Being a Voight paid off big time when it came to hotel rooms, Jay was starting to learn. Not that rooms was the right word. Erin didn't stay in rooms, she stayed in suites. And what luxurious suites they were. The one he had just followed her into was bigger than some people's houses, and with its expensive and luxurious modern furniture, it was probably worth more too.

None of it seemed the least bit out of the ordinary to her though. It was a reminder of how different their backgrounds were. She came from a life of privilege, luxury and money. He came from a run down area of Chicago, where he had grown up poor in a wreck of house, wearing hand-me-down clothes and shoes that were falling apart. Yes, he had a lot of money now thanks to WWE, but part of him still expected the rich people he now often encountered to look down on him like a piece of dog shit that they had stepped in. He dreaded seeing that look from Erin one day, although a larger part of him knew she was a better person than that.

"Look at this suite. I could get used to this," he said cheerfully as they entered, bringing in the cases that they'd brought from the arena and leaving them near the door. Then he spotted a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket on a table in the living area of the suite, where there were two leather couches and a couple of comfy chairs for guests to relax in the opulence.

"They left us champagne. Talk about a classy touch," he said, walking over to it. There were two glasses beside the ice bucket. Only when he got there did he notice that there was a small card propped against the bucket. He picked it up out of idle curiosity to see what the hotel put on their generic welcome cards. But it wasn't a generic welcome card. It carried a personalised message from Erin.

'Jay, congratulations on your big win. You truly deserve it. Erin. xx'

He was so touched that he didn't know to say. She had been thoughtful enough and caring enough to call the hotel and ask them to put the champagne and the card in the suite. Maybe she had also felt like his big win had been a bit overshadowed by Raquel's. Either way, it showed that Erin truly cared about him, and he didn't quite know how to process that. It was new to him.

"Hope you like champagne," she said, stepping up behind him and wrapping her arms around his stomach.

"Erin, this is so... lovely," was the word that tumbled out of his mouth after a moment. "It means a lot to me. I can't describe it."

"You described it just fine," she said contentedly. "Your win meant a lot to me. I wish I could have been fully focussed on it while it was happening."

Jay turned to face her, and they hugged that way instead. "You were preparing for your own match. My win did feel a bit overshadowed, but this moment right here matters so much more."

She gave him a peck on the lips. "I thought you couldn't express your feelings?"

"I can't," he mumbled, feeling embarrassed. "Words just drop out of my mouth."

"Well they're often the right ones. You should have more confidence in yourself," she said warmly. "Now, are you going to pour us a drink?"

"Got to open the bottle first." He took it out of the ice bucket.

"While you do that, I need to pee."

Erin limped off towards the bathroom. The way she had hit the ring apron while being thrown out of the rumble match had really hurt her, no matter how much she tried to play it down. Jay was concerned, and knew it was his job now as her partner to take care of her.

"That limp is getting pretty bad," he called after her.

"My hip hurts, I'm not going to lie," she replied from in the bathroom before closing the door. The fact she admitted it said a lot. Jay knew by now that she wasn't the kind of person who complained easily.

"I'll take a look at it after we've had a drink, then I'll fix that bath for you."

"Thank you, that would be nice. We can eat before I take the bath though. Whatever you like, my treat. We're celebrating."

"Thank you, I'll have a think about that." Jay opened the champagne and poured two glasses. What he really wanted to was pizza. Whenever he ate 'bad' food, rarely, he tried to make it the best pizza he could get his hands on. But would Erin like pizza? So far he had only seen her choose expensive food in restaurants or from room service menus. He figured she would either be fine with pizza, or she would see it as muck that common people ate. But she had said it was his choice of whatever he wanted.

Erin came out of the bathroom a few moments later. "Do you know what you'd like to get? I'm starved."

"I thought about pizza," he said tentatively.

"You don't sound very sure about it. Thanks," she added, taking the glass that he offered her. She immediately proposed a toast. "To success."

