Son of Mischief (Loki/Asgard Fanfiction - Selig's Story)

Chapter Thirty-Three

Celia was quiet as she switched lanes on Route 18 North just outside of New Brunswick. Her hand rested on the gearshift, and without thinking, Selig covered it with his. "Where are you, Ce?"

"I'm right here."

"I don't think so."

She'd taken off the Jeep's top and when she looked over at him, her mane of curls blowing all about her face, he was positive he'd never seen a more beautiful girl than his Ce.

Girl. No, she was hardly a girl any more. She was most definitely a woman.

His woman.

He smiled. He liked how that sounded.

"What are you grinning at?" she asked.

"Nothing, Ce. So, what's on your mind?"

"I haven't spoken to my mother in probably six months. I can only imagine how she'll take this news."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "I don't know. She always liked me when we were kids."

"True. I think she liked you more than she ever liked me."

He tried to stretch his legs, but there wasn't much room for a man who was six foot four. "You need a bigger car, Ce. This one is killing me."

"Sorry, I don't think Jeep had giants in mind when they designed their Wranglers. And besides, you've been in smaller cars. Didn't Amanda Rice drive a Bug?"

He squeezed her hand. "You need to let Amanda go, sweetheart. It was ten seconds in the back of that Bug and I was never so uncomfortable in all my life, before or since."

A flush swept across her cheekbones as she looked at him again. "I'm still jealous of her."

"Don't be. She had the boy who didn't have a clue what he was doing. You get the man who knows exactly what he's doing." He lifted her hand from the gearshift to bring it to his lips. "And you benefit in ways Amanda never did."

"Oh, yeah?" She hit the turn arrow to shift back into the right lane. "Like what?"

"Think about it, sweetheart. What does no seventeen year old kid do that a lot of men will do?"

Her cheeks grew pinker still. "Oh... that... Okay, I'll give you that. Definite benefit."

"Yeah. That."

She eased her hand from his, stepped on the clutch, and carefully downshifted as they pulled off Eighteen onto Landing Lane. From there, she made a right onto Easton Avenue, and eventually pulled onto Route 287 North.

He shifted in his seat again. It was a long trek from Point Pleasant out to the western part of Hunterdon and the Jeep's toplessness made conversation difficult. But finally, Celia was easing to a stop in front of a spacious gray house with red shutters and Selig smiled. When he and his family weren't in Asgard, that gray house was home and he had almost nothing but good memories of that house.

"I used to love coming over, Sel," Celia said softly, shifting in her seat to gaze across the immense front yard to the red front door. "You know, it was up in your room that I first realized I had a crush on you."

"Are you kidding me?"

She shook her head, biting her bottom lip before saying, "You were telling me about Amanda and I wanted to cry and claw her eyes out at the same time."

He grinned. He remembered the conversation. "So, I tell you about my first time and you decide you have a thing for me?"

"No, I always had the thing for you, Sel. I just refused to believe it until that day." Her hand came to rest on his thigh, which sent a flare of heat spearing through him. "But, you have no idea how jealous I was."