Hey guys! Hope you are all having a good weekend. Here's some more smut for ya. ;)

''As...comfortable as that couch is,'' Loki said, once they had dried off and returned to the room after their 'swim', ''I'd like to sleep on a bed tonight.''

''Yeah,'' Darcy agreed, then asked, her voice full of awkward hesitation as she twirled a strand of still-damp hair around her finger, ''Can..can I sleep with you?''

He looked at her sideways. ''That's the general idea, yes. It would certainly be convenient.''

A smile crept over her mouth.''Yeah. I pick the room!'' she said, picking up her bag and darting down the hallway and up the stairs to the next floor, now seized by a giddy, stupid excitement. Darcy really hoped that didn't mean she was falling in love. That wouldn't be good. As she ran she chalked it up to feel-good chemicals in the brain released during sex. It would pass.

Loki chased after her. ''Nothing flowery!''

''Oh, I'm gonna pick the floweriest, fluffiest, pinkest...'' Darcy pulled open a door and then stopped dead. ''Scratch that,'' she said as she looked at the bedroom that was revealed to them. The king-sized bed was draped in black satin. The décor was gold and the walls and ceiling were absolutely covered in mirrors. ''Jackpot,'' she whispered. ''Indeed,'' he said, peering over her shoulder.

It had an adjoining bathroom, so she filled the old fashioned claw-footed tub, needing to wash the sex and chlorine from her skin. Once it was full, Darcy sank gratefully into the hot water. Her body was rather sore, but she didn't mind. In fact, this new bedroom was giving her all kinds of ideas and she couldn't wait for what she hoped would be round three (and maybe four and five.) She shook her head, realising that she was rapidly turning into some kind of...of what? Darcy supposed that her new sexual fervour had to do with the fact that she was finally getting some, but in reality it had more to do with the person she was getting it from. Loki made her feel like no other man ever had, but she'd never met a man like him. Maybe that was because there were no men like him. She sighed and sank down further into the water. Closing her eyes, she could now hear sleet pounding on the roof, punctuated occasionally by bits of hail. The snow had stopped, but sometime during their activities in the pool it had morphed into a massive ice storm. Darcy secretly hoped that this meant that they wouldn't be able to leave right away.

Loki now sat on the bed, thinking. He had just gotten off the phone with Nick Fury. It had taken some negotiating, but he finally managed to convince the Director to let them stay. Because of the snow and now the ice storm, SHIELD wouldn't be able to haul away the wreckage immediately anyhow; they were lacking in available personnel at the moment, and it certainly wasn't their top priority. He'd covered it with a tarp, but Loki wasn't sure how much damage exposure to the elements would cause. Since it had been exposed to space and then the trauma of reentering the atmosphere, he hoped that a little snow and ice wouldn't bother it.

They had apparently been hit with one of the earliest and most severe storms that the UK had experienced in over a century. Loki was very grateful for this, because he wanted more time with Darcy. She was quickly becoming an addiction. What would happen when they returned from this assignment? What was this between them, what was it becoming? More importantly, what did he want it to become? He decided not to think too much about it and to remain in the moment. As he looked around at the room full of mirrors, his reflection peered back at him from all different angles. There were so many possibilities here and they were causing significant distraction, but he didn't care. They had more time now, after all.

He pulled up her story on his laptop again, unable to help himself. Now Loki was seeing it all in a slightly different light. So he had been Mr. Lamont since the beginning. Darcy had been picturing him like this for some time, perhaps even fantasising about him. About him. He'd certainly never expected to be a muse for anyone's erotic stories. It made him want to give her more to write about. He had never met anyone like Darcy before, she awoke a need in him. He'd always wanted power. To be a ruler. To be respected...loved...but that was too much to ask for. He would never be loved and adored. Contrary to popular belief, Loki didn't necessarily desire to be feared, but sometimes that was the only way. But she wanted him. And he in turn wanted her, wanted to keep this cycle going, giving her things that nobody ever had before and knowing that. Drinking in all of her sighs and begging and moans. Darcy wanted to see him, know him. Now the only fear was that he might actually show her.

As he read, Loki's eye caught on something: the date. 1835. There was something about that year... He pulled out one of the scientist's notebooks that they had brought upstairs with them, then laughed aloud. The most instances of phenomena associated with the so-called vortex of power all occurred during that year. And then, of course, there had also been the notable sighting of Halley's Comet.

He got off of the bed and walked into the bathroom, where Darcy lay half-submerged in the tub, looking quite relaxed. Or at least she did until she heard him enter. ''Hey!'' she exclaimed, her eyes flying open. ''Don't you knock?''

''It's nothing I haven't seen before,''he said dismissively, though he did let his eyes linger awhile on her. ''Was there any particular reason that you chose the year 1835 for the setting of your story?''

