Sitting in the back of the sedan, Loki was quite pleased with himself. Once Annalise had woken, he had operated a phone to book a suite at the Althoff Hotel in Stuttgart using the skills she taught him, and then called Barton to confirm the plans for securing iridium the following night. She may or may not have needed to intervene once or twice with the phone when he became frustrated at the nonexistent "buttons" he was supposed to "press" on a little glass screen, but in the end, he succeeded.

Little did he know, his phone lesson was far from complete. Once his calls were made, Annalise launched into texting. While she spoke excitedly, he took the opportunity to watch her. Admittedly he was tiring of her equality campaign, but he couldn't deny that Annalise had a certain appeal as she spoke animatedly, pointing at the small phone screen, laughing as she showed him little yellow faces with different expressions.

Her rich brown hair was silky; she kept tucking it back behind her ear, but the second she leaned the slightest bit forward again, the rebellious strands tumbled back over her shoulders, obscuring her face. Loki leaned forward and slid his fingers into her locks, rumbling in appreciation as he slowly combed them through. Just as soft as it looked. His fingers ran through the ends, doubling back to rub the tips of her layers between his fingers. The length of her hair flowed just past the swell of her breast, and while entranced by the softness of her hair, his knuckle brushed against her nipple which, to her dismay, had hardened under his ministrations.

"Oh," she breathed in surprise, her rosy lips temporarily remaining in an "O" shape.

She was unused to being touched, let alone caressed. It was easy to forget how damn good it felt. Defensively crossing her arms across her chest, she furrowed her brow in confusion and pushed his hand away. A smirk slowly curled at the corner of his mouth but, more or less like a gentleman, he retracted his extremity.

She stared at him, and he stared right back. Despite her nap-refresh, she was still pretty overwhelmed. Everyone copes with stressors differently. Annalise was an ignorer. Loneliness, anxiety, pain, all of those unpleasant emotions were easily suppressed if she kept herself busy. Working, cleaning, reading, exercising, she filled her days to the brim. Having compartmentalized that aching feeling of solitude for so long, a dam had burst when pinned her against the table in her home and that loneliness had started an ache in her chest. And now, she was in a back-seat stare down with a man dead-set on dominating the earth.

She felt frazzled; both terrified and turned on. And, as she thought about it, the worst part wasn't that he had touched her. It was the way he was looking at her. She had been able to write it off until now. He almost looked predatory.

All of a sudden, the partition rolled down.

"Estimated time of arrival is three minutes, sir. The room is ready for you."

Saved by the freaking bell.

Anna quickly maneuvered her bag into the middle seat between herself and Loki while his attention was on the driver. When he looked back at her, his eyes flicked to the bag and he smirked. She swallowed hard. She had to get out of this car.

Now.

By the grace of God, the vehicle rolled to a stop. The second her door was opened wide enough to escape, she slipped through it, her chest heaving as if she were out of breath.

Space. She needed space. Alas, space she did not get.

Her newly found freedom evaporated as Loki firmly slipped an arm around her waist.

"Come, Annalise, let's get you settled in for the night."

She knew he felt her tense as his arm wrapped around her, and was surprised when he stroked her hip in what she assumed was supposed to be a calming manner. She made a conscious effort to relax and worked on her breathing, ignoring the shiver she couldn't hold back. He smiled, most definitely not ignoring it.

Annalise walked with Loki and as a guard opened the door, she was met with the sight of a bright blue-eyed Erik Selvig tinkering away at a humming, glowing, blue instrument set up in the center of the main room.

She did her best to just roll with it.

The blue in Loki's scepter, his men's eyes and the machine was all the same, so it was safe to assume that this was all related. All the same brand of crazy.

Loki released her from his side with a look that ensured what had started in the car wasn't yet finished, and turned to the man and the machine. Annalise started when her elbow was grasped, yet again, and she was led deeper into the suite by yet another minion. She was placed in one of two bedrooms. Of the two, hers was closest to whatever science club fair was going on in the main room.

On his way out of the room, her escort stopped.

"You are allowed to close the bathroom door, but do not lock it. And do not close the bedroom door."

She couldn't help but gawk. What was she, a grounded fifteen year-old? Even they needed their privacy when their lives were taken over by domineering gods from other realms. The guard had left mid-gawk, and she took a moment to compose herself and bask in her mostly-solitude. She supposed a good god-employed liaison would speak with her ruler before taking refuge behind the door of the bathroom for the night, but she was content ranking as mediocre.

