Chapter 7

It was like watching Rome fall and it made Jon's nose wrinkle in disgust.

Obviously, they had issues. What was it with men falling at a woman's feet? He and Vallea had clicked, gone their separate ways and then reconnected out of the blue. This seemed to work for them. His electric blue eyes narrowed at her thoughtfully, his fork dragging through whatever it was he had ordered.

"What the fuck was that?"

"MoMo Magic." Monique answered for Vallea, smiling at him.

"Hey, I only made a deal with her. Doesn't mean I'm gonna leave Florida, man." Joe was his own man and made his own decisions, but he had to admit, he was intrigued by Monique. "Besides, we've been to Hawaii and worldwide with WWE. Just not enough time to sight-see a lot of the time."

"That sucks. Half the fun with traveling is sightseeing and taking everything in." Vallea pointed out with a slight frown, wondering what it was like to travel with the WWE that was literally in a different city or town almost every night of the week.

"Part of the job, sweet cheeks." Joe winked at her, taking another bite of the steak he ordered, and knew he'd have to hit the gym twice as hard tomorrow to work this off. It was worth it though.

Beautiful women with a great meal – he'd take that any day of the week.

Monique giggled at the nickname Joe gave her friend, shaking her head, and took a sip of her beer.

"I've been to Hawaii, it's expensive."

A gallon of milk cost about seven bucks, almost three dollars more than Vegas. He made a lot of money, but that did not mean he was set on losing it all because groceries were outrageously expensive. Jon also liked Vegas a bit too much to move, he was planning on spending his retirement in this sinful city.

Hopefully, that was still a long way off.

"I've done the legwork and I can honestly say Vegas is the best city in the United States. Maybe not the world, but definitely the country."

Vallea did not see herself moving anywhere else anytime soon, not even somewhere tropical because that just wasn't who she was. Her and Monique had a lot of differences and one of them was where she did her real estate or 'house flipping'. It wasn't her job to question her client though, and Vallea kept her thoughts to herself unless Monique asked for her opinion, which was more often than not.

Everyone had their preference and was entitled to their opinion.

Personally, Jon thought Joe and Monique were both idiots. Vegas had the nice hot weather they both seemed to enjoy without the humidity, hurricanes, or active volcanoes. He couldn't imagine living in a house with stilts instead of a foundation, but then again, he also lived in an apartment. An expensive apartment that he was hoping to not use much for a while after that rather long vacation. After dinner, Monique volunteered to take Joe back to the arena to grab his rental, which left Vallea and Jon alone.

Neither minded since they only had a short amount of time together before real life would bite them in the backside. "Thank you for dinner." Vallea murmured, both of her hands slid in the back pockets of her capris while walking toward the car with him, looking up at the starry night sky. It reminded her of the night they spent together walking the Strip before going back to her condo. "You were in your element tonight during the show. I enjoyed watching you perform."

"I'm kind of surprised you were there, to be honest," Jon admitted with a chuckle. "But thank you."

It was weird. She had known what he did, but she had also said wrestling wasn't her thing, so her being at a show…well, a very vain part of him was puffing out and assuming she HAD gone just to see HIM. Jon knew he had ego problems.

"Believe me, I was surprised when Monique told me she was a wrestling fan. It was because of me cause I almost rear-ended someone while staring at a picture of you on the side of a huge semitruck, while on the freeway." Vallea snickered at the memory of scaring the hell out of Monique and shook her head, stopping to turn and look up at him. "She invited me and I could've declined, but…curiosity killed the cat. I went because of you. I wanted to see you again and figured that was the only way to do it."

See, and she had just made his ego problems even worse by telling him that. Jon felt something practically purring inside of his chest, like a jungle cat that was content after a chase. "Way to inflate my head, doll." He rumbled, finally coming to a stop next to the car, and leaned against it, folding his arms over his chest as he stared down at her. "So what now, Val?"

