[ She pauses at his tug against the restraints, brushes her thumb across his cheek again. ] You could. You could give me the safeword right now and I wouldn't say another word, and you could walk out in a minute. [ Because she still has difficulty believing she truly has this, any of this. Because she will never be able to hold him to something he truly doesn't want.

And no, she doesn't share that opinion much at all. Tony has a terrible habit of not listening to the things he doesn't want to hear or doesn't think he can believe, has a way of dancing his way out of needing to hear them at all, and then dismissing them if he concludes that they aren't right. Which he's doing right now, at least a little bit, she's pretty sure. She doesn't know how to communicate it closer without actually showing him, and she doesn't want to do that to him because it will hurt, at least a little, for both of them, and that's not fair. But him refusing to believe this or acknowledge it is only going to hurt him. ]

You're not the person you insist on thinking of yourself as. [ Quiet but precise, insistent. ] You are not the Merchant of Death, or a failure, or anything in this relationship but an equal partner who has made me very happy. [ She's keeping her space from him, trying to keep him from feeling trapped but still maintaining eye contact with him. ] What you are is a good person. You are absolutely worth anything I have ever managed to do for you and far, far more.