Virginia Potts considered herself to be a respectable woman. She showed up to work on time every day, did her job well, and got things done. Her idea of fun was getting the opportunity to aid in planning one of Stark Industries' charity balls.
She was nothing like the floozies Tony brought home on a regular basis. The strippers and show girls, dancers and random party guests. No; those girls didn't have a shred of self-respect. Virginia had worked for Tony Stark for over ten years and hadn't once given into his incessant flirting. But that certainly didn't make her any less fun. Not just because she didn't dance on tables, drink until she lost all her coherent thinking, take her clothes off and throw herself at the first mildly attractive man she saw.
Alright; maybe Tony was just a bit more than mildly attractive. But that was beside the point. The point was that she had a job to do, and she didn't plan on losing professional respect by fantasizing over her boss.
Punching in her access code, she walked briskly into his workshop, turning down the volume of the rather obnoxious AC/DC song blaring through the entire garage. "Tony?" she called, furrowing her brow as she searched the vast room for the scruffy, arrogant man. "You need to sign-"
"Mr. Stark is not here, Ms. Potts," JARVIS's automated voice announced midway through her sentence, and Virginia frowned.
"What do you mean, he's not here? It's seven a.m. and his music was on; he's always down here."
"It would appear something came up. An Alexandria Fry came calling rather late last night-"
"Oh, I don't even want to know," Virginia groaned with frustration, shaking her head. Alexandria Fry was the supermodel who Tony had gotten her to plan a gala for a few days ago in order to impress her. Clearly, it had worked; worked so well, in fact, that Tony hadn't even had time to turn off the music. "What does he even see in her?" she asked suddenly with a frown, dropping herself into one of the cool metal chairs and shaking her head.
"Well, she is very talented," JARVIS responded, and Virginia rolled her crystal blue eyes.
"Oh, please. Anyone can take off their clothes and strut down a runway in a slinky two piece lingerie set. I wouldn't call it 'talent'. I could do it, for crying out loud!"
"Surely," JARVIS agreed, and Virginia paused as a thought occurred to her. She was fairly certain that she could do it. She was attractive; Tony wouldn't constantly flirt with her if she wasn't. Not to mention, she'd had her fair share of interested suitors, but had turned them all down. It seemed hardly fair to jump into a relationship with someone when she was so invested in her job.
But, it was a bit hard to do her job when Tony wasn't even around to assist. Frowning, she tapped her black stiletto clad foot on the cool floor to the beat of the song playing in the background, glancing up when she realized it had shifted to Joan Jett instead of the usual AC/DC. It happened to be a song she didn't mind.
"JARVIS, turn that up," she commanded, getting to her feet. She could easily be like Alexandria Fry if she wanted to be; in fact, she was fairly certain she could be sexier.
Complying, the music instantly turned up until it shook the glass windows by the stairs, and a grin graced Virginia's lips as she slipped her stockings off before slipping her bare feet back into her dangerously high heels. She was willing to bet that she could walk in them with more ease than most of the supermodels that showed them off.
Virginia knew perfectly well that there was a long list of things Tony Stark didn't know about her. One of them was how talented she was. Singing, dancing; she did it all. In private, of course, but she did them, and she did them well.
"We've been here too long, trying to get along; pretending that you're oh-so shy."
Pulling her hair free of its prim and proper style atop her head, Virginia let her rather curly strawberry blonde strands tumble down her back, flipping it back from her face as she carelessly tossed the pins behind her, her voice ringing clear and strong through the workshop.
"I'm a natural ma'am, doing all I can; my temperature is running high."
Carelessly kicking aside a few pieces of scrap metal as she flounced forward, Virginia slipped off her jacket and popped open a few of the buttons on her silky white blouse, exposing her rather risqué black bra lined with lace as she grasped the pole of one of the tall lamps that was bolted to the floor by the old leather couch, flipping her head back and swiveling downward in a way that would have driven anyone watching absolutely wild. But why shouldn't she? No one would ever find out, and she wanted to know what it felt like to be one of those girls that men fawned endlessly over; that they got their assistants to throw galas and parties for.
"Cry at night; no one in sight, and we got so much to share! Talk is fine, if you got the time, but I ain't got the time to spare! Yeah!"
Snapping back up with startling precision, Virginia grinned wickedly at the array of Iron Man suits as though she were singing to her boss himself.
"Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch me there? Where? Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch me there? Where? There! Yeah! There, oh yeaaah, oh yeaaah… There! Oh yeaaaah, oh yeaaah…"
Swaying away from the lamp, Virginia slung her legs over the cool metal chair again, her usually precisely placed skirt riding up her thighs as she ran her fingertip over the back, continuing to sing, loud and clear, to her metal audience.
