Chapter 21

"As you wish, young Master…" Jarvis began "First of all you must understand that 5 years ago your mother used to live here in this mansion."

"What do you mean by 'live here'?" Dane asked fiercely, turning his back to the stairs to look at a camera mounted on the ceiling.

"I mean sir that this house was her home as well as Mister Stark's," Jarvis answered in his usual Britannic tone.

Dane opened his mouth in shock before repeating Jarvis' words back to him as if searching for more clarification "This house was her house," he repeated again in disbelief as if to try to understand the true meaning behind those five words.

"Yes indeed," Jarvis confirmed "Miss Potts and Mister Stark were living here together for almost 4 years."

Dane was now trying his best to comprehend the term 'living together'. He knew that his mother had worked with Tony for a long time before he was born but knowing how she felt about him now, he just couldn't believe that his mom would actually be sharing a house with Tony. His 5 year old brain was simply not able to process Jarvis' words at the moment even though he thought himself very smart for his age. This new information about his mother and Tony Stark had him scrambling in his mind trying to find a logical explanation for his mother's apparent inconsistent behavior.

"Unfortunately Miss Potts was kidnapped and held prisoner by one of the Iron Man enemies five years ago." Jarvis calmly spoke as he continued his story.

"What?!" screamed Dane, suddenly horrified as he imagined his mum kidnapped and hurt by people that his grandma referred to as the 'bad guys'.

"Yes, Master Potts," Jarvis said in his most serious tone of voice "Mister Stark was able to rescue your mother, but not before she had been injured severely by the terrorists." Jarvis added in a concerned voice.

Dane simply couldn't believe what he was hearing. Anger started to flood his blood at the idea of his mother being hurt and almost dying at the hands of terrorists. He abruptly took one step backward, bringing him really close to the edge of the stair step, but in his mind his eyes was too focus looking up at the camera to notice the emptiness behind him.

"And then?" Dane asked intently "What happened next?" he quickly added impatient for Jarvis to continue.

During this time in the workshop…

Tony's lips started to quickly move all over her face, kissing her on her chin, her cheek, even her nose. He kissed a trail along her throat, tasting her collarbone, "Pepper" he murmured mouthing the words against her skin as his desire grew quickly.

At her spoken name, her hands curled themselves within his hair with more eagerness than he'd expected. She then drove his mouth to hers returning his kisses with bruising intensity. Her hands then tightened around fistfuls of his hair and pulled hard eliciting a low moan from his busy lips.

As his rational mind began to shut down, he instinctively drunk deep from the well she was offering him, bending her backwards, his whole body pressing into hers. He was now done overthinking this. He needed to comfort himself in believing that this was right, and that they still belonged to each other, and that she still loved him as much as he loved her.

He slowly backed her into the glass at the entrance to the workshop, his mouth never leaving hers. There was an abrupt impact as their bodies hit the glass at the same time, and they broke apart, both breathing quite heavily. Tony gently caressed her face brushing back some of her hair out of her face that had fallen down in their sudden stop, "I love you so much. You know that, right?" he asked, his voice deep and serious, his dark eyes searching as well as pleading for a positive answer from her.

Pepper knew that he was being sincere in his words to her. She also knew that he really did love her for sure and she couldn't deny the fact that she still loved him. Their eyes were now locked with each others and the only thing she allowed herself to do was to nod her head up and down slowly in response to his question. As her head was moving, a grin started to grow on Tony's face. He was now looking so genuinely happy that Pepper couldn't hold back her own smile in response to his

He then quickly trapped her face with his hands and his mouth covered hers again. But this time it was not a soft encounter. They were now both looking for more depth in their contact with each other's bodies. As their arousal grew, his hands lightly encircled Pepper's waist, then sliding his right hand over the swell of her backside and down along the back of her thigh, gently pulling her left leg up to rest over his hip. He then held her there, pinned between him and the glass, kissing her forcefully yet with such undisguised love. He then turned his head and his attention to the ridge of her shoulder, as she tensed, gasping and gripping his shoulders tightly as he scraped the tender skin there with his teeth.

She bit her lip, and squeezed her eyes shut, as she writhed against him. This was the most exquisite kind of torture. Suddenly, as he slid a hand under the fabric of her top, a loud thud sounded through the glass from the staircase immediately stopping them.

Alarmed because of the situation they were currently in, Tony started to imagine the worst: Was Fury there with an army of Shield agents trying to force themselves into his workshop? And as his sex fogged brain began to clear it occurred to him that Dane and his grandma were still upstairs and therefore unprotected.

He quickly freed Pepper from his embrace and yelled up at the ceiling "Jarvis? What was that noise? Give me a security report now!" he ordered the AI.

Pepper's heart was already beating fast from her arousal, but it quickly turned into fear as the seconds passed by waiting for Jarvis' reply.

"Sir, your immediate assistance is required on the staircase." Jarvis started.

Tony cut him off quickly his impatience clearly showing "Why J, what's happening?" He asked as he put his hand on the sensor in order to open the glass door of the workshop.

"Young Master Potts has fallen on the stairs" Jarvis reported solemnly.

Pepper eyes widened in horror as she quickly processed the information Jarvis gave them. She covered her mouth with her hand in order to stop a gasp of fear. She noticed that Tony was already running up the staircase and she followed him quickly. When she arrived at the first landing down from the living room, she was not prepared at all to see the scene that lay before her. The small body of Dane lay there motionless, his eyes closed, his head resting on the last step before the landing, and his arm laying at a weird angle in relation to the rest of his body…