Stephanie McMahon didn't get nervous.
She didn't get worried and she never thought something wasn't going to go her way. She was always in control of what happened and so she never worried about anything that could happen because the outcome always benefited her. So she wasn't worried about the outcome to Chris's match against Shane. She knew that Chris would win. She was just thinking as she tended to do late at night when Chris was asleep.
Usually he would be on her as he was that moment. He would come over to her side of the bed and rest his head next to her on the pillow and curl his hand around her, starting at her stomach and curving its way to the side of her breast. As they usually had sex before going to bed they had gotten used to sleeping naked or close to it most of the time. Right now she was just in her panties and Chris wasn't wearing anything at all and she could feel him pressing against her delightfully. She nearly woke him up to get some action, but she didn't.
He needed his rest. She knew his mind raced with what he wanted to do to Shane. It was a sticking point with him. She was hardly over it, she probably never would be, but she pretended she was because there was no use living in the past. The past was just that, the past. She didn't dwell on what could've been with Hunter and she didn't dwell on the person she could've been if Shane hadn't kicked the good out of her. So she didn't dwell on who she could've been because she was fine with what she was and she knew Chris loved her for what she was.
She knew she was lucky to have found someone like Chris, someone who was fine with living without scruples or morals. Chris took her as she was and didn't ask for much more than she could give him. Sometimes she knew he felt that he gave more than she did, but it was hard for her sometimes to show what she wanted, to be able to tell him things that she was uncomfortable saying. She had grown up in a cold household, hugging a foreign thing to her. Her family was impersonal, each respecting their own personal space and never crossing into one of the other's space.
But yes, he needed his rest. She could tell that his mind was solely on kicking Shane's ass. He hadn't wrestled in over a year and he was bound to be rusty, but she knew he'd be prepared for this match. She knew that he would stiff Shane every second of the match and would channel his anger over the incident to possibly put Shane in the hospital…and that's where her mind was at right now. Was she worried he would? No, but she knew it was a possibility that Chris would push too much and do something very stupid…and she had no tolerance for stupid.
Chris was the only person in the world she trusted and she never wanted to lose him. She didn't trust her father and he didn't trust her, so it was just Chris. She trusted Chris with everything she had and loved him with every bit of herself she could muster. Did she give herself up to him completely? No, but neither did he. They both kept a part of themselves tucked away. Chris was just better at hiding that part than she was. He could act like he had given up everything for her, but he hadn't, she knew and understood and loved that.
She felt Chris's rough fingers caressing the side of her breast, supple meeting hard. His hand moved over and ran across the top of her breast, grazing the skin. She turned to him, but couldn't see him in the dark. He was just a dark mass laying with her. Her breath quickened as he ran his finger over her sensitive skin and she couldn't see it, but she could feel his hazy smile as he knew he realized he was getting a rise out of her. Damn him, she thought, but didn't mean it. She loved it when he touched her like this.
"Why are you up?" he asked, his voice rough with sleep, but sexy in its roughness. His hand was getting bolder on her breast.
"I was thinking."
"About what?" he asked.
"Your match."
"I'm going to through with it," he said immediately.
"I know," she told him and there was no dissent in her voice. She understood his motives and she accepted them and that was that. "I'm just thinking about it."
"I'm going to win."
"I know that too," Stephanie said.
"So why keep yourself up over it?"
"I'm not allowed to think now?" she joked and he chuckled softly and pulled himself closer so he could get to her neck, laving her with kisses and licks and she sighed softly, which made him smile against her skin.
"Of course you're allowed to think. I just don't want you thinking you can talk me out of this. I'm going to be in this match and I'm going to beat Shane to within an inch of his life…if he's lucky, maybe I'll just finish him off."
"Don't talk like that," she told him and she had tensed to his touch so he knew she wasn't teasing right now, she was honestly asking him not to talk like that. There was something different to Stephanie when they were in bed in the middle of the night. She never lost that tough exterior, but it bent a little at night, she became pliant and so did Chris.
"Steph…"
"I think about that and I don't like it," she told him. "I don't want you to seriously hurt him."
"I won't, I can control myself."
She scoffed, "Since when have you been able to control yourself over anything?"
"I take offense to that," Chris said, "it's only with you that I totally lose control."
"I love you," Stephanie said, kissing his forehead. "But you're going to go crazy on him. We both know this is going to happen. You're going to go crazy on him and you're going to lose control and what then, Chris? This is still supposed to just be a wrestling match."
"I'll make it a grudge match," Chris said, "that way it's more like a fight."
"Still, you go into that ring thinking that you're going to come out of it, worse for the wear, sure, but that you're going to come out of it. I'd just rather you not come out of it in handcuffs. Shane could…you know he would absolutely press charges if things got too rough."
"Then we'll make sure we have an iron-clad contract going into it. We'll put that part in the fine print."
