Óðinn led us back down the hallway in silence, stopping to open a narrow wooden door. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he said, in a way that gave his words the force of a threat.

Shivering, I followed Vali through the door into a small, dark room. A bed loomed in one corner, and the remains of a fire smoldered on a hearth in the corner.

“I don’t trust him,” I said after the door closed behind us. “And I don’t like him, either.”

Vali laughed. “That’s very wise of you.”

He bent to blow on the embers glowing in the fireplace, and the flames leapt back to life. I sat on the edge of the bed and sank into the soft mattress as Vali fed kindling to the fire.

“What do you think?” I asked, trying to stifle a yawn. “What are we going to do?”

Vali turned to me, his eyes sparkling in the firelight. He pulled Hrotti off his shoulder and propped it against the wall. “I think I’ve never fucked you properly.”

A slow shiver of arousal slid through my body. “Properly?”

Vali grinned. “Yes, properly. On a bed.”

He pulled off his shirt, and a low moan slipped from my lips. Suddenly I was no longer tired.

“So, I think,” he continued, “right now, I’m going to fuck you properly. On a bed. And after that, I think we’ll both sleep very deeply.”

I shivered again, but this time not from the cold. Vali reached for his pants, sliding them over his hips and muscular thighs, and I completely forgot about being stranded in Asgard. His eyes flashed as he crawled onto the bed.

I pulled the shreds of my silk turtleneck off my chest and scrambled to shove my pants down my hips, but Vali stopped me.

“Oh no,” he whispered, bringing his lips to my hands and kissing the inside of my wrist. “I said I’m going to fuck you properly.”

Our eyes met in the flicker of firelight.

“Lie down,” he said, his voice thick and low.

I did as he said. Vali followed me, the weight of his body pressing against mine. I could feel the heat of his erection against my thighs and I moaned, cursing the layer of clothing between us. Vali’s chest shook against mine as he laughed.

“Be patient,” he whispered. “I haven’t gotten to enjoy you on a bed yet.”

I bit my lip and tried to be patient as Vali kissed my neck, moving slowly from my ear to my collarbone. His tongue flickered across my chest, tracing the curve of my breast to circle my areola. When he drew my nipple into his mouth I gasped out loud, rocking my hips against his. His hands moved over my arms until his fingers laced with mine, pressing me into the soft mattress while I writhed under him.

“Oh, Vali, please,” I moaned.

He turned to smile at me. “What is it?” His hips moved slowly against mine, making my entire body tremble. “Do you want me to stop?”

“No!” I pleaded.

He grinned and moved down my body, his lips kissing a trail across the curve of my stomach. He hesitated at the waistband of my ski pants, and I moaned again, pleading wordlessly. Vali pulled my pants over the rise of my hips with agonizing delicacy, stopping to kiss every inch of newly exposed skin. When he reached my knees, I bent legs, forcing my pants off. He laughed again.

“Is it that hard to slow down?” he asked, spreading my legs before him.

I tried to respond, but he slid his fingers up my inner thigh, and all I could manage was a low, hungry moan.

“I don’t think you realize,” he said, bending to kiss my thighs, “how hard it was to stay away from you.”

I whimpered as his lips moved across my skin, closer to the curl of hair between my legs.

“How many nights I lay awake, thinking of all the things I wanted to do to you,” Vali murmured, his breath sending sparks across my skin.

With a jolt, his fingers reached my sex, sliding inside. I shivered as his lips touched the apex, his tongue pressing delicately on my clit as his fingers curled inside me, unleashing a wave of pleasure.

“Now that I have you,” Vali said, his voice raised so I could hear his words over my own pants and gasps, “I’m going to do it all.”

Vali’s tongue pressed harder, and his fingers moved faster. My orgasm crashed through me like an explosion, sudden and overpowering. I had enough time to cry out before my mind dissolved in a red haze.

I sank into the pillows, my eyes slowly re-adjusting to the flicker of firelight on the ceiling. Vali usually liked to tease me, to bring me just to the brink and then pull back, ebbing and retreating until I’m out of my mind with need, and the final orgasm burns through my body so powerfully it’s like dying. But here I’d just come so hard and fast I barely had time to register what was happening.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I gasped. “I just-I was so ready.”

“Don’t,” Vali murmured, his breath warming my thighs.

My oversensitive skin sang with his touch as he moved from between my legs to press his lips against my neck. My body responded to the press of his weight, my back arching instinctively to meet his hips. His hand slipped between us, caressing the inside of my thighs. His fingers reached my labia, sending electric currents through my core.

“Vali,” I moaned. “I just-I can’t again-”

“Shhhhh,” he hissed, his breath hot against my collarbone. “Properly.”

My hips ignored my protests and began rocking against the heat of Vali’s body as his thumb circled my clit, pressing harder and harder, while his fingers curled inside me, rediscovering the spot that had just sent me over the edge. I barely had time to register what he was doing when my second orgasm rocked through my body, sending my head spinning and making me scream his name.

I collapsed onto the bed, barely aware of where I was. Or who I was. Dimly, I realized Vali was parting my legs, pressing his stiff cock against the heat of my sex. I moaned, and he entered me with a sudden thrust, filling me completely, jarring me out of my post-orgasmic haze.

“Oh, God,” I moaned as my legs wrapped around his hips totally of their own accord.

Vali knelt above me, his head back, all the muscles in his neck tense. He cried out, something guttural and animal and entirely victorious, before returning his fingers to the smoldering ember of my clit. His touch wasn’t exactly gentle, not this time, but my body responded in a way I’d never experienced, the pleasure scorching my thoughts and memories, destroying my rationality, until all that was left was our two bodies, coming together as one, flickering and surging and burning, burning, burning in the firelight.