Backbeat Part 3
Title: Backbeat Part 3
Authors: Neondaisies and 4persephone
Rating: NC17 (unabashedly people)
Pairing: Tony/Pepper
Disclaimers: Not ours, and all we're getting for this is insomnia, feed back and the occasional death threat ;)
Summary: "Repeat after me Virginia. The concept of the day is 'safe word.' In your case the phrase in question is going to be 'back off you miserable fucker.' I trust you can remember it?"
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She's the hottest thing he has ever seen, and the most annoying bitch on the planet. Tony Stark acknowledges both truths with a strange kind of amusement as he leads her out of the bar to the space two blocks down where he's parked his Audi. Only Pepper Potts could go from post-orgasmic limp to furious and argumentative in less than six point two seconds. He knows it's partly his fault; what they'd done inside hadn't been exactly brilliant. He’s currently got dust and God knows what else smeared all over the knees of his pants, and he's been hard so long he aches.
Still, he has to wonder with a long suffering kind of patience, is it so unreasonable to hope that two mind blowing orgasms in under five minutes might leave her a little bit pliable?
'Suck it up Stark. Tigers don't change their stripes.' For Pepper that meant she'd no sooner regained her ability to speak than she'd been at him again with the words and the protests and unacceptable reasons. If the last several minutes were any indication, being lovers was going to change only one thing between them- they were going to be at each other like pissed off cats and dogs between mind numbing marathons of sex.
He wants to wrap his hands around her throat almost as much as he wants to touch her. 'Nine to five' and that same supercilious upperward chin tilt accompanied by the same self deception. Like Tony doesn't know that she's fucking terrified and looking for another way to shove him in a box, to talk herself out of what they both know she needs.
He sighs as he unlocks the car door and opens it up for her, hand still on the small of her back or covering the back of her head protectively as she drops into the passenger seat with a disgruntled murmur.
He's weary of all this shit . Like he'd told her back there she 's not the only one adjusting to all of this, and she's not the only one with something to lose.
If she thinks she's the only one scared out of her mind here, than she's got another thing coming. He's never loved a woman so much before that it made his teeth hurt. He'll admit that he's never loved a woman at all. He's also never imagined he could want someone who turned out to such an emotional fuckwit -her tendency to overthink the obvious is almost more than he can bear...
‘You've got six hours Stark, and then it's done, you hear me? You’ve got till dawn, and then I'm through with you.’
She can go ahead and tell herself that, but only time will prove if she could put her money where her mouth is. He liked his odds better than hers. He'd always had a better face for poker and insane spontaneity.
'What if you're wrong?' Came the insidious whisper. It was that tiny point of reason in his head that sometimes had to play the devil's advocate when he wished it wouldn't. He came around to the driver's side of the door and opened in up, slid in and shoved the keys in the ignition.
If he was wrong -and he wasn't- he'd deal with it later. What he'd done ten minutes ago was still ten million times better than what might have happened if he hadn't. He's reasonably certain that gives him a leg in this time, because she doesn't really want to leave, she's just trying to find another safe little hole that she can crawl into.
'Compartmentalize away.' He doesn't give a shit anymore. If she builds a wall he'll knock it right back down, it's what he's good at for God's sake. The car turns over with a barely audible thrumming noise and he pulls from the parking lot and out into the street.
"Put on your seat belt." Pepper's voice is clipped. He glances over at the passenger seat and has to squirm at the way that she looks, and the ideas it gives him. There's already a hicky forming beneath her right ear, and her hair is in the kind of disarray that makes him want to do something that's illegal by every California traffic code.
"Yes mother." He intones with just a little bit more snark than is necessary, but he does do as she asks.
The night is hot and the air conditioner is a relief. Pepper seems to be enjoying it too, though she's also beginning to get goosebumps. Her dress doesn't cover nearly enough to be safe for his attention. He reminds himself to watch the road and not just a tempting stretch of thigh.
"Where are we going?" She asks after several long minutes. Her voice is quiet yet ragged, like she's spent the last hour screaming.
"I was taking us back to the mansion. Seemed the best option to me. Unless you wanted to go back to your place...?" There's a question in his voice. This discussing of the details...it felt almost wrong. A romantic hypocrisy.
"Not my house. And not the mansion. This is outside of real life, and that means no intersections." What Pepper was implying of course is the fact that she doesn't want to have to deal with things like the memory of him fucking her senseless on his living room couch.
