"May I have my wine, darling?" I requested quietly.
He looked down to his hand like he forgot he was holding it before he took the last step toward me and offered me my wine.
I took it and immediately sipped.
"Confirm you heard me, Frannie," he demanded, not sipping his beer, instead glowering down at me.
"Come sit beside me," I invited cajolingly.
"Nope," he shook his head. "I gotta cook but I"m not doin" that either until I know we"re both on the same page with this."
"Noc, my dearest, I am quite good at this," I a.s.sured. "I"ve had years of practice and I can"t imagine the skills I have do not translate to this world. I"ve watched carefully and I"ve planned everything precisely."
"Right, this is the deal, babe," Noc returned tersely. "You go into an attorney"s office, any attorney, but definitely an attorney known as the f.u.c.kin" Savage, of all f.u.c.kin" things, create a distraction in hopes that I"ll be able to follow you and go unseen into his office to hack into his computer to get his schedule so you can set something up so he runs into Circe, you"re an accessory to the crime I"m committing. A crime the f.u.c.kin" Savage will lose his f.u.c.kin" mind about if one of us is caught. And you do not p.i.s.s off an attorney, Frannie. My guess, and I"m betting a pretty d.a.m.n good one, you especially don"t p.i.s.s off one known as the Savage."
"It"s a crime to look at someone"s, erm...computer diary?" I asked.
"It"s a crime to break and enter, even if you don"t do any breaking in order to enter, and it"s also a crime to help yourself to unauthorized access of a private or business computer."
I thought of all the many times I had found my way (stealthily, I will admit) into someone"s study to peruse their engagement diary (or into another room to view an altogether different kind of diary) and shivered at the idea of it being a criminal act.
"Find another way," Noc demanded as he turned and prowled toward the kitchen.
I pushed up from his sofa and followed him, explaining, "I"m uncertain how to do that if I don"t know where he"ll be. In my crystal ball, they"re always tapping at their computers, but obviously they don"t dictate aloud what they"re tapping. I can hone in on it but when I succeed, I don"t understand what I"m seeing, and most of the time, by the time I acquire the vision, the screen doesn"t display the diary since the person I"m watching has moved on to something else."
He opened his refrigerator, sticking his head into it and replying to its interior, "This is not my gig, baby, it"s yours. Find another way."
I stopped at his counter-esque/cupboard-esque area (known, Noc explained, as an "island," which it was, in a small sea of kitchen) and shifted my b.u.m up to one of the attractive stools there, murmuring thoughtfully, "Well, from what I know of this towing business where Circe works, such a service would be needed if I could arrange for Dax Lahn"s vehicle to be incapacitated."
I heard the slam and rattle of the refrigerator door closing and then Noc muttering, "And now she plans vandalism, at best, destruction of property, at worst."
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Are all aspects of intrigue illegal in this world?" I snapped.
"Uh, yeah," he fired back, coming to a stop opposite me at the island.
"This is most exasperating," I shared, doing it most exasperated. "I simply wish to plot a love match. How can that be a crime?"
"Again, Frannie, I"ll suggest that you just let be what"s gonna be. If they"re fated for each other, that s.h.i.t is gonna happen. Just let it happen and try to be cool even if you hate the bridesmaid gown she"ll eventually choose for you."
His words took me out of our conversation.
"Bridesmaid"s gown?"
"You"re gonna get to know her, she"s gonna get to know you. Fact is, she texted me yesterday to suggest we all get together for dinner, including Valentine and Josette. We should do that. We do that, she gets to know you, she"ll love you. She"s awesome so you"ll do the same. When she falls in love with this guy, gets married, she"ll want bridesmaids and I suspect that time comes, one of them will be you."
"What"s a bridesmaid?"
He gave a slight shrug that, with his broad shoulders, still was a powerful one.
"You wear a fancy dress and walk down the aisle in front of her before she gets married. As far as I can tell, this position has three duties. One, to get the bride slaughtered during the bachelorette party, and by slaughtered I don"t mean dead, obviously. I mean drop-dead drunk. Two, to throw a shower for her so, and I"m speaking from the viewpoint of the man here, she gets really f.u.c.kin" good lingerie and not a bunch of mixing bowls for the kitchen. And three, to hold her wedding bouquet when her new husband puts the ring on her finger."
Fascinating.
"A wife gets a ring too?" I queried.
He shook his head but said, "No. She gets two. The engagement ring, usually a diamond but it can be whatever, just as long as she loves it, and the wedding band."
One thing was quite clear about the difference in our worlds, the bestowal of jewelry upon marriage was one I very much liked, the significance of the symbol and the fact the wife gets a diamond.
"I see you like that idea," Noc observed, and I stopped thinking of diamonds and focused on him to see he no longer looked annoyed but now amused.
"Any idea that includes diamonds I"ll like," I replied.
"I bet," he muttered, his eyes crinkling, then he declared, "Choices. Steaks. Chops. Hamburgers. Or spaghetti. Got potatoes I can do up whatever way you want and veggies. Also got frozen garlic bread and salad. Just gotta know which way you want me to go."
"I"ll eat whatever you wish to cook, my love."
"Good answer," he said, turning back to the refrigerator.
He started taking things from it and piling them on the island before me when I reminded him, "We have yet to fall upon a solution to this problem for, I shall a.s.sert, we won"t be leaving Circe and Lahn to the fates."
