Page 4 of The Hard Way

Some of his scars were from fighting, but the worst ones had not landed there by chance. They were deliberate. Parallel. Darker in origin.

“In fact,” Odin continued, “I want you against the wall, waiting. Perfectly ready.” He pulled out a small bottle of olive oil from his satchel. Had he picked it up on the way here? We’d stopped at a few stores. “I want that ass perfectly prepared for what I have planned. Thor, you will need to prepare her tight little asshole thoroughly. Veryfucking-gthoroughly.” He turned his amber gaze to me. “Ice, I want you waiting pressed up against the wall with your ass a little bit out, so that we know you haven’t been rubbing against it.”

“W-what?”

Odin narrowed his eyes. “That question makes me think you might be forgetting what you’re here for.”

Thor looked at me regretfully. I knew that look. He was getting into it.

I swallowed.

Odin eyed me. He liked pushing the envelope. Pushing everyone beyond their comfort zones. Most especially me.

I’d gotten used to a featherbed, and Odin was offering…a bed of nails. But I felt alive, suddenly. And scared and hot, and like I was flying a little bit.

“You look excited, goddess. You think I’ve invented this plan just for your excitement?”

Yes,yes yes I do,I thought, pulse racing, desiring nothing more than his hand on my pussy again. I just needed that, needed him.

He turned to Thor. “Take her to that alley and strip her.” Casually, he sat back, twirling his foot in circles, an unreasonable dictator waiting for his subjects to fulfill his command.

Thor stood, blond locks shining in the moonlight. “Come on, Ice.”

“What if somebody walks by?”

Thor took hold of my arm and hauled me up. “Maybe you’d like that.”

I narrowed my eyes and thought about it a little bit. “It’s true, Idolike a watcher, but only under certain circumstances…”

“What is this? Debate squad?” Odin growled. “Keep stalling and you’ll lose your heels, too.”

“Wait a minute.” Zeus finally spoke up. “Hooooooold on a second here.” He peered at Odin uncertainly, as if gazing through thick fog. “You have her stripping down to her high heels to wait naked in the alley…”

Odin turned a harsh gaze toward Zeus. “That’s right.”

Zeus looked confused. “Standing there waiting for us in just her high heels?” he said.

Odin gave him a hard gaze. “Yeah.”

Zeus straightened. “Why the fuck would you change your mind and have her take the heels off? The heels make the whole thing hot.”

Odin turned to me triumphantly. His eyes were a harsh caress on my body—up and down and everywhere.

Thor pulled me up. “Come on.” He helped me navigate over the cobblestones, off into the gloomy darkness where even the moonlight didn’t shine. “This is the commercial district. Nobody will come.”

“Right,” I whispered.

“Though you never know.”

I snorted. My guys would never make me wait naked for them where just anyone could come by, but I loved the vague threat of it. And Thor knew it.

He led me into the dark alley, rough concrete pockmarked with gouges from centuries of delivery vehicles bashing into the walls, creating deep divots. Thor put on his iPhone flashlight, and I noticed a row of small windows loomed above, each covered with a cage. Storehouses, closed for the night. There was a lamp up there, too. Burned out. Faint graffiti covered one section of wall. Maybe from last month or fifty years ago—you never really knew with Rome. He stopped me midway down and pocketed his phone.

“Strip, goddess.”

“I’m not so sure about this plan,” I said.

“Is that a Mississippi?”

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