Page 48 of Noble Charms

Aria chuckled and said, “It’s that orc that runs the teashop on the corner? Benj. I’d been in and out of there many times over the last week. He’d come to recognize me. We chatted and…” He shrugged, and that damned tunic slipped from one shoulder. Noble grabbed the sleeve and righted it back onto him, hiding that milk glass skin. Aria nodded in thanks, straightening the collar across his chest.

Noble asked, “He asked you to go out?”

“Yes. We’re going to go to a show in the Lantern District. A traveling troupe is here performing the Legend of Gurd at a theater there.”

Noble frowned. “I hate that story.”

Aria tilted his head, eyes round, hair loose around his face. “Truly? It’s a favorite of mine.”

No, not truly. But Noble couldn’t say that. He was acting odd, even by his own standards. He needed to get a grip. He fished for an excuse and said, “It’s a children’s story.”

Aria’s smile settled the unusual lump inside Noble’s throat. Perhaps he was getting sick. “Gurd was my childhood crush.”

“That would explain it.” Noble paused. “And that would explain Ellor. Gurd’s got red hair, does he not?”

Aria’s face slowly filled with color. He spun on his heel and walked away. “Go bathe, Noble Yves. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Noble sighed, and watched him go, and listened to his footsteps all the way back down the stairs.

She was pretty and soft beneath his hands. The picture of perfection against the silver satin sheets that made up her lush bed. Noble let the sounds of her moaning and the feeling of her orgasm lead him closer to his own. He sucked in a gasp of air as he closed his eyes, and her hands dug into the planes of his back, spurring him on. Closer. But he just⁠—

He needed more. He pumped on—faster, faster. He broke into a sweat, and her hands slipped to his ribs.

She trembled. “I’m going to—again—” she whispered, sounding awed. “Go on. Don’t stop.”

Noble kept his pace until she came again, then tried a different position, with her on her side, and he began with slow, punctuated thrusts. He chased it, the relief—the balm to all the hurt. This was the part he wanted. He wanted to come. He breathed heavily as he kept on, and on. But he kept thinking of Virginia, of how she’d been beneath him like this, and had she ever really wanted him here? Noble grit his teeth, wincing as his knee grew tight from where he pressed his weight down.

They’d soaked the bed through by the time he tried a third position—her on her hands and knees, him standing at the end of her bed. Her little hands scrambled for purchase, and found her pillow. Silently, and shaking again, she held it beneath her, knuckles gone stark white.

“Gods, I’m going to come again,” she choked out. “Please.” The pulse of her release gripped Noble’s cock, vice-like and wet.

Noble’s breath evened out as he watched her hands. He draped himself across her, and gazed at the pale skin of each finger, and his mind didn’t fill with visions of Virginia, then.

He thought instead of milk glass skin and blond hair and narrow shoulders and pink lips.

“Is it alright if I finish?” he whispered.

She nodded, incapable of speech. The silence, except for his heavy breaths and the slap of their meeting bodies, made it simple for Noble’s mind to wander to another place: to his own home, to the couch he’d sat in while Aria unlaced his boots, and knelt at his feet. He’d sat, drunk and beautiful, and looked almost like he wanted to be there.

Aria’s skin was cold and pale that night. Except for his lips. They were red from wine, and warm-looking, and he’d probably done it many times: prayed at the feet of someone he loved, put his mouth against the shape of his cock, and brought him to the end.

Noble finished with that thought and at least muffled the sound of his name against her skin.

The next morning, tucked into his bed at home, Noble no longer had the need to fake a sickness. He coughed, moaned as his body ached, and whispered thanks to Morgan as he brought soup and medication and plenty of juice to drink.

ARIA

“No, I’m telling you. I called this one passing toad a frog, and Benj spent the rest of the night laughing, and saying, ‘Heh, frog. You thought it was a frog. It was a toad,’ over and over again. You cannot outdo me on this, Noble. My date will go down in history as one of the worst to have ever come to pass.”

Noble rocked back in his bar stool, his curls parted down the middle, half tucked behind his ear. He considered it for a moment and said, “Well, that is a pretty embarrassing mistake to make. Frogs and toads are nothing alike.”

Aria raked a hand through his hair as he recalled the way he’d felt trapped. He couldn’t just leave Benj outright—that’d be rude. But, by Elys, he would have given anything to have never gone on this date to begin with. “Oh, you don’t have to tell me that now. He went on to talk frog facts for hours. Hours, Noble. I could write a dissertation with all I learned.”

“See, at least you learned something. I gained utterly nothing from this lady, except that headcold.”

“Please. You were sick for one single day.” Aria had performed Soothe for him last night, to help him sleep, and it did the trick: Noble woke up fresh and well.

“Not just that,” Noble said, pouting. “I had the sense that she’d had a crush on Prince Regent all her life. She brought him up again and again throughout the night.”