Twenty

"Why did you shave?" Roman pouted. "I miss your beard."

Dean laughed as his boyfriend planted soft kisses on face as they laid on the couch. "That's all you missed?"

"I missed you… I think."

"Liar! I saw you talking about me on television!"

"That was about you?" Roman feigned surprise.

"Do you know any other Dean's?"

"Let me think…"

Dean punched his arm playfully. "Roman!"

The Samoan man giggled. Fuck. Dean loved it when he did that. "So what did you do? Away from me?" Roman asked.

"Let's see… I uh... " Dean sat up and straightened his clothes. There was a moment of silence before he said, "I went to the bar and I did something I shouldn't have."

Roman was looking at him with a guarded expression. "You did?"

"Y-yeah." Dean scratched the back of his head. "Maybe we should talk about this later."

"Okay."

There was suddenly tension between them. Dean pulled Roman towards the bedroom, before giving him a long kiss.

He felt Roman sigh before holding him, kissing him back.

Something was wrong. Why was Roman so reserved with his affections? The blue eyed man broke the kiss. "You okay, babe?"

"Huh?" Roman replied. "Oh yeah. I'm just tired… I didn't have a good night's rest."

"Oh. Shall we take a quick nap then?"

Roman nodded briskly. "Yeah. Let's."

When they settled down in bed, Roman pulled him in and wrapped his arms around his waist possessively.

Dean had been with someone.

That explained the shaved beard. Roman felt like an idiot; of course some other guy was going to convince Dean that he deserved the world. He turned to the other side in bed, staring at the wall. Dean was mumbling some incoherent words before clinging onto him then, an arm around his waist and a leg in between his.

Who was the guy? What was so special about him? Did he work at the bar? You're jumping to conclusions, his mind reminded him.

"Roman?" Dean was awake now. "Babe, are you up?"

"Yeah," Roman admitted. "I'm up."

"Turn around so I can see you."

Roman did as he was told and found himself looking at a now wide eyed Dean. "Do you want to talk now?" his boyfriend asked.

"Okay." Roman braced himself for the worst.

"Roman, you know that I care you, right?"

"I do…" For now, he added quietly. Who was that guy?

Dean narrowed his eyes. "Roman Joseph Reigns. What are you thinking?"

"I… wait what?"

"I recognise your facial expressions. What's on your mind?"

"Is there nothing you don't miss, Dean?"

"Mostly you. Especially when you're far away from me. And I don't mean physically."

Roman bit his lip. "I sort of guessed that."

"But the thing is as long as you keep holding on to him, I'm always going to be second. I'm not saying it's your fault, babe. You've been together for fourteen years and that's like forever. He was also your first love so that makes it doubly hard for you to let go."

"Dean-"

"No, Roman. Let me say this."

Roman nodded. "Okay."

"But I hope you understand that I'm not trying to take his place at all. I can't stress this enough. I want to come first in someone's life, Roman. I deserve that."

"Is that why… you did what you did in the bar?"

"Ummm yeah I guess. I was feeling down and it was the first thing I was craving for."

This was worse than he had thought. Roman sat up and swung his feet over the bed. "I'm fine with that," he said, forcing himself to spit it out. "After all, I told you to do what you had to do." At least Dean hadn't lied to him, he consoled himself.

"Anyways, it isn't easy for me and I've been doing a lot of reading on it too. I hope you can see where I'm coming from. I love you, Roman. I just feel lonely sometimes."

This was definitely his fault. He pushed Dean straight into the arms of another man. "I understand." Roman stood up and went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. Just as he had taken off his boxers, Dean walked in.

"I wasn't done talking, Roman."

"I just needed to think," the raven haired man said.

"About what?"

"Us."

"Us?"

"Yeah. I must failed somewhere for you to give into temptation."

"But that's on me, Roman. I wasn't strong enough to fight it."

"So it won't happen again?"

"I'm not sure."

"Did… did you like it?"

"Yeah. I did."

Fuck. This was tearing him apart now. You reap what you sow, his inner voice taunted him.

"I only had three rounds," Dean continued. "I used to be able to do more."

Three? Three! How was he ever going to get past that? How much of a guarantee would he have that the next time they had sex, Dean wasn't thinking of that guy?

"Roman-"

"Let me shower first and then we can do whatever you want to do." It was the least he could do for the man.

"I want to continue talking, Roman."

"After my shower then."

"We'll shower together." Dean wounded his arms around his neck. "We'll be saving water and electricity."

"I don't know, Dean-"

His boyfriend's kiss cut him off. Roman would have pushed him but Dean's lips were so soft and pliant and fuck, Roman wanted to make love to him until he forgot about Mr Three Rounds. He yanked Dean's boxers down before taking him in his mouth, causing his boyfriend to sit down on the shower bench.

"Roman!" he cried out in a near shout.

"I'll give you something longer than three rounds," he growled into Dean's ear.

Dean swallowed and damn Roman was already melting under the heated gaze from his baby boy. Roman nibbled on his lover's neck before making sensual promises to him as he peppered kisses in Dean's inner thighs.

The auburn haired man's aroused member was leaking with precum which made Roman groan in anticipation of taking him there and then.

"Roman, suck me!" Dean demanded.

"Oh? Tell me why I should," Roman teased him.

"Because… fuck, Roman."

"Well, tempting but I'm not fucking you until you tell me why-"

"I need you!"

"Oh do you?" Roman grabbed his chin, giving him a demanding kiss, rubbing his length against Dean's. The friction made Dean arched his body against his as Roman bit his neck. He could feel Dean's nails digging into his back but he didn't care.

