Chapter 18

Banging on her front door woke Gabriella out of her deep sleep, her eyes shooting open at the sound of a deep baritone shouting through it. She lived in a one-bedroom apartment, not needing anything bigger and stumbled out of bed. Gabriella recognized that voice anywhere, rubbing her tired eyes and padded down the carpeted hallway toward the front door. The moment it opened, hazy sky blue met blazing brown and she was immediately scooped up in a huge hug with her face buried in a t-shirt covered chest. The smell of him engulfed her as Gabriella hugged her trembling friend back with equal vigor, rubbing his back a few times.

"Baron, I can't breathe…" Gabriella murmured, slowly pulling back to look up into his eyes again. "What are you doing here?"

"Why the hell weren't ya answerin' yer cell phone? I called ya at least a dozen times! Ya had me worried sick, Gabi!" Baron snapped, not able to contain his emotions and yanked her against him roughly, burying his face in her hair. "Thought somethin' happened to ya. Why did ya come home?"

"I-I'm sorry…" Gabriella whispered with a frown and felt terrible for worrying Baron like this.

The least she could've done was call and tell him she was heading back home for the rest of her days off. After her talk with the girls, however, Gabriella needed time to herself to think about what she truly wanted in her life…more importantly, WHO she wanted. The man standing in front of her with his strong arms wrapped around her body was one of them. There was no way she could tell him the truth about why she'd come home, not until she figured everything out in her head and heart.

"Lilianna called the wedding off." It wasn't a complete lie, even though it wasn't the main reason for leaving Pensacola. "I didn't mean to leave without telling you, but…I figured you would've found out and gone home too."

Baron had to take a deep breath, not wanting to yell at her again and felt relief wash through him at the sight of her. At least she was safe and sound instead of dead and mangled in a ditch somewhere. If anything happened to Gabriella, he would lose his mind and probably die right along with her. Moxley was right; he had to be honest with her and couldn't hide his feelings anymore. She was beautiful, smart, funny and…sexy as hell. Realizing what she was wearing, or more importantly NOT wearing, made his way body instantly flood with heat. All she had on was a thin white spaghetti strapped camisole and matching boyshort panties that clung to her backside perfectly. Her hair was haphazard; he'd woken her up with his antics and banging on her door, making him feel guilty for a split second. Then he went back to admiring the way she looked and reached out, tucking a strand of fiery red hair behind her ear.

"I'll forgive ya this once." Baron didn't bother hiding the huskiness in his voice, his brown eyes darkening over rapidly. "So, this is what ya sleep in, eh?"

Her cheeks flushed crimson as she became more awake and aware of how little she had on in front of him. "Get in here, I don't want my neighbors seeing me like this." She pulled him further inside and closed the door, flipping the lock back into place. "Thank you for checking up on me."

"Like I wouldn't?" Baron had to stop staring at her and moved his eyes around the small apartment, trying to find something more interesting than the beautiful woman in front of him. That wasn't possible. "You can make it up to me by cookin' breakfast. I'm starvin'." He hadn't eaten for over 12 hours and his stomach was rumbling fiercely.

Gabriella smiled, not having a problem cooking for him and took his hand, guiding him over to the couch. "I think I can manage to do that." She handed him the remote, kissing his cheek. "Watch what you want, sweetie."

His cheek burned from her kiss, causing Baron to groan out loud the moment she walked out of the living room down the hall to her bedroom. "Just tell her. Tell her and stop bein' a coward." He chastised himself in a soft voice, flipping the television on and tried distracting himself watching ESPN.

"Just tell him. Tell him and stop being a damn chicken." Gabriella chastised herself while pulling on a red skort with a matching white and red top. "The girls are right. I must tell him, even if he doesn't feel the same way I won't always wonder 'what if'. Okay, I'm gonna do it." Squaring her shoulders, Gabriella walked out of her bedroom with purpose, pulling her hair up to pile on top of her head to keep it out of her face and their food. "Baron, I have to talk to you and…" She halted at the site of the big man slumped over on her couch, snoring lightly with the remote still in his hand. "Oh Baron…" Shaking her head, Gabriella grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and covered him with it, lowering her head to press a kiss to his temple. "You're the one I want…and I wish you felt the same way."