"Still…"
"Stephanie, I'm not going to go crazy on the guy, I promise," Chris said.
"Okay," she said and that had to be that. She had to take his word for it because if she couldn't trust him, there was nobody she could trust.
"Tell me again what happened," he whispered.
"Chris, no," she told him, her voice raw, but still firm.
"Stephanie, I need the motivation."
She sighed and ran her fingers through his hair. She didn't speak for a few moments and Chris thought she wasn't going to talk and he didn't force her. He loved her and didn't necessarily want to make her relive it, but he wanted to carry every detail with him into his match and match Shane punch for punch. Every punch he delivered would be a punch from Stephanie, every kick, a kick from Stephanie. This was about her and her alone.
He resumed caressing her skin, content not to talk anymore. He understood if she didn't want to talk to her about it. He knew her so well. He just wanted to carry her hurt and share it with her, but he understood how it hurt to even think about that ultimate betrayal by someone that was supposed to love her. He went back to kissing her neck, letting her know through his touches that he was moving on and he wouldn't bother her about it.
"It hurt," she told him softly. "It hurt, everywhere. I just…I didn't mean it. I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to hurt him like that but he hurt me because I accidentally hurt him."
Chris closed his eyes as he listened to her voice. There was no tremble to it, no sadness, just quiet. They were just quiet facts, like she was running down a list in a room full of sleeping people. "And…"
"My arm was throbbing," Stephanie said. "He grabbed it harder than I'd ever been grabbed before, like he wanted to crush the bone into dust…like he wanted to crush me into dust."
Her voice was getting stronger now, more sure of herself, the feelings of hate were palpitating through her and into him.
"He probably did," she said, the slightest hint of sarcasm creeping into her otherwise toneless voice. "He threw me against the wall and my hand immediately went to the back of my head and I could feel the blood. I told the doctor I was a wrestler and had been in a match. I drove myself. I had five stitches put into my head, they had to cut the hair around it and I begged them not to shave it because someone would notice. I kept my hair up a lot of the time so nobody would notice. It was smeared on my hand and I don't know, it shocked me I guess. I didn't expect to see it and then he kicked at me, not hard, no, it wasn't hard, it was…like I was a piece of trash on the street and he was kicking me out of his path, not even pity, just…like trash on the street. I begged him to stop, can you believe that? I actually begged someone. I was humiliated. I just told myself I would never be in this position again, ever, I would never let anyone treat me like this again."
Chris took a deep breath, "I'm going to make him feel that kind of pain. I promise you, I'm going to make him feel that kind of pain. I'm going to make him feel his blood trickling from his head and I'm going to have a grin on my face the entire time."
She smiled. "I'd like that."
"Then afterwards, your father is going to fire him and press charges against him and he's going to go to jail where he belongs. He belonged there a long time ago, but it's okay, we're going to get our revenge all the same. Even if it's not for what he really should be in there for."
"Yes, we're going to annihilate him," she said, her voice strong now and resolved. "He's not going to get away with this. We've got the proof."
"Yeah, and we have your dad on our side. He's not going to side with Shane," Chris said. "Your dad values money above everything else so no way would he let your brother get away with it. Then soon after that, he's going to transfer the power Shane had to me and then we'll be in charge, Steph."
"We'll have the power."
"Yeah, and everyone is going to kneel at our feet," Chris said. "We'll bring this company to a kind of prominence it has never seen before. We're going to show everyone how it really is to run a company and the best part is your dad has no idea what we want to do."
"We're going to wait until he retires of course," Stephanie said, "but no, he doesn't know that he's just another pawn in our game."
Chris laughed, "We're the best at what we do…you aren't playing me are you?"
Stephanie actually laughed at that and turned her head towards him. It was still dark, but their eyes had adjusted to the dark and she could just make out the faint lines of his strong jaw. "If I were using you, you would've been out of my life the second that you had served my purpose. I plan on keeping you around."
"So no cabana boys waiting in the wings ready to let you be their sugar mommy?"
"No ring rats ready to suck you off the moment you unzip your zipper?" she countered.
"And catch what they have, Stephanie come on, I would at least go to a club and find myself some clean pussy that hasn't been touched by every wrestler in the company."
"That's my boy," Stephanie told him. "But my dad will serve his purpose. We don't want to upset him before he gives the company to us and even after that. He can reveal our secret. We have to make sure he feels valuable. That was the entire point of letting him in on our little secret, including him in the plan. It makes him feel important. If we phase him out now, he'll snatch the company back from us. Best to just let him think he's in charge."
"You're right, we still need him."
"Yes, but don't worry, we'll still have it all and we'll gently rule over him too," Stephanie said. Chris rolled over on top of her, grinding himself against her. She moaned and pulled him closer as he growled in her ear.
"I like the way you think."