This story isn't panning out quite how I intended. I was supposed to be sticking to scenes and promos we saw on screen but my brain keeps diverting away from that and telling little stories of its own lol. Hopefully you still get the gist of what went on back then and like my intepretation of it. Anyway, thanks for all your reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

Chapter 6

Stephanie

Hunter lost his chance to become the WWF champion tonight. Although lost is probably the wrong word because the truth is my husband was cheated out of the title after Mick Foley assaulted him across his spine with a steel chair. Foley who had already been fired and his fat ass personally escorted out of the building. He ruined what would have been the perfect completion of the perfect plan.

And while part of me is seething that Mick got involved, another part of me can't help but feel somewhat relieved. God, that makes me sound so horrible but it's true. Secretly I'm a little pleased Hunter didn't win that belt and not because I don't want him to be champion. God, in my eyes no one deserves it more. No one lives and breathes that title more than my husband and therein lies my problem. See I know how much Hunter cares about being champion and he's even admitted in the past he cares about nothing else besides. Does that nothing else possibly include me? I know there is every chance that once Hunter gets what he wants he'll walk out on our little arrangement and leave me high and dry. And why would he stay anyway? He got his end of the bargain. Or at least he will do once Hunter gets his rematch with Show and finishes what he started.

Shit. Why on earth did I ever get involved in this? Suddenly getting my heart ripped out of my chest in return for screwing over my father doesn't seem terribly appealing to me. Then again when I approached Hunter with our little arrangement I didn't expect to feel this way. I didn't expect to fall for the guy especially a guy as manipulative and twisted as my husband. See I know Hunter can be bad to the core. He can be cruel. He can be remorseless. He can be all the things that as a young woman I thought I would despise in a man. Trouble is I'm not that person any more. I'm not the little girl who believed in fairy tales. I'm not the same little girl who thought that the one person she could always trust and rely on was her daddy. That illusion had been well and truly shattered into pieces. So was the delusion that I could enter into this thing with Hunter and walk away completely unscathed because the truth is I love the guy. I love Hunter Hearst Helmsley and God help me, I just can't deny it any more. I'm not even sure I want to.

What finally tipped me over the edge and got me to admit my feelings to myself was Christmas. We spent it alone together after Hunter had invited me to his home. It was an unexpected invitation and I appreciated it. After all, I wasn't exactly going to spend the holidays with my family and Hunter had no one to visit either. It turns out he didn't really have any family to speak of anyway which was something I only discovered fairly recently. Actually it was over the holidays when my husband surprised me by unexpectedly opening up to me.

It had been during Christmas Eve, a few nights back. We'd just finished decorating the tree that evening. I'd managed to convince Hunter we couldn't have Christmas without one. He'd grudgingly given in after I'd pleaded with him for hours to get one. Apparently I was a giant pain in the ass when I wanted something. I remember smiling as I followed him out of the door and thinking in that moment I was truly happy. It had been the first time in a long time that I'd felt that way so much so I think it overwhelmed me a little and tears sprung to my eyes as I got in the car. Of course I quickly batted them away before Hunter could see them. Stephanie McMahon Helmsley was not a woman who let her emotions get the better of her. Or at least in my head that was the case. My heart was an entirely different matter and it was the same heart that broke for Hunter when he told me about his childhood that night.

There had been something so different about him when he had talked. I think it was his eyes. The dark brown pools held a sadness that made Hunter appear almost vulnerable and that was something I had never associated with him before. Hunter was always so strong and powerful and while those qualities made me hot for him, the vulnerability he showed that night made me love him. When Hunter told me his parents had died in a car crash when he was little and that he'd been raised in numerous care homes, it took everything I had not to pull him into my arms and just hold him close because I realised no one had ever been there for Hunter. No one had loved him or cared for him properly and in my mind it explained a lot about him. Hunter was cold and detached because he didn't know how to be anything else. He could be selfish because he'd needed to be his whole life. He'd had to put his own wants and needs first and look after himself in order to survive. The person he was now was the lonely boy he'd had to be for so long.

But while Hunter was all those things, there were so many other qualities about him too. Qualities that endeared him to me in so many ways that Christmas night, I couldn't explain. It was just an overall feeling I had being with him and being close to him like I was and I knew Hunter had touched me in a way he had never touched me before. I felt connected to him and for the first time, our connection wasn't between the sheets. For the first time I had felt close to him without sex and the overwhelming feelings I had every time I looked at him weren't associated with my pleasure or his. They went far more deeply than that and they were stronger than I had ever possibly imagined.

And if my heart wasn't already full of love for Hunter that evening, it certainly was when he had given me his Christmas gift. The clock had just struck midnight when he'd disappeared for a moment before reappearing before me with a small gift wrapped box. His smile as he offered it to me melted me inside. His gesture had been a complete surprise and was totally unexpected. After all we weren't a real couple. We didn't have a relationship so to speak. After all screwing over my father and screwing each other most of the time wasn't exactly grounds for one of those. That's why I'd never even contemplated Hunter giving me a gift. My fingers had trembled and my heart had raced as I pulled open the carefully tied bow and removed the red foil wrapping paper. I knew it was jewellery. The extravagant box told me that much but my breath had hitched in my throat and I swear I was completely lost for words when I lifted the lid to find a diamond sparkling back at me. It was the same diamond ring I wore now. A ring that was stunning and beautiful and as I lift my hand to look at the jewellery that adorns my left ring finger, I can't help the slow delighted smile that crosses my face.

"You still like it then?"

His deep voice makes me warm inside and my smile widens to the point my entire face is beaming as I nod and turn to Hunter. He is standing to my left dressed in his black t-shirt and track pants and the grin he wears makes me wonder if the shower he's just emerged from has succeeded in washing away his anger at losing his match. God, I hope so because there is no need for Hunter to be angry. We both know it's only a matter of time before he wins that belt anyway and gets what he so desperately wants. Personally I just pray that when he does, he doesn't toss me aside into the bargain because I love this man. I love my husband. I really do and a tiny part of me hopes that Hunter might feel something for me too. The same hope I pull on every time I look at the diamond on my finger and remind myself that Hunter gave it to me for no other reason than he wanted to. It was a hope I was determined to hold on to because I wasn't going to lose Hunter. Not now. Not if I could help it. Quite simply my heart refused to let him go.