*Author’s Note: This is the follow up to The End Game and the fourth and final part in my overall Roman Reigns trilogy. You don’t have to read The Quiet Game, The Waiting Game, and The End Game to enjoy this one, though. Happy reading!*

His big hands were stuck to her thick hips, easily holding her down, holding her close. Right where he wanted her. Amanda liked how strong his grip was on her, how his fingers dug into her soft skin, and how his hips moved with hers. One fluid motion, in and out, a slow dance that he could do for hours, even though he deliciously wore her down.

But she wasn’t too tired to keep going. He was doing all the work, anyway, as he liked to spoil her, repositioning her thighs against his strong chest as he grinded into her, slowly, deeply, watching her moan to him with admiration in his dark brown eyes. Their eyes locked together as he searched them and she saw a satisfied smirk pull at his thick lips when he found what he was looking for…

“I’m still too much for you, baby?” he whispered, his deep voice heavy with conceit. He could see it as she squirmed beneath him, moan after moan rolling off her tongue. Amanda playfully rolled her eyes, too, and shot him a smirk back before he angled his hips up just slightly, just enough to tease himself along her g-spot, nudging it with winding strokes that made her moans fall into breathy whines. “Mmm…you ’bout to cum for me?” he asked tenderly before leaning down, burying himself deeper inside as their lips touched for a kiss.

“Yesssunhhhhh,” Amanda mumbled against his lips, her arms and legs now wrapped around his waist as she shook with his every slow, teasing, thorough thrust. “Right there, baby, unhh…I’m cumming,” she closed her eyes and whimpered on his shoulder when he moved his lips to her neck to kiss her there, too.

And as she cried out from that first glowing hot pleasure wave that washed over her, making her tremble against him, he softly growled in her ear, “Fuck, I love how this pussy grippin’ on me…who’s pussy is this, baby?”

“It’s all yours, Joe,” Amanda moaned without hesitation, her breath catching as her ecstasy snatched her up.

“What the fuck?” he spat, his luscious thrusts coming to an abrupt halt as he yanked up from her to glare at her with confused eyes.

“Oh, shit,” she blurted, both from the stupid, stupid slip-up and the very, very good orgasm that was still rolling through her body. She was tempted to grind it out by herself since he’d stopped moving, but she knew better than that. Just like she should have known better to moan her ex’s name while another man was inside her.

“Yo, what the fuck, Amanda?” Christian asked again, ripping himself out of her and pushing her thighs off his waist before he hopped off the bed altogether. The world knew him as Carmelo Hayes, but of course, she called him by his real name. Just not tonight.

No, instead she let Joe, who the world knew as Roman Reigns, poison her mind while she was with Christian. She was ashamed to admit to herself that it wasn’t even the first time that it had happened–but it was a first for her to let her thoughts of him escape out of her mouth.

“I am so sorry, oh, my god,” was all she could say because there wasn’t much else to say. She pulled the bed sheets up around her naked body in shame, feeling exposed in more methods than one. She had fucked up and she knew he was gonna hit her with a barrage of questions. And she also knew there was just one answer to all of them.

“You cheatin’ on me?” Christian asked, the betrayal on his gorgeous face quickly twisting into anger as he jerked his boxers up to his waist. Amanda could see his hands trembling a little and it scared her. She’d never seen him this upset.

“No.” The single word flew out fast since it was the truth. She’d been exclusive with Christian for about three months and he was the only man she was romantic with. Yet Amanda had heard of such a thing as “emotional cheating”…and if that was a real thing…she was definitely guilty of that.

Amanda hadn’t really spoken to Joe in over a year, not since their split last summer. And yet her heart would still do a tiny, asinine flip whenever she saw him backstage. If they ever did speak, it was tepid “pleasantries,” and only if they had to be near each other, like during in-ring segments where, as SmackDown’s ring announcer, she would introduce him to the live crowd, or if their friend groups merged at after-work parties.

