Author's Notes: That warning in chapter one about sexual situations, that might come into play in this chapter.
Chapter XXII: Cheater, Cheater, Peanut Eater
Kevin flipped the cellphone shut and tossed it to Shawn. "This isn't the first time Stephanie's been in a match. You got some vested interest in her or something?"
"I would hate to see something happen to that beautiful body," Shawn replied nonchalantly.
Kevin laughed and stretched his long legs out, propping them up in the other chair. "I take it you've gotten hold of 'that beautiful body," he said, mocking Shawn. HBK said nothing in reply and shrugged his shoulders. "You mean y'all haven't…" The taller man trailed off. "She turned you down, didn't she?"
"Look," Shawn replied, throwing Kevin's feet out of the chair and sitting down opposite of him. "I turned her down and not because I don't want her." Nash sat up in the chair, intent on hearing this excuse. "I just feel like…" he started and ran his hand over his face. "I feel like I'm taking something that belongs to my best friend."
"She's not mine. Wait, we're not talking about Therese, are we?" he added, facetiously.
"No, no. Hunter," Shawn answered with a glare.
"You're hell bent on destroying him and you're worried about sleeping with his ex-wife? That would be a good way to start, you know…not that I'm advocating it," Kevin hastily added the last. "If it's not one thing, it's another with her. If it's not her father, it's her ex-husband. What do you have to worry about? I think you're making excuses because you're afraid."
"Of what?"
"I don't know. Falling in love, maybe," Kevin answered and leaned back in his seat.
Shawn glanced away and replied, "Whatever."
In the limousine, the women finalized their plans. After the ritual checking out of their rooms by Therese, they changed into something more comfortable and called the guys. Kevin handed Therese the bucket of ice she requested and made a fuss over looking at her shoulders where the chair had impacted them. He helped her, even at her request not to, make an icepack for her cheek.
In the other room, Shawn immediately started on Stephanie agreeing to the handicap match for next week. The brunette held up a finger, effectively quieting him. "Save it for another night. I just want to forget about things and being with you does that for me. However, it doesn't help if you harp on me about it."
"I'm sorry, princess…So, I make you forget about things?" he seductively asked and inched towards her. She tipped her head up, sucking in her breath and waiting for his kiss. He brushed his lips across hers before pulling her closer into a searing kiss. The slamming of the ice bucket caused them to jerk apart. A grinning Kevin Nash stood there with the bucket in his hand and Therese peaking around him, the same smile on her face.
"What are we doing tonight?" Shawn asked, taking a seat and propping his feet up on the bed.
"I wouldn't mind learning to play poker," Stephanie answered with the ultimate innocent look on her face.
"I didn't bring any cards," Shawn replied. "If you want to that bad, I guess we could go—"
"I have some," Therese called, dashing into the other room and returning to toss them on the table.
"There's only one problem with that. I don't play poker unless it's strip poker," Shawn suggestively responded and let the cards fall from the box into his hand. He flashed a grin at Kevin, who returned it with as much enthusiasm.
"Well, ladies?" the other man asked.
Stephanie and Therese nervously glanced at each other. The blonde gestured for Stephanie to come into her room. They loudly whispered to each other to give the impression that they were weighing their answer. The girls quickly added socks and a robe to their dress and sauntered around the corner. "Alright, we accept," Stephanie said and grandly took a seat in the other empty chair.
"But you already cheated," Shawn whined.
"How is that?" Therese asked, pushing up to the table the other two chairs from her room.
"You put on more clothes."
"Ah, we did that before agreed, sweetie," Stephanie replied. "This way or no way."
Kevin nudged Shawn and leaned in to whisper to him. Shawn smiled and shuffled the cards. "Alright, let's lay out the rules. Five card draw. Whoever wins gets to choose who loses a piece of clothing. When you lose all of your money, you take it all off. That okay with everyone?" Shawn and Kevin passed a hungry glance at each other.
"When you explain to me what five card draw is, I do believe so," Stephanie answered.
"What are we using for money?" Kevin asked.
Therese glanced around, pulled open the mini-bar, and tossed two bags of peanuts on the table. "That work?" Everyone nodded and she quickly retrieved the two from her room.
"Alright, ante is two peanuts and the limit is ten. You eat someone else's peanuts, you forfeit a hand," Shawn stated as Stephanie ripped open the packets and began dividing them evenly.
