Happy Monday everyone!
I want to send a special shout out to Amnbama today- she's having neck surgery- so many many many warm thoughts and well wishes to her! And I promised her that I would have a chapter ready for her to read, so here it is! Heal up soon, ma'am!
As always- thank you for those who have favorited & followed- you guys rock!
Chapter 9: Pillow Talk
Katherine winced at the loud hiss the small coffee maker in the room made as it finished brewing her one small cup of coffee. In the dim light and the quiet it seemed far too loud. She gave a quick glance over her shoulder to the bed.
Seth was still asleep; he didn't even stir at the sound, stretched out on his back and one arm tucked under his two pillows.
She smiled softly at the sight of him. He was peaceful and relaxed while he slept. She was happy to see him resting after watching him struggle to keep his eyes open just a few hours before, trying to stay awake for her. He had finally fallen asleep before her in the middle of conversation about how things were going to work the next two days with the shows and traveling and she had shimmied out of his comfortable grip from their cuddling to turn off the lights and settled in and hoped she didn't disturb him.
Bless me he's handsome… she thought to herself as she looked at him.
Now she was wide awake for no discernible reason other than 'why the hell not?' She always had trouble sleeping and staying asleep when she was away from home. So she had retrieved her laptop from her bag and settled in the middle of her area of the bed to knock out a little work while he was still sleeping.
She crawled back to her spot again, glancing at him to make sure she still hadn't bothered him. "Quiet as a church mouse…" she muttered to herself. She sat Indian style and cradled the small Styrofoam cup in her hands and turned her attention back to her laptop to read over what she had been working on.
Seth stirred from his sleep slowly, blinking several times and letting his eyes adjust to the dim light in the room. He didn't even remember falling asleep; he barely remembered what he and Ren were talking about before he dozed off. He rubbed his face with one hand and a soft smile spread across his lips when he realized that Ren was sitting in the middle of the bed. He could make out the green of ear her buds and she was slightly hunched over her computer. He turned his head to the side to look at the clock on the night stand and check the time. He didn't want to move too much and disturb her yet; he wanted to have a little moment of watching her before she realized he was awake.
They were both awake earlier than they needed to be. They had thirty minutes before his alarm would be going off.
She had curled up on the bed and snuggled up to him when she had gotten out of the shower and they had just talked and laughed and watched TV until he fell asleep. There hadn't been any awkward hesitation, it was just natural. He was glad it was natural. He knew that there were still things between them that needed to be worked out and talked out but for the moment he was happy. She made him happy. It had been a long time since he had felt the connection with someone like he felt with her and he knew for certain that he wanted more than what their friendship had been up until the night before. It wasn't just pure physical attraction, either. He wouldn't deny the physical attraction and how tough it had been to be so close to her and not behave like a horny teenager, but it was definitely more.
She was guarded. She had been since the night they had met. There were little moments where she opened up to him and the more they had talked the more it happened. It would drop more when she talked about her family, especially her niece, and when she got him to talk about his life. He had every intention of trying his best to make her let the guard all the way down.
He wanted it all with her.
She sat up straight and stretched her arms above her head and her shirt, his shirt that she had commandeered the night before, lifted up slightly and he could just make out part of one of the tattoos she had on her back.
He reached out towards her. She was sitting just close enough that he was able to slip his fingers under the edge of her shirt and tickle her lightly on the side.
She jumped away from him and let out a string of cuss words as she pulled her ear buds from her ears and whipped her head around at him.
He was laughing quietly and she sent him a death glare.
"You scared the shit out of me!" she exclaimed.
"I know," he laughed.
"Jesus…fucking, fuck, Seth…" she stuttered out, resting her hand on her chest and taking a deep breath. He was still laughing. "How long have you been laying there watching me like a little creepster?"
"Only a minute or two," he replied. He cleared his throat and tried to settle down his laughter. "What are you doing?"
"I was working."
"At 6:30 am?"
"I couldn't sleep," she shrugged, "well, I slept fine I just don't sleep well in hotels, really. I never stay asleep."
"I'm sorry," he frowned slightly.
"It's fine, I expect it. I'm just too much of a home body I think."
"Says the girl that is always on the go…"
"In my hometown."
"What kind of work are you doing? I'm pretty sure I remember you promising me you were going to leave the station behind while you were here…"
"I did; I'm doing…pleasure work?" she gave him a bewildered face. "I was writing a blog post about last night and all of you guys. I figure that the WWE is sports entertainment so it falls under my sports umbrella and it'll be something new instead of me or Amber dribbling on about hockey and football and how much we hate Jay Cutler…"
"Leave my QB alone."
She grinned at him.
"Are you going to break the news to your fan boys that you were writing that blog while Seth Rollins was in bed next to you?"
"I do not have fan boys."
"Oh…you definitely do. I have seen your twitter and your Instagram…"
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "you're one to talk."
"You posted those flowers that I got you and some of them were so salty. It was sweet."
"I'm pretty sure the consensus was how lucky I was to be getting such gorgeous flowers and how lucky you were to have me to send flowers to. Thank you; and I am pretty damn lucky."
