“My Lady,” she said in a choked voice.
“I thought we dispensed with that,” I reminded her gently.
“No,” she stated. Lifting her hand and coughing delicately behind it, she dropped it and straightened in her chair. “That’s the last time I’ll say it, I promise. But I just want you to know, you’re My Lady.”
These words made me blink rapidly three times, feeling the sting hit my eyes.
I then straightened in my own chair and declared, “It would vex me greatly if our growing relationship meant we degenerated into simpering ninnies, weeping at every pleasantry that passed between us.”
“I’ll endeavor to be more hardened, Franka,” she promised.
“See to that,” I ordered smartly.
She fought it. I watched it. But she couldn’t control the strangled giggle that passed her lips.
I smiled at her indulgently.
I did not berate myself on doing this or doing it indulgently.
I was getting used to it.
Chapter Seven
It Was Gone
Franka
I was abed with my breakfast tray the next morning when there came a rap on the door.
I turned my head that way only to see said door open and Noc stroll through.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
Truly.
The nerve.
I wasn’t even out of bed yet!
“I’m having my breakfast,” I snapped.
“Good morning to you too,” he replied, not hiding his amusement in the face of my frustration and sauntering across the room but not coming to my bedside.
No.
He walked across the foot of the bed to the other, vacant side, and I watched in stunned silence as he put his arse to it, twisted, put his whole body to it, stretched out and settled on his side but with his body up on his forearm, facing me.
Noc in those bloody trousers and a blue shirt that did nice things to his eyes, stretched out in bed beside me.
He was impossible.
Once settled, he then reached out and selected a cantaloupe ball from my crystal bowl of fruit and popped it into his mouth.
“That’s my melon,” I kept snapping.
“Chill, baby,” he murmured, grinning at me.
“Chill?” I asked, knowing this was his-world slang, just not able to fathom what it meant.
“Relax,” he explained.
Oh.
Hmm.
That was actually quite clever, considering my ire was heated.
I didn’t relay this sentiment to him.
I declared, “I’ll relax when you get out of my bed, leave my room and allow me to eat my breakfast in peace.”
“I’ll do that when you tell me how you’re doin’ this morning and what’s up for your day,” he returned.
I turned slightly his way and queried, “Has it occurred to you how irritating it is that you consistently ignore my wishes?”
“Has it occurred to you that I know your act is bullshit so I’m gonna keep ignoring the bullshit and get on with things?” he retorted, but he wasn’t quite finished. “You like me. You like spending time with me. Stop pretending that you don’t.”
He was correct, of course. He was excellent company. Engaged. Amusing. Affectionate. Attentive. Thoughtful. Caring. And very much not hard to look at.
I was not about to share those sentiments with him either.
I turned back to my tray, picked up a triangle of buttered toast and my knife and started slathering marmalade on it as I mumbled (me! mumbling!), “It’ll be good when I’m away on a ship.”
“What?” Noc asked.
“Nothing,” I kept mumbling and continued spreading as I raised my voice and answered his question. “I’m quite all right this morning, Noc. As concerns my back, better than yesterday. And I would imagine, just in case on the morrow you find yourself curious about the same, it will be even better as healing tends to go that way.”
“Glad to hear it, sweetheart,” he said softly. “But I meant that gig with your folks yesterday and your brother probably showin’ today.”
I turned my head his way, lifting my toast and inquiring, “The gig with my parents, if I’m to understand you, is done. Behind me. And my brother and I might not have a close, loving relationship, but we’ve been through a good deal together so I’m looking forward to his visit.”
I then put the toast between my lips, sunk my teeth into it and munched.
“Big stuff like what happened yesterday can mess with your head, Frannie. Feels like a relief at the time, then the demons everyone fights in their heads start playing with you,” he noted.
The demons everyone fights?
He had demons?
This I found surprising. And intriguing. He seemed confident in all matters. The way he held and used his body. The way he spoke. The way he communicated with others.
I suddenly felt hungry for something I’d given up on doing.
This being gathering all the information I could on a certain subject and not caring how I had to obtain that information.
This time the subject was Noc.
Fortunately, after Kristian left, Josette and I would be away so I couldn’t indulge in this pastime.
“There are no demons playing with my mind,” I assured him. “I had some unease prior to yesterday’s visit but it couldn’t have gone better if I’d planned every second prior to entering that jail.”
“Good to hear that too,” he muttered, reaching out and snatching more of my cantaloupe.
I sighed.
I then shared, “As you’ve spoken it repeatedly, you know my name is pronounced Frahn-kah.”
His brows drew together, he swallowed my melon and he said, “Well…yeah.”