The guys correctly explained the game while the ladies intently listened. Stephanie tried to sweet-talk her way into them allowing her to write down the hands on piece of paper to continue the charade that they didn't know what they were doing. It didn't fly. Therese knew that the game of poker wasn't exactly what hand you drew but how much you let on to the other people what hand you drew.
With the peanuts divvied up, Shawn dealt the first hand. They picked up their cards and studied them. Therese and Stephanie leaned in to each other and began whispering.
"Hey, hey, no conferring."
"Aw, come on, Shawn, we have no idea what we're doing. At least let us until we get the hang of it," Stephanie purred.
"I think we ought to give them something, Shawn," Kevin replied. He reluctantly agreed and the girls once again converged on their cards. When each of them took two more cards, they acted excited and put up only two more peanuts apiece. Shawn suppressed a giggle, matched their two and tossed in six more. After that, they folded and it was down to Kevin and Shawn who added a few more nuts to the pile. Shawn only had a pair of queens and was bluffing his way through. Kevin ended up with a pair of twos. Shawn eagerly turned to Stephanie. "Give it up, babe."
She sighed and then made a big show of taking off her sock and throwing it at him. Kevin reached for their cards and turned them over. "Steph, you had three jacks."
"You mean I really won?"
"You would have if you'd kept going," he answered as he pulled the cards together to shuffle them.
"Oh," she demurely replied.
With the next hand, Therese ended up with two fours. They acted like it was the world and she tossed in the ten peanuts. Kevin and Shawn immediately folded. She laid them out and the both of them rolled their eyes, knowing they had better hands. "Alright, no conferring," Shawn stated before Therese picked her victim.
"Kevin…" she sheepishly smiled.
Sheepish was never a description for Therese but he complied with a snort and tossed off a shoe. "Happy?"
"I will be later when I win," she teased.
Stephanie dealt the next hand and Therese leaned over to tell her to start playing seriously and to remind her to target Shawn. As if I need reminding about that, she thought. "No conferring," Shawn yelled.
"We haven't even looked at our cards," Stephanie pouted.
Therese and Stephanie bluffed their way through three more hands with Therese legitimately winning another with a full house. They left Kevin hanging with one shoe and Shawn now sported bare feet. He muttered something about beginner's luck when Kevin started the next hand. The ladies passed a knowing look between each other.
The luck ran out and the hands went back and forth, although a little favored to the women. Stephanie and Therese both lost their robes, Kevin was barefoot but Shawn was now on a striptease with his shirt. Stephanie's eyes followed his every move and she licked her lips at the sight of his bare body. She wanted to run her fingers through the thick blonde hair on his chest but held herself back, knowing that in a few hands he would be minus much more.
"I don't know why y'all're ganging up on me," he whined
"It was your idea," Therese replied in a singsong voice.
"I think you're pulling something off on us," Shawn said with a serious tone and propped his elbows on the table, staring Therese down. "Do you know how to play poker?"
"I do now. That's for sure," she flippantly answered.
"Before tonight, did you know how to play poker?" he clarified, intensifying his glare.
"I've seen 'Maverick' and 'The Gambler' before. Either way, it's too late to turn back now," she answered with a crooked grin and shuffled the cards.
Shawn ran into a strand of luck and Stephanie was embarrassingly down to her shorts and bra. She was casting Therese glances that said, "This wasn't supposed to happen." The blonde ignored the looks, reveling in her mortification. She thought it only right to catch Kevin up to the other two and pulled out a few hands that brought the guys on equal grounds—jeans and underwear. Therese was practically drooling over Kevin's muscles. She quickly remembered when she had slept in the same bed with him, his broad chest supporting her as they lay side by side…
Apparently her focus had shifted and Kevin reduced her by a shirt, but he was sorely disappointed to find a camisole underneath. She grinned evilly, "Sorry."
Stephanie's mood lightened when she won the next hand and the object of her affection revealed lightly tanned skin and muscular thighs as he angrily stripped off his jeans. Forget the fact that he was mad or that she was half-naked herself, Stephanie was greedily taking it all in. In return, Shawn pulled off the next two rounds and demanded Therese lose the camisole. She tossed it aside and focused on the hand before her to put Kevin in the same predicament as Shawn. Like Kevin cared as he imagined what it would be like to run his hands over her smooth, milky skin.
