Watching the succession of her realizations cross Lorna's face was a roller coaster in itself, but that final clean 180 from anxious, awkward Lorna to whoever that was sounding so sweet in Tony's ear had him checking the safety. The unnervingly easy seduction of an emotionally tumultuous assassin was too fresh in his mind for him to just accept that sharp personality change. He was suddenly reevaluating her quick-onset infatuation with Captain America, which didn't seem particularly remarkable before-- he was easy to fall in love with. But she was so interesting to Nick because her powers were so suspiciously like Magneto's, like they could have been related. And when did she turn up?
The day after the twins were taken from Genosha.
Nick had to have realized all of this by now. He had obviously spent more time thinking about Lorna Dane's existence than Tony had. So what was his plan? Why was she still slinking around unchecked? Tony made a note to sit down with the the Director, but for now he had to find a way to cover his own ass.
His touch skipped from her hand to her neck, curving under her ear and fingering her hair while all of this clicked into place in his head and the sudden rush of a sigh towards her shoulder could have been excitement that she had taken to the proposal, or it could have been the death grip of realization. For a beat, he still wondered if it was worth it, risking whatever she might have been up to for more of that soft skin under his hand and her purring in his ear, but with a final deep breath of her perfumed hair he was stepping away, his fingers trailing over her pulse point and just touching her collar before withdrawing. "Look," he started, keeping his eyes down to focus on finding a card in his pocket and hoping the redirection wasn't too obvious. "This is my number, but I promise I'll call you if Steve-- when Steve-- needs a break." With the card, his cell phone came out, and he was dialing even as he made his offering. "Yeah, bring the car around, dude," he was saying almost the moment he lifted the phone to his ear, and gestured with a hooked finger for Lorna to follow him out. Sure, she could still get her ride. But it wasn't going to be with Tony, and she definitely wasn't going to see his hotel room, too.