SWEET SERENADE | MARVEL

iv. CHAPTER FOUR

Or maybe it was just aching hole that had once been filled was now empty.

"You should be up by now," Katerina said, her short frame itching towards the floor. Tony turned to glance at her, eyes tracking over the haphazard state of his blue dress shirt which was pinned to the redhead's body by simply two measly buttons leaving nothing to the imagination. "You have that meeting with Pepper, remember?"

Tony mumbled into the soft cotton of his sheets. He body felt sore, drained in ways he couldn't even beginning to disect further on. In that moment, all he wanted was to rest easy just a little longer. Maybe even an aura of warmth at his side.

"What if I cancelled it?" He offered, watching as Katerina fluttered around the room, her bare feet echoing softly against the wood floors as she made her way over to a dresser nearby. "I'm the CEO, so it's not like they can fire me."

"No, but they can unanimously vote you out." Katerina fluttered her lashes at him over her shoulder as she toyed with bulky fabric of the dress shirt. "I know I would, given the chance. You always did have a taste for redheaded vixens."

A short smile pulls from his lips while he tries to ignore the jab in his chest at the thought of redheaded vixens. Especially within in the aspects that involved his company. But he was always a sucker for a witty glint and sharp smile.

No, no. Not always. There were times were...even when he tried his damn hardest not to think about it, the memories seem to always find a way. Sometimes even in his dreams. Anyone could catch his attention with the gleam of intelligence surfacing in their gaze, but not many could hold his attention.

But she did. Her smile was never sharp, but soft and gentle with everything around her.

"She's gone now. You don't have a right to think about her like that anymore." He told himself many times over. Sometimes, he wondered when he start to believe it. Other times, he prayed that that moment would never come.

The sound of fingers snapping drew Tony from his inner perils, to which...he wasn't necessarily sure that he had wanted to happen. Katerina, now dressed in floral blouse and pencil skirt, stood over the bed with raised brow, defining her expression. "Lost in space again, I see." She clawed her nails over the edge of his chin, smiling proudly when he leaned into the touch. "I have to go to work, and you have a meeting to go too."

Tony begrudgingly leaned closer, urging his cheek to rest on the jutting of her hip to find some solace of warmth from her prescence. But that was just to good to be true as Katerina was already pulling away. Her heels brandishing against the cold floors echoed down the halls of the studio, stretching further and further away until there was no sound at all, the exception of Tony's own breathing.

He wasn't sure exactly why he couldn't tell her that he didn't have a meeting that evening. That he had cancelled it for her. That the only thing he had planned, had hoped for was just a moment between the two of them to last longer than a few measly nights under the shadows. It seemed the universe held intentions for other plans.

"Jarvis," he groaned out, rolling back the muscles of his shoulders as he stretched, letting out a sound of satisfaction when a loud bop had riffled through his ears. "Call Eddie."

"Of course, sir," came the reply as a soft British accent flirted through the air and sent a bubble of warmth blooming within Tony's chest at the familiarity. For moment, he waited in silence, twisting his lips in boredom when a voic had finally picked up from the other end.

"Tony," a face came into view, wearing an unimpressed look, that seemed to be a the usual expression for the man on the other line given how natural it seemed to sit. "if you're going to call me, could you at least put some clothes on."