As the music of the party slowed to a comfortable talking level, I went outside on the balcony, gazing at the glimmering gold of the city in the bright sunset. Asgard's sun cast beautiful rays of red and orange, and the twilit sky had a touch of purple in the distance. With the sun this close it would probably get dark quickly.

I heard distinct voices inside over the din of general chatting, and I identified the voices of the king and queen, and of Loki. They were arguing discreetly about me. He had brought me here from Earth, but I had not seen much of him at the party and I was starting to realize that maybe it was a mistake to come. Loki had acted on Earth as though he was attracted to me for weeks when he had come to see me, and what girl couldn't resist a gorgeous, dark-haired man like him, when he invites you to an otherworldly kingdom full of magic and beauty? I didn't believe him until one second we were standing there with his arms around me, and the next we were here in Asgard. His servants had helped me find a dress that fit (not such an easy task with curves like mine - at least, I thought so until it only took them about five minutes to find one - and I ended up with a gorgeous strapless floor-length black gown with gold trim on the sweetheart neckline and green and gold filigree embroidered on the skirt) and when Loki had seen me in it, his eyes got big and he turned tail and disappeared down the hallway. During the party he made eye contact with me a few times with those big eyes, yet he never came over to me to say anything.

A hot tear slid down my cheek despite myself. I should have known better than for something like this to happen to me. What was I expecting, that some god would sweep me off my feet and we'd live happily ever after? Things like that don't happen to girls like me, who have been shunned by everyone their entire life and couldn't fit fashionable clothes if they tried. I resolved to confront Loki and ask him to take me home when I saw him next. All I wanted at this point was to minimize the embarrassment on both our parts.

That was, until his voice came from behind me and nearly made me jump out of my skin.

"You are a vision of sublime beauty in that dress, darling," he said, his gravelly voice barely above a whisper. I whirled around ready to rail at him, but the look on his face as he leaned in the doorway of the balcony was not that of arrogance or disgust, but of remorse. It threw water on the fire of rage in my chest. I noticed he was wearing his horned helmet, my biggest weakness when it came to what he was wearing. I had not seen him in it before tonight, so he didn't know this about me.

"I offer my deepest apologies to you," he continued. "I had no excuse for making you feel like I was excluding you from the party that I invited you to myself. Please forgive me and allow me to offer my most sincere and frank explanation for my deplorable actions."

I blinked at him and raised my eyebrows to signal him to continue.

"It took nearly everything I had in me to not embrace you and kiss you when I first saw you in my chambers in that dress," he explained. "I wanted to have you right then and there, party be damned. I didn't have your consent in that moment, I couldn't trust myself not to push you backward onto my bed, and the very sight of you made my words fail me, so I turned away. I tried to find the words to express this to you at the party, but every time I made eye contact with you I would lose my nerve." He closed his eyes and chuckled. It was a genuine smile, and the skin around his eyes crinkled adorably. He looked back at me and his smile faded slightly. "That's never happened to me before and, if I'm honest, it shook me."

Well. I didn't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. I flustered around in my head for a few seconds trying to figure out what to say. Loki's eyes traced a path down my arms and the length of my dress, where it fell to my (high-heeled) feet, and he let out a barely-suppressed moan. Slowly his eyes made their way back up to mine; I was fully dressed but it made me feel like he was caressing my body with his gaze. Of course my face instantly flushed hot and red at this thought.

Loki held out his hand. "Might I interest you in a dance?" My heart skipped a beat, but I nodded, not trusting my voice, and took his hand. I couldn't help but notice that his fingers were long. Like, really long. A girl could get carried away thinking about fingers like that.

Loki led me through the ballroom to the middle of the dance floor. The room was full of people sitting in tables and they watched us with curious eyes. He nodded to the orchestra, and they started playing a gentle and medium-speed tune I didn't recognize. I may not have known the music, but what music training I had had years ago in high school tuned my brain to the distinct tempo - a waltz.

"I know it's not the best time for me to tell you this, but I don't know how to dance," I whispered to him, my lips at his ear to not attract attention. "Everyone's watching, otherwise it wouldn't have been a problem." I didn't want to embarrass him in front of the well-to-do in his kingdom. (I left out "and I'm about as graceful as a blind beluga" for brevity's sake.)

