I had writer's block for awhile and then this finally came to me. It's a little shorter than my other chapters but the next one will be longer. Thanks for sticking around, guys. Let me know what you think.

Chapter Seven

Virginia "Pepper" Potts, CEO of Stark Industries had actually hauled off and punched her in the goddamn face. The Pepper Potts that most people knew, the one depicted widely by the media, was so put together. So proper. So collected. The perfect picture of a what a professional business woman should be. The tipsy woman that cocked her fist back and knocked her senseless out of pure jealousy was not that Pepper Potts.

As Christine sat at her desk trying to get some work done the day after getting knocked on her ass, her nose kept throbbing in time with her pulse, making it difficult for her to concentrate. God did she need to up her pain meds because this...this was hell. The doctors actually had to reset her nose. She had to have surgery all because Tony Stark's bitch had broken her perfect nose. If it didn't look exactly the way it did before it was broken when it healed, she would not be happy. Looking back on it, maybe she should have called the police and pressed charges. That would have taken the woman down a few notches. Miss prim and proper Pepper Potts put in handcuffs and shoved in the back of a police cruiser...a smile played at Christine's lips when she imagined what her mugshot would have looked like. Okay, now that would have been the story of the century. Christine knew for a fact that Pepper's record was spotless. It was one of the things she looked into long ago when she was searching for a story to drag Pepper down after she became CEO of Stark Industries. But of course she found nothing. There was absolutely nothing juicy on Pepper Potts. Only a few speeding tickets. How utterly disappointing. There was no way someone could be that perfect and yet...she was. Just yet another reason to hate her.

The only thing that stopped her from making the call to the police that would change Pepper's image forever was Tony Stark promising to give her the interview of her life. And to be honest, she was hoping for much more than just an interview from him. Maybe if she got enough drinks in him she could lure him back into bed with her. Christine felt her body growing warmer at the thought of bedding Tony Stark a second time, feeling those gloriously talented hands touching her all over her body.

Tony was the man to which she compared all her other lovers. There was no one before him and no one after. That was sad to say since she had actually gotten married but her ex-husband Roy could never compare to him. No one could. In fact, whenever they had been in bed together, she imaged he was Tony. No matter how hard she tried to stay in the moment with him, whenever she closed her eyes it was Tony on top of her. Tony under her. Tony everywhere. It was one of the main reasons she left his ass. He wasn't half the man Tony was. If it weren't for their son, she wouldn't want to have any contact with her ex at all. Her ex could never satisfy her in bed. Eventually, even the sound of his voice bothered her. She couldn't stand to be around him. She couldn't stand to even look at him. There marriage didn't even last a year. Roy may have money but he was no Tony Stark.

She wanted to hate Tony for sleeping with her and then discarding her like the trash that Pepper had the gall to call her but she just couldn't. He was too smooth. Too desirable. Too fucking perfect. No matter what happened, she would never be able to get over Tony Stark. Just when she thought she had finally gotten over his ass, he had announced he was Iron Man and that had made him all the more desirable to her. This was a man with a purpose. A man with drive. What could have happened between them would haunt her for the rest of her life. If only she had somehow locked that shit down. She had to get him. She just had to so the pain of her broken nose would be worth it in the end because it gave her another chance to make Tony hers.

For years now, she had been trying to find a reason to get Tony to say yes to spending some time with her alone. He had always turned her down. But after Pepper's fist connected with her nose and James Rhodes said that he would try and work something out with Tony, she knew this was her chance. This was her chance to finally get some one on one time with him. Her plan was simple, to get Tony into bed with her and make sure she had evidence of their encounter. She could only imagine the look of absolute horror that would cross Pepper's face when she found out Tony betrayed her. There was no way she would stay with him after he did something like that. That wasn't who Pepper was. Pepper would surely leave him. She would have to or the scandal that would follow would drag her down and possibly the company. Tony would be all hers.

The shrill sound of the phone ringing filled the air, and she openly sighed. Time to get back to reality and get some work done. She did have a job to do after all.

"Is this Ms. Christine Everhart?" A man blurted out before she had even put the phone up to her ear.

"Speaking. How can I help you?" Christine started tapping the pen she was holding against her lips impatiently, waiting for the caller to give her some sort of relevant information. The caller did sound familiar. She knew she had heard that voice somewhere before but just couldn't place it.

"I think we can help each other, Ms. Everhart. I know what you want, and I can help you get it."

The pen fell from her fingers, clattering to the desk,where it rolled across the smooth surface before dropping to the floor. The hairs on the back of her neck began to rise. Her mouth suddenly went dry. It was hard for her to swallow, let alone speak but she forced out the words, "Who is this?"

The man chuckled dryly. "We've met before but it has been awhile. I'll give you that. I've been...preoccupied until now."

Christine leaned forward in her chair, trying desperately to place that oh-so-familiar voice but failing miserably. Part of her wanted to hang up the phone and run away. She was starting to get really freaked out, but the reporter part of her just couldn't do it. What if she hung up and missed out on the story of her life? She had to find out why this man had called her. "What do you want?"

"The question is what do we want, honey."

A chill ran down her spine. This anonymous caller was officially giving her the creeps. He was calling her pet names? She was done. She was so done."You have no idea what I want. Goodbye."

"Christine, wait!"

Against her better judgment, she did wait. The desperation in his tone made her clutch the phone closer to her ear instead of slamming it down. "Yes?"

"Look. Would you be willing to meet me to talk? I really don't want to do this over the phone."

"Listen, I'm really busy so if you could just..."

"It's about Anthony Stark."

Christine tried to speak several times but found she couldn't. The realization of who she was currently talking to hit her like a ton of bricks. Holy fucking shit.

Now the caller chuckled with humor. She was betting he could hear the gasp that left her lips. "Now you are interested, am I right? What do you say about meeting me for dinner tonight? Say I pick you up from your office at 6. Does that work?"

The uneasy feeling Christine had been experiencing was quickly being replaced by something else completely. She couldn't stop her mouth from curving up into a smile. "Sounds perfect."