Fantasyland: Midnight Soul Part 81

So I stopped.

"As difficult as the road that lay ahead of us is, that us including Circe, we must carry on before she uses the bleakness of her past to harden her heart to a future of promise," I proclaimed.

"I see what you mean."

That was the only response Valentine gave.

"Valentine, I would say I need you but I don't. Circe does," I snapped. "I'm aware the time is not right for you but I'm afraid, my sister, you need to see beyond your own sorrow in order to lead our other sister from hers."

I watched her mouth tighten and knew this was due to the fact I uttered those words while Noc was in the room. I sensed she was a private woman. The very idea of Noc understanding her current plight would not be welcome.

I could not worry on that. She would endure.

Circe, however, had had enough enduring to last a lifetime.

"Respect, Valentine, what's going on with you is not my business, but you gotta know Frannie is right," Noc thankfully entered the conversation. "What happened tonight was f.u.c.king brilliant and a complete disaster. You don't strike while the iron is hot, he'll lose her. And I can tell you right now it's taking all that man's got to convince himself not to call his investigators to find her so he can find her. And when he does that, drag her to his beach house or mountain condo or whatever that guy's got that's remote so she can't run away and then convince her she's the one not having the barest inkling he'll be scaring the absolute s.h.i.+t outta her. That is, if he hasn't already called his investigators."

And the real Valentine made another appearance.

"Merde," Valentine whispered.

Finally.

We were getting to her.

"And, just sayin'," Noc carried on, "he tries that s.h.i.+t, it's gonna be a lot of explaining on her part when she makes her door a sheet of magical flame to ward him off. A man thinks his drive for a woman has made him so insane he's seeing things, like doors bursting into flame but not catching fire, he'll back off real quick."

"Merde," Valentine said louder.

Excellent.

We'd gotten to her.

"I think it best at this juncture to let Circe alone," I declared. "For the night, at least. We cannot let her retreat, but we need to allow her to lick her wounds. You, however, need to see to Dax. He needs to be controlled. In case you haven't absorbed all we're telling you, to say he's taken with her, and was upon clapping eyes on her, is an understatement. I don't know what Lahn felt when he saw his future golden queen walking in that hideous parade. But I can now say I hold no surprise he chased her down on his steed and claimed her on the rocks of Korwahk before nary a word was spoken."

"I'll see to Dax," Valentine stated. "You and I will speak more tomorrow."

I felt my body relax and replied, "Thank you."

"And I'll say something now, Franka," she stated in a severe tone. "You must beware how you wield your power. Allowing your emotions to control it rather than your mind can have catastrophic consequences. I've told this to you before. I won't share it again."

I made no response to that for she had shared this thus her admonishment hit true.

"Is it all, erm, good up there?" Josette called and the sound of her voice told me she was likely at the foot of the stairs.

"All good, Jo," Noc called back. "Be down in a minute."

"Right," she yelled.

I stared as Valentine started to disappear in a billow of green.

"Valentine," I snapped, feeling we were not yet done.

"I'll see to Dax. Until tomorrow," she said and disappeared.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l that woman is vexing," I bit out.

"Babe."

I glared at where Valentine had been for a long measure then turned in his arm.

The instant he had my eyes, he asked, "You okay?"

"What, pray, happened tonight, my dearest, darling Noc, that would make you think I was even near feeling okay?" I asked back.

"Right, well that answered that," he muttered but did it watching me closely.

"I miscalculated," I declared. "Appallingly."

Noc didn't utter a noise.

"I thought, with Circe's approach and, well...activities with you at the Winter Palace, she was ready to move onwards in healing. Valentine felt the same. It would seem we were wrong."

Noc remained silent.

"Unspeakably wrong," I went on.

Noc did not confirm, or alternately make an effort to appease.

He said nothing.

And nothing was not helping.

"Noc," I prompted.

"You're on that. You'll sort it," he stated. "I don't need to go over it because I can tell you're upset and anyway, there's no need. You were there. You saw it play out."

This was all true.