"Don't worry, love, all you need is a good leader. Follow my lead and no one will know," Loki reassured me, sotto voce. I thought for a moment that my heart was going to burst from my throat and leap out of my body. Confidently he guided my left hand to his right shoulder, placed his right hand on the ample curve of my waist, and took my right hand in his left, lacing our fingers together. I closed my eyes and took a couple of quick deep breaths.

Just as the music started again, Loki moved his feet and I tore my eyes open, looking around frantically and trying to follow his moves. My brain felt scrambled trying to keep up with the tempo and figure out the beats I was supposed to move my feet on. He was almost a foot taller than me, not including the horns, and it was dizzying to be dancing with this lithe, graceful giant.

"Look in my eyes." Loki's silken voice floated through the air to me and cut through the anxiety in my head. I did as he said and my mind began to clear. I stopped thinking about how I was moving my feet - after all, my dress came to the floor, so no one could see them - and focused only on his face. His beautiful green eyes glittered in the candlelight and they drew me in. Lost in the moment, I laughed out loud, and he grinned down at me. Loki led me in wide circles around the dance floor, the music slowly picking up pace as we moved faster. Never once did he break eye contact. I had no way of knowing how long we danced, but it felt like a delicious eternity.

The orchestra ended the music with a flourish on the violin. Loki effortlessly wrapped his long arm around my waist and dipped me backward until my hair dangled inches from the floor. There was no way I could have predicted this - his skinny frame misled the beholder to think he wasn't very strong, and I was easily almost double his weight - and I thought I was going to fall. But Loki held me up with only one arm and no hesitation, his expression exuberant. "You're a natural," he assured me.

"I had a great leader," I told him, nearly giggling from the exhilaration of the moment.

The whole ballroom erupted with applause as we kept our eyes locked on each other and tried to catch our breath. Loki lifted me back to my feet and we bowed to the cheering crowd. Adrenaline had kicked my heart into breakneck speed and it made me feel like I could fly. I had never felt so beautiful, so confident. So alive.

I took Loki's hand and led him to a hallway going away from the ballroom. I pushed him against the brick wall with my body, ran the fingers of my left hand through his slicked-back hair beneath his horned helmet, and pulled him to me until his lips touched mine. Loki immediately encircled me with his long arms and held me closer, deepening the kiss with a growling moan that resonated through my body and settled low in my pelvis. His cool tongue explored my mouth and I felt one of his hands drift lower. One particular part of his anatomy strained the limits of his thin trousers and pressed against my belly. Oh boy.

I broke loose of the kiss first. I didn't want to, but we needed to talk. Loki's eyes burned with a fire that didn't come from the torch lights, and for a moment I could have sworn they were red. He blinked and they were their normal green again. As if freeing himself from a trance, he shook his head. "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to rush you to do anything," he said, and he took my face in his hands. "We can go back to the ballroom if you wish."

I smiled at his willingness to stop everything now if I wanted to. Not many men would have that kind of self control, especially since I was the one who led him down the hallway and kissed him first, but he wasn't just a man, was he? I gestured to him to follow me and I started walking down the hallway. Loki followed and offered his arm, and I hooked mine in the crook of his elbow.

"Here's what I don't understand," I began. I was just going to let it go but it needed to be said. "If you were that attracted to me, why didn't you just say so? Why hide it from me?" We turned a corner down a darkening hallway lit with just a few golden torches and he looked at me, confused.

"I thought it was obvious how I felt," he said, clearly surprised. "Forgive me for being forward again, but I couldn't let you see me from the waist down the whole evening. I didn't want to appear to be rude or presumptuous to an elegant woman like you." At that I stopped walking, and I stared at him with my eyes bugging out unattractively.

"Oh," was all I could say to that.

Loki chuckled again, a delightful baritone sound that echoed off the stone walls. He gestured down the hallway to a black door with gold trim and a gold doorknob. "My chambers are right here… if you're interested. You've seen them already but not in moonlight." He reached slowly with his long fingers and stroked them down my neck, across my collarbone, and down my arm, forcing a trail of chills to erupt in their wake. He deliberately held my gaze. "You'd look lovely among the silks on my bed." He practically growled these last words, and he reached around my waist and brazenly tugged at the strings of gold ribbon at the bottom of the corset style closure on the back of my dress. They loosened, and since the dress was strapless, it slid down my chest about an inch.