"We'll get a hotel then. I'm sure the Ritz has a room open."
She shakes her head again, turns to look out the window. "That's too known and public. You never know who we might run into. I don't need the extra paperwork."
He grits his teeth. "Fine. Than I'll look for a Holiday Inn. But we're getting their honeymoon suite."
She winces a little bit at the words, but nods her head in acceptance. Than she reaches down and pulls off the heels she is wearing, leaving one foot propped up in her lap. The action causes her to shift a little, than wince in a manner he can't quite identify. "Did I manage to hurt you?"
He'll be shocked if he did. Still, things got rougher than he'd intended back there, and he has to be sure. If she's actually in pain they are calling it quits and he is taking them home. This little war of theirs can damn well be rescheduled before he'll let her think he'd deliberately physically hurt her.
The look Pepper gives him is a mixture of confusion and something he can't describe. "I have a random cramp, Tony. I'm fine, just a little stiff." She gestures to her left, "There's a Days Inn about ten miles ahead. They're always clean and the hot tub suites are usually pretty reasonable price wise."
He's a multibillionaire and she's worrying about room fees. If she tries to pay him for half he's going to fuck her right where she stands, just to prove she's an idiot. "Works for me, Potts. Do we need to stop somewhere before we get there for any...supplies?"
It's an idiotic question and one he regrets almost immediately. The implication of course is that she's not prepared, which given their situation is ludicrous. She came out to the club tonight to get laid, if she doesn't have condoms for that he is going to kill her on principle.
Her voice is disbelieving. "Are you talking about birth control?"
"If you're fucking random strangers you better believe I am. This isn't a world to judge by pretty faces, Pepper. Not if you want to live very long."
She actually snorts, a loud and breathy snicker. "One, I'm on the pill. Two, you're hardly one to talk. Three, I'm allergic to latex which means specific condoms only, which yes, I happen to carry with me."
He doesn't see a box of them now, and she doesn't have a purse, which means they probably were left in her car where they will do them no good. He doesn't share this insight though, instead he pulls a sheet of paper from his glove box and hands it to her without a word.
She stares at the words at the top of the page in open shock. "You carry around blood test results?!" 'From a week ago apparently.'
His answering grin is genuine, though a little ironic. "I'm a thoughtful kind of guy: call it insurance and a way to get what I want with less aggravation." He notes she's starting to blush and he shakes his head in bemusement. The woman is weird in the most bemusing of ways. He just rubbed her off in the back of a public bar and she didn't blink an eye, but now she's getting shy about test results and condoms. "I hate rubbers and diaphragms, but we can use them if you insist, though as you can see, disease will not be a problem." He rubs the bridge of his nose and shoots her a warning look. "No spermicides though, Potts. The last time I used those I had hives in uncomfortable places for a week."
She blushes even redder, and can't make herself meet his eyes. The hand she has on the passenger side door tightens convulsively, and he thinks for a moment she's going to throw it open and push herself out of the car in some kind of abject surrender. He reaches out for her thigh and squeezes it lightly, amused by the tenderness that's suddenly invaded his voice.
"Breathe now, Pepper. I'm about to see you naked, and vice versa. You can handle us talking about this if you can handle what happened at the club. You're a natural maneater."
"The pill is fine. Though I don't have similar paperwork." Her voice is a little shaky, but it's only growing stronger.
"Good. We go bare then. Which leads us to rules two and three."
Her eyebrow shoots up and she turns to look at him. "RULES?" She's a little skeptical, and her eyebrow is nearly to her hairline. He nods unapologetically. "Yes. Three of them. You got three I think it's only fair I get the same number too."
"When did I make rules?" She sounds a little bewildered. He shrugs and pulls into the parking ramp, counting them out on his fingers.
"One: It's over at dawn, Two: no place familiar. That means no place the press or anyone we know might actually see us, which leaves number three. I'm a mathematician Pepper: this should hardly surprise you by now."
She can't dispute him, though she looks like she wants to try. Finally she seems to give up and nod in agreement.
"Fine...if you insist on being so fricking pedantic. Rule one: hotel with a Jacuzzi. Rule two was birth control per mutual agreement...hit me with subject number three?"
