This is how I show my love

[iron_ically]

In theory, his armor is supposed to protect him from any serious injury. It’s surprising how often it fails. Of course, it seems to be directly related to how often he gets blown up. Maybe that’s what should be surprising, or maybe not considering the mission he’s given himself: world peace.

Injury is the reason he’s running late, or being blow up is. Either way, he lands on the roof of his house with a less than graceful thud. He stumbles, scraping the knee of the suit against the concrete.

“Mr. Stark, shall I inform you guest that you’ve arrived?”

“Unless she’s gone deaf, she’s aware. Apologize for me and let her know I’m going to dress for dinner and be right with her.”

What he really meant was that he was going to clean up, bandage what needed bandaging, self-medicate with scotch then join her for dinner. Whether he’d be dressed appropriately or not was still up for debate.

Getting out of the suit had been a breeze; it was all automated. Getting out of the shower was going to be a problem simply because Tony loved his shower, particularly when he felt like he’d been dragged across miles of concrete. Oh. Wait. He had.

“JARVIS, have dummy bring me a scotch and assure the pretty girl that is hopefully still waiting for me that I do plan on keeping our date.”

She would forgive him, or at least he hoped she would. He actually liked this one enough to have more than one date. He liked her enough that he was concerned about pissing her off, enough that despite the fact he hurt enough to have scotch in the shower, he didn’t want to break the date.

It was, quite possibly, a first for Tony Stark.

Comments

[iron_ically]

"And you know how t take away it's effectiveness immediately," he teased back. He assumed she was teasing and didn't have that face on command, or at least she wasn't using it in an on command status at the moment. After all, she'd started this. He'd just kicked it up a notch by taking her to the bedroom.

"Thank you," he said as he took the glass and sipped at it, then leaned over just enough to set it on the night stand.

"It seems you've got a disproportionate amount of clothing on. You should turn around and let me fix that."

He was assuming the dress had a zipper in the back.

[moderatelyfluent]

The zipper was actually on the side, but Niamh turned anyway, gathering her hair up and holding it in the knot in her hand. He could find the zipper, she had faith. Consider it hands on learning.

She glanced back over her shoulder, expectant. "You sure know how to woo a lady, Mr Stark."

[iron_ically]

When she lifted her hair, he scooted closer, dipping his head to press his lips to the curve of her neck, trailing kisses up to her hairline then back down. His hands roamed down her back to her waist then along both sides until he found the zipper. He pulled it down slowly, allowing his fingertips to graze her skin lightly.

"Perhaps, you'll have to give me some pointers." He said it in a tone of voice that implied he thought he was doing all right on the wooing part, but then she was the final judge.

[moderatelyfluent]

She hummed out a pleased sort of noise, sighing softly like she was entirely contented. She was, too. There was something lovely about the way the evening so completely derailed from dinner and dessert.

"Oh no, I'd like to see what you think is wooing. I'll give you a peer review later." Somehow, shivering as his fingers brushed across her skin, she managed to sound completely at ease in the situation.

[iron_ically]

"You should know, I do very well with standardized tests," he whispered against her skin as he swung one leg around and slid off the bed to his feet, taking her wrist in one hand as pulling her to her feet.

Once she was on her feet, it took the slightest tug on the hem of the dress to make it pool at her feet. He leaned in, tilting her chin up with one hand and kissed her deeply.

"How am I doing so far, Miss Oliver?" he asked when the kiss broke.

[moderatelyfluent]

"Good?"

She stepped forward on her tiptoes, kicking the dress to the side so it wasn't in her way, and curled her arms around his neck. "Regrettably, now I think you're the one with too many clothes on."

She didn't make any move to fix that though, enjoying the feel of his skin against hers, feverishly hot, pressing a line of kisses across his chest. They were going to have sex, she knew that, she just wanted to savor the previews.

[iron_ically]

He pulled back enough to look at her, his gaze traveling over her body from her shoulders down to her feet and back up again. "Hmmm, that is regrettable," he murmured as he leaned in to kiss her collarbone, lips and teeth nibbling across her skin.

[moderatelyfluent]

That wasn't fair. He was cheating, turning her into putty like that, and she would bet money he knew exactly what he was doing. And it wasn't fair.

"We should fix it," she said, somewhat decisively. A bit decisively. She was trying for decisive, but the reality of turning to putty meant it came out in a bit of a question.

[iron_ically]

He was cheating and he knew exactly what he was doing to her. He hummed against her skin as he continued to litter kisses across her skin.

"We should fix that. We should definitely fix that." Since he was just wearing a pair of sweatpants, it wouldn't be hard to fix at all. He slid one hand down her arm to her hand, placing it against his hipbone just above the low waist of his pants. "Please. Be my guest."

[moderatelyfluent]

Niamh swallowed, losing all her nerve for a minute. She had to give herself a pep talk.

You are a grown woman, Niamh Griffin Oliver. Get it together. Tony Stark is just a man. A rich man, who is a superhero and a billionaire playboy and kind of a manslut, but! He's not been a manslut lately and if you can handle 28 screaming seven year olds, you can handle bloody Tony Stark.

Taking a breath, she pushed it out slow, fingers pushing down on the waistband as her other hand drifted down to do the same on the other hip. "I will."