"And this dress would look lovely on my floor." Boom. Signed, sealed, delivered. I'm yours, I thought to myself.

It wasn't cold but I found myself shivering. I nodded my consent, and Loki bowed his head in agreement. "After you, my dear," he said, and I began a slow walk toward his chamber door, swaying my hips in an exaggerated gait.

I knew he was watching me as he followed, so as I walked I began unlacing the back of my dress even more, pulling the two sides apart and slowly inching the dress down my body. I opened the door and my heart almost stopped when I saw his bed - the last time I was here, I was just changing into a pretty dress, but now the context was going to result in the dress being in a crumpled heap on the floor.

My hands shaking, still facing away from Loki to gather my nerve, I kept pulling the dress down until it was past my generous hips, and I let it fall to the floor, and slipped off my shoes. I had on panties and a strapless bra, both black, but this was still the most naked I had ever allowed myself to be around a man. Before now I had insisted on wearing lingerie that covered most of my body, or I kept my clothes on and just wore a skirt. Those men usually kept their eyes closed or turned off the lights. Now there was no hiding. I stood facing the bed, closed my eyes, and turned around. Out of instinct I covered my chest with one arm and my stomach with the other. I felt like I couldn't breathe and all I could muster were rapid, shaky breaths. Seconds ticked past that felt like years and Loki didn't say anything. I started thinking maybe he changed his mind, until I felt his hands on my shoulders. His cool touch was a shock to my heated skin, and I jumped. He circled my wrists with his fingers and moved my arms away so he could see me. Finally I opened my eyes and looked up (and up and up) to see his face.

What I saw nearly took my breath away.

Loki wore an expression that one could imagine a man who just saw the ocean for the first time or a loved one after a long absence would have. Those big green eyes shone in the moonlight coming through his large windows and I was relieved to see a burning desire in them. A soft, warm smile spread across his face. He traced a finger on his right hand across my collarbone and around the curve of my breast, and settled his hand on my hip. With his left hand he ran his fingers through my hair and cupped the back of my head. Chills erupted all over my body and I involuntarily let out a little moan.

"Look in my eyes, darling," he said, and I did. It was less of a command and more of a loving request. "Your pain," Loki said, his gaze intense and serious, "I can read it on your face as if you were an open book. Others have taken advantage of your insecurities that they themselves caused. Your world made you believe you were a lesser person. Here on Asgard there are no such notions of judgment based on a person's body. My eyes see you just as you are, your beauty and your worth, and if you could see what I see I know you'd believe it too." He lowered down to me and kissed my lips ever so gently, then planted another kiss on my neck. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and it shook as I exhaled.

"My love, your body is perfection. Come to the mirror," Loki said, turning my body to a blank wall, where he conjured a large mirror that showed us together in it. He linked his long arms around my waist and met my eyes in our reflection. "See how your waist is perfect for my arms? How the curves of your hips give a perfect hold?" His hands wandered over my body as he spoke, and I was hanging on to every word. "How you fit perfectly against me? How your breasts fit perfectly in my hands?" Long fingers gently caressed the fabric of my bra, his fingertips grazing over the hard peaks inside the thin cups. "And can you feel how much simply caressing your skin excites me?" At this he gripped my hips and ground forward into my ass. Loki smirked when he saw my reaction. "Keep watching. Watch me show you how much I love your form…"

My fingers itched to do something, so I turned back around and scrambled to find somewhere on Loki's armored tunic to hold on to and try to take off of him while he lavished my throat with more kisses. He laughed playfully at my efforts and nipped the skin on my neck with his teeth. I was growing more impatient by the second and I could feel the slickness gathering on my thighs. I wanted nothing more in that moment than to touch his skin, to make him feel the way he was making me feel. My frustration reached peak level when my fingers couldn't undo a clasp on his tunic and I shouted, "fuck!"

"Allow me," he said, amused, and straightened up. First he lifted his arms to remove his helmet, but I had to stop him.

"Leave that on." I surprised myself with my tone, but he seemed to like it. He smiled even wider, nodded, and continued.

Loki unclasped his cape from the tunic, and the green fabric fluttered silently to the floor. Next he undid the metal buckle that kept his tunic and trousers together, front and back. No wonder I couldn't figure that out, I thought briefly. Then he slid the light metal cuffs off of his arms and threw them behind him without a second thought. Finally he just pulled the whole tunic off, remaining armor and all, over his head, and (somehow) his helmet, and tossed it in the general direction where the cuffs went. His hands hovered briefly at the waist of his trousers.

