The Path to the Tower

4.2: The Billionaire Playboy

Natasha had been flirting heavily with Tony all night. There was nothing she hated more than being Natalie Rushman. She much preferred a more active mission. Her and Clint side-by-side fighting off waves of enemy agents. Her and Maria sneaking into high-security buildings and hacking their systems. Natalie Rushman was boring. Having to do admin work was boring even when you were rifling through the companies data for Intel. Most of their data was boring anyway.

Also, Natalie Rushman wore dresses. All the time. It was annoying.

Nick had been right about Tony though. He liked an intelligent redhead. He had been hanging off her all night. She'd even managed to get him to show her how the repulsor in the gauntlets worked. The fact Pepper Potts had chosen to arrive at that time was unfortunate. It wasn't going to help gain her trust.

Natasha felt bad for her really. She obviously cared for Tony Stark. It was pretty clear there was something mutual to it too, but sometimes it was hard for Natasha to tell romantic feelings from friendship mixed with a sexual desire. She assumed it couldn't have been too serious though, given he had responded to every small flirtation she made, so she wasn't going to force herself to feel too bad about it.

"How about we go down to my lab and put this away?" Tony asked leaning in towards her and running his fingers over the iron gauntlet. He was so drunk already, his breath was hot and reeked of it. "You can take a look at the rest of the suits if you like."

"Oh, I would love that, Mr. Stark," Natasha replied, dipping into the slight fangirl part of Natalie's persona. She tended to avoid it most of the time. Tony preferred the highly educated, ass kicker better. Drunk Tony, however, seemed to want to be fawned over.

Tony offered her his elbow and she hooked her arm around it, still clad in the iron gauntlet and let him lead her downstairs.

The lights all turned on in the lab as they entered and several computer screens and holographic projections lit up. There were parts for iron suits littered around the place and a few full suits on stands at the side of the room. Natasha let Tony remove the gauntlet as she glanced around and absorbed as much as she could so she could relay it on to Fury.

A couple of bots seems to move around the room and when the gauntlet was off Tony placed it on the bench and patted one on the head as he followed Natasha to the suits.

"How did you learn to fly them?" She asked as she looked them over.

Tony wrapped an arm around her waist and ghosted his lips along the side of her throat. "Trial and error."

She turned in his arms and he leaned into her more. She had a decision to make. There was never any talk about her using sex on this mission. In general, she got the feeling that no one was completely comfortable with her doing that in the first place. It was, however, how she was trained. This mission had never been prepped for it. Yet here now without even trying she had the option.

She couldn't pretend she wasn't curious about what it would be like. The man had a reputation. It might be interesting to see if he lived up to it.

Besides, it would be a lot easier to get a look at that ARC reactor.

She started to toy with his tie, very gradually working it down. Tony was so close she could feel his breath teasing her jaw. "That's really something, Tony."

His hands traveled up her sides and around her back and she leaned into him, pushing her breasts out and enticing him to do more. She could tell he was just testing the water and waiting for her to initiate properly. She just wasn't there yet.

"Well, they don't call me a genius for nothing." He said.

She pulled off his tie and hung it around her shoulders before beginning to unbutton his shirt, exposing the ARC reactor. It sat in the middle of his chest and glowed blue. Natasha's eyes moved over it, studying it closely. She traced her finger over the surface of the device. "Does it work on fusion?"