The peanuts piled up between Shawn and Therese as they attempted to outdo each other. On the next hand, someone seemed bound to bare a private body part. Each person focused on their cards, only Shawn and Therese daring each other to fold with their eyes. She held her breath as the cards were laid down—Shawn had won. Therese almost felt sorry for Stephanie when Shawn stared Therese down, instead of Stephanie, and demanded that she lose something. She begrudgingly smiled but then reached down under the table whipped off a sock, tossing it in his face.
"You cheater!" Shawn exclaimed and threw the white sock back at her.
"No one ever said which article of clothing had to go," she maliciously grinned and pushed the cards to Stephanie for the next deal.
Now they were down to the wire. Therese had met her match in poker with Shawn Michaels, but she would be damned if she lost the next hand or, God forbid, the next two hands. On the next round, the two blondes stared each other down, making some attempt at reading each other minds. Kevin leaned over to Stephanie and said, "I don't think we exist, do you?" His intention was for the other two to hear but they were too absorbed in the game. Stephanie shook her head and sighed. "Wanna fold and see what happens between them?" he asked and popped up a peanut in his mouth.
"Why not?" They tossed in their cards and the blondes cast them a cursory glance before returning to their showdown. Shawn called it and they both hesitantly laid their hands down on the table.
"Ha!" Therese yelled, slamming her hand down on the table. "I win! Now, who's next?" Stephanie pleaded with her eyes not to be chosen. Kevin was chuckling to himself over the fact that they had been duped; Shawn Michaels, the king of poker—strip poker at that—was a strip of cloth away from losing to a woman that he was positive he could have naked in thirty minutes or less. Kevin had resigned himself to showing off his entire manly glory, but then Therese's eyes lit on Shawn. "I'd like to thank today's sponsor—" she stopped to glance under the table, "Fruit of the Loom. Mr. Michaels, sir, would you like to pass around a sample of their underwear line."
The glint in his eyes told her she may have made a mistake. His green briefs were off in an instant and two of the most uninterested people in the room of seeing Shawn naked got more than an eyeful of his anatomy as he so elegantly reminded them that he had once been a member of D-Generation X.
"Go, go!" Kevin yelled, grabbing his clothes and dragging Therese with him.
"That's what you get for cheating!" he called after them as Kevin shoved Therese into her room and slammed the door behind them.
"Don't ever incite him to do that again," Kevin panted.
"Oh, I won't. You can trust me on that. But it was well worth it," she replied.
When the laughter subsided, they locked eyes and realized how little they were wearing. Therese blushed red and immediately began digging through her suitcase. She yelped in surprise as Kevin grabbed her by the waist and spun her around. "You know, it's okay to do this kind of stuff," he whispered and descended on her mouth. She tangled her fingers in his hair and moaned when one hand found her breast. Her nipples became taut peaks as the desire rose within her and his manhood pressed against her. He trailed hot kisses down her neck and her hands loosened their hold on his neck and began to trace the muscles on his chest. He freed one breast from her bra and ran his tongue across the peak. She moaned in pleasure and grasped his bicep to steady herself. He smiled against her skin and slid a hand up her back to undo her bra.
Maybe it was the pause or maybe it was her brain finally kicking in, but she realized where this was all going. She was already teetering on the edge of being fired for her stunt with the match against Sable. Sleeping with Kevin was bound to put her one step closer or shove her off the edge. "Kevin," she whispered as his hand found the clasp. He pulled back to look at her. "I'm not ready for this."
He stared at her for a moment, digesting what exactly she had said. Watching his passion-clouded eyes clear, she almost regretted stopping him.
"Okay," he stated, running his hand through his hair and turning his back to her.
"Really?"
"Yeah," he answered, looking back at her and glancing for where he dropped his jeans after their hasty exit. "I'm not like other guys. I won't push you into something you don't want to do." He buttoned his pants and then pulled her into his arms. She nodded her head against his chest. His skin was so hot, she had to pull back.
"I should probably get my clothes from—" she started as Kevin grabbed her arm and jerked her back as she headed for the door.
"I don't think you want to go in there for the rest of the night."
"But—oh…never mind." She quickly pulled out some clothes from her suitcase. Pulling a shirt over her head, she asked, "Do you hear that?"
"What?" he asked, tying a shoelace.
"That," she pointed out when she heard what sounded like a muffled moan again. Then they both realized what it was.
