Not a disaster so far, good. Tony gave Pepper a beat to settle in before relaxing himself, rolling his shoulders back as he continued his measured work on her underappreciated and overworked foot, wondering if she took the time to put those masseuses Tony had insisted be kept on retainer to work. She never seemed to approve when Tony took the time, for which he had assumed he had his far too familiar treatment of the ladies to blame, but maybe she really did think it was an extravagant indulgence. She could get herself some hunky manhandler, no one was stopping her; the key was finding the place where indulgence and necessity met. Had he taught her anything?
"Doesn't mean you have to do it in person," he muttered. "All he really wants is to look down your top. And his wife..." Tony didn't really want to divulge the details there, especially when he may or may not have played a part in encouraging the sordid behaviour. But they, he and Pepper, did business in very different ways, and there was no way she had to maintain the poorest of SI traditions.