Chapter 1
“My dark love.”
Loki’s dark head turned. Piercing blue eyes scanned the impenetrable darkness. “Who dares?” his voice echoed in the empty auditorium.
A form materialized from the shadows. It moved slowly, flowing from deep darkness into the light. “I have waited long for this moment,” the voice was soft, seductive, and coming from the form moving slowly toward him, “waited for you.”
His eyes narrowed, trying to see within the depths of the ebony cloaked figure slowly advancing. “Who seeks to challenge me?” The golden staff in his hand glowed brightly as he raised it in a challenge of his own. Soft laughter floated out of the hood of the cloak. “You mock me?” he cried, bringing the butt of the staff down hard on the auditorium floor.
Energy flowed from the staff, creating a buffeting wind that flowed over the cloaked creature, forcing it to mold over a feminine form. The hood fell back, exposing hair as dark as his but longer, flowing down her back as the wind fell away. Fathomless dark eyes watched him, one raven brow cocked in question as full lips played with a half smile.
Loki’s brows drew up in surprise before narrowing at that small smile.“A woman?And of Midgard, no less.”
Pale graceful hands appeared at the edges of the cloak as she spread her arms and dipped in a curtsy. “Indeed, my lord,” she breathed softly, rising after only a moment.
He didn’t miss the hint of possessiveness in her tone. He smirked. “Am I?” The staff appeared to vanish as he stepped off the stage and started walking toward her.
She stood still, watching him approach with panther-like grace. “Are you what?” The smile still played on her lips and her eyes.
He reached her. Loki’s dark head tilted slightly to the side, the smirk still firmly in place on his mobile mouth. “Your lord.”
Her dark eyes searched his, and the smile faded slowly from her face, leaving it carefully expressionless. His smile started to falter, and then she began to speak:
“It was raining. I stood alone on the bridge beneath one of the broken lights. I found that…” she paused, searching for the right word, “poetic.” He began to speak, but her gaze silenced him. She continued, “The rain molded my clothes to my body, and my hair hung in wet strips. It was raining, and then it wasn’t.” A ghost of smile curled her lips. “You were there.” One hand motioned to him before she could stop herself. “You just stood there beside me, and the rain was gone…well, the rain around us, at least.”
“That does tend to happen,” he replied, walking in a slow circle around her as she continued.
“The next time…”
“Next time?” Loki interrupted, having come full circle and stopping in front of her. She was eye level with his chest. He tilted her chin so she met his gaze. She cocked one dark brow in question, and he couldn’t fight the smile. “Is that all that happened the first time,” he prompted, “we just stood in the rain?”
She smiled, and he sucked in his breath at the transformation. She went from being just another attractive female to one that he suddenly found he couldn’t resist. “No, we didn’t just…stand…in the rain,” she replied, her voice a low, seductive lilt.
He leaned down, intent on capturing her lips…and she wasn’t there. She’d stepped just out of reach. Any trace of a smile fled Loki’s face. “Come. Here.” Unable to speak, she shook her head. His eyes lit with a new fire, and a grin spread across his face. It made her shiver. “I could make you come…make you kneel.”
“You could,” she agreed in a voice stronger than he expected her to be able to manage, “and you have…many times.” A ghost of a smile flitted across her features.
It was he who closed the distance, and he firmly gripped her chin, forcing her gaze to his. “Who are you?” he demanded.
Tears brimmed for a moment before she closed her eyes, swallowing hard. When she opened them again, she reached for him, very lightly cupping his cheek in her palm. “Do you not remember?”
The visions hit him hard and fast:
The rain cloaked bridge…this woman pressed against him, his mouth on hers as he held her close;
The same bridge flooded with moonlight…she wore a white gown that rivaled the stars…they danced and laughed beneath the broken lamp;
A bed…soft sheets the color of new grass…his hands fisted in her hair as her mouth moved over him, making him writhe;
The same bed…her wrists were bound with blue scarves to either bedpost as she writhed beneath his hands, his mouth…
“Vanessa!” he cried, slamming back into the present. Joy quickly warred with reason. He let go of her chin, ran his hands over her shoulders, down her arms. “But…this is…wrong…this…this is…”
“Real,” she breathed. Her fingertips slid over his chin, down his armor. “This time it is real.”
Loki shook his head. “I don’t understand. How…”
Vanessa grinned up at him. “I believe I’ve learned a trick or two of my own,” she chuckled.
He frowned, “One cannot summon a god.”
She smiled wryly, “we both know what you are and what you are not, my lord.” Her hand found his cheek again, caressed it, before sliding into his black hair, “my love,” she breathed.
“True,” he admitted with a chuckle, his long fingers sliding over her cheek, played with a lock of her hair, “we are born and we die.”
“Give or take five thousand years,” she added with a smile.
He laughed, pulling her close. "Oh, you do know me."
End Chapter 1