Perhaps that's why her fingers stay where they are. He's not discouraging her from doing it with that smile by any means. She can understand that feeling of having to wear a mask all to well. Natasha has spent so much of her life pretending to be someone else that sometimes she wonders if 'Natasha Romanoff' is even a real person. Surely the Black Widow wouldn't do something as foolhardy as initiating that kind of contact with a man who has such authority over her. Tasha, however, doesn't even notice what she's doing, not until he reaches for her hand and ...damn it.
She nearly jerks away at the feeling of his fingers around her wrist. In that instant Natasha freezes, her entire body tensing as she assumes she's stepped over an invisible line, pushed past a boundary she was never meant to even consider pushing past. Her jaw drops open then clamps shut again. Much like him she has no idea what to say, if anything. She knows very well how dangerous a man he can be. Not the details, of course, but no one gets to be Level Seven without a few casualties. A few splashes of red on a perfect ledger. She watches him as he looks at their hands, staring so intently at the unexpected closeness and the gentle way he's trapped her wrist that she almost doesn't hear him speak.
Natasha looks at him, eyes searching every details of his face as she listens. She can't get a read on him, and normally that would make someone like her very angry to not figure someone out quickly. Phil's exempt from that, though...she's not supposed to have him figured out.
Is she?
No one can see the outcome, they can't even try to make a guess. This is nothing any of them have ever experienced or trained for. They're out of their depths, all of them, right on up to the Director himself.'Whatever happens, though...' The way Phil suddenly stops, the way he smiles only throws her another proverbial curve ball. She doesn't like it. "Whatever happens, though what?" Natasha spits out before she can stop herself.
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She nearly jerks away at the feeling of his fingers around her wrist. In that instant Natasha freezes, her entire body tensing as she assumes she's stepped over an invisible line, pushed past a boundary she was never meant to even consider pushing past. Her jaw drops open then clamps shut again. Much like him she has no idea what to say, if anything. She knows very well how dangerous a man he can be. Not the details, of course, but no one gets to be Level Seven without a few casualties. A few splashes of red on a perfect ledger. She watches him as he looks at their hands, staring so intently at the unexpected closeness and the gentle way he's trapped her wrist that she almost doesn't hear him speak.
Natasha looks at him, eyes searching every details of his face as she listens. She can't get a read on him, and normally that would make someone like her very angry to not figure someone out quickly. Phil's exempt from that, though...she's not supposed to have him figured out.
Is she?
No one can see the outcome, they can't even try to make a guess. This is nothing any of them have ever experienced or trained for. They're out of their depths, all of them, right on up to the Director himself.'Whatever happens, though...' The way Phil suddenly stops, the way he smiles only throws her another proverbial curve ball. She doesn't like it. "Whatever happens, though what?" Natasha spits out before she can stop herself.