Chapter 28

What was it about him that kept drawing her in? Emery should've been terrified and running screaming from the room after what he did to her. But here she was, walking right back into the lion's den and his eyes were spellbinding her.

"You're going to have to protect me. You know that, right? I'm going to be a distraction to you out there and David is gonna use that to his advantage. I'm not a wrestler…I don't even know what to do when I'm out there in front of all those people." She shivered involuntarily at the thought of being in front of thousands and pressed her forehead to his, their lips practically touching.

"You're a hell cat, Emery." He informed her, kissing the tip of her nose. "But I will teach you a few things, for self-defense." Mark wasn't about to train her to wrestle since she wasn't in this for the long haul, but… enough to get her out of a situation, in case he wasn't there. "Besides, now you'll get the other perspective… can't hurt." Might even help her with writing, feeling all those eyes on her and performing for those people along with what it cost the wrestlers both physically and emotionally. "You sure you don't remember anything else that might come popping up?" He was tired of yo-yoing on how he felt about her and her fingers in his business.

"I'm sure there is, but I can't go through the past 10 years of lines. If there's a specific storyline you have in mind, that you really didn't like, such as the Corporate Ministry, then ask and I'll tell you."

Emery was tired of going back and forth with him too, just wanting to be with him in every way possible. She loved him, it was the only explanation on why she kept going back to him. Love made people do stupid, ridiculous things.

"And I'm only a hellcat because you bring that side of me out. With anyone else, I'm a pussycat." And she wasn't afraid to admit it.

Right off the top of his head, Mark could think of a few storylines that he had not liked at all, but… he didn't want to fight with her anymore, not tonight at least. "I don't think so. I think when push comes to shove, you'll raise some hell."

Scooting down until he was able to lay on his back, Mark pulled her so she sprawled out on top of him. His hands instantly moved to her hair and he frowned. He could already see that long plait of hers being used against her and then smirked, wondering how she'd feel about some new… hair ties.

"Mark…there's other things David probably has he's going to use against us and whoever is helping him." Her head slowly rose from his chest, staring into his eyes and frowned. "So, whatever he has in his collection, I'm only saying this once. I'm sorry." It was all she could do because, something told Emery, there were worse things David and his accomplice found that would surface sooner or later. "I only want to raise hell with you. I missed you."

Shutting her eyes at that confession, Emery glided her nails around his tattoos on his arm, tracing them gently. Before this was all over, he had a feeling they were both going to be saying sorry all over again. He wrapped his arms around her, shrugging her off his arms so he could hold her tightly against him, resting his head against hers.

"I missed you too, Queenie." Mark admitted softly, making her strain to hear it. "We should probably sleep…" Not exactly what he wanted to do with her, but it was late… and she was going to be up bright and early. Emery had some ring time scheduled, not that she knew just yet.

"Okay, why did you insist I put…contacts…in…" The words slowly came out of her mouth as they walked into the arena and felt her eyes widen at the realization of where they were headed. Her hair was back in a mid-high ponytail, swishing with every step she took and she had black spandex biker shorts on along with a black tank top, tennis shoes on her feet. "Mark, what are we doing here? You said we were going to work out." Is THIS what he meant?! It was 6 AM in the morning, so nobody was in the arena at this hour for the show. "You woke me up at the ass crack of dawn for THIS?" She was going to hurt him, severely hurt him.

"Darlin'," He began, grinning mischievously down at her, wearing workout shorts and a beater, his hair pulled back as well. "Do you really want to learn this shit in a hotel gym? All the boys will be there." That was how it worked. Work out when and wherever they could. "Besides, you need to get familiar with the ring." Mark led the way down, gesturing for her to slide through the ropes. "Come on, get that pert ass in there." He definitely approved of those shorts.

Grumbling under her breath, Emery walked up the steel ring steps and walked along the apron, holding onto the rope and chewed her bottom lip nervously. It wasn't that hard to get in the ring, right? Hesitantly, she stepped through the bottom rope and groaned when her head didn't duck down enough, catching it on the second rope. She lost her balance and fell backwards off the ring apron…right into Mark's arms.

"Nice catch." Emery wasn't the most coordinated and shook her head as he set her down on the floor mats. "This was a mistake. You chose the wrong girl for this, Deadman. I can't even get in the damn ring!"

