Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Loki's fury at Alamax's trying to take advantage of Val was almost too much for him to contain.
He wanted to go back, find the fallen angel, and cut his head off for lying.
No. Cutting his head off would be too easy.
He wanted to make Alamax suffer. Suffer the way Loki had suffered by being chained to a rock, having his entrails eaten, and acid dripping on him.
But he couldn’t do that. So, he'd have to do things the more prudent way. With money.
That would have to wait until tomorrow morning. At the moment, he had a more important promise to fulfill. He needed to take care of Val.
He poured two ales in his stark white kitchen and walked from his modern, spotless white-and-cream living room.
The home remained pale as the day he’d moved in.
White walls, cream upholstered sofas, a bleached oak coffee table centered on a wool rug, the color of old bone.
Every surface sanitized, deliberately anonymous, the kind of space that belonged to no one.
At least, that’s what others would think if he ever had people over, which he didn’t.
Aside from his son Fenrir and, on one occasion, his daughter Hel, he’d never had anyone to his place before.
Not even his other children had been there.
Not that he was in contact with them. Being more beast than anything, they’d been unaffected by the destruction of Asgard, since they’d never lived there anyway.
He barely spent any time in his house himself, to be honest. Mostly because it never felt like a home, just a place to crash, wash, and store his things.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the large balcony where Val stood, wings spread, letting the air blow through her hair.
A car alarm wailed, then cut out. He walked through one of the large sliding glass doors to the balcony that overlooked all of Los Angeles.
“This is amazing,” Val said, setting the bag of ice he’d given her on the railing.
Her eyes sported deep bruises underneath them, but at least her nose wasn’t crooked, and her cheekbones had been spared any blows.
The sight of her so beaten made his gut clench, and he gripped his mug of ale tighter.
Alamax was definitely no longer a client.
And the first chance he got, Loki was going to invite that asshole to challenge him at Valhalla’s Throne.
Val had beaten him, but Loki planned on destroying him.
Loki handed her the mug of ale. “Thank you. I like that I see all of the city but still feel like I have my own space.”
“Yes, that is quite amazing. I had no idea that these hills had houses on them. Surrounded by the forest makes it feel like your own private kingdom.”
“I can do whatever I want up here, and no one bothers me.”
She sipped the ale. “Whatever you want, huh? And what type of ‘whatever’ have you done up here?”
His gaze slid to hers, and he caught the faintest smile on her lips. “I’ve walked around naked in the house.”
She rolled her eyes. “Hasn’t everyone?”
“I’ve done yoga out here naked.”
She shrugged. “Better.”
Ooohhhh, a challenge. “I’ve flown through the trees during a full moon to watch the shifters run.”
“Wait. You’ve flown up here?”
That caught her attention. “Many times.”
“And no one sees you?”
He shrugged. “If they have, they’ve never said anything. Not that I even know my neighbors. That’s the thing about living up here. People do it for the nature, but they also do it because they want to be left alone, and they expect everyone else to do the same.”
“So, I can fly up here?” Her eyes held a gleam he’d not seen in them before. Something between childlike happiness and hope.
“Of course. It’s one of the reasons I brought you. If you think you’re well enough to fly. You took quite a beating tonight.”
Val downed her ale and began to strip off her layers. “As long as my wings work, every other bone in my body could be broken, and I would still want to fly.”
Damn, he liked her… no… he loved her. The thought struck him as hard as when he’d said it out loud to her. Loki stripped down to his pants. “Then let’s go.”
They took to the sky, and it was like a century vanished from Val’s demeanor.
It took her a few minutes to warm up her wings and get back into the rhythm of flying, but once she had, there was no stopping her.
She flew higher and faster than Loki would have imagined.
He followed closely but gave her the space she needed to maneuver without being crowded by him.
Loki had seen thousands of creatures fly in his lifetime, but watching Val brought him a happiness and sense of peace that radiated through him.
She glided gracefully high above the clouds, dipping down and turning suddenly into a death spiral, only to stop and immediately fly straight up again, bursting through the clouds like a rocket.
They flew for close to half an hour when he noticed her begin to fatigue. He raced to where she lazily flew in and out of sight.
“I think you should rest,” he called.
She looked back at him. “I could fly like this forever.”
“I’m sure in your heart you can, but what about your wings? They aren’t used to being used so much. We don’t want them to get sore or pull something. Let’s go back, and I’ll massage them for you.”
She dipped down into the clouds, and he waited a moment for her to reemerge, but she didn’t. In a slight panic, he spun in a circle, and she came up behind him and jumped on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“You’ll massage my wings?” She nipped his neck, making him shiver.
“I’ll massage any part you want me to.”
She licked up the side of his throat, and he reached back and grabbed her rear.
“Signe-”
“Loki.”
Her warm breath hit his bare skin, and he wanted nothing more than to take her right there.
“Do you think we could make love up here?” she asked.
