Page 4 of Loki

Though he’d never been able to see what was in the cards for him and his own future, something told him his was about to change forever.

CHAPTER 2

Val eyedevery person at the group meeting and calculated their danger factor. The demons she could easily take on her own. The shifters would be doable as long as they didn’t work together. Vampires, meh. But the other immortals were her biggest challenge. She calculated the odds; at worst, she should be able to hold off the entire room long enough for Elle to run back to Frigg’s.

A tall frame glided into view and, in one fluid movement, pulled out the chair across from her and sat. His dark eyes never left her face as he completed the action and a sexy smile slipped across his lips.

“Valkyrie?”

Val scanned to see if anyone had heard him, but everyone appeared to be concentrating on their meetings.

She nodded but didn’t answer. He studied her face and body as if imagining what was under her clothes.

She forced her breathing to stay even under his inspection and took in every nuance of expression he made, telling her he appreciated what he saw.

After a minute, he waved his fingers, and a bottle of wine and two full glasses materialized. He reached for his glass, pulled the deep burgundy liquid to his lips, and sipped it. Again, he watched her like trying to decide whether to bed her— or bed her.

“Do you have the papers?” she asked.

His eyes widened slightly. He snapped his fingers, and a bulky envelope appeared in his hand. He swept it across the table and set down his glass of wine.

Val snatched up the envelope, opened it, and thumbed through the documents inside. She didn’t know what to look for and had no clue whether they were correct, but she checked them out anyway.

“They’re all there,” said Loki.

She nodded and continued to inspect the documents.

“You know Val is a silly name. You should be more careful.”

She glared at him. “I can take care of myself.”

“Elle for Sutrelle. Val. Valkyrie. Kind of on the nose, don’t you think?”

She shoved the documents back in the envelope. “It’s been my name for a thousand years.” That part was genuine. It had been her nickname for a thousand years. But that didn’t mean it had always been her name. She did have another name. One given to her by her mother before she was taken as a child to serve as a Valkyrie. But she wasn’t about to let anyone use that name. It was hers and hers alone. The last piece of herself which hadn’t been stripped away by the Norse Gods or by Surtr’s torture.

“I simply mean, if you want to recreate yourself, don’t you think a new name would help?” He twirled his glass through nimble fingers but never let his gaze leave her face.

“Calling me by something different wouldn’t change who I am, so why bother?”

He let out a silky throaty laugh and her gut clenched as a shot of something warmed her nether regions.

No way. Absolutely not.Loki, the Norse God of Mischief and Trickery, was not going to get to her. No matter how beautiful his chiseled face. No matter how smooth the timber of his voice. No matter how much she wanted to peek at what he looked like underneath his crisp black suit and white button-up.

“Is that it?”

Loki nodded and cocked his head to the side, letting his long, almost black hair fall over his shoulder. “Have we met?”

“In person? No.”

He chuckled. “What it is I’ve done in the past to make you loathe me so intensely. Surely, I couldn’t have spurned you if we’ve never met.”

Val’s grip tightened on the envelope. “I don’t loathe you. I don’t think a thing of you.”

Loki’s eyes flashed for a second, and he slowly scooted her glass of wine across the table toward her. “It’s the most expensive wine in the world. Won’t you try some?”

Val sent the glass back toward him. “No thanks. I don’t drink wine. Especially pretentious, excessively priced wine.”

Val was about to pull her hand from the glass when Loki’s fingertips brushed her knuckles. A sudden wave of desire washed over her and settled so deep between her legs, making her fear she might lose complete control at the table.

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