Darcy thought about it for a moment. ''No. Not really. It was just...the year that felt right.''

''Hmm.''

''Why?''

''Just a few more coincidences,'' he replied. ''The notebooks have a lot of entries from that particular year. In fact, it may have been the last time that something like this happened.''

''Weird. Now get outta here and let me finish my bath.''

''Alright. But no,'' he wiggled his fingers in a suggestive motion, ''funny business. I'll know.''

''Just get out, perv,'' she told him with a roll of her eyes. He departed, closing the door behind him, and she smiled.

After several more minutes in the tub Darcy finally decided that she was clean enough. She wandered out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel then picked up her suitcase and tossed it onto the bed. The room was empty, Loki seemed to have disappeared again, as was his habit. Opening the suitcase, she pulled out the one really nice bra and underwear set that she owned, made of black lace and silk. She'd never had occasion to wear it before, but this trip was turning out to have a lot of firsts in it, so she figured that she might as well. When she removed the garments, she saw that something had been tucked underneath. Darcy's eyebrows went up in surprise as she realized what it was: the riding crop that she'd had behind her bed. Loki must have slipped it in while she wasn't looking. ''Sneaky bastard,'' she whispered, though she had to give him points for thinking ahead. Removing it from the suitcase, she boldly sat it on one of the pillows. She put on the underwear and then decided, on impulse, to not get fully dressed and instead she pulled out her robe and wrapped it around herself.

Her stomach growled and Darcy realised that she was getting very hungry, so she decided to visit the kitchen again. The pantry was stocked with all sorts of ingredients and so was the enormous refrigerator, but she wasn't exactly in the mood to play Iron Chef at the moment. She needed something quick and easy. Opening the freezer, she glimpsed a few boxes of frozen pizza. That would do. Pulling one out, she set it on the counter while she looked for a cooking sheet. The oven, though also very fancy like the rest of the equipment in the kitchen, was easy enough to figure out and while she waited for the pizza to heat up she sat on one of the stools at the counter and wrote in her notebook. As Darcy chewed the cap of her pen and tried to figure out the last few chapters of her story, she was roused from thought by footsteps behind her. ''Loki?'' she said, turning around.

''No, ma'am, just Ned I'm afraid,'' answered Ned Abernathy with an apologetic, weird smile. Darcy pulled her robe more tightly around her shoulders. The caretaker was definitely not someone that she wanted to have a wardrobe malfunction in front of. ''Hey Ned,'' she said, attempting to be friendly. He spied her notebook, the pen in her hand. ''Are you a writer?'' he asked, his eyes lighting up. ''Yes,'' she said, as if deciding it at that moment. ''I am.''

''I'm a writer myself. I've written over thirty Star Trek fan fictions and twelve for Doctor Who,'' Ned announced, beaming with pride.

''That's very impressive,'' Darcy told him politely.

''Well,'' he said, blinking his beady eyes, ''I had better be getting on. Lots of work to do. This storm is really something, eh?''

''Sure is.''

''Stay warm, ma'am,'' Ned told her, and then walked away, whistling the theme from Doctor Who.

Darcy shook her head and then went to the oven. The pizza was just about done, so she turned it off. While she was searching in the cabinets for plates, she came across a small cupboard stashed with junk food. ''Score!'' she exclaimed, pulling out a package of Oreo cookies. After getting everything carefully balanced in her arms she headed back upstairs.

When she walked into the room she saw that Loki had returned. ''I brought food!'' she announced.

He looked up at her from where he was sitting on the bed. ''That's not food,'' he replied, eyeing the offerings with distrust.

''Well, it's all we got unless you want to go down to the kitchen and actually cook something,'' she said, sitting down on the bed and biting into a slice of pizza. ''See, I know this place isn't really magical because it if was, there would be singing, dancing silverware and furniture to cook dinner,'' she joked.

He looked puzzled. ''Why would the furniture sing and dance?''

''Beauty and the Beast, you know...be our guest, be our guest,'' she sang. ''No?'' He was looking at her like she'd grown a second head. ''Dude, seriously? Ok, when we get back home, I'm making you watch it.''

Loki stared at her expectantly. ''What?'' she asked with her mouth full.

''I'm waiting for you to tell me what it's about,'' he replied as he tentatively lifted a slice of pizza and examined it.

Darcy chewed and swallowed. ''Oh yeah, duh. I just assumed you knew. I sometimes forget that you're not from here. Anyhow, it's a fairy tale, there's different cultural variations of it, but the basic story goes like this: there's a beautiful woman who's imprisoned by a beast in his castle, 'cept he's not an ordinary beast, he's actually a handsome prince or whatever, but he's got a spell on him. So, long story short—she sees the inner beauty in him, he learns not to be such a dick, true love, kiss, blah blah, spell is lifted and he turns back into a handsome prince. And in the Disney version there's lots of singing and dancing—but I didn't really like the ending in that one. You'll see. That prince was a lame-ass. He was way better as a beast.''

