Chapter 20

"Wait what? You want me to come to you when I'm feeling like that again?" She didn't know how to respond to that request, not sure if it was purposely insulting her. "Alright…" What the hell was she supposed to say to that? It wouldn't be for a while; she only felt restless and the need for sex every so often. "Only if you come to me." At his arched brow, she stood up from the bed and planted her hands on her hips. "I won't continuously fuck a guy who is with other women. If you want me to come strictly to you for sex, then you have to do the same thing with me. Otherwise, no, I won't come to you." Lord knew what kind of women he shacked up with before her and Emery wasn't about to get a case of STDs if she could help it.

"Yeah, I don't do relationships with writers, darlin'. Ain't happening." Mark declared, having taken a minute to realize what she was talking about.

She was talking about exclusive sex. With women, that always led down rocky roads, doubly so with someone who held the lead writer's ear. Yeah no, career suicide was not to be his if Mark decided to screw with her a bit too much or walk away.

"If it makes you feel any better though, I'm clean as a whistle." At her not impressed look, he shrugged. "Emery, I like you, but not enough to swear off other women. Mind you, I don't fuck around like I used to, massage therapist last week notwithstanding." Best to just remain friends without the benefits… then he imagined her shacking up with one of her geek friends and felt a twinge of something not pleasant, eyes narrowing.

"I hear you loud and clear. Well then, I guess we go back to being…whatever it was we were before last night happened. And I wasn't looking for a relationship either. I'm not that stupid to actually date someone I work with. Sex is just sex, but…"

Emery shrugged, pulling her t-shirt on and began braiding her hair, ignoring her jeans for the moment while she walked over to look out the window. If she needed a release, one-night stands are what would happen because she wouldn't screw Mark again. He wanted other women and she expected that, feeling him walk up to stand behind her. Emery had lost a lot of self-respect last night with this man and she refused to give him everything while she got nothing in return. If he had known what she was thinking, Mark would have been offended and informed her that she had received mind-blowing sex for hours. Every woman he took to bed claimed great sex at the end of it, but he tried to avoid long romps with women he had no intention of seeing past 3AM. Most of them were looking for more than he would give.

"Don't overthink it, Queenie." He moved up to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her in a quick hug. "Not everything has to be complicated." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

"You're right, it doesn't. That's why we're not doing this again."

Extracting herself from his arms, Emery walked over to pull her jeans on and buttoned them, having a carefree look on her face. She would not budge on the stipulation. They could either be fuck buddies exclusively to each other with no strings attached, or…he could go out and find other women to have sex with. The knock on the door saved her because Mark had been on the verge of stalking toward her, no doubt trying to change her mind. She would not go to him, not if he didn't give her the same courtesy.

"Thanks." She tipped the waiter and shut the door, rolling the tray in that had Mark's coffee and her breakfast with a side of coffee. "Better get going, Deadman. Promotional bullshit and all."

Taking his coffee, Mark sipped it with amusement sparkling in his green eyes as he regarded the way she carried herself. "I'll be seeing you, my Queen." He bowed at her playfully before walking out, whistling. His dork chick was something else.

Matthew shut his own door, having opened it to get his own breakfast, considering what he was pretty sure he had seen.

The Undertaker… coming out of Emery's room.

"See you around, Deadman." She called back just as the door closed, eating her pancakes and relished in the taste of them, groaning.

She was famished, starved, after the bout they'd had the previous night. While she ate, she pulled her Alienware out and started going over the notes she'd made for the upcoming scripts, tilting her head thoughtfully. There had to be a way to get Mark out of this WrestleMania predicament, right? No, Vince was dead set on handing Mark's legacy over to David and that did not set well with Emery. Her idea was ridiculous and stupid; now that she'd crossed the line with Mark, there was no coming back from it. Sighing, she shut her laptop and finished eating before getting a quick nap in. She didn't have to be at the arena until 4 PM.

With Mark and David's feud officially underway, everything became incredibly hectic backstage with Vince making last minute chances to the scripts. It annoyed Emery, to say the least, but she did what the boss wanted, even though some of his ideas were asinine. After the show was over with, Emery planned on driving to the next location since it wasn't that far away. House shows usually weren't. She gasped when she was yanked into a dark dressing room from the hallway, the scream lodged in her throat.

Now, he could feel that scream building, that lump in her throat, because his hand was wrapped around her slender neck. Not harshly, but enough to let her know she was being… assaulted. When he flipped on the light and seen the look on Emery's face, Mark began laughing and apologizing at the same time.

