Midnight Soul (63 page)

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, hell, 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 passion 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 cock, obviously, was still thick and
hard inside me.

We were separate and we were one.

We were beauty.

I felt his fingers weaving through mine at
the counter as I felt his lips brush my neck.

Then I watched him lift his head and press
his jaw against the side of mine, his glorious eyes moving over us
in the mirror, the expression in them not hiding he felt as me with
what could be seen.

Finally, those stunning blue eyes caught
mine.

Noc said nothing.

I said nothing.

We just held each other’s gazes in the mirror
before he slid his hand out of my dress and lifted it to my
jaw.

He needed no words to share what he
wanted.

Therefore I gave it to him, turning my head
and offering him my mouth.

He took it.

We kissed languidly but greedily, like kings
and queens assured of their power, their treasure their reign,
nevertheless indulging sumptuously in the lap of luxury that was
theirs by right of birth and the grace of the gods.

When Noc finally broke the kiss, he
whispered, “Ready for bed, baby?”

I nodded.

Only then did he break the connection of our
bodies, but soon enough he sought it again, tangling himself in me
in the warmth of his bed.

And there we slept.

Just a Guy

Noc

Noc knocked on the door and stepped back
just in case it went up in flames, or maybe shot magical laser
beams at him.

He was there because he and Franka had had a
meeting with Valentine that morning, he’d been briefed about all
things Dax Lahn, and Noc had volunteered to go smooth things over
with Circe.

He wasn’t looking forward to the task, but he
was the man for the job mostly because, if she’d slept on it and
was still pissed at Frannie, after all she’d said the night before,
no way in hell he was setting up his woman to face whatever Circe
felt like dishing out.

Valentine had assured them she was seeing to
Dax. She didn’t share how she was doing this. Noc also didn’t ask
because he really didn’t want to know.

As he waited outside Circe’s place, the door
didn’t explode.

It also didn’t open.

He got close again, knocked again and stayed
where he was, saying through it, “I know you know it’s me. What you
also gotta know is, until I see you’re all right, I’m not
leaving.”

She made him wait but she finally opened the
door.

Cutoff jean shorts, a little tee, bare feet,
hair wild, face makeup free, fuck, Dax was going to like every
version of Circe.

“I’m all right,” she snapped and started to
close the door again.

Noc lifted a hand to hold it open.

She didn’t push it. Instead the battle she
waged was with her gaze, trying to stare him down.

He didn’t just take it.

He pushed back, but only verbally.

“She meant no harm. She wants good things for
you. She’s lived the life she felt she had to live to keep herself
safe. That’s not her life anymore but she’s used to doing things a
certain way. But now she’s doin’ those things for good. She just
doesn’t have it down how to go about doin’ that yet. She’s not the
woman you said she was last night, Circe. Valentine told me she’s
kept you in the loop about what’s been going down with Frannie, so
I figure you know it. But even with all that, she shouldn’t have
played it that way. She fucked up. She knows that now. And she’s
gutted, babe. Kicking her own ass and worried as shit about
you.”

Circe could only hold the attitude for a few
seconds before she looked away and stepped away, opening the door
further, inviting him in.

He went in and saw that, with the little she
had, she had good taste. But even with the treasure she’d been
given, she wasn’t about pimping out her space.

Noc moved to the middle of the small living
room and stopped, turning to her.

Circe followed him and leaned the side of her
thigh against the arm of her couch where a cat instantly appeared,
rubbing its side against her skin.

She did not ask Noc to sit. She did not offer
him coffee.

She just dropped a hand to scratch the ruff
of her pet and held Noc’s gaze.

He laid it out.

“I should have stopped her. I knew it wasn’t
the right play. I told her that, she was determined. I still should
have stopped her.”

“What’s done is done,” she stated
shortly.

“It is but you gotta know, I felt how it made
you feel last night and I’m sorry about the part I played in
it.”

Circe, unsurprisingly not a woman who would
carry a grudge in the face of an open apology, visibly lost some of
the attitude and repeated, “What’s done is done,” but this came far
more gently.

Right, they were beyond that, now it was time
to lay more shit out.

“We need to talk about Dax.”

She straightened from the couch, going
instantly wired.

“There’s nothing to say.”

He took only one step toward her before he
stopped and pointed out, “I don’t get, at the same time I do, why
you’d be in denial about what went down last night. But I wouldn’t
be a friend if I didn’t try to pull you out of that.”

“You and Franka are proof that there are
differences between our two worlds and they still carry on. This
being so, I understand why Valentine and Franka would think this
needs to happen between me and that man. But it’s also obvious that
it actually doesn’t.”

“True enough,” Noc replied. “But that doesn’t
explain your reaction to him last night, or his to you.”

She looked away.

He kept at her.

