“We are,” he confirmed. “Though I’m not a cop anymore, but in ways I’ll never shake, once a cop, always a cop.”
I stared into the dark a moment before turning in his hold.
He shifted his position to allow me to do this but he did it keeping me in the curve of his arm.
“You told me Valentine was going to get you a position with this city’s guard,” I said.
“She was.”
I was shocked at what I read this to mean.
“And you’ve decided, with the treasure bestowed on you in my world, to be a man of leisure?”
I was shocked at this idea because the Noctorno Hawthornes of both worlds were no men of leisure. So much not, I couldn’t credit it, wondered at it and was troubled by it, the last in regards to it possibly having something to do with me.
“No,” Noc replied. “With that I paid my way eating and drinking through four countries in your world, bought twelve cases of wine in Fleuridia, my new Suburban and this house, which, with the reno on it and the neighborhood it’s in, wasn’t cheap. But I put the bulk of it away because I’ve learned in life shit can happen and it does, without fail, so you gotta be prepared. A good way to be prepared is have more than a million dollars’ worth of gold illegally converted into cash, which is then illegally invested in foreign investments that, if I take any out, I’ll get back in cash so the IRS won’t cotton on I took a trip to a parallel universe that made me a millionaire, an explanation they won’t buy. This means I gotta keep that windfall on the down low in order to avoid a prison sentence, because no matter how smart you think you are, the IRS will catch you. And I actually did earn that treasure in a parallel universe, but they won’t believe that and since I don’t have an explanation they will believe, I gotta break the law.”
I had opened my mouth to ask but I didn’t need to bother, Noc answered me.
“And the IRS is the department in the government you pay taxes to, sugarlips. They frown on anyone not doing that and they get pretty nasty when that happens.”
“Tax collectors in my world are much the same,” I shared.
“I bet,” he muttered.
“Although I will take this opportunity to note I’m delighted to hear that you acquired so much Fleuridian wine, your explanation does not negate my question.”
“Sorry, Frannie, what I’m sayin’ is, that money is not gonna be used so I can be a man of leisure.” I could hear he found something about that amusing but he didn’t explain what that was as he continued talking. “I decided not to take a job with the ‘city guard,’ but instead work for a private firm that pays more, is more flexible with hours and will hopefully offer an interesting caseload that’s not like I’m used to so I’ll be doing something different, all of this giving me a needed change of pace.”
“And this is desired by you?” I queried.
“I didn’t know it was until Valentine gave me the option, but from what the guys who own the firm told me about what they do, it is.” I heard his head move on the pillow as I felt him dip his face closer to mine and his voice was reassuring when he continued, “It’s good, sweetheart. It’s what I want. I’m lookin’ forward to it.”
“Well, then that’s fine,” I replied.
“Glad you’re down with it,” he muttered with amusement.
I was down with it but only because he was.
“Now,” I carried on, “I’d like to know, when you said, ‘shit can happen’ and then stated it does, ‘without fail,’ what, precisely, you mean.”
His reply was instantaneous.
“Your parents abused you, probably in terms of mental and emotional abuse, since birth, but the physical shit hit at age five. The only mom I knew got cancer, fought it hard, and died anyway. Your boyfriend was kidnapped by witches and tortured to death. Your world almost was taken over by evil forces. During an investigation, I hooked up with an other-world woman who eventually led me to her this-world twin, someone I connected with, meaning I got roped into helping save your world. What, precisely, I mean is that shit can happen, crazy shit, shit that’s in-fucking-sane, and it does. Without fail.”
This could not be argued.
That said, I had a curious feeling he was not sharing all with me.
I looked into his shadowed face, and due to the hour, the mood, and our location, decided that perhaps now was not the time to press that.
He’d said everything that was his was mine to have. He was Noc, therefore I believed him.
But that didn’t mean I needed to demand everything from him immediately.
“Are you tired?” I asked.
Another smile in his answer of “Baby, wasn’t ten minutes ago, you can’t have forgotten I did all the work.”
Well!
“This is correct,” I retorted. “I also have not forgotten that you did all the work regardless of my attempts to, at first, share that endeavor, and then later beg you to stop doing all the work and provide me with what you were working toward.”
“Yeah,” he murmured warmly. “I didn’t forget that either.” He tilted in and touched his mouth to mine where he said, “You beg real pretty, sweetheart.”
Blast, but he had a talent for titillation mingled with vexation.
However, it was the first part that made me involuntarily press my body into his.
In response, Noc drifted his hand down my spine and cupped the cheek of my bottom with it, saying, “You gotta let your man get some rest, sugarlips. Then he’ll give you what you want and be able to do it the way you like it.”