Chapter 25

The talk never happened.

The weekend was packed full of signings, house shows and finally the TLC pay-per-view. Tayce had to accompany the Shield out to the ring for it since the bosses wanted the crowd more familiar with her. She didn't mind and had a tactical vest made up in wardrobe along with a pair of black cargo pants, both feminine. She had her hair up in a high ponytail, her bangs angled to frame her forehead and rest against her cheek. Smoky eyes, clear gloss and foundation consisted of her makeup and her feet were encased in two inch steel toed boots. The last thing Tayce wanted to do was trip and fall down the stairs during the Shield's entrance.

Brutality.

That was the only word Tayce could think of to describe the match. Every time Jon's body crashed against a ladder, she visibly cringed and cupped her mouth with her hands. He dished out just as much punishment though, but the scariest moment of the match went to Colby. Toward the end of the match, Ryan had chased Colby up a ladder, then another and yanked him off of it to crash through two tables set up on top of each other below. Colby hadn't thrown himself back enough when Ryan made the pull, so when Colby's body crashed through the tables, his head hit the edge of the second one. Tayce would've bet her life on it that Colby had brained himself with that stunt, but the man didn't even have a concussion! That match solidified the Shield's present and future in the WWE, showing everyone they were the real deal and not to be taken lightly.

After the TLC pay-per-view, things became extremely hectic leading into the Royal Rumble. It was a few days before the Royal Rumble and Tayce had to fly back to Tampa by herself because Jon had to stay behind with Joe and Colby for an event. So Jon would be flying in tomorrow on Thursday so they could have at least one day home alone. Friday and Saturday were signings and house shows leading into the pay-per-view, so they would have a very busy weekend. Tayce arrived in Tampa around 10 AM, stopped at the grocery store to grab a few things and then headed to the apartment. She quickly made something to eat and then cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, mostly dusting.

Once she finished, Tayce started looking through her wardrobe and realized she had nothing to wear for the upcoming pay-per-view. A trip to the mall was definitely in Tayce's future. Jon hated shopping, so Tayce decided it would be best to get it out of the way before he arrived home tomorrow. Sighing, Tayce jumped in the shower quickly and slipped on a pair of blue jean shorts with a yellow short sleeved baby doll, a white camisole beneath. Her makeup was natural bronze, black eyeliner, gloss and foundation. She pushed her hair back with a matching yellow headband, slipped her blue flip-flops on and headed out the door with purse and car keys in hand. On the drive to the mall, Tayce received a phone call and answered it, having her Bluetooth earpiece in her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey boss lady." Jon greeted, sounding somewhat tired while waiting to go sit down for the signing they were at.

Tayce frowned at the depression in Jon's voice and knew he wished he could've come home with her. "Hey Mox, what's wrong?" She asked, turning the radio down so she could clearly hear him and focus on driving.

"Nothing, waiting to go bruise my hand with all the damn signatures I have to do." He mumbled, closing his eyes at the sound of her voice. "I miss you."

"I miss you too. You'll be home tomorrow." She knew he had another event after the signing and would be too exhausted to hop on a plane afterwards. "Joe and Colby will keep you company."

"Not the way you can though." Jon argued, dropping his voice to a low raspy tone, knowing she wouldn't be able to disagree with him. "What are you doing?"

Tayce snaked her tongue out to wet her suddenly dry lips and knew exactly what he meant, stopping at a red light. "I'm on my way to the mall to grab a few things. I figured I'd get my shopping out of the way before you came home tomorrow since you hate the mall."

Smirking, Jon still couldn't believe how well this woman knew him, though he shouldn't be too surprised. "Good idea because once I get home, you will be naked for the next 24 hours with me in our bed." He promised, nodding when Joe and Colby waved at him to get off the phone. "Listen, I gotta go, but I'll call you tonight if I'm not too tired."

"Okay Mox, go kick some signing ass. I love you."

"Love you too, boss lady."

They hung up and Tayce placed her cell phone in her purse, though she kept her Bluetooth in her ear in case someone else decided to call her. Nobody else did thankfully. She pulled into the mall parking lot 20 minutes later and stepped out, heading inside to try to find something to wear for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Tayce pushed her black sunglasses on top of her head and walked into the first shop she saw, sifting through the dresses. When she didn't find anything worthy of buying, Tayce headed off to the next place and felt like someone was watching her. Every time she turned around, she didn't see anyone out of the ordinary and mentally shook herself, starting to walk again.

Then Tayce's cell phone vibrated in her pocket.

I'm watching you.

"What the fuck?" Tayce muttered, frowning and looked around again, wondering if maybe coming shopping alone was the best idea. She'd only taken a few more steps when another text vibrated her phone.

