"Seriously, holy shit Shannon! Where did you meet Corvus?" Rick asked.

"On a flight."

I wasn't about to tell them it was only forty-eight hours ago. I could hardly believe it myself. It seemed so much longer, given all that had happened. Still, if I was going to have a fling, a hot sex god certainly was a brilliant choice. It wasn't like a god would want anything long-term with a mortal. I tried to ignore the twinge of disappointment that caused and pushed the feeling away. I couldn't afford to feel like that. It was too much. Too risky. I needed to just enjoy the fling, the fantasy of it.

"That was some of the hottest damn dancing I've seen outside of a movie. Hostia puta! It was fucking with your clothes still on. I don't know how the rest of us are still standing. That is some insane chemistry between you two," Jay told me.

Heat flushed my cheeks, and I knew I must be crimson.

"Have you seen the hickies he's left on her? Damn, so jealous!" Kristen teased as she fanned herself with a grin.

"What hickies?" Brian asked. "Proof! We're scientists. We want proof!" He laughed at my expression.

"C'mon, Shannon. Let's see!" Jay teased.

"You guys are so juvenile," I huffed, embarrassed.

Too warm with the drinks and the number of bodies in the hall, I removed my jacket, laying it on a stool under the cocktail table.

Loki returned with an amber bottle and a stack of shot glasses.

"Who's juvenile?" he asked with a smile, as he put the bottle and glasses on the table, standing slightly behind me.

"These idiots!" I waved at my friends. "They are overly interested in my love life. You'd think they'd never seen a hickie before." I rolled my eyes.

With a half smile, he hooked his finger in my cowl neckline, pulling it towards my shoulder. "What? These little love bites?" He kissed my neck, right on the bite mark as my friends hooted.

"You're an exhibitionist," I managed to say, biting back a moan.

"I have no embarrassment at others seeing how deeply you have claimed my affections. It gives me great satisfaction to see the marks of our passion on you," he told me. "I'm not showing off the love bites on your thighs. Those are just for me." His voice was a possessive brand in my mind as his lips moved against my neck.

I knew he could feel how my pulse had leapt at his words, the sexy bastard.

Drawing back, he smirked. "For your reward, I brought enough for your friends to have a shot as well. But, I'll warn you now, it is not to be trifled with. It's incredibly strong."

After pouring a round for everyone, including himself, he capped the bottle firmly and handed them out.

We lifted our shot glasses.

"To Shannon and Tod, may they have many more love bites to share!" Kristen toasted.

Laughing, I tossed the shot back. Unlike the tequila, it didn't burn. Instead, it tasted warm like honey. It went down smoothly, like melting butterscotch candies, warming me all the way down.

Within minutes, my friends were swaying on their feet, with eyes glazed. 

Kristen tried to talk, but everything came out slurred. She waved her hand, giggling as she sank onto a chair. Jay and Brian were holding on to the nearby cocktail table, their voices loud as they spoke with the exaggerated enunciation of the seriously inebriated

I didn't seem drunk, though. Instead, it was exhilarating. A tingling followed the trail of the mead down to my stomach, then outward. Nerve endings came awake all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes.

I'd never felt more alive.

"Wow! That was some shot!" I told Loki.

His head tilted as he looked from me, to my friends, and back to me.

Jay stumbled into Rick, the two leaning against each other to stay standing. Seeing they were almost falling over, I quickly helped my friends sit.

"Huh. I think they are done for the night. We should call them taxis."

"I agree. They definitely do not have your tolerance for alcohol."

Walking outside, I flagged down a couple of taxis. We got them into the vehicles and sent them off to their hotels.

"Do you want to go back inside for more dancing?" he asked, as we stood outside on the steps. "Don't think I've forgotten about the question you have yet to answer."

"What question?" My body was buzzing and tingling. I couldn't remember what he was referring to.

His hands slid down from my waist, over my thighs, around to cup my ass. "Why are you not wearing knickers? Curled up on your lap all day, your lemon sunshine scent made me want to crawl right under that tight skirt and lick you up. You can't imagine the self-control it took to not give in."

The visual shocked me at the same time my core clenched. "I don't... I don't know how to respond when you say such erotic things about being in another form."

Loki laughed, a wicked low rumble. "Regardless of the form I inhabit, it's still always me, darling. I can no more stop lusting after your sweet self than can the moon change its path through the stars."

It was becoming difficult to think, everything starting to feel too sensitive. I was hot, aroused, and distracted. Rubbing the hard points of my nipples against his chest grounded the sensation there, giving me some focus. "Please take me back to your place, Loki. I need you."

With concern in his gaze, he told me to hold on, and the next moment, we were in his flat.

Taking his hands from my ass, I moved them up to my breasts, kneading. "Please, Loki. Touch me. It's like my body is on fire. I really need you to touch me."

I arched into his hands as he twisted and pulled. It drew the fiery sensation in a way that was highly pleasurable and partially relieved the buzzing in my body.

Pulling down the neckline and cups of my bra, his clever fingers pinched and twisted one aching nipple. His teeth tugged the other, before sucking it hard into his mouth.

"God yes!" I cried as I clung to him, trying to increase contact with his firm body.

