Chapter 34

He did not want to get out of the bed.

Taker knew it was late afternoon/early evening simply because there was no light coming through the material of the blankets. He had pulled them up around him and Angeni, trapping them in a type of tent because of the light factor. It was rather warm in here and he wasn't in any hurry to officially wake up. Instead, he let his eyes adjust to the darkness, focusing on his wife's face.

"Angel…" He murmured huskily, leaning forward until his nose was brushing against her cheek. "Time to get up…"

"Mmm five more minutes…" She groaned out softly, snuggling further against the warm body of her husband, not wanting to move. "Mark…" She heard him chuckle and felt her eyes fly open when he started tickling her sides. It was the fastest way to get her up and Mark knew how ticklish Angeni truly was. "Not fair." She grumbled, kissing his lips quickly and reluctantly pushed the covers off of them as she slowly sat up, stretching her arms in the air. Angeni couldn't remember the last time she slept during the day and knew it was just another way of her husband changing her. "I still have to pack and everything. Shit." She cursed, not meaning to sleep for so long and slipped out of bed, letting out a long yawn, heading into the bathroom.

"It won't take you that long." Taker said, sitting upright and reached out with his long arms to drag her back into the bed, right on his lap. Ignoring her half-protests, he trailed his lips down the side of her throat, palms skimming up and down her sides. "Alright." He let her go and nudged her until she was on her feet, smirking devilishly. "You can go get around now, wench."

"Evil man." She muttered, suddenly tackling him to the bed, straddling him and kissed him breathlessly.

Angeni knew she wasn't hurting him and hadn't done it hard, just enough to push him down on the bed. She returned the favor by tracing his lips with the tip of her tongue before lightly nibbling on his Adam's apple. Squealing when he first let out a growl, Taker smacked her ass, the sound reverberating off the walls.

"If you don't stop messing with me, we're never going to get out of here." She chastised in a sultry voice, continuing her exploration and lightly ran her nails down his sides, moving to the side of his neck where one of his tattoos trailed up, beginning to trace it with her tongue.

"Would that really be such a horrible thing?" Taker shot back at her huskily, his voice tinged with both sleep and the beginnings of something else. When she just softly laughed, he growled, hands on her hips and slid her down his body until she was straddling him properly, arching his hips as well as an eyebrow. "You're right; we may not get out of here."

He sat up, feeling her legs going around his waist and kissed her. Giggling against his lips, Angeni knew they were on a deadline, especially with the company and Mark's appearance was vital. He was one of the biggest stars the company had to offer and fans wouldn't be happy not to see him. But Angeni couldn't help wishing they could just stay here forever, where it was peaceful and no other nonsense surrounding them to taint what they currently had.

"We have to go back, as much as I don't want to. I don't want to lose this."

Angeni pulled back to stare into his green eyes, hoping he understood where she was coming from. He didn't love her, but Angeni knew he felt something for her or else he would've killed her for what she did. There had to be something deep inside of him that treated her like he had the past twenty four hours and she didn't want that to go away just because they had to return back to the chaotic world of the WWF.

Taker knew exactly what she was saying and simply closed his eyes, leaning forward until his forehead rested against hers. He couldn't promise anything, but he knew she wasn't asking for a promise. She was telling him what she wanted. On some level, it was what he wanted too.

"We have to go." Taker finally said softly, tracing a large finger down her cheek before kissing her lightly once more.

"I know." She whispered, hugging him tightly around the neck for a few minutes, and finally pulled away before sliding off of his lap.

Maybe it would be alright. Maybe he wouldn't treat her like he had recently since they got along so well here away from everyone. Sighing, Angeni changed out of her yellow nightgown and pulled on a pair of dark pink fleece pants along with a long sleeved matching shirt, knowing it was still cold outside.

Even though they had a few days where it was unseasonably warm, Angeni wasn't going to be fooled. She then packed up what she wanted and needed, deciding two bags would have to suffice. Mark had brought her books that he'd gotten for her so Angeni definitely took those.

It took her about an hour before she was finally ready to go, looking around one final time while Mark took her bags out to the rental car he came in. Closing her eyes, Angeni pulled on a white zipped up jacket before heading out, locking the door behind her. She slid into the passenger seat and buckled up, holding one of the books in her lap while Mark adjusted himself. A few minutes later, they were pulling away from the cottage and heading on the road back to what Angeni could only deem as hell.

She was lucky. Taker had almost brought his motorcycle, and that would have royally sucked to be her given that while warmer weather was here, nighttime was still cold. He loved it and cracked his window, bending down to rifle in the dashboard for a moment before procuring a small pack of Lucky's, an unfiltered cigarette along with his silver lighter. A moment later, he was blowing a stream of smoke out the window, ignoring the fact that she was now looking at him.

"Do you want to try one?" He offered cordially.

Bradshaw smoked these. As punishment, Taker had confiscated the pack when he had found Bradshaw taking a smoke break when he was supposed to be making sure no one tried getting into his damn hotel room to finish off the job Angeni had started. An example would be Shane, Vince and their Corporation, who were really not happy with him these days.

"I-I wasn't aware you smoked…" Angeni blinked, chewing her bottom lip and shook her head, smiling. "No thanks, never was interested in smoking."