But even that felt strained and forced as Amanda could feel Joe’s venom for her sting her skin if he ever bothered to look at her. The feeling was mutual as she believed it was his fault they broke up in the first place…

When she decided she needed to finally move the hell on, dating Christian was the final nail in the coffin of what remained of their relationship. For a while Amanda was grateful for the distraction because she liked Christian a lot…but apparently not enough to keep her from reminiscing about Joe…

His full, soft lips on her…his strong arms around her…his warm, hulking body pressed to hers…his deep voice in her ear…his thick dick deep enough to be in her stomach…

It made her feel sick. Didn’t matter how frustrated she was with that petty ass man…even all these months later, she was still just as horny for him. And she absolutely hated herself for it.

“I don’t believe you,” Christian said and she could tell he was trying not to raise his voice. Amanda was certain he already hated her, too, as any fond feelings they’d been nurturing instantly rotted with the mention of the wrong name. “Just be real with me. Is it Joe Joe? You seein’ him again?” he asked with his muscular arms crossed over his chest.

She felt so small with him towering over her as she sank into the bed, wishing she could discover a nicer excuse to give him other than, “No. I just can’t stop thinking about him. Sex with you is great…it’s not sex with him.”

“I swear to god I’m not! I haven’t even talked to him.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m telling you the truth!”

“You don’t just moan another fuckin’ man’s name while fuckin’ your boyfriend unless he was recently fuckin’ you, too!” Christian hissed before he sucked in a big, shaky breath. He was fighting back tears and she despised that she was the cause. It made hot tears spring to Amanda’s eyes and she didn’t bother wiping at them as they fell down her cheeks.

“I haven’t been with anyone but you, I promise! I don’t know why I said that shit…I just know I was dumb to say it and I’m so sorry,” Amanda gasped in one big breath, her voice thick with remorse–and embarrassment for not having the courage to be real like he demanded. But she would not dare, not when it was clear that his name alone had done enough damage.

“Keep that bullshit apology, Amanda, ’cause I know you’re lyin’ to me. Don’t think I never peeped how that nigga looks at you. But it’s cool. Just stay the fuck away from me,” he replied and swiped up his clothes and shoes from the floor before turning his back to her and storming out of her hotel bedroom. She knew it would be pointless to chase after him, so instead, she hid her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed, and she listened to him get dressed and slam the door shut on his way out.

The worst part about suddenly losing her boyfriend wasn’t even that she felt terrible for breaking his heart–but that she felt terribly relieved to finally stop living a lie.

Because the truth was the demon she’d been fighting off for a while now had a name. And Amanda was ready to give in.

…

Coming back to her hotel alone was an adjustment Amanda hadn’t quite made.

It had been two months since Christian dumped her, but truthfully, he wasn’t the reason she felt lonely after work. Sure, she wondered about him sometimes, but no…it was at all times him. The same incubus haunting her thoughts and dreams.

Because there was something about the way things crashed and burned with Joe that still didn’t sit right with her. When it weighed heavy enough on her mind on nights like tonight, it kept her awake with memories of how they used to laugh together, hold one another, and give each other orgasms that felt damn near like spiritual experiences…

And Amanda knew exactly what the issue was: Joe had the audacity to let her go like she was just some random woman.

She didn’t like to think about it too much, but being by herself in her hotel room left her with her thoughts as her only business. She realized that he’d hurt her feelings…feelings that she was afraid to admit to herself were deeper than she wanted them to be. How could her feelings not run deep for Joe when they went from those cute coworkers who’d flirt too often; to close friends who saw and text messaged each other almost every day; and finally as lovers who were inseparable between the sheets?

And after five months together, none of that even mattered to him.

He’d gotten her used to his radiant presence, his warmth, his smile, and now he was probably out there smiling all up in other women’s faces while she was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, studying her sad, dark brown eyes and slight frown that had been stuck on her plump lips for months.

The blip in time that was her fun-while-it-lasted relationship with Christian did almost nothing to separate her from the year she’d spent in grief. She knew she was dead wrong to waste his time like that, but she also didn’t know how else to heal. Her friends tried to make her feel better by telling her that hurt people hurt people, but she knew that was no excuse. She couldn’t take back what she did…but she also couldn’t let go of him.

And now she was ready to accept her fate: She wasn’t over Joe and…she didn’t want to be.

She missed him. She missed everything. Like their post-work routine that they had perfected: They’d wait for the other backstage in his locker room to change out of their gear, hop on Joe’s private bus, grab dinner, and head back to his or her hotel to step into the shower together, cuddle on the couch together, and then crawl in bed together to fall asleep side by side…or not sleep.

