It Takes A Tough Man To Make A Tender Kalli
He watched her.
She moved with untold grace, each step she took fluid, each maneuver spot on, her long, dark hair whisping around her as she went, her face set in perfect concentration and determination bar the occasional vicious smirk that played upon her full lips. When she landed flat on her back in the middle of the ring, she would sell to perfection, but her energy was not at all marred, and she would move back to her feet faster than half the men he had ever seen working the same routine she was running through right now.
It had been a long time now, a very long time that he had known her. She had been a child when he had first come to the company years and years ago. Her hair then a much softer brown, her eyes then aglow with the innocence that had escaped her much later in life. She had always worn a smile for him, and when he spoke, she would hang on to his every word, her admiration clear. She had looked to him like he was some sort of immortal. A man far superior to all others.
Oh, yes. A long, long time ago, she had adored him with all her childish naivety and he had doubted that she would ever see the truth of who he was. But as she had grown up, she had grown wise, and now she read the people around her easier than possibly even he. He wondered still to this day when the little girl he had known had died, when the woman who now leapt about the ring before him had come to be. She had perked his interest, but barely, on his return, his desires more set on another than on herself. Though he had used her, threatened her and straight up abused her on occasion to make his way into the bed of the girl she called her best friend, he was yet to cross the line with the woman in that ring.
Perhaps it was her interest in his blood that had sparked him to take more note of her. She followed his handsome blonde companion around the way she had once followed him, but the innocence of such a thing was not to be. For when she followed, she followed with hungry eyes and a taste for the wild, and eventually his friend, his blood, had noticed that spark inside her and fallen into her bed. Perhaps if it had been just the once, he would not be so bothered, but the nights they spent alone together were slowly and steadily growing in number. Neither spoke publicly of their encounters, and there had been no expressions of love, but she was growing dangerously close to his blood, and he would have none of it.
Was it her place in the scheme of things that bothered him so, or the fact that he recognized a darkness in her that only he seemed able to see? Granted, she was the daughter of the Chairman of the company... Hell, straight up, she was one of Daddy's Little Girl's. The baby of the bunch, the sweetest, the best behaved. Her illusion of innocence had been fooling them all long before his return, and if nothing else, her elder sister was viewed as more of a dark horse than she.
But her act of purity would not fool him.
One wrong move, and she could have Daddy up end him from the company faster than he could say well fuck me. In fact it would probably serve him best to leave her be. That would be the smart thing, right? But when had he ever done the smart thing? And besides... She was toying with his blood, crossing lines that should never be crossed. She had to be reminded of her place, she had to be punished. And if he lost his place on the roster because of it then he'd deal with that later.
He smirked slowly, noticing she was beginning to finish up in the ring. She climbed through the ropes and jumped off the apron, smiling at the purple-haired man who fell into step beside her, an air of arrogance about her. As though she was tough. Tougher than tough, even. Like nothing could harm her, and no one would dare try. She slowly moved up the ramp, passing where he sat, and she turned long enough to throw him half a glare, her distaste written all over her face.
It had been a long time, and her admiration had since merged into contempt. Physically, he overpowered her time and time again when he came to her room at night to visit her best friend, and should she dare argue, should she dare resist his barked commands that she leave... Well, he'd hurt her before. She knew all too well he'd hurt her again. But though she would leave him to his nights with her pretty little friend, the fire in her eyes would not waver. And as their eyes met now, that fire still burned, passionately, spitefully.
Something told him that perhaps he was in no danger of her running, crying, to Daddy if he sought her out. In fact, as her face hardened all the more, he wondered if secretly... She longed for it.
The foolish, foolish little girl. So determined to maintain the image of her sweetness, but so deeply wicked underneath. Her lips curled in her contempt, almost a dare in her eyes and he knew...
She thought she could beat him. She believed that should he try, he would never break her.
Without so much as batting an eyelid, she turned back to the man she walked with, her smile suddenly so sweet it was almost startling, her confidence clear, though only to him. She believed he would never break her, and maybe she really was as tough as she thought she was.
But he was far stronger than she would ever be, and she would learn that soon enough. For as strong as she believed she was, he would make her weak. For as hard as she thought she was, he would make her soft.
A chuckle escaped him at this as she disappeared. Black and blue and sore and tender. She could hide obliviously in her so-called strength determined no man could break her. But one man could...
And Scott Hall knew he was more than man enough for the job.
~ The End ~