no words, just the noise.

It was attractive.

But the look on his face meant this mingled with not a small amount of downright terrifying.

He turned back to Dax.

“Circe is a friend of ours. Frannie met you. Liked your manner. Liked the look of you. Liked your involvement with First Mother House. I’ll say no more about that, but I’m thinkin’ you’re a bright guy and you can put two and two together to understand why she orchestrated a fixup between the two of you at the same time you can put it together why Circe reacted violently to that, especially when it’s clear she took one look at you and was into you.”

“Are you…fucking…shitting me?”

As this ominous rumble came from Dax, I took a step back, my hands on Noc to try to make him take a step back with me, but he didn’t budge.

“So now you know what that was all about,” Noc went on. “And we’ll be sorting that out. You can tell me how pissed you are right now after you name your first son after me,” Noc stated audaciously and again looked at me. “Now, baby,” he dipped his face to mine, “go…get…Jo.”

His tone invited no other response but the one I gave him.

“I’ll just go get Jo.”

He straightened.

I started on my errand trying not to look like I was moving as hurriedly as I was.

Something made me stop when I’d come alongside Dax (not close alongside him, just alongside him, I had something to say but I was no fool).

Slowly, he stopped scowling at Noc and turned his scowl to me.

“She’s the most delicate thing you’ll ever hold in your hands. You’ll win her. She’ll reward you for the effort. But mark my words, if you ever hurt her, I’ll fucking annihilate you.”

He no longer looked fierce. His chin had jerked back into his neck and he looked stunned.

He likely wasn’t used to being threatened.

I did not pause to take in the incongruity of the fact that, even stunned, Dax Lahn was immensely attractive.

I hurried without appearing to hurry to collect Jo.

 

* * * * *

 

I dashed up the steps of Valentine’s home in my spiked, red heels.

“Frannie,” Noc called after me.

I didn’t say a word or slow my gait.

I kept charging up the stairs.

“Goddamn it, Franka,” Noc clipped.

I made the upper landing and stomped angrily to Valentine’s magic room.

I had collected Jo at the restaurant. We’d driven to Circe’s. Even if we’d seen the lights on from the outside, we’d gone into her apartment building. There we’d ascertained she was quite all right when Noc knocked on her door and it burst into a sheet of magical, golden flame that caused no harm to the door but blew a wave of heat in our direction that needed no words to share Circe wished us to go away.

We went away.

The drive home was silent.

Noc took my key to Valentine’s house and let us in the front door silently.

And I’d made my ascent to her magic room quickly, but also silently.

I flipped the switch and a charming lamp with a jade-green glass shade lit on the table that held her crystal ball.

I went directly to it and touched my hand to its cool surface.

Imbued with her magic but being touched by mine, a striking, if obviously confused, drift of teal smoke formed inside it.

“Franka,” Noc said from the door.

“Valentine,” I snapped at the ball. “Come. Now.”

I touched the crystal again feeling the emotion swell in my breast, the rush of power wash over my skin, barely keeping hold on the guilt clawing inside me.

A waft of cyan smoked the orb.

My magic was winning.

If anyone touched my crystal and filled it with their magic, I’d lose my mind.

I was hoping Valentine felt the same.

“Valentine,” I hissed. “Come to me. Now.”

“Frannie, sweetheart,” Noc said from close, his voice now calming.

I looked to him and was not surprised to see the entire room colored blue.

“My magic, at this moment, is not under my control therefore it would be safer if you absented yourself,” I told him.

“Baby, you need to calm down,” he replied.

“You do indeed,” Valentine declared and both our eyes went to the sound of her voice.

She’d arrived and the minute I saw her she lifted her hand, waved nonchalantly, and the blue cleared away as did the residual emerald smoke that heralded her arrival.

“You also need to explain to me why you interrupted me in what I was doing and practically pulled me away,” she demanded irately. “Calling to me on an astral plane is one thing, Franka. Dragging me bodily from my pursuits is another.”

Now that was a shock. I had no idea I had the power to do that at all, much less do it to a witch who had the awesome power of Valentine.

I did not make a comment on that.

“I orchestrated a meeting with Dax and Circe this evening,” I informed her.

She crossed her arms on her chest. “Yes, I’m aware of that. I felt a disturbance in the force.”

Noc made an agitated movement at my side but I was focused on her flippancy (and wouldn’t understand just how flippant it was until Noc explained it by making me watch a very fantastical, but quite excellent, film, wisely doing this sometime later).

“I thought you said you were talented in intrigue,” she remarked.

“And I thought I had a partner in this particular intrigue,” I returned.

Her face shadowed. “You’re quite aware I’m not available for this project at this time.”

“And now I’m quite aware that affecting schemes in this world might end in a woman operating a vehicle while excessively agitated. Doing this rather than rushing from a room to a sleigh or carriage, at worst, but usually to a fainting couch where she can play out her drama, or in this case, understandable emotion at what she perceives as a betrayal, without putting her life in danger behind the wheel of a car.”