Turn around.

Out of pure panic, Tayce followed the text instruction and whipped around, nearly colliding with the person standing directly behind her. She looked up and locked eyes with familiar fern green, jaw dropping at the sight of Sam Johnston. Sami. He was in Tampa…he was here ALREADY? Sami smiled back at her and reached out to cup her face with his hand, but Tayce instinctively took a step back, heart pounding vigorously in her chest. Then she looked down at her phone and back up at him, noticing he had his in hand. Was he the one sending those cryptic text messages?

"You?" Tayce held her cell phone up, a smirk crossing Sami's face and a second later, he received a hard sock to his shoulder. "You ASSHOLE! Christ, I thought someone was stalking me!"

Sami chuckled, rubbing his shoulder since that was a hard hit, but the smirk never left his lips. "Well technically, I WAS stalking you…" He wiggled his eyebrows playfully, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"What are you doing here, Sami?" Tayce demanded, folding her arms in front of her chest after tucking her cell phone back in her purse, amber eyes guarded.

"Isn't it obvious, precious?" He walked past her, inhaling her scent as he did so and looked inside the dress shop they stood outside of. "I live in Tampa now, so figured I'd check the sights out. What are YOU doing here? Where's Moxley?"

Tayce heaved a sigh, the citrine stone like a huge bull's-eye on her left ring finger staring mockingly back at Sami. "He's out of town doing signings and an event that I wasn't involved in, so he's flying home tomorrow before Royal Rumble this weekend."

So Jon was out of town and poor Tayce was all by her lonesome? Sami had to stop the evil smile from crossing his face and simply nodded, the gears in his head turning rapidly. This was his chance. He had the perfect opportunity to convince Tayce not to marry Jon and be with him. To choose the RIGHT man. But he had to do this smart because of how skittish she was. The text messaging probably wasn't the brightest idea to do, but when Sami spotted her in the mall, he had to mess with her a little bit.

"Look, I have to go…"

"No wait." Sami reached out for her and frowned when she backed away again.

"No, I have to go, Sami."

Turning, Tayce headed into the dress shop they stood outside of and made her way through the aisles, needing to distance herself from him. It didn't work. She felt Sami behind her and didn't have to turn around, pretending like she was sifting through the dresses. Honestly, some of them weren't half bad and Tayce contemplated purchasing one, but Sami was distracting her. Sami didn't say a word, watching her looking through all the different color dresses and reached a hand out, fingering a wine colored material. Tayce looked at it in spite of her current company and frowned, hating that she actually liked it. The style was perfect, not too over the top and definitely something Tayce could see herself wearing at the pay-per-view. Not saying a word to Sami, Tayce took it off the rack and headed further down the aisle until she arrived at the changing rooms.

"Sami, don't you follow me in here…No! You can't-" Sami's hand went over her mouth, preventing her from saying another word as he pressed her against the wall.

"Just hear me out." He pleaded in a soft voice, not wanting anyone else to overhear them. "I didn't plan for this to happen. I didn't think I'd run into you. I thought you were on the road with Jon. Look, we were meant to run into each other today. That's not just coincidence, Tayce. You know it and so do I." He lowered his face until his nose very lightly brushed against hers, hearing her whimper against his hand, their eyes locked. "Come over to my place tonight."

Amber eyes shot open as Tayce stared at Sami like he'd just grown 3 heads, breathing heavily against his hand and suddenly pushed it away. "Have you completely lost your mind?" She demanded roughly, keeping her own voice down.

"No, I recently got my apartment and wanted you to see it. I was going to ask when you and Jon had your next days off so you could come check it out, but Jon isn't here. And I honestly want to spend some time with you." Sami fought the urge to run his finger down her cheek, knowing that would just piss her off further. "I'll make dinner tonight and we can watch a movie or just talk if you want. Come on Tayce, it's been a while since we hung out and I miss you."

Tayce pursed her lips tightly together and simply stared into his eyes suspiciously, wondering what tricks he had up his sleeve this time. "How do I know this isn't a trap?" She demanded, no humor whatsoever in her posture and eyes. "How do I know you're not just trying to get me to change my mind about marrying Jon? I LOVE him, Sami."

"I know." Those two words were hard to say, but if Sami's plan worked, he would get what he wanted and that was the woman standing before him. "I get it. I just want to be friends with you. And friends hang out together, right? So come over, I'll make food and we can talk about anything you want. Please Tayce."

Knowing this was a mistake, but unable to resist those fern green eyes full of desperation and hope, Tayce gave in. "What time?" She grunted when Sami hugged her tightly, pressing her against his chest and reluctantly wrapped her arms around him, returning the embrace.