"Every girl and boy needs a little joy. All you do is sit and stare. Begging on my knees; baby won't you please run your fingers through my hair!"
Grasping the back of the chair, Virginia arched backward and flipped her hair back, toying with her brilliant curls as her grin widened. Maybe there was a reason Tony liked girls like this, aside from the obvious; they were wild and free, whereas girls like her were too busy to let their hair down, quite literally.
"My, my, my, whiskey and rye; don't it make you feel so fine? Right or wrong, don't it turn you on? Can't you see we're wasting time? Yeah!"
Too immersed in her performance, Virginia hadn't heard the door open upstairs or the sound of Tony's footsteps walking toward the steps to his workshop. Now, nearly as long as Virginia's list of things Tony didn't know she could do was Tony's list of things he never thought he'd catch her doing. Right at the top of the list happened to be a striptease.
So this is how she felt the first time she caught me in the suit, he thought to himself as his wide brown eyes almost hungrily watched her every provocative move, the unmistakeable lyrics of "Do You Wanna Touch Me" by Joan Jett vibrating through the glass barrier.
Don't turn around, he practically pled in his mind, licking his lips. God, don't let her stop…
"Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch me there? Where? Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch me there? Where? There? Yeah! There! Oh yeaaah, oh yeaaah… Do ya? Do ya? Yeah! Oh yeaaah! Oh yeaaah!"
Unable to help himself when she got to her feet and approached his suits with the grace of a huntress, Tony punched in the access code and stepped inside, quickly ducking behind one of the metal pillars to watch her more closely. The music was louder in here, and he could hear her voice, her incredible voice, serenading the metallic man she was practically seducing. God, what he'd give to be in that suit right now…
He'd never tell anyone, but he caught himself fantasizing about his assistant more than could possibly be healthy. Fantasies about Pepper Potts sauntering into his workshop and threatening to do impossibly naughty things to him if he didn't do as she asked…
But he hadn't been creative enough to fantasize anything like this. Fantasies where Pepper wrapped her leg around his or, in this case, his suit and sang an exceedingly dirty song were beyond his wildest, dirtiest dreams. But this wasn't a dream; it was reality, and Ms. Potts was genuinely dirty dancing with his suit.
Sliding her back down the chest piece, Virginia's voice grew louder, and Tony repressed a groan of desire as her partially unbuttoned blouse rode up, exposing her stomach.
"Do you wanna touch me there? Do you wanna touch? Do you wanna touch me there? My, my, my, do you wanna touch me there? Want to? Touch me? Come on, I know you wanna do it!"
Hell yes, I do, he thought hazily as his breathing picked up, aware that his eyes had to be nearly black with lust as she snapped herself back up, her strawberry curls splayed over the suit as she ran her dainty hands down her stomach, swaying to the beat.
Fuck, Pepper, he thought to himself, barely possessing the restraint to not run out and jump her. How was this not in your job description?
"Touch me there… yeah! My, my, touch me! My, my, my, my, my, yeah! Touch me there; you know where! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Oh yeaaaah, oh yeaaah! You know where, yeaaah! Oh yeaaah! Oh yeaaah!"
The song ended with a loud drum beat, switching to "Love in an Elevator" by Aerosmith, and Tony came out from his hiding place when Pepper's back was turned, facing the suits instead of him.
"JARVIS, turn it down!"
Virginia nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of his command and whirled to face him, stumbling back into one of the suits as she looked at him with wide, horrified blue eyes. She'd been caught. She'd been caught getting dirty in his workshop, with his suits…
"How unprofessional," one voice in her head chided.
"How hot," another purred.
"Mr. Stark," she said through the lump in her throat, hurrying to straighten her skirt and button her blouse again. "I… I was just… I came to find you, but JARVIS said you were with Alexandria…"
"I was," he said as he crossed his arms over his chest, taking a few steps toward her, his eyes shamelessly looking her up and down. "But, clearly, I made the wrong choice when I went out last night."
"And why is that? Was Alexandria not as good as you'd hoped?" she asked as she attempted to fix her hair, cursing when she remembered she'd tossed the pins somewhere on the floor.
Ignoring her second question, Tony stopped walking when he reached her, shaking his head and grabbing her hand to make her stop fiddling with her hair; it looked perfect how it was. It looked sexy how it was. "I should have stayed home, because I'm currently staring at a woman who's a thousand times the woman Alexandria Fry is."
