King's Queen

by Marie Johnston

  My nephew was done wrestling and he couldn’t sit like the other kids. They stood just off the mat, shouting instructions at Violet, but her focus was unwavering. The ref prowled the mat, evaluating her performance.

  I smelled the soft floral scent of Kate’s favorite shampoo before she spoke. “I think she’s going to win by a pin.”

  My gaze flicked to my wife and stuck. Her hair was pulled back in a haphazard bun and she wore a dusty-blue ZooMontana sweatshirt that swallowed her body down to her thighs. The jeans she had on hugged her legs all the way to her ankles and on her feet were gray and pink athletic shoes. She looked like the first time I’d seen her. Vibrant. Refreshing. And more interested in the wrestling than the people.

  “She’s doing good.”

  Kate’s lips curved. “She’s on a rampage. She lost her first match and dissolved into tears.”

  “They all do. When they’re this young, they leave it all out on the mat. The older ones just won’t admit they feel like crying when they lose. How’d Corbin and Caleb do?”

  “Corbin got a medal. Caleb’s wrestling for school, so he and Sophie are in Lewistown.”

  I turned my attention to the kids on the mat. They were so little, but the basic skills were already there. If I’d gotten here earlier, I could have seen how far my niece and nephew had come since I’d watched a tournament last year. If I could attend these more often, I would recognize kids and witness how much they’d grown.

  But…work. More regrets that did me no good. “My meeting ran long.”

  “On a Saturday?”

  My attention flicked back to Kate. Her steady gaze was on Violet, but the hard set to her mouth was new. “It was the best time to meet with the developers we hired to help us integrate centralized financial reporting.” I uttered the words with the same emptiness all my excuses seemed to have lately. I had a lot of power at King Oil, but I couldn’t control people. I had to be accommodating when it came to people and contractors. The days of being a dictator were over. But I felt the need to tack on, “Once it’s fully implemented, it should cut down on the time required to gather data for future mergers and acquisitions.”

  Kate didn’t reply, but that didn’t stop me from hanging on the reaction that never happened. Was she upset? Was she glad I’d come, or did she wish I’d skipped?

  The time ran out on Violet’s period and we waited for the final decision. The ref lifted her little arm and a grin split her face. She didn’t win by a pin, but she won. Kate drifted away to join her family, and I followed.

  Jason caught my arm. “You mind helping us put everything away? Randall’s getting a migraine, and he’s too damn proud to say anything.”

  “No problem.” I unbuttoned my cuffs and rolled my sleeves up. The tie was already gone. Damn thing had bugged me all day. I took my shoes off to walk over the mats.

  Jason, Matt, and I rolled mats. Kate helped gather record sheets and stack chairs. Jason and Matt herded Randall out the door with instructions to get home before it was too bad to drive. Violet cartwheeled across the gym floor. Her winter coat hung open over her dark blue singlet.

  I stacked rolled-up mats in the far corner of the club room. The feeling of being watched itched between my shoulders.

  When I turned, Corbin was at the edge of the room. His skinny legs stuck out from his winter coat and his feet were tucked into wide black snow boots. “Hey, Uncle Aiden.”

  “Hey. Heard you did well.”

  He nodded, but his intense little gaze darted away.

  “You don’t feel like you did?”

  He lifted a bony shoulder. “I would’ve gotten first if I’d won that match, but he got me on a sprawl. I couldn’t get out.”

  I unbuttoned the top button of my shirt and beckoned him closer, onto the club room’s mats. “Show me.”

  His face lit up and he shrugged out of his coat. Dumping it on the floor, he stepped out of his boots and tossed his wrestling shoes on the ground next to them. I dropped to my knees when he padded toward me and he did the same. He shoved his head toward the mat and I leaned over him, carefully putting my weight over him like his opponent would’ve.

  “Okay, what’d you do?” I asked, my hands around his thin waist.

  He grunted and his arm wrapped around my thigh. I rotated that foot like a clock and kept it out of his grasp. “Stop my foot,” I instructed and eased some of my weight off him. My proportions were much larger than his opponent’s, but the problem was clear. “You can’t sweep behind me if I can move around and keep my leverage over you.”

