Reality (Linstead AU)

Chapter 11

She's come to apologise, Jay thought, watching Erin for a second through the peephole. She's come to apologise, and we may well have sex right away. It turned him on before he even opened the door. He made like he hadn't used the peephole, looking surprised to see her.

"Erin? How did you get my room number? I know I didn't tell you it."

Erin ignored him and got straight to her point. "You don't like people playing games with you? Well, neither do I. You think I don't know what all the hot again, cold again act is? You're angry because I'm better at those kinds of games than you are. Here's the deal, Jay. If this is ever going to become a thing between us, I'm going to be the dominant one in the couple, not you. You're going to have to decide if you're man enough to handle that. Have a good night."

Jay was rendered speechless as she turned and walked away. He had never been spoken to like that by a woman in his life. Part of him was affronted, but a much larger part of him found it a powerful turn on. He wanted to go after her, force her against the wall and fuck her. But of course he couldn't do that, so he closed the door and sat down on the bed, still processing what she had said.

Where was the Erin he had first met? That was what he wanted to know. Only a few months ago, when their storyline had first been pitched, she had seemed shy and retiring, wandering about backstage like a fish out of water around the wrestlers. Now she had transformed into some kind of alpha female.

The former had been in a professional setting, the latter was in a personal one. That was the difference, he realised. She hadn't had a lot of confidence about being on the road with WWE, although that was changing quickly. In relationships, however, she seemed to have all the confidence in the world. For Jay, it was a challenge and an experience like no other. With every intense encounter they had, his desire for her only grew stronger.

His mind turned to the question of what to say the next time he saw her.

-----

To Jay's frustration, the next non-televised show that Erin worked was Thursday night, meaning that he had gone three days without seeing her by then. She and her alpha female attitude had gone swanning off to her big house and her fancy office job. But now she was back on the road, and he had just set eyes on her at a junction at the end of a hallway, talking to Zelina Vega and Raquel Gonzalez. He had no hesitation in deciding to go down there and interrupt.

Zelina saw Jay coming and said something to the other two. By the time Jay got to Erin, Zelina and Raquel had walked off along one of the hallways, leaving them to it.

"Ah, there you are," Erin said brightly.

This time, Jay was determined to seize the upper hand, after glancing around to make sure no one might be listening in. "You want no more games? Fine. But I can't see myself having a woman in charge of me in a relationship. I don't roll like that."

Erin burst out laughing at him, which wasn't exactly the reaction he had expected. "I knew you would take that seriously."

"Sorry, what?" he asked, having no idea what was going on.

"Jay, you really had better stop the games because I'm tying you in so many knots that soon you won't know which comes first, your head or your ass. I don't want to be in charge of you. What kind of nonsense even is that? I just said that to you so that you'd hopefully spend three days thinking about it. And you obviously did."

He held up his hands in defeat. There was no denying it – she had him beaten at his own shtick. "Okay, okay. You've made your point. No more games. Honestly."

"Alright," she said with one of those dazzling smiles. "I'll go get changed then. We should start training, right?"

Jay looked at her blankly. "What?"