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As soon as the phone was to your ear, Loki’s mouth was back on your pussy, sucking at your overstimulated clit with reckless abandon.
“St-EPHEN—!” You cried out, hips bucking against your better judgement into Loki’s stupidly gorgeous aquiline nose. “Hi. Hello.” You cleared your throat and tried to shuffle away from him. He reacted with the quickness of a panther, locking his wide hands around your hips and pressing you deeper into the mattress before nuzzling his face back where you wanted him least (and most).
“Little Patient,” Strange replied, sounding suspicious of your shock and volume. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” you squeaked. Loki slipped a finger inside your hole and it instantly fluttered around him. He must have realized how overwhelming his assertive attention to your clit was, now smoothing over it with soft, languid strokes as his finger curled up against the ragged cushion of your g-spot. Your breath hitched. You gave Loki a gentle-but-telling swat on the forehead with the backs of your fingers.
“You sound a little, um…distracted,” Stephen said. “You sound…pretty.”
“No, no, no. I’m fine, really.” Your strong thighs were a saving grace as you squeezed your legs together, forcing Loki to back off. He rolled his eyes, pouting before running his index finger through the shiny line of your arousal that coated his chin. Your jaw dropped as he slipped his finger between his lips and sucked it clean.
“Do you think that’s possible…? Peach?” Strange said.
“Lo—Stephen…Stephen, I’m so sorry. I think—I think we have a bad connection. One more time for me?” You shook your head, hoping to etch-a-sketch away the throbbing between your legs. Loki mouthed ‘one more’ and smiled viciously, nodding his head to agree with his own innuendo. He lifted your ankle and started kissing it, beginning to work his way up your calf. Your knees fell open and your head fell back.
“Stark needs you to meet him at the office immediately. He thinks someone was trying to impersonate you. Can you do that?” Stephen said.
“Oh, shit, okay. Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there. Can you give me thirty?” You yanked your leg away from Loki’s grip. Your heart dropped into your stomach. That was a very serious accusation, and you knew Tony wouldn’t jump to a conclusion like that without solid backing. You remembered his recent texts, how suspicious and tightly-wound he’d seemed about a potential security breach. Your eyes flickered to Loki with a sigh, your lips pursing off to the side. Poor Loki. Knowing how wary everyone still was of him, you could only imagine what kind of undue berating he was in store for.
As you stood up to get dressed, Loki’s phone started buzzing on the bedside table. You watched him, tangled like a fallen angel in your papery white bedsheets, crawl on his belly to pick up his own phone. Threads of sunlight inched through your still-open window, stretching their little fingers over Loki’s lean yet muscular frame. The sight was intoxicating, you thought, reluctantly turning to the closet.
“Hello?” he said. Your hand cupped your neck and, considering the events of the last hour or so, you couldn’t help but be curious. “Mister Strange, what a surprise. How are you?”
You leaned away from the closet to peek at the bathroom mirror. You had to cover your mouth to keep from yelping at what you saw.
If your neck had anymore hickeys on it, someone might think you’d painted it purple.
Loki had nibbled bruises into nearly every stitch of skin from your collarbones to your jawline…When he’d said he wanted to claim you, you hadn’t realized how seriously he meant it. As your eyes travelled down, you could see the imprint of his teeth on your shoulder, his lingering grip on your breast, and racing stripes of hickeys soaring up your thighs. It was like looking at another woman. The sight gave you chills.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, she and I just spoke,” Loki said, smirking into the receiver.
You ran back to the closet, immediately yanking out one of the ugliest, but safest, dresses you owned. It was goldenrod yellow, cable-knit, and stopped at your knees. Your current favorite feature about it was the fact that it was a turtleneck. Without enough time to do your makeup, this was the next best thing to cover up his marks.
“Oh my, that sounds serious…Oh dear…Certainly, I’ll meet you there,” he said. As you pulled the dress on, Loki said his goodbyes and hung up the phone. You re-checked yourself in the mirror. It was better than nothing, but your jawline was still visible and a rich shade of lavender. If you could keep your head still and your hair in the way, you could be in the clear.