  His hand clasped my shin, his grip straining.

  “Okay, pause.” I moved the foot of the leg he had ahold of side to side. “See how if you can stop me moving from that foot, you could sweep?”

  “I’m trying.” Frustration laced his voice. He’d had a hard day and those tears Kate and I talked about earlier would flow if he continued to struggle.

  I straightened and moved the hand that was between my legs to right above the knee and positioned his other hand over my calf. “Now pull in opposite directions.”

  He did, and of course he couldn’t budge me, but he got the point. I tapped the hand over my calf. “See how the more of my lower leg you have ahold of when you’re keeping my calf from moving, the less ability I have to move?”

  He nodded. His grip tightened and I patted his side. “Now chase my corner and get behind me.” I eased myself over him and let him execute the move until he’d broken out of my hold. “There you go. Easy peasy.”

  He rolled his eyes but breaking out of his uncle’s hold made pride shine on his face.

  Kate’s voice drifted through the open door from the gym. “Matt took off. I can lock up and bring the keys back to Randall. You and Corbin go get something to eat.”

  Kate and Jason entered the club room but stopped before they were on the mats.

  Jason grinned at Corbin. “Getting tips from Aiden? Don’t I know enough anymore?”

  “Didn’t he used to beat you?” Corbin said as he got his shoes and coat on.

  I rose, enjoying the stretch after being on my knees for a few minutes. It’d be fun to work with Corbin longer. I missed this sport. I could’ve wrestled in college, but I hadn’t needed to chase the scholarships. Sports would’ve taken my mind off my studies, and I’d known my future was with King Oil. I couldn’t move into the CFO position right after college and have people think I didn’t deserve to be there.

  Jason smirked. “He only beat me a few times.”

  “Only when it counted,” I added and Jason chuckled.

  He looked at Kate. “You good?”

  “Go. I’ll lock up.”

  Jason and Corbin left. Kate smiled at their backs, then grinned at me. “Corbin is starstruck.”

  “Why?”

  She folded her arms. “Because Jason talks about you all the time. He’s always referencing ways you took him down.” She shook her head. “Corbin’s definitely not going to think wrestling with Auntie Katie is cool anymore.”

  I beckoned her to me with both hands. “I need to see what Auntie Katie knows.”

  Her eyes flared and pink dusted her cheeks. “What?”

  “Come on, Kate. I should’ve known that Randall wouldn’t let a kid under his roof not learn. Show me what you’ve got.”

  She made a choking sound. “I can’t. We can’t…”

  I glanced at the door. “No one’s around to witness you get destroyed.”

  Her eyes narrowed and her mouth formed a mutinous line. Damn. Kate had some pride when it came to her moves. I held my grin in and kept my expression challenging.

  She toed off her shoes and took her sweater off. The plain pink shirt she wore underneath molded to her body and her breasts jiggled ever so slightly as she stalked toward me. Warmth flooded my groin. She was going to have an advantage before she reached me. I couldn’t wrestle with half my blood pooling in my dick.

  Each step closer made her cheeks flush deeper, but her eyes
shone with determination. Kate liked a challenge.

  Why hadn’t I realized that?

  I dropped into the stance I’d used for so many years facing off with opponents. But no matter what title or medal was on the line, I hadn’t wanted to get my hands on them like I did Kate.

  Kate

  * * *

  My heart slammed in my ribs. I might have some moves I learned as a kid, but I had no real experience other than being a practice dummy for my brothers. Aiden might not have wrestled for over ten years, but he was far more skilled than me.

  Yet I approached him, bent my knees, and circled him, looking for my opening. Anticipation stoked the mischievous gleam in his eyes. That look was the one I craved when we went to King’s Creek. The look that melted years of stress off his shoulders. The look that suggested a long-repressed sense of humor that was dying to break out.

  That look was hot.