"Let me," I offered, and I bent down to lower the trousers to the floor. As I rose to my feet again, my eyes drank him in. Long, pale legs covered in fine black hair seemed to go on for a mile before they topped off at his well-defined abdomen and pelvis. I noticed immediately that Loki wasn't wearing any underwear (perhaps underclothes weren't an Asgardian tradition?) but I decided to come back to that in a moment when I could get my head together. The detail that caught my attention after that was a single bulging vein on his left leg, on the front of his hip, that disappeared a few inches away from the bundle of black hair at the apex of his thighs. I ran my finger over it and Loki let out a ragged breath. He was skinny, and appeared even taller and paler in the light of the rising moon, but he was still pretty cut. A lifetime of training had served him well. A sparse trail of dark hair led up to his navel and I wanted to run my fingers through it, so I did. Suddenly I was overcome with a desperate need to get my hands on everything.

I stood on my tiptoes and kissed Loki's neck, curling my arms around his waist to grip his ass, and I was rewarded with a rich and seductive growl. While planting a trail of kisses from one side of his neck to the other, he deftly unbuckled my strapless bra in the back and flung it across the room. His skin felt like cool marble against my sensitive breasts, and my knees nearly buckled when he took one of the pink buds in his mouth and licked hungrily. I closed my eyes, moaning, and reached between his legs.

My fingers met pulsing flesh, hard and still cool to the touch, and Loki bucked his hips to push his hardened length into my hand. The skin was so soft, and my fingers became lightly coated with the fluid that was lightly flowing from the tip. He groaned lustfully and continued his work on my other breast, allowing his free hand to drift underneath the front of my now-drenched underwear.

Loki backed me up until the back of my legs hit the bed, then pushed me down with his body to make me lie down. My eyes flew open to see his, the green hidden almost completely by the black of his pupils, which were blown wide with desire. Slowly, agonizingly, he kissed a trail from my breast down to my stomach, loved on the fine white marks on the skin there, and stopped at the top of my panties. The cool metal of his horns grazed my skin periodically and it was like touching ice to a hot plate, making my abdominal muscles quiver. Long fingers hooked on the sides of my underwear and pulled them down my legs, and they joined his armor in the heap of clothing on the stone floor across the room. Loki stood to admire me, bared completely to him, my skin flushed and covered in a sheen of sweat despite the cool temperature of the room, and he looked as though he wanted to devour me. His golden horns reflected the light of the moon, and the sight of his majestic form sent a jolt straight to my aching core.

"Your body is a temple, darling," he growled, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "Allow me to worship at your altar." Kneeling at the end of the bed, he propped my feet up on his shoulders and dove face first between my legs. Worship is exactly what Loki did, his lips and tongue wordlessly praising my slick folds and drawing whimpered prayers of his name from my throat as he sucked relentlessly on the little bundle of nerves at the apex. My hands gripped the horns on his helmet and stroked the gleaming metal, effectively holding him in place. I couldn't keep my moans from rising in pitch when I felt him slide one finger, then two, inside of me, expertly curving them upwards and stroking the spongy tissue there, as if to coax my release closer and closer to him. No man before had ever done this to me, had ever taken the time to ensure I had my pleasure too, and the new sensations had me keening as the warm and tingling feeling started to build low in my belly. Loki knew exactly what he was doing, and he stopped just seconds before I would have come undone at the mercy of his fingers and tongue. I whined at the loss of contact, and he gazed up at me when I released his horns, his mouth and chin covered with my juices, withdrew his fingers from my core with an obscene wet sound, and licked them clean. "Delicious," he moaned, and licked his lips.

Loki rose to his feet, bent down, turned me, and put his arms beneath my shoulders and my knees. I yelped in surprise and clung to his arms when he effortlessly lifted me up and moved me to the head of the bed. My head was spinning, so potent was my desire to please and be pleased. For a moment I had forgotten I was literally in the arms of a god, and when I remembered this it filled me with a wicked sense of joy. If there was anyone in the universe that knew what real beauty was when they saw it, it was a god. And here I was, staring into the eyes of the most beautiful man I had ever seen, a bona fide god, and out of all of the women in Asgard and in Earth, he wanted me. This fact hit me like a ton of bricks and I felt my eyes well up with tears. Loki looked down at me - he had climbed on top of me while I was pondering my luck - and he wrinkled his eyebrows in a concerned frown.

