Dirty Thoughts

Part 4

Loki was furious .

The little bitch had tattled to Stark, and now Loki had three idiot human chaperones instead of just the one.

He paced his quarters, too inflamed to sit quietly, circling the long couch and the woman who sat on it, veering off to pass along the windows on the south side of the room.

She'd shown up with two guards this morning. They stood on either side of the door in their matching black suits and their earpieces, watching expressionlessly.

Bella was ignoring him, fiddling with her cell phone. Pretending nothing had changed. If not for the guards, he never would have known she'd told. Her demeanor had revealed nothing since the moment she'd walked in.

In fact, she appeared entirely relaxed in her blue jeans and flowered, off-the-shoulder blouse, legs crossed at the knee. Her glossy chocolate hair had been trimmed recently and the short hairs at her nape were just long enough to start curling again. Looking at her--at the hair he now knew was even silkier than it looked, at the exposed curve of her neck, the taste of which was still vivid in his mind--made him feel itchy, almost violent.

He'd stopped pacing, he realized. He was standing by the windows directly across from the couch, staring at her. Finally, she looked up. He gave her a long, icy glare, drinking in her wide dark eyes, the heavy lashes. The smattering of freckles on her nose and upper cheeks. The full pink bow of her mouth.

One of her brows lifted slightly. "Something on your mind?"

The taste of your mouth , he thought viciously, and then watched her features twitch and flex in surprise--and then in discomfort.

She didn't blush though. And there wasn't even a flicker of anger in her steady gaze. For some reason that only increased his ire.

He turned and strolled towards the dining area of his quarters. "What's on the agenda today?"

"Same as always," she said, sounding bored.

It was the same conversation they had nearly every day, like a ritual. She was playing her part perfectly.

Are we pretending yesterday didn't happen? He glanced back at her as he paused next to the small dining table.

Her frown showed irritation. She glanced pointedly at the guards. "Your off-compound privileges have been temporarily revoked."

"Oh? What shame," he rallied mockingly, suppressing his bitterness. His restlessness.

She rolled her eyes and went back to her phone.

Loki paced some more, fuming silently. Three months they'd kept him a cell before Thor had convinced them to let him out. Another month of constant supervision--always Thor or one of the others at his elbow. Always the cameras and the suspicious gazes. And then they'd brought Bella--his psychic babysitter--and she'd been... an unexpected diversion. A breath of fresh air, if he was honest. Wide brown eyes full of curiosity and unexpected kindness--and utterly devoid of contempt, suspicion, disgust; the things he saw in the eyes of every other human he met.

She looked like a nursery school teacher but he'd learned quickly there was intellect behind that angelic little face. A delightful, sneaky sense of humor. A startling lack of judgment for the attempted conqueror of her own planet, her people.

She'd treated him for all the world like a friend.

Bits of her angry tirade in the car came back to him for the hundredth time.

I also honestly fucking like you.

I can't trust you... why did I even give you a chance?