He was giving her another odd look, now.

''By the way,'' Darcy said, around another huge mouthful of cheese and pepperoni, ''what's your deal?''

''My deal?''

''Yeah. The blue thing. What is it? Did someone put a curse on you, too?''

''I used to think so,'' Loki replied, and she noticed a very bitter edge to the words.''It's...well, I suppose it's how I really look, although I've been in this form for so long that it feels much more natural.'' He bit into the piece of pizza, finally, after several minutes of studying it, and chewed slowly as if bracing to be disgusted. Then his face relaxed. ''Not overly dreadful. Alright, so, I am actually a frost giant. Thor is not really my brother, nor Odin my father. I was...adopted when I was a baby, and raised to believe that I was Asgardian. I have a natural shapeshifting ability, which made it easy to spend my whole life in a disguise. And I never even knew, until...well, that's another story. You're somewhere in that one, I believe, but our paths hadn't crossed yet.''

''Wow,'' Darcy said, taking all of this in. ''Well, I dig it, and I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of. Blue is in here. Avatar, X-Men...blue people are hot. It's not just for smurfs anymore.''

Loki shook his head. ''You are...odd.''

''Yes, I am,'' she said proudly, picking up the package of Oreos and opening it.

''Are those good?'' he asked, watching her eagerly tear away the wrapping.

''Are you kidding me? They're fantastic! You've seriously never eaten an Oreo before? Ok, here,'' Darcy handed him one and then took another for herself. ''Here's what you do. There's lots of ways to eat them, but this is the best way: you twist off the top part, like so,'' she demonstrated, ''and then you eat that real quick to get it out of the way and then you eat the delicious side with all the cream on it.'' She chewed and sighed with delight. ''Yeah, that's the stuff.''

''You might be onto something there,'' Loki agreed. Then he said, ''I almost forgot. I have something.'' He reached over the side of the bed and pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses. ''Where did you get that?'' Darcy asked, impressed.

''Wine cellar,'' he replied, opening the bottle and pouring some for them. ''I went and got it while you were finishing your bath.''

She accepted the glass he offered. ''Nice.''

Loki leaned back against the headboard and stared at her for a long moment, a kind of contemplative half-smile on his face.''So,'' he said finally, ''have you written other stories?''

She nodded. ''Yeah. A few.''

''And are they of a...similar nature to the one I read?''

''Uh-huh. They're not all necessarily historical, but they're all...pretty smutty,'' admitted Darcy.

''What makes you write that?'' Loki wondered. ''Is it to express some unfulfilled desires?''

''I guess if you want to get psychological about it,'' she replied, not necessarily wanting to go into explicit detail about her unfulfilled desires. ''On a more basic level, I like reading stories with lots of sex, personally. It's not everyone's thing, but I really enjoy it, so that's what I started writing. And then I suppose, yeah, as I wrote more it became an outlet, a way to explore different fantasies.''

''What are some of your fantasies?'' he pressed.

Balking a little at the question, Darcy took a very large sip of wine. It tasted expensive.

Loki seemed amused at her discomfort. ''Don't get shy now. Here's your chance. I assure you, I've been around for a long time, nothing that you say is going to shock me or disgust me. It might very well be something that I'd like, too.''

After yet another sip, she took a deep breath and spoke. ''I...well, the spanking, that was one. I like that. Being tied up, being held down, sometimes. I like having my hair pulled, I like...I like it when you bite me,'' Darcy told him. Her face had gone red, but she told herself that it was the wine, not the subject matter. If she could write about such things, she should certainly be able to talk about them without blushing like a schoolgirl.

''You like being dominated?''

''Yeah, I guess. But only in certain ways, certain times.'' She scrunched up her face. ''Is that weird? Am I making sense?''

''I'm getting more of a clear picture,'' Loki answered with a nod. ''I think it's something that we can figure out along the way, where exactly your limits are, through some experimentation. And no, it's not weird.''

The riding crop was still lying on the pillow where she'd left it. Loki picked it up, ran his fingers along it. ''Do you want me to use this on you?''

Darcy's heart thudded wildly as she swallowed hard and nodded.

''Have you ever been hit with an object like this before?''

''No.'' She looked down at the bedspread. His gaze was very deep and searching and she was almost afraid to meet it.

''Look at me,'' he said, and something in his voice made her obey instantly, even as his green, green eyes made her shiver. ''It's going to feel different than my hand. It's going to be much more intense, you understand that, right?''