"Darlin', I'm sorry! Couldn't resist!"

"You. Stupid. Arrogant. SON OF A BITCH!" Emery screamed those last words, hitting him with every word that came out of her mouth and clutched her chest through the t-shirt, shaking her head. "Goddamn you, Mark! Jesus Christ!"

Why did he insist on scaring her? One of these days, he would cause her to have a heart attack at this rate! Or a stroke! Luckily, the bag was strapped over her chest on her shoulder, so she hadn't dropped it or else that would've been another $3,000 she'd have to fork over.

"Not funny at all, Calaway. What the hell do you want?"

"Do it again, my Queen." Mark teasingly taunted, which got him a smack across the face, his eyes lighting with emerald fire. He was tempted to snatch her up and kiss the anger away, or ignite it, but had a purpose for seeing her tonight. "Well, besides making your pert ass jump, I have a present for you."

The look of shock on her flushed face was both amusing and offensive, as if he couldn't be thoughtful or something. He reached into the bag he was carrying after setting it down on a nearby chair, rifling until he found it. It was a comic book, in a brand-new casing and, when he held it out, the cover art was her and him, glaring at each other.

"Volume One." He informed her with a grin, pretty amused with himself. It was filled with their first meeting and the artist he had on the job would continue with everything else that happened. "Go on, it's for you." He had even signed it.

Hesitantly, she reached out to take it and looked at the gift, running her fingertips over it. The artwork was masterful, the colors vibrant yet dark at the same time. It was the perfect mixture of them, her character with the black hair and glasses, even wearing a t-shirt and jeans. And him in all black, his hair down and his eyes were emerald green.

"Volume One…" She reiterated in a soft murmur, flipping the page and narrowed her eyes at their first encounter. The second page was him chasing her down the hallway out of the cafeteria. Then it went to her makeshift office…his bullying ways…everything was in here…including… "Oh wow…" She immediately shut the comic book and felt her cheeks flame up, not believing he added their angry sex to it. "When did you have time to do this?" Emery finally asked, looking up at him and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Some promotional bullshit, huh? You are such a liar." There was no malice in her tone as she looked back down at it, feeling her heart soaring to the heavens. "Thank you. I love it. It's even better than the Green Arrow comic Frankie gave me…" That said A LOT coming from her.

"You're welcome, and as for when I had the time, darlin'… you of all people should know, I have no problem with multitasking."

It had been a lot of phone calls, e-mail and Skype… he hadn't liked that, but it had been worth it. Mark had gotten the finished product overnighted and picked it up this morning. She had only skimmed through it; he imagined when she had time to get to reading it, she might not be as amused at that graphic sex stuff… he had also made sure their dialogue was included.

"Not mad at me anymore, are you, Queenie?"

"No."

She slid the comic book in one of the pockets in the front of her bag before reaching up to bring his mouth down on hers, passionately kissing him. Emery felt his arms wrap around her, lifting her up to where her legs wrapped around his waist and massaged the back of his neck with her fingers and nails. Her body was still incredibly sore from last night, but after the thoughtful gift, Emery had to give him something and slowly pulled back while he still had her in his arms.

"I don't know why you did it, but thank you." Who was she kidding? He could fuck every other woman on the planet and she would still let him take her to heights only they could reach together. "I'm driving to the next location, wanna keep me company and make more memories for the other volumes?" Now she was grinning.

Mockingly, his eyes widened and he tried to arrange his face in what was meant to be a self-righteous offended look. He couldn't pull it off, the deviousness was showing in his eyes. "Are you propositioning me, Emery?" Mark growled, squeezing her backside before kissing her again. He checked that bite mark he had left on her, nodding. "You need a touchup, darlin'."

"So do it." She challenged, hissing when his teeth sank into her skin, his mouth sucking to brighten the spot between her neck and shoulder. "Mmm yeah…" Her entire body tingled from head to toe, feeling his mouth release her reluctantly and rubbed her nose against his in a loving way. "Are you propositional?" Emery laughed softly at his growl and felt her feet touch the concrete flooring of the dressing room moments later. "Unless you don't want to ride with me…"

Smirking, she headed toward the door and didn't get her hand on the handle when he snatched her up again. Spinning her around, Mark slammed her back against the door, his mouth crashing on hers. His hand twisted around her braided hair, pulling and Emery increased the intensity of the kiss, raking her nails down his shirt covered chest.