Now she was all alone with a new routine: Strip off her dress and underwear to climb in the shower without him; moisturize her deep brown skin with mango body butter without him helping her reach her back; braid down her red auburn afro that fell to her shoulders without him telling her how cute she looked before and after she hid them beneath a cheetah-print, silk bonnet; pull on an oversized, black tee shirt that wasn’t his; and order a big bowl of Massaman curry and rice from GrubHub that he wasn’t here to steal bites from.

The only interaction with him she could look forward to was at work. And if it wasn’t for his cousins, Sefa, Josh, and Jon, who befriended her and often chopped it up with her before Joe would interrupt them and pull them away for Bloodline company, she was certain he wouldn’t acknowledge her existence at all.

Which was bullshit, Amanda wondered to herself as she stared blankly at the rerun of Girlfriends on the giant television screen in the hotel’s den. While she crushed on him for a long while, it was Joe who made the first move. It was he who went out of his way to make her feel comfortable with him. It was he who proposed they make their sexy little fling something more concrete.

And it was he who fucked it up for them both.

She sat her half-empty takeout bowl of curry on the coffee table and reclined on the couch, letting out a frustrated sigh. It still didn’t make sense to her how he went on a break after WrestleMania last year and never made time to see her like he promised he would. She didn’t think she was being clingy. She just wanted to see her boyfriend. And it wasn’t like she attempted to invite herself to his home. Joe explicitly told her before he left that he would see her as often as he could.

Yet it was at all times something that came up or got in the way. If it wasn’t impromptu company meetings stealing the days she planned to visit, it was surprise family gatherings that she couldn’t attend because, weirdly, no flights were available on those days. And that really upset her because Joe seemed so excited for her to meet his parents…and she never got the chance.

The first three delays Amanda chalked up to Joe being a busy man. Yet when a month and a half went by and they still couldn’t understand a way to get to one another, Amanda started to feel like it was on purpose. She hated the way that exchange had gone down: He made her feel stupid for not comprehending why he still worked on vacation, and she came off as accusatory because of it. As a result, she’d thrown her hurt in his face even when he tried to pacify her and offer a solution, like getting on video calls.

But she wasn’t trying to hear it. To her, it was too late to make things right when all she’d heard for weeks were what sounded like his excuses. In hindsight, she saw how the distance between them fed her anxiety and made her hostile to him, which Joe noticed on that fateful phone call.

“So, what then? You rather we not talk at all than use this conversation to fix the problem?” Although Amanda could hear his subtle frustration simmering in the depths of his deep voice, he was able to keep his tone steady on the line…which angered her more as her voice rose slightly with the passion she felt for him, the passion she was convinced he abruptly lacked for her.

“It seems like that’s what’s best since it’s been over a month and there’s still a problem…” Amanda spat back. She heard him let out a sigh and then a quick, dark chuckle. They’d had a few minor miscommunications but they’d never argued before this call, yet she’d seen him butt heads with his cousins from time to time. That’s how she knew he didn’t discover her words funny, but instead, it was a sign that he was growing more irritated.

“Wow, Amanda. Well, if that’s what you want, I won’t stop you. Do what’s best for you,” Joe replied calmly. That was the final blow to her.

“I will. I hope you do, too.” Once she pressed END CALL on her cell phone, she felt tears sting her eyes. It was like they were the fuel for the fire that burned inside her. She slammed her phone down on the hotel’s nightstand and let out an exasperated scream that she’d been biting back for weeks.

She liked to believe she was a level-headed, 34-year-old woman who could rein in her irrational emotions. But something about Joe made her feel wide open. She already knew he had that sort of control over her when he could coax out the best orgasms she ever had. It was a revelation that he could also bring out the worst emotions in her.

Amanda threw away her leftover curry and brushed her teeth before she flopped onto her back in bed, her mind still spinning. She found it surreal that she hadn’t received a phone call from him since that day. Maybe it was because she owed him an apology, too, she wondered, but she couldn’t bring herself to call him first.

