5

Dallas took a shower as hot as she could stand it the next morning, blinking tiredly at the white tile wall. She was sore like she'd run a marathon, and it was probably the closest she would come to doing such a stupid thing.

She didn't know what the hell had come over her. There went years of turning down hot guys, feeling good about being able to keep her hormones out of her job, and avoiding temptation. She let her forehead rest against the cool tiles as the hot water hit her shoulders and back. She ruefully remembered thinking she would regret what had happened, and she was not disappointed. She felt kind of ill. Not because she didn't like the guy. And not because it wasn't good. Good. She snorted a laugh. Taker managed to push every button she had, and some she hadn't known were there. She hated this shit, the hell she put herself through when she knew she was going to have to socialize with the dick she had fucked the night before. It was why she did not mix business and pleasure. It never worked.

At least Taker had left without her kicking him out. He'd even been gentleman enough to wake her up to tell her he was going. Dallas barely acknowledged him. She was too busy sleeping. She woke up for real at ten and immediately began berating herself mentally for being weak. Just because they had groped each other a few times here and there over the years was no reason to fuck the guy.

Dallas dried off and combed out her wet hair. She saw red marks and beard scratches on the side of her neck and winced. For the first time she looked down at herself and paid attention. There were red marks here and there, and a bruise on her left breast. A bruise? Hell…a hickey. He had sucked on her boob so hard at some point that he'd left a freaking hickey. Like a high school kid. Or a horny old guy who didn't realize he was leaving evidence behind. Dallas groaned and went to her bag, pulling out some clothes. She realized belatedly that she had a meeting today with a few of the higher ups, groaned again, and grabbed a skirt and shell top. With some low heels, that was as dressy as she would ever get.

She spent too long trying to find everything for the day ahead. The shower had helped, and moving around was loosening up her stiff muscles. She spotted her folder and grabbed the purse she only carried when she absolutely had to. Her black skirt had no pockets, so purse it was. She made sure her hair was covering the marks on her neck and tucked her keycard and cell phone into her purse before heading out the door.

Taker signed his last autograph, wondering where his assistant was. He knew he had this event, and he had a meeting at four, but he knew there was other stuff. Just not what was supposed to happen. Security began urging the fans to head for the exits, since the wrestlers needed to get ready for the show that night. He saw a familiar figure talking to one of the guards and relaxed. Dallas was finally here, carrying her folder of wonder notes. He tried to remember the last time he'd seen her wearing anything other than jeans or shorts, and vaguely recalled an occurrence before he'd left the last time. She had even said she was going to flash her legs at management during some meeting or other. She had been joking, but she did dress up for the occasion.

He watched her walk toward him. He was prepared for awkward. How could it be anything but?

"How'd it go? Do you need to ice down your hand because of cramps?" She asked, sitting down and crossing her legs. She set her purse on the table and held the folder on her lap.

"It was good. I think they were shocked to see me here." He said, wondering what was going on. She wasn't awkward. She was acting like nothing had happened.

"You have a trainer waiting for you over by your locker room. They want to go through your entrance physical. But if you want to go grab some lunch first, I'll tell them to wait."

Taker shrugged. He'd had a late breakfast, and no wonder. He hadn't rolled out of bed until eight. He was used to six. Eight was a luxury sleep in. "I can do it now. Get it over with."

"Right." Dallas clicked her pen open and scribbled something. "If you want, I can just order you something. Or you can see what they have in catering. I wouldn't recommend it though. I think it's some kind of fish." There was humor in her voice. And it irked him. He did not know why it should, but it did. He could not believe she was just going to go about her business and pretend they hadn't spent hours the night before tying each other into figurative knots. He expected something. He wasn't sure what. Maybe even just an 'it can never happen again, it was a mistake' kind of thing.

"Sounds disgusting. I'll let ya know if I get hungry." He finally answered her. "What else?"

Dallas glanced up at him, her expression unreadable. "Your meeting at four. That's it for today. Pretty cake. I tried to change your physical therapy to today, but they were booked up solid. Oh…" She flipped through the papers, once more looking down. "I got hold of your doctor, and he faxed your forms. Your insurance rep said she'd call you if they needed anything else, but it would probably go through like last time. Whatever last time was like."

"Ok." Taker was still studying her thoughtfully. "That it?"

She looked up again at the gruff tone of his voice. "You want more?"

Taker just looked at her, wondering why he was so suddenly pissed off. He had no idea what she saw when she looked at him, but obviously he was not doing a good job of hiding what he was feeling. She frowned, just a small downward twitch of her eyebrows.

"Depends on what you have in mind." He finally answered her question. It came out monotone, because he was trying very hard to reign in his anger.

Dallas continued to look at him. Taker finally sighed and looked away, toying with the stack of magazines that were sitting at his table. He told himself to let it go. It wasn't like they were a couple. They had spent the night fucking each other, the end. He didn't want or expect more than that.

She finally heaved a sigh and got up. She headed for the door before he could get up. Taker shook his head and followed her, already forming an apology in his head for this pointless anger. He did not catch up to her until they reached his locker room. And all he could think about doing was dragging her into the locker room, hiking that skirt up, and taking his anger out on her in a different way.

He didn't get a chance to try that particular fantasy out. Dallas got the attention of one of the trainers, and spoke to him for a moment, gesturing in Taker's direction. He finally caught up and glared at her for a moment before turning his attention to the trainer.

Dallas either did not see the look he gave her, or she chose to ignore it. She turned and walked off, scribbling another not in the damned folder. Taker watched her, listening with half an ear as the trainer introduced himself and pointed to the medical room they were using.