“We can’t show up at the office together,” you said, ruffling your hair as you looked in the mirror. “It’s bad enough that someone probably saw you take me home.” Loki walked up behind you as you spoke.
“Well if anyone saw us come here together, I can only hope they stuck around for the show,” he said with a grin, ghosting his fingers over your jaw and slipping your hair behind your shoulders so he could view his handiwork. You huffed your breath, annoyed at the deep, crimson blush you could feel washing over your face. “I know I’d be sorely disappointed to learn I’d missed out on that.” He raised a brow at you and let his eyes roam your figure, even muddled as it was in that god-awful dress.
Loki had the dumbest smirk plastered on his face the entire trip up to the office. He walked a good ten feet behind you, insisting that since he wasn’t walking beside you, he was technically abiding by your request. You argued that if he could see you and take the same elevators as you, it still counted as showing up together.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re feeling ashamed of me,” Loki mumbled, leaning next to your ear as the elevator rose to the office floor. “Perhaps…embarrassed by the exquisite pleasure I just wrote into that precious little body of yours?” His eyes travelled down. By the way his lids drooped, he was clearly picturing you naked again.
You shot him a deadly look with eyes so wide they could’ve rolled right out of your head.
“Aww,” he mocked, tutting as his head cocked to the side. He jutted his lower lip out, feigning sympathy, before rolling his eyes. That shit-eating smirk pulled back at his cheeks yet again. “No need to get worked up, darling. It’s natural to feel confused when you’re coming down from such an…overwhelming experience like that.”
The elevator dinged and you were eager to stamp off, suddenly craving the ten-feet distance you’d taken for granted before.
You just grit your teeth, knowing anything you could say would be turned around to his benefit. Such were the perks of being in cahoots with the God of Mischief. As you approached the front desk, Margot was playing on her phone and vigorously chewing a wad of blue-raspberry gum. It was her favorite, despite staining her lips to the point that one could see the blue ring of her mouth from across a football field.
She had a nice space. It was well-lit and sterile-looking, with sheets of white marble from the walls all the way to the top of her wood-bodied desk. She liked to keep fresh flowers on the corner of the desk closest to the entrance so they were the first thing someone saw when they walked in. As fancy as the office looked, you always internally chuckled at her addition of the wooden “Reception” sign she topped the desk with. It reminded you of your hometown: a hokey, rural place with the cozy charm that small towns always seemed to exude. It made a silly, nostalgic vein mourn for “the good old days,” though you knew saying “good” was generous.
“Margot, long time no see, good afternoon,” you said, sounding breathless as you tried to gauge her mood.
“Long time, no speak, either. Phone broken, Peach Pie?” She looked up at you as the bubble she was blowing popped. “Thanks for taking all this time off lately, by the way. It’s so much fun doing your best friends job on top of your own when she’s not speaking to you for no discernable reason. So great. I really hope you keep doing that.” Her face was totally flat, showing no emotion.
“Margot, I’m really sorry and I get that you’re upset,” you said. Her left brow rose as she waited for you to negate yourself. She knew you well. “But—we kind of have a situation and I’m in a bit of a hurry. Could you please check us in?”
“Actually, you have like twenty more minutes before you’re supposed to get here. Stark and Strange both looped me into the schedule today since this—surprise, surprise—concerns me too. Not everything is about you and your insatiable compulsion to speed through life.”
Shit, were you really that early? God, now you looked like an even bigger ass. You hadn’t given poor Margot the time of day in, well, days. She was right to be upset. You sighed and gave her a pathetic look, only hoping she could see how ashamed of your behavior you were.
“Whatever,” she said, shaking her head and chomping obnoxiously on her gum with a smacking noise as she turned back to her computer. “Scan your cards, I’ll approve it. I’m done talking to you.”
