Hello, Who is this?

18) Meeting

"Good morning gentlemen, shall we get started?" Tony forced a cheery smile as his eyes showed his distaste for the situation.

True to her word, Riley sat quietly next to Stark and simply made marked notes on the files in front of her. Things she felt may need to be circled back to at a later date or would be important to know later. Focusing on a pattern she saw appearing, she didn't notice when one of the men in the room tried to get discreetly get her attention. Finally, he gave up on subtlety and cleared his throat loudly, causing her to look up at the men across from her while she worked to process what she was afraid she was seeing through their smokescreen. "Excuse me Miss, what is your name and title here at the company?"

"You may call me Miss Swanson and I was requested to be here by Mr Hammer over the phone this morning. I am more concerned with the lawsuit you are attempting to gain information about. The one that the government is working to push forward while they have zero grounds to do so. If you are inquiring about it though, that tells me that you are fishing for your own contract or hoping to swoop in and grab whatever free tech shakes loose during the proceedings. That, however, would be infringing on Mr Stark's rights to the tech, as well as his business's privacy. You do not have any ongoing contracts with Stark Industries and therefore, have no right to access the information you are fishing for."

Every person at the table sat up and shifted in discomfort while Tony sat forward a bit and looked sideways at the notes on the files. "This meeting wasn't by chance an attempt to scare me into giving more info than is readily available to the public, right? A half-baked sham of a plan to lie your way into my offices with the threat of buying my company out from under me, right Hammer? We all know that your plans never work out the way they are supposed to though, do they Hammer? Not everyone is quite my level of genius."

Riley suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and tried to remind herself that professionalism is not Tony Stark's strong suit. As she began neatly putting the files back together, one of the men spoke up. Based on his appearance, her guess was that this was the infamous Hammer. "One day Stark, one day things will not go the way you want. I can't wait for the day you fall and hit rock bottom." He turned to Riley and stuck his hand out to her. "It was an absolute pleasure to meet such a sharp and beautiful young woman such as yourself. When you decide to be seen for more than your physical attributes, I would love for you to come work under me." Riley nodded but tilted her head at the end of his statement, locking eyes with him and trying not to physically cringe as he continued to touch her while seemingly undressing her with his eyes.

Tony nearly punched Hammer when he saw how uncomfortable he made Riley. He instead cleared his throat and moved to gently grip Riley's elbow while picking up the folders from the table. "Lovely seeing you all, let's do this again never. Have a good day."

After calling security to ensure all members from the company left, Tony pulled Riley into the elevator. "Are you okay? You looked really uncomfortable towards the end there."

"I am good Mister Mobster. He just said something that made it hard not to cringe, add in the creepy handshake that was lasting way too long, I am just happy that is over with."

"You did really well in there. I hadn't noticed the fishing for info like you did and the way you called them out on it, I am impressed princess."

Riley was smiling but shot him a small glare when he used the nickname. She quickly let it go though with a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head while a smirk grew on her lips. "And everyone thinks I am trouble, Mr Stark."

Tony spun to face her, "What ever could you mean Riley?" She laughed at his big puppy eyes and attempt at an innocent face.

"Mr Stark, sir, that face does not match the stories I have heard about the billionaire playboy. I am pretty sure the last time you were that innocent, you were in your single digits."