“You’re staring again,” Seona told him without bothering to look up from her work.

“I can’t help it when you’re so beautiful,” he whispered in her ear.

He loved watching the shivers run up and down her spine.

“Shut up and do your homework you idiot,” she mumbled though her face was dusted with the faintest shade of pink.

“Homework can wait,” he murmured moving his lips to the spot where her neck met her shoulder.

She shivered again and released a breathy sigh that he knew was laced with slight exasperation. He loved teasing her. Her reactions were simply the best thing about it.

“I’m serious, Loki,” she snapped, though there was little heat behind it.

“So am I darling,” he said as his teeth grazed the sensitive skin of the joint.

Seona sucked in a sharp breath before slamming her books closed. She stood abruptly, causing Loki to fall forward towards the chair she had just vacated.

“Is this a joke to you?” she hissed.

Loki looked at her confused.

“Do you think that if you tease me enough I’ll fall into bed with you?” she demanded.

“Seona, I tease you because I like your reactions but if you wish for me to stop all you have to do is ask,” Loki told her softly.

“Have you no sense of decency?” she was close to crying now.

Loki went to reply but she cut him off.

“Do you think I’ll go to bed with the first man who shows any interest in me?” she asked.

“Do you think so little of me, Seona?” he asked wounded.

She furrowed her brows in confusion. He went to her and put his hand on her cheek.

“I am not asking you to fall into bed with me at all and I won’t unless it is something you want,” he said wiping away the tears that had begun to fall with his thumb. “I know I can be an asshole a majority of the time but I could never be an asshole to you. You are too special to me.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I’m not all that special,” Seona protested.

If only you knew, Loki thought. You have garnered to adoration of a god when it should be the other way around.

“You are special, Seona,” he told her. “You are the smartest person I know. You have incredible talent that should not be wasted.”

Loki watched her eyes soften before she closed them, effectively shutting him out.

“Whatever you may think of me, I have expectations I have to meet,” she whispered sadly. “Expectations that I cannot ignore, much as I would like to.”

“I am not asking you to ignore those expectations, love,” he told her gently. “I am asking you to let yourself live in the moment. Let yourself forget about the expectations others have for you, if only for a little while.”

She opened her eyes and stared at him for a long silent moment. Tension hung in the air between them.

“I know something of the expectations of others,” he muttered.

She raised a single, perfectly manicured, inky brow.

“I am not allowed to marry for love. Yet, here I am madly in love with a woman I cannot have.”

Her eyes widened in surprise as pink dusted her cheeks once again. Everything he had told her was true though. He was betrothed to a goddess he didn’t love and madly in love with a mortal woman he couldn’t have. And that mortal was standing in front of him, staring at him in surprise.

“What?” he asked her.

“You’re engaged?!” she nearly shouted.

“Seona, we shouldn’t do this here,” he pleaded.

“We shouldn’t be doing this at all!” she snapped.

“Perhaps not, but I cannot change how I feel about you.”

“You expect me to believe that when you’re engaged and you didn’t tell me?!”

“I did not agree to the betrothal. My father arranged it without my knowledge. I have tried everything I can think of to get him to dissolve it but the man’s a stubborn bastard.”

“Why won’t he agree?” Her voice was small and broken.

“He thinks me incapable of love,” he admitted. “I have not proven him wrong up until recently but he believes it to be infatuation and that it will disappear.”

“I feel like there’s more to it than that.”

Loki sighed. He really didn’t want to get into this with Seona here.

“There is but this is not the place to talk about it,” he told her slowly.

“You’re not saying that to get out of telling me?” she asked.

Loki shook his head, “No, I want to tell you but I fear your reactions may get us banned from the library in the future.”

Seona nodded in understanding and began to pack her things up.

“What are you doing?” he asked in confusion.

“You said you weren’t going to talk about it here,” she told him like it was obvious. She sighed when he continued looking at her in confusion. “We’re getting out of here.”

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“My place, your place, somewhere,” she shrugged.

He balked at the thought of going back to his place. His brother was probably there with his latest conquest. Though it wasn’t like he could judge Thor for his sexual exploits. Until he’d met Seona, he’d been much the same and here he was about to admit as much to the woman he was desperately in love with.

“Your place is fine,” he told her.

She nodded and began to make her way out of the library.