Being a lawyer came with its perks. Sasha kept a very rational head and rarely jumped to conclusions, finding it easy to mask and bend a gut feeling into whatever version of the truth she deemed necessary. That evening was no different to being in the court room, almost feeling like she'd never finished work.

Sasha stood by Tony's side for the rest of the night with a false smile plastered on her pink lips, laughing and greeting men and women whom she'd never met before, and wouldn't care about ever meeting again.

She held bland conversations for the sake of Tony's status and the Stark Industries name, nobody else in the room being able to tell that the glamorous lawyer of New York City was on the verge of cracking tears through cold blue eyes that night.

Swallowing the lump in her throat and putting out the fiery anger that burned in her chest came easy with the steady stream of cocktails the bartender made for her, having another Cosmopolitan already sat waiting on the edge of the bar before she'd even parted her lips.

Sasha would've been roaring drunk by the time the night came to a close, had she not also been seething with anger at what had occurred just a few hours earlier.

She'd felt sick the entire evening after catching Tony entertaining two women at his table, and the embarrassment that came with it only made her stomach twist and turn even more.

Tony had tried to pull her away into another room to talk about it, though arguing after an already draining day in court was the last thing Sasha wanted to do, and so she put on a brave face and accepted the free drinks as she stood by her man, doing what any good fiancée would do on such an important night for their partner.

"I left my things with the concierge earlier, there should be a briefcase and another bag, I think he tagged it. It's Sasha Coulson."

One of the doormen headed into the back room behind the entrance to grab Sasha's belongings, leaving her stood in the reception area with her hands clutching her purse, fingers tapping patiently against the grained leather.

"Would you like me to call a cab for you, Miss Coulson?" The doorman said as he returned with Sasha's belongings.

"Yes, that would be-"

"No," a voice interrupted, echoing footsteps on the marble floors drew closer, "She's good, thank you."

The doorman just nodded and placed down Sasha's bags on a table to the side before walking back to the door, turning his head once to check back on her after seeing the way she'd rolled her eyes at Tony's interjection.

"What are you doing?"

Sasha scoffed at the sincere stupidity of Tony's question, her eyes wide and brows raised and a hint of laughter in her voice as she replied, "What am I doing? I'm going home."

Tony sighed and grabbed hold of her wrist, pulling her back towards him as she took a step towards the door, "Come on Sasha, don't be like this."

Sasha bit her tongue, looking down slowly at the grip Tony had around her wrist before locking eyes with him.

"Let go of me, Tony."

He did as he was told, instantly releasing his hand and stuffing them into the pockets of his trousers. He'd felt incredibly guilty all evening about what had happened, but even more guilty at the fact there had been no discussion about it, not even an argument.

Tony had been caught doing all kinds of things he shouldn't have been doing by ex-girlfriends, and every single time he'd had something thrown at him or heard bloody murder screamed at him until the poor girl was blue in the face. Tony was used to that being the consequences of his actions and when he saw the way Sasha's face fell earlier that night, he'd expected nothing less from her.

The reality, however, was far worse. Sasha did everything right by him and his evening, not causing a scene of ruining the mood. In fact, the guests that had witnessed the small fiasco came away wondering if Sasha was actually even mad at all because of how placid she seemed the rest of the night.

"Can we just talk about this? Let me explain, please. It's not what you think."

Sasha shook her head in disbelief, a numb expression taking over her face as the tiredness set into her eyes.

"I've been working all day, I come here to support you, excited to see you and I walk in and see that. I smile, I mingle, I entertain, all while I can barely look into your eyes properly because I have a million and one things going round inside my head, and on top of that, you never even said congratulations."

"Congratulations?" Tony's brows furrowed and shoulders raised, "What for?"

Sasha scoffed once more, kissing her teeth as she picked up her bags from the table, "I won my case today."

"Shit."

Tony's shoulders sank as he watched Sasha strut out of the restaurant and into the midnight air. The same doorman took the bags from her and opened the door of a cab before speaking to the driver and sending her on her way, leaving Tony stood alone.

He hadn't done anything wrong, not strictly speaking, but Tony knew as he watched the taillights disappear down the street that strictly speaking didn't count for a damn thing.

The truth was, Tony sometimes let himself slip. He'd changed since meeting Sasha, ditching the playboy lifestyle because he wanted her, because he craved her more than he craved attention from models and actresses, more than he liked walking into bars with a girl on each arm and walking out of bars with twice as many. There had been a time that Tony saw that as being his way of life indefinitely, and although he was eternity grateful for Sasha and how she'd changed his life for the better, old habits die hard.