Loki followed you, saying nothing, as you passed Margot’s desk to reach the locked door leading to the suites. You held your badge to the black plaque mounted to the wall until it beeped, a little green light at the top indicating that the door was unlocked.
The halls were buzzing with the droll of people typing and shuffling files behind the series of closed doors you passed as you twisted and turned up to your office. The path along the way looked about as blank as Margot’s area, with white tile and equally white walls, undecorated, the entire way through. Though it looked a little drab and depressing, it was another safety precaution. If someone somehow got past Margot, they’d need to have intimate knowledge of the building to make their way through the maze of identical halls without getting lost. The only way you knew your own office was by memorizing the turns and number of doors that lead to it—there was no special plaque or marker with your name or title on it. Just numbers. The only rooms that were distinguished from the rest were the conferences rooms (thanks to their larger, frosted doors) which held nothing of significance and Tony’s office, which, if someone made it up there without getting caught on the way, maybe they deserved to take whatever they came for.
You and Loki entered the door, 42015, to find your office exactly as it had been left before. Well…No. Shoot. Someone moved that picture of your family. Was it so hard to put things back where they’d been found? You should just take it back to the apartment, you thought, it wasn’t worth hassling the janitors over. No need to have anyone with access to your office seeing them, anyways. It wasn’t their business. Nothing good could come out of strangers remembering the faces of your loved ones.
“Looks like we’ve got some time until they get here,” Loki said. He was tracking at your heels as you rounded the desk to grab the frame of your family and shove it in your purse. His hips met the round of your ass as you reached for the photo. “Would you like to know two lovely problems I observed until they get here?”
“Loki—” Your face was already hot, heart thudding needy and heavy in your chest as you froze. His hand slid up your back outside of the dress, gently easing your torso down over the top of the desk. Without thinking, without fighting, you submitted, laying down just like he silently asked you to.
“I’ll tell you anyways,” he continued, his voice lowering to a growl. “Problem one: you deprived me of the joy of offering you multiple orgasms this morning.”
You gulped. Your eyes slid shut, breath growing ragged as his right hand, cold as night, ran up from the hinge of your knee to the hem of your dress, just below the bottom of your ass.
He was tricking you.
Your head shot up.
“B-but…No, no, wait. Wait. You told me to answer the phone. That’s n-not my fault.” Despite the nervous pounding in your chest, you felt yourself arching your back into his touch.
“Don’t interrupt me. Problem two: you didn’t put on any panties when you got dressed.”
Your breath caught in your throat.
“Oh, you didn’t think I was watching? Thought you could get away with it? You wicked little creature. Fortunately, that second issue helps me solve that dreadful first one.” He yanked the skirt of your dress all the way up to your tummy. You gasped.
“L-Loki, we’re at work, they’re going to be here any minute,” you squeaked out.
“Then I guess you’d better be quiet and quick, hm?” His hand slipped between your legs.
Loki let out a bitter hiss as he felt how wet you were already. You could hear his teeth chattering as he hurried to shuffle his trousers down.
“Darling, I’m aching to play rough with you. Would you entrust me with the honor?”
“Oh God, please,” you whined, pushing yourself against his hips, only to find his hand blocking the way. “Be as rough as you’d like, just give it to me.”
“What’s your safe word?” He began peeling your dress the rest of the way off and tossed it over your computer screen.
You paused. Stephen’s rules for you came to mind. As dirty as it felt recycling another man’s rules with Loki, you’d fallen in love with the code as quickly as it had been presented to you. Your cunt was sorely empty, impatient, and you vowed to yourself to find a way to apologize to Stephen for your indiscretion another day.
“I count up to ten when I start to get up to my limit,” you said, trying not to cringe. “One is a gentle warning that I’m not perfectly comfortable and ten is the absolute final stop. I tap twice to say ‘ten’ if I can’t speak.”
“How thorough,” Loki crooned. “Good girl.”
He wasted no time plunging in.
You panted. His hand immediately came over your mouth as he bottomed out.
