Review, please! I want to know what you want to happen, dear reader.
A quiet evening in a hotel room.
"So, run it by me again." Randy said as he sat down on the comforter-clad double bed. "You do babysitting on the side?"
Claire smiled and replied while setting a snoozing Max on his anti-roll sleeping pillow on the bed, "On nights when superstars want to go out, I usually look over some of their kids. Usually, the Levesques leave their three daughters with me when they're on vacation from school and travelling with their parents."
"Why don't you go out with the tech team?"
"Sometimes I do." she said and tucked the little baby in. "Being one of the guys is fun, but it's not an everyday thing for me. If you haven't noticed, there aren't many women on the tech team."
She walked over and sat down beside him. The young superstar looked dashingly comfortable in a pair of sweatpants and a muscle shirt that showed every distinct line on his muscular upper body. "There would usually be a mess of tween girls fighting about what movie to watch or what flavor of popcorn to eat." she laughed at the memories. "But since baby Max is soundly sleeping, I get some quiet time tonight."
"Oh, I apologize for crashing your quiet time." he looked at her and grinned, letting her know that he wasn't really sorry to be there in the first place. "Should I stay or should I stay?"
Claire laughed and involuntarily allowed her eyes to get a little bit dreamy in his presence. "It's a tough decision, but I think you should stay." her face turned serious. "No funny business, mister. There's young blood in the room."
He nodded. He himself wouldn't want a babysitter doing anything rash while watching over his little girl. Quietly, Randy watched as she stood up, grabbed the remote and handed it to him. "Feel like watching? I just have to go over a few designs. It shouldn't take me more than fifteen to twenty minutes." she said.
Randy took the remote and turned the TV on; he made sure that the volume wasn't too high to wake the baby up. She could ask him what was on but he wouldn't be able to answer her. The man spent the next fifteen minutes looking at the young woman sitting in front of the maple-varnished desk with her mind clearly focused on the three-dimensional models on her laptop.
He noticed that she had worn a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and gingerly sat cross-legged on the office chair. Her back faced him, so he couldn't clearly see her face but he knew that something was iffy with the designs whenever she tilted her head slightly to the right. Claire's hand casually reached up to her head where her fingers began rubbing small circles on her temples.
"Anything Randy Orton can help with?" he voiced out. She looked back at him and shook her head. "What are you up to, anyways?"
He dropped the remote on the bed and walked over to her side where he bent down to peer into her computer screen. "Proposals for the Titantron design for Summerslam. I'm partial to this one." she said and pointed to one of the windows. She turned the model a complete 360 degrees and giggled at Randy's jaw dropping.
"You can do that on a computer now?!" he exclaimed and asked her to turn it around again.
His innocence made her giggle in delight. Randy looked like a kid who had just arrived at Disneyland. She allowed him control of the pointer as he turned the model in all directions. Still in awe, he asked, "So, what do you do, did you make this or do you build it?"
"I help build it, but we all take a look at it before a group meeting so that we know what's feasible and what's not. Sometimes, people get too creative, it becomes unreasonable. We do try to bring every show-stopping design to life, but budget's a tough issue to handle." she explained.
He turned his head to look at her, "You amaze me, Claire. You really do."
Claire looked down at her lap where her fingers twiddled and she coyly smiled, "Your charm is undeniable, Mr. Orton."
In classic Randy Orton fashion, he hooked his index finger under her chin and pulled her face up to meet his own. A soft smile later, he whispered, "Calling me Mr. Orton is beyond sexy, but I'd like you to start calling me Randy."
"Then what do you say to you and me doing something exciting and out of the box, Randy?"
His body stiffened in anticipation; her words sent his blood rushing somewhere it shouldn't have considering there was a minor, albeit sound asleep, in the room. With a furrowed brow and pursed lips, he queried, "What do you mean?"
Claire pushed his hand away from her face, stood up, and walked foxily to her luggage. She bent over to rummage through her things and gave him a quick show of her flexibility. Randy knew what he wanted. He inwardly began praying that she would pull out a set of sexy lingerie or even handcuffs. The bulge in his pants grew with every second it took her to fish around her bag.
