Page 38 of Thor
“I do.” He licked his lips and glanced around us, but I didn’t rip my stare away from his handsome face. I couldn’t. He was all I could see right now. “Odin’s been like a father to me, too. He took me in when I had no one, gave me a job.” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple jumping. “But you’re special to me, Loki. I mean,fuck, you’re the only one I’ve had sex with for the last couple of years. The only one I’ve wanted.”
Excitement crawled over my skin like a thousand ants and my toes curled in my boots. I gripped his wrists where he still cradled my face. “That’s all I wanted. I came on this trip to get to know you better, Thor.”
“I know.” He laughed. “I’m not an idiot.” Pausing for a brief moment, he smiled. “I want to show you something. Just for a few hours, then I’ll buy you lunch.”
I’d follow him anywhere, so I nodded.
“Come on,” he said with an eager grin.
We put on our helmets and started our bikes. He led me back out of the family neighborhood and along longer roads I assumed were the small town’s version of a highway. We raced past a pretty beach that was nothing like California’s sandy coastline. The clouds were clumped together in the sky above us, the rays of sunlight barely visible. It was cooler than I was used to, even in summer, and I wished I had my jacket more than ever.
Thor turned a sharp corner, and I followed him down a narrow road that led onto another beach. This one was different than the other, in that it was shorter and barely had any sand before it reached the cold ocean water, but that didn’t seem to worry Thor.
He parked the Harley on a small patch of grass, and I stopped beside him, switching off my Ducati. The expression on his face was pure delight as he slid from his bike and gestured for me to follow. I frowned but didn’t argue as he led me down onto the narrow beachfront.
Shivering, I wrapped my arms around myself. “Where are we going?”
Thor glanced over his shoulder at me and slowed down so I could catch up. He curled his big arms around me, and I leaned into him, sighing. We kept walking until we reached the end of the beach. His grin sent warning bells ringing in my head.
“What are we doing?” I groaned.
He nodded ahead of us, and I stared out at a small cave on the other side of a shoal submerged in a few inches of sloshing ocean. To get there, we’d have to walk through the water, which meant getting our boots and socks wet.
“You’re joking,” I said bluntly, not amused.
“Nope.” His dopey grin might have made a less controlled man deck him, but it was cloudy, threatening to rain, and I couldn’t be bothered. He laughed like he knew what I was thinking, and then he stepped away from me to toe off his boots, take off his socks, and roll up his jeans.
“You listen,Tobias. I’m here without a damn jacket because I thought I was being sweet by going to your parents’ house without our patch on. I’m freezing my balls off because of it, and now you want me to get out of my boots and socks to walk through that water—” I pointed at the ocean between us and the cave. “—that’s probably colder than Gulveig’s tit. Why is it so cold? It’s summer.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes it gets like this. Not usually this cold, though. It’s strange, but not bad. Wittstock gets a lot worse in winter. We’re at a beach. They’re wet. What did you expect? Come on.”
“Ugh, you’re a dick.” I grumbled to myself as I leaned over and yanked at my bootlaces, calling him all the names under the sun as I tugged off my boots and socks. The pebbles beneath my bare feet were as cold as the rest of this place, and I couldn’t have felt happier to live in California than I did now. This place was too cold. I preferred Cali beaches with their nice warm sun, not clouds and rain and all the other stuff that came with Washington.
Thor’s laughter wormed its way through my insides and my skin tingled. “Come on, princess.”
“I’m a god,” I said with a fake, deep voice that had him laughing harder. He interlocked our fingers, and we left our boots on the sand beyond the high-tide zone as he dragged me toward the water. I tried to protest, but Thor stopped right at the waves licking at our naked feet.
He pointed to the cave. “They call that the Kissing Cave. It’s where teens come to make out.”
I blinked at him, then toward the cave, which was nothing more than black rock with a wide entrance in the front. “What’s romantic about that place?”
He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Good spot for privacy.”
I stared around the beach. “How is this private?”
He yanked me closer and cupped my cheek, bringing me into a bruising kiss that had the familiar stirrings of pleasure coiling in my warm belly. “This beach is a little more secluded. The people around here know it as Make Out Beach, even though its official name is Diamond Head. It’s an unwritten rule not to come here unless you plan on getting some nooky.”
“Nooky?” I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “If I’m crossing that water, you better believe I want somenooky. It’s fucking cold, and my balls will probably crawl into my body if I get naked over there, just so you know.”
Thor’s laughter echoed in the quietness, with the only other sound being the waves washing up on shore, and I took a moment to appreciate his handsomeness. I couldn’t get enough of him and his strong jaw, thick eyebrows, wide nose, and dark blond beard. I wanted to touch him until the end of time, my palms mapping out every crevice and mound on his body.
“It’s not that cold.”
I gave him an incredulous look. “Are you fucking kidding me? I was born and raised in So-Cal, all right?”
He tugged me, and I sighed, letting him lead me into the water. It wasn’t deep, the ocean barely reached the middle of our lower legs, but it was as freezing as I’d expected, and the chilliness seeped down to my bones. I’d quickly decided I didn’t like Washington as much as I thought I would, and I’d be happy to go back to Pleasant Beach, where I could go to a real beach with sun and sand and water that didn’t feel like sleet against my skin.
By the time we reached the other side, I was trembling. Thor wrapped his arms around me again and led me toward the cave. We needed to climb some rock to get to the cave entrance, and as soon as we walked inside, I sighed in relief. It was warmer than outside, without the wind that seemed to eat at my skin.
