One of the down sides of a lifetime of one-night-stands and the briefest of flings was that Loki had never been able to develop the familiarity he had now with Valkyrie. General knowledge and attention worked well enough, but he was finding that it was no substitute for knowing. Knowing where light fingertips would make her shiver, where a nip and breath would jerk her attention back from elsewhere, that a scrape of fingernails on her spine nearly always made her gasp. Nerve endings, sensitive spots, where to be gentle or rough.

And he’d been invited to use all of it, so he did. Slowly and deliberately, to thoroughly enjoy every reaction.