Damn, that was tempting. “I think we could, up until we both climax and get lost in each other and plummet to our deaths.”
“Mmmmm… but it would be an amazing death.”
He sighed. “Glorious.”
She bit his shoulder and let go of him. He spun as she flew backward, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to him. She wrapped her wings around him, and he kissed her soft.
“Thank you,” she said.
Whoa! First smiles and now a thank you? “For what?”
“Everything. Helping me fight Odin. Finding out who is hunting us. This.”
He almost exploded from pleasing her as if somehow it had become the most important thing in his long life. “You are most welcome, love.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I just ask one thing.”
He kissed her again. “Anything.”
She chewed her lip for a moment. “If you regret anything you’ve said to me, or done with me, or have had second thoughts of any kind, that you be honest with me and tell me now.”
He took in her beautiful face. She was scared. It shone in her eyes. Did that mean she felt for him what he felt for her? What other reason would she have for being scared?
He ran his knuckles over her cheek. “The only thing I regret is that I didn’t get to spend my first millennium with you.”
Tears flooded her eyes. “You're cheesy, you know that?”
He smiled. “But you love that about me, don’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“And you love me as well.”
A tear tumbled down her cheek. “Gods know I didn’t want to, but you just… got under my skin somehow, and now when I’m not with you, it’s like an itch I can’t scratch.”
“Are you saying I’m irritating?”
She kissed him. “Absolutely. And I simply love you for it.”
Loki snapped his fingers, and they were in his bedroom, kissing and throwing off their clothes as fast as they were able.
When he entered her, she pulled away. “Wait.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I want you, Loki of the Jotunn.”
It was his turn to be scared. “Are you sure?”
“I love you. Not the facade you show everyone else. The real you. So like I’ve told you before, I want you to be the real you with me, always, every time we are alone.”
His heart beat so fast he thought it might go into arrest. He dropped his magic and let the shroud that always covered him fall away like a scarf in the wind. His body lengthened, and his skin darkened against her peachiness.
She stroked his face. “Make love to me, Loki.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. He kissed her and poised at her entrance.
Excruciatingly slowly, he slid inside her inch by inch.
The feel of his real skin on her skin was enough to almost tumble him over the edge.
It was nothing like having sex with his facade on.
It was a thousand times more sensational.
Every fiber of him lit up as if his whole life he’d been having sex while wearing a woolen blanket.
He couldn’t hold back the moan that escaped him as he leaned in and bit her lip.
She grabbed his rear and urged him for more.
Loki took it slow. Savoring every sense as if it were his first time. “I… I…” He couldn’t form words.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I’ve never had sex without the facade before you, and it just… the way you feel…”
She kissed him and pushed him onto his back. “Is it different?”
“It’s a completely new experience. Everything is so much more. I can’t explain it.”
A glint sparked in her eyes, and she flipped him over and slid down on him in one fluid movement. He grabbed her hips and arched off the bed. Her tight body wrapped around his had him so close to losing it.
“I… I won’t be able to hold out,” he panted.
She leaned in and bit his bottom lip. “Who said you had to?”
She grabbed his horns and held on as she bucked her hips into his. She was touching him. Touching him and making love to him. Him. The bastard Jotunn. The outcast. The loner. And from the look of it, she wasn’t faking her pleasure.
“Signe… my love.”
She rocked her hips into his and pulled harder on his horns, almost making him sit up.
The sensation of her hands on his horns had tingles skittering over his entire body until his climax slammed into him so hard he lost all thought.
Pleasure. Pain. Joy. All of them mixed together in a blur as he stared at her beautiful face.
“Signe…” His body wound so tight he couldn’t breathe and shook with pleasure as his climax went on and on for what seemed like a lifetime and then tapered off.
When he was able to breathe again, he grabbed her head and kissed her so hard his teeth ached. But he didn’t care. He wanted her. Needed her. And she was his. He’d never let Alamax or anyone else take her from him. Whatever it took. He would never give her up.
When he broke this kiss, she smiled. He pulled her into his chest and clung to her for several minutes before realizing she hadn’t climaxed.
“I am so sorry, love. I didn’t get you there.”
She sat up. “This isn’t about me.”
“It’s always about you. It always will be. I promised to take care of you after the fight.”
“And you will. But right now what I want is to give you a first you won’t ever forget.”
His eyebrows rose. “Really?”
She kissed his lips and then his collarbone. Each nipple. His side. His hip. And then further down between his legs.
“Yes.” She swirled her tongue around the tip of him, and he grabbed the sheets to keep from bucking off the bed.
“Signe.”
She slid her tongue down his length. “Loki.”
He threw his head back as waves of pleasure radiated out through him. “You’re going to be the death of me, woman.”
She chuckled. “As long as you are all mine, you can keep telling me that.”
She licked back up his shaft and took him into her mouth.
Loki swore in Gaelic and sank into the bed as she sucked him into oblivion.