"Repeat after me Virginia. The concept of the day is 'safe word.' In your case the phrase in question is going to be 'back off you miserable fucker.' I trust you can remember it?" She rolls her eyes and he shrugs his shoulders as he parks. "Other than that I want your word: we enter and we leave the room together. Only together."
She looks like she's going to protest but he cuts her off mercilessly. This one is non-negotiable, and he's making that clear. "I mean it Potts - no running off while I'm in the shower. I deserve better than that and so do you." He takes his hand off her knee and opens the door. "If you want to stop you say so and we will, but we handle this like two freaking grown ups, not the kids from One Tree Hill. Now do we have an agreement?"
He doesn't know why, but that actually seems to amuse her. She crosses her arms over her chest. "That's four rules for you, Stark. I only got three - that means I'm entitled to at least one more."
"Fine, let me know when you come up with something. You've got till the door closes and we're both naked to come up with something."
That ends their talking for the rest of the duration. They make it inside in record time, which is pretty impressive, considering the tension that's again started to mount. He's so hard now he can barely walk, and she's begin to shake, though he knows she's trying to hide it. He keeps his hand on her lower back from the car to the service desk. The night clerk is a pimply kid with a set of headphones and a lousy disposition.
Five minutes later, though, they have a card key, and he nudges her onto the elevator that leads up to the second floor.
"I'm not sure I can do this." She whispers to the air. He's reasonably certain she doesn't realize she just said it aloud.
His version of helping is to pin her to the closed elevator door.
69696969696969
She gasps as the metal of the elevator makes contact with the bare skin of her back. Instinctively she arches away from it, only to run immediately into the blaze of heat radiating off of her boss’s body. ‘I am insane.’ It’s the only clear thought in her head as she latches onto him with her hands and drags her lips down his neck. The growl that comes out of his mouth is the sexiest thing she’s ever heard, and the meaning of insane has changed. She’s insane to have ignored this for so long, and that she’s out of control and partially ashamed of her behavior seems a fair price to pay for her stupidity. If she’d wanted gentle and tender, apparently she should have acted months ago.
His hands are on her back. They’re rough with calluses and feel bigger than they have any right to. They slide under the material of her dress in search of more skin and she retaliates by yanking the front of his shirt out of his waistband. His head is resting on her shoulder; he’s breathing hard and erratically in response to the play of her fingertips over the tight skin of his belly. “Pepper…” She turns her head to bite and nip at the tender skin behind his ear. His hands tighten almost painfully around her waist and she doesn’t mourn the loss of gentle and tender. Those two had their place, but more often than not it wasn’t in their professional relationship. Tony was an ass and she was more than used to busting his balls to keep him on track.
God, she didn’t even know how many days out of the first year she’d worked for him had passed without some sort of fight between them. There hadn’t been many.
The elevator stops and they both nearly fall to the floor when the doors open behind her. But his hands are there, and she’s caught, and he pulls her upright so that their bodies are flush. He can undoubtedly feel her nipples against his chest and she can feel the minute vibration of his chest piece against hers. They stand motionless in the hallway for a long minute, but then he’s pulling her down the hall to the door of their room and hustling her inside.
He turns to close the door. She turns and slams him against it.
Pepper doesn’t have enough patience left to undo the buttons of his shirt, but neither is she so lost that she can’t be practical: ripping it open will just make for a display tomorrow morning and she knows she’s not ready for that.
She pulls his shirt over his head, grateful that he’d already had the two couple buttons undone and that he’d rolled up his sleeves instead of buttoning them. Her lips pick up where she’d left off. Starting at the base of his neck she trails kisses down his chest until she’s interrupted by the taste of metal on her lips. Then, despite urgency, despite need, she finds it in herself to be gentle after all.
“Pepper -” She takes his lips in a soft kiss, cutting off the uncertainty she’d heard in his voice. Her hand covers the reactor, his hand covering hers almost immediately after. He kisses her like he’s suddenly shy and she can’t stand his vulnerability. The Tony Stark she knows is not vulnerable. Yes, he’s capable of being that way but he’s never vulnerable in her presence because…
She doesn’t bother to think why he’s never vulnerable because it takes her down paths that she only explores in the dead of the night. She won’t admit it’s because she loves him and he knows it, and so he trusts her never to hurt him.
And yet, he is shy.
“Mr. Stark…” she purrs against his lips as she presses closer to his chest. “I do believe I have you trembling with lust.”