“Need help being quiet?” His right hand gripped your hip with barbaric strength as his left slid down from your mouth to your throat. Loki’s fingers and thumb wrapped around the sides of your throat and he gave a light, testing squeeze. “Lean into my hand, Darling Peach, choke yourself on me if you can’t be quiet.”
Loki ground himself into you, rutting perfectly against that spot that was making your cheeks tingle and eyes roll back. Tentatively, you pressed your neck into his palm. The harder you leaned, the harder he squeezed the sides of your throat. Regardless of the weight you drove into his palm, his arm held steady like a safety rail. As soon as you found a pressure that felt good, Loki locked his clutch into place and plunged into you slowly, dragging his cock out enough that you could feel the head pop in and out as he teased your entrance with it. That slow pace, coupled with his choking you, made a throbbing heat surge into your temples.
You could still breathe with a hushed, throaty rasp. Loki pressed inside with such care that you couldn’t hear it, only feeling the ridges and veins in his dick stretching you loose. His forehead pressed against your shoulder and he sighed, sliding his right hand from your hip to your ass.
Loki gave your ass a tentative squeeze and lifted his hand away. Hearing your deep inhale, he chuckled and brought his palm down against your hind like a whip. Shocked, you jumped forward and tried to cry out, bowing deeper into his hand which tightened its grip and cut off your screech. The sting rippled goosebumps along your entire body. Loki jostled your neck in his hand, shaking you around like a bobblehead.
“Shh, it’s okay,” he murmured. “I’ve got you.” His hand smoothed over the slap, which you could already feel welting up, and you whimpered. Loki straightened his back and loosened his hand from around your throat, somehow slowing down his hips even more. “Is that a number? Are you alright?”
You nodded, wordlessly slamming your hips back and using one of your own hands to reinforce his grasp around your collar. You immediately felt the pressure in your temples rise back up, the lack of oxygen making your clit swell. Your eyes rolled back. Loki adjusted his hand around your rear, clutching a new area that he hadn’t struck.
“Arms back,” he instructed. You folded your hands behind your back and Loki let your throat go. “Breathe.”
You sucked in a hoarse breath, trying to keep quiet as you heard someone’s footsteps coming down the hall. At that moment, Loki ran his fingers through your hair, lightly scratching your scalp. He entwined his fingers in your hair, securing a wad of it before yanking your head back. Still breathless, you barely made a sound as he nuzzled his way behind your ear, kissing that little spot just behind the lobe. Loki jerked that bundle of hair to turn your head to the side to face him as he kissed you through his thrusts, humming a strangled groan into your mouth. He swatted your ass lightly a few times until the skin was buzzing and gave it one final, appreciative squeeze before he used your hair as leverage again to slam you down against the desk. Your temple hit the wood top with a thunk.
If there had been any breath in your lungs, he knocked it out of you as your cheek warmed the cool wood top of your workspace. Your eyes slid shut.
Loki huffed, picking up his pace as his free hand slid down to your clit. The hand holding your hair was wrenching savagely at your scalp and in any other situation it would hurt, but here, with the coil tightening in your belly and Loki’s warm, rough fingers swirling love notes into the burning crest of your quivering pussy, if he’d skinned you alive it would’ve felt orgasmic.
“M-more,” you hissed.
“As you wish,” he sighed, letting go of your hair in favor of laying his palm over the small of your back. A pair of hands cupped your cheeks, lifting your face. As you opened your eyes, you saw—no—how could he…? Loki was kneeling in front of you, face flushed and jaw slightly agape, practically drooling over the sight of you bent over your desk taking cock. You jolted, trying to unwind your hands so you could lift yourself up, but found your wrists bound.
“Ah, ah, let him work, Little Peach,” Loki said, grazing a thumb along your chin.
Your head whipped back to see Loki railing into you, the tendons in his neck flexing and head knocked back in utter bliss.
“More,” said the Loki in front of you. “Just like you asked.” You punched yourself in the back as he kissed you, slipping his tongue into your mouth and making out with you sloppily as his fingers drifted down to your chest. He palmed your breasts, weighing them in each hand, before breaking the kiss to offer you his thumbs.
