Title: Blinding Heights: The Top Ten Things She'd Never Tell Him
Author: Sare Liz
Continuity: Movieverse, T/P
Rating: T for teen.
Disclaimer: They do not belong to me.
Author's Note: :waves: Hi!
--
It wasn't that she found him handsome, or even sexy. That was sort of a given upon first inspection with him, and it either wore off when you observed some of the rest of his behavior, or it melted into the background hum of life – so went the common line of thought of Pepper's lunch group, anyway. She agreed. This issue wasn't that she found him handsome, or even sexy, exactly, but that in the last nine years of working as his assistant, she'd had as many moments of serious sexual fantasy about him. That was the issue.
It was embarrassing, really, and so it ranked in the top ten things she'd never tell him – not necessarily because of their professional relationship, though that was a factor, but really because she'd never hear the end of it. She had, in fact, no faith at all that Tony was mature enough to deal with the information gracefully.
She never indulged when she was around him, or on company time – that would just be silly and irresponsible, two things she was not. And she didn't indulge often – it really was a once a year occurrence, and for some reason it always seemed to happen in August. She wasn't sure why.
Once she was actually having an intimate moment with her then boyfriend. She didn't out and out moan Tony's name, she was nowhere near as lost as all that. However, in those drawn out moments, shoved against the wall of her then boyfriend's ultra modern apartment, there was a part of her that felt there ought to be a waterfall off to her right, and that he seemed too tall, with too much facial hair and not enough smirk and sass. And there was a very brief moment when she heard her internal monologue musing on the wager that Tony's tongue would probably be more talented, too. It took her three weeks to realize that she'd been making the comparison during the entire episode. That boyfriend didn't last long.
Other moments were a little more vivid, for all that they occurred when she was alone. It was definitely one of the top ten things she'd never tell him.
"But Pepper," he whined, breaking her from her musings. He was probably trying to sound reasonable and convincing, but he wasn't quite making it. "You're the one who pointed out I don't know enough about you. Here I am, trying to find out, and you thwart my good intentions."
Pepper raised an eyebrow and looked over at him from her deck chair. "Yes, you do need to know more about me. It's part of the mandatory 'getting to know your significant other' process. But that doesn't mean I'm going to generate a top ten list of the things I'd never want you to find out about, and then tell you about them. Try again, Tony."
As Pepper gave a sidelong glare to her erstwhile host sitting one deck chair over with a Hawaiian shirt half unbuttoned and gaping over his chest, Pepper had to admit to herself that despite her musings of just half a moment ago, it wasn't that she didn't find him attractive, either. In fact, she found him incredibly attractive, but things had changed since her last conversation with the girls at lunch. They were after all, on their first date, completely alone on his yacht (not counting the crew of seven, including a chef that produced orgasmic food), somewhere off Costa Rica. It was acceptable and appropriate for Pepper to find Tony ravishing, and so now she freely admitted the fact to herself.
But only to herself.
"Okay. What's your favorite color?"
"Guess," she shot back at him.
He gave her an assessing look. "Blue."
"Most days. Some days it's green. Next?"
"Where's the place you most want to go in the world, but have never been?"
"New Zealand."
"Aren't they nuclear free?" he asked, and she wondered if his calculating look had anything at all to do with the Pacific island's national politics, or something else. She guessed that it was something else.
"Hmm," she murmured in the affirmative.
"Strange little island country. Are your parents still alive?"
Pepper smiled with thoughts of home and proceeded to fill Tony in about her family, what it was like growing up in New England, her two nephews, her brief modeling career, and her strange and fascinating love of accounting.
"I just… I love numbers. They either work, or they don't. Their fast, solid, reliable, and dependable."
"Like engineering," Tony commented.
"Well, like your engineering. Not everyone's works out so well, or don't you read the trade magazines that you get delivered?"
He smiled but said nothing. After a few moments, he reached out and trailed his fingertips down her lightly clad arm to take up her hand and simply hold it in his. When she looked over at him there was something inscrutable in his eyes.
"What?" she asked, gently.
He shook his head and remained silent, still smiling slightly, still gazing at her intently.
"What?" she asked again, more intently this time, her smile growing.
"This moment, Pepper, this moment right here, I wouldn't trade it for anything."
She raised an eyebrow and looked skeptical. "Not even sex?"
His smile got slightly wry. "Certainly not sex with anyone else, but maybe not even sex with you. Not just in this moment right now."
She leaned over, an impish smile on her face as she whispered, "I promise not to tell anyone."
He leaned over as well, meeting her half way, but before their lips met, he whispered against them, "You can tell anyone you like. Shout it from the rooftops, even. 'Tony Stark is in love.'"
And at her sharp intake of breath, he kissed her, and that was good, too.
--
"You're the one who is supposed to know me backwards and forwards. You tell me," he said, shooting her question back at her.
Pepper had been foolish enough to try to turn the tables on him. Normally she was quite adept at it, but not this evening. In the spirit of mutuality over an amazing dish of salmon out under the stars and far enough out to sea to avoid the lights of the cities, she had asked Tony what where the top ten things he'd never want her to know.
And now she had to come up with the list herself.
"Okay. Are they things I don't already know, or do they include things about which I know, but you wish I didn't?"
"That would be a cop out. Stuff you think I don't know that you know, at least."
"So I can already know, but you can't know that I know? But what about the things I was saving up for future blackmail opportunities?"
"Air 'em. Air 'em now. And feel free to make outrageous ransom demands. That might be fun. I promise not to bring in Legal."
She just smiled at him before taking a bite of salmon and staring out into the water. What on earth would be on the list? She took a deep breath after finishing with her mouthful and started to speak, still looking out into the night.
"Well, I'm sure there's an embarrassing moment or two that happened while you were a teenager at MIT. Do I have to come up with details? I don't think I should have to do that. Maybe the first time you had sex? Certainly the actual count of people with whom you've had sex. I wonder if all went well between you and your parents, so there might be number four in there, somewhere. I'm sure there are at least two things I don't know about that happened when you got so drunk all good sense left you, so that's six. Then we get to the ones you don't know that I know about. Number seven might be that you programmed Jarvis to be capable of phone sex, but upon testing, didn't find him sexy enough. Number eight might be that upon finding this out, you brought a woman home and tested it out on her – she either found him sexy enough, or the fact that you had your head between her legs might have had something to do with it. Number nine is that upon occasion you pick up redheads in stiletto heels and power suits who never understand why you decide to nick-name them 'pepper' for the evening. Number ten encompasses the exact details of what happened to you in Afghanistan – which, actually, I don't know, though perhaps I could make an educated guess."
Pepper finally looked over to him and met his gaze. He seemed slightly dumbfounded.
"Tony? You still with me?"
"Okay. So you do know me backwards and forwards. You knew about the redheads?"
Pepper raised an eyebrow and nodded slightly. "Mm-hmm."
"You knew about the phone sex program?" he asked, his voice rising slightly.
"Mm-hmm."
"How?"
"I'm sorry, I can't reveal my sources."
"Well, sometime I'll tell you about Afghanistan. But not now," he added with a quick smile.
"Tell me about MIT instead," she said with a soft smile.
He looked back at her and smirked. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," he quoted before he began his story.
--
…to be continued, possibly…