Chapter 3
Loki Laufeyson
Right. Don't get yourself worried over nothing, Loki. He's the head of a large corporation and you're nothing but a pole dancer. Why are you surprised that he couldn't remember your name? I had already given him a sharp look, and there was nothing I could do to take it back. So, I stood my ground and let him see my annoyance for a few seconds before turning away and picking at the lemon hanging off of my water glass.
"Oh, Anthony Stark, how in the world could women ever find you unattractive?" I joked sourly, smirking as I squeezed a lemon seed between my fingers and watched as it shot out and landed on Anthony's cheek. He jumped as it slapped him and he peeled it away from his skin. I chuckled to myself and turned away from him. My revenge was set for now.
He groaned and wiped the citrus juice from the seed onto his sleeve. "That was refreshing," he said dryly. "You're quite the gentleman aren't you? Can't even play the part of dignity."
"I have always been the mischievous younger sibling in my family." A small, sour smirk broke on my face as I recalled the past; many a prank was pulled on my brother and his friends when I was younger. "I remember pulling a prank on my brother – it was one of those silly pranks that children pull that usually never work. It was an accident."
"What, were you practicing for an actual joke and had your brother walk into an open door with a bucket of water balanced on it?" He laughed to himself, and I humored him with a smile. Oh, if only I had actually ignored Thor's and Jane's prods and worked my shift tonight . . .
"Replace water with worms, and you have the entire story in a nutshell." I fought to hold back a snort as Anthony's expression went from amused to utter disgust. I smirked proudly. "Although, my brother has always been freakishly huge and strong for his age. He managed to catch me and throw me into a wall. Luckily, it was reinforced, so I didn't fall through into the busy street behind our house."
"No human on this earth can throw another human into a wall, nonetheless, through it."
"Well, then, you ought to meet my brother, Thor, sometime. Quite an eccentric fellow, he is." I placed my glass on the nearest table. I was tired of holding it, and my fingers felt as if they were frozen from the water that had been sloshed all over the place when Anthony had come around and scared the living daylights out of me.
"Your brother's name is 'Thor'?" he asked incredulously. "And you're Loki?"
"Ah, you remembered?" I asked.
"No, I guessed. It was pretty good, though." I scowled. "Oh, what? Come on! At least give me credit for knowing just the slightest bit of Norse mythology. That's about as far as my knowledge on the subject goes, anyways. I have nothing left to work with after that."
". . ." I rolled my eyes and turned away from him, searching for Jane so that I could grab her by the arm, make up something about Thor being in trouble or wanting us to be home soon, and get the hell out of this place before I strangled myself with the scarf hanging off of my shoulders. He was more tolerable when people in front of him were half-naked and he didn't know where to put his hands.
I pursed my lips – truly, it was a bad habit – and did my best to tune him out. Should he ever come back around the club, I'd ask a few of the other men to approach him and see who makes him the most uncomfortable. Watch him squirm as men threw themselves at his lap. That would surely be a sight to see.
". . . Hey, Loki, is it?" he asked.
I turned back to him. "It is."
"Great. All right, well, the truth is, my girlfriend is mad at me and basically won't even let me get her near a bed with me ten feet away. Long-story-short: your fault." He gave me a knowing glance. "So, um, if you were to sleep with me . . . How much would it take?"
Something exploded inside of me. My chest tightened with a whirl of emotions, and I turned myself towards him with a pair of dagger-sharp eyes. I felt my pride crack. My face flamed with anger, and he apparently realized that his assumption had insulted me. Or, maybe he didn't, because his look, although knowing, was entirely confused. He must not have realized what it was that made me give him the mixed look of anger and insult.
"Mr. Stark," I started, voice shaking, "this evening has, in truth, been entirely uncomfortable and regrettable. I would tell you that it has been a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but it has actually been quite the pain in my ass. I do hope we never meet again. Good night, Mr. Stark." I ducked my head and ignored his plea to come back as I forced myself into the crowd and managed to spot Jane.