"Got it!" she said and stood to full height. She hid the resealable plastic bag behind her back and walked back to him with the same sultriness she had walked away with. Taking her glasses off and laying them on the office table, she spoke, "I challenge you, Randy."
"To what?" came his unexpectedly low rumble. The thoughts in his head raced from Trish berating him for having sex in front of her infant son to seeing everything Claire was wearing on the floor beside him; except the flower in her hair. The flower was hot.
She brought the bag up and shoved it into his abdomen. "To a Puzzle-Off. Forgive me for that bulge in your pants." she said with a wink and giggled at his obvious problem. He looked at the bag and saw that it contained jigsaw puzzle pieces.
"Wha—what? That's not fair!" he pleaded and began to pout. "You don't know your power, young lady."
She smiled and jumped a little to kiss him on the cheek. "I know my power," she said. "Win this match and I owe you another shower to get rid of that problem."
"And if I lose?"
"If you lose, you owe me a shower." came her confident reply. "Let's keep in PG for the young ones in the room for now."
"Game on." he said and opened the bag. Claire cleared the desk of her laptop and allowed Randy to dump all of the pieces on the table. Grabbing two seats from the corner, they set up the stage for the Puzzle-Off.
The Puzzle-Off was simple. The bag contained two one hundred-piece puzzles jumbled up. Outside were photos of the images to be built. Each competitor picks an image and tries to find the pieces that fit together. First one to complete the image wins.
"Hold on." she said. Turning around, Claire walked over to the sleeping baby and checked to make sure he was alright. Baby Stratus was sleeping nice and snuggly in his sleeping pillow. She pulled the baby blanket over his tiny form to keep him warm. After giving him a few loving strokes on his head, she turned around to see that Randy had started his puzzle. "HEY. Cheater!" she said, but was met with the most adorable response when he stuck his tongue out at her.
It took a good hour and a half for someone to finish a puzzle. Every now and then, Claire would mess up Randy's pieces in hopes of slowing him down. In return, he would tickle her madly until she conceded to a five-piece delay. She poked him in the abdomen to get her a few seconds more on the clock. He messed up her hair to block her vision.
Randy won fair and square; beating Clare by a mere three pieces. Her polar bear missed a nose while his 1960s American muscle car looked ready to hit the streets. He jumped up in his seat and danced around, a vision not many have seen besides the toe-touch he pulled on Smackdown after landing the RKO on Mark Henry. Randy did the classic 90s moves that he grew up with; the butterfly and old school hammer.
"No fair, you had a head start and this polar bear has way too much white for it to be easy!" she pouted.
"You're no match for the Viper!" he cheered, and it didn't sound like his cocky persona at all. He sounded innocent, like the little child who just won a game against his little sister. "Can't handle it when I tickle you like this, huh?"
Randy began tickling her again as the pout eroded from her face and was quickly replaced with muffled giggles. Claire wasn't one to back down as she began poking his abdomen like earlier, "And you can't handle it when I poke you!"
"Oh, you just wait!" he challenged and began ruffling her hair; the little pink flower slipping out of the loose bun and falling onto the floor. She, in return, reached up to attempt to mess up his hair as well. Realizing his size didn't permit her to do so, she settled with pinching his nose playfully and moving his head from left to right.
"You keep on distracting me." she said and finally let go when Randy stopped messing up her hair. They paused for a moment, their breaths having become deep from the laughter and bickering. His hands still lay on either side of her head.
The pad of his thumb slowly caressed her cheek. They had turned a soft hue of pink. Her eyes had become a little watery; only bringing out the brown color they possessed which, surely, Randy wouldn't be able to get out of his mind for quite some time. He began to run his fingers through her tousled hair and made sure that no strand was left on her face. "Am I a welcome distraction?" he whispered quietly.
Claire closed her eyes and refused to meet the inherent beauty of his stark blue eyes. Refocusing her breath, she wrapped her hands around his. This may be getting too deep. echoed the little voice in her head.