Drinking yes, Angeni didn't mind having an alcoholic beverage or two every once in awhile, which lately had been quite a bit. Angeni looked up at the stars and moon, leaning her head against the window, not surprised she wasn't tired. She slept most of the day away with Mark. Opening her book, Angeni snuggled into her seat, putting it back a little and began reading while Mark smoked his cigarette, listening to soft classic rock on the radio.

He was smoking because he had them. He didn't actively go out and buy himself cigarettes. Taker chewed usually if a nicotine fit struck, and those were rather rare these days, his vise being usually whiskey and women -namely his wife since she had made her reappearance in his life. Shrugging, he turned his attention fully back on the road, shaking his head.

"You're going to go blind, reading in the dark, you know that right?" Taker pointed out and was going to buy her one of those bands that went around a person's head with a flashlight attached, snickering at the mental image.

"I can see. I'm not going to go blind." Angeni chortled softly, waving him off and continued reading, getting lost in the story.

That was until Mark decided he wanted to talk to her about a few things that would be happening once they returned to the road. He pointed out the power her legs and didn't want it going to waste, to which she started feeling guilty all over again. Then, Angeni froze and closed her book, slowly looking over at him, a light bulb clicking in her brain.

"Wait, you want to train me how to wrestle?" She blinked, getting it after a few minutes of silence between them, not expecting to hear that. "Mark, I don't know if I can…" Meaning, Angeni wasn't sure if she literally could fight someone else in the middle of a ring. She wasn't a fighter, only when she had to be and couldn't stop the frown from crossing her face. "What about Stephanie? Is she going to be trained how to wrestle too?"

Taker smirked at that question. "She is. I will not have two females in my Ministry who cannot protect themselves. It would mean constantly watching over you both and that is a waste of my time and resources." Of course, Angeni's muscular strong legs technically counted as a lethal weapon, but if they were trapped…she needed to be able to use her entire body to defend herself, just not against him. He really hoped this one didn't come back to haunt him. "Why can't you?"

"I-I'm not a fighter." She muttered, though it did make her feel a little better that Stephanie had not only joined the Ministry, but was going to also train how to wrestle as well. "Now wait a minute, speaking of Stephanie, what the hell convinced her to join you?" After everything Mark did to the poor girl, for her to willingly come back into the Ministry, Angeni couldn't help wondering if Stephanie had flown off the deep-end. "I mean…I don't know exactly what happened in the video you made with her, but...I have a pretty good idea. And now she's in the Ministry." When Mark just smirked wickedly at her with evil eyes, Angeni's jaw dropped, the realization dawning on her. "Are you fucking kidding me? She was in on it the WHOLE time?"

"You needn't look so surprised; she IS a McMahon after all." Taker said reasonably, reaching over to tap her chin with his fingers until it was properly hinged again. "The McMahons, as I'm sure you know by now, are a devious lot and they all specialize in backstabbing, ego trips and generally fucking things up for everyone else." Like his plans, for example. Not anymore! "About the only one of them who is semi-decent would be Linda and, even then, piss her off and she is worse than the rest."

"So…was she dating Bradshaw the whole time?"

Angeni felt completely foolish now and looked away from him to stare out the window. Stephanie had acted as though her world was coming to an end, especially when Mark started doing the videotaping. She actually CRIED! And it was all a hoax!

"I really thought she was scared for her life." Angeni whispered in disbelief, loud enough for him to hear and suddenly wondered what else had been kept from her.

What else had Mark neglected to enlighten her on?

Stephanie had played her part perfectly, making their ears bleed in the process and it was all a scam. If she would've known, Angeni would've never acted the way she had, remembering how jealous and hurt she was, especially after running away the first time with Kane. Taker simply shrugged his massive shoulders, glancing over at her quickly before looking back at the road, which was fairly dead in terms of traffic.

"We were taking no chances."

That and he hadn't forgotten Vince's original intentions when bringing Angeni into the World Wrestling Federation. She had been meant to distract him, to keep him from Stephanie as well as divert his attention from his quest to obtain control of the Federation. That, factored with the issues between him and Angeni, he had played everything as safely as possible, just in case.

If she had known the truth, she might have gone out of her way to mess everything up, just to prove a point. The woman was rather good about doing that, which pissed him off. No, better for everyone involved, all the way around, if they were left in the dark. Even the rest of his Ministry had been kept in the dark about it.

"If it makes you feel any better, the only ones who knew the truth were I, Paul, Bradshaw and Stephanie."

"It's fine."

Angeni glanced down at her left hand and immediately closed her eyes briefly, chewing her bottom lip. All because of her jealousy, Angeni had a fit of rage and had destroyed the ring Mark bought her. She remembered how she smashed it with her steel toed boot until it was in shambles, unable to be repaired.

Mark had slapped her for it, but now, looking back, Angeni deserved it. She felt terrible and more guilt ripped her insides apart. What the hell was she going to find out next?

"You did what you had to do, I understand."

Angeni managed to flash a small smile at him before going back to her book, needing a distraction of some kind away from reality. It wasn't fine though, at least not for her, and Taker didn't know what there was that he could do about that. He had done what he needed too and, eventually, she truly would understand, also getting over it. He turned the volume up on the radio when a song came on he was fond of, frowning at the lyrics and immediately changed it.

Angeni frowned as well, looking up from her book and over at her husband, chewing her bottom lip, somehow knowing those lyrics to the song rang true. She suddenly missed the cottage when it was just the two of them, having a feeling she would be fighting with him again before long. That's what the WWF did; it killed relationships and tried destroying lives.