Chapter 18

What was better than making cookies from scratch?

Making them with your boyfriend.

What was better than making cookies from scratch with your boyfriend?

Making out with your boyfriend while making cookies from scratch with him.

What was better than all that?

Practicing intense French-kissing with your boyfriend in between regular making out sessions while making cookies from scratch… with your boyfriend.

Could life get any better for her?

Nope. She certainly could not see how it could.

In fact, now that she thought about it while she mixed several ingredients inside a bowl, the only downside to making out with your boyfriend while preparing cookies was that the situation lent itself to be distracting enough to mess up the preparation of something as simple as a rather straightforward dessert. But this was what second chances were for. And third chances… and fourth chances… and so forth.

She narrowed her eyes as she read the back of the cookie dough box to confirm that she was using the correct quantities of the ingredients for the next batch of cookies. The first batch had turned out so hard that, when Tony had tried taking a bite out of a cookie, one of his teeth had almost cracked. The second batch had come out so soggy that, when she had tried grabbing a cookie from the pan, the concoction had simply slipped through her fingers like goo. The third batch had had the right consistency, but she had swapped the salt for the sugar and they had both ended up spitting out the bites the moment their taste buds had been hit with the unexpected taste. The status of the fourth batch they would never know if it had been alright. They had been too engrossed in making out to really hear the multiple dinging of the oven, and the cookies had burned.

This batch, however, was the one. She could feel it. This was going to be the best batch of cookies in the entire universe.

"Almost done there?"

Pepper nodded a few times, looked up to face the genius, and then pointed towards him with the wooden spoon in her hands.

"Oh, come on, Tony! You have cookie dough on your face!"

"Oh, really? Again?" Tony asked in a tone that reeked of feigned innocence, his face leaning towards his girlfriend to encourage her to take matters into her hands and save him from his current predicament. Last time he had accidentally left cookie dough on his left cheek, he had ended up pressing Pepper against the wall, his palms holding his weight on either side of her head, kissing her so fervently that the ding of the oven had not even registered in his mind.

"Guess you're gonna have to take care it for me, Pep."

"I just did, like, two seconds ago," Pepper smiled, willing to play along with his game.

"Then that just means you know what to do. Cleaning duty: aisle five!" Tony replied, his arms slowly snaking around her sides, and his body pressing against hers, knowing very well that she had nowhere to go once her back hit the edge of the middle island counter in the kitchen.

"I'm starting to think that you're doing this on purpose, Tony Stark."

"Mmhhh," he innocently rolled his eyes as if he were seriously considering her accusation. "Whatever makes you think that, Pep?"

"I-I…" she swallowed hard and licked her lips, anticipating the flavor of cookie dough and milk that she knew his mouth tasted like at the moment. Ever since a few days ago, when he had told her that he loved her, her genius boy had been even more affectionate than usual. She was not sure if it was because he felt the same weight gone from his shoulders that she now felt relief from at making her feelings for him known, or if it was because French-kissing had added a whole new layer of excitement to being alone.

"You-you, what, Pep?" he openly yet sweetly mocked her stuttering. He relished in making her blush. He could almost hear her heart beating faster by the second; and he knew that it was all because of him.

He was not sure what the heck was happening, but he could no longer deny that he seriously enjoyed teasing her – it made him feel things he had never felt before. It was as if something had been set free when he had told her that he loved her – and whatever had been unleashed refused to spend a second alone with her that was not used to feel her in whatever way he could; no matter how hard he had tried to keep his urges in check.

Scrap Rhodey's recommendation, too. It was not working at all!

Then again, maybe it was not supposed to work the way his friend had suggested it did. Maybe he was just supposed to let things happen the way they had happened so far: naturally, in the moment; following his heart rather than his brain.

Because he was just following the call of his heart, right? He was not simply following the calling of… other, lower parts of this anatomy… yet.

Right?

Rhodey had told him that he was just learning what it really meant to be a teenage boy – although, his friend had used a crude word to describe how he was now acting around his girlfriend. Nevertheless, Tony knew that it was much more than the basic instinct that Rhodey had all but implied he was a slave of, no matter how smart he was. It was just that he, irrevocably and without a doubt, felt so much closer to his girl. And closeness in a romantic relationship led to other things… and those things felt really good.

Blue sky, clear waters, open sail – full speed ahead!

"T-Tony, why are you… what are you… Mmhhh…"

Just as a few moments ago, Tony was yet again hungrily pressing his lips against the trembling girl. And, just as before, she ran her left hand through his hair, and held on tightly to one of the loops of his jeans with her right one. She was not sure how or when she had started doing that, but the inventor did not seem to mind that she did.

For his part, the genius was practically circling her waist twice with his arms. He was breathing hard through his nose to extend the kiss as long as his lungs allowed, pressing her chest against his as closely as he could; all the while internally berating himself for being so slow to get here with her. Granted, he did not regret the baby steps their relationship had taken since it had started – he did not think they would be here if the game had been played differently. But he also felt disappointed that, in just a couple of months, they would go their separate ways; which meant that he would have to wait for days before being able to fly to her college to see her again.