Virginia paused with shock at his words, not moving to pull her wrist away as she usually would have within a matter of seconds. "I could have told you that, weeks ago, before you made me plan the gala," she said a bit breathlessly, shaking her head as she kept up their eye-contact. "Alexandria is an airhead; she would have been won over in a much cheaper way…"
"Pepper…" he cut her off, leaning closer to her so that she could feel his breath of her face. To his surprise, she didn't object or push him away. "I don't want Alexandria, or any other random girl, for that matter."
He blinked, as if suddenly realizing for the first time that his words were true. They weren't just a lusty come-on; they were how he genuinely felt. Ever since returning from Afghanistan, nothing had been quite the same between them. Whenever Tony was with another woman, he would keep seeing Pepper's worried, disapproving face in his mind's eye, or, hell, he'd imagine the woman he was with was Pepper. Everything was Pepper Potts, and he hadn't even consciously realized it until now.
"I want you."
Every logical part of Virginia's brain was screaming at her to draw back; to make him let go of her wrist; to push him away and maintain their professional friendship. But she didn't; she couldn't…
Instead, she let his lips brush over hers in the softest of kisses she had ever felt, and responded a few moments later with a hungry kiss of her own. She really shouldn't have chosen such a provocative song; its lyrics had gotten to her. Not to mention doing a striptease for Tony Stark's suits; she might as well have been seducing him.
Feeling him backing her up, Virginia heard a clang of metal and plastic, and then her back was being pressed to the top of his desk as he crawled on top of her, shoving the computer screens away. Sure, it would have been just as easy to get to the couch, but where was the fun in that, right?
He pulled back for a second to gaze down at her, smirking at the hungry look in her eyes. Clearly, she wanted him as badly as he wanted her.
Of course she does, he thought to himself. Why else would she be stripping in your workshop when you could walk in at any moment?
"You knew I'd be home soon, didn't you?" he purred as he trailed kisses down her neck, letting her unbutton his shirt and push it from his shoulders. "You knew I wouldn't stay long after I was done with her… you wanted me to catch you…"
"Maybe…" she whispered, pausing suddenly. "Tony… I can't be just another of your love 'em and leave 'ems…"
"You could never be one of them…" he assured her, nipping at her earlobe as he unbuttoned her blouse again. "I couldn't get by without you, Potts; you know that…"
Sagging with relief, Virginia let his lips brush over her forehead, a small smile pulling at her lips at the bit of tenderness. "You really couldn't…"
Tony grinned and tugged her blouse off, letting the silky material drop to the ground with his own shirt as he began to trail more hungry kisses down her throat. Every inch of her skin tasted sweet and warm, like some sort of pumpkin scented body wash, and she smelled of the subtle perfume he'd come to memorize over the years…
Pepper Potts was all he had, and she was perfect in every possible way.
Beneath his far too well practiced lips and hands, Virginia could feel herself melting to his every whim like a puppet or toy. It had been far too long since she'd been this close with someone, and she'd certainly never expected her next experience to be with Tony Stark. In fact, the first time he'd playfully hit on her, she'd vowed she would never sleep with him; they would be professional.
So much for that.
Dragging his lips back to hers for more ravenous kisses of built up desire that had been heightening for years, she popped open the button at the top of his jeans, causing him to smirk and tug at her skirt. "Pepper…" he purred seductively, and she shivered as his teeth made contact with her neck. "I need you, Ms. Potts…"
A soft groan of want escaping her, Virginia tugged the zipper of his jeans down, nibbling her lip as his hardened length sprang free and pressed against her. "Anything you need, Mr. Stark… it's yours…"
Kicking his jeans off with a wicked smirk, Tony slipped Virginia's flowing skirt from her legs and nipped at her shoulder as he rid her of the panties that matched the lacy black bra, not waiting a second longer as he slid himself between her folds, causing her to moan with appreciation.
"Is that where you want to be touched, Ms. Potts?" he asked huskily, and she shivered as she tipped her head back, her slightly high voice ringing through the cavernous room.
"Oh yeaaah…!"
Cutting off her response with a deep, passionate, intensely built up kiss of desire, Tony began to thrust deep within her, savouring each pleasured moan that vibrated against his lips. He was using a slow precision he'd never used on anyone else before; he wanted her to feel just as good as he did. He didn't want to risk hurting her, either… she was Pepper.
Tony Stark was having sex with Pepper Potts. Had anyone suggested it to him a few days ago, he'd have smirked and responded with a witty comeback, while laughing at the absurdity on the inside. She was always so poised and perfect; too good for him, in his books.
Yes, she was too good for Tony Stark; she was the only person in existence who he valued higher than himself.
Pulling his lips from hers he began placing slow, tender kisses to every bit of skin within his reach, practically worshiping the girl beneath him, memorizing her every curve, every crevice…
She had more freckles than he had expected; a dusting of them on her chest, a few on her stomach… Places he'd never had permission to even really look at before. He kissed each and every one of them, thrusting into her warm, slick core each time his lips touched her skin.
