In the world of sweeping fantasy epics there was no one better than Thor Odinson. The number of books sold were in the millions. There were television adaptations and movies and conventions. And there were hundreds of tumblr’s dedicated to the man and the writing.
And, Jesus Christ, holy shit, the man had drool worthy good looks. God-like. It wasn’t fair.
C’mon, how could someone who looked like that be that talented of a writer? Honestly, it was too good to be true.
Please don’t let it be too good to be true.
Sigh. It didn’t matter because Darcy Lewis was finally going to meet him. Along with the hundreds of others waiting in line in front of her. He was finally doing a book signing, which was rare, and apparently everyone and their grandmother bought tickets…and somehow made it there before her. If she had to guess, there were a good two hundred people in front of her and maybe six behind.
Well, at least she wasn’t last in line. But, wow, it was close. And that’s with her showing up two hours before the signing began. She was not one to wait overnight for anything, even for someone who had figured into many a fantasy of hers.
But she wasn’t going to let the ridiculously large crowd ruin this for her. She loved these books. When someone asked her for book recommendations, or what her favorite were, she always, only, gave his titles. The writing was smart and witty and the descriptions made the scenery come alive in her mind. She loved it. She devoured it. And now she was going to meet the man behind it.
She shivered. In a good way.
What? The man was a fucking god.
The line was winding around the bookstore, trying not to impede other shoppers too much, and it took Darcy another twenty minutes once she was inside the building to even be able to see the table where he was signing things. And then another five minutes before she finally glimpsed him.
How did he look better in real life?
The picture on the back of the book was nothing compared to Thor Odinson in reality. Was she drooling?
He was…big. He had muscles upon muscles that she wanted to grab a hold of and never let go. Blond hair that was just too long to be considered fashionable. And, oh, he had a nice smile. Darcy bit her lip.
He was perfect.
She was fifteen people away and getting more nervous as the minutes passed. Stop it. Why are you nervous? She was Darcy Lewis and she was fucking amazing. She had even worn one of her best boobilicious shirts for the occasion. When was she ever going to see him again? Uh, never. That’s right. Might as well let the girls out to do their thing. And, fuck you, she looked good.
She would rock his fucking world. Well, she could. It was a possibility.
Or not. She could see his tiny publicists, who was herding people through the line, barely giving anyone a chance to say more than hello. But god damn it, Darcy waited for hours and if she wanted to tell the man she wanted to lick him from head to toe, she damn well was going to.
Not that she was. But still. That wasn’t the point.
She clutched her worn book to her chest and tried not to jump up and down in excitement. Really, she was an adult.
Ten people away. She didn’t even care how long she had had to wait.
But then she heard a conversation going on just to the side of the sectioned off signing area.
A little girl, maybe twelve, was upset and her mom was trying to get her to stop crying. She was gently shushing the girl, hugging her, genuinely feeling sorry for her. Apparently they had arrived late to the signing and there were no wristbands left.
The girl was sweet, she wasn’t throwing a fit, she was just quietly crying while watching all the other people who got to meet their idol.
She looked from the girl to the author, who did not seem to notice what was going on, but his publicist sure did, and she looked annoyed by the situation. Rude.
Fuck. Darcy took a deep breath and called over to the mother.
“Hey, um.” Shit, this was harder than she thought it was going to be. Damn her being a good person. She took another, deeper breath and let it all out, “Does she want my place in line?”
The mother looked startled and the girl’s eyes were wide. She looked to her mom for what to do. “A-are you sure?”
Darcy nodded and took off her wristband, she held it out and shook it gently. “Here.”
After a nod from her mother, the girl ran over to Darcy and slowly took it from her hand, like she was afraid it was going to be yanked away. She waited until the girl had it on her own wrist before stepping out of line.
“Thank you,” the girl whispered, in awe.
The mom walked over to Darcy, “Yes, thank you! You have no idea what this means to her. I really…just, thank you.”
Knowing they were both truly appreciative over her actions helped take the sting out of her good deed. Barely.
Darcy took one last look at her favorite author, who was busy signing an overly excited fans book, and walked away.
She spent the next half hour meandering around the bookstore, looking to do some retail therapy. Standing in the science fiction section she was startled when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Whirling around, she dropped the pile of books she was accumulating and swore. She heard a chuckle as she crouched down to start gathering the books again.
“I’m sorry,” a deep, accented, male voice said, “I did not meant to scare you.”
Darcy’s head flew up and she swallowed hard. Oh shit.
“Uh, that’s, um, that’s okay,” she stammered as some books slipped out of her hands again.
“Here,” he said, and crouched down to help her.
She tried to wave his hands away, “No, it’s fine. I just…I’m a klutz.”
It didn’t take long to get all the books together, and it was the longest thirty seconds of her life. Don’t say anything embarrassing.
“I saw what you did,” he said out of nowhere, handing her the books as they stood. All but one. Her dog-eared copy of his own work.
“Well,” she laughed, “you startled me. I didn’t mean to drop them.”
Thor laughed in reply, and Darcy tried not to moan at the sound. He had a nice laugh. Like, a nice laugh. “No, sweetheart, not that. With the girl in line. You gave up your spot when you saw that she was upset.”
Oh, he did see that. Well, she didn’t do it for him. She shrugged, looking down at her feet as she answered, “It’s not a big deal. I could see how much it meant to her.”
She peeked up at him and he was smiling. He shouldn’t be allowed to do that.
“Well, the least I can do is sign this for you,” he said, taking a pen out of his pocket. She tried not to stare as he used his teeth to uncap the pen, but she was pretty sure she failed. He gently opened the front cover and turned a few pages. She bit her lip as she watched his hands. Those hands would definitely be starring in some fantasies later.
“What’s your name?”
Whatever you want it to be. “Darcy.”
He repeated her name slowly and it was all she could do not to ask him to do it again. Repeatedly.
All too soon he handed her book back. He gave her a wink and walked away.
It took a few minutes for the shock to wear off and another minute to realize she should probably check out his signature.
Carefully, she opened the book to the title page and just about dropped everything again.
Darcy,
You are a very generous woman and what you did, not many others would have. You have a kind heart to go with your beautiful face and I would love to get to know you better.
Call me.
-Thor
And below his signature was a phone number.
She put the pile of books down on the nearest shelf and took out her phone.
Yeah, she could rock his world.