“Lick,” he said, and you did. He moved his hands back down and began twisting and pulling at your hardened nipples, catching your shriek in his mouth. He bit your lip and tugged back, pinching those precious buds between his slick fingers mercilessly.
The Loki behind you delivered another slap across your backside, still swirling his fingers over your clit, and you were nearly gone. After he soothed the swollen welt with his soft palm, his nails dug into the sumptuous flesh of your ass, pulling the cheeks apart. The stretch helped him plunge just that much deeper and you could feel the head of his cock massaging the tension out of your belly. You tried to gasp, but the Loki kneeling before you had his mouth back on yours, trapping the sound.
“Ohh, you like that?” the Loki behind you taunted. The Loki in front kissed your cheek, refusing to separate from you. “You like when I pull you open? How’s this?” His left hand released one of your cheeks and there was a pause before his thumb, warm and slick, pressed against that tight ring of muscle between your butt cheeks. The front Loki knew it was coming, shushing you as he set one of his knuckles between your teeth for you to bite down on as you squeaked. The feeling was shocking, unfamiliar. He didn’t try to push in, just letting the pressure sit there against your other hole, and as soon as you relaxed it felt…so good. Your whole body was warm, oozing pleasure, and that thumb had worked your pussy into a frenzy. You felt so open, like Loki was embedded into the fibers of your being. He owned you and your pleasure in that moment and he must’ve known it from the way you drooled over his doppelganger’s knuckles.
“Aww, that’s it,” he cooed. “Feels so good, huh?” You weren’t sure which one said it, but you nodded and felt the pace against your clit increase. Your hips reared back, inadvertently driving harder against Loki’s thumb.
“Choke yourself,” the Loki behind you grit out. You immediately obeyed, finding your wrists suddenly free. You used your left hand to mimic the hold Loki had first choked you with. Your right hand wrapped around the front Loki’s shoulder, holding him for stability as your knees began to go weak from the ministrations of the one behind. Blood rushed to your face. He was everywhere: kneading the plush skin of your ass, toying your hole, tugging and flicking your nipples, making out with you, and pummeling his wretchedly fat cock so deep into your pussy that black spots were coming into your vision.
“I’m g-gonna—” You hissed against the choke. You were clawing his shoulder, every muscle in your body vibrating with anticipation. You could feel your pussy gushing around him. Loki’s fingers massaged your clit with an endless spiral that made you go lightheaded and limp just as the you teetered over the edge of madness.
“Do it,” one said. “That’s it.”
“Let it out, let go for me,” said the other. “Let me feel it.”
“L-Lo—!”
The front Loki clamped his hand over your mouth and the back of your head as you came to muffle your cries. His forehead pressed against yours. You lost control of your body, mindlessly bucking back into the Loki behind you as your pussy spasmed. The pleasure he gave you ladled over your shivering body like lava, and you melted under it. Even as your orgasm dissolved and Loki’s hands drifted away, you still grunted and rolled your hips back into his, feeling possessed.
“Such a sweet girl,” Loki cooed, now being the only one of himself in the room, as he slipped himself out of you. He used one of the tissues next to your computer to clean you up, tossing the tissue in your wastebasket before pulling your dress over your head. He looked at the clock. “You should have another small minute to collect yourself before they get here.” He smoothed out your hair and kissed your cheek, easing you to sit in your rolling chair. Your pulse thudded lowly in your ears as you heard his belt buckle chime into place.
As you regained control of your breath, Loki knelt beside you and massaged your wrists. The roll of his thumb seemed to bring you back to Earth, seemed to go on for hours, before he was standing again.
“You did so good, Darling,” he whispered, kissing your forehead, before stepping away and folding his hands behind his back.
There was a light rap against the door as it opened. Tony and Doctor Strange must have walked together. The room instantly felt stuffy.