Just then, her cell phone went off and Gabriella rushed out of the living room, hoping she didn't wake Baron up. "Hello?" She answered, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Hey doll."

Gabriella chewed her bottom lip at the sound of his voice, closing her bedroom door. "Hi, I didn't expect to hear from you until we were all back on the road on Monday…" His chuckle filtered through the phone and lit her body on fire. Even though she loved Baron, this man knew exactly what to say and do to get her engine revving.

"Miss me?"

"Yeah…"

"What part? My tongue, my lips or my dick?"

Gabriella enjoyed his blunt nature and swallowed hard, pressing back against the door. "All of the above." She admitted, feeling the ache form between her thighs and bit back a whimper. The man sleeping on her couch currently was partially responsible for her current ache. "Do you miss me?"

"Wouldn't be calling if I didn't, doll."

"You know what I mean…" Gabriella tried not to sound testy, but his short answers somewhat irritated her. "The last time we were together, you were…"

"Hard?"

"Stop it. I'm trying to have a serious talk with you…"

He sighed over the phone. "That's no fun. I called you to hopefully have phone sex…" Now he sounded somewhat perturbed. "I gotta go. Talk soon, doll."

Gabriella pursed her lips tightly together, tossing the phone on the bed and clenched her fists tightly at her sides. "Damn it!" She growled, stalking over to her nightstand and pulled it open, revealing the black fuzzy handcuffs she'd bought with the girls at the sex shop.

Maybe Lilianna had a point. It was obvious her lover deterred from having a serious conversation with her at every turn. She would have to force it out of him and took the handcuffs, tossing them in one of the pouches her rolling suitcase provided. Then she walked out of the bedroom, smiling at Baron still sleeping and went into the kitchen to make something small.

Food would have to wait until he woke up.

"My head…"

Jecina stood from the small table in the room with a glass of water and Excedrin in hand, walking over to stand above her. "Morning sunshine." She greeted softly, sitting down on the bed beside her friend.

"Jecina?" Lilianna blinked, holding her head while slowly sitting up and leaned back against the headboard, hating how hard her head thundered against her skull. "H-How did I get here?" She swallowed down the Excedrin with all the water, feeling very nauseous.

"You scared me last night, so I went on the hunt for you. I…called Dean and asked for his help…" Jecina looked somewhat sheepish at that confession and folded her arms in front of her chest. "I panicked and…I'm not talking to Jon right now, so he was the only one who could help me find you. And we did and brought you back here. He carried you inside because your ass is too heavy for me to cart up here by myself."

That was embarrassing; she could just imagine Dean going back to Roman and telling him what happened and the state she was in. "Ugh Jecina! He's gonna go right back to Roman and tell him what happened!" Lilianna groaned, clutching her pounding head and knew yelling wasn't in her best interest with a splitting headache. "Why aren't you talking to Moxley? What did I miss?"

Emerald eyes lowered to the bed as Jecina began plucking at the comforter, refusing to meet Lilianna's eyes. "I – um – ran away from him…last night…" She hadn't contacted him or answered any of his calls or text messages either. "He scared the shit out of me…"

Now Lilianna was REALLY confused, tilting her head and folded her arms in front of her chest. "What happened?" She demanded gruffly, not in the mood to play 20 questions to try prying the truth out of Jecina.

Huge tears slid down her cheeks as Jecina reiterated what Jon confessed to her the previous night, leading to her running away shtick. "I NEVER thought Jon would want those things. Marriage and kids…I don't even know if I wanna be a Mom. A wife wouldn't be bad, but kids? Everything would change in our lives DRASTICALLY if that ever happened." Guilt swallowed her whole because she recalled Lilianna talking about becoming pregnant as soon as her and Roman were married. "I'm sorry, Lili…"

Lilianna waved her off dismissively, tears of her own falling for a completely different reason. "It is what it is. I knew the risk dating another wrestler and knew there was a chance of getting burned. I'm just glad everything fell apart before we actually went through with the marriage. The last thing I wanted to do was go through a divorce and with kids involved, it's extremely messy. So, in a way, this was a blessing in disguise, even though I still love the asshole and wish he'd get his head out of his ass. He didn't even fight for me, Jeci. I walked out of his life and he didn't try to stop me or beg me to stay. Just proves he never loved me to begin with…" Burying her face in her hands, powerful heart wrenching sobs pulsed through her body and echoed off the walls of the hotel room.