"Quit your bitching and get in there, Emery."

He snorted, putting her back on the apron and pushed her headfirst through the ropes, watching as her body automatically did the tumbling for her. Mark slipped through the ropes with ease, years of practice showing in his every movement as he shifted from one foot to the other. This was his world, his game. She just needed to learn the controls was all.

"Nobody does anything right the first time, now get up and get your balance."

"What is the point of this? I'm not gonna be INSIDE the ring…am I?"

A look of fear flashed across her face at the possibility, but then it quickly vanished when he shook his head. Then she remembered what he told her the previous night/early morning about learning some moves to defend herself against David. The bastard wasn't playing fair, so why should they?

"Okay…okay…" This was going to hurt; Emery felt him raise her balled fists up in a fighting stance and jumped back when his thrust forward. "You want me to learn to throw a punch…does slapping count?"

"Sure, if it'll get you out of a bad situation. David doesn't seem to like you very much, does he?" Mark mused, though he was throwing punches at her, watching as she ducked and then fell backwards, flat on her backside. "Up, Emery." He bent down and lifted to set her on her feet. "He's not going to play nice, why should – NOT MY BALLS, WOMAN!" He blocked that knee, eyes flashing. "On HIM, not ME!"

"You're trying to punch me! What did you expect me to do?!" Emery fired back, groaning when she landed flat on her back on the mat. "Oww." Seeing his hand in her vision, Emery took it and felt him pull her back up on her feet again. Lack of sleep didn't bother her, but after this impromptu in-ring workout, she would definitely need a nap. "Okay so if I do this…" She thrusted her arm out in a punch, not realizing her wrist had curled a bit and nailed him in the chest. "That's not going to do anything. Punching isn't going to stop that burly asshole. What about a submission move? I'm tiny compared to you, you gotta take that into consideration. I need to do something to him that a tiny person can do when defending myself."

"Well nailing him in the balls would work, but for fuck's sake, you do that to me ever again and I'm tombstoning your ass." He promised, a dark tinge entering his tone and eyed her shrewdly. She was tiny. He loved it; she fit perfectly in his arms and he needed to get his mind out of the gutter immediately. "He's over muscled, he tears easy. You need to learn some submission holds that'll stress them." Armbar immediately came to mind and he eyeballed her, knowing he would be her experiment post for this. "All right, darlin', here's what we're going to do…"

The armbar wasn't that hard of a submission hold and causing Mark some pain made her feel better because of everything he'd put her through. "So like this?"

Emery wrenched back on his arm and heard him grunt, knowing she had it locked in correctly. Mark also showed her a way to bring David down to where she could apply this and let her experiment different ways on him besides nailing him below the belt. When he tapped on her leg, Emery released him and rose to her feet, feeling somewhat invigorated. This would come back to bite Mark in the backside if he thought about terrorizing her again like last time. She was sure that thought had crossed his mind while doing this; he wasn't stupid by any means.

"Okay…I can do that. I wanna try again. So, set me up for the powerbomb and then I'll reverse it into the armbar." Because the Batista bomb was David's patent move and no doubt he would try it on her.

Honestly, if they ever went down the crazy road again, he wouldn't bother with theatrics. Mark would simply punch her out. He wouldn't get his ass handed to him by a woman who stood five foot nothing, weighed as much as his gear did and stayed up all night to play World of Warcraft. Lifting her again, right into position, Mark distinguished she was about to wrench his somewhat pained arm again and nipped her thigh. When she looked at him in shock, he smirked.

"Focus woman."

How did he expect her to focus when he had his mouth on her, teasing her? "Perv."

Emery torqued her body, grabbed his arm and slammed him down on the mat hard, immediately applying the armbar again. They practiced this for an hour straight with Mark caressing and nipping her every time he set her up for the powerbomb. Releasing his arm for the umpteenth time, Emery rolled to where she was on her feet again and grabbed the rope, her back hurting from slamming down on the mat every time she applied the armbar.

"Okay…can we do something else that doesn't involve my back being abused? Didn't you say something about weight training?"

"Sure."

He was still on the mat and grabbed her ankle, pulling until she dropped. Mark caught her and moved her onto the mat, rolling himself as well until he was hovering over her. He had gotten himself worked up, this woman affected him like no other and he didn't understand it half the time. Probably for the best.

