[Author Commentary] The Temporary Spouse: Chapter 7- The Chemistry Between Us

Another day, another author commentary. in hindsight, this chapter is so pivotal to the plot, and since you love the author’s commentary for chapter four. I decided to give you another author’s commentary. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts. so leave them down in the comments.

Kendis just stared at their husband in shock.  The part of her brain that wasn’t screaming and panicking suddenly longed for a time-turner. She really wanted to go back to a few days ago and slap the shit out of her past self.  ‘Of all the men I had to marry, I had to marry this nosy bastard?’

“Nothing to say?” Tony taunted, and she rolled her eyes.

“No.” Kendis shrugged as she did her best to fix her face. “I rarely entertain people’s baseless accusations.”

Tony gave an incredulous chuckle. “Baseless? Your records are faker than plastic.”

I love writing snarky dialogue and since Tony Stark is the master of snark I can’t resist him being a cheeky bastard to Kendis. But to be fair? Kendis can and will match him word for word. It’s one of the things beyond their mysterious background that keeps Tony interested. It’s pretty much canon Tony has a weakness for people who are not afraid to take him down a peg or two.

In hindsight, I think my boy Tony has a bit of a masochistic streak.

Kendis snorted and then snatched the folder out of his hands.  She flipped through the documents and knew she should send them to her attorney.  Draco Malfoy was her barrister in England, but she knew he would have contacts, who were licensed in California.

She really wanted this man out of her life, and the sooner, the better.  He had already dug uncomfortably far into her background.  Kendis grabbed a biro and quickly scrawled her signature on the places conveniently marked by arrow sticky notes.

“Done,” Kendis said. “Now get out.”  She handed Tony the papers and guided him to the door. He spun suddenly, and in a smooth pivot, slammed her against the door with a loud thump.

The thing about Kendis here is that she is very attracted to Tony but she doesn’t trust Tony. Hell, after everything that happened to her walls are a million feet high and made of steel. And rightfully so, considering what I know about her past, especially after Book 7 ends.

And I love Tony, but Tony is such bugaboo and he’s arrogant enough to think that he has a right to all the answers (spoiler alert: he doesn’t).

“What,” Kendis squeaked. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m not leaving until you tell me the truth,” Tony said, quickly pushing into their personal space. “I want to know exactly what you got me involved in.”

Kendis snorted. “Mr. Stark, we are strangers.  Once the papers are filed, we will go our separate ways. Now, if you don’t mind? I have work to do.”

“I don’t like mysteries,” Tony said, his fingers brushing against her cheek.

Kendis should push him away.  She was not some helpless damsel in distress, and they had brought more than their share of pushy men to their knees.  Yet, the logical part of her brain was overshadowed by the magnetic pull between them.

“What are you doing?” Kendis said, ignoring his question.

“Kissing you,” Tony said, and the folder dropped, and the papers spilled onto the floor as he took her mouth in a long, passionate kiss.

Tony is so smooth here! 😅 But the thing is that even though Kendis wants to strangle him she has been hot and bothered since she saw him at her gate. There is a reason why I choose the title of the chapter to be “The Chemistry Between Us.”

First, it’s the title of the fantastic song by Bush and is the song I wrote this entire chapter too. Tony and Kendis have fantastic chemistry and it was a struggle for me as a writer to not to have them screw for most of this story. I actually want this fic to have a plot. 😉

This fic is a slow burn, but this is the type of slow burn in which they fuck a lot as they slowly catch feelings. It’s been a challenge because I usually write the opposite of them falling first and then they have sex, but Kendis and Tony are so horny for each other that I couldn’t do it.

Kendis moaned as their tongues fought for dominance while he rocked his hips against her. The feel of his rough beard and soft, full lips against hers should have been disconcerting since Kendis didn’t sleep with many men, and the last person she had kissed had been a woman. But it only added fuel to her growing desire.

Her hands slid into his thick, dark brown hair as he continued to rock against them. Even through the barrier of his jeans, she could feel his ramrod-hard cock against their stomach.  Kendis undulated her hips, groaning in disappointment at the lack of friction.

Kendis is the type of bisexual person who prefers women to men. I am biaroace myself, and when I do have relationships I tend to prefer to have relationships with women so this is pulled from my own lived experience and was also inspired by the bi women I know in real life.

Most of my friends are like, “I could be with a woman but this one man came out of nowhere and made me fall in love him. I couldn’t help it!” 😅 Tony is very lucky that Kendis even gave him the time of day!

“You want this, baby?” Tony asked, his voice low and husky, and Kendis felt like they were close to coming out of their skin.

