Tony took a deep breath and then another in a futile effort to control his rising temper. Tony didn’t get truly angry often, and he’d learned pretty early on that any big emotions were to be expressed behind closed doors.

Right now, Tony would rather throw a chair or two than slap on a smile and play nice with the press. It was harder than usual not to grit his teeth and sneer at the entire crowd of people who thought they were entitled to know every detail of his life. The only thing that really got him through it was Kendis’s fingers squeezing his hand beneath the table.

By the time they wrapped up the press conference, which had felt more like an interrogation session, Tony was both mentally and physically exhausted. After a hushed conversation with Pepper, they were finally allowed to leave. He managed to keep it together until they made it out of the press room and upstairs to his office.

The moment the door closed, Tony jerked away and started pacing angrily back and forth.

“What in the hell did Everhart think she was doing?” he swore as he ran a hand through his hair, which was very much in need of a haircut. “What was she trying to prove? That you tricked me into being with you?”

Then he proceeded to curse Everhart out in English before switching to rapid-fire Italian.

Kendis, bless her, simply stood there and calmly watched him. Hell, it wasn’t even him who had been outed. Tony could deal with slights against himself, but the thought of anyone disrespecting his spouse made him want to burn everything to the ground.

It took fifteen minutes for Tony to finally calm down enough to stop pacing. He turned, half-expecting Kendis to judge him for his temper tantrum, but she simply opened her arms.

Tony quickly crossed the distance between them and walked into the comfort of her embrace. He leaned down and pressed his nose against her collarbone, taking in her familiar scent of sandalwood, the faint scent of motor oil, bergamot, and something that was uniquely Kendis.

Kendis ran her hand down his back as he buried his face in her shoulder. He should have been comforting her, but Kendis was the one holding him.

“Got that out of your system?” Kendis asked softly.

“Yeah,” Tony replied with a sigh. “Sorry for—”

“No, don’t apologize.” Kendis rocked them slightly.

Tony looked up at her, meeting those gorgeous dark green eyes.

“Why aren’t you mad?”

“I was for a moment,” Kendis admitted with a shrug. “But then I realized Christine did all of that to provoke a response. And like I said back at the press conference, I am not ashamed to be trans or of the person I have become.”

Tony was used to courage and bravery. He had grown up with his Aunt Peggy and the Howling Commandos as his favorite uncles. Tony had spent his entire life surrounded by people who put their bodies on the line for their country. Yet Tony could only stare in awe at Kendis’s courage.

It took a different kind of courage to go against an entire world’s expectations of you.

From the conversations they’d had in the past, he knew this wasn’t the first time she had been publicly outed. According to her, Kendis’s outing in the magical world had been ten times more catastrophic.

But Kendis had still faced Christine Everhart’s attempt to out her with a type of grace that both awed and humbled him.

Tony took her hand and led her around his massive glass desk. He sat down and then pulled her onto his lap.

“Tony!”

Tony cupped her chin, the last of his anger fading away. “You know you’re amazing, right?”

“Tony, it’s nothing.” Kendis tried to brush it off, but Tony wouldn’t have that.

He didn’t understand how this amazing person, who had been through hell and back a dozen times over, still managed to be so relentlessly kind.

He pressed his lips to hers, and she sighed as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Tony felt those all-too-familiar sparks of pleasure rush down his spine and pool in his aching cock. The effect Kendis had on him hadn’t lessened one bit after three months together.

To his utter amazement, his love and need for her only grew as time went on. He licked inside her mouth, their tongues moving in one of their well-practiced dances.

She sighed and melted into his touch as his fingers slipped beneath her T-shirt. His fingers trailed over her soft brown skin, down the toned plane of her stomach, and then slowly crept back up to brush against the underside of Kendis’s breasts.

The door to his office crashed open.

“Tony—” Obadiah froze in the doorway.

A pinched look crossed his face as Kendis scrambled off Tony’s lap with a squeak. Tony shot her an amused look and then sighed in disappointment.

He might have had plans to bend Kendis over the desk, but Obadiah had to ruin them.

“Tony, my boy!” Obadiah coughed and gave him a jovial grin so fake that it might as well have been made of plastic. “Can I have a moment to talk to you?”

He threw a glance at Kendis that rubbed Tony the wrong way.

“Alone,” Obadiah stated.

“That’s fine,” Kendis coughed. “I’ve got an appointment with my healer—therapist, anyway.”

Tony had forgotten that Kendis was going back to therapy. She’d made that decision after waking up and pointing a wand at him the previous week. Tony had argued that it was okay and understandable after everything she’d been through and that all they needed was time.

But now, after the shit Everhart had pulled, maybe a session was more than necessary today.

“Tony?” Obadiah demanded, jarring him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Tony got up and walked Kendis to the door.

He leaned over and pressed another kiss to her lips. “Don’t miss me too much.”

Kendis gave him a wry smile. “I think I can survive.”

She threw a complicated look over his shoulder at Obadiah before leaving.

Tony turned to face Obadiah, who was giving him another one of his disappointed parental looks. Tony sighed inwardly as he walked over to the wet bar in the corner.