  Heat curled through my insides, but I concentrated on strategy. He’d lean and lunge, trying to fake me out. I knew better. He could take me down any second; he was choosing not to.

  “You’re stalling,” I accused.

  The corner of his mouth hitched up. “Prove it.”

  I had no idea how to do that, but I lunged, going for a double-leg takedown. Throwing all my weight into my legs and heaving him over, I got one of his feet in the air and his other hip hit the mat. There was no way I should’ve been able to get him on the ground. He was six inches taller than me and solid muscle.

  I didn’t have time to think about it. Power rippled through his body and I moved quickly, taking advantage of the momentum to roll him onto his belly. Using my legs, I wheeled around to his side and over his back until I straddled him. Going for an underhook, I wedged an arm under one of his to wrench it behind his back and did the same to his other side. The next feat was to roll him over to get him flattened on the mat as much as I could.

  I scrambled to his side, impeded with my arms anchored around his elbows, but I pushed anyway. He didn’t move. I strained using my feet. Still couldn’t budge him. I shifted my weight and shoved with all my might, muscles straining. Nothing.

  A low vibration rippled through my body the same time a rumble reached my ears.

  I frowned, eyeing the center of my husband’s back. The rumble grew in strength. “Are you laughing?”

  His body shook with the tremors. I huffed out a breath and sagged. My muscles screamed from the type of exertion I hadn’t done for years.

  His chuckles grew in strength. I’d put everything I had into those moves and he’d been messing with me the whole time.

  Without thinking, I smacked his ass. The thwack echoed through the room, almost as satisfying as my husband’s laughter. I swatted him two more times before I sank into a mermaid pose. “I was trying really hard.”

  He flipped to his side, a grin cracking his face and delight alive in his dark eyes. “I know you were, and you were doing really well. Good technique.”

  I adopted a playful scowl and shoved his shoulder, but I didn’t want this moment to end. I could count on one hand the times I’d seen Aiden smile without restraint. He was devastating as the intense oil executive, but when he grinned and let me glimpse his sly sense of humor, his hold on my heart coiled tighter. “You were messing with me through all of it.”

  A wicked glint in his gaze was my only warning. He wrapped his arms around me and executed nearly the same move I’d tried on him, but from a different angle that would’ve been impossible if he weren’t so much larger than me.

  A squeak escaped as I was yanked down, pinned as effectively as a piece of paper superglued to the floor. I bridged, trying to get my back off the mat, but all it did was pull my shirt tighter across my chest as my shoulders protested his hold.

  “You mean like this?” he asked, not even out of breath.

  Then I was flipped over. His body was half over me, pinning my lower half to the mat while his arms wove under mine to immobilize me. My forehead kissed the mat thanks to his big hand on the back of my neck.

  “Or like this?” His velvet voice was deceptively innocent.

  And he rolled me, pressing with his knees as he moved me to my side. One of my arms was over my head, no thanks to anything I could do. I was helpless against his power. And frustrated because he didn’t hold the pin for long. Each time he moved, I mourned the loss of his body heat.

  His chest was pressed to my side. I’d seen Jason get out of this move before, but I couldn’t roll through. Aiden sank low on his hips, allowing no wiggle room.

  Again I was stuck due not only to his size, but also the impressive skill that hadn’t waned as much as I’d have thought for a guy who hadn’t wrestled beyond high school.

  “Yes, just like that.” I was more breathless than my level of exertion dictated.

  He released me and spun around until he was over me, chest to chest. The smile was gone, and blazing heat filled his dark gaze.

  He dropped his head so his voice was in my ear. “I never mess with you, Kate.” A shiver coursed down my body and I unconsciously spread my legs to make room for his body. “Except for today.” He lifted his head until his gaze captured mine. “But I think you’ve been holding out on me.”

  “I don’t hold out…” The lie died on my tongue. The intensity of his stare captured me like a tractor beam. He was joking, but he wasn’t.