Jay smiled, happy to have someone to celebrate his win with. He clinked his glass against hers. "To success. And as for the pizza, I wasn't sure if you'd want something like that."

A groan and a visible wince were not the reaction he had imagined. "Don't do that, Jay. Please?"

"Do what?" he asked, confused.

"Treat me like some princess who lives in an ivory tower. Everyone I date does that and it drives me crazy. I'm an ordinary person just like you. And, surprisingly, I enjoy pizza. Our housekeeper makes it all the time," she added as a joke.

Jay laughed loudly. The unexpected joke had really amused him.

"So, tell me what you like and we'll order one," Erin said.

"Alright," he said, then realised that he should apologise. "Sorry, Erin. I've done sex more than I've done dating in the past, so I'm not great at it. But I hear you. I'll try not to obsess over you being a multi-millionaire."

Erin rolled her eyes, knowing that he was teasing now. "We've had this conversation. I'm not a millionaire, let alone a multi-millionaire. Now try the champagne and tell me what pizza you'd like. I'll look what options we've got for delivery."

She limped over to the bed and sat down on it, taking her phone out of her pocket. Meanwhile, Jay tried the champagne. It was nice, but his palette wasn't sophisticated enough to tell expensive champagne apart from the moderately-priced stuff. "That's so nice," he said nonetheless, wanting to sound appreciative. "We definitely won't have a problem putting that away tonight."

She giggled. "So long as you don't do all the putting away."

"No promises," he said with a laugh as he went over to join her on the bed. She was searching pizza on a well-known food delivery app. "I'm thinking something meaty. That's usually my go-to."

"Works for me. Hey, there's a place with an almost five star rating just a few blocks from here. Let's see what they have."

Jay moved close to her so that he could see the phone's screen as she started scrolling down the menu.

"How about that one?" she asked. "Salami, sausage, spicy beef."

"Mmmm, sounds great. Let's go for that."

Erin smiled. "Done." She started tapping her way through the order process until she had to type in the hotel's address.

Finishing his first glass of champagne, Jay put the glass on the nightstand near to where he was sitting. "When you're done there, let me take a look at that hip."

"Sure. I want to change out of these pants anyway. Would you just grab the pair of blue shorts out of my case? They're right on the top."

"No problem." He got up, aware that she meant the case that was lying on its back on the floor at the bottom of the bed, not the one that she had left by the door. He went to it, bent down and flipped the unzipped case open. Sure enough there were some comfy-looking but not very sexy blue shorts on the top of the rest of the clothes in there. Still, comfort was what mattered tonight, not sex. He was feeling a bit sore from his own match, and his body was used to wrestling. Erin's was not.

As he lifted the shorts out of the case, he happened to notice a pair of dark red leather gloves in there. They weren't long like the ones she had worn in the bedroom during their first night together, they were regular ones for wearing out in the cold. But they were shiny in a way that only new leather achieved. She sure seemed to like leather gloves. He wondered if she had a thing for wearing them. It wasn't the first time the thought had occurred to him. He decided to come out and ask her. After all, they were together now. That kind of thing should be discussed between them. He took the gloves out of the case and dropped them on the bed.

"Nice gloves," he said as he handed her the shorts she had requested.

"Aren't they? I bought them the other day. Loved the colour. That's the pizza ordered by the way. It says 45 minutes."

Jay sat back down next to her. "Can I ask you something?"

She tossed her phone aside on the bed and looked him in the eyes. "Of course. Nothing serious, is it?"

"No, nothing like that," he was quick to assure her. "I'm wondering if wearing leather gloves is a thing for you."

Erin's cheeks started going red straight away, which gave him his answer before she came up with one. That took her a few seconds, but when she did speak she was very honest. "Wearing gloves in general, honestly. Leather ones are maybe my favourites though. So embarrassing."

"It's not embarrassing. At all," he assured her. "What is it about wearing them that you like? If you know?"

