He's doing that thing again where he pretends things are fine. Now is not the time to call him on it.

That's a good question, anyway. "Because I'm good at reading people, and you're nice. Because you respected my boundaries as soon as I laid them out. Because you are a lot more than you came off as in your first network broadcast," she explains gently. "Because I want to." Pepper smiles, almost wry."And also because I can take care of myself if you turn out to be a space god that tries to kill me. Had that happen once already, so I think I'd be better prepared the second time around."