"How does 7 sound?" Sami asked eagerly, happiness making his green eyes light up like emeralds. "We can make it later if you want."

"No, 7 sounds fine. Now get out of here so I can try this on, buy it and hang out with you." She ordered, pulling out a pen from her purse with a small notepad, scrawling his address down on it.

Before Sami left the changing room and hideous store, he looked back at her with that same desperate hope. "Don't punk out on me, Tayce." He winked, leaving her alone to do her thing and headed out of the mall with newfound faith in his mind and heart.

Tayce Stevens would belong to him when it was all said and done.

After trying the dress on, Tayce was thankful it was perfect and immediately purchased it, heading out of the mall after grabbing a pair of heels. They were black and strapped up her calves in a crisscross style, open toed since they would be in Phoenix, Arizona. It would be around the 70's during the day, 50's at night. The dress had long sleeves, but left her shoulders bare and went two inches above the knee, a deep rich wine color. Driving home, Tayce texted both Sophie and Celeste, letting them know she found the perfect dress to wear for the upcoming event.

7 PM came faster than Tayce would've liked. She stared in the full length mirror in the bedroom of her and Jon's apartment, contemplating if she was doing the right thing by going to Sami's. Her outfit consisted of a simple pair of dark green capris with a black and dark green tank top, black sandals on her feet. She left her hair down and went natural with her makeup, black eyeliner, gloss and foundation. It was just dinner and a movie or talking, whatever Sami had planned, she kept rationalizing in her head, but she couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of her stomach there was more to this. Granted, her and Sami's phone calls hadn't been that friendly as of late, especially when he found out from Jon they were getting married. Before she could change her mind, Tayce grabbed her purse with car keys, cell phone and wallet inside, heading out the door.

10 minutes later, Tayce stood outside of Sami's apartment and looked down at the piece of paper, hoping this was the right place. She rose her hand up and knocked a few times on it, plastering on a smile as soon as Sami let her inside. They embraced briefly and Sami gave her a small tour of the two bedroom apartment while dinner finished cooking. He made tacos, one of their favorite guilty pleasures they shared together during CZW. Sami was obsessed with them and Tayce often joked he would turn into a taco before long. Once dinner finished, the alcohol began flowing and it took a little convincing on Sami's part to make Tayce participate. Before Tayce knew it, the clock struck midnight and they were both plastered, leaning against each other on the couch.

"You're so fucking beautiful, Tayce." Sami rumbled in her ear, his hand slipping beneath her tank top to splay against her bare stomach, both of them shivering at the contact.

"So I've been told." Tayce murmured, trying to get her head to stop swimming, but it was useless. There was no way she could drive home. "W-What are you doing?" She demanded weakly, trying not to whimper out when his mouth attached to the sensitive spot on her neck. "Sami…"

"What precious?"

"I'm engaged to Jon…" She reminded him, trying to pull away and felt Sami stand up from the couch, yanking her up flush against his body.

"Goddamn it Tayce, you're not with a fucking stranger here. You're with someone you've known most of your life, since we were kids actually. You can't deny that there's something here, deep beneath the surface. You may love Jon, but you also love me and you can't deny it even if your life depended on it. I dare you to tell me you don't want this." Sami challenged in a growl, his hand going to the button on her capris and heard her whimper, green eyes glowing with barely contained lust. "See? You can't and you won't."

Tayce opened her mouth to protest again and Sami merely pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her. The zipper on her capris slid down as they dropped to the floor in a puddle at her feet, Tayce stepping out of them. What was she doing? Jon…He momentarily left her mind when Sami turned her around with her back pressed against his chest, his mouth once again attaching to her neck while strong hands slid down her sides beneath the tank top again.

"Jon doesn't love you, Tayce." He mumbled against her soft skin, bunching the tank top and slid it over her head, dropping it to the floor leaving her clad in a dark green bra and boy cut panties. "He doesn't want to marry you." While Sami spoke, he started guiding Tayce down the hallway from the living room to his bedroom, his mouth once again assaulting her neck and ear. "But I know you're going to end up marrying him and I'm fine with it. But I refuse to let you do it until I have you completely one last time."

"Sami…"

His hand went to the clasp on her bra, feeling it loosen and slid it off her arms, his hands massaging her full breasts. "Nobody has to know about this. Just let me love you, Tayce." His whispered in her ear, feeling her slowly turn around to face him and his mouth instantly covered hers, knowing she wouldn't fight him off.

They both fell on the bed, clothes flying in all directions and Tayce did the unthinkable, giving herself completely to Sami that night.