After a long, long shower, Annalise brushed her teeth and put on what she'd packed to sleep in. In her rush to both gather her things and concoct an escape plan, she hadn't bothered to take into consideration with whom she'd be sharing a suite. Unfortunately, this left her in a light satin chemise with a delicate lace applique along the hem. It reached just past the curve of her rear, which had never proved problematic until now. She like girly, lacy things. They felt so smooth and silky against her skin, and she'd be damned if she was going to spend her first night as a captive in starchy, heavy sleeping attire.

Bravely she exited the bathroom, glancing at the door for intruders while folding her old clothes and placing them back in the bag. She stood before the mirrored bureau and ran a brush through her wet hair before letting it fall loose and against her back and shoulders with a tired sigh.

Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, she was surprised to see it was only 10pm. She felt as if she'd been up all night. Annalise dug a worn copy of Little Women out from her bag and turned off the overhead light.

Not the most sophisticated literary selection, she admitted, but grabbed it out of habit. It was soothing, familiar. Flipping on the soft light mounted near the headboard, she pulled the covers back and slipped beneath them. She loved the feeling of crisp, clean sheets against bare legs. Sighing deeply, she opened the book and smiled for the first time since encountering Loki. It's the little comforts that matter during a kidnapping, you know?

Several hours later, Annalise awoke. She groaned when the bedside alarm clock informed her it was still far too early to get up. Well, in at least in a normal situation. The rules of sleeping seemed pretty lax in a kidnapping scenario. In her kidnapping scenario, it seemed like a really good time to try and get the hell out of there.

She peeled back the covers and literally tiptoed to the bureau, unzipping her bag tooth by tooth, praying she wouldn't be heard. Biting her lip, she decided to risk dull noises of belongings being shuffled around in order to dig her knife from the bottom of the bag. Once she found it, she flicked the army knife open and crept to the door, which had been left open a few inches. There was still light shining in from the hallway, but when she peered out, she saw no movement or shadows. Slowly she opened the door enough to slip through, her knife gripped tightly in her hand. The door to the second bedroom was open, but the lights were off. Was Loki sleeping? Didn't matter. She had other things to worry about.

Padding near the doorway, she held her breath as she slowly peaked into what she assumed was his room.

Empty. Untouched, bed made, empty. That meant he was camping out somewhere else.

She huffed. Time to reevaluate. Refusing to part with her knife, she searched for a place on her person to hide it. Settling for the elastic in the waistline of her panties, she carefully tucked it in and experimentally shimmied her hips. The knife fell to the floor with a thud.

Well then. She repositioned the knife and pressed the palm of her hand flat against her hip to hold it secure over the thin fabric.

The way she saw it, she had successfully escaped her room and was now in the hallway, with a knife. She didn't necessarily count her state of dress as a success, but at least she wasn't completely naked? She was sufficiently covered to make an escape out into public, and that's what really mattered, she decided. The hardest part was over, assuming Loki wasn't in the main room. She trekked silently near the open area, her feet barely making a noise as they pressed into the carpet. She remembered seeing a kitchenette immediately to the right of the room door. If she was caught, she could use the excuse of needing a glass of water.

Her breath caught as the open space came into view. The scientist was no longer around and she saw no guards. There was, however, a sleeping god sprawled out upon on the couch, light from the TV flicking across his face intermittently. Annalise chewed her lip before pep talking herself into beginning the agonizing journey across the room to the door. She didn't breathe, and she froze after each individual step she took, watching the prince's face for any hints of consciousness.

The door was finally only ten feet away. She was practically there, and more importantly, she was almost past Loki.

While in mid-step, she shouted in surprise when his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. His eyes were open, clear. Not a hint of sleepiness. Was he awake the entire time?

"You did a very good job, darling. Quiet as a mouse."

Her heart was pounding so hard she could barely hear him speak.

"I was just getting a glass of-."

She was interrupted as she felt the weight of the knife release from the elastic's weak hold and plummet to the ground.

Damn. Damn. Double damn.

As if she could conceal it without him seeing, she bent to pick it up, but he jerked her forward and onto his lap instead. He was sitting up straight now, hands firmly holding her hips as she straddled him.

Was she caught? Is this being caught? He didn't look angry.

Mouth completely dry, she glanced at him.

The fucker looked amused.

"How did you know?"