Not when she felt embarrassed like this…embarrassed about how things ended between them…embarrassed about her lingering affection going ignored month after month…and embarrassed about her pussy still getting wet for him even when he wasn’t in the room. It happened every time she let her thoughts run rampant with regret and arousal so deep for him that she resented him all over again for not being here to play with her pussy, leaving her to do it herself.

And tonight was once again one of those nights…

Amanda couldn’t help but think about how Joe would walk into her hotel suite behind her, his heavy arms draped around her waist as he pinned her to his thick, warm body that hovered over her. She would feel his dick already growing hard, digging into her backside, as he leaned down to plant greedy kisses on her neck. When he was on her like that, she knew they weren’t gonna make it to the bedroom…

Instead, he would push her up against the foyer wall and bring his lips to hers. She loved how soft his lips were and how smooth his tongue was as he tasted hers before he fell to his knee to taste what was underneath her dress. The way Joe would run his tongue up and down her clit with such tenderness was the same way she ran her fingertips along it now as she spread her legs wider beneath her bedsheets and tried to mimic his technique to make her cum in his mouth.

However, she didn’t want to cum yet…she wanted to save that for when she reminisced on how when he was finished making her scream from sucking on her pussy, he would instruct her to face the wall and put her hands on it. She’d hear the rustling sound of fabric as his joggers and boxer briefs fell to the floor, the wet sound of his spit as it lubed his long length in his hand. She was so ready for it that her heart would pound loud enough that she could hear it in her ears.

Joe had a dick that hung between his thighs like a cucumber and she never quite got used to his size. Even though his strokes were gentle, the stretch at all times had her screaming even louder. “Stop all that whinin’ and take this dick…mmm, that’s it, sweetheart…feels good when I fill up this pussy, don’t it?” Joe would groan in between heavy thrusts, his lips on her ear and his big hands on her petite yet wide hips to make her take him deeper, harder until she was crying his name and struggling to stand in her stilettos as his hefty body drove into her.

“Yeah, oh my god,” she would shout to him. She did love how he filled her up to the brim. And she knew he loved how her pussy gripped him with each stroke that made her throb around him. That’s when he would begin moaning back to her as her wet, clenching pussy milked his dick, his voice husky as he grunted, “You gonna make me cum, baby…fuck…”

“Cum for me, Daddy,” Amanda would purr before she felt him squeeze her almost too tight in his hands and nuzzle his nose in the crook of her neck, his warm breath labored against her skin as his fiery pleasure worked its way through him. Even though they were both still mostly clothed, his impossible heat covered her…as did his warm cum as it covered her pussy from the inside out.

He had developed a naughty habit of not pulling out after the first time she let him do it. Yet Amanda had so fallen in love with the feeling of him twitching and spilling inside her, she opted to get on birth control so he could stay close like this…and pump rope after rope of his sticky pleasure deep into her…

It was that memory that made her arch her back off the bed as she felt her own orgasm shudder through her, her fingers buried in her fluttering pussy like how his dick would be when he came for her.

She moaned louder than she meant into the darkness of her bedroom, his name almost erupting from her throat from the deep longing in her belly. Yet even in the swells of her ecstasy, the painful reality that Joe wasn’t here to hear it made her shamefully choke it down as she collapsed back onto the bed, her heart thudding in her chest. It burned her up that she had to resort to this, something that she hadn’t done since before he got her alone in his locker room and convinced her to sit on his lap to give him that kiss that led them to this hell…

And that’s why Amanda couldn’t be the first one to reach out. Didn’t matter how badly she craved him, she refused to let him in on how desperate she was for him. For fuck’s sake, she had to reserve some dignity.

Yet when she went into work the following Friday night and saw him rounding the corner of a hallway as he headed to the Gorilla Position where she stood, her heart did that tiny, annoying flip anyway. As usual. And as usual, he ignored her, even as he approached Kayla Braxton who was right next to her.

“They shootin’ this here or in the ring?” Joe gestured with his eyes to the camera crew nearby, referring to their interview scheduled in about ten minutes, and blatantly cutting in on their chat about where everyone should grab drinks tonight. Amanda had an expert poker face by now, her lips a straight line and her eyes fixed on her cell phone that she whipped out of her bra that acted as a pocket on her pocketless, backless, hot pink, mini dress.