"You didn't say they were from me."
"I wasn't going to flaunt that. I'm a humble bragger. And I didn't know if it was okay to do that…"
"It's okay, I don't care. Unless your fan boys come after me."
"Stop," she scolded, trying to hold back her amusement at their snarky exchange. "You're so smug. I'm going to tell the world that you talk in your sleep."
"I'll tell them that you snore."
"I know I do, I'm sorry…I should've warned you about that. I broke my nose when I was younger and I never got it properly fixed…"
"Ah, I didn't mind it. It's kind of cute, actually. It could be worse." He reached for hand and laced their fingers together and pulled her over to him. She laughed lightly and settled in to him, resting her hand on his chest and resting her chin on her hand. "How did you break your nose?"
"I know I do, I'm sorry…I should've warned you about that. I broke my nose when I was younger and I never got it properly fixed…"
"Ah, I didn't mind it. It's kind of cute, actually. It was like a cat...it could be worse." He reached for hand and laced their fingers together and pulled her over to him. She laughed lightly and settled in to him, resting her hand on his chest and resting her chin on her hand. He lightly ran his finger down her nose. "How did you break your nose?"
She laughed and lowered her head, resting her forehead against her hand.
"Oh I feel like this is going to be a good story," he replied, smiling.
"Oh man, when I was in 8th grade we took a class field trip to the skating rink during school, it was like a reward for good grades you know? Someone had spilled some drink on the floor and they missed some when they cleaned it up and I was jammin right along to some Destiny's Child like I was hot shit and my roller blades hit the puddle and I very ungracefully went face first into the wall."
"Oh fuck!" He tried not to laugh but couldn't hold back a snort and a snicker. "Oh that's not funny but it is…"
"Yeah, yeah," she frowned and chuckled. "It was awful. There was blood everywhere and I had a black eye and the whole fucking grade saw it. Everyone. I was mortified."
"Did you drop out and move away right then and there?"
"I'm pretty sure I asked my mom if we could. I became 'that' girl. I wanted to hide under a paper bag when I went back the next day. I couldn't get a date for a good year, everyone thought I would trip or fall and be embarrassing," she grinned. "Amber stuck by me."
"I would've totally dated middle school Ren; black eye and all."
She smiled, "I was a theatre nerd."
"I was a wrestling nerd with red spiky hair."
"No!" She laughed, "red?"
"I was so cool."
"I bet you were!" she replied, matching his teasing tone and smile. "I need to see this."
He shook his head and rubbed his face before chuckling. "It's on google if you look hard enough. I tweeted it once and it's made the rounds."
"I'm filing this away. As soon as we're up and active I am hunting that down."
"You know now that you've told me this story your nose is kind of crooked. You've got a bent beak, little bird."
She frowned at him, "brat."
"Have you broken anything else?"
"Hearts," she quipped quickly and added a wink with it.
He groaned and rolled his eyes. "Ren…"
"No, I haven't broken anything else, knock on wood. Lots of twisted ankles and sprained things, lots of bruises and cuts, I have a few scars, but no other broken bones."
"You're a tough woman."
"I'm a southern woman," she smiled.
"I thought you southern women were supposed to be proper little belles."
"If you want a proper little belle you have picked the wrong girl, my dear."
"No, I'm happy with my pick," he shook his head.
Ren dipped her head and tried to hide her smile; it was going to take a few days until she warmed herself up to hearing a comment like that from him. He had always had a habit of dropping little flirty quips at her but it felt different to her now.
He took her chin into his fingers, between his thumb and pointer finger, and lifted her head while pulling her closer so he could kiss her.
She smiled as he kissed her, moving to get closer to him, and welcomed the feeling of his hand tangling in her hair. With little effort he rolled them over, supporting himself over her. She could feel just enough of his body weight on her that it sparked a rush of butterflies and desire in her.
She was thankful that there was still a blanket between them. She was thankful there wasn't more skin on skin contact aside from his lips on hers and the light feeling of his fingertips on her face. This she could resist; she could stop herself.
But lord, he was hard to resist.
They were both lost in it, making up for the lost time between their first meeting and now.
Ren wasn't sure how much time passed; he trailed kisses down her neck and back to her lips, she bit down gently on his bottom lip.
Then the alarm on his phone started sounding from the night stand next to his side of the bed.
"Fucking…ugh…" he grumbled, breaking their kiss and hanging his head with a heavy sigh. "Always the fucking alarm."
Ren chuckled underneath him and smiled softly. She patted his face. "The alarm might be a good thing…"
He smirked and kissed her again, quick and sweet, and then rolled away to silence the alarm. He turned his head and looked at her, "you ready for day two of this?"
"So ready."
The late night and early morning had caught up with Ren rather quickly once they got on the road and it had only taken a few minutes before she had fallen asleep. Seth had gently woken her up about an hour later. He had smiled warmly at her sleepy and confused look. He had stopped at Starbucks and wanted to know if she wanted anything.