You went from feeling zoned out, taken by Loki’s new obsession with your body, to overly aware of the three large men crowding your suite and the varying tensions shared between them over the last few weeks. The energy of it all felt like a pallet of bricks being laid on your chest.
Stephen sniffed inconspicuously, the briefest flash of confusion passing over his face before he smiled at you.
“Little Patient,” he said sweetly. “I’m happy to see you. I wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”
“No small talk—let’s jump straight into it. Where’s the intern? And that receptionist?” Tony said, punching the bridge of his nose as the door closed. His teeth clacked together as his jaw clamped shut. His posture was tight as violin string.
“Right here, sir!” Margot rushed through the door with the same clamor of a toddler in a China cabinet. “Sorry for the wait—I had to show Darren the restroom. He’ll be right in.”
“Oh perfect. The temp is taking liberties with our schedule now,” Tony said. Margot’s cheeks flushed as she looked at the ground and shuffled to the seat on the other side of your desk, setting her laptop down on an open space. As she cued the laptop up, Tony paced.
“Can someone explain to me what the issue is?” You said. “I don’t see where something could have slipped through the cracks.”
“Laziness,” Tony barked. You startled in your seat and both Doctor Strange and Loki snapped their gaze to check on you. “Will bring down a skyscraper faster than a bomb.”
Darren jogged inside, ducking his head apologetically.
“Thank you for waiting,” he whispered, showing his hands and grimacing to overstate just how sorry he was.
“Glad you could be torn from your impossibly busy schedule to join us underlings, temp,” Tony said, his voice cold and low. Darren looked at his feet, leaning against the wall with his hands behind his back. “Is it running, Margot?”
“Yes, sir.”
His hands shook as he pulled a sticky note from his pocket.
“Excellent—the order numbers are—”
You zoned out as Tony recited a series of numbers and letters from the note, stopping briefly after each one was finished. Margot typed each order number furiously and read each line back to Tony to confirm she’d gotten them right. There were three in total.
“What’s this all about?” You scowled at your boss, feeling like you were begging questions at a brick wall.
“Did you receive three packages from me with instructions inside?” His eyes snapped to you, looking strained and bloodshot. Whatever the issue was, he was livid.
“Uhh, no,” you said, sinking deeper into your seat, backing away from his stare.
“Well someone sure as fuck signed for them,” Tony said.
“I never ordered anything,” you said, your nose scrunching in confusion.
“I. Sent. Them,” Tony said. “Someone. Signed. For. You.”
Your brow rose, your gaze darting to Margot who was frantically digging through her logs and reports. Suddenly, she froze.
“Um, sir,” she said. Tony didn’t answer. “It was me, sir. I signed for her while she was out, Mister Stark. The logs, they, um, it’s—it’s my name next to those order numbers.”
“On whose authority?!” Tony shouted, slamming his fist against the desk.
“They—they looked important, I j-just, I didn’t want to reject them in case they n-needed to be here,” Margot tried, stumbling over her words. “They’re—I locked them up, they’re safe, so when she came back—”
“Don’t you dare explain to me why breaking simple fucking protocol is ever acceptable. You don’t sign a higher up’s name and take what isn’t yours. You have a list of names to call down to reception in a situation like that. It’s pinned next to your computer screen. You know how I know that? Because I FUCKING POSTED IT THERE.”
Your heart was pounding. You gulped.
“Issue two—Peach,” Tony grinned at you, looking so disingenuously happy that he could’ve passed for a marionette. “Someone’s duplicated your keycard. Our tech team called me up asking how you could be walking around the office and at home at the same time.” He listed off two badge numbers and the room was dead quiet besides the clack of Margot searching through her files to match them. Tony didn’t even move to breathe as he waited, staring Margot down with the intensity of a forest fire.
“The first one is hers, sir,” Margot said, nodding to you. Her voice was small, nostrils flared. “The second belongs to Darren.”