"Let me." he whispered again. She opened her eyes and was met with a startlingly disarming kiss from Randy. For the first time, she noticed how the slight stubble on his chin tickled the skin on her own with every peck; how his thin lips generously caressed. His hands loosened their grip and allowed her to tilt her head to give him a little more room to use his tongue to venture her mouth.
Instinctively, her arms snuck in between his and found their place wrapped around his neck; all the more sealing their bodies together. He kept the kiss sweet and void of any aggression; as though he wanted to be as gentle with her as possible. With his hands falling to the curve connecting her waist to her hips, he pulled her a little closer… Just close enough to feel the steady beat of her heart through her chest.
Claire pulled away first but didn't make an effort to bring space between them. She rested her head on his chest and allowed herself to take it all in; his arms simultaneously wrapping themselves around her frame. Neither spoke a single word as they stood there for what seemed like forever. Their breath slowly caught up to them; making their bodies relax into the moment.
"You don't know what you do to me." he whispered, but no reply came.
A knock on the door forced the two apart. As though nothing had happened, Randy offered to go check who it was while Claire fixed her hair and walked over to the sleeping infant. The little one lay undisturbed, twitching every now and then as though he had been dreaming. "Hi, Randy! I'm here to pick up Max." Trish's voice echoed into the room.
Trish stepped in and saw Claire packing up Max's diaper bag. "Oh, I hope he wasn't a bother." she said, walking over and picking up her sleeping son from his place on the bed.
Claire smiled and shook her head, "He was the perfect angel. Actually, he fell right asleep when we arrived here. Been asleep ever since."
John eyed Randy; his eyes squinting as though implying that the younger man had done some fooling around. "I hope you kept it in your pants 'cause there's a baby in the room." John said and earned an eye roll.
"Dude, I have a little girl. I'd never." Randy said in his defense. John nodded, his face still rather doubtful, and walked over to get the diaper bag from Claire. He took note of the light fluster in her face and neck and squinted his eyes at Randy even more.
"Alright, we should head out!" Trish said in hushed tones. "Randy, come with us so Claire can rest. Claire, honey, thank you so much for watching over Max. Steph was right, you are good with kids!"
"It was no problem." Claire smiled. "Next time you need a babysitter, I'm up for it for as long as I'm free."
"I should help Claire clean up…" Randy trailed off and motioned to the jigsaw puzzles on the table. He wanted to forget that John was staring at him like he had colored his hair orange.
"Oh, it's fine, I can do it." said Claire. "Thanks for staying with me and Max."
Sensing that he was being asked to leave, Randy turned to his friends and told them that he'd be out in a minute. The two willingly exited the room and shut the door behind them; John's face clearly told Randy that this was not the time for a quickie. Once they were alone, Randy turned to Claire and saw that she had begun disassembling the puzzles.
He walked over to help her by starting to put the pieces back in the bag they were originally. The air grew a thick as they finished off the last of Randy's puzzle. He sealed the bag and placed them on the table. Claire hadn't met his eyes or spoken a word.
Randy carefully crouched down and picked up the little pink flower that had fallen to the floor earlier. "I don't expect you to say anything…" he started as he stood to full height.
He took her hand, opened it, and placed the flower on her palm. Her hands weren't soft. In fact, they had scars of old cuts and burn marks from her job. Randy admired each of her fingers for a moment before curling them into a fist, the flower nestled gently in it.
"But I know there's so much you want to say." he said. He stepped closer and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before turning around and exiting the room.
"Let's go?" he asked the two superstars who stood outside in the hallway. They both nodded and made their way to the elevators to return to their room. The walk was quiet, filled with only the soft hushes or coos from Trish to let Max fall into slumber when he stirred.
At first, Claire got him excited. She made him feel young and full of life. Now, she made him wonder if a man like him would be enough for a young, intelligent, vivacious woman like her. In a matter of days, he had been hooked.
Is it the way she challenges me? Is it the sex? Is it that fucking adorable laugh she has? Am I too old for her? Maybe I shouldn't date a tech member. Is it still appropriate when I have a daughter?
Does she want me the same way?
Review please, dear reader. Do you think he should go for it? How about Claire, should she go for it?
-iRocka