She took the few minutes he was inside to check her phone and flip down the sun visor to give herself a once over. She had pulled on a Predators baseball cap with her t-shirt and long yoga pants that morning. She didn't see the need to put in too much effort when her next five hours were going to be spent in a car and Seth had just spent the night next to her. Anything a full face of makeup and curls were going to hide had been exposed. She would worry about her presentability once they made it to the next hotel.
Amber and Shelby were both dying for details about their night. Ren was going to ignore them for now.
He returned to the car and handed over her drink as he settled in to the driver's seat. She immediately took a sip of it and sighed, closing her eyes, at the hot drink.
"I swear I can already feel the caffeine in my veins," she said.
"There's like fifty shots of espresso in that so I wouldn't be surprised. I never thought I would find someone that was more into coffee than me."
"I'm sorry I fell asleep on you like two minutes into this drive," she frowned.
"It's fine. I know you didn't sleep great. I'm used to these drives; I can entertain myself."
"Do you talk to yourself?"
"I have before. I mostly just listen to music. Or lately I'll talk to you if it's before my curfew," he gave her a warm smile. "Am I ever going to get that lifted?"
"I'm thinking about it."
They settled into a shared silence; Ren waiting for her coffee to kick in and perk her up so she could actually talk to Seth and him navigating them back to the interstate.
"You know I don't like having to end our conversations and say goodnight," she stated out of the silence.
"I know. You have to get up at six, though, and I'm not gonna be selfish and make your day at work difficult. I've adjusted."
"What did your last girlfriend do? Was she part of all of this?"
"No," he shook his head, "She's a stylist; hair and makeup. She hated all of this."
"Really?"
He sighed, "yeah, it just…wasn't her thing. We met before I had any kind of success, I was wrestling in back yards and gas stations so getting here was a long a road and she didn't really care for the 'here'. It took too much of my time, I was gone too much, it changed me; she didn't understand my love for it…it was- it was a big point of contention between us. I'm not going to say I was totally innocent, I wasn't, but it was what it was. She didn't know how to love Seth and Colby- she just wanted Colby."
"Are you friends?"
"Yeah we're cordial but I don't think I would call us friends. She still lives in Davenport, she has a new guy, she's happy. We share Kevin; she takes care of him when I'm on the road."
Ren nodded and sipped her coffee.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing," she gave him a small smile, "that was just, uh, the first 'skeletons in the closet' moment we've had. We have officially reached that point."
He glanced at her and chuckled, "the look on your face."
"Jealousy," she shrugged, "I can't help it."
He reached over and took her hand and squeezed it lightly before lifting it and kissing her knuckles. "I like your honesty."
"I've always made it a point to try and be honest with you."
"So have I, and there's nothing to be jealous of, I promise you that. You're here in this car with me right now for a reason." He looked over at her, as well as he could since he was driving, and she graced him with another small smile.
"I know I am."
"What's on your plate when you get home? Any big events?"
Katherine relaxed a little at his quick change of topic. "The usual; work and my show on Thursday. This weekend and next weekend I'm working at the Ryman."
"Doing what?"
"Photography for their shows; I freelance for them sometimes for big shows. They don't have someone in-house right now and I took some pictures at a show earlier this year and the manager stumbled upon them by chance on Facebook and emailed me because she loved them. It's a nice little extra paycheck and I get to see a concert and work at the same time."
"Anyone good?"
"That's a loaded question since our tastes in music don't necessarily mesh all the time. A few months ago I got to shoot the Black Keys, though. That was kind of nifty."
"I'd like to come down there soon," he said, glancing at her again.
She smiled, "I'd like for to come down soon. I'm guessing you have an idea of when since you're bringing it up."
"Am I that transparent?"
She shrugged, "I think I'm just starting to figure you out."
"Our next pay per view is the 13th and I would have RAW and Smackdown after that but I was thinking that week. It would be kind of an early Christmas…I can try and get time off from the house shows that weekend."
"You…don't have to do that. That's your work; I don't want to take you away from that."
"I want to; if you can pencil me into your schedule."
She cut a look at him and scowled, "I will always fit you into my schedule. I'm not that busy."
"Lies already," he teased her.
"I would love for you to come that week; if it's through the weekend or even just the couple of days, either one are better than nothing. That Saturday is a work thing, though. We're going to the Preds game but you would be more than welcome. All the girls can tell you how amazing you are because you send me flowers."
"There will be many more flowers in your future."
"I'm not going to complain about that." She pulled her phone out of the cup holder and opened her calendar app. "So that's two weeks. That's not awful."
"You think you can be away from me for two weeks now that you've spent time with me?" he grinned, cutting his eyes at her.
She laughed lightly, "I mean it won't be fun but I'll keep myself busy."
"It'll fly by," he replied and then nodded at her and pointed to his cheek, "lean over here and kiss me."
She gave him a slightly shy smile and then leaned across the console and kissed his cheek quickly.
"Thank you, now here, Miss Ren Bolt Radio…get your DJ on…" he fished his phone from where it was tucked under his leg in the seat. "We have four more hours; make it good. I don't usually let people DJ so this is a big honor…"
"Best of Garth Brooks, coming right up!" she grinned.
