Chapter 12

4 months.

Ganesa couldn't believe her and Joe had been together that long. She sat in her office working on the Shield's advertising and PR for WrestleMania. It would be a great match. She knew the boys were down in the arena gym currently and, once they finished, Joe would shower and come down to retrieve her so they could go eat in catering. Her favorite time of the day was any time spent with Joe and her second favorite was watching him in the ring. She was completely fascinated with how a man who moved and wrestled like a caged animal was so gentle with her outside of the squared circle.

His brothers were right. Joe had to come clean to Ganesa about everything regarding Danielle. He hadn't cheated on her, so there was no reason for her to be upset with him. Granted, he did ask Colby for advice on some of the things he did for Ganesa and with her, but nothing big. For the most part, Joe made up his own mind on what to do with and for Ganesa, keeping whatever they did behind closed doors completely private. Walking into her office, Joe smiled while she was on the phone and waited, leaning against the wall with his arms folded in front of his chest. He was freshly showered, wearing his cargo pants, but no top since the vest was straining against his muscles.

"Hey beautiful." He greeted softly as soon as she got off the phone, kissing her lips softly and wrapped her in his strong arms, loving how she melted completely against him. "Hey, before we go down to catering, I need to talk to you about something. Do you have a minute or do you want to wait until we get back to the hotel tonight?"

Ganesa burrowed into his arms as they tightened around her, breathing his scent in and looked up at him with questioning eyes. "We've got plenty of time, I just finished up my work." She smiled softly. "Come here and sit down." Stepping back, Ganesa took his hand, guiding him over to the spare couch in her office and reached over, closing the door for privacy before sitting next to him. "Why do you look nervous babe? What's going on?"

She hoped everything was alright, not remembering ever seeing Joe nervous before. Not even before matches or pay-per-views. He was always levelheaded, so this concerned her as she moved to straddle his lap, resting her hands on his bare chest.

"Talk to me."

Joe stared deep into her dark neon green eyes and loved the feeling of her hands on his chest, resting his own on her hips. "Kiss me first." He smiled when she did, their tongues gliding together softly and Joe pulled back, pressing his forehead to hers as he sat up a little. "I know we haven't discussed any of our past relationships besides yours with Colby. There was a Diva that's now on the roster that I had a fling with when I was in FCW/NXT. It was Danielle Moinet. Don't ask me what I was thinking at the time because I simply wasn't. To be frank, earlier during my workout she was in the room with me and the boys and…walked up to me and made a pass. She slid her finger down my chest and popped it in her mouth and told me I looked good. I didn't do anything, even though I wanted to break her fucking finger for touching me, but I know how vindictive Danielle is. And I didn't want her coming to you telling you some stupid bullshit that's not true. I fucked her a few times, but it was a long time ago and you are the ONLY woman I want in my bed. I love you and only you. I just wanted to be honest with you because the last thing I ever want to do is lie to you, which I never will."

He felt a little better, though Joe wasn't sure what his beautiful girlfriend currently thought. Ganesa rolled her lips together, processing everything Joe just told her and honestly didn't know what to think. She smoothed her hands up his bare chest, scrapping her nails gently over his pebble pectoral nipples and smirked when he groaned in response. The effect she had on him was another favorite of Ganesa's, especially when she riled him up whenever they fooled around.

"I'm not worried about Danielle. If she wants to keep screwing around, I'll put her in her place. You don't hurt women so you just leave her to me. You're with me and I trust you. If you really wanted to be with her, then you wouldn't be with me." Ganesa pushed up slightly on her knees and captured his lips in a heated kiss. "All you have to worry about is making sure your dick doesn't jump out of your pants and into her. If that happens, both of you will have to contend with me and you do not want that." She scooted closer to him, cupping his face tenderly in her hands. "I love you too baby."

Joe smirked, loving her feistiness and nodded, suddenly burying his fingers in her hair as he slammed her mouth on his in a rough passionate kiss. "Damn straight, beautiful." He growled, feeling her chest push up against his as her fingers buried in his soft damp black hair. "There's something else I wanna talk to you about." His voice had dropped an octave, his hands sliding from her hips to her beautiful round pert backside, pressing her even closer to him. "I think we've waited long enough." Joe's mouth was right by her ear, his mouth and tongue assaulting her neck. He loved how her head tilted back to give him complete access to her succulent flesh and Joe took full advantage of it. "How about you and me tonight after the show? Because I don't think I can wait much longer to be buried inside of you, Ganesa."

Rolling her hips slightly against his growing erection, Ganesa giggled feeling it jerk against the bottom of her backside and Joe groaned again. Yes, she was screwing with him. Ganesa kissed him again, this time capturing his bottom lip between her teeth while her tongue toyed with it, letting her teeth slide down his lip until she released it. Then she kissed his mouth again to soothe the nipple with her tongue and moved to his strong jaw, kissing all the way up to his ear.

"Whenever you're ready to make me yours fully and claim me is when I'll be ready, baby. You remember that." She murmured seductively in his ear and pulled back, noticing his grey eyes were now nothing more than a dark storm brewing and felt breathless.

"Unless you want me to claim you right here and now, I suggest we get up and go down to catering." Joe growled against her lips, hearing her giggle and squeezed her beautiful ass in his strong hands.

"I didn't say we had to come to catering. We could've locked my office door and I would've been just as happy there."

"Later, my feisty minx." With pure strength, Joe stood from the couch with her legs locked around his waist and kissed her again, letting Ganesa slide down his body until her feet hit the floor. "I want you and only you. And I'm going to prove it tonight." He promised, running his thumb across her slightly swollen lip and took her hand, lacing their fingers together.