She can feel him leer as he turns so that she’s pressed up against the door. “Nonsense, Ms. Potts. Superheroes don’t tremble.” He lifts her just enough to wedge his hips between her thighs and she takes the invitation to wrap her legs around him. “Though I might consider an exception in your case.” He sounds breathless.
“I’ll be gentle,” she assures him as she arches her back and presses firmly against the erection she can feel against her belly.
“Like hell you will.”
“Like hell,” she agrees, a little breathless herself as he starts thrusting against her. His hand is behind her neck, fumbling for the hooks holding up her dress. She reaches back to help him.
“I am a grown man, Ms. Potts. I can manage on my own.”
“Maybe if your hands weren’t trembling. Would you let me do my job and give you a hand?”
His laugh is strained but genuine. “By all means, Ms Potts.”
She pushes his hands out of her way and unhooks the halter. Tony wastes no time pulling the top down and moving his hands from her back to her chest.
“Oh, god.”
“Who’s trembling now, Ms. Potts?” he murmurs against her collarbone, but she’s too busy focusing on the sensation of his hands against her skin to pay much attention to the wicked heat in his voice.
She has no answer. She only threads her fingers through his hair and forces his mouth to do something other than make smart remarks.
She looses track of things after that. At some point he puts her down because her legs are wobbly, and eventually she pulls his head up and attacks his mouth. She knows they’ve moved because suddenly she’s on her back on a bed, her dress is gone, and her hands are trapped between them as they both work to get his pants off.
“Damn it, ow! I thought you were supposed to be giving me a hand, Potts. Ohhh….”
Pepper takes advantage of his distraction to push his hands out of his way and slip her hands inside the tight casing of his leather pants. She works them over his hips before giving him more of a hand than he was prepared for.
“Pepper…Pepper, wait…” She smiles as his protests die off.
“Is this everything, Mr. Stark?”
“Pepper…” His growl is all the warning she gets before he’s on top of her, all heat and muscle and male desperation. She’s a little surprised at first but she gathers her wits quickly. She braces herself against his shoulders and rolls them. Her position of power lasts just long enough for her to catch her breath before he flips them.
She flips them the other way with the same results.
“Tony!”
“Yes.”
He’s there, and he’s serious, and no longer playing and she’s fed up because this is so typical. “Back…off,Stark.”
“That is not the safe word, Potts.” He rests his forehead against her breasts. “Pepper…”
“Rule four, Tony. I’m on top.”
“That’s one rule I can’t agree to.”
“Too bad.” She flips them one last time and straddles him. Somehow during the scuffle his pants have slipped down all the way and he bucks up against her. For once she’s riding her lust down at the same time she’s riding him and tightens her knees around his hips. “I’m on top.”
She adjusts her hips before he has a chance to argue further. His head kicks back and she watches the tendons in his throat bulge. Her own throat is clenching and she has to open her mouth to drag enough oxygen down into her lungs. Shock is just as powerful as the feeling of being filled, and it makes no sense. None. It shouldn’t be a surprise to find herself here. It shouldn’t be a surprise to find herself naked except for her stockings and garters on top of her equally naked boss. It shouldn’t be a surprise to feel him inside of her. But it is.
Her weight shifts so that she’s no longer pinning him as she tries to sort through it all.
“Nonono.” Tony’s hands grip her hips and hold her in place. His voice is strained, deeper than she can ever remember it being. “You wanted to be on top. It’s a little late to change your mind. No chickening out.” And he lifts her up a few inches, pulling gasps from both of them, before allowing her to settle back down on him.
“Tony…”
One hand keeps her in place and the other pulls her down to kiss him. His lips are persuasive, just a little desperate but not trying to overwhelm. She doesn’t know how he always knows. How he always knows just when her out of control emotions tip the balance. But she kisses him back, willing herself to let go of everything but the taste and feel of him. There are no repercussions in this moment.
Slowly she begins to move over him, first with hesitance and then with more control. She absorbs his gasps and moans with her mouth and it no longer matters that he’s her boss. He’s making no demands, he steals no control. She rules in this moment, she is in control, and it’s her kisses that become demanding. Her hands that dig into his shoulders as she braces herself to move with more force.
In the end it’s her name he calls, her body that accepts his surrender with a shudder and a rush of heat.
In the end, she still the one who’s a little surprised to be looking into the unfocused eyes of Tony Stark.
She wonders just what it is that she’s done.