"Tony…" she whispered shakily with another groan as the ring of his arc reactor pressed into her chest, surprisingly not as painfully as she would have expected. The cool metal felt good against her hot, slick skin, and the sensation sent a shiver down her spine.
In contrast, Virginia felt glorious beneath Tony, her warm, soft skin molding with his in such a sensual way it left him breathless. She was so smooth and delicate beneath his calloused hands, and a part of him was afraid of damaging her. With other girls, he wouldn't have cared; he'd have measured how loud they screamed on a scale from one to ten. But he didn't want to hurt Pepper… he could never hurt Pepper. Never…
Not physically, and not emotionally, either. This wasn't just a fling; it wasn't just going to go away. Tony didn't want it to. He prayed Pepper wouldn't want it to. She was all he had; if he lost her because of what he didn't even count as a "slip up", it would ruin him.
"Pepp…" he muttered shakily as he brushed her damp, strawberry blonde curls out of her face, cupping her cheek and bringing her lips to his for a kiss filled with so much emotion that it startled her. Tony Stark didn't kiss people like that. Tony Stark didn't pleasure, he ravished. Tony Stark wasn't tender and loving, he was dominating and powerful. She knew; she'd heard it happening more than once when she'd had to work late.
What made her so special?
Everything made her special, Tony thought to himself as he filled the kiss with everything he had; emotions he couldn't even begin to name. She cared about him more than she had to; he'd put her through hell and she'd never quit on him. She'd stuck by his side through the entire Iron Man fiasco, even though he'd given her every reason not to. He wanted to prove that he appreciated her, that she meant the world to him…
"Pepper…" he croaked and his voice was laced with emotion as he pulled back from the kiss, both of them seconds from reaching their apex and snapping. "I think I'm in love with you…"
Her blue eyes widened with disbelief, and she gaped up at him with shock. "You… you what…?"
"I love you…" he stated with more certainty, pressing his lips to her face a few times and giving a final thrust into her core, moaning in the back of his throat as she slipped downward into her orgasm and he followed her in suit.
"Tony…" she whispered breathlessly when her body calmed, shaking her head as he brushed hair from her eyes again. "You don't-"
"I do," he insisted firmly, kissing her deeply with assurance before speaking again. "Pepper, I wouldn't have done this if I-"
"Yes, you would have," she said a bit shakily, horrified with what she had done. "Tony, that's what you do; you tell a girl what she wants to hear, and then you do this…"
"Pepper, listen-"
"Oh, I'm such an idiot… I can't believe I did this…"
"Pepper…"
"…going to end up fired, or worse, and…"
"Virginia Potts, stop yapping for five seconds and listen to me!"
Virginia paused, stunned at Tony using her proper name, before she frowned a bit. "I do not yap…"
"You do," he said bluntly, "and it's adorable, but not when I'm trying to confess my love to you. Why won't you let me?"
She had no idea what to say. Now that she thought about it, it didn't make sense for Tony to confess his "love" for her if it was just to get in her panties; he already had.
"You… you're serious?" she asked quietly, and he nodded as he tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Absolutely serious, Potts."
"But… why? Alexandria; all those other girls…"
"…mean nothing," he finished simply, shaking his head. "Pepper, they were just flings. You know that, I know that; hell, even they know that. You aren't just a fling. You mean something… you mean everything."
Virginia was floored by his words, slowly shaking her head to bring herself back to reality. "I don't know what to think…"
"Don't think," he stated plainly, pressing another kiss to her lips. "It will ruin it. Just kiss me. Think about it tomorrow…"
Virginia complied, for it was all just too much to analyze in one night. That, and Tony's lips were more than encouraging…
Did she love him? Could she? More than anything, she was terrified that he would hurt her; that she'd become another notch in his belt and be without a boyfriend and without a job at the same time if he changed his mind. He held all the power in what could be their relationship; did she want to put her life in his hands like that?
But little did she know that it wasn't him with the power, it was her. Tony couldn't be without her; even if things didn't work out how he wanted, he'd sooner make her CEO of the entire damn company just so she'd forgive him enough for them to be friends again.
Tony needed Pepper. He needed her like he needed air, like he needed AC/DC while he was working, like he needed alcohol in his system to tolerate a conversation with competitors. He needed Pepper more than any of that. He needed her.
Pressing his lips to hers, over and over again, only one thought was running through his mind; Pepper was strong. She was independent. A question was torturing him more and more each time he kissed her.
Did Pepper need him as much as he needed her?
Tony was terrified to find out the answer.