"I really can't tell you. The way they feel on my hands, I suppose. And I feel sexy when I wear them. I often take pictures of myself wearing gloves. They're the only pictures of me I truly like. This is so..."

Jay interrupted. "Don't say embarrassing because it's not. It really isn't. My thing is women tied up with tape over their mouths for god's sake. That ought to be more embarrassing than wearing gloves, but I'm not embarrassed. I like what I like. You like what you like. It is what it is."

"Do you know why you like it? Why specifically tape?"

He shrugged, but gave the best answer he had. "I like the way it looks. I like the way it sounds when you try to talk under. Plus it's a power thing, isn't it? Having someone powerless while you make love to them, that's a hugely powerful position to be in. I don't need to tell you that after the other night."

"It was a rush. I loved every minute of it," she said, giving him a warm smile that made him feel so lucky to be with her.

"Christ, you're gorgeous, Erin," he said, shaking his head in near disbelief.

"Is that so?" she grinned. "You're not so bad yourself, mister. I'm a lucky girl. Was thinking that earlier when I was watching your match. You know, there's something I wasn't going to tell you because I thought you'd think it was weird. But, given the conversation we're already having..."

"You can tell me anything. No judgement. Within reason, anyway," he quipped.

She laughed. His kind of humour seemed to work on her, which was a bonus. "I'm not a murderer or anything, honest. What I was going to say is, a couple of nights back I was thinking about those pictures I sent you when I put that tape over my mouth."

"I've done a lot of thinking about them too," Jay said expansively, making her laugh again.

"What I'm trying to say is I kept thinking about it, and I know you're going to want to tape my mouth when we have sex. So, since I had the house to myself, I put some over my mouth and lay there in bed for a while to find out what it's like."

Jay found that one of the hottest things he had ever heard, and he wished he could fuck her right there and then. The fact that she willingly experimented with his kink as well as her own was amazing. Since sex wasn't currently on the agenda, he tried his best to limit his reaction.

"That's really hot, Erin. And what did you think?"

"Not sure, really. I guess I feel a bit more comfortable with it. I'm definitely up for letting you put it on me in the future. It did a good job of stopping my talking. I tried, to see how effective it was."

"Can't wait to try it with you," he said, feeling his dick straining so hard against his jeans that he had to shift position to relieve the pain. She sure knew how to say the right things to turn him on. But then she had masterfully used her words to get whatever reaction she desired from him pretty much ever since he had known her.

"Well you'll have to wait," she told him, a mischievous grin on her face. Then she stood up and started removing her pants. "Right, we keep talking about it. Have a look at my hip, Jay. It's painful."

She turned so that the injured hip was towards him, and he saw some hints of blue and purple already on her skin.

"It's bruising up already. You banged it up pretty bad. That's going to hurt for a few days at best. No more big bumps for you for a while. And I want you to see Doc Mikami tomorrow about it."

Erin groaned as she put the shorts on. "My shoulder hurts, too. Maybe it was stupid of me to get in the ring." She sounded downcast about it.

Jay got straight off the bed and put his hands on her shoulders, wanting to shut that nonsense down before it got started. "Don't say that. You did great tonight. We all get banged up. The difference is your body isn't used to it. Doesn't mean you shouldn't keep going."

Taking reassurance from him, Erin looked deep into his eyes and smiled. "Okay," was her simple, trusting response.

"Once we've had the pizza, I'll give you a massage, then you can have a long soak in the tub. It'll make you feel a lot better. Trust me."

Erin hugged him. "Thank you for taking care of me."

He gently kissed the top of her head. "Always."


A/N: The hotel suite scene is longer than I thought it would be, so I decided to put a cut in.

They've now been open with each about their fetishes – an important step in building trust in their relationship. Should they continue to experiment in the bedroom?

Erin ordered champagne and food to celebrate Jay's win, and he is doing his best to take care of her due to her injuries. I think we can say they're definitely past the game playing stage.