"Darling," he said, rubbing his thumbs back and forth against her bare skin, "You saw the water turn to ice, you know I'm powerful. You're not daft. I could hear you the second you woke up. Your breathing changed."

Hah. Not daft. Says the man that didn't try to escape in his underwear.

While busy admitting defeat, she didn't immediately register the soothing feeling of his hands stroking back and forth against the tender skin of her upper legs was skin on skin. In particular, his skin on her skin. Once she realized it, Annalise glanced down, trying to anticipate what would happen if she pushed his hands away, or grew bold enough to climb off his lap entirely. His eyes followed hers and he smiled. One hand slid from her thigh to her lower back, and he gently, but firmly, pulled her closer.

"You weren't getting water, especially not with that knife. You were going to run, and weren't going to hesistate to harm me. If you'd prefer, we can work out a punishment suitable for threatening your ruler, soon your king, with a deadly weapon. However, I can't promise you'll like it as much as you will a five-minute time out? I believe that's what they're called. There was a mother sentencing her unruly child to one in the lobby earlier tonight. His was in a corner. Yours will be in my lap," he crooned.

Her mouth was open, and she made several attempts at replying, but no sound came out. Loki's smile was small, but incredibly triumphant. He pulled her even further forward towards him until her pelvis was completely flush against his, and she felt him splay his long legs open behind her, forming an open V. As she glanced at his bare chest, it also occurred to her that he had shed his armor in favor of a pair of simple trousers, which meant that what she previously thought was a hard, firm piece of his protective gear was most definitely not. Subconsciously she tried to press her thighs together, looking to achieve some sort of modesty, which only better positioned her throbbing slit over his hardening cock.

And he wasn't even bashful. He gently gripped her wrists, moving each of her palms behind her, flat against his thighs. This not only caused her chest to jut out, but her stability was completely dependent on her ability to remain still. She was (relatively) helpless as she felt him run his hands up from her forearms to her biceps, pausing a moment to knead the poor mortal's clenched muscles, until they came to rest on her shoulders. He wrapped an arm around her torso, providing a little support and relieving some of the pressure on her arms as he leaned in and gently nipped, then licked, at her collarbone. Anna gasped for air, her breaths short and shallow.

"You're having a hard time catching your breath. Do I make you nervous, little one?"

Her first instinct was to squirm at having to answer a question in such close proximity, but she triumphantly quelled the instinct which would only have ground her against him more, and she was trying very hard to keep a level head.

When her brows rose in confusion at her own failure to provide a verbal answer, they made her round blue eyes look even more innocent and doe-eyed. She tried to resurrect the anger and annoyance she had felt towards him only hours before, to remind herself he was batshit crazy, but she was still sleepy and there was an incredibly attractive god using his mouth on her and all of this combined was causing her brain to short circuit. Somehow, she managed to shake her head in denial.

"No? Then I'm going to guess, based on how you've almost completely soaked your panties through, that you're just aroused."

The second he began uttering the word "soaked," she knew exactly what he was going to say. And her damn, traitorous cheeks bloomed completely pink. He experimentally gave a short, upwards thrust of his hips, making them both groan, though Annalise's was accented by a pathetic whimper. She closed her eyes and swallowed twice, desperately trying to string a sentence together.

"Or maybe both," she breathed, though she was fairly certain that when she began the sentence, her original intent was to tell him to fuck off.

Grinning, Loki dipped his tongue in the hollow of her collarbone before pressing an open mouth kiss directly between her breasts. The expression on his face was nothing but ravenous as his mouth continued down her front until his lips ghosted over the already hardened, sensitive flesh of her nipple, which he latched on to through the fabric. Somehow she managed to shift her weight, using her hands to push off of his thighs, surrendering to a closer, more vulnerable position against him as she so that she could properly bury a hand in his hair, clutching him to her chest.

The man hadn't even taken her damn clothes off. Or his off, for that matter. Annalise knew that even if her brain hadn't accepted her surrender to him, her body was undoubtedly already onboard. It all felt too good to fight.

On an especially hard suckle, her hips surged forward as she let her head fall back, grinding herself desperately against his erection. He growled against her and roughly pushed the straps of her chemise from her shoulders and pulled them material down so that it pooled around her waist, effectively freeing her breasts. She whimpered as he pulled his mouth from her, placated only when he replaced it with his warm, greedy palms on each globe.

At this point, Annalise was relatively certain she was full on dry humping the poor man, but honestly, who cared? She didn't.