“And I’m sure you have an excellent excuse as to why a FUCKING INTERN would need the same badge privileges as MY NUMBER TWO EMPLOYEE,” Tony screamed. His voice was beginning to sound raw and the veins in his neck flared. His entire face was red as merlot.
“Sir, I assure you it must have been a mistake. I just assumed he’d need her same access since he’d be working directly with her and got mixed—”
“Is reception so difficult that a mistake of this proportion is actually possible? Loki’s badge number is unique, yeah? How does that happen? Tell me, seat-warmer, how, on God’s good, green Earth does that happen?”
“Respectfully, Mister Stark, it was Loki. I had to be caref—”
“You’d be best set to watch your fucking mouth when you speak about Loki Laufeyson, Miss Hayes,” you snarled. It was out of your mouth before you could stop it. “Your job is to be precise every time. Not just when you, in your cushy throne, deem someone a threat.” Your nose was twitching with rage and, though your eyes were boring holes into the empty space behind Margot’s skull, from the corner of your eye you could see Loki and Strange ogling you with their pale faces warped in unadulterated confusion.
“Peach,” Margot said with an airy laugh. “You’re surely aware of his past…”
“Apologize,” you growled, leaning towards her. You hadn’t wanted to push the issue, but Margot was grating on your last nerve now.
“What?” You weren’t sure who said that, as multiple voices in the room echoed each other.
“Apologize to him now.” Your vision was tunneled. Your voice trembled. “He is an employee here and gets just as much respect as anyone else earning a paycheck from Tony Stark. Let’s keep in mind that Loki is in my and Stark’s good graces more than you will likely ever be after such flagrant disregard for your job and the company’s best interest. How dare you insinuate that he’s any less of an employee than that polo-wearing fuck who’s name I can’t remember half the time.” You gestured to Darren without looking at him, but guessed he was probably scowling at you.
Margot muttered some pathetic apology and you only hoped the other men in the room hadn’t caught on to your protectiveness over Loki. Part of you wanted to fire her, and you could if you really wanted to, but worried your anger was taking you farther than rationale could justify.
“Mistakes were made,” Strange said, raising his hands to try diffusing the tension. “If we’re going to move forward, I think the next step is to search the rooms. As long as I don’t find anything, I think we can chalk it up to a lesson learned. Better safe than sorry.”
“Agreed,” Tony said. “This office, reception, and the apartment.”
Your anger had made your mind move in slow motion, and as you realized what they were proposing, your mouth went dry. Tony was going to let Doctor Strange use his universal awareness to scan the rooms for any suspicious activity. Not just the office, but your home. Loki had just spent the better part of the morning railing you in every relevant part of the search Stephen was about to perform, since reception would be a dead-end. This can’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. This won’t be happening.
You thought back to the last time that Stephen used his universal awareness. It was the day he’d accused Loki of raping you. It was the same day that Tony offered you a week vacation, no notice required, and suddenly you wanted nothing more than to be as far from this building as humanly possible. You wanted to be somewhere with privacy. Your thoughts fixated on the picture frame that suddenly felt like a grenade in your purse.
“Uh, no. No, no,” you said. All eyes in the room snapped to you. You gulped.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” you tried, feeling their judgement like smoke in your lungs. “Margot made a simple mistake a-and we can’t give Darren a hard time for showing up to his internship, right?”
“So you haven’t noticed anything strange lately? Everything at home is normal?” Tony challenged with a skeptical raise of his brow.
Unexplained fingerprints on your fridge. Feeling like you were being watched. Things in your office being moved. Countless nuances and gut-feelings that you’d chalked up to anxiety or forgetfulness ever since Loki showed up.
What if Tony was right?
What if something terrible was closing in on you?
What if—shit, shit, calm down. Okay, you’re fine, everything’s cool. Your heart was beating so hard you felt the urge to swallow it down, gulp it back into your chest. Loki would know you were lying, but you doubted he’d rat you out. Doctor Strange’s ability to read auras, or whatever the hell, would tune him into your anxiety, but you doubted he’d read your mind. He wouldn’t suspect you of covering up something that might put you in danger.