Tony had no intention of ever crossing a line with either of those women he had been sat with when Sasha arrived, in fact, the thought of kissing another woman made him sick. He couldn't think of an answer or a reason to why he had entertained the two blondes or why he was sat with his arms around them, because truthfully, Tony didn't know. The temptation was there and while Tony didn't see the upset in some harmless flirting, he had since learned his lesson.

He didn't feel any better because of it and it certainly made him feel worse, but knowing that indulging in half hour living life the way he used to before meeting Sasha had caused such an upset made him resent himself far deeper than he ever had before.

He sighed loudly, shaking his head as he looked up at the ceiling for a moment as he mumbled to himself, "Good one, Stark."

He grabbed his jacket from the cloakroom and hailed himself a cab, ending up outside Sasha's building not twenty minutes later. He paid the driver and closed the door, not wasting any time in jogging up the steps towards the reception, the guilt and adrenaline mixed with fresh air quickly sobering him up.

Tony composed himself as he walked inside, flashing his best smile at Henry who headed up the security for Sasha's floor.

"Evening, nice night isn't it?" He said as Henry stepped in front of him, stopping him from walking any further towards the elevators.

"ID please."

"Come on man, you know me by now."

"ID please."

Tony rolled his eyes and pulled his drivers license from his wallet, slapping it into the outstretched palm of Henry. The security guard eyeballed him as he looked down at the ID, a satisfied glimmer behind his eyes that he could humble such a man like Tony Stark.

Henry handed the ID back to Tony before grabbing his mobile and holding it to his ear, staring down at Tony through dark eyes the entire time.

"Miss Coulson, I have Mr Stark here for you. Would you like me to send him up?"

Henry paused for a moment, leaving Tony stood with a raised brow and increasing frustration before covering the phone with his hand and whispering, "She says she doesn't want to see you."

Tony groaned and shook his head, "Come on, man. Just let me upstairs, I really have to talk to her, please."

Henry lifted the phone back to his ear, "He's begging, Miss Coulson, I think I even see a tear in his eyes. Alright, I'll send him up now."

Swiping an access card next to the side of the elevator, Henry gave Tony a forced smile as he held open the door for the billionaire, allowing him to step past with a begrudged mumble of thanks.

"I was not begging," Tony said, tilting his head with narrowed eyes as the doors to the elevator finally closed.

He quickly shook off the irritation of his interaction with Henry, though also feeling happy that he was doing the job Sasha had hired him to do properly. It still upset him that Sasha felt like she had to uphold those extreme measures in an already monitored building, but if it meant she felt safe, Tony would show his ID to the same man every single time he visited her place.

Once he reached her floor, Tony drew in a deep breath as he walked down the corridor, pausing before knocking four times on her door and taking a small step backwards, hands clasped together behind his back as he patiently waited for her to answer.

The door was unlocked and swung open, only Sasha didn't care to speak a hello. She wandered back over towards the kitchen and continued to pour herself a glass of white wine, a takeout box of sushi sat untouched on the island.

Tony closed the door behind him and slipped off his jacket, hanging it up on the same hook he usually used before kicking off his shoes and leaving them behind the door. Sasha was sat enjoying her sushi under the white lights of her kitchen, wrapped in a silk dressing gown with her hair tied up and face cleansed, a single bergamot and sage candle was lit on the coffee table in the living space.

"I'm sorry," he said as he walked around the island and rest his arms on the marble top, directly opposite Sasha.

She let her eyes flicker up to look at him for a flurry of a moment before rubbing her chopsticks together and digging in to her sushi, not having had chance to eat since over twelve hours earlier.

Tony silently cursed himself again, feeling an overwhelming sense of pain at the tiredness in her eyes. She had been working herself into the ground recently and Tony knew that better than anyone, always being the person to have dinner on the table for her if she was late home or prepare breakfast for her to grab if she had to leave early in the morning. He kicked himself again and again for not congratulating her on winning her case, which on top of everything else that had happened that night, only made the guilt eat him alive faster.

"I'm proud of you, for winning your case."

Sasha stopped chewing when Tony spoke again, swallowing her food down with a mouthful of wine before looking at him, placing her chopsticks down on the table.

While she didn't enjoy living her life according to what other people thought of her, praise and validation had always been a key part in building up Sasha's self esteem and pride. She thrived off acceptance and being told job well done, and hearing it from the people who's opinion she valued the most made it that much more special. Tony had been one of those people since the day they'd met and he'd gushed over her car.

