“Who are you, Kendis Black?”

It was a question that rolled over and over in his head as the days passed. It would rear its ugly head at the most inconvenient times.

Tony would find himself thinking of his enigmatic spouse during board meetings, while on calls with Obie, and when being forced to deal with the minutiae that came with running a Fortune five-hundred company.

Kendis haunted him like a ghost.

Tony dropped the spanner on his workbench, ran his hand through his hair, and groaned. It had been days since Jarvis had come back with the results of his background check on Kendis. Tony had unapologetically hacked the FBI, the NSA, and several other alphabet agencies, but nothing had come of it.

In all of his years, Tony had never had a fixation with a person. With the exception of the few people he kept in his personal circle, the rest of humanity was both predictable and dull. He would rather spend his valuable time with machines. Machines were way more fun.

Yet, his mind kept going back to Kendis. It was not only the mystery they presented that interested him. Tony kept getting flashes of the feel of their smooth skin, the way Kendis had felt as he sank deep inside their tight hole, and the flash of their bright green eyes. He also liked that Kendis wasn’t intimidated by him and didn’t hesitate to sass him right back.

Tony always had a weakness for people who could stand up to him.

He suddenly heard someone putting in the code for his workshop. , and he quickly adjusted his stiff aching cock before switching the screens and trying to pretend that he was working on the Jericho updates. Pepper entered the shop in her usual skirt suit, her Louboutin heels clacking against the concrete floor as she approached him.

“What can I do for you today?”

Pepper dropped a stack of paperwork on his desk and frowned. “You can get all of those signed by tomorrow, for starters.”

She looked at Stark’s tablet and went down the list. “You have a nine o’clock meeting with the head of R&D. And the Director of The Museum of African American Art wants to know if you are still interested in donating the Archibald Motley piece.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, barely paying attention, his brain already trying to figure out how to sort out the glitches in Jericho’s targeting system.

“You also have a meeting with the Secretary of Defense about a new contract for the Air Force.”

“Okay, it’s been a while since I saw Secretary Jenkins.”

“And this.” She took out a manila folder that had been tucked under her arm. “These are the annulment papers for wife number three.”

“Spouse,” Tony corrected her. “I believe they told me they were non-binary.”

“Spouse number three,” Pepper said with a put-upon sigh as she dropped the folder on top. of the desk. “Three spouses in eight years. No more spouses.”

“Ouch!” Tony put his hand to his heart. “What if I fall in love?”

Pepper rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything. “Just sign the annulment papers. Your attorneys want to get rolling on this before the press catches wind of it. By the way, your publicist is threatening to skin me alive if you don’t answer her phone calls.”

Tony rolled his eyes and ignored it. His publicist was all bark and no bite…well, mostly. That was future Tony’s problem anyway. 

“Aren’t we having the marriage records sealed?” Tony frowned as Dum-e whirled over to him and handed him a smoothie. The smoothie looked more like motor oil than actual fruits and veggies.

“Sealing your marriage records takes time, and the Nevada courts are dragging their feet.”

“You, sir, are a menace,” Tony said to Dum-e as he handed the drink back to him. Dum-e gave him a sad mechanical whine. Tony patted the mechanical arm. “I’ll drink it once you stop putting motor oil in it.”

Dum-e whined again and sadly rolled away, back to the kitchenette.

“Tony,” Pepper called out. He turned back to her and lifted an eyebrow. “Just sign the papers.”

“Sure thing, Pep!” Tony said with an innocent smile that Pepper, who had been working for him far too long, didn’t fall for in the slightest. “I’ll sign them and get them right back to you!”

Pepper stared at him, narrowing her blue eyes, but said nothing as she turned around, her high ponytail swaying as she walked away.

“Program Enchanted Engines in my GPS,” Tony ordered as he stretched and stood up.

“Sir, can I inquire what your plan of action is?” Jarvis asked.

“I think it’s time I did a little fact-finding mission,” Tony said as he grabbed his keys, slid into his white Audi R8, and drove out of the lab.

***

Enchanted Engines was located smack dab in the middle of Burbank, and with traffic, the 45-minute ride took an hour and a half because the 101 was always hell. The place took up most of the street and was protected by a black wrought-iron fence.

As he parked in front of the building, he smiled grimly. It looked more like a compound than a place of business. The property took up most of the street and was protected by a wrought-iron fence. The business itself was located in a light yellow steel prefab building that had two big garage doors. There was a row of motorcycles parked in front of the glass door.