It was then I saw the real Valentine for she looked stricken for a moment before she hid it.

“Perhaps we should allow some time to pass before we again take up the reins on this endeavor,” she suggested.

“Absolutely not,” I returned, shaking my head and taking a step toward her. “The die has been cast. You weren’t there. It could be the disturbance you felt wasn’t her upset at the betrayal she thought was committed against her but instead the moment she clapped eyes on Dax Lahn. Or it could have been the moment he touched her. Or it could have been the moment she touched him. That was, before she fell apart and rushed dramatically from a crowded restaurant. Oh, and this was after she nearly fell flat on her face the moment she laid eyes on Dax. All of this, incidentally, happening over the approximate expanse of thirty seconds.”

“It seems you are clever with intrigues,” Valentine murmured admiringly.

Well!

It was safe to venture I’d had enough.

I took another step toward her, the manner in which I did causing Noc to slide an arm around my stomach from his position at my back and waylay me.

So I stopped.

“As difficult as the road that lay ahead of us is, that us including Circe, we must carry on before she uses the bleakness of her past to harden her heart to a future of promise,” I proclaimed.

“I see what you mean.”

That was the only response Valentine gave.

“Valentine, I would say I need you but I don’t. Circe does,” I snapped. “I’m aware the time is not right for you but I’m afraid, my sister, you need to see beyond your own sorrow in order to lead our other sister from hers.”

I watched her mouth tighten and knew this was due to the fact I uttered those words while Noc was in the room. I sensed she was a private woman. The very idea of Noc understanding her current plight would not be welcome.

I could not worry on that. She would endure.

Circe, however, had had enough enduring to last a lifetime.

“Respect, Valentine, what’s going on with you is not my business, but you gotta know Frannie is right,” Noc thankfully entered the conversation. “What happened tonight was fucking brilliant and a complete disaster. You don’t strike while the iron is hot, he’ll lose her. And I can tell you right now it’s taking all that man’s got to convince himself not to call his investigators to find her so he can find her. And when he does that, drag her to his beach house or mountain condo or whatever that guy’s got that’s remote so she can’t run away and then convince her she’s the one not having the barest inkling he’ll be scaring the absolute shit outta her. That is, if he hasn’t already called his investigators.”

And the real Valentine made another appearance.

“Merde,” Valentine whispered.

Finally.

We were getting to her.

“And, just sayin’,” Noc carried on, “he tries that shit, it’s gonna be a lot of explaining on her part when she makes her door a sheet of magical flame to ward him off. A man thinks his drive for a woman has made him so insane he’s seeing things, like doors bursting into flame but not catching fire, he’ll back off real quick.”

“Merde,” Valentine said louder.

Excellent.

We’d gotten to her.

“I think it best at this juncture to let Circe alone,” I declared. “For the night, at least. We cannot let her retreat, but we need to allow her to lick her wounds. You, however, need to see to Dax. He needs to be controlled. In case you haven’t absorbed all we’re telling you, to say he’s taken with her, and was upon clapping eyes on her, is an understatement. I don’t know what Lahn felt when he saw his future golden queen walking in that hideous parade. But I can now say I hold no surprise he chased her down on his steed and claimed her on the rocks of Korwahk before nary a word was spoken.”

“I’ll see to Dax,” Valentine stated. “You and I will speak more tomorrow.”

I felt my body relax and replied, “Thank you.”

“And I’ll say something now, Franka,” she stated in a severe tone. “You must beware how you wield your power. Allowing your emotions to control it rather than your mind can have catastrophic consequences. I’ve told this to you before. I won’t share it again.”

I made no response to that for she had shared this thus her admonishment hit true.

“Is it all, erm, good up there?” Josette called and the sound of her voice told me she was likely at the foot of the stairs.

“All good, Jo,” Noc called back. “Be down in a minute.”

“Right,” she yelled.

I stared as Valentine started to disappear in a billow of green.

“Valentine,” I snapped, feeling we were not yet done.

“I’ll see to Dax. Until tomorrow,” she said and disappeared.

“Bloody hell that woman is vexing,” I bit out.

“Babe.”

I glared at where Valentine had been for a long measure then turned in his arm.

The instant he had my eyes, he asked, “You okay?”

“What, pray, happened tonight, my dearest, darling Noc, that would make you think I was even near feeling okay?” I asked back.

“Right, well that answered that,” he muttered but did it watching me closely.

“I miscalculated,” I declared. “Appallingly.”

Noc didn’t utter a noise.

“I thought, with Circe’s approach and, well…activities with you at the Winter Palace, she was ready to move onwards in healing. Valentine felt the same. It would seem we were wrong.”

Noc remained silent.

“Unspeakably wrong,” I went on.

Noc did not confirm, or alternately make an effort to appease.

He said nothing.

And nothing was not helping.

“Noc,” I prompted.

“You’re on that. You’ll sort it,” he stated. “I don’t need to go over it because I can tell you’re upset and anyway, there’s no need. You were there. You saw it play out.”

