"Don"t stop lookin" at me," he growled.
"I won"t," I whimpered, arching into him, our position, his words, neither lost on me.
Like our first time.
Exactly.
"So G.o.dd.a.m.ned beautiful," he grunted as his thrusts picked up speed. "Always so G.o.dd.a.m.ned beautiful."
"Darling," I breathed, grinding into him, moving urgently, the need nearly overwhelming me.
"Hold on, Frannie. Not yet. Look into my eyes."
"You have me," I whispered, and he very much did, now in every way.
My hands were roaming his skin, hungry.
His strokes gathered power as he drove into me.
I moaned, losing hold.
Noc felt it.
"Don"t lose my eyes, baby."
"I...won"t, my love," I gasped.
His face darkened, his fingers in mine clenched, I felt the metal at one biting into the webbing and he groaned, "Now, Frannie. Let go."
As the sound of his climax powered through the room, the softer wisps of my own filtered through it and I arced into him, pulling him deep, clasping him to me, and Noc poured himself inside me, unhindered.
I was shuddering through the final glorious moments when he collapsed on top of me, sinking his face into my neck.
I took him happily, memorizing the feel of him I"d already never forget, the smell, the sound of his harsh breathing whispering against the skin under my ear.
In these times, we never needed to speak.
And this time, so different, but yet the same, this was something we still did not need.
However, Noc felt something had to be said.
And he said it by raising his head, taking off some of his weight, and then lifting our hands he still had laced together.
He brought them to his lips, his eyes on me, and kissed the large Sjofn ice diamond there that nestled perfectly with the plain gold band underneath.
He wore a band as well, on the hand that still held my head.
I"d slipped it on under the bemused eyes of a Vallee in a Dwelling of the G.o.ds just an hour before.
His gesture was all that needed to be said from my new husband to me, his new wife.
And for long moments as we gazed at each other, his handsome lips to the beautiful rings he"d bestowed on me, that was all that was said.
Eventually, Noc pressed our hands to his chest and in the most profound moment of my life (and I"ll note all the others on that list carried memories of him too), he declared, "We are so gonna p.i.s.s everyone off that we eloped on a parallel universe and we didn"t invite anyone from this world or the other."
I felt my face form a scowl at his mentioning a discussion we"d already had.
One which we ended in whole-hearted agreement (of a sort, Noc was much the champion of being married, doing it in my homeland, something that he knew meant much to me, and it being rather private-he was not quite the champion of going it totally alone, but he"d given in...for me).
"This is not their moment, Noc."
"Not sure Sue"s gonna see it that way," he replied. "Or Dad. Or Dash. Or Aurora. Orly. Finnie. Frey"s gonna give me tons of s.h.i.t. And I don"t even wanna think how Jo is gonna react."
"She"s dealing with her own emotion concerning that odious Glover," I snapped and Noc"s brows rose.
"Odious? How"s Glover odious, sugarlips? It was Jo who dumped him."
It was indeed.
She"d explained this days prior to our being spirited away for our holiday, stating, "I tried, Frannie. I really tried to see it in him. But watching you and Noc, he didn"t have it. So in the end, he just didn"t do it for me."
She was falling into our new-world language, then again she would as we"d been in that new world now for many months.
She was also quite right about taking her leave of Glover.
If he didn"t do it for her, it was time to sc.r.a.pe him off.
"It isn"t easy dumping someone, Noc," I shared. "She feels awful."
"She should. He was totally gone for her. And he was a good guy."
"Not good enough, this, I will note, I always knew."
Noc shook his head but did it grinning.
He was still grinning when he declared, "We need to have another ceremony when we get to Rimee Keep."
"Whyever would we do that?"
He didn"t answer, he kept on his bent.
"And we need to have another one when we get home."
"The deed is already done," I pointed out.
"Right, you tell Sue she can"t wear a crazy hat to some shindig," he returned. "And by the way, being married here is not legal at home and we get a tax break for being married."
"We"ll have a ceremony at home," I stated instantly.
Another grin from Noc as he muttered, "That"s my Frannie. If she can keep her money so she can spend it on herself or anyone else she wants to lavish s.h.i.t on, she"s gonna do it."
"I do not mind your government knowing we"re eternally joined. As you say, if I felt it prudent to part with the money it would cost, when we returned home, I"d hire an operator of an airplane to write it in the sky."
That did not get me a grin.
That earned me Noc dropping his mouth to mine and giving me a deep, wet, heated kiss.
When he lifted it and our eyes opened, he whispered, "Franka Hawthorne."
That name.
Such beauty.
"That"s me," I whispered back.
His face started to grow soft when, suddenly, we both stiffened.
This was because the room was tinted green.
Noc lifted up alertly to an outstretched arm, causing me to press my lips together to stifle the pleasured moan for we were still joined and his movements were far from unpleasant, doing this growling, "You"ve gotta be s.h.i.tting me."
I pushed up to my elbows and turned my eyes to where my senses were guiding me.
And there, on the table by the window of the lovely inn in which we were staying, was an elegant tea service set out, its porcelain painted in a stunning motif of emerald green.
From the spout, wafts of smoke drifted from the heated brew inside.
Along with a glitter that was unmistakable.
I felt a slow smile form on my lips as the green tint of the room faded.
"f.u.c.k, is she here?" Noc bit off.
"She"s not here," I answered him and his eyes came to me. "But she knows we"re wed and has left us a present."
"A present?"
I put a hand to his warm, wide chest. "Are you fatigued, my love?"
"Are you crazy, gorgeous?" he returned but didn"t wish an answer. He kept talking. "It"s my wedding night and I"m feelin" the need to beat my record."
My brows drew together. "Your record?"
"Ten times, babe," he stated, causing a rather delicious tingle at the memory. "Tonight, I"m gonna go for fifteen."
My attention drifted to the tea.
He would best that.
Oh yes he would.
Splendidly.
And I would best my record of three.
Oh yes, I most definitely would.
And I"d do this splendidly.
It was time for some tea.
"So this is a bridesmaid dress," I murmured, staring down at myself.
I was of a mixed opinion.
The design was very fine.
The color-a pale pink-did not a thing for me.
Cora, wearing her own dress, the same exact one for reasons I couldn"t fathom, came to me.
"It is," she confirmed.
"It"s the same as yours," I told her something she already knew.
"It"s that too."
"I must say I don"t quite understand why we need to be dressed identically."
"It"s just the way it is," she stated.
"In your old world," I told her. "We"re not in your old world. Since both Finnie and Circe are bound to this world everlasting, in order that they can be her bridesmaids, my-world Circe is marrying Dax in Lunwyn."
"Yeah, but she"s giving him his kind of wedding seeing as they"re doing the Justice of the Peace thing when they get back home."
I knew of this "Justice of the Peace thing."
But for Noc and I to "make it legal," at the inflexible demands of his stepmother, my dearest Jo (who was, indeed, very vexed Noc and I had wed without her), and even Valentine (who had reunited with her lover amongst great drama and had become quite the romantic, in a detached way, of course) we had not gone to a Justice of the Peace and then gone somewhere else to have some cake, as Noc shared with them at first we would do (to a calamitous uprising).
We"d had a "shindig."
A large one.
I got a very fabulous dress out of the situation and we were showered with gifts that were all very lovely, even if we could afford to buy them ourselves. Not to mention, having this gave us an excuse to go on what was called a "honeymoon." This we did in a tranquil place filled with astounding beauty called the "Caribbean" where we were able to make love on a blanket on a sandy beach with the sea lapping at our toes (amongst other places, a number of them).
The door opened and my brief conversation with Cora was interrupted when my husband entered the room.