Just as they walked out of the dressing room, they saw Serice hauling her cookies down the hallway past them and Joe raised a brow, wondering where she was going. He shared a look with Ganesa, who obviously didn't have a clue what was going on as they headed toward catering. Jon would be there and maybe they would find out what was wrong with Serice. Once inside catering, they got their food and joined Jon, Colby and Celeste at the table with Joe pulling Ganesa's chair out for her. Ganesa smiled, winking up at him and took a seat, her eyes instantly landing on Jon.

"So, does anyone know why Serice was hot footing it through the arena? She could've taken me and Joe out if she was a bowling ball and we were the pins." Glaring playfully at Jon, Ganesa folded her arms in front of her chest. "What did you do to her?"

Jon hadn't been paying attention and thought Ganesa was being serious, growling. "Are you fucking kidding me?" When Joe growled at Jon, his blue eyes snapped up at Ganesa and saw she was taken aback by his brash tone. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap. I – I thought you were serious."

"You haven't told her yet, have you?"

"Told who what?" Jon shot back, pushing his food around on his plate.

Ganesa frowned, reaching over to take his hand and squeezed it. "You haven't told Serice how you feel about her yet. Jon, you've gotta tell her. You didn't spend all that time convincing her to stay just to pretend you don't have feelings for her now that she's living with you. Tell her. You are each other's support systems, but there's more and you know it. Ask anyone at this table, they won't lie. There's more between you and Serice just under the surface, but she's not going to break first. You've gotta let your balls drop and tell her. Be the man she needs in her life."

"Has anyone ever told you you're really opinionated, Nesa?" Jon growled and watched the red head nod, smiling at him, looking around the table at his comrades. "Is it really that fucking obvious?"

Joe snorted, wondering if Jon was serious now and emphatically nodded his head. "Don't ever growl at my woman again. Second, yes it's obvious and plain as the nose on your damn face, bro. You need to be honest with her before you end up losing her. I don't know why she hightailed it out of here and I really don't care. Either drop your balls and tell her, like my beautiful woman said, or let her go so she can move on and find a man who isn't a chicken shit." Joe knew baiting Jon would light a fire under the man's ass, piss him off and in turn make him admit his feelings to Serice. It was all a psychology thing with Jon.

"Somebody's pussy whipped." Colby chortled and groaned when Celeste elbowed him in the stomach.

"He's not the only one, babe." Celeste smirked, patting his face none too gently as everyone started laughing at Colby's reddened cheeks.

"Yeah well, you're worth being whipped by." He kissed Celeste's cheek, looking directly at Jon. "Listen to Ganesa, she knows Serice almost as well as you do and that girl feels as strongly about you as you do her."

"So get your head out of your ass and tell her already."

Ganesa laughed when Joe grabbed the leg of her chair to pull her closer to him and felt his lips kiss the side of her neck. Her hand rested on his cargo pant covered thigh, squeezing it gently and felt it flex against her touch. She slapped the top of Joe's leg, kissing his cheek. "Stop that. Thanks for defending my honor, but it's okay." She took a bite of chicken salad with Asian dressing, loving the food catering had because they always seemed to have what she liked.

"Nobody is going to disrespect my woman like that. Not even a man I consider a brother." Joe stated, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and kissed her lips softly, rubbing his nose against hers.

"Okay – okay I'll get it figured out and talk to her tonight. Maybe then I can find out why she hauled ass away from me to go back to her office." Jon stood up, tossing his food away and grabbed Serice's, kissing the top of Ganesa's head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get defensive." She smiled with a nod, letting him know everything was fine between them and Jon took off out of catering to go check on Serice.

Serice sat in her office staring down at the articles she had to go through for the Kid's magazine and couldn't stop the tears from sliding down her cheeks. She couldn't help it. She was scared to death. What was he doing here? Did Stephanie and Paul purposely hire him or something? So many thoughts ran through Serice's mind as she stood up from her desk and began pacing back and forth, wiping her tears away. She didn't care if her makeup smeared at this point, though it was waterproof. Did he see her? He had to of, she was laughing and carrying on like an idiot with Jon and he must've heard her. What if he came after her again? There was no way Jon would be able to stop him from doing whatever he wanted to her. Not even all 3 members of the Shield would be able to stop the monster. Oh god…Serice was screwed and she knew there was no place to run or hide.

A knock came at her office door, jolting Serice out of her thoughts. "Come in." She mumbled, scrubbing a hand down her face and couldn't have been happier to see it was Jon.

"Hey, you didn't eat anything, so I brought you a couple of sandwiches and tea."

Jon could see the fear ignited in her citrine eyes and knew something definitely was going on. She looked almost relieved as if she was expecting someone else to walk through the door, but happy to see it was him instead. Serice practically dove into his arms and tossed her arms around his neck, her entire body trembling from head to toe. Jon's wrapped around her waist and Serice buried her face in his neck, breathing him in. That's all she wanted to do was be in Jon's arms where she felt safe and protected. The arena was the last place Serice wanted to be right now, not with HIM under the same roof. When Jon tried asking her what was wrong and why she was shaking like a leaf, Serice shook her head, blinking tears away.

"N-Not here." She whispered in a stammer, slowly pulling back to stare up in his bluish grey eyes. "My work is done here. C-Can I come with you to the Shield dressing room? I don't want to be here by myself."

Swallowing hard, Serice felt a huge wave of relief crash over her when Jon nodded, wrapping his arms around her waist and guided her out of her office toward the Shield locker room. Jon would never deny Serice anything and the fact that she wanted to be with him in the dressing room squeezed his heart in a happy way. But her trembling had him physically worried. The only other time he'd felt her this scared before was when one of her mother's regular's tried to come after her once and Jon ended up beating the hell out of the guy. Serice's Mom had been pissed about it, but he didn't care and would protect her with his life every day of the week if he had to.