"Thank you." She said quietly, looking across the island at him.

Tony felt his heart melt at her eyes on him. He wanted to be looked at by her forever, feeling safe whenever her eyes were on him, invincible, almost. The fact that he'd made her feel any less than that that evening was torture to him.

"I didn't, I would never have done anything tonight, or ever. I hope you know that. I wasn't thinking and I just slipped back into my old ways, I-"

"Funny how that only happens when I'm not around. What other old habits have you slipped into when I've not been able to attend things with you before?"

"N-none," Tony rushed around the island and pulled up a chair beside Sasha, perching on the edge of the stool and leaning one arm on the table, "I promise, Sasha, nothing has ever happened like that and it never will. I shouldn't have been acting like that, it's disrespectful and I'm sorry."

Sasha nodded, eating another piece of sushi in silence as she topped up her wine glass, not bothering to offer Tony any hospitality.

"You know," she said, "I've worried about so many things since being with you. I've worried about your health, your safety, whether you're sleeping enough or even sleeping at all. I've worried if you'll come home to me in one piece, I've worried about you mind and your soul, if you can truly heal from everything you've seen and done. One thing, though, that I've never had to worry about...is you being unfaithful. That never once crossed my mind, Tony, but maybe it should have."

"No, no Sasha I swear," Tony tried his best to keep calm despite her words crushing him like a ton of bricks, "There isn't any part of my that wants anything to do with anyone else. I love you, and that consumes me like nothing else I've ever felt. I felt nothing around those women tonight and I can't tell you why I say there and entertained it because I don't know, but I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry. I don't want you to worry about something like that, something I actually can tell you for sure won't ever happen."

"But it did happen," Sasha said blankly, "And now I'll worry. That's how this works. A neighbour tries to kill me, I hire security and live on a private floor because I'm worried it'll happen again. My fiancée flirts with other women and I see it, so I worry it'll happen again. I can't help it, Tony."

Tony winced at her words, "Sasha, nothing happened, nothing was going to happen, I-"

She placed her wineglass down with a thud on the table, sighing loudly with her tongue pressed against her cheek, her eyes staring out of the window deep in thought.

Finally turning to face Tony, Sasha swallowed her pride and listened to her gut.

"I believe you, and I'm not going to sit here and give you a lecture on how you should know better because you're not a child. You'll make your own decisions and I'll do what's best for me based off of them. If you love and respect me, show me, because after tonight, I need reminding."

Sasha knew deep down Tony wouldn't have so much as kissed any of the other women at the party that evening, but the small incident she'd happened to stumble across had planted a seed of doubt in her mind that she wanted drowned and gone immediately, not wishing to add another unnecessary worry to her already endless list.

"Tomorrow, we're going to Vegas, just you and me."

"What?" Sasha almost spat out her sushi as she turned to look at Tony with furrowed brows.

"You've always wanted to go, you've told me. Call Ryan Taylor and tell him you're taking a week off work."

"Tony I can't just do that the day before, we have to give at least two weeks no-"

"If he says no, tell him to call me."

Sasha rolled her eyes and stood up, scraping her leftovers into the trash before rinsing her plate in the sink and topping up her wine glass again.

"Are you insane?"

"Honey," Tony smiled at her, noticing the way the anger and resentment had melted away from her eyes and her posture had softened, "How many times are you going to ask me that? You know I am."

It was when Sasha grabbed a second wine glass from the cabinet and began to pour Tony a drink that he could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing he was, for the time being, off the hook.

She slid the glass across the island towards him before placing the wine back in the fridge, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. Tony followed her as she wandered over to the large bay windows with her glass between her fingertips, looking down at the city with tired eyes.

Tony placed a hand on Sasha's waist as he stood tall behind her, pressing a gentle kiss to the side of her neck before sipping his wine. Sasha let out a soft sigh, leaning her head back against his shoulder, unable to find the strength to keep up the anger any longer, wanting nothing more than to forget about the whole thing and crawl into bed with the man she loved.

"I'm sorry," Tony whispered, his hand squeezing Sasha's waist as his kisses lingered on her neck and her jaw, pulling gentle sighs from her lips.

"You've said that already," she replied, her eyes fluttering closed as she felt his hand slide down her waist to her bare thighs, slipping beneath the silk of her robe.

"Have I?" Tony said in a low voice, his lips tickling her earlobe teasingly, "Then let me show you just how sorry I am instead."