What she cared about was his mouth on hers. To his surprise, she initiated the kiss, her lust overcoming any timidity she felt previously. Since words were lost to her, she bit down hard on his lower lip, attempting to convey that making out and foreplay were encouraged and appreciated, but there were more important manners, such as penetration, that required dealing with first. He chuckled (a sound that she catalogued away for tomorrow, since she was pretty sure he was not chuckling at her as an equal) and gently pushed her off him.

She was unable to find words as she stood before him, more or less debauched, and she watched him, whining in dissent until he roughly yanked her panties down to her knees. She stepped out of and kicked them from around her ankles and eagerly climbed back upon his lap. He had to hold her in place, keeping her off of him long enough for him to free his aching cock from the confines of his trousers.

In truth, Anna had never ridden a man before. The two lovers she'd had previously never inspired such… mindless instinct as she was feeling now. But Loki most certainly did. And the fact that she'd never done this before didn't faze her one bit.

Any sense of pride or decency evaporated the second she felt him line himself against the slick lips of her pussy. When he hesitated, she forced herself to open her eyes. She searched his, desperately trying to determine why, exactly, he wasn't buried inside her.

"Beg your king," he murmured to her, the tip of his cock nestled against her entrance the fingers of his other hand digging into the flesh of her hips.

Her brain was foggy; it took her a minute to comprehend his words. She made a noise that was half moan, half whine, thrusting her hips in search of any kind of relief.

"Please, my king," she pleaded, "I need to feel you," her whimpers were growing higher in pitch at her need grew. "Please, sire," she begged, blinking back tears.

Mmm. His first subject.

The look in her eyes was of pure submission; she worshipped him with her pleading words and he cupped her cheek tenderly, pressing his lips to hers in an almost chaste kiss while he simultaneously pulling her hips down as he thrust up.

She cried out; she hadn't been with a man for several years and Loki was far from small. The god grit his teeth, and, like a freaking equal, he gave her a moment to adjust to his girth. (Major points for demonstrating his understanding and acceptance of equality during the act of sex. Tomorrow he'd get an earful about the begging, but he overall he considered this a triumph. He'd have to remind her to commend him.)

As Annalise panted against his shoulder, he felt the puff of breath against his chest before he heard the words she spoke against his skin.

"Please."

Grunting in satisfaction, Loki grasped the flesh of her hips in each hand and rocked her, settling her into a rhythm. Soon, Anna's hips moved of their own volition, thrusting and scooping and grinding against him, playing with angles and depths. Though she had known she was close, her first orgasm hit unexpectedly. Heat that had been gradually coiling in her belly tightened and exploded, causing her to cry out. Her back arched as her hips pumped, rutting like animal as Loki watched her in all of her glory. Biting his cheek to keep from coming, he thrust roughly up against her, fucking her straight through her climax.

As she was still recovering, Loki, while still inside her, held her to him and moved them to the floor. He lay her back and pressed one of her knees to her chest, opening her even deeper for him.

As much as he had loved fucking her at eye level, watching her writhe beneath him was even better. His first thrust was for the sake of depth. Hips slammed against hips as he sheathed himself fully inside her. He leaned over her, panting, watching her gaze dreamily back up at him; complete post-orgasmic bless.

Her calm, sleepy expression vanished as he began to rise up against her, using the muscles of his toned abdomen to ensure that each thrust drove as deep within her as possible. A shift in his weight had her suddenly crying out again, gasping and chanting "my king" against his neck as he made her climax again. This time, Loki let loose. His hips jackhammered unevenly into her, as he no longer cared for rhythm, or really anything, aside from claiming her as his. With a shout he came, pulsing inside of her as the aftershocks of her orgasm coaxed every drop of cum form his cock. He remained inside of her as they both caught their breath, but his arms threatened to give out and it wouldn't do to have his liaison crushed before he took Stuttgart.

Surprising even himself, picked her up and carried her to her room. Sleepily, she reached for him as he set her down, and he allowed her to position herself against him until she settled, before gently disentangling from her and stepping out. He made his way to the other bedroom and entered the master bath, where leaned into the shower and cranked the cold water on, not even bothering the touch the "H" dial. Stepping under the freezing spray, he sighed as his head cleared. Pleasurable as she was, she was an insignificant part of what was soon going to be his legacy. If he truly wanted to rule, he needed to be absolutely certain of his priorities. And they most certainly did not include fucking the help.