Ah. Realization dawned. “Taylor?”
“How do you know my name?”
“Wild guess.” He found himself grinning down at her. “My name is Loch. I believe we’re supposed to be spending time together.” He should have been appalled, he really should have. The woman was clearly a mess . . . but she was a mess with a magnificent set of tits and rather nice eyes. He’d wager that there were other parts of her that were equally nice, and he was looking forward to seeing them.
Those nice eyes fixed on his face, and then traveled down his chest and then his legs. “Mamma mia. What are they feeding you guys in Europe?”
His lips twitched with amusement. “Goat cheese and baguettes?”
“Damn,” she breathed. Her gaze went up to his face and then back down his body again. “You are eating a lot of goat cheese, then. You’re like Thor. I mean, not the mythology one but the Marvel Comics one. The hot blond Chris Hemsworth one. Though I think you’re definitely more Avengers Thor than Dark World Thor.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She blinked rapidly again and stared at his chest. “Definitely Avengers Thor.”
He laughed. All right, if he was going to have a woman thrown at him, at least she was amusing. “I’m starting to think you hit your head harder than you realize.”
“Nah, I’m always like this.” She gave him an apologetic smile and then pointed at the door. “I don’t mean to be a party pooper, but it’d probably be bad if that thing shut again and we were both on this side.”
“Right. Shall we go find our hostess, then?”
“Oh, gosh, yeah. Gretchen’s probably worried I’m busy destroying some priceless vases or something.”
He could see that. Loch offered her his arm, just because she seemed a bit unsteady on her legs still. Plus, she’d hit her head twice.
She clutched at his arm and then furtively squeezed his muscles. “Oh, man.”
And he couldn’t help but laugh at that, too.
“Did you realize you’re missing a shoe?” she pointed out as they left the bathroom.
“Ah. Right. It has chewing gum on it and I couldn’t find a servant to take care of it for me.” He released her arm and moved forward, scooping up his loafer.
“You want me to get it for you? Least I can do,” she said.
“I really don’t think—”
Too late. She took the shoe from his hand and immediately got gum on her fingers. He watched her small, cute nose wrinkle, and she tried to pull the gum off, only to spread it more on her fingers.
“I should probably go back to the bathroom and get rid of this,” she said faintly.
“Just do me a favor and don’t shut the door.”
***
Oh, dear god, Gretchen was trying to hook her up with Adonis. She didn’t know whether to thank her friend or curse her. Adonis was so not in Taylor’s league. She was more of a nerdy-sidekick’s-romantic-interest kind of girl. Her type was more Spider-Man than Thor.
This guy? He was definitely godlike.
She couldn’t stop staring at him as they sat down with Gretchen in one of the manor’s luxurious studies. He had a cup of coffee in his hands, and man, they were such big hands. Enormous, tanned ones with big fingers. He probably wouldn’t be very good at toggling buttons in Excelsior because the game’s on-screen buttons were close together and were more suited to smaller fingers. But like . . . who cared? Those were some amazing, beautiful hands.
His hair was incredible, too. It was tawny colored, thick and wavy and brushed against the collar of his shirt. It shouldn’t have worked for him, and if his hair was thin, it’d have just looked stringy. As it was, he looked like a dang movie star. Thor, her brain reminded her. Definitely Thor-like. Plus he was tall and built, and oh my goodness, just looked like no man she’d ever seen before in her life. Couple that with the sexy lilt in his accent? She was pretty sure she’d be shucking her Batman panties at him if he asked.
Of course, he wouldn’t ask. She’d already thoroughly humiliated herself, what with being caught stuck in the bathroom and spilling water all over herself. She looked like an idiot, and he was being polite, feigning interest as Gretchen rattled on and on about the wedding. Next to her, her fiancé, Hunter, looked awfully uncomfortable, as if he’d rather be anywhere but there. She and Hunter were very similar, Taylor decided. They just weren’t people people. He loved Gretchen desperately, but Tay suspected he could avoid the rest of the world and not give a damn.
She totally knew how that felt.
“Well,” Gretchen said, casting a look over at Taylor. “I was going to ask my friend here to give you a tour of the city, but I’m not sure she’s dressed appropriately.”
Taylor looked down at her shirt. She’d switched from her plain shirt (which went best with her scarf) to the spare she carried. “What’s wrong with this?”
“Isn’t that a Starfleet uniform?”
“Well, yeah. You never know when there’s going to be a flash mob of Trekkies. I like to be prepared.”
Gretchen shook her head. “You are so weird sometimes, Tay.”
“I think she looks fine,” Loch said. “And I’d be very appreciative if you had the time to show me around the city, Taylor.” He looked at her with those gorgeous dark eyes and she wanted to swoon like a heroine in a book. Seriously, he was that good-looking. It was messing with her head.
“Gosh, I don’t know,” Taylor said. Her phone was vibrating in her back pocket, a sure sign that texts were incoming, and they probably weren’t happy ones. “I should get back to my apartment soon.”
Gretchen was giving her a you’re crazy look. “To play your game?”
“Game?” Loch perked up. “Do you play sports?”
“Um . . . I play a MMORPG.” Taylor smiled brightly. “It’s almost a sport in that there are teams and things.”
“A MM-what?” Loch’s eyes widened.
“MMORPG,” Taylor repeated. Jeez, this guy was a hunk, but did he live under a rock? “Massive multiplayer online role-playing game. And I should be leading a raid today when I get back home.”
“That can wait, can’t it?” Gretchen gestured at Loch. “You can show him around for a bit, right? Take him to a few of your usual hangouts? Grab a bite to eat?”
“Well . . .” Taylor bit a fingernail and pulled out her phone. An entire wall of texts from Sigmund scrolled past and the pit of her stomach dropped. She looked up. Loch was watching her, and when she met his gaze, he gave her a slow smile. Oh, Jesus, the man had dimples.