But vaguely, only because of what happened after it came, I heard, "Serious, dude, get a freakin" room."
Noc broke only the connections of our mouths and we panted at each other"s lips, our gazes sultry and hooded but locked as he muttered, "Great f.u.c.kin" idea."
And then I was teetering for a moment, bereft of Noc"s hold.
But only for a moment.
His hand closed around mine and he turned, dragging me behind him.
The earth beneath my feet was paved with an odd, continuous (though uneven and broken in parts) stone, but I couldn"t really pay attention to it or any of the rather active, raucous, loud and smelly goings-on around us.
I had to concentrate on walking on my heels.
This did not go well.
I tripped, emitting a faint cry, caught myself and called out, "Noc, I-"
He stopped, yanked at my hand so I completely lost balance, but did it falling toward him. He released me but only to bend at his waist whereupon I had his shoulder in my belly. Promptly I was on said shoulder, one of his arms wrapped around the backs of my thighs, and we were advancing through the street at the great speed Noc"s long strides afforded us.
"You go, brutha!" someone shouted.
"Right the f.u.c.k on, man!" someone else shouted.
"Oh my G.o.d, I think I just had an o.r.g.a.s.m," someone further said.
The first two were male voices.
The last was a woman.
I could pay no mind to this. Noc was marching down the crowded street and the way he was doing so-as I put my hands to the sides of his waist and peered around him to the front-I saw the throng part to ease his way.
He made the mouth of the road, turned left and kept striding down a slightly less populated, but much wider, avenue.
All I could see were the contraptions on the road.
Automobiles. Cars. Trucks. All that Noc had described, but far more fanciful in real life, vied for s.p.a.ce on the thoroughfare.
By the G.o.ds.
He couldn"t be telling it true.
It had to be magic.
I stared at this until Noc stopped moving, bent, put me on my feet, took my hand and looked into my eyes.
"You think you"re good to go now?" he asked.
I didn"t know the answer to that.
But I was with Noctorno Hawthorne of the parallel universe. Thus there was only one answer to anything he requested.
"Yes," I whispered.
He nodded shortly, turned to face forward and resumed walking (quickly), pulling me with him.
Fortunately, we didn"t go far. There was a door to our left that Noc turned toward, pushed through, and he continued pulling me along with him as we walked through what appeared to be a large, elegantly-appointed, rather elaborate entrance hall.
He took us directly to a long, tall desk, behind which a man and a woman, oddly (albeit different s.e.xes) both attired in what looked to be poorly-fitting uniforms, were standing.
"May I help you, sir?" the male asked, looking from Noc to me and back to Noc.
"A room," Noc stated. "King-size bed."
The man cast his eyes down at the desk and his fingers started tapping on a peculiar apparatus that had letters and numbers on it.
I stared, transfixed.
"How long will you be staying?" he queried, not lifting his head (which, distractedly, I found rude).
"The night," Noc answered.
"Two people?"
"Only two."
"We have availability," the man declared, looked up and gave Noc a courteous smile. "How will you be paying?"
Noc let my hand go to pull a billfold out of the back pocket of his jeans, and I watched all that happened next with fascination.
I stopped watching when Noc shoved the billfold back in his jeans, took a tiny envelope from the man and grunted, "Thanks," when the man invited us to "Call should you need anything and enjoy your stay."
Then I again had my hand in Noc"s and he was towing me toward a wall that had four shining-gold double doors (that couldn"t be real gold, surely), all inexplicably situated close together.
He stopped me near them, reached out and depressed a b.u.t.ton in the wall between the doors.
I watched him do this.
I stopped watching when that hand came right to my face, cupped my jaw and forced it back so I was looking up at him.
My, but he was handsome.
"We"re about to get in an elevator, baby," he declared.
I had no idea what that meant.
I also did not care one whit what that meant.
I only cared about the heat in his beautiful eyes.
"We"ll walk into a little box, you"ll feel it move. It takes you up and down automatically so you don"t have to use stairs. We"ll be going up," he explained then asked, "You get that?"
It occurred to me vaguely that with the variety of things he shared that they had in that world-motorcycles, automobiles, these...elevators-much of it doing things "automatically," that there might be a reason Noc ran around the Winter Palace frequently to "keep fit."
If one didn"t even have to climb stairs in this world, such inactivity could make one quite unhealthy.
This thought, vague as it was, flew from my head as a bing was heard and I looked in that direction.
A set of the golden doors was sliding open in a way that made me stare in shock, but I had no time to recover. Noc"s hand left my face, grabbed mine, and he pulled me to them, through them, and we were as he said, in a little box.
And that box was really quite little. I"d been in privies that were larger.
Not to mention, Noc told me it was going to move.
Upward.
Taking us with it!
I felt a frisson of panic gather at the small of my back and my eyes shot to Noc"s.
"Noc, I"m uncertain-"
My attention shifted instantly to the doors as they slid closed.
My heart bolted up to my throat and my body locked.
Then my back hit the wall of the box, Noc"s body pressing it there, and both his hands were at my jaw tipping it up.
Before I could draw in a breath, his mouth crashed down on mine, his tongue slid inside and the panic disappeared.
There was no box.
There was no world.
There was only Noc, his touch, his taste...him.
He kissed me even as I felt my belly fall (and it wasn"t only because of his kiss).
He kept kissing me even as I heard the soft whoosh noise of the doors opening.
He stopped kissing me to grab my hand and pull me down a carpeted hallway that was wide and elegant and exceptionally brightly lit.
I was breathing with difficulty, trying to focus on walking without falling, something that was not easy considering my focus wanted to be on the tingling occurring at my lips, along my skin, and between my legs.
He stopped us at a door, pulled the tiny envelope the man gave him out of his front pocket and opened it. He then took a flat, rectangular doodad from it, touched it to a s.p.a.ce above the door handle and I blinked in surprise as I heard a whirring noise at the same time a section at the top of the area Noc touched with the doodad lit green.
"My word," I whispered, staring at the green light.
How could Noc say this world had no magic?
It seemed to be everywhere!
Noc opened the door, pulled me inside and stopped us both.
He touched something on the wall and the s.p.a.ce we were in illuminated.
Just.
Like.
That!
And there was more magic!
"My word," I breathed.
He took a placard that was hanging from the back door handle and suspended it from the front, pushed the door closed, flicked a metal doohickey at the jamb that looked like a rather clever door latch that could not be opened from the outside (an excellent safety feature in this, what appeared to be, large public inn), and then he caught my hand again.
Before I could take in where I was and all that had happened, I was standing at the foot of a large bed, my back to it, Noc standing in front of me.
I looked up at him.
"Noc-"
"Shut up, baby."
I blinked up at him.
He twisted at the waist, and with a flick of his fingers, he flung the doodad across to a bureau behind him. It landed on the top but even before it did, he"d twisted back to me.
"Noc-"
He lifted his hands to my jaw again and I quieted.
"Missed you," he said softly.
I stared into his eyes.
He did.
It was written right there, right there for me to see.
With a wide variety of other things.
All of which I loved.
"And I you," I replied.
"Done missin" you, and really f.u.c.kin" glad I am," he stated.