“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 assert, 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 assistance, 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.”
Balls!
“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 ass. 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, snobby chick who won’t even slice a tomato, I’d tell you you were crazy. But here you are and thank fuck 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 ass, 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 fuckin’ long time, you’re gonna have to beg real pretty for me to make you come.”
Vexing.
And titillating.
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.