Instantaneously, Jecina was beside her best friend and had her arms wrapped around the sobbing woman, her own heart breaking for what Roman did to her. She vowed to make Roman pay somehow, someway and could feel her anger rising. All things considered, Lilianna was handling this a lot better than Jecina thought she would due to her past relationship with Randy Orton. Now she had another broken relationship and heart because of another wrestler. Hell, she wouldn't be surprised if Lilianna turned completely lesbian after being burned twice by people she worked with and gave her complete heart to.

"You need to talk to Moxley." Lilianna broke the silence after a while, calming down considerably while Jecina stroked her hair soothingly. "He loves you, I can see it now. I was blind to the truth because of Roman's friendship with Dean and I was wrong. You do belong with Jon. Dean isn't the one for you. So, you need to go to your man and make things right. If he wants to marry you, don't hold back. And for the record, I think you'd make an excellent mother someday. I don't think Moxley is quite ready for kids yet; he was just using that as an example since you hesitated about moving in with him. I'm curious, why did you hesitate, sweetie?"

Never had she kept a secret from Lilianna or her true feelings and Jecina wasn't about to start now. "Honestly? I…" Standing up from the bed, she walked over and stared out the window, hearing her phone going off yet again and knew it was Jon trying to contact her. "As much as I love him, Lili, I'm scared. Look at you and Roman and how fast everything went to shit when you moved in with him. What if that happens with us?" There was another confession she had to tell Lilianna, one she hadn't admitted even to herself until recently. "I don't trust him, not fully."

"Wait, how can you be with someone you don't trust? What's going on, Jeci?" Lilianna's head had stopped pounding and was just a dull ache, feeling more awake and alert. "If you don't trust him…"

"After what he did to me, I…I haven't gotten over it completely. I forgave him for it and I do love him and I'm in love with him, but…the trust isn't there. I'm afraid he's going to do something like that again…I'm afraid the only reason he's with me is to stick it to Dean and I know that's terrible to say and feel, but…he admitted to only fucking me in the threesome because he wanted revenge on his brother." Jecina wiped her tears away, taking a deep shaky breath and looked back at a bewildered Lilianna, fresh tears falling. "Something's been holding me back and I couldn't figure out what it was until last night…until he told me he wanted me to move in with him. I don't want to live in Cincinnati any more than he wants to live in Chicago. We both hate where the other lives, but I've tolerated it because I know how much he loves his hometown just like I do. But when it comes down to the main reason I don't want to take this step, it's the lack of trust."

Lilianna remained quiet for a few minutes, mulling over Jecina's words and chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. "If trust is the issue, then you need to tell him. It may hurt him, but he needs to know just how fucked up you are about the relationship. Without trust, there's no chance for a relationship to survive, sweetie. And I personally think he does love you and he's not with you just because of Ambrose. He loves you. He wants to share his life and a home with you. You don't have to move to Cincinnati and he doesn't have to move to Chicago…you two can find a completely different place you BOTH agree on and start your lives there. I'm positive that man will follow you anywhere you want to go. But before you take any steps with him to further the relationship, you need to be honest with how you're feeling. Unless he's a truly sick bastard who enjoys wallowing in his brother's misery and screwing with women, I highly doubt he's with you only to stick it to his brother."

That was a good point…several in fact. Moving to a completely different place besides Cincinnati or Chicago was a great idea. Jecina also knew she would have to sit down with Jon and talk to him about how she felt, knowing the conversation wouldn't go over well. Being told by a significant other there's a trust issue wouldn't be taken lightly. Jecina had to find a time and place where she could sit down with Jon and discuss all of this. If they were truly going to move forward and take the next steps in their relationship, he had to know everything.

After talking to Lilianna a little while longer, Jecina excused herself and walked out on the balcony, closing the sliding glass door behind her to make a call.

It was answered on the second ring.

"Jon…"