"You can start by lifting me." He bent down, brushing his lips along her throat, knowing she'd be lucky to get his arm off of her.

"That's impossible, you weight nearly three times as much as me." Emery murmured softly, enjoying the feeling of him on top of her and his mouth anywhere on her body. Her neck was a sensitive area and turned her into mush against him the fastest. Sweat coated her body from doing the move repeatedly, so he was tasting it along with her skin. "Mark…"

He wasn't playing fair; her body was on fire for a completely different reason other than working it up during their training. As soon as his head lifted from her throat, Emery couldn't hold back and gripped the back of his head, slamming his mouth down on hers. 2 weeks without him, without his kisses and touch had been pure hell and torture. If he wanted to take her right here in the middle of the ring, Emery would surrender with a smile on her face.

"Come on, darlin'." He urged in a soft growl, biting down gently on her lower lip. "You're supposed to be getting me off." Of course, he meant of her, but… word play was amusing. When her hand wiggled between their bodies and found its way to the front of his shorts, he let out a hiss. "Not fair, Emery."

"That's fucking disgusting."

Groaning at the sound of Batista's voice, Emery immediately pushed Mark off of her, with his allowance, and rose to her feet in the ring, folding her arms in front of her chest. "Why is that, Bitchtista?" She watched his brown eyes narrow and smirked, no humor in her face or icy eyes. "Is it because it's not you in here with me? I bet it is. Sorry to disappoint you, Davey, but you're really not my type. I prefer a man, not a boy in a man's body throwing a hissy fit and making other people's lives miserable. Oh poor little Davey didn't get what he wanted at WrestleMania, so he's gonna dredge up the past and using it as leverage. Just how pathetic are you? You're a scumbag, a spineless, piece of shit and I can't wait for Mark to tear you apart! And whoever is helping you, I will find out and when I do, I'm gonna rip THEM apart limb from limb and make them EAT those videotapes." He had pissed her off, her temper was up and if he tried getting into this ring, she would show him what Mark had taught her.

David began laughing hysterically, pointing at her in disbelief and amusement. "Jealous? Of him being with… with YOU?" He actually was crying, wiping away tears. "Why the hell would I want some dorky, scrawny little bitch like you?" Lord, the woman was crazy. "Just because the Deadman wants to dip his dick in your dork snatch doesn't mean the rest of us do." He snorted, watching as Mark got to his feet. He did not miss the furious look on the other man's face. "Man, you really got her ego jumped, thinking she's something other than a little pencil pushing, video gaming nerd."

He took measure of the distance and how much leverage he had for an instant jump.

"You fuck-" David groaned when he was smashed to the ground.

Looking over the ropes, Emery smirked as Mark got to his feet while David currently saw stars. "Wow Davey, you look good in that position. Flat on your fucking back, dick munch!" She blew him a kiss, grinning and stepped through the ropes to stand on the apron before jumping down. "And I'm proud to be a pencil pushing, video gaming nerd. At least I have morals unlike your dumbass." She followed Mark up the ramp with her arm around his waist and stopped as soon as they were behind the curtain. "It's only 8 AM, what the hell is he doing here? And are you okay?"

"I need a massage." Mark grunted, wincing as he stretched. She had seen him in pain and didn't have to hide it from her. David would never see him weak though. "Probably same thing we're doing – training. He never took well to being told off about his lack of caring for the actual sport. He thinks if he shows up and puts on a show, people will think otherwise. Or… he's stalking you. You did promise him a win at WrestleMania and I failed to deliver." He grinned viciously and would've done it all over again if the clock reversed.

Emery wouldn't mind giving him a massage and a tongue bath, that kiss she'd given him still burning on her lips. "He's pissed at me and that's fine. Yet he claims he's not jealous of you and me. He totally contradicted himself if he is stalking me." That didn't settle well with her as they continued down the hallway, looking over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure David wasn't following for retaliation. "Mark, what if he is stalking me and…tries something? Does he even know I'm gonna be part of the storyline going forward?" She was not surprised when he shook his head. "Then I'm bunking with you from now on until this ordeal is over. I'm not gonna be his personal punching bag. You're gonna have to deal with me because I'm not leaving your side." She was not a wrestler or a fighter, not unless she had to be.