"I take that is a yes?"

"It's a maybe." Mark growled, nuzzling her jaw, kissing and nipping the column of her neck. "I'll let you know this right now, Emery, you'll never be allowed the last word with me. I won't have it." What had it gotten her the last time? Three hours plus of intense sex that had her begging him for release. He had his… ways of punishing a mouthy woman, as she was well aware. "And if you try walking away from me again…" He'd spank her; that wasn't a bad idea actually. His hand dropped down to caress said backside, followed up by a smack. She purred and he smiled. "Let's ride, Queenie."

"But it looks like I just did."

Emery stuck her tongue out at him, laughing when he smacked her backside a second time and felt his arm drape around her shoulders, walking out of the arena with him. Randy and Paul couldn't leave due to media stuff going on, so she'd been planning on traveling to the next location alone. It was amazing how things worked out and, currently, they were in her favor. Emery handed over the keys since Mark wanted to drive and slid in the passenger seat, buckling up before pulling out the special comic book of them. Now she'd be able to look at it better and pay attention to the detail. "You even had them use bubbles for the dialogue. You put a lot of thought into this." She said an hour later, glancing over at him with sparkling sky blues.

"That's me, a real thoughtful guy, darlin'." He drawled, glancing at her briefly and was rewarded with a large smile, a twinkle in those delicious blue eyes. He felt something very pleasant course through him and had to remind himself that they weren't doing the relationship thing. "I can do… friends with benefits." That was about all he could manage. "Exclusively." No relationship, just friends who screwed, in case things went bad. "But the minute one of us decides to call it quits, that's it, no hard feelings."

Did he really just say exclusively? Emery was quiet for a little while, mulling over his words and wondered if this was a good idea. She was the lead script writer, and he didn't know it. He still thought she was just part of the writing team – a nobody writer, as he so eloquently put it. Did Emery want to go down this road with him and risk jeopardizing her career?

"Okay, understood. I don't want a relationship and I'm not expecting anything either, Mark. I like hanging out with you. It doesn't matter what we're doing. And when you say it's over, I promise not to become a psycho bitch. But if I decide to call it quits with you, don't be losing that temper." She didn't see herself being the one to call it quits with him, but Emery also couldn't predict the future.

"I can't promise I won't put whoever you decide to leave me for in a coma…" He teased, though he also meant every word he just said.

Mark didn't care for being dropped, it was usually the other way around and he was arrogant enough to admit it. That could also be why his marriages tended to fail, his arrogance. Not the time to think about that one.

"You worried about my temper, Queenie?" He'd seen hers in action, so she had little room to talk.

Emery had seen firsthand what his temper was like and shivered, knowing he'd caught it. "A little, yes." She admitted, reaching across the seat to slid her hand on his jean covered thigh, squeezing it gently. "I know you'd never hurt me…like really hurt me."

Smacking her backside and biting her in various places on her body didn't count as being harmed. She enjoyed everything Mark did to her. However, she also knew he had a volatile temper and hoped to never provoke it.

"I'm not afraid of you though. And if I find out who you drop me for, I'll have to send the bitch to the hospital." Smiling sweetly, her eyes turned back to look at the comic, removing her hand from his thigh.

"Yeah, I can already tell you this, darlin'." Mark was completely grave for once and shot her another look. She appeared to be engrossed in the comic, but her hand wasn't moving to turn the page anymore. "This isn't going to end well, for either of us." He could already see it, knew it was coming, pain and pleasure all wrapped up in their delicious package, but he was willing to take this ride with her.

"I know." She looked up at him, furrowing her brows together and knew his words rang true. "It's worth the risk though."

Emery could already feel her heart being placed in Mark's hands, but would never admit it. He was the only man she had spent this extensive amount of time with and looked out the window up at the stars, hoping she made it out of this alive. Suddenly feeling heated, Emery rolled the window down and closed her eyes, the cool breeze flowing through her braided hair, tilting her head enough to be able to look directly up at the night sky.

Silence reigned as he drove and that was fine. She hadn't even bothered turning on the music and, truth be told, the sound of the road beneath the tires with the wind blowing through the windows was enough for him. His thoughts were occupied with the woman sitting beside him and everything that could, probably would go wrong. It was just how life worked and Mark knew they were breaking the cardinal rule of mixing business with pleasure, but it was just sex.

Right?