I knew I shouldn"t ask.
But I asked.
"What"s pizza?"
"Tangy tomato sauce, smooth cheese, spicy sausage, all baked on top of a doughy crust with crispy, chewy edges. You got killer food here, Frannie, but the minute I get home, I"m getting a slice, and if you"re with me, I"m getting you one too. Extra cheese and pepperoni."
I liked tangy sauce, smooth cheese and sausage.
I also liked bread.
No, I adored bread.
Drat.
"I must think on this, Noc," I told him, and it was true.
What also was true was that there was no reason not to take this alternate adventure, except I"d be even further away from my brother.
Though, if Valentine was but a coin or two away from bringing me home, I had many of those and I could be back with him and his family faster and safer than I could return across the Green Sea.
No, it was Noc that was the concern.
Noc and just how much I liked spending time with him.
And just how wrong that was.
"More options," he stated and my focus sharpened on him. "I go do my thing with Finnie and Frey and the rest, you go back with your brother. Few months, maybe after the baby"s born and you know it"s all good with that, Valentine takes us home. I get my gig here, you get your time with your family, then we take our adventure."
My.
Now that might be workable.
Months away from Noc would mean I could get my head sorted about him, for surely it was his attention and kindness all bundled in the alluring package that was him and handed to me at a time when I was at my most vulnerable that was muddling it.
I missed Antoine. I"d lost him forever.
Perhaps as a coping mechanism, my mind was searching for an alternate, even if this was wrong and disloyal.
That had to be it.
"Yeah?" Noc prompted.
"Yes," I replied. "I"ll think on that option too, Noc."
A grin from him and a heartfelt, "Great, baby."
Looking pleased with himself, he gave my hand a squeeze, let it go and turned to the fire, lifting his gla.s.s.
I did the same.
"Pizza. Phones. Bikes," Noc"s voice came again. "TV. Movies. Computers. Football." I turned my head to him just in time to see him do the same my way. "And you know I like you when I promise to take you to the shoe department at Nordstrom."
"Do they have a nice selection of slippers?" I queried.
His grin this time was different. It made my breath catch and my nipples contract.
Worse, he did it leaning across the table toward me and his voice was lower, deeper, like he was sharing a delicious secret when he spoke next.
"Baby, just you wait and see."
My.
I gave myself a hearty inward shake and pulled myself together.
"I do believe, Master Noc, that you"re taking unfair advantage by applying not-so-subtle pressure for me to fall in with your plans."
He sat back, lifted his gla.s.s and warned, "You don"t come to me after you have breakfast with your brother tomorrow and tell me you"re in, get used to that over the next few days, Frannie."
Wonderful.
I looked from him in a patented Franka Drakkar dismissive way and took another sip of my whiskey, only to do this hearing Noc"s chuckle.
G.o.ds.
"You"re gonna look good in spike heels," Noc remarked.
Spike heels?
Intriguing.
"Cease," I demanded.
He ignored me.
"And a little black dress."
"Cease," I snapped.
"Wearin" both at midnight sittin" across from me at Cafe du Monde after we did the town, kicked back listening to live jazz, got drunk on Bourbon Street, eating a beignet caked with powdered sugar and drinking coffee with chicory."
Jazz? What was that?
And a beignet? I had no clue what that was but anything caked with a substance called "powdered sugar" had to be delicious, didn"t it?
I turned my head to glower at him.
"Noc. Cease!" I insisted.
"Shrimp etoufee."
I loved prawns.
"Quiet."
"Avenues lined with five hundred-year-old oak trees and graceful antebellum mansions."
I definitely loved mansions.
"Quiet!"
"Spicy-hot jambalaya."
I"d had enough.
"Would you care to wear my whiskey?" I asked mock sweetly.
"No, baby," he muttered amusedly.
"Then kindly cease speaking."
"Like a cat, curious, aren"t you, Frannie?" he teased. "Gonna eat you up, you don"t come home with me."
Come home with me.
Blast!
I turned again to face the fire, announcing, "I"m ignoring you now."
"Give that five minutes, which is as long as you can keep that s.h.i.t up," he accepted, doing so to my frustration because I suspected he was right.
And he was right.
Though fortunately, when he pulled me back into conversation, he did so not tempting me with strange words that piqued my curiosity, but instead with thoughtful ones that coaxed me to talk about how I felt about my brother"s behavior at dinner and how we were both getting on otherwise since he"d arrived.
Thus we spent a pleasant hour drinking whiskey but not doing so becoming inebriated. Just enjoying pleasant company.
But this time, when it was over, I didn"t sweep from the room.
Noc walked me to the door to my bedchamber and kissed my temple before he opened it and scooted me in with a light hand on the small of my back.
And last, he gave me a soft smile that I could swear held a promise I didn"t quite understand before he closed the door behind me and I lost sight of him.
Chapter Nine.
Strict Life Edict Franka The next morning, I walked into the breakfast room to see only Brikkita there, finishing up her crpes.
She looked up at me, startled, as if she had no idea I would be arriving at breakfast when Kristian and I had made that plan the night before, something I would a.s.sume he"d share with his wife.
"Good morning, Brikkita," I greeted, selecting a seat across from her at the oval table.
"Good morning, Franka," she replied timidly, the manner in which she always spoke to me, a manner I"d always found irksome but one I now understood was a manner I"d earned.
Therefore, hearing it now, I was irked at myself.
I"d barely sat and tossed the napkin at the waiting place setting over my lap before a footman came forward to pour my coffee.
I prepared it with cream and one sugar and had taken a sip, regarding my sister-in-law, who kept her head studiously bent to her plate as she fixedly sc.r.a.ped up the last of her crpes.
"Did you sleep well?" I asked.
She lifted her eyes to me for a scant second before returning them to her plate and answered, "The palace has comfortable beds."
I decided that meant yes.
"And Timofei? Did he have a good night?" I queried.
Her glance lasted longer before she put down her fork and reached for her coffee cup, avoiding my eyes. "He was restless. He"s not woken us like this repeatedly in the night since he was first born. I hope the queen was right and he"ll grow out of it."
"I"m sure she is. She"s raised her own child, as you know," I replied, though the child she"d raised was not the one currently abiding at the palace, but that was beside the point.
"Of course," Brikkita mumbled, taking a sip of coffee, her eyes aimed away from me.
"Is Kristian arriving at breakfast soon?" I pressed on.
"I hope so," she said, and this, I was sure had more than one meaning.
"Mm," I murmured, having used all my available discourse and finding myself in the uncomfortable position of having no more, considering the fact I knew not what interested her because I"d never bothered to find out.
The footman saved me, asking, "Would you like me to tell Cook to prepare crpes for you, milady, or do you wish to attend the buffet?"
"The buffet, I think," I decided. "But fresh toast would be well received."
The footman nodded, gave a slight bow with one arm behind his back and retreated to a door that undoubtedly led to stairs that went to the kitchen.
I took another sip of my coffee, exited my chair, walked to the buffet and made my selections.
I was back at my seat, nibbling my food, the footman having returned with my toast, and I was finding I was not enjoying breakfast in the slightest. For having your sister-in-law sit opposite you, alone together for the first time when I had no ulterior motives but instead wished to find some avenue to start a different sort of relationship, was exceptionally awkward.
It would not be surprising, but utterly shocking when Brikkita piped up, and instead of me doing it, she took up these same reins.