Tony couldn’t be sure from where he was parked, but he thought he spotted a sweet-looking vintage Triumph Bonneville next to a black Kawasaki ZX-6R. Across the large gravel courtyard was a white ranch-style house with a neatly manufactured lawn and picturesque garden.

The visual dichotomy was jarring.

Tony got out of the car and put on his shades. He frowned at the loud rap music blasting from one of the bays. Rap wasn’t his genre, as he preferred Aerosmith to Jay Z, but he idly bopped his head because the beat made him want to dance.

Tony walked to the gate, and jumped nearly a foot in the air as a big fucking black dog that looked more like a hellhound than an actual dog lunged at him from behind the fence. The gate jangled loudly as the dog pushed up against it.

“Holy shit!” Tony suddenly reconsidered his decision to come to Kendis’s place unannounced.

“Alke,” shouted a familiar British voice. “Heel.”

Alke settled down and sat, its beady eyes glued to Tony. And then Kendis walked out of the bay, and Tony immediately felt his mouth dry up.

After he had gotten home from Vegas, Tony had thought that he had been exaggerating how hot Kendis was.

She rocked a thin tank top that gave a tantalizing peek at her cleavage, her blue mechanic coveralls were unzipped down to her waist, showing off her killer abs, and her muscular arms were glistening with sweat and motor oil.

Kendis long cornrolls were pulled back into a tight bun, and those goddamn full lips of hers still looked lush and so very kissable. Yet, it was her dark green eyes that seemed to almost glow in the sunlight that left him breathless.

Tony’s jeans felt suddenly incredibly tight.

“Tony,” Kendis coughed and quickly corrected themselves. “Mr. Stark, what are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you about the annulment?” Tony answered.

“I’m surprised you are not making your solicitors do this.” Kendis shook their head.

Tony shrugged and gave them his best smile. “What can I say? I’m a hands-on type of guy.”

Kendis narrowed their eyes for a moment and then sighed.

“Fine,” Kendis bit out. “Alke, go to your bed.”

Alke obediently left.

‘At least the dog was well-trained,’ Tony thought to himself.

Kendis punched in the code, and the gate opened up.

“You can park inside,” Kendis said. “Plenty of room.”

Tony jogged back to his car and drove inside the compound. He parked right next to the Kawasaki ZX-6R. Then he grabbed the papers and got out as Kendis walked over to his car.

“Follow me.” Kendis walked away, and he followed them inside the shop. The front reception area was pretty much like any repair shop that he had ever been to. There was a large reception desk with a register and a sleek laptop sitting on top of it. Behind the desk was a plump Black woman with a huge blonde afro who was around Kendis’s age, wearing a tight sheath dress and gold bamboo hoops that contrasted nicely against her rich umber skin and dark brown eyes.

The woman looked Tony up and down and whistled. “Bloody hell! Is that—”

Kendis put up their hand. “Not now, Hortense.”

Hortense rolled her eyes in a huff. “Shall I go tell Isiah to cover for you for a bit?”

Kendis gave her a relieved smile, and Hortense sashayed out of the front lounge. Tony then followed Kendis as they walked around the desk and down a short hallway to a door. They opened the door to reveal a small office.

“Take a seat, Mr. Stark,” Kendis said as they took a seat behind their desk. Tony sat down and sprawled as much as he could on the uncomfortable desk chair across from them. He took in the tiny space. A dark walnut desk took up most of the room, and squeezed in the corner was a file cabinet that had seen better days. Behind the desk was a black leather office chair, and on top of the desk there was a stack of papers and an actual honest god ledger, but no sight of a computer. ‘Who in the hell didn’t use a computer?’

Tony shook his head in dismay as his eyes took in the framed photos on the wall.

Framed photos of Kendis with different people adorned the walls. A group of redheads, who almost looked like they could be related to Pepper, surrounded Kendis. Another photo that caught his attention was a photo of a much younger Kendis with her standing between another redhead white man and a Black woman with dark brown skin and an enormous afro standing in front of an actual castle.

“Now, tell me the real reason why one of the richest men in America is hand-delivering legal papers. I thought you saved all of that for the peons.” Kendis asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

Tony tried to think up the most delicate way he could broach the subject of Kendis’ fake identity. But in the end, he said fuck it, because Stark men didn’t do delicate.

“Who are you?”

Kendis blinked. “What?”

“Kendis Black does not exist.” Tony leaned forward, quickly closing the distance between them. “I want to know who the hell I married!”