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.