That set a sort of pattern for the day. Dallas would pop up, always when there were people around, tell him what was happening or where he had to be, then disappear. She always had someone with her. The hell of it was, his anger had evaporated almost as fast as it had formed. But she wasn't giving him thirty seconds to apologize.

At a bit after five, he was finished for the day. Their flight would be leaving at seven. Dallas had tucked his plane ticket into his carry-on bag, along with a couple of contracts to go over on the flight, and a few magazines. He had forgotten he asked for this stuff the day before so he was kind of surprised she remembered, or even bothered with it.

And she had worked it out so that their drive to the airport was done with two other people riding along. Phil and his assistant were also heading to the airport, but they would be going in the opposite direction. Phil had a publicity appearance in Chicago to get to. So Taker bided his time.

And got disappointed yet again on the plane. He had a ticket for first-class. Dallas had at some point given up her seat next to him for a lower priced ticket in business class. When he mentioned it, she had simply said that she could not afford to pay the extra money for the ticket. He would have paid for her – and she knew that. She was putting distance between them, which should have made him grateful. Instead it just aggravated him.

He tried to concentrate on his contracts, then the magazines. It was a long, lonely flight. Apparently his annoyance had a benefit. No one bothered him the entire flight. Once they landed, he got off the plane first and waited for her. Because he knew at this end of things, he had her in a corner. There was no one else here to be a buffer between them. And he would be damned if she couldn't afford an upgraded plane ticket but could manage to swing a rental car.

Taker had rented an SUV. He got the keys while Dallas went to the luggage carousel to get their bags. She was distracted, obviously, and did not say much as he took both the bags from her and shouldered them. He led the way outside, and into the lot where his SUV was waiting. He stowed their bags in the back before sliding in to the driver's seat.

At least his anger was gone. Now Taker just felt tired and down. He had the perfect opportunity to instigate conversation, but he could not find the right way to start. Their drive was only going to be about two hours, putting them at the hotel at three in the morning.

Dallas was not very forthcoming with conversation either. She answered her cell phone twice, both times talking in a low voice. That was it. Taker felt like all the air was being sucked out of the vehicle. And he knew it was just him. He did not know what she was thinking, that was the problem. He'd been able to read women since the day he hit puberty. He knew…for the most part…how they reacted to things, how they thought, what they wanted, and yes, in a bastard way that came from spending time being famous, which ones wanted a quick fuck from a celebrity and which ones thought they could 'catch' him.

So the way he figured, today should have gone two ways. Dallas should have been obeying one of two women-laws he'd observed over his lifetime. On one side, she should have been clingy, probably following him around, and extra touchy-feely. Or the second observance – she should have been embarrassed, maybe flat out mad, but there should have been some of that 'never again' bullshit he had heard before. And then maybe rubbing his face in the fact it had happened? Oh that was a given either way.

The fact that Dallas was acting as if absolutely nothing had passed between them was the problem. That was fine, when they were just playing around in a stolen moment here and there. But what they'd done the night before wasn't a 2 minute grope in a hallway.

Taker liked Dallas because she was not like other women he'd known. Then again, Taker hated Dallas because she was not like other women he'd known.

He couldn't take it anymore. There was a rest area coming up, one with a scenic overlook at the back. They were near the top of a low range of mountains, so the view in the daytime was probably nice. Now it was pitch black. He parked, slamming the brakes and jerking the gearshift.

Dallas looked at him with an eyebrow up as he got out and stalked out toward the barricade that indicated the drop off. He'd been acting so weird all day, and this just punctuated the weirdness. She heaved a sigh and got out, stretching and breathing in the cool night air. The restrooms were up a slight incline, so she headed in that direction, leaving him to work out whatever his problem was.

She used the restroom, washed her hands, and splashed some cool water on her face. Dallas was not a plane person at all. She wanted hot bath, and a warm bed. She could even bypass food for the night. And the weird shit coming from Taker's direction did not help her mood at all. She could not figure out why he was so mad. He was acting like he had not gotten exactly what he wanted when he'd barged into her room. And making her feel like she was somehow to blame for his rotten mood.

Dallas smoothed her skirt over her hips, frowning at her reflection. She should have changed clothes. Hell, she could probably go grab something more travel appropriate out of her bag. She hadn't even given it any thought. Shaking her head, she left the restroom and made her way down the walk toward the parking area with the SUV. Taker was still standing at the barrier. Dallas debated for a moment before opening the passenger door and slipping into her seat. If he wanted to brood, she would let him brood. It was not her job to cheer him up whenever he got a crazy hair up his ass.

He came slowly back to the SUV and got in. He turned the key and cracked the windows open. But he was not in any hurry to go, apparently, He leaned his head back against his seat and closed his eyes.

"Are we just camping here then?" Dallas asked when he made no move to start the SUV, or even buckle his seatbelt.

Taker huffed and turned his head to look at her. She was looking at him, her face lost in shadows. It was hard telling what she was thinking about now. Fuck that, it was impossible to tell what Dallas was thinking about. Ever.

So he did what he would normally do. Taker moved fast when he wanted to, and Dallas yelped in surprise when he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her closer as he leaned toward her. Then he was kissing her. He was damn near attacking her. He should have been wrung out like a used sponge after the night before, but there was no pause between the weird anger and hot lust.

Taker wanted her to say no. To push him away, to maybe yell at him for treating her like shit and then expecting affection. She didn't do any of that, but she did not respond to him either. That was something else new. And he did not particularly care for it.