Chapter 35

"This is absolutely insane."

Angeni couldn't believe she was doing this, wearing a sky blue sports bra with matching jersey shorts, her black hair pulled up in a tight neat bun, white sneakers on her feet. She gave it serious thought to becoming a wrestler and decided Taker would eventually force her into it, so there was no point in fighting the inevitable. Currently, she was stretching with Stephanie, who had been trained over the past couple weeks by Bradshaw secretively.

"Remind me again why I'm doing this?"

"Come on Geni, it won't THAT bad. Come on, if we're in the Ministry, we have to be able to defend ourselves."

"You're starting to sound like Mark."

Stephanie shrugged, taking that as a compliment and stood up, wearing black shorts with a black sports bra. "It won't be that bad and, besides, kicking ass is fun."

"You've been corrupted."

"Eventually, Angel, you're going to learn that a little corruption can be delicious." Taker said from behind the women, having come out with Bradshaw in tow.

Bradshaw was a decent wrestler when he wanted to be, and he definitely had brawling down to an art form, but it was Taker who was the certified trainer, not that he had ever felt the need to train anyone. However, this was his wife...and Bradshaw had been regulated to role of assistant. He wore black shorts that came down to his knees and a black beater, which simply served to make his skin look even paler, his black hair pulled back tightly.

Shaw smirked when Stephanie nodded her agreement about corruption being delicious.

"Right."

Angeni stood up and cracked her neck, blinking when he tossed her knee and elbow pads. Knowing she would no doubt be taking quite a few bumps since Mark was training her, Angeni took a deep breath. She slipped them on, Stephanie helping her with the elbow ones, already having black fingerless gloves on, courtesy of her husband.

"Okay let's see if I can do this."

She squared her shoulders; having made sure her hair wouldn't fall out since it was pretty long. She didn't want it in the way. Once inside the ring, Angeni ran her fingers over the ropes, trying to get a feel for it since all she ever did was valet for Mark. When he instructed her to bounce back and forth off the ropes in an exercise, Angeni began doing it, picking up speed after a little while.

Meanwhile, Stephanie had been carted off to the showers by Bradshaw, leaving Taker to train his wife privately.

She was definitely picking up speed, but the way Angeni kept hitting those ropes, she was going to wind up pissing blood come morning. He really did not want to have to explain to her that it wasn't a menstrual cycle gone insane that caused her insurmountable pain but bruised kidneys. Landing was one of the major keys in order to make it in this business with longevity.

"Stop." Taker ordered, stepping directly into her path and catching her by the arms. "You're hitting here…" He used his hand to show her. "This is going to bruise your kidneys. Like this." He began throwing himself off the ropes, finally coming to a halt besides her. "Do it again." He ordered, stepping back.

Taker would admit, watching her run on the mat was making all the right places of her body bounce. After being stopped three times, Angeni finally got the hang of it, nodding when it felt much better and hurt less. She smiled when Mark told her she was doing it right, thankful she was conditioned for this thanks to her running.

After getting running the ropes down, it was time for her to learn a move and Angeni was actually looking forward to this. Mark explained to her what a cross-arm bar was; nodding as she soaked up the knowledge and watched him lay on the mat so she could apply it. It took her a couple of tries, mainly making sure her knees weren't bent and she was flat on her back, pulling on his arm to give it the ample treatment.

"Am I doing it right?"

"No." Yawning, Taker purposefully raised a hand to his mouth, shooting her a bored look. "You're not applying enough pressure Angeni and you need to fix the positioning of your-" He rolled his green eyes when she frowned. "I showed you, talked you through it and…" He grunted when she began applying the move properly. "Submission hold."

Taker grunted, tapping her leg with his hand, 'tapping out'. He wondered why the hell he hadn't kept Shaw and the Princess out here to be his damn dummies for this. He rolled his shoulder, refusing to admit that had hurt more than he was letting on.

"Did I get it that time?" When he just nodded in a grimace, Angeni smirked and stood up, placing her hands on her hips. He wanted to teach her how to wrestle, he could suffer the consequences of being the dummy she tried moves out on. "You have no patience." Angeni commented, hopping up on the top turnbuckle and stared at him through slightly narrowed eyes. "I'm not perfect; I can't get a move down right off the bat, your royal highness. If I did, I wouldn't need to be trained. Maybe you should have someone else train me." She didn't want to fight with her husband, but he'd gotten really impatient with her when she couldn't apply the cross-arm bar correctly right away. "You don't have the patience to be a trainer and I need someone who will be patient with me or I might as well just go back to valeting."

"Angeni? Shut the hell up." Taker ordered flatly, ignoring her when her violet eyes widened. "Hate to break this to you, but the trainers here all work for Vince, who hates you almost as much as he hates me. That and you might actually discover I am a rather NICE trainer." He smirked at the disbelieving expression on her face. "I could tell you horror stories about trainers who like to 'prove wrestling isn't fake' with what they do to people, or how on your first day, you'd feel like you were at a boot camp. Time is short, options are limited, and now you're going to learn how to take a fall."

There was the asshole Angeni knew and hated. It was only a matter of time before he surfaced again. Angeni just nodded silently and hopped off of the turnbuckle, watching as Mark showed her how to take a fall properly without injuring herself. Just the look of it sent tingles down her back and Angeni knew this was going to hurt.

Closing her eyes when he asked if she was ready, Angeni felt him lift her up in a scoop before slamming her down on the mat. Pain instantly shot up her spine as Angeni lay there, trying to not let the tears sting her eyes. He hadn't lightened the blow by any means, but Angeni managed to get up, only to take another slam and several after that. It was all about conditioning and Angeni knew this was going to get worse before it got better simply because she had to harden her body.

