"Please, what?" She looked up at him through her thick lashes, and the firelight caught in her eyes, making them glow amber and golden.
"Please," he said, his voice rougher than he'd intended. "Touch me."
She smiled. “I am touching you.”
She slid off his lap, and the loss of her warmth made him want to roar in frustration, but then she knelt before him, her hands working at his belt.
Thor's breath caught. The sight of her between his legs, completely in control, was almost more than he could handle. The leather of his pants strained against him as she pulled the belt free and tossed it aside.
"You know," she said as if discussing the weather and not engaged in something driving him insane, "Val always told me that men were simple creatures. That they wanted one thing and once they had it, they moved on."
Her fingers traced the line of his waistband, and Thor had to concentrate to form words. "Val doesn't know everything."
"Doesn't she?" Elle looked up at him, and something vulnerable flickered across her face before the mask of confidence returned. "Then tell me what you want, Thor. What do you really want from me?"
The question hung between them, weighted with more than that moment. Thor understood she wasn't asking about sex. She was asking about everything. Their future, his intentions, whether he would still want her when the novelty wore off, when she wasn't new and exciting anymore.
"I want everything," he said, his voice steady despite the fire raging through him. "I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to teach you to ride my motorcycle and take you to every restaurant in Los Angeles until we find your favorite. I want to argue with you about raw fish and watch you play with the goats. I want to help you discover who you are when no one is controlling you."
Her eyes glistened in the firelight.
"I want to watch you grow into the powerful woman you're meant to be," he continued. "I want to be there when you decide what you want to do with your life. I want to hold you when the nightmares come, and I want you to hold me when mine do. I want to build a life with you, Elle. Not just tonight. Every night. For as long as you'll have me."
A tear slipped down her cheek, and she brushed it away. "You're sure?"
"More sure than I've ever been.” She studied his face for a long moment, searching for any hint of deception, any crack in his sincerity. Thor held her gaze, letting her see everything. The vulnerability, the hope, the absolute certainty that had taken root in his chest the moment he'd realized she was gone.
"Then you should know something." Her fingers stilled on his waistband. "I don't know how to be what you need. I don't know how to be a partner or a lover or- or whatever this is supposed to be. All I know is how to survive. How to be small and quiet and invisible."
"That's not all you know." Thor leaned forward as much as the bands would allow. "You know how to be brave. You stood up to Surtr. You claimed your power. You chose your own path."
"Because you showed me."
"No." He shook his head. "I didn't show you anything. It was always there, Elle. I just gave you a safe place to let it out."
She bit her lip. The firelight painted her skin in shades of gold and orange. She flicked her wrist, and the bands disappeared. He lurched forward and captured her mouth with his.
Picking her up, he wrapped her legs around his waist and carried her toward his bedroom, lit only by the ambient glow filtering in from the living room fireplace. He laid Elle on the massive dragon-carved bed, the mattress giving under their combined weight. The posts rose toward the ceiling like ancient sentinels, and for a moment, he was transported- not to Asgard, but to something better. Something entirely his own.
Elle's hair spread across his pillow in waves of auburn and ginger, and the sight made his chest constrict. She belonged there. In his bed, in his life, in every moment going forward.
He braced himself above her, drinking in the sight of her flushed cheeks and swollen lips. Her chest rose and fell with quick breaths, and heat radiated from her skin even through the thin satin.
"You're staring," she whispered.
"I'm memorizing." He traced the curve of her cheek with his thumb. "Every time I look at you, I find something new."
“What have you found so far?” she asked.
"That you're impossibly beautiful," he murmured, lowering his head to kiss along her collarbone. "That you have a small scar right next to your earlobe." His lips moved lower, tracing the edge of the satin. "That your skin is a constellation of freckles I want to count." He kissed her abdomen. “That your belly button dips in, but at the bottom it pokes out a little too.”
Elle's fingers threaded through his hair, and the gentle tug sent pleasure spiraling down his spine. He worked his way across her skin, savoring each gasp and sigh that escaped her lips.
"Thor..." Her voice wavered.
He lifted his head. "What is it?"
He waited, giving her the space to find her words. Emotions flickered across her face. Desire, uncertainty, something deeper that made his heart clench.