''Yes.''

''If you don't like it, tell me, and we'll stop.''

''We should have a safe word,'' Darcy decided as she reached for another Oreo to calm her nerves.

''What's that?''

''A word that you wouldn't normally say during sex, so the other person knows that it's too much or whatever. It's like a code.''

''What do you want your word to be?''

She thought about it, then said the first, most random thing that popped into her mind. ''Visigoth.''

''That's certainly unusual,'' Loki said, blinking. ''What is it?''

''Barbarian tribe from way back in the day. They sacked Rome a whole bunch, were really into pillaging and all that stuff.''

''Fine. If you discover that you're...getting sacked or pillaged too hard, then you say 'Visigoth.' ''

Darcy nodded again, then picked up the plates and the rest of the cookies. ''I'm going to go put these back in the kitchen.''

The walk gave her a few minutes to compose herself. Her blood felt too hot, like it was simmering in anticipation. She threw away what was left of the pizza (which wasn't much, she had been starving and also figured that she would need carbs for...activity.) Now those activities in question were apparently only a few minutes away and she was reduced to feeling like a shy virgin rather than the seductive sex goddess that she'd hoped to be. ''Get it together,'' she scolded herself. ''Consider it research. You're going to write more stories, maybe even a book. And it'll be a best-seller and then you'll be able to quit SHIELD.'' This seemed a bit of a stretch, to be sure, but it was a nice thought. It gave her the courage to climb back up the stairs and open the door.

Darcy was greeted with several reflections of herself from each of the walls. Loki was sitting on the edge of the bed. She walked over and stood in front of him. He reached out and undid the tie at the front of her robe, letting it fall open and then pushing it off of her shoulders.''As lovely as this is,'' he said, running his long, pale fingers over the black lace that enclosed her breasts, ''you won't be needing it.'' He reached around and unclasped the garment, letting it fall away. In the mirror, Darcy's reflection stared back at her, nervous and flush-faced, naked from the waist up, only another small scrap of fabric concealing the rest of her. Loki stood and moved behind her so that she could see his face too, see what he was doing. Both sets of their eyes followed his movements as his hand skimmed down over her stomach and then lower as his fingers found the edge of her lace underwear and then disappeared beneath it. Darcy sucked in a breath as she felt them eagerly seeking, rubbing her until she bucked her hips against his hand, her knees shaking. Somehow watching it happen only heightened the sensation. Watching her body respond, the sight of his wicked fingers moving under the fabric as she squirmed was deliciously obscene.

He knew that she liked it, the minute she'd started watching in the mirror she'd gotten even wetter. ''It arouses you, doesn't it?'' asked Loki. ''Watching what I do to you, seeing how much you like it.''

She nodded. He ceased his motions then tipped her back onto the bed and pulled her underwear off. ''Sit up on the edge,'' he instructed as he peeled off his shirt and then sat behind her. ''Now spread your legs. Take a good look at yourself.'' Darcy was, admittedly, just a little shy at first. She'd never gotten quite so up close and personal with herself before. Obviously she knew what she looked like 'down there' but seeing it in a large mirror, in a situation like this, was a little different. Loki smiled, then his fingers found her again. She watched, mesmerized, as he touched her, displaying her for the both of them.

''See how excited this is making you?'' he said, eyes glittering with lust. ''Yes,'' she whispered. Darcy could see, saw the wetness glistening on her swollen pink flesh, ripening more and more beneath him. Her nipples were hard, stiff points and a fine sheen of sweat had begun to glitter on her face and chest. Her eyes were alight with a soft fire. She looked feverish. As he pushed a finger deeply inside of her, she cried out. Instinctively, she tried to clamp her legs around him but he held her open, his other hand on her thigh, keeping her in this position, making her watch as he slid the digit in and out and then added a second. She saw her skin flush harder, her pupils dilate, her breathing increase. His gaze never broke from hers. In the mirror they remained locked to each other. Loki seemed very determined. Darcy felt that familiar heat and tension begin to throb deep inside of her. ''That's it. So close. I can feel you.'' She closed her eyes.

''No,'' he ordered, his voice jarring. ''Keep them open. Watch yourself come for me.''

Then she did, it rolled over her in waves. She witnessed the expressions playing over her face, her legs jerking convulsively as he continued to plunder her with his fingers. She scarcely recognized herself.

''Good girl,'' he whispered approvingly as the tremors subsided. He brought his fingers up to her lips, coated in her come. ''Taste,'' he said. ''And watch while you do.''

'Oh well,' she thought, ' 'know thyself', and all that.' She closed her mouth over the offering and sucked. It wasn't bad, she decided. Sort of tangy, salty-sweet.

Loki's eyes grew even darker and then he said, ''time to play a game now, darling.''