"But Circe lashed out," he continued. "At you. Maybe understandable but still unacceptable. So s.h.i.+t went south tonight with Circe. Whatever. Only thing I give a s.h.i.+t about right now is, she cut into you. I didn't just see, I actually felt those cuts slice deep, so are you okay?"

His words the night I came to his world rocked through my brain.

I know what you said to Maddie, right to her face. Lo told me. He knows your story now, Frannie. Like everyone else, he's changed his tune about you. That said, he's still p.i.s.sed about that and he'll never forgive you for it because that's the guy he is. He loves his wife, you wounded her, he's never gonna let that go.

He loves his wife, you wounded her, he's never gonna let that go.

And then...

So s.h.i.+t went south tonight with Circe. Whatever. Only thing I give a s.h.i.+t about right now is...are you okay?

I was Noc's Franka, like Maddie was Apollo's, Finnie was Frey's, Circe was Lahn's, Cora was Tor's.

I was Noc's.

He had that woman to love we spoke about so many months before, sitting at a fire, drinking whiskey.

And that woman was me.

"You really do love me," I whispered, staring into his beautiful blue eyes.

His head jerked, his brows snapped together, and his look turned decidedly ominous.

"You doubted it?"

"No, darling," I went on softly. "I'll rephrase. You love me, you really do."

"Uh, well...yeah," he replied.

I melted into him, wrapped my arms around his waist and answered his question the way he wished it to be answered.

"I cannot say that her words felt good. What I can say is that she was on the defensive and feeling things I cannot begin to know how they feel. Her attack on me might not have been warranted, but in my estimation not only was it understandable, it was acceptable. I made a grave error in planning. It was her that suffered for it. So yes. It might have hurt, hearing what she said, but I'm standing here in the arms of the man I really love who really loves me in return. So I'm okay."

He examined my face, I knew, to ascertain I was telling the truth.

His face and frame relaxed when it came clear I was.

All but his arms, they tightened, drawing me closer.

"One thing I can say for tonight, she put her hand on his arm, thought that the windows in that restaurant were gonna blow out," he said.

"You felt it too?"

"Think they felt it in the parallel universe."

I smiled up at him.

"Means I'm in," he stated.

I blinked up at him.

"Pardon?"

"Baby, wasn't lost on me, seeing the way Frey was with Finnie, the other Lahn with the other Circe, h.e.l.l, knew it way back when Tor came tearing into this world to come get Cora, this love between worlds business is extreme."

At that, I just stared up at him, still confused.

"And tonight proved it," he finished.

"Yes," I agreed.

"So I'm in."

I tipped my head to the side. "You're in?"

"Gonna help you make a match between Circe and her savage."

He was going to help!

Delightful!

My smile that time was far bigger.

He dropped his head so his face was close to mine.

"And just so you know, when I mentioned that love between worlds business, I was talkin' about hittin' the door to my bathroom and seeing you in that dress. But what happened between Circe and Dax capped it."

At his first statement, I slid my hands up his back.

After he finished his second, the fingers of both were in his hair.

So of course I used them to pull him to me and kiss him.

But because he was "in," he was going to help me make a match, I let him take over the kiss.

Well, because of that.

And for other reasons besides.

In the mirror, I watched Noc shove his face into the side of my neck, feeling the shudders thunder through his powerful frame with his climax.

I had already had mine. Therefore in the throes of my afterglow, I was able to fully enjoy a visual of how our pa.s.sion overwhelmed my beautiful Noctorno.

Prior to leading me to his bathroom, Noc had only taken off his suit jacket.

And he'd only taken off my panties.

This before he'd taken me, both of us facing the basin, my skirt about my hips.

And right then, I had a hand braced against the counter and a vision of my face flushed, Noc's lost in my neck, only his thick, dark hair could be seen. I could feel his warm breath against my skin, see his hand in the slit of my dress, feel his fingers cupping my breast, his other arm out straight, his hand covering mine beside the basin.

And his c.o.c.k, obviously, was still thick and hard inside me.

We were separate and we were one.

We were beauty.