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Loki glanced up as a lock of his hair fluttered to the side. If he was outdoors, he would have attributed it to a light breeze. But since he was currently sitting in the living room, something else was going on.
He smirked and carefully closed his book. “Darling. I thought you understood the challenge. You’re supposed to see how long you can go without touching me, not see how quickly you can give in to temptation.”
Stephen walked into the room with his book floating in front of him, slowly flipping pages. “I’m not touching you.”
The phantom caress moved down the back of Loki’s neck.
Loki rolled his eyes. “Stephen.”
“I’m still not touching you.” Stephen held both hands up and wiggled his fingers.
“You’re very clearly touching me with your magic.”
“But I’m not touching you.”
“You are touching me. And you’re using your magic to do so.”
Stephen settled on the armrest of the far side of the couch. “Let’s talk about this. You wanted to prove that I can’t keep my hands off you.”
“I didn’t just say hands,” Loki reminded him. “I told you that you couldn’t use your mouth, your tongue, your feet, or any other part of your body to make contact with mine because I knew you would try to look for a loophole somewhere.”
“Oh, please. You’d be disappointed if I didn’t try to find a loophole.”
Loki grinned. “You know me so well.”
“I do know you well. So if you didn’t specifically tell me I wasn’t allowed to use magic, you were either hoping I would because you realized it’s harder for you to not be touched than it is for me to not touch you, or you thought you could rub it in later that I was always allowed to use magic and I didn’t take advantage of that.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Loki scoffed. “I was just under the impression we both knew the definition of touching and I didn’t have to explain myself in such detail. You’re just arguing semantics at this point.”
“Sweetheart,” Stephen said with a smile. “If our positions were reversed, you would be making the same argument I am. You love semantics and wordplay is almost foreplay for you.”
Loki rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“I would.” Stephen’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “So, does it count as me touching you if you touch yourself?”
Loki felt a gentle tug against his sleeve and then his hand slid a few inches up his thigh. “Oh, it’s going to be like that, is it?”
“You tell me. This is your challenge.”
Loki pursed his lips. “I suppose I can make an exception this one time. But from here on out, you are not allowed to touch me with any part of your body or with your magic. And you are not to use your magic to make anything else touch me. I don’t want to be groped by my own clothing or some other ridiculous nonsense.”
Stephen hummed thoughtfully. “I’ll have to remember that for later.” He got up and leisurely walked over to Loki’s side of the couch. “Next time, when I get to set the challenge, I’m not going to keep my hands off you. In fact, I’m going to see just how much touching I can get away with in one day. Even if I’m not with you, you’re going to feel my presence. We’ll have to see how well you hold it together in public.”
Well, that sounded like a lot of fun.
Loki raised his chin challengingly. “You think I can’t keep my composure, do you?”
Stephen placed his hands on the back of the couch, within inches of either side of Loki’s head and he leaned in close. “I don’t think you can, no. I think if I really wanted to use my magic against you, you’d be on the ground, writhing in pleasure.”
Loki licked his lips and leaned forward.
Stephen immediately took a step backwards.
Loki frowned. “What are you doing?”
“That would be considered touching,” Stephen said. “Nice try.”
Loki huffed. He hated how right Stephen was. This was going to be hard for him as well. How was he going to go about the day without all the easy affection?
No matter. Loki would find a way to make him break and actually touch him.