I slipped through many conversations, getting my ass groped in the process; I ignored the person's advance towards me and popped up beside Jane without her realization. The person speaking to her acknowledged me with a smile, and she looked up at me with surprise. I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and leaned close so that her friends wouldn't hear me.
"I'm leaving now, with or without you," I said as quietly as I could. "I'll be going back to our apartment. If Thor asks, I became ill after drinking vodka that was too strong for me to handle and had to leave due to stomach problems. I will not wait up for you to make your decision; you either follow me out or stay here."
"Oh, all right." She nodded towards me and handed her drink off to one of her friends. "I'm afraid something's come up and my date and I must leave." She smiled at the man with blonde hair and blue eyes in front of her. He gave her a small smile of his own in return. "Mr. Rogers, it has been an absolute pleasure getting to meet you. I hope we see each other around soon. Have a good night."
"You as well, Ms. Foster." He turned towards me and smiled. I gave him what I could with my impatience eating away at me, and Jane took my elbow as I led her out.
She stayed silent until we reached the doors, and as I held one open for her to walk out, she turned to me and asked, "What happened in there? Were you not having a good time?"
"I was, until I met the man hosting the party, and we had a little chat." I let the door fall shut behind me and Jane took my arm again.
"You got to meet Tony Stark?" she asked, mouth agape. There was a hint of jealousy and awe in her voice. "Oh, I am absolutely green with envy! What did you two talk about?"
"My profession," I growled, and she gave me a surprised look. "Yes, yes, I did see him at my workplace last night. He was just as out of his element there as I was here. And, apparently, he doesn't know the difference between a stripper and a damn whore." I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes but blinked them away. "How much . . ."
"He asked you to sleep with him for money?"
"Yes, and I refuse to speak to him any further. Should you choose to come to another of these, I refuse to attend. I will absolutely not escort you to another one of these damn charity events if you are invited. Thor goes or you find another date. I will not be an alternative." I laughed. "Maybe next time I'll just stay home and rent a movie."
"Good luck getting Thor to sit still long enough for me to put a tuxedo on him."
"If you give me a few minutes and a bucket of worms, I might be able to make that happen."
"A bucket of worms, Loki?"
"It's an inside joke. Try asking Thor about it when I'm not around. I'd rather not be plastered on another wall."
Anthony Stark
As I watched him stomp away from me in anger, I wasn't sure what it was that I felt when he disappeared. I definitely did want to take my remark of sleeping with him back, seeing as that was the entire reason for his temper tantrum. I surveyed the crowd, unable to locate him, and I took out my pocket screen and signaled for J.A.R.V.I.S. He answered the very second my finger came off of his button.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., please locate our guest, Loki, for me please," I commanded, looking through the crowd for black hair and a green scarf. "I was talking with him and he suddenly left me."
"Did you happen to offend him by saying something stupid and unintentional or did you offend him on purpose for a laugh?" came the sarcastic reply. "I do not find the name 'Loki' in our system register. He was not in the invitation list. Should I call the police?"
"No, no," I said with a slight shake of my head. "He would have been escorted off the premises immediately if he were to even attempt to crash this party. I'm guessing he was a last-minute date for a guest. Is there anyone here who was invited but didn't show up with someone they listed?"
"Quite a few people, actually." Jarvis did a scan of the list and managed to come up with a name. "The young lady by the name of Jane Foster had listed her date as a man named Thor Odinson. He was unable to attend and was crossed off the list. One of the security officers at the front door has just informed me he saw Ms. Foster escorted by a dark-haired man outside."
So that was why I hadn't been able to find him among the crowd of the party. I had hurt his pride bad enough to make him leave. And his date must have heard our conversation and either left with him because she heard me insult him or because he was her ride home. I didn't bother guessing.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., is there any way at all for you to get a hold of this Thor Odinson's address? I think I would like to pay him a visit." I checked my watch. It was just barely past midnight. "Oh, and while you're at it, get his phone number as well. I'm pretty sure people who earn minimum wage prefer it if you call before dropping by for a visit."
"Sir, if you must ask me if I can find an address for you, I am beginning to think you are forgetting the capabilities you programmed me to have yourself," it replied. "If you insult me, I might follow this man's example and take my leave."
