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Chapter 3

"Good morning Sir. It is 9:30 AM, blue skies and temperatures of 28 degrees in Malibu. Miss Potts asked me to wake you. Her exact words were 'Tell Anthony to get his lazy arse out of bed'." JARVIS stated as he opened every blind in the room, letting the sunlight flood in. Tony groaned at the rather rude awakening and peaked out from under the covers before almost falling out of bed and crawling across the floor.

"It's a Saturday…Why do I have to be awake?!" he grumbled as he pulled on his dressing gown and started to head down the stairs to find Pepper "There better be a coffee waiting for me…"

"The coffee will be waiting for you, Sir. Miss Potts is in the lounge, watching the news"

Uh oh…That can't be good he thought when he started to remember the events of the previous night. With that thought he bounded down the stairs and into the lounge, sure enough there was Pepper, sitting on the couch with her laptop perched on her lap, showing all the different gossip pages and the TV showing similar things. Images of him being kissed by that blonde woman.

"We all knew Tony Stark was a womaniser but when he appeared at the fireman's ball last night with his "girlfriend" Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, we all thought the playboy had settled until this happ-"

"-Mute" he watched as Pepper just glanced at him as the TV was muted then looked back to her laptop, clearly upset. "Pep…" He sat by her side and closed her laptop, gently pulling her into his arms and placing a kiss on her temple "Ignore them… Ignore everything to do with what happened last night with that woman…Clearly people don't want to believe that I've settled down" She simply nodded slightly, leaning against him, starting to actually believe that she was a fool to think that Tony Stark would settle down. Especially with a woman like her.

"Sure, Tony…"

He could tell from those two words that she didn't believe him; he cupped her face with both hands and looked into her eyes "Virginia Potts, I assure you, I have settled down. Of all the women in the world, I'm glad that it's you and wouldn't want it to be anyone else. You and Rhodes were the only ones who never truly gave up on when I was in that cave and… Well, I'm never going to date Rhodey" He grinned when she giggled slightly at that, totally not imagining Tony and Rhodey on a date "And don't tell him that, it'll break his heart"

She giggled again and kissed him softly then leaned against him again as he wrapped his arms around her "Thank you, Tony. Oh and can I borrow your suit?"

"You're most welcome, Potts…Um, why?"

"Oh, you know. Just wanted to show the world what happens to you if they try and steal my boyfriend" she smirked as he grinned like a little kid

"I can go one better! I'll make you a suit! It can be a surprise birthday present…Although not much of a surprise"

"Tony, it wouldn't have been a surprise anyway, you are terrible at keeping secrets!"

"Hey! I can keep some…"

She arched a brow and tried to hide a grin "Oh really? So the whole 'I am Iron Man' speech was a way of keeping the fact that you're a superhero a secret?"

He opened his mouth then frowned when he couldn't think of a witty or clever response so simply stuck his tongue out "….Shush…"

"Oh, don't be such a child"

"Miss Potts, you should know by now that I'm extremely mature…But only when I want to be" he grinned to her before starting to tickle her to which she squealed and tried to get away unsuccessfully as he trapped her in a hug, kissing her all over before giving her the grin he reserved for her eyes only "I love you, Potts"

She smiled and kissed him softly and mumbling "I love you too, Tony" against his lips.