“Circe, babe, please don’t shut me out. I’m
here to talk to you but I’m also here for you to talk to me. Share
with me. Give me whatever shit is holding you back from something I
know rocked you in bad ways last night. The thing is, it also
rocked you in good ways.
Really
good. I can’t know, but my
guess is that the good parts are what are holding you back. And
knowing all that’s in play here, I would be no friend at all if I
didn’t try to help you see that good as just what it is.”

When she again gave him her attention, her
face was a mask and her eyes were angry.

Even so, she couldn’t hide they were also
haunted.

Fuck.

“There is no way you can understand where I
am with this.”

“No,” he whispered. “No,” he repeated,
letting all he was feeling out with that one syllable and seeing
the anger dissolve, but also seeing the wounds surfacing. He
fucking hated what he saw but he didn’t give up. “I can’t know. But
I know what’s there. I know why
you’re
there. And it kills
me there’s not a fuckin’ thing I can do about it.”

“No one can do anything about it, Noc,” she
said quietly.

“This guy can.”

She blinked up at him.

“I was not that guy,” Noc went on. “We both
knew it. I could not be that guy for you. I knew and you knew. We
both understood I was not strong enough to handle all that happened
to you. Not for the long run. So what we had was what it was
because we both knew I couldn’t be the guy for you to give you what
you needed.”

Now she was staring at him with big eyes that
showed she was confused and he didn’t get that.

But he didn’t ask after it.

He stayed on target.

“But this guy, Circe,” he kept at her, “this
guy is not any guy. He’s an attorney. He’s a good one. Not a
fighter. A warrior. He’s wealthy and he earned that, he didn’t get
born to it. And he does pro bono for a domestic violence shelter
for no reason than that’s his mission. And he buys a ten thousand
dollar table at their gala event, leaning on all his attorney
buddies to do the same. That was how we got him there last night.
He probably could be doing a hundred things on a Friday night. He
was not doing those things. He was there facilitating a donation
from Franka.”

She seemed surprised at this information but
said, “Noc, his commitment to that says nice things about him but
it has nothing to do with me. Now what I’d like to talk about is
how you feel about—”

He interrupted her.

“What I’m saying is, we’re not talking
sympathy. We’re not talking empathy. We’re talking about a man who
respects women, knows how they should be treated and does something
about it when that shit doesn’t happen,” Noc informed her.

She shut her mouth.

Noc kept going.

“No one can look at that man and not think he
has his head up his ass about his looks, his money, his talents.
He’s confident, but that’s not what he’s about. What he’s about is
that he’s all that and he’s still the man he is for women.”

“Again, this is all very nice to know about
him but, Noc, it has nothing to do with me.”

“Not sure how you see it that way when the
minute he saw you, the world faded away.”

That was a blow she didn’t expect. So much of
one, she took a step back.

“And Circe,” he pushed, “when you saw him,
your world did too.”

“I was simply surprised to see Lahn there,”
she bald-faced lied.

He gentled his tone when he shared, “This
wasn’t about Lahn. You knew that man was not Lahn. This was about
Dax. All about Dax.”

“Noc—”

“I did not like this idea,” he stated. “When
Franka shared what she and Valentine were up to, I didn’t like it
at all. And she never talked me around to liking it. I was there
last night to look after her, because I didn’t know this guy, and
to look after you, because she was determined to throw you in his
path. Then I saw him with you, Circe, and no way in fuck I’d let
anyone get near you I didn’t trust. But I saw him with you and here
I am.”

“Noc—”

“I want you to be happy. Franka does.
Valentine does. Hell,
everyone
does. The only one standing
in the way of that is you.”

“I like my life,” she asserted.

“Are you happy?”

“Yes, of course.”

It was the truth.

And it totally wasn’t.

“Are you really happy, babe?” he pressed.

“I’m far more content than I’ve ever been,”
she replied. “I’m my own woman. I say where I go and what I do and
who I’m with. I have friends. I love this city. I have my power
back and it’s all mine.”

“Content isn’t happy,” he noted.

“It’s better than anything I’ve ever
had.”

“Okay, I hear that,” Noc conceded but didn’t
let up. “And it sucks that’s true. But it’s a far cry from what you
deserve.”

“Noc, there’s a good deal to say about being
content in your life.”

“I’ve got Frannie. I fell in love with her.
She fell in love with me. She’s here and it’s not good, it’s great.
I’ve got a house I dig and serious money in the bank so I not only
don’t have to worry about just covering emergencies, I’m set for
life. And last, I’ve got a job that pays me more than I ever
thought I’d make. So I’m in a position to say that contentment
works, but happy in a good place, a fantastic city, with good
friends, a good job and a woman I love to share my life with is a
fuckuva lot better.”

“I see you won’t understand what I’m trying
to say,” she remarked, beginning to look agitated.

“I think it’s the other way around,” he
returned.

“Can’t you just let it go?” she
requested.

“After what I saw last night, what I can say
is, I want to do that for you, because you want that from me. And I
totally cannot do that, also
for you
.”

“Noc—”

He knew she wanted him to let it go.

But he saw what he saw last night. He felt
it.