It was the truth and there was no reason to keep it from him. She stepped up to him, sliding one hand up his t-shirt-covered chest, and kept the other one in her back pocket. "I'd much prefer this head," Reaching down, Vallea stroked him through his jeans and smirked at the groan that came from his lips. "Be inflated than your top one right now. And I don't know what happens now. Sex and then we go our separate ways again, I'd imagine. You all right with that, Jon?"

Jon was going to venture a guess that she didn't overly care about the fact he had bailed on her, in the early morning hours, without so much as a 'thank you' and goodbye. That or Vallea really missed his dick. "Keep that up, doll and I'll bend you over this car right here and now." He warned her, reaching down to grab her wrist gently but firmly.

Why would she care if he left her in the morning hours after they had sex? It wasn't as if they were in a relationship. Vallea accepted what this was between them; she wasn't stupid by any means. She had left her fair share of beds too without notifying the recipient, preferring not to say goodbyes to one another. It made things more complicated; feelings would arise and it was best to wake up without seeing each other after a night full of hot, unbridled sex.

"I told you I'm not an exhibitionist." She reminded him, leaning up to brush her lips against his beard-covered jaw, enjoying the feeling of his soft facial hair against her. "You can bend me over all you want, but not out in the open like this, handsome."

"You sure about that?" Jon had her pinned to the car, her face gently resting against the hood in a matter of seconds. "Nobody's around, doll."

She had said no, so he wouldn't really do it, but that didn't mean Jon wouldn't torment her a little bit. Blue eyes darkened when she wriggled, purposefully stepping forward and pressed himself into her pert ass. Suddenly, Jon was YANKED back harshly away from her by a man almost his size, making her cry out in surprise.

What the HELL? "What are you doing?!" She demanded in a shaky voice, eyes wide.

"Miss, are you all right? Don't you fucking move, asshole!" The man, who thought she'd been in trouble, ordered, pointing a finger in Jon's direction. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, of course not! We were just…"

"Miss, there's no need to lie." The man reprimanded gently, placing his hand on her shoulder, and blinked when she scurried away.

"There is NOTHING wrong here! You've lost your – JON!" Apparently, the man had gotten on Jon's nerves because he delivered a punch right to the intruder's face, sending him flying on his ass. "Oh god…"

"Motherfucker!" Jon wasn't amused at all and he aimed a kick at the other man's ribs. Anyone strong and big enough to forcibly yank HIM could take their licks as far as he was concerned. "Maybe next time," His voice was a feral growl. "You'll mind your own fucking business."

This was a side to Jon she'd never seen before and it scared Vallea, if she was being honest. She swallowed hard as he continued kicking the man relentlessly, his eyes nothing more than blue ice, and saw the man's head was busted open from Jon's fist connecting to his forehead. "We have to go. Jon, we have to go NOW!" She ordered, trying to stop him from inflicting further damage on the man, and pulled at his arm. That was a mistake. She jumped back when he swung it to nearly connect with her face, his body whirling around to glare at her. "If you keep this up…you're gonna really hurt him and he'll have to go to the hospital. Come on, please…" Christ, her voice was shaky, along with the rest of her body.

Jon's glazed blue eyes began focusing on her, finally nodding, his lips compressing in a thin, grim line. He had almost punched HER, and with the force of his swing, he could have probably killed her. His gaze snapped to the man on the ground before searching the parking lot, thanking God it was off the Strip itself. He was going to wind up in prison.

"You should go."

"Not without you, are you crazy? Come on, he probably won't remember what happened and we need to get out of here." Vallea took a chance, grabbed his hand, and swallowed hard at the icy blues snapping up to meet hers. "Jon, please…"

He was a celebrity, of sorts, and if the company he worked for found out about this altercation, he could be fired. Reluctantly, he went with her and got in the car as she sped away. This was Vegas, plenty of people got mugged on a daily and nightly basis, so the cops wouldn't hunt down someone beaten up in a parking lot. Luckily, there were no witnesses besides Vallea and she wouldn't betray Jon that way since the man actually deserved the beating he took.