Mouth still busy at my breast, creating glorious waves of pleasure at each nip and pull, he yanked my skirt up to my waist. Long fingers stroked over my core, and I moaned, wanting more, deeper, harder.

The sense of being on fire, body snapping with electricity, was getting stronger, but now centred on where we touched. Between each draw of his mouth and the plunge of those strong fingers, it was zapping back and forth, cycling and building.

Desperate with need, I yanked his hair to get him to look at me.

"Fuck me, Loki. God! Please fuck me!"

Shoving my back against the wall, he lifted my legs as he entered me hard and fast.

Screaming, I orgasmed at the first thrust. It was overwhelmingly perfect, right on the knife's edge of pain and pleasure.

He held me, not moving until I stopped convulsing. Little zaps of electricity were shooting through me, sparking from where we were connected.

I panted, looking into his eyes, half-lidded with dark desire.

"Hold on, darling," he said with a small seductive smile, before his mouth took mine. His tongue danced inside as he started to move.

The first few strokes were slow, and I broke my lips from his, writhing with the sparks that demanded more.

"Harder, please Loki. Fuck me harder!" I begged, as I tightened around him.

With a low growl, he thrust hard and fast, tilting my hips to get the angle he wanted.

Tugging his hair, I lost myself to the incredible friction.

As he panted into my neck, each powerful stroke was drawing the buzzing, sparking electric sensation tighter, building it rapidly with the heat and intensity of a star compressing.

Moaning, it burst through me like solar flares as my core shuddered with orgasm.

"Fuck. So fucking tight," Loki growled, as he rode out my climax, not slowing his thrusts.

The sparking sensation got stronger with each stroke, flaring out from my centre to reach more of my body with each shooting burst.

The coiling, burning pressure built and built... until at last, rigidly held at the crest while our hips crashed together in pounding thrusts, the supernova of energy exploded, bursting out of my body, leaving me trembling as Loki shouted his release.

Neither of us could move for a few minutes. We panted, clinging to each other, until we could catch our breath.

Loki was his black-haired, green-eyed self again, and I ran my fingers through his silky locks. Raising his head from my neck, he smiled and kissed me tenderly.

"Not that I'm in any way complaining, but what was that?" His eyes searched mine for an answer.

"I'm not sure," I said as he eased me back from the wall, and I let my legs down from his waist.

"Holy crap!" I was shocked as I looked at the devastation surrounding us. Everything within a five-metre radius was destroyed. Turning, the wall appeared to have an impact crater radiating several metres, then cracks spreading further from that. Even the floor was cracked.

Panicked, Loki spun me around to check my back and head. "You're okay? You aren't hurt?"

"No, I'm fine. Better than fine. I feel fantastic." That weird tingling buzzing sensation was gone.

"What weird tingling buzzing sensation?"

"The one that started after I drank the mead. It was like electrical shocks moving throughout my body, and a buzzing, like the sound of bees or maybe the hum of an unshielded high voltage wire. It just kept getting louder... Wait, how did you know about the buzzing sensation?"

"You told me." Loki's eyebrows drew together in puzzlement.

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did. You said you felt better than fine, you felt fantastic, and the weird electrical buzzing sensation was gone."

"No, Loki. I thought that. I didn't actually say it."

Tilting his head, he said, "I know you can hear me when I speak to you. Say something back to me."

"What am I supposed to say? Ask if you can hear me?"

Loki laughed. "I can hear the annoyance in your voice, whether it be out loud or in our minds, darling. It appears you have acquired an ability."

"What, so you can read my mind now?" Fuck!

"Only when you project it so clearly. And yes, right now you are mentally shouting." He laughed harder.

"Why can't I hear your thoughts? I'm going to smack you if you don't stop laughing at me!"

Smiling, he kissed me as he rubbed his hands up and down my arms soothingly. "I will teach you how to shield your thoughts so you only share what you want to share," he reassured me.

Bending down, he swept his arm under my knees and back, lifting me as I settled my hands around his neck. "How could I have developed this ability?" I asked as he carried me into the bedroom. Part of me thought I should be more worried about this sudden change, but between the post-coital bliss and my scientific curiosity, I couldn't seem to get too worked up about it yet.

Setting me down, he removed my clothes, and with a wave of his hand, got rid of his own. Climbing into the bed behind me, he tucked me into the curve of his body.

"I suspect it's a combination of your genetics and the Asgardian mead. A very, very small proportion of the Midgardian population contains genes from past matings with the gods. If you have enough of those genes, the mead could have triggered their activation."

"Wait, back up. Past matings with the gods? You all just litter humanity with your offspring? Good thing I'm on the pill!"

"True, sometimes it is just sex that leads to children, but other times, gods fall in love and marry their mortal beloved. They raise families with them until the mortal dies. We have to choose to have children with mortals. It requires magic to combine the different genetic essences and doesn't happen by chance, darling."

"Hmpft. Okay."

"Shhh... go to sleep now. We'll talk about it more in the morning." He kissed the top of my head and tightened his arm around me. I relaxed into his body. I was more tired than I realized, and it didn't take long to drift off to sleep.