[iron_ically]

Tony watched, not sure what was going on inside her head. His brow furrowed for a second, the space of the time it took her to give herself the peptalk.

"I do so like it when you make yourself at home," he groaned, eyes closing, head falling back for a moment before he leaned in to pull her into a kiss, one hand tangling up in her hair while the other went to the small of her back.

[moderatelyfluent]

"Tony," she breathed, a bit of a whine, trying to push him back slightly. Her hands on his hips were firm, gentle until her nails dug into his skin slightly. "If you keep distracting me, you're going to remain clothed. Focus, Mr Stark."

[iron_ically]

Sometimes, one had to be firm with Tony. He tended to bulldoze over everything otherwise so her nails digging into his skin not only got his attention, but turned him on even more. He groaned, pretending to be put out by the request.

"I think, Miss Oliver, that it's you who needs to focus," he teased her but sighed and raised both hands, putting them behind his head. "Ready. Set. Go."

[moderatelyfluent]

"I'm properly focused, Mr Stark," she retorted, moving back slightly to push his pants down, crouching to follow their progress until he was properly undressed.

She looked up at him, a grin like the cat who caught the canary, and slowly pressed a kiss to the outside of one of his thighs before she straightened back up. She pushed up on her tip toes, taking one of his hands in each of hers and putting them on her hips and replacing her hands around his neck. "What's my grade?"

[iron_ically]

If she was looking to get a reaction out of him, she definitely did. His heart beat kicked up a bit faster; he went quite still then shuddered a bit when she kissed the outside of his thigh. A grin played over his lips when she asked about her grade.

"B plus. Practice on this particularly subject is highly encouraged. It does make perfect you know."

[moderatelyfluent]

Her mouth turned down into a pout, eyelashes batting, a thoroughly despondent whimper escaping her lips. Her chin dipped down a bit, shoulders hunching, so she could look up at him with her big sad eyes.

"Only a B plus?"

[iron_ically]

He suspected that that face was put on as was the whimper. It brought a grin to his lips.

"Because if I give you the grade you deserve, you'll cease to have any reason at all to repeat the process, IE practice, and that would be very unfortunate for me at least."

[moderatelyfluent]

"Oh ye of little faith," she mock scolded, shaking her head. "I'll have to repeat the process to get conclusive data. A higher grade would simply make me more apt to want to repeat the process."

"And," she added, pressing a kiss right below his jaw, licking a line up to his ear, her breath warm on his skin. "I've never gotten below an A in my life, Tony Stark, I'm not about to start with you."

[iron_ically]

Oh. Now. See that--that was going to get a groan out of him that he can't pretend to bite off. He tilts his head back to give her more access to his neck and his hand at her hip tightens slightly.

"In that case, A plus. Do continue with your conclusive data."

[moderatelyfluent]

His hand tightening on her hip made her press forward more, humming a little noise as her lips pressed kisses from one shoulder to another, her hand going to rest against his chest.

"I've used up all my scientific knowledge, how much testing will I have to do to get conclusive date?" Please. Science her, Tony.

[iron_ically]

Tony could definitely science her. He grinned and started to trail a hand down her body. "First you've got to establish a hypothesis, what you want and expect out of an experiment."

He dipped his head to kiss the curve of her neck. "Then you've got to plan out the steps you'll take to achieve that hypothesis. Once that's done, you're going to start the experiment, move through the steps."

[moderatelyfluent]

Niamh practically purred. Add this to the reasons she would never be able to ask Tony to speak for her class because he started talking and she just turned into a puddle. Which was very inappropriate with kids around.

"What is your hypothesis then?" Yes, she had just turned it into Tony's experiment, but he was the scientist after all.

[iron_ically]

"Hmmm my hypothesis is that I can actually make you swoon. Let me show you how I'm going to do that."

He nibbled at her bottom lip before kissing her fully, pulling her up into the kiss by a hand on the small of her back. It was a deep, unrestrained kiss full of all the waiting she'd been making him do until this night.

[moderatelyfluent]

Niamh wanted to make some flippant remark about how he could try, but then he kissed her and well, he was pretty spot on with his hypothesis.

Her hands moved up his chest, arms curling around his neck. She hadn't waited to make it harder on him or more difficult, she just didn't want to wind up as just another one of his prolific one night stands, constantly enumerated in the tabloids. She didn't want to be that woman, so she just took it off the table for a while until she trusted that it their burgeoning relationship fell apart it wouldn't be because of sex.

It would probably be something like the fact that she hadn't told him he wasn't the only one with a superpower, although hers was genetic and not a suit. Or that he thought she didn't want to be seen in public with him. Something like that.

[iron_ically]

He'd had a lot of practice with the kissing thing. Well, with the whole thing. The only thing he hadn't had a lot of experience with was the relationship part of things. Niamh could teach him a thing or twelve about that.

Tony held her close then toppled them both down onto the bed. The kiss was broken with the impact and Tony had one of those insufferable grins on his face. "How's my hypothesis working out now?"

Yes. Or Tony got stinking drunk and threw a party that got way out of hand. He would show off for the groupies, even if he wouldn't actually touch the groupies.