Tony stepped aside to let Pepper slide into the limo so he could check out her ass like he always did. He sat down and slid in next to her. He was really irritating Pepper today so she actually got up and moved her seat next to Rhodes so that he was between them.
"Oh no we're not doing this today" Rhodes said.
"Pepper woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The problem is it wasn't my bed" Tony said with a smirk as he put his arms back on the seat.
"There is no problem Rhodes" Pepper said knowing that ignoring Tony's sexual innuendos would annoy him more.
She reached into her bag and grabbed her physical planner. She scribbled something into her planner.
"What's that you just scribbled?" he asked as he craned his neck to see.
"That's not your calendar so it's none of your business" Pepper said as she tucked her hair behind her ears and continued to ignore him until they picked up some physicists that Tony was going to work with.
Pepper shook their hands and said hello. While Tony was chatting with them Pepper decided to catch up with Rhodey. Pepper looked at Rhodey and smiled.
"How did your date with that girl from the fundraiser go?"Pepper asked.
"Great. She was a pretty cool chick. I'm gonna text her tomorrow" he said.
"What's the matter Miss Potts? Don't you want to know about my night with the Sports Illustrated Model?" Tony piped in.
Pepper was infuriated.
He's always rubbed his sexcapades in her face but when he did it in front of other men when she was the only woman in the room it really made her feel embarrassed.
"Mr. Stark who do you think kicks them out of the house every time? The aftermath you leave behind tells it all" she said.
Tony looked at her with a look of annoyance. He hated when she tried to embarrass him in front of colleagues.
Pepper was bored while she heard them babble on about science and she occasionally scribbled down notes for Tony. She watched him and thought about how funny it would be to cuff him to the bed like she's found him so many times before and leave him there for the whole day. She thought about how peaceful her life would be for the day. She thought about the quiet. No hard rock or heavy metal blasting, no eyeball assault of her body, no sexual jokes, no compulsive decisions, no crashes or broken glass. Nothing to clean up and a naked Tony handcuffed to his bed and gagged for sixteen hours. She was pretty sure she would lose her job for real for doing it but a girl can dream.
When they finally got back to the office Pepper dropped her bag on her desk and went out to the water cooler to get some water. While she was away Tony accidentally knocked something over so that her date book would fall out and open. Pepper heard a crash and came running in.
"Sorry" Tony said as he bent down to help pick up her things.
He pushed the date book out of the way so she couldn't see it and then when they were done he reached for it. He looked at the note she scribbled for today.
"Who's Brad?" he asked.
"Did you do this on purpose?"she asked suspicious from the convenience of it all.
"Me? I would never spy on you. Everything fell and I just helped to pick it up" he said.
"Still none of your business" she said not meeting his eyes.
She went back to her desk and back to ignoring him.
Tony knew that Pepper was really really mad at him when lunch had come and gone and she didn't even come into his office once. In fact he didn't even know where she was. He looked at the time and it was six o'clock. This was the longest amount of time he had ever spent at the office. He looked outside the office and saw Pepper heading out to meet Happy. He picked up his phone and called Happy immediately and told him not to leave yet and that he would be down in a minute.
Tony came out the front door and he slid into the back seat next to Pepper.
"Don't be mad at me"
"Does it really matter Tony? You don't care" Pepper said.
"That's not true" he argued.
"Tony since when do you retain anything that isn't about tits, sex or your suits? You don't retain because you don't care" Pepper said.
"I retain plenty of things and don't be embarrassed Miss Potts you fill out a top very nicely " he said.
Pepper ignored him and turned to look away again.
"What?" he asked.
"Can you be quiet for five minutes? I have a headache" she scolded him.
Tony was very nervous. In the back of his mind he was afraid that one day Pepper would really up and leave him for good. He had to think quick in his feet.
"We could open a bottle of wine and get some pizza and makeup? Or make out? Your choice" Tony said as he took Pepper's hand in his.
Pepper resisted at first. She knew if she turned to look at him that he would be giving her the puppy look that he always does when he knows he's in trouble. She hated how no matter what he did he could always make her forgive him. He knew it too. Pepper turned to look at him and smiled.
"Ok to wine and pizza" she said.
"Ok but you're missing out. I'm an excellent kisser" he teased.
Pepper just smirked at him.
……..
Tony opened the door to get the pizza, brought it inside and placed it on the kitchen table. He walked over to his wine collection and popped open a bottle, poured two glasses and he headed into the living room handing one to Pepper.
"Pizza is here" he said.
Pepper followed Tony into the kitchen and sat at the island table. She glanced around and didn't see any plates and then she looked up at Tony who already finished half a slice and was staring at her.
"What?" he asked with a mouth full of food.
Pepper got up and opened the cabinet and took out a plate. She opened the box of pizza and placed it on a plate. He just watched and laughed a little.
"I'm sorry. I didn't even think about plates" he said.
She smiled at him and shook her head.
Pepper stared at Tony for a moment as he sloppily ate his second slice of pizza. Her mind flashed back to the night they danced and they almost kissed on the balcony and she couldn't get the way Tony was staring at her out of her mind. She felt so flustered and she had tried to avoid those types of situations ever since.
"I'm sorry about the Sports Illustrated model comment" he said.
"Tony just forget about it" Pepper said.
"You know I meant what I said the day after I killed Obie"
Dammit Tony Stark you had to go there she thought.
Pepper stared at him still unsure of what to say.
"I think about that night often. I've never seen you look so beautiful" he said.
Pepper still didn't know what to say.
"Is your silence because of Brad? Whoever he is" Tony asked trying to get rid of the pangs of jealousy he was experiencing.
"Tony I told you that I needed time to consider it" she said thinking of the day after Obadiah died and Agent Coulson brought the cards over to Tony and he said if he was Iron man that he'd have a girlfriend and she knew what Tony was implying. It was his subtle way of asking her to be his girlfriend.
"Who's Brad?" he asked.
"He's an old boyfriend from college" Pepper finally said.
"And?" Tony asked waiting for the rest.
"He's in town and asked if I wanted to meet up for drinks that's all" she said.
"And you said yes?" Tony asked.
"I did and it's just drinks "she said.
"So what I asked is out of the question then?" he asked.
"I don't know Tony. I'm sorry I don't have a better answer for you" Pepper said.
"Ok then great. I'll carry on my extra curricular activities too. Good night Miss Potts" Tony said as he left her in the kitchen.
"That's not fair" she called after him and then slammed the door on her way out.