“Your every action belies your speech.” Despite her tears, anger emboldened Summer; she clasped his hand with one of her own, and reached up to brush his face with her fingertips. “Henry. Answer me. Why, last night? I thought it a dream. But you tell me ‘twas reality. /Why/?”
Henry sighed.
“I… in truth I do not know why I kissed you,” he said, “Perhaps it was an impulse I could not fight, to kiss you… because I wanted to… since that day when I missed you at the library.”
“You — /you/ chose. Do you not see, Henry? You say you do not know your own heart, and yet — do you truly not see? Even before you heard me expose my heart, here, already you encouraged my emotion, and yet deny your own.” She stopped, looking earnestly up at Henry. “If in the end, in the end, Henry, it is not to be, I would wish to know that we took the chance. That you allowed yourself the chance.”
He looked at her and touched her face.
“I do not wish to break your heart if it is not meant to be… I would never wish that upon you but…” he stopped and looked at her again, and he leaned in closer, his lips almost touching hers again.
“I do not think I would deny you…”
Slowly, Summer closed the space between them, pressing her lips to his. Offering. Asking. After a moment, she pulled away, whispering, “For my own, if my heart be broken, it will ache the less for that I loved thee. Let me choose this, Henry. Mine heart is thine already, wilt not accept it?”
Loki raised a brow. “Perhaps the better question is if there is aught you seek of this deity, as cert am I that no mere mortal shouldst have the power to aid so lost a wretched soul as I, though if ‘tis some small consolation you might offer name to partner with face, that I might know whom it is to which I speak.”
Summer’s mouth twitched, but she accorded him a slight bow, hand over heart. “My name is Summer. You are … Loki. Yes? The Silver-tongued.”
“If such thou wishes to call me. I am false image, illusion. Loki no longer; yet perhaps that title, Silver-Tongued, that shalt I retain. Welcome, child, to Asgard.”
“Who are you, if not Loki? You look like him, and I should know. You … almost taste of him, but not … ” She frowned, and her eyes filled with shadows, looking at him. Summer stepped closer to the figure, regarding him with a saddened face. “Why are you so … hurt?”
”You had only to ask,” Summer purred. She drew in a sharp breath when his mouth met her breasts. Freed of the need to cling to him merely to remain upright, she began to lightly trace the bones of his shoulders and back, scraping fingernails over the marks on his skin. One hand drew upward to caress the shape of his ear and tangle in his hair, slender fingers clenching when his hand found a particularly sensitive spot.
“If someone would find the incentive to give me a backrub, I’d love you a Goddamned lot.”
“What, Mr Wayne isn’t available?” Summer cocked her head to the side, slightly bemused. “I just want to make sure I’m not going to have a midnight visitor before I put hands on you.”
“I do try, darlin’.” She folded her arms and leaned a hip against the desk, watching him devour with a little smile. “Would it be better if I just made a once-a-week doughnut run for you? Rather than trying to lure you out once a month, say.”
“Pepper might have kittens if you did, but I’m not saying no.” Tony smirked cheerfully, excited. The sugar was already serving to make him hyper, and after so much sitting, he didn’t try to contain it.
“Come on! /Pepper/ obviously doesn’t understand what fuels you. /You/ need to be let off the leash on a regular basis or you just have, like, a psychotic break and bad things happen!” Summer beckoned, shoving herself up. “So let’s let some of that out — yes, I’m incorriging you — and then I can deliver you back to your kitten-having Pepper ready to be responsible again.” She skipped to the door.
”/I/ wish a turn,” she breathed, one trembling hand sliding down his back. “Already you remove my garb, and yet show me nothing at all of you.” Tucking her head into his shoulder, she laid her lips to his neck, kissing and licking, softly blowing over the mark she left. “I wish to lie in your bed and watch as you disrobe.”
