I didn’t have to do that.
Noc was my Noc.
My savior. My friend.
Now…my lover.
He just gave.
In other words, we’d shared beauty but seconds ago.
And he gave me more.
He did this as he burst out laughing and he did not come close to getting it under control before he was kissing me, laughing into my mouth.
Bar none, it was the most beautiful moment of my life.
Bar…
None.
Even the climax he’d just given me at the same moment he’d shared his own.
So, of course, I kissed him back.
Fervently.
Alas, he eventually had to lift his head so we both could breathe, but I was delighted to see he was still smiling broadly when he did.
“They deliver,” he declared.
“Pardon?” I asked.
“Pizza places. They deliver. So the answer is yes. You’re gonna get your pizza. Though I’m not gonna get you drunk after that because you’re gonna eat, I’m gonna eat, then we’re gonna fuck until we can’t keep our eyes open anymore. Then we’re gonna sleep. We’ll wake up. We’ll fuck again. And then I’ll take you home but only so you can change clothes so I can take you to Café du Monde to get beignets.”
“You’ve used this word often, my dearest, but I’m afraid I don’t understand how you’re using the word ‘fuck’ now.”
He flexed his hips into mine, his semi-hard shaft made its presence known (not that I forgot it was there), and he did this dipping his face so the tip of his nose touched mine.
“Fuck, baby. We’re gonna fuck. And we’re gonna do it a lot.”
“You mean,” I whispered, “make love?”
“We’ll do that too.”
I blinked.
“I don’t—” I started to tell him I didn’t understand, but he interrupted me by lifting up, pulling out as he did so, but also moving me at the same time that in the end he was sitting on the side of the bed and I was straddling his lap.
“Pizza first,” he announced. “While we wait for it, I’ll explain fucking versus making love. Though, I might not explain it,” he gave me a grin I’d never seen before, one I felt tighten my nipples, “I might demonstrate. Then we’ll do both until I wear you out. We got a plan?”
Until he wore me out?
I felt goose pimples raise all over my skin.
“I, uh…well…”
How did one answer that question?
I decided on, “I suppose so.”
The arm he had around my waist dropped, he lifted the skirt of the open dress I still wore and cupped one cheek of my bare behind.
“You got something else you wanna do?” he murmured, his eyes on my mouth.
I was in an entirely different universe. There were likely billions of things we could do.
“No,” I answered immediately.
His gaze lifted to mine.
“Then we got a plan,” he stated.
“Yes, Noc,” I replied. “We have a plan.”
He grinned before he surged up and set me on my feet.
And promptly, he pulled his jeans over his arse, bent and kissed the tip of my nose as he yanked the edges of my dress together (a fruitless endeavor, the belt was in the bed) and then he set about putting that plan into action.
Chapter Fourteen
Ten Times
Franka
After Noc gave me a dressing gown to put on that the inn supplied (an unusual but lovely amenity), sat me down at the side of the bed and took off my shoes (a tenderness I would not soon forget), he divested me of the beads he’d bestowed on me and guided me to the small room attached to our chamber.
I stood in it with him blinking my eyes against the unnatural brightness.
“Right, basics,” Noc declared, and he sounded like he was about to impart something important, so I attempted to focus on him through the glare.
He was moving to the only chair in the space, and it didn’t look comfortable.
“Toilet,” he stated. “Self-explanatory,” he went on.
This was not true.
Until he lifted the lid.
By the gods.
It was a commode.
“Do your thing, use that.” He pointed to something that looked like rolled tissue fastened to the wall. “When you’re done, hit this,” he finished and depressed a lever.
Water noises filled the room and I stared in astonishment as the water in the bowl disappeared while other water whooshed around the sides, undoubtedly making it so anything that was deposited in said bowl vanished without a trace.
Pure brilliance!
“Extraordinary,” I breathed, watching the water swirl.
There was a grin in Noc’s voice as he grabbed me about the back of my neck, yanked me into his side and continued, saying, “Sink,” while taking us to the basin. “Hot, cold,” he stated, twisting knobs that made water flow rather forcefully into the basin without pumping.
“By the gods,” I whispered, unable to tear my eyes away from this glorious spectacle.
“Left’s always hot,” he carried on, turning off the left knob.
Always…hot?
But how? I saw no fire.
I didn’t get the chance to ask, Noc kept speaking.
“But it doesn’t come out that way at first. That said, Frannie, be careful because hot sometimes can get hot. Right’s always cold.”
I lifted what I knew were rounded eyes to him.
He looked into them, burst out laughing and turned me fully into him, wrapping both his arms around me.
He then dropped his face so it was close to mine, stopped laughing but continued smiling, his eyes dancing, and he said, “You look like that over a sink and toilet, beautiful, the next couple of weeks are gonna be a goddamned blast.”