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Stephanie was full of nervous but delicious anticipation as she sat in her office.
It was late into the SmackDown taping, which meant the time she'd get to spend alone with Sean was drawing nearer. She couldn't help feeling like a giddy teenager.
The not-so-distant memory of the kiss they'd shared little more than two hours earlier had stayed freshly with her. It had been so unexpected, yet so intense and wonderful at the same time. God, she had goosebumps just thinking about it.
The only thing that bothered her was that she didn't know why he'd kissed her - why he really did it.
Stephanie thought about the situation. She and Sean definitely had a mutual physical attraction between them. She'd felt the sparks before, those pleasurable jolts of electricity. And likewise, they shared a meeting of the minds. But did Sean O'Haire kiss her merely because of their attraction and friendship, or was it possible there was more to it? She honestly didn't know - but she intended to find out.
The ringing of her cell phone just to her right on the desk startled the brunette, bringing her back to reality. A quick glance at the caller ID told her it was Paul who was calling - probably to check up on her. Reluctantly, rolling her eyes, Stephanie answered.
"Hello, Paul..."
"Stephanie, what are you doing?" the man barked, not even bothering with a hello. "Where are you?"
"I'm in my office," she snapped in annoyance, frowning at his apparent interrogation. She opened her mouth to say more, but he interrupted her.
"Oh, I suppose your fuckbuddy is on the SmackDown roster, huh? Who is he, Steph? Give me his name and I'll break every bone in his body. I'll teach him not to-"
"Stop it!" she cried, upset. Her hand shook as a vein began to throb in her temple. Paul might have been three-thousand miles away, clear across the country from her, but he could still torment her as if he were right here. "I don't have a 'fuckbuddy,' Paul. It's not like that at all..."
Levesque snorted as he gave a derisive laugh.
"And you know what? It doesn't really matter, anyway - because come the Sunday of No Mercy, you'll be out of the picture..." His laughter boomed so loudly in her ear that Stephanie had to pull the phone away from it. "After you lose that match to Vince, you're finished. And then, the following Saturday, you're all mine - legally mine."
The brunette's heart sank at the man's cruel, biting words. If she and Sean didn't do something fast, everything Paul had just said would become reality.
Holding back tears, she sniffled and said, "Paul, I... I have to go - business calls." Then, not bothering to wait for him to say goodbye, she pressed the button to end the call. Her eyes were now filled to the brink, and, unable to hold back, she gave in to the sob that had been building up.
She sat there like that for at least a good five minutes, when all of a sudden, she realized someone was knocking at the door. Damn it, this was the last thing she needed, for someone to come to her now, when she was such a mess. She hoped the person would just go away...
"Stephanie?"
The brunette's breath caught, her heart pounding like mad inside her chest as she recognized the voice as being Sean's.
"Come in..." she called weakly.
Then, as the big, dark-haired man entered the room, she let herself go again, the sobs choking her as she got up from her chair and rushed to him. In seconds, she was in O'Haire's strong, muscular arms, and she knew she didn't have to explain.
He let her cry against him for several long minutes, and Stephanie was actually
grateful for a few things - she was grateful that Sean had somehow miraculously been
brought into her life. She was grateful that he was nothing like that miserable
Paul Levesque. And, perhaps most of all, she was grateful that she was able to know
what real love was - for, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was in love
with this man. And she was relieved that she'd had the chance to experience that - even
if it was too late for them...