Tony and Obadiah usually got along just fine, but it seemed that from the moment Kendis entered his life, the camaraderie between his godfather and him had faded away. He had to admit that it hurt. Obadiah was his godfather and had once been his favorite person besides Aunt Peggy, Jarvis, and Anna.

But Tony was not some fresh-faced twenty-one-year-old. He was a grown-ass man, and Obadiah needed to wake up and realize that.

“Can I get you something?” Tony asked as he walked over to the wet bar on the other side of the room.

He grabbed a crystal decanter and a glass and poured himself a finger of scotch.

Obadiah waved him off. “You know what I like.”

Tony poured some bourbon into another glass and handed it to his godfather before retaking his seat. He took a long sip and sighed as the alcohol released a bit of the tension caused by the press conference and this impromptu meeting with Obadiah.

“What can I do for you, Obie?” Tony asked with a tired sigh.

“I’m worried about you,” Obadiah said with a sad shake of his head. “You haven’t been making great choices lately, and it’s affecting the company.”

Tony sprawled in his office chair as if it were a throne, outwardly unbothered, but inside, he was seething.

“The company is doing fine. The Jericho missiles are ready for the demonstration in a few days, and our stock has gone up ten percent.”

Obadiah studied Tony for a moment, but he wouldn’t find any weakness there. Howard had beaten the ability to mask into him. Most of the time, Tony didn’t even bother, but when it counted, he could slam those titanium mental walls into place and pretend to be neurotypical at the drop of a hat.

To date, there had only been a few people capable of breaking through them.

“Tony, this whole thing looks bad.” Obadiah slammed his glass down on Tony’s desk.

Tony took another sip of his drink and raised an eyebrow. “How does me being married to bona fide nobility make our company look bad?” Tony asked in the jovial tone he’d learned entirely from Obie. “And if what you’re about to say has anything to do with Kendis’s profession, sexuality, or gender, save it.”

“This is insanity!” Obadiah shouted. “We are the laughingstock of the weapons industry. I just had to field calls from the Secretary of Defense and the chiefs of staff of at least two branches of the military. I had to talk them down from canceling our contracts and going to Hammer!”

Tony snorted. “They’ll be back. Hammer is a complete buffoon. As soon as Hammer breaks one of their super-expensive toys, they’ll come crawling back to us. Besides, this gives us a chance to branch into better markets.”

“This is not funny, Tony!” Obadiah said, his voice slipping into that familiar stern parental tone. “Do you think your father would be proud? You’re making a mockery of everything he built.”

Tony knocked back the rest of his drink and suddenly craved another one, but he couldn’t allow Obadiah’s fit to go on any longer.

Tony’s smile faded into a cold, determined look. “My father is dead, and when he was alive, he wasn’t much of a father. He barely ever said he liked me, and he never said he loved me. What he would approve of doesn’t matter. He’s dead, and I’m alive. And the last time I checked, Obie? This is my life!”

“Tony—”

Tony put up a hand. “Kendis is my spouse, and you’re going to have to get used to the fact that she isn’t going anywhere. You’re important to me, but so is Kendis. I love you like a father, and I hate being at odds with you, but you have to accept that my priorities have changed.”

Obadiah’s face was calm as he looked at Tony. “I see. If that is how it is…”

Tony didn’t back down. He didn’t give his godfather so much as an inch.

The world thought Tony should have married someone like a white and pretty empty-headed heiress who would spit out a few kids and stay out of the way his way. But Tony didn’t want that.

He wanted Kendis.

Kendis, who was gorgeous, clever, stubborn, and didn’t take even an inch of his shit. Tony loved Kendis Black, a person ten times more powerful and famous than Tony would ever be. A person who only wanted him for who he was.

Tony fully intended to spend the rest of his life with Kendis, and he didn’t give a shit what anyone thought about it—even his godfather.

Obadiah took a deep breath and gave him a rueful smile. “I guess I have to accept it.”

Tony sighed with relief. “Thanks, Obie.”

Obadiah gave him one last meaningful look before turning and walking out of Tony’s office. Tony sighed, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

The conversation between Obadiah and Tony had been a long time coming. At first, he’d thought he would have to choose between his spouse and his godfather.

Tony was so glad he didn’t have to make that choice.

He opened his eyes and was about to stand when he spotted a blue manila folder peeking out from beneath a stack of papers in his inbox tray. He picked it up and smiled as he read over the paperwork.

This would change things and give Obadiah and the board a clear signal that Tony was absolutely serious about Kendis. Tony couldn’t wait until the next board meeting to spill the beans and see the looks on their faces.

Tony quickly signed the papers and put them in his outbox for Pepper to deliver to his attorneys. He gave the stack of paperwork in his inbox a put-upon look and sighed.

Pepper would kill him if he didn’t at least attempt to get some work done before heading home.

The quicker I get this done, the quicker I can get home, Tony thought with a sigh.

It was still so strange to have someone to come home to. Six months ago, if someone had told him that he would be married and co-parenting a cane corso, he would have laughed in their face.

But Tony wanted to go home and relax with his spouse, their dog, and his bots. He’d come to the realization that, for the first time since his parents died, Tony had a family.

And if completing all the paperwork Pepper had left for him meant he could finally go home, then so be it.