Coming Home (Sequel to This Time Around)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

"So, what did you think?"

McKenna rolled onto her back and smiled up at Loki as he came out of the bathroom dressed in only a pair of flannel drawstring pants. "It was nice. I liked it."

"That's it?" He flopped face-down across the foot of the bed and turned his head toward her.

"It's just that... well..."

He rolled onto his back, his hand coming to rest on her knee. "Just say it, darling girl. What don't you like about it?"

"I didn't not like anything about it. But we spend half the year here and the other half in Asgard. Do we really need a third place? I hate the thought of a mortgage on a house we're only going to use a few weeks of the year."

He gave her knee a gentle squeeze. "We don't have to have a mortgage, love."

"Then you lose the tax break."

"We can afford to, Princess McKenna."

She wrinkled her nose at him, shifting to stretch out beside him. She folded her arms, resting her head on her hands as she turned to him. "Ugh. Don't call me that."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not a princess. I just happened to marry a prince."

"Which makes you a princess, love."

"You know what I mean. Aislinn and Kyra are princesses. I'm just me."

He rolled onto his side, his hand coming to rest on her stomach. "You are a princess. Odin decreed it. If we broke up tomorrow, he'd probably strip me of my title before he stripped you of yours."

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

He grinned. "Actually-" He laughed as she flung a pillow at him. He batted it aside and loomed over her, bracing his left hand over her right shoulder. "Hardly, love," he murmured, his eyes softly aqua as they held hers. "There is nothing in any of the nine realms that would make me want to walk away from this."

As he said this, he shifted again and his hand skimmed upward. She shivered as his fingers trailed up along her breastbone. When they reached the neckline of her tee shirt, they grew warm, skimming up over her throat. "Mmmm..." she whispered, her eyes closing.

"Mmmm, what, love?" he murmured, his fingers lightly stroking along her jaw now.

"Feels nice..." She smiled as gentle tingles rippled through her. He caressed her cheek, let his fingers wander up into her hair, and then swept back down-over her cheek, her chin, along her throat. Each stroke, each touch, was so light-he just barely touched her-and yet they swept through her with the force of a tidal wave.

His lips brushed hers, his fingers now gliding back down over her breastbone. His kiss was gentle, his mouth moving against hers as lightly as his fingers traveled over her stomach. His lips parted, his tongue caressed hers in a slow, teasing stroke as his fingers moved over her hip and down along her inner thigh. She shivered as he moved from her shorts to her bare skin.

She slid her right hand up along his neck, letting her fingernails graze him and he sucked in a sharp breath, shivering against her. He inched his hand beneath the hem of her shorts, his fingers only brushing against her with the lightest, most teasing of strokes. He barely touched her and yet, she slid her free arm about his neck as well and her fingernails dug into his shoulders.

He shifted, easing himself over her and her legs parted to accommodate his hips. As he arched into her, she gasped again. Gripping her tee shirt with one hand, he lifted himself just enough to tug it up, breaking their kiss long enough to whisk it over her head. When he came back down against her, he tightened his arms about her and rolled to bring her atop him.