"We aren"t fallin" upon anything, sugarlips," he returned. "Again, this is your gig, not mine."
"I"m afraid I"ll need your a.s.sistance, darling," I shared. "I cannot yet drive and I have yet to acquire any skills with a computer. I"ll definitely need you for the first, I"m sure, and I may need you for the last."
"Frannie, I"m not gonna be your wheel man either."
"Wheel man?"
"The getaway driver after you go off and commit a crime."
b.a.l.l.s!
"You"re not being very helpful, my love," I pointed out, seeking patience.
"And you"re finally getting my point, sweetheart."
We stared at each other over the island for long moments before Noc broke the silence.
"You think you can help out by cutting up a tomato for our salad?"
I was aghast.
"They"re slimy," I declared with revulsion.
"You eat them," he returned.
"I eat them. I don"t touch them. I eat escargot too but I don"t touch those either."
At my words, Noc burst out laughing, doing it rounding the island and arriving at me whereupon he captured my head at the sides in both hands, tipped it back and delivered a very deep, very wet, very long kiss on me.
He lifted away and looked into my eyes. "Cora, the dead, was a pain in my a.s.s. Every minute I spent with her and then everything I learned about her was not good. But I"ll always be thankful for the day she crossed my path because her doin" that led to you sitting right here being you. If you told me I was gonna fall for an uppity, blue blood, sn.o.bby chick who won"t even slice a tomato, I"d tell you you were crazy. But here you are and thank f.u.c.k for that."
My heart was fluttering, my knees were trembling (even seated!) and I feared I was about to burst into tears or fall from my stool in a dead faint.
I could certainly not do either of the last and to cover how all he"d said made me feel, I ordered, "Stop being charming after you"ve denied me something I very much desire."
His hands slid down to the sides of my neck. "Baby, you can"t best the challenge of setting up Circe and Lahn in this world, then you better hang up your gloves as the heavyweight champion of scheming."
My back straightened. "I"ll do no such thing."
"Then time to get creative," he dared.
I glared at him. "You don"t think I can do it."
"What I think is, you can"t drive. You"ve no idea how else to get around. If you commit a crime, I"ll spank your a.s.s, after I bail it out of jail, of course. You don"t know how to use a computer, and even if you did, no way you"re gonna acquire hacking skills in a matter of hours. You do know how to use a phone but you still peck at it biting the side of your bottom lip with concentration so I"m not thinking you"ll be surfing the web on it anytime soon. And last, for whatever Valentine reason Valentine has, she"s left the building so you"re flying solo. Although you probably could do this blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back in your world, in this one, you"re just gonna eventually have to give up and let nature take its course."
"I do not give up," I retorted.
"Then this is gonna be interesting," he decreed.
"And I do not peck at my phone biting my lip," I carried on.
I mean really. How gauche!
"You texted Josette when we got home to tell her we got here safe and to make sure she was good, and you bit your lip the whole time you did it," he shot back.
I feared he spoke truth.
Thus, I harrumphed even as I made a silent vow to cease doing such immediately.
Noc grinned.
I went back to glaring.
His grin became a white smile.
I returned a different kind of smile and informed him, "You do know, darling, that when I"m perturbed, I"m not in the mood for intimacy."
He didn"t hesitate a moment with his rejoinder.
"You do know, baby, that you trying to use denying me that body of yours as punishment for me not giving you your way means, after you suck me while I play with you for a really f.u.c.kin" long time, you"re gonna have to beg real pretty for me to make you come."
Vexing.
And t.i.tillating.
Blast!
I stopped smiling insincerely at him and again glared.
"You"re good, you know it," he murmured, his eyes dropping to my mouth. "But don"t think for one second I don"t know you want what I just said and you want it now."
We"d enjoyed our lovemaking quite thoroughly since it began but I had yet to taste him there.
I"d wanted to do it before his threat.
And he was drattedly correct. I wanted it more now.
I did not deny what he said or confirm it. Mostly because I knew denying it would eventually be proved wrong and that would be irksome and confirming it would make him smug, which would be equally irksome.
So I did neither.
When he again looked into my eyes, I said, "It"s good to know you don"t fight fair."
"Like you had any intention of ever fighting fair," he replied.
"Of course I didn"t," I confirmed blithely.
His smile came back. "That"s my Frannie."
"Indeed it is," I stated arrogantly.
In a dizzying shift, his mood changed from audacious to tender as he agreed softly, "Yeah, indeed it is."
After that, he tilted in and took my mouth. This time it was short, not deep, but very sweet.
When he moved away, he murmured, "Gotta feed my girl."
I drew in breath and nodded.
He let one hand slide lingeringly along my jaw as he removed both. And while he walked away, to hide my response to his words and caress, I took a fortifying sip of my wine.
If you told me I was gonna fall for an uppity, blue blood, sn.o.bby chick who won"t even slice a tomato, I"d tell you you were crazy. But here you are and thank f.u.c.k for that.
Well then.
Fine.
So he wouldn"t a.s.sist me in making a love match of Circe and Lahn.
And yes, Valentine was no longer there to lead the charge because she was nursing a broken heart.
And it was true I was in a new world and had only been in it for five days. I knew very little, and of the very little I knew, much of it were things I would need to know in order to carry out any plan (should I eventually fall on one that wasn"t unlawful).
But Noctorno Hawthorne had fallen for me.