That thought alone made him kiss her harder and hold her tighter than he had ever done so before. It also made him lift her feet from the floor and sit her on the counter. And, if all that had not been enough, it then made him press his hips against her knees until her legs ended up wrapping around them. That last move on her part neither of them had expected. It was a first. It was new. And it was surprisingly exhilarating.

To continue the momentum, Tony's right hand migrated from being around her waist to holding onto her left hip. His palm played with the flesh there through the material she wore, taking turns tugging at her hip and then clamping onto her thigh. His left hand, for the most part, remained on her lower back, but it would sometimes rise to her neck to reposition the angle of her head to deepen the kiss.

Pepper Potts was positively overwhelmed with Tony's current showering of affection towards her. She had by now abandoned the previous spots on him that her hands had been resting on. She had opted to embracing him by the neck and shoulders as tightly as her legs kept his hips in place; here and there tugging roughly at his hair. Whenever her fingernails ended up raking his scalp, she was rewarded with a throaty moan coming from him. The first time it had happened, she had thought that she had hurt him. Her fears, however, had been quickly addressed when he had followed the initial emitting of the sound with a raw and euphoric stating of her shortened nickname.

As such, when she had just now scratched him yet again, at his neck this time, in order to give his head a break; she was pleasantly shocked by his change in reaction.

He pulled his lips away from hers, dug his head into the right side of her neck, and then began sucking and nibbling at it all the way from her jawline to where her shoulder met her collarbone. She exhaled sharp breaths into his ear, his tongue and lips practically claiming his territory on her skin. She threw her head back to give him more room to work with. She desperately clawed at whatever she could reach of his back and his shoulders under his shirt. Her toes curled inside her shoes. She moaned his name… and he completely lost it.

He pulled his face away from her neck, silently admired her flushed face and cheeks, and took pleasure in hearing her tiny gasps. She had a look of expectancy on her features, clearly dying to know what he would do next. But she just sat there, uncharacteristically still and quiet, waiting for him to take the initiative yet again.

He licked his lips and gulped. He brushed his thumb against her mouth and shivered when she kissed his fingertips. He thought long and hard about his next step, and he was then compensated for his momentary self-control when Pepper grabbed the bottom of his shirt and removed the clothing article from his torso. Not a nanosecond later, he resumed his task of kissing her, this time enjoying it even more as she was now free to run her hands down his back, no longer obstructed by the stupid piece of fabric he had been wearing a moment ago.

Their initial make-out sessions at the Academy or in the Makluan Temple seemed like nothing when compared to this. Heck! Even their mini make-out session in his bed after they had expressed their feelings a few days ago was a pale contrast to this moment in time. She was not at all complaining about it either. She was actually savoring every second of it. Mostly because they were at his penthouse and nobody could walk in on them right now. Nobody could interrupt their boyfriend and girlfriend time.

DING!

Except for the oven, apparently.

The alarm announcing the range had finished its job of self-cleaning the mess left behind by the ruined cookie batches forced their faces to pull apart, if just for an inch or two, but they made no other effort to move from where they stood. Their eyes were still closed. Their chests were rising and lowering with the intensity of their inhales and exhales. Their lips felt swollen and tingly. And their minds were slowly processing what they had just done. This had been more than just a routine kiss for them. This particular exchange, unexpectedly, had left them wanting more.

More of the other. More of the physical contact. More of the closeness. More of everything they were currently doing. More space to continue learning about whatever this was.

But, on the same token, they also wanted less uncertainty regarding whether or not the other wanted to continue doing this; liked doing this – thoroughly enjoyed this... with each other only. Pepper wanted less worry to bubble within her about whether or not she was doing this right. Tony wanted less worry about what the future would bring once graduation came around.

Then again, all of that could wait. There was no reason to ruin the moment with what he could not control.

"That… was nice," he whispered to her, his hands now holding to her face to lock eyes with her.

"It-it… it was," she breathed, her fingers combing his hair.

The oven rung a second time, but neither of them tended to the warning. Instead, their eyes looked over the other's face, and their lips met again, albeit briefly, before they pulled away once more.

"Bed?" his breath tickled her lips.

"Yes," she replied without hesitation.

As soon as she gave him the OK to proceed, he kissed her again, picked her up from the counter, her legs still wrapped around his waist, and took her with him to his room.

Rhodey totally sucked at giving relationship advice; that much was now clear to the blue-eyed boy. But Tony did not care. He now knew without a doubt that, when it came to Pepper and him, he did not have to prepare for everything or know it all. He just had to continue doing what he had done all along: trusting her and his instincts; go with the flow. Everything else would follow along and fall into place when it was ready to do so.

And to think that all of this had become clear to him while trying to force things to be a different way!

He was such an idiot. What had he been thinking? Trying to halt nature by limiting their activities to non-romantic ones was not going to change anything. If it was meant to be, it was meant to be.

He was such a moron! Cooking: a safe zone? He would have laughed aloud if he was not busy getting ready to hit a homerun with his girlfriend.

Baking cookies, Tony smiled smugly against Pepper's lips, not so innocent anymore.