An Elemental Manipulation

Chapter Fourteen

A few days had gone by since Loki spent the night in my room, both times he had let himself out before I was awake. I chalked it up to him being a morning person, while I sleep in as much as I can. Every time I see him my stomach does flips and sometimes I can't control the heat that rises on my cheeks when he smiles at me.

Everyone is in the kitchen and lounge today, it's early summer and around here it's already 75 degrees outside and no one really wants to do anything until we get a call for a mission. I look at Nat and Wanda and they're laughing and all the guys are sitting around the table drinking a beer. I walk over to the bar where Tony is standing and watching everyone.

"Hey Tony, have you ever thought about putting an indoor pool too that has a side open to get outside and let the fresh air in?"

He looks at me and he thinks about it for a second, "That's actually not a bad idea, I'm gonna put that into motion right now and it should be done by next week."

As he walks away I can feel someone come up behind me and without even looking I know exactly who it is. Loki. I turn around and there he stands, right in front of me. I hate how perfect he has to be, and I hate that with each day that goes by, I get more and more feelings for him.

We're standing behind the bar so no one notices what he puts a hand on my hip and pulls me towards him. A chill rises up my spine and down my arms. I snap back into reality when Nat calls my name and waves me over to the couch they're sitting on.

When I walk over to them they must have noticed how red I was because they both start asking questions. "So, are you and Loki, like a thing?"

"No we're not dating, we're not even talking or anything. And while we're talking, let's go have a girls day, let's go to the beach or something."

The girl's eyes lit up at the thought of getting away from everyone for once. I can't believe that we're all going back to shopping and having fun again. It seems like so long ago that everyone actually had one day of fun instead of being stuck inside training, doing paperwork or leaving for a mission and almost dying. It's almost weird to not have a mission at least once a week. I mean sometimes some of us aren't even healed from the last mission before we're on the jet to the next one.

I run up the stairs with the girls to get our clothes and towels since it's such a nice day. I grab my wallet and keys and head back down to the lounge in cut off denim shorts and a soft white crop top with my bikini top underneath. I meet the girls back at the bar to get snacks and I can almost feel Loki's eyes burning through my skin,

'Loki, I can feel you staring at me. Can you please stop?'

And almost instantly I feel better but than I hear his thoughts again,

'Well I'm sorry, if someone wasn't looking so good then I wouldn't have to look at them in shock like I just saw the most beautiful women in my existence.'

I chuckle because Loki jokes about that quite often, or at least I think he's joking. I finish grabbing snacks with the girls and head out the door out to the car. I drive a BMW M8 coupe, everyone has their own car of their choice that Tony personally pays for. I felt bad at first when he bought me one because I thought he felt bad for me until I heard that he buys everyone a car when they become a part of the team permanently.

We get into the car and it's about an hour drive to the beach. The windows are down and we're singing and laughing all the way there. When we get to the beach we all raise down to the shore line and throw each other into the water, it's surprisingly warm for this time of year. When we get out of the water we all lay our towels on the sand and lay down. It feels like forever when I finally break the silence and say,

"What do you do when you're catching feelings for someone but you don't know how to approach it?"

They both look at me with smiles on their faces and I knew from their looks that I just got myself into something that I should have stayed out of.

"First off you need to find out if he feels the same about you and secondly, you need to make him want you, like really wants you. Be a tease, play hard to get but not too hard because he might give up." Nat and Wanda look at me for a response.

"I know he feels the same about me but I don't know how to go about it. I don't want to have feelings for him because he's a literal God and...."

Before I could finish my sentence Nat and Wanda gasped, "Oh my gosh!! You have feelings for Loki don't you?!" They giggle when they realize who it was.

"Yeah, I guess but it's not like it'll ever happen, besides, it's getting late and we should get back to the compound." I start to stand up when Nat and Wanda start complaining.

"Fine, but we're asking Tony to get a party together so we can get you all perfect for Loki and watch him fall to his knees for you." They laugh and Nat picks up her phone and calls Tony.

I'm not really listening to their conversation when I look out at the water and get a calming sensation and know that I needed to talk to Loki about my feelings. I don't know if it's too early or too late but I know I want him, I'm not sure if I should even be thinking about it because me and Steve just ended up breaking up because he cheated on me and I don't really want to go through that again.

By the time we get back to the compound most of everyone has gone to their rooms and started getting themselves in for the night. We start training again tomorrow which is why we had the day off today to relax. I wave at the girls while I walk myself the rest of the way down the haul and can smell lavender, one of my candle and bubble bath scents. I walk into my room and a hot bath was ran and the lights were dimmed, and there was a note of my bed that read,

'I'm sure you had a wonderful day but I wanted to make it better for you so you're completely relaxed for tomorrow. I'll be in my room tonight so I hope you enjoy your hot bath and lowlights tonight. -Loki

I get out of my clothes and get into the bath and start to doze off, so I set an alarm on my phone to wake me up if I fall asleep. I close my eyes and listen to the silence that surrounds me.