"What's troubling you, my love? Do you wish to stop?" His eyes darted back and forth over my face, searching for a trace of doubt. I shook my head.

"No," I blubbered, and laughed awkwardly. "I was just thinking about how lucky I am to be here with you and it just sort of overwhelmed me. I'm sorry. I'm okay, I promise."

Loki stroked my cheek, wiping away the single tear that had fallen. He smiled, a gentle smile that transformed his face and made him look like a raven-haired angel. "Happy tears," he said, and kissed my tear-stained cheek. "The most beautiful expression of joy in the world. Don't be ashamed, darling. I love seeing you opening yourself to me this way." He kissed me softly, holding contact until I could hardly breathe, and I opened my legs for him so he could get closer to me. "That way is lovely, too," he added, hooking his fingers under my knees to lift my legs around his waist.

"Are you ready?" Loki asked me. My heart was racing as I nodded for him to continue. He pulled his hips back to notch himself at my entrance and stopped for a moment to nuzzle into my throat. One of his hands reached underneath me to hold my back, the other laced his fingers with mine and lowered my hand to the silken bedspread, and he slowly pushed into me, groaning deeply into the crook of my neck. I could feel his considerable size stretching out my inner walls. The sensation seized the air from my lungs and all I could manage was a squeaking noise as he stilled inside me and waited for my muscles to relax to accommodate him. I opened my eyes to see my face reflected in Loki's helmet, and my free hand reached up to stroke the horns again. Something about the texture of the sleek metal greatly appealed to my libido.

Loki took his hand out from underneath me and reached between our bodies to rub tiny circles around my sensitive clit, pulling himself slowly back and forth and trying to get me to relax around his girth. The crown of his cock caught my sweet spot and ground into it as he pulled backward again, and the hand that was gripping the horns flew to my side to cling to the luxurious quilt. Loki's hips picked up pace and he continued to massage my clit as he watched my face. My head arched back in ecstasy and I could feel my release building again, this time in my very core. Loki's mouth was at my ear but his voice felt like it was miles away.

"Come for me, darling," he growled. His breath was hitching in his throat and I could tell his own climax was nearing and he was holding it back for me. "Please."

That was all I needed to send me tumbling over the edge. A release like none I had ever had before shuddered through my body, my walls clamping down again and again on Loki's cock and my lips screaming his name against their will. My legs lost their strength and Loki caught them as they fell, pushing them up against my belly and angling my pelvis up for a deeper reach. He pounded into me with renewed fervor, drawing out the length of my orgasm until I could no longer form coherent words. With a triumphant roar Loki reached his own climax, and I watched his face as he spilled himself deep inside of me. His eyes scrunched shut and his eyebrows knit together, and his mouth hung open as his breathing slowed to a normal, if shaky, level.

He opened his gorgeous green eyes and gazed down at me lovingly. With a kiss to my sweaty forehead he pulled himself out of me and admired his work. "My seed dripping from your flesh is a vision to behold," Loki marveled bluntly, and I blushed about twelve different shades of red. He removed his helmet and placed it on his bedside table. "Apologies, darling, but I needed to take this off." He plopped down beside me on the bed and pulled me to him for a cuddle. I fluffed his hair and traced the slight curve of his waist and hip with my fingertips, and he let out a little satisfied moan.

"That was… indescribable," I told him, settling on a word that didn't quite encompass the significance of what had just happened but was all I could come up with, with my brain still in a fog of afterglow. "I mean, that wasn't my first time, but everyone else I've slept with pretty much only did it because they were drunk or couldn't get anyone else. But that?" I tucked a curl of Loki's hair behind his ear and saw he was listening intently. "That wasn't just sex. That was something different entirely. I guess that's what I've been missing out on, huh?"

"Yes, I suppose it is," Loki agreed. "It truly is a crime when a woman such as yourself is denied the most basic carnal pleasures in life. I want nothing more than to show you everything your heart and body desire." To punctuate his point he reached between my legs, and was met with a substantial amount of our mixed fluids. "But first, a shower."