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I hear her words, but I also see her face. The former doesn’t agree with the latter. Her conniving expression morphs into a less jovial one — pensive, concerned. All the confidence I just witnessed in the ring dissolves in front of me.
Chey is a different woman when she faces the prospect of revealing Disastra to the world. I figure her change in demeanor is more about keeping a lid on her new persona than any heck she would get from her father if Disastra were exposed. But I keep those thoughts to myself.
Chey rattles on about their four-wrestler tag team skit, but my mind wanders. There’s so much riding on Chey’s reveal. Beyond her fantasizing, I know the timing has to be just right.
Everyone in town knows Raucous Entertainment wanted Joseph to invest in their franchise. Not start one of his own. Instead, the wise ex-wrestler did a surprise takedown maneuver of his own, bought up a dilapidated arena and gym, and started Fool’s Gold.
He’s said nothing to me about swiping artists from Raucous, but I wouldn’t put it past the business guru. He knows this cutthroat business inside and out, as a wrestler and now as an owner. And he knows something else Raucous has never understood. Wrestlers work like dogs honing their characters, so they want ownership of those brands. They want power in and out of the ring.
It’s that factor alone that draws me to Chey’s dad.
There are so many other factors that draw me to Chey.
Chey continues to talk, yet my mind wanders again, this time to softer, warmer thoughts.
My body warms. I tell it to tamp down. Business thoughts, Ronan. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Problem is, the prize is sitting so close to me right now. To stay objective is a herculean feat even for an orc.
“Okay, we girls are headed for the showers. Talk later?”
“Sure, yes, of course.” I pick up my pen and feign focusing on my training chart.
Chey walks away, and my eyes instantly follow her lithe figure. She disappears and my reasoned thoughts resume.
I figure I can afford two more months of this living and training in secret. It’s not a big ask from Chey or me. I’ll abide by her wishes, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not champing at the bit for the reveal. I know Fool’s Gold doesn’t have many female wrestlers and her dad would sign her in a heartbeat if she wasn’t so stubborn about refusing his help.
She’d be a standout, a diamond in the rough, a rose among thorns. If I could just convince her of that and that Disastra is the way to get there.
My thoughts quickly swerve from the altruistic to the self-serving. I’d like to see her more willing to come to Fool’s Gold. If I got an offer from them, I’d like to know that she would follow. I can’t imagine training at any franchise without seeing her train beside me in the gym.
Joseph wants her by his side, and so do I. In and out of the ring. My thoughts linger on a day when she and I can be close. Oh, so close. To be every day enveloped by her beauty and her strength and her scent and her smile. Heaven.
But my fantasy of Chey stops cold when my thoughts jump to her stubbornness. I wonder who she gets it from? Her mom or her dad?
I’m worn out trying to convince her to permanently drop Archimedes for Disastra. Her refusal makes my ears smoke! That woman needs her head examined.
The media hype she’d get from signing at Fool’s Gold as Disastra would be huge. I can picture the billboards. O’Malley’s Tag Teaming Again! Not to mention the free rein on how Chey develops her alter ego. It’s a wrestler’s dream come true.
Maybe I need to be more patient. Maybe this secretive training time away is what she needs. It could help her to hone her tag team skills with a new partner in Camie. To up her confidence once more after losing her mother. But as I see her workout — a beautiful body in fluid motion, her focus and determination to get every move in the ring so right — I want so much more for Chey. So much more.
I watch her chat with the other wrestlers, and I chuckle. She’s definitely not a rule-breaker. Not someone like me who barrels in the demands. So, it’s a double pleasure to watch Chey develop her bad side like it’s been there in hiding all along and needed a powerful man to draw it out of her.
My body reacts to her aggressive side. How could any orc behave any differently? A badass beauty. A perfect package. The fact that it’s something I’ve helped mold is both flattering and humbling because the truth is that I know it’s something inherent in her from the start.
I never could have taught her the kind of talent she possesses. The best trainer in the world couldn’t. I’ve never known a woman like Chey, not in all my years of coming.
The best of both worlds, orc and human.
Can such a mix work? Can we work?
I keep my thoughts to myself, for I only desire one answer. I don’t want to speak it out loud and have anyone take it away just yet.
“I’ll be here, and I’ll wait, Cheyanne O’Malley,” I promise her retreating back when I see her walk across the far side of the gym, far out of earshot. “I have all the patience in the world, for you, in all ways. For no one else. I’ll wait.”
I only hope her realization of Disastra being her future comes with her realization of me being in that future, too.
CHAPTER 11