This was all true.

“But Circe lashed out,” he continued. “At you. Maybe understandable but still unacceptable. So shit went south tonight with Circe. Whatever. Only thing I give a shit about right now is, she cut into you. I didn’t just see, I actually felt those cuts slice deep, so are you okay?”

His words the night I came to his world rocked through my brain.

I know what you said to Maddie, right to her face. Lo told me. He knows your story now, Frannie. Like everyone else, he’s changed his tune about you. That said, he’s still pissed about that and he’ll never forgive you for it because that’s the guy he is. He loves his wife, you wounded her, he’s never gonna let that go.

He loves his wife, you wounded her, he’s never gonna let that go.

And then…

So shit went south tonight with Circe. Whatever. Only thing I give a shit about right now is…are you okay?

I was Noc’s Franka, like Maddie was Apollo’s, Finnie was Frey’s, Circe was Lahn’s, Cora was Tor’s.

I was Noc’s.

He had that woman to love we spoke about so many months before, sitting at a fire, drinking whiskey.

And that woman was me.

“You really do love me,” I whispered, staring into his beautiful blue eyes.

His head jerked, his brows snapped together, and his look turned decidedly ominous.

“You doubted it?”

“No, darling,” I went on softly. “I’ll rephrase. You love me, you really do.”

“Uh, well…yeah,” he replied.

I melted into him, wrapped my arms around his waist and answered his question the way he wished it to be answered.

“I cannot say that her words felt good. What I can say is that she was on the defensive and feeling things I cannot begin to know how they feel. Her attack on me might not have been warranted, but in my estimation not only was it understandable, it was acceptable. I made a grave error in planning. It was her that suffered for it. So yes. It might have hurt, hearing what she said, but I’m standing here in the arms of the man I really love who really loves me in return. So I’m okay.”

He examined my face, I knew, to ascertain I was telling the truth.

His face and frame relaxed when it came clear I was.

All but his arms, they tightened, drawing me closer.

“One thing I can say for tonight, she put her hand on his arm, thought that the windows in that restaurant were gonna blow out,” he said.

“You felt it too?”

“Think they felt it in the parallel universe.”

I smiled up at him.

“Means I’m in,” he stated.

I blinked up at him.

“Pardon?”

“Baby, wasn’t lost on me, seeing the way Frey was with Finnie, the other Lahn with the other Circe, hell, knew it way back when Tor came tearing into this world to come get Cora, this love between worlds business is extreme.”

At that, I just stared up at him, still confused.

“And tonight proved it,” he finished.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“So I’m in.”

I tipped my head to the side. “You’re in?”

“Gonna help you make a match between Circe and her savage.”

He was going to help!

Delightful!

My smile that time was far bigger.

He dropped his head so his face was close to mine.

“And just so you know, when I mentioned that love between worlds business, I was talkin’ about hittin’ the door to my bathroom and seeing you in that dress. But what happened between Circe and Dax capped it.”

At his first statement, I slid my hands up his back.

After he finished his second, the fingers of both were in his hair.

So of course I used them to pull him to me and kiss him.

But because he was “in,” he was going to help me make a match, I let him take over the kiss.

Well, because of that.

And for other reasons besides.

 

* * * * *

 

In the mirror, I watched Noc shove his face into the side of my neck, feeling the shudders thunder through his powerful frame with his climax.

I had already had mine. Therefore in the throes of my afterglow, I was able to fully enjoy a visual of how our passion overwhelmed my beautiful Noctorno.

Prior to leading me to his bathroom, Noc had only taken off his suit jacket.

And he’d only taken off my panties.

This before he’d taken me, both of us facing the basin, my skirt about my hips.

And right then, I had a hand braced against the counter and a vision of my face flushed, Noc’s lost in my neck, only his thick, dark hair could be seen. I could feel his warm breath against my skin, see his hand in the slit of my dress, feel his fingers cupping my breast, his other arm out straight, his hand covering mine beside the basin.

And his cock, obviously, was still thick and hard inside me.

We were separate and we were one.

We were beauty.

I felt his fingers weaving through mine at the counter as I felt his lips brush my neck.

Then I watched him lift his head and press his jaw against the side of mine, his glorious eyes moving over us in the mirror, the expression in them not hiding he felt as me with what could be seen.

Finally, those stunning blue eyes caught mine.

Noc said nothing.

I said nothing.

We just held each other’s gazes in the mirror before he slid his hand out of my dress and lifted it to my jaw.

He needed no words to share what he wanted.

Therefore I gave it to him, turning my head and offering him my mouth.

He took it.

We kissed languidly but greedily, like kings and queens assured of their power, their treasure their reign, nevertheless indulging sumptuously in the lap of luxury that was theirs by right of birth and the grace of the gods.

When Noc finally broke the kiss, he whispered, “Ready for bed, baby?”

I nodded.

Only then did he break the connection of our bodies, but soon enough he sought it again, tangling himself in me in the warmth of his bed.

And there we slept.