He had to remind Dean that he was capable of being everything to him: as his best friend, boyfriend and lover.

"Roman," Dean whined. "Please!"

"You're mine, Dean." Roman kissed him hard on his lips. "Mine."

And Dean's blue eyes flew open, a slight nod. "Are you mine though, Roman?"

"Yours."

When Roman finally thrusted into him, Dean moaned before asking him to do it again. It was the encouragement he needed so he did the same until they were both mindless to the world surrounding them.

He whispered more loving words into Dean's ear before his boyfriend reached his fulfilment. Roman groaned then and allowed himself to finally let go within.

"I love you, Dean," he panted.

Dean kissed his forehead. "Love you too, babe."

Dean enjoyed the ambience of the cafe in the park that Roman had taken them to, Evergreen, later that noon.

It was set among lush greenery with fresh ingredients being used in the food. Dean ordered the salmon with egg benedict with iced raspberry tea while Roman ordered the salmon curado salad with beetroot juice.

They shared chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream which Dean ended up finishing before taking a stroll in the park, hand in hand.

"You ready to continue talking, Roman?" Dean asked. They had to lay it out in the open. Honesty would help them move forward in their relationship.

"Why did you shave?" Roman asked.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"You did it the first time when you were upset about Xavier. Now-"

"Same reason."

"So it's not for any other reason?"

"What other reason could there be?" Dean was puzzled.

Roman blushed. "I thought that… you were… I thought you had slept with someone else."

For a moment, Dean could only stare at him in stunned silence. Then he frowned, pulling his hand away. "What?"

"Well, you said you had done something you shouldn't have-"

"And you automatically thought I would do that?"

"I know it was stupid of me-"

"You're damn right it was," Dean couldn't help but snapped. "You've got to be kidding me, Roman. How could you think that about me? Just because I cheated on someone once doesn't mean I'll do it again."

"But I wasn't angry at you," his boyfriend tried to explain.

"Oh really?"

"I was angry at myself. I failed you. I didn't give you what you needed so I thought you went to sought it from someone else."

Roman looked distraught after his explanation.

"That still doesn't mean that I'm not insulted." Dean exhaled. "I drank, Roman. I drank three glasses of beer. Rhyno was with me if you don't believe me."

"It's not that-"

"I was sharing with him my sadness, my feelings. He told me you refused to go on dates that they had set up for you before we met."

"Yeah. They tried so many times-"

"I'm still mad at you."

Roman bent his head. "Okay."

Dean replayed their conversation earlier that morning in his head. That would explain a lot of things that followed after that. "So you thought that I had slept with someone else and you still slept with me after that? I'm trying to understand your thought process, Roman."

"I didn't had any demeaning thought about you, Dean. I was merely trying to show you that I could be everything for you… that I was enough."

"Of course you're enough!"

Roman's cell phone went off at that moment and he answered it. Dean would have laughed about the whole thing if he wasn't slightly offended. But on the other hand, this was Roman. The only other person he had dated was Xavier; he was probably clueless on stuff like that.

He didn't have any demeaning thought; that was what he had said in justification.

Any other man would have hit the roof, called him names. Roman was different; his illogical thought led him to love harder in response.

Dork.

His dork.

Roman had ended the call. "That was Hunter. I have an interview at a radio station in four hours."

"Oh." Well, obviously they had to promote the fight. Dean wondered how Brock's camp was handling the whole thing.

"I'll check into a hotel in town. When you decide you want me back-"

"What? When have I ever not want you?" Dean countered. "We really need to work on our communication skills, Roman."

Roman shrugged, trying to show he couldn't care less but Dean was able to see through his act. The Samoan man was trying to protect his own heart.

"I'm following you to this interview," Dean announced. "It would be nice to see how they are conducted on air."

"You're following?"

"Well, yeah."

Roman made a face and Dean sighed in relief inwardly. "I never invited you."

"I'm your boyfriend; I don't need an invitation."

"Cocky."

"If I'm cocky, you're dorky. Only you would think the worst."

"I only thought the worst because I am-"

"Don't you dare complete that sentence, Roman Reigns!" Dean cupped his face. "I love you. So we need to work on our relationship but so do other couples. We're not the first and we're not the last to go through something like this. So I don't want to hear any negativity from your mouth."

Roman grabbed him by the back of his head and kissed him, thrusting his tongue into his mouth, swirling it against his. Dean moaned into the kiss, clinging onto his boyfriend's shirt.

"What about that?" Roman panted after they broke their kiss after a while. "What about that coming out of my mouth?"

"That I welcome anytime."

Roman leaned towards him but Dean placed a finger on his lips.

"I loved the way we made love this morning," Dean confessed. "Take me like that again?"

"Here?" the grey eyed man asked.

"Here."

"But it's daylight, baby boy."

"We can do it behind the bushes."

Roman laughed and carried him in his arms bridal style. "Oh you're going to get it now. I want you to scream my name for everyone to hear."

Dean gave him a quick peck. "Gladly."

As Dean laid nestled in his arms an hour and a half later in the backseat of the car, Roman went through his emails on his phone. Most were spam emails with the daily ones from Seth updating him about the gym.

Just as he had closed the app, he received a Whatsapp from Michael: Roman, when you're free, please meet up with me. We need to talk; someone doesn't want you boxing against Brock.

A/N And the plot thickens… at this rate this has become a novel? I'm not even sure. What am I am sure of is I would like to thank you for your kind comments, favorites and follows. I'd love to hear from you guys; it motivates me :-)