You had a right to privacy and Tony was getting too comfortable putting you in these types of situations.
You could fix this.
Everything was going to be fine.
“Everything’s been fine,” you lied. “I really think you’re being a bit quick on the trigger with this one, Tony.”
Tony opened his mouth to respond, but Loki interrupted. His face showed nothing, but you sensed he was confused about your lie.
“Well hold on, it certainly can’t hurt to be a little overly cautious,” he said, flickering his gaze between you, to Stark, to Strange rapidly. “I think Peach might be a little confused, this is an overwhelming situation.” He emphasized the words as he looked at you, apparently assuming the sex had damaged the part of your brain responsible for logic and better judgement. Your cheeks were hot. How dare he.
“You’re confused,” you quipped.
“If there’s the possibility someone’s misused their privileges here, it’s surely better to know now than later,” Loki said.
“For once, we agree,” Stephen said, trying to hide an incredulous smile. Perhaps he was second-guessing his rationale.
“Thank you, Mister Strange,” Loki said with a curt nod.
“Doctor,” Stephen corrected, giving Loki the side-eye.
“Gesundheit. This search—you’ll be able to see everything that’s happened here and in Peach’s home since this all started?” Loki’s tone was low, and you instantly recognized the possessive tone it took. You blushed.
“Everything, yes,” Stephen said, nodding to reassure you. “If it happened, I’ll see it, hear it, all that. No stone left unturned.” Your pulse soared.
“Well—well, don’t we…Hold on,” you huffed in frustration and pressed your two first fingers to your temples, pausing to regain your bearings on the conversation. Loki was smirking at you. The little shit wanted Stephen to see what he’d done to you. As if forcing you to scream-gasm for the entire city wasn’t enough. You lowered your hands. Your nails dug into your palm as you clenched your fist. The sting helped you focus on taking control of the conversation again. No. No it didn’t. You were freaking out, and the thought that everyone could tell was making it worse. You clenched your fist harder. “Ok, listen, just listen. No crimes have been committed. I really don’t think Margot was trying to be malicious, she just made a couple mistakes. Big mistakes, yes, but no one died and it won’t happen again, right?”
Margot nodded vigorously.
“Right. Thank you. Plus, again, we don’t need to be harassing an intern for doing his job. He showed up to work, he can’t help the fact that his card was wrong.”
“It’s not like it’ll hurt to check,” Strange said. “This is meant for your safety, especially, Little Patient. Not just the company’s.”
“I think we’re all much better off knowing for certain what’s happened in these rooms,” Loki agreed, staring you down to ensure you caught his double-meaning. You were fuming. Did he have to be so pushy and obvious? Fine. Two could play that game.
“As second in command at this company, my answer is no. I have a right to privacy and I have ZERO reason to believe anything fishy has happened here. End of conversation,” you snipped. “If a mistake like this happens again, anyone involved will be fired immediately.” Your glare shot to Margot, who’d ultimately caused this train wreck of a meeting, no matter how unintentional her fuck-up was. Her nostrils flared, but she didn’t argue.
You shoved yourself out of your seat and stormed towards the door.
“And Tony, I’ll be cashing in on that week-long vacation now. Loki, book me the first flight out to Florida for tomorrow.”
The door slammed behind you before you could hear anyone’s response. You didn’t blink, didn’t breathe, didn’t think, until you made it to the elevator and pushed the button to your floor. As it rose, you took a violent breath in and collapsed against the wall of the cab, pressing your sweaty face against your forearm. A wave of relief washed over you.
Your frame quaked with a sob. Ever since that night that you twisted your ankle, you’d been bombarded with more stress than you ever should’ve had to bear at your workplace. Having the apartment just a few floors up wasn’t enough space away to decompress from the shitshow that was your job. You had to get away. For your sanity. For your mental health.
As the elevator dinged, the doors swishing open, you sniffed and wiped your nose. Your posture straightened with dignity.
You were finally going home.