  I didn’t necessarily hold out on him, but I wasn’t my genuine self. I’d tried to make myself into Kate King, wife of King Oil CFO Aiden King. A successful and wealthy man from a well-respected family didn’t need a dumpy spouse. I hadn’t been Kate McDonough around him—ever. As soon as he’d asked me out, I’d started dressing better. Using more makeup than just a swipe of mascara and lip gloss. I acquiesced, I didn’t argue, and I didn’t ask for more.

  “Don’t you?” he murmured. He dipped his head and pressed a kiss along my jaw. “Then why didn’t I know you could execute a flawless double-leg takedown on a much larger opponent?” Another kiss as his weight shifted and settled squarely over me. “Why didn’t I know that you don’t like backing down from a challenge, especially if it’s from your husband?” The next kiss landed by my mouth and I squirmed against the growing erection pressing against my stomach. He feathered his mouth over mine. “What else don’t I know about you?”

  “Everything.” I couldn’t believe I’d said it. Uttered exactly how I felt. When had I done that around Aiden?

  The coiled tension eked out of him. His gaze brushed over my face. “I want to know everything.”

  Did he though? “I grew up on bags of cheap cereal and mac and cheese. Off-brand toilet paper. The kind that left behind more than it took.” My cheeks burned, but Sophie’s pep talk rang in my brain. Aiden didn’t flinch from the bathroom talk. He hadn’t moved, and that hard length compressed between us branded itself into my belly, but he waited. “When Mom married Randall, it was the first time my brothers and I experienced brats and burgers on the grill.”

  “While my family was cooking up prime cuts every weekend?” No sarcasm laced his words. He was stating a fact.

  “Randall moved us from a single-wide with a leaky roof and a mouse infestation to a double-wide. A nice double-wide, in a trailer park that didn’t make the news because someone had been found shot or stabbed. But I still couldn’t walk to the bus stop by myself because the guy on the corner gave everyone under the age of eighteen the creeps.” That was a danger in many neighborhoods, but as a kid, it’d felt like a me problem because my family didn’t have as much money as others.

  “The point being that we grew up differently.” Another plain statement.

  “I woke up for school and Mom was plunging the clogged kitchen sink. She would be in her robe, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. Or the car didn’t start when it was twenty below zero because we had no garage and the extension cord to plug in the engine heater kept getting stolen. And when Matt called to get bailed out, Mom brought me along. A little life lesson for b
oth me and Mattie. I knew the police station’s front-desk folks on a first-name basis by the time I was thirteen.”

  Jason hadn’t been better; he’d just never gotten caught.

  His gaze roamed my face, leaving traces of heat that were all but tangible. “I bet you were a good girl because of that.”

  “Mom had it hard enough. I didn’t hang out in a bad crowd, even if it meant I didn’t have many friends.” It was why I liked being involved in wrestling with Jason. I was part of a group, and while I wasn’t the life of the party, all of Jason’s teammates just kind of accepted my presence.

  Maybe I hadn’t changed that much for Aiden. I had defaulted to my people-pleasing ways, molding myself into what the people in my life needed.

  “You aren’t going to scare me away, Kate. But I get wanting to be good for your parents. Did I tell you about the time Mama cleaned my mouth out with soap?”

  My scandalized gasp snuck out. “Aiden King swore around his mama?”

  The corners of his eyes crinkled. “Once. She gave us a pass if we were dealing with cattle. But no cussing when it came to church, schoolwork, or each other.” A small smile played over his lips. “Beck took a couple of my toy cars and busted one, then tried to lie about it.”

  I pictured two dark-haired little boys, one with an adorable cowlick, arguing over metal cars that cost a buck a piece. “What’d you say?”

  Aiden’s gaze grew distant. “I think I said something like ‘you lying little fucker, you’re always breaking my shit.’ And when I told her I’d heard Dad say something similar, she almost went after him with the soap.” His eyes twinkled. “But it was natural stuff, so the flavor wasn’t awfully strong like the store-bought stuff.”

  I twirled my fingers into the cowlick that was breaking through the gel he’d put into it. “And Aiden King never swore around his mama again?”

  His expression grew serious. “I’m just Aiden, Kate.”