"J.A.R.V.I.S., do you ever get lonely?" I moved closer to the bar and held my hand up for the bartender. Without the slightest hesitation, he picked out a clean glass and filled it with whiskey, this time completely skipping the ice. I thanked him with a nice tip and took a deep swallow.
"Lonely, sir?"
"I was just wondering if you would like it if I were to make you a girlfriend. You know, name her something like B.R.E.N.D.A., or . . . Never mind, B.R.E.N.D.A. it is. I'm not coming up with another girl's name to give her."
"Sir, I have seen how you and Mrs. Potts get along when the smallest shred of doubt comes between the two of you. I wouldn't want to risk seeing what would happen if two A.I. were to get together and have a hew hiccups."
"Machines can't hiccup," I stated matter-of-factly, and a woman standing beside me gave me a strange look. I simply winked at her and turned back to the subject at hand. "So, I take it you don't want a girlfriend?"
"That would be correct, sir."
"Fine. I'll give you another system reboot and get rid of some useless things. We'll do it when I get out of here and manage to sneak off to the lab. Oh, and while I have you, J.A.R.V.I.S, do take away Pepper's capability to open the door to my lab. I don't want her to interrupt me in the middle of something and make me drill a hole through my hand. I already have one in my chest and I don't need another one."
"Very well, sir. For how long would you like me to ban her?"
"I think twelve hours should do." I smirked and threw the bottom of my glass into the air. "Twelve hours should be perfect."
I was true to my word when one o'clock came around, and before Pepper could realize my elaborate plan to get away from the hustle and bustle of a boring charity party, I was already in the elevator and loosening the tie around my neck. I managed to get it off and shrug my jacket off of my shoulders by the time the elevator made it to the basement floor and locked myself in the lab before she saw me. I threw my jacket and tie onto an empty table.
"J.A.R.V.I.S, do you have the address for Mr. Odinson?" I asked, undoing a few buttons on my shirt. I felt immensely freed and sighed.
"I do. I have also done research on this Loki man you were questioning me about earlier, and I have found some articles that I believe you might find interesting." I reached out and took one of the small screens away from my work desk, enlarging it as one of the online gossip articles that blew up overnight appeared on it. The headline read CEO EMBEZZLES FOR BOYFRIEND.
Boyfriend? I scrolled down over the article and read for as long as my stomach would allow me. According to the gossip columnist, the unnamed CEO had been stealing money from his company and his own employees to pay for gifts and five-star meals for his proclaimed boyfriend, Loki Laufeyson. Loki had denied being the man's boyfriend and said that the man had been sending him gifts, all of which he had sent back because of the man's infatuation. He refused to give the reporters or anyone else any more information than that. He also moved out of the city soon after everything happened and refused to return.
J.A.R.V.I.S. sent me another article, this one with the same story but a few different points to it. It was yet another guy stealing money from his company to feed his Loverboy Fund, but this one was almost like a script from a soap opera. The man had been cheating on his wife with Loki, but Loki had not even known about the wife and . . . Whoa, three kids. Loki had once again refused to speak to the press and disappeared overnight to never be heard from again.
I didn't even bother to read the third one and closed the screen out. "I get it, J.A.R.V.I.S., he's trouble," I called as the program began humming. "It seems like the men who date him have trouble keeping the money in their pockets. Are you trying to tell me something?"
"Simply giving you a warning of what you are about to get yourself into, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded as if he was laughing at me for seriously looking into this man. But I couldn't seem to keep my curiosity in reign. There was just something alluring about this man that had me following his every movement like a damn dog. And just as he probably suspected, I was chasing him down like a bloodhound.
"Can you find his shift hours?" I asked.
"I thought you would ask. He works from eight p.m. to five a.m. and usually goes straight home afterwards." Jarvis displayed the address on the screen. "Sir, can I assume that you will have ignored everything I have just told you about this man?"
"That is exactly correct, J.A.R.V.I.S. You know me so well." I sent one of his sensors a loving glance and then went straight to work.