"Are you all right?"

"You're insane, Vallea." He grunted in a monotone, staring out the window. She was basically aiding and abetting him committing aggravated assault on a good Samaritan. She was doing it without a second thought, after he had nearly taken HER head off. "Just drop me off anywhere, doll." His eyes moved down to his fists.

"No. I'm taking you back to my place. Just…let me help you, okay?"

Vallea pressed her foot on the gas harder, racing through the streets of Vegas, and managed to make it out of the strip to the other side of the city. She knew what was probably going through his mind and wanted to comfort him somehow, someway, but the way he stared down at his balled-up fists told her it wouldn't do a bit of good. Once they were at her place and parked, Vallea cut the ignition and looked over at him, seeing his eyes were STILL glued to his fists.

"You wouldn't hurt me, Jon. You stopped yourself from doing it. I trust you."

"Well, you're an idiot then, aren't you, doll?" Jon snorted, opening the passenger door and getting out of the car. "All you know about me is that I saved you once, you like to fuck me, and I just beat the life out of some guy who thought you were in danger. How are you safe?"

"You didn't beat the life out of him, you just roughed him up a little, and rightfully so. He had no right pulling you off me the way he did. He didn't know the situation and he should've been prepared for the consequences." Vallea folded her arms in front of her chest, hazel eyes narrowing at him. "Believe me, if I didn't feel safe, I wouldn't bring you back to my place and I definitely wouldn't want to fuck you. I'm safe with you, I know it and I don't scare away easily, Jon. If you wanna leave, let me clean your hands up and you can be on your way. I won't stop you."

"It's so easy for you to justify what I did, isn't it?" Jon was both amused and disgusted. The guy had thought Vallea was being assaulted, and she was totally cool with him getting his ass beaten down just because she thought the would-be savior had overstepped his bounds by being helpful. "You're just as fucked as I am."

"What do you WANT me to say?! That you scared the shit out of me with your temper?! Fine, you scared me, but I also know you won't hurt me! God!" Vallea clutched her hair between her fingers, hating how this night had ended when it was going so well. "Do you want me to push you away, Jon? Do you want me to tell you to leave and never come back? Because I won't do it. Everybody has a temper. You're only human and you made a mistake. It happens, it doesn't mean I'll just write you off and think of you as an actual lunatic. That's just not who I am."

"And what about your mistake? I probably broke that guy's ribs and you didn't think twice about leaving his ass there to rot." Jon pointed out, without scorn or judgment, now he was just genuinely curious about where her equally lunatic mind was at. "You don't know him, so he doesn't matter. You've known me about thirty-two hours so I count?"

"Why are you so hell-bent on defending a stranger yourself? And for your information, yes, I contacted the authorities via text message and they are on their way to check on him as we speak. I did it anonymously." Technology was a beautiful thing sometimes. "I'm not that heartless. And I may not know you that well, but yes, you DO matter. And you do count to me. Now stop talking crazy and come inside, so I can doctor your hands up. Then you can run away, if that's what you wanna do." Vallea had to look away from him to keep the tears at bay, clearing her throat.

"My hands are fine." Jon said flatly, wondering why she was so tenacious about that one little detail. His knuckles were bruised, there was one scrape along a finger, nothing he was overly concerned about. He was curious about her thoughts, and the way she did things, because if he was going to be involved with someone potentially crazy, he liked to know where their priorities lie. That was a fairly good indicator of where he'd wind up someday.

Or in her case, headless.

"Fine." Vallea folded her arms in front of her chest, feeling more confused and perplexed than she had in her life. "If you're coming inside, you know the way. I'm not standing out here yelling at you anymore for the world to see and hear." Lord knew the last thing they needed was the cops called on them after what Jon did. "I'll leave the decision up to you." Pulling the tie out of her hair, she let it tumble down her back and over her shoulders, shaking it loose a little before turning to head inside.

Her head was killing her from having her hair up all that time, along with the drama that just transpired between her and Jon.