"You know, there's this little diner a block away. You wanna go?" Kevin hurriedly asked.
"Yeah," she answered without missing a beat and grabbed her key and cellphone on the way to the door.
As the door shut behind Kevin and Therese, Shawn pounced on Stephanie and tossed her on the bed, straddling her. The brunette's giggles immediately ceased as he fixed his gaze on her face. She licked her lips and drew her bottom lip between her teeth. Shawn heavily sighed and began caressing her temples. She quivered at such a simple gesture, inflaming Shawn's body with desire. He slowly bent down to capture her lips with his, intent on taking things slower than the last time they were in this situation. Stephanie pulled the band that held his blonde hair back and the strands fell around them, tickling her face.
Shawn left a hot trail across her jaw as he nibbled his way down her neck into the valley between her breasts. He paused for a moment and then nipped at the satin bra. She instinctively raised up and he reached a hand around to free the mounds of flesh. Tingles coursed throughout her as he divested her of the satin and ran a finger around one nipple. She held her breath as his tongue gently laved one then the other. Propped up by one arm, he continued to tease her breast with his mouth while his other hand snaked its way down her stomach and underneath the sapphire panties. She moaned his name as his hand found the sensitive nub.
He raised up to smile at her and then trailed kisses down her dimpled skin with goosebumps. She raised her hips as he stripped off the last bit of clothing separating them. His tongue flicked across the center of her desire and she groaned in pleasure, gripping the blanket in her fists. As his ministrations almost brought her to point of climax, he could wait no longer and returned for a kiss before plunging into her.
Stephanie cried out and he immediately withdrew. "Princess?" he asked with concern.
"Don't stop," she panted. "Oh, god, please, don't stop."
Shawn complied with her request and buried himself deeper. The sheer pleasure of being within her blocked the bite of her nails in his shoulders. Her hips met each of his thrusts with as much intensity. Just when she thought she couldn't handle the need for fulfillment, she climaxed, sending waves coursing throughout every inch of her body. Just as she came, he joined her and moaned her name with one last thrust, falling down on top of her and pinning her to the bed with his weight.
Stephanie wrapped her arms around him, not wanting him to move. Finally, he rolled over and kissed her. "It was better than I ever imagined," she whispered.
He smiled at her and replied, "It's only because you made it that way."
"I can't take much credit," she said with a blush as he brushed the tips of his fingers up and down her stomach. In return, she lightly ran her nails across his chest, running a nail around one of his nipples. When it hardened, she lightly laughed, "Maybe I'll have to do more next time to deserve that credit you give me."
Shawn shot her a sexy smile. "Well…I'm waiting." She wasted no time in returning the gratification that he had given her.
Therese took another sip of her coffee and glanced at her watch. Not that that she was impatient in wanting to get away from Kevin, but she would rather be raining on Stephanie's parade. She and Kevin had been sitting in the restaurant for hours, talking and sipping coffee, the time getting away from them. All Therese had been able to think about was the man across from her and what Stephanie had been doing. It just wasn't fair in her mind. Stephanie was having all the fun and all she could do was lust after the sexy man that sat across from her in the booth at some greasy diner. She downed the last of the coffee and obviously looked down at her watch. "It's gonna be daylight soon. Maybe we should get back and get a little sleep before you have to leave later."
"Yeah, I think so. I bet you're so tired, that I'm surprised you're still walking. You're cheek's starting to look pretty bad," he responded and took the last bite of his cherry pie.
"I've had worse. It's no big deal. At least I don't have to make excuses. Everybody knows," she added with a snort.
"Let's go. I'll get the bill," he replied and slid out of the booth to help her out before they made their way up to her room. The sun was barely peaking in through the patio window as Kevin slowly kissed her. She inwardly sighed at how jealous she was of Stephanie and the word "blackmail" popped in her mind. She could work things around to where if Stephanie didn't comply with Therese getting her way then Stephanie would no longer be getting her way. She pulled Kevin down to kiss him on the cheek before they said 'goodbye' and she shut the door. She laughed to herself over her brilliant epiphany of manipulation. Stephanie wouldn't be left alone with Shawn again if she didn't agree to a way for Therese to be with Kevin.
TBC…
Author's Notes: I didn't mean for this chapter to be entirely about the night after SmackDown, but it just got away from me. I'm sure some of you don't entirely mind. ;)