If he was an asshole it was because he knew how the other trainers would treat her, which was like a whipping bitch simply because she was his wife. Sure, they might act nice at first because of who he was, but…he also knew they'd screw with her at the same time. That and when it came to the ring, Taker didn't mess around. By the time he called an end to their training session, he knew she was going to be feeling those falls for a day or two.

"I'll give you a massage." He offered, helping her up off the canvas. With the salve, she was going to need it definitely.

Angeni fell to her knees on the mats, the pain a little too much for her to handle, silent tears falling. Her nails dug into the mats, a few tendrils of black hair having escaped from her tight bun from all the scoop slams she suffered. Her back had to be bruised because right now it felt like it was on fire. Angeni was almost tempted to tell her husband to beat the hell out of her instead of enduring another wrestling training session.

Mark lost his mind if he thought she could handle being in the ring. Her legs were the only powerful thing on her body, the only thing she had already conditioned and strengthened. However, that didn't count the rest of her body.

"Give me a minute…please…" She whispered out painfully, pressing her forehead against the mats, wishing the pain would disappear.

He gave her two.

She was also going to have to start working out, working on strengthening the rest of her body and not just those legs of hers. That would help her with wrestling, not to mention it would also help toughen her ass up a bit. When the second minute passed, he crouched down so he was on knee before her, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder gently.

"Need some help?"

Nodding, Angeni wasn't above accepting Mark's assistance and felt him wrap her arm around his neck, very slowly standing up. Though, he had to stay hunched over because of his massive size. She hissed out as they headed to the shower room, the pain mostly in her lower back and shoulders. Angeni wiped her tears away and breathed in and out evenly; knowing tensing would only make the pain worse, hoping this shower helped.

"Thank you." She murmured as he guided her to sit on the bench while starting the shower sprays.

Angeni was going to have to learn to absorb the punishment with all her back, not just her lower back and shoulders or else she was going to wind up a hunchbacked cripple before she even had the chance to learn to wrestle properly. However, he wasn't going to tell her that right now, he'd save it for their next session. While the water heated up, he retrieved two ibuprofens for her, along with some salve. Tonight it would be ice packs.

"Here."

Taker held them out and then a bottle of water from his bag, knowing she was also probably going to want to wear button up shirts for a day or two, just so she didn't have to stretch her arms. Being as this was her first day training to wrestle, Angeni thought she did pretty well. If she would've heard what her husband was thinking at the moment, she would've kicked him square in his balls without a second thought.

Angeni took the pills and popped them before removing her shoes, shorts and panties, kicking them to the side in a pile. She then took a deep breath and went to remove her sports bra, only for Mark to step in to help her. Angeni didn't push him away and winced as she reached up to remove the band in her hair, letting it pool and cascade down her back and over her shoulders. She stepped inside the sprays and wasn't surprised when Mark joined her moments later, the shower definitely bigger enough for both of them.

He reached for her loofah sponge and used her liquid body wash, pouring it. Lathering it up before beginning to run it gently along her shoulder blades, Taker took in the red and swollen flesh, knowing it would bruise overnight. Just because her legs were strong and conditioned enough to literally take a man his size out didn't mean the rest of her was. In fact, she was looking very soft at the moment, soft and beaten.

"Maybe I was a bit hard on you." He conceded finally, frowning slightly.

This was his payback for what she did to him, at least that's what Angeni thought anyway, and just pressed her hands against the shower wall while he ran the loofah further down her bruised back. "Part of the…process…"

She had to breathe that last word out because the pain in her lower back when he touched it nearly stole her breath away, closing her eyes tightly shut. The hot water helped a little, but Angeni had a feeling she would be in some serious pain over the next few weeks until her body hardened on its own. When Mark told her she had to start working out along with training, Angeni just nodded and felt him slowly turn her around before softly kissing her lips. He was even kind enough to bend so she didn't have to reach up, the pain suddenly diminishing since he currently distracted her.

Distracting her maybe, however he wasn't going to do much besides kiss her. Mostly because…it would aggravate her already tender back. Though…she could stand up and he could do…other things to her for distraction. Slowly, he began kissing his way down, lowering himself as he went until he was kneeling before her. One hand on her hip, his thumb rubbed slow circles against her skin and brought her loofah down with him, beginning to run it slowly up her calf towards her thigh.

Such a sweet distraction it was as Angeni lifted her leg up to drape over his shoulder when the sponge came in contact with her, eyes drifting shut. It was a natural reflex and Angeni wasn't about to deny him a taste if that's what he wanted. She witnessed that long tongue of his on more than one occasion and wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to feel it intimately. Maybe Angeni was a whore for submitting him so willingly and easily, but she was his wife so technically she could have sex with him whenever she wanted. Soft moans spilled out of her mouth as Mark devoured her, the hot water spilling over their bodies and the pain in her back was no longer there. Her nails buried in his thick black hair, holding on for dear life and squeezing as he brought her to the edge of insanity and back again, making her world spin out of orbit once again. Only he could do it, no other man took to the heights Mark did.

Now that she had been thoroughly distracted…Another perk to sexual release was the chemicals the body released during, they worked as a natural relaxant, which would also help with her sore factor. He was simply a marvel, he amazed himself sometimes. Of course, there was now the issue of his own problem and Taker was sorely tempted to bend her over in the shower and just have his way with her. His eyes trailed up and down her body as she leaned back in the sprays, her skin flushed a lovely pink color, chest rising and falling in her aftermath.

Licking his lips, Taker tasted her sweet essence.