“If you want me to go,” Tony said, his tongue flickering against the shell of Kendis’s ear. “I’ll go.”

“T-this…” Kendis panted for breath. “This is such a bad idea.”

We all know that Kendis Black is like the mistress of bad ideas. It’s the Gryffindor in her! Also, can you blame her? Tony Stark in that deep voice calling her baby? Stronger folks than Kendis have crumpled under that.

“You are going to tease me now?”

Kendis looked down at his cock, which was red and hard for her. She glanced up and smirked. “No, I want you to come inside me.”

“Yeah–, yeah, I can do that.” Tony shuddered, then he gave her a sly look. “But you are still too dressed for this party, darling.”

“You ain’t said nothing but a word,” Kendis said with a cheeky wink, and then they toed off their work boots and shoved off their coveralls, jeans, and panties in one go.

Honestly? I’m not going to comment that much on the smut. It’s good enough smut that it had me taking a break to make a few laps around the house to calm down.

However, I will talk about the last sentence. If you haven’t noticed I’m a Black person from Texas and that means that I speak AAVE or African American Vernacular English. This is not Gen Z slang but an English dialect with centuries of context. Kendis is speaking AAVE (a lot of non-American Black folks do) because she spent most of her adult life in America.

You will see her mix British slang, AAVE, and American English interchangeably in this series. More AAVE and American English than British slang because I sometimes forget that Kendis is British since Kendis’s character pulls so much from my own lived experience as a Black American.

Tony slid all the way out and then carefully slid back in.

“Now, who’s the tease?” Kendis huffed and squeezed her pussy around him.

“Fuck!” Tony swore under his breath. “You’re evil.”

“I’m just someone who knows what they want,” Kendis smirked. “Now put your back into it.”

Kendis’s cheek just turns Tony on like nothing else. Again, one of the biggest things that keeps Tony’s interest is the fact that Kendis is not impressed nor intimidated by him.

He rested his head on her chest, and Kendis sat there for a while, doing her best not to think about all the implications of what they had just done together.  With a sigh, Kendis opened her eyes and saw a sickeningly familiar black envelope.

She was no longer in her office but in a dim room, and a man stood over her with a rictus-like grin on his face as he pointed his wand at her.

This is really I think the first time you get a sneak peek into the main plot of this story and Chester’s first move against Kendis since he got out of prison. Now, I can’t tell you much without spoiling the rest of the fic but this bit here is where things really start to pop off.

All I can say that it’s going to be a rollercoaster ride so hold your butts folks! 😅

The feeling of dread got even worse. The last time she had felt this feeling, someone had died. Tony needed to leave before she had someone else’s blood on her hands.

“None of your business,” Kendis snapped. “Leave now before I call the police. I don’t think you want that to get on the six o’clock news.”

As much as Kendis looks like an unfeeling bitch here (this is why writing this chapter from her POV was so important), she is actually looking out for Tony. Look at it from her POV. Tony is a rich white boy who has never known the horrors of war. Kendis is a war general that tends to lose the people closest to her.

And the last person she got close to was brutally murdered in front of her. Kendis now knows that Chester is in Los Angeles and Tony getting close to her is just putting a big fat target on his back. She’s trying to protect both of them from getting hurt.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I can help you,” Tony said, his eyes oddly sincere and with none of his usual playfulness. It touched something inside that Kendis refused to acknowledge.

“I don’t need your help.”

I have so many feelings about Tony and this short time before he becomes Iron Man. I have always felt that Tony was an unreliable narrator when it comes to his own journey. Yes, he was a selfish fuckboi before he became Iron Man. However, I don’t think Rhodey would stay close to Tony if that was all that he was. I think the seeds of the hero that Tony will later become have always been there.

I also think that as a writer, it makes Tony’s journey more realistic if I show that he had all the ingredients of a hero way before building his first Iron Man suit. And I don’t think Tony could see a person who is in obvious need of help and simply walk away.

Beyond that (and you will see later on in the story) there is something about Kendis that just pulls at his protective instincts. He wants to keep her safe and protected and Kendis very much feels the same towards him. She wants to protect Tony and that is partly the reason she is pushing him away in this moment.

Even this early on in their relationship, you can see that Kendis and Tony are very protective of each other.

Kendis waited until Tony closed the door behind him and pulled the envelope out of the drawer.  With shaking hands, she opened it and there was just a single line.

I found you.

There is not much I can say about this bit but I will say that Chester is only going to get worse from here. But you are going have to keep watching to see how!

Thanks so much for reading my author commentary and I might do a few more during this story. I’ll see ya’ll in the next update!