by Jayne Blue
“Yes, that was a nice moment. I’m sharing it on Instagram. You do know what Instagram is, don’t you?” Sunny held her ground. Shit, these two did not like each other already and they had not even met yet.
“Yes, I know what Instagram is. Did you ask Dylan or Craddock?”
“I don’t have to ask, Craddock’s public image is my job.”
“Dylan is my job.” Cassidy gave it right back to Sunny.
“Craddock’s fans want to know what he’s doing. I am here to tell that story and get him more fans. I’m not here to explain social media marketing to you.” Cassidy narrowed her eyes, ignored the nasty comment, and turned her fire in his direction.
“Craddock, I expect you’re going to want to be very careful about what images she posts of Dylan. You are his guardian and he is vulnerable. In the future if the image is with Dylan I expect you ask me or Craddock before you social media market Dylan’s life.” Cassidy walked past them both and climbed into his bus.
She had made a good point and well, she had done what he needed her to do - protect Dylan. He had shielded him from too much exposure during Tough to the Top; he did not factor in social media on this bus trip. He should have.
“What the fucking hell is wrong with your little ex-girlfriend?” Apparently, Sunny was not used to taking orders
“Well, it’s probably a good idea. Just cool it with Dylan shots and let me know if you want to use them. He can get, uh, well he can lose it and I do have to protect him.” Craddock backed Cassidy but at the same time, he knew Sunny was doing exactly what she knew how to do. She was making Craddock more bankable by upping his social media game. Being popular equaled money and Sunny was the best at stoking his growing fan base.
“Okay, but keep her on a better leash okay? Just so you know I’m going to spend most of my time on Zeke’s bus; Meyer wants to grow his brand as much as yours.” Was she trying to get a rise out of him? Who knew? Fucking women.
He climbed back in his bus and Cassidy was still on her feet and hot to fight apparently.
“I assume you backed me just then with, what’s her name? Sunny?” She crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrow at him.
“Yes and yes.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Yes, I let her know that I need approval for Dylan shots and, yes, her name is Sunny.”
“You sleep with her in Vegas?” Cassidy’s question hurt but it also gave him hope. She did give a damn.
“Why?” He stepped into her space and she backed into the corner. He put a hand on the wall behind her. Trapping her but not touching her. She had opened this little line of questioning so he was going to force her to admit why.
“She seems like your type. Big tits, blonde.” She lifted her chin and stared into his eyes. More than anything he wanted to kiss that chin of hers, taste her skin, but he had promised not to do any of those things until she asked.
“You’re my type. My only type.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“The only person who’s slept with more than one person since we met in this bus right now is you. It’s time you let that sink into your hard head.” He did not mean to lash out but there it was. It still stung that she had gotten so close to Zeke.
“You’re an asshole and the whole country saw you with Julie what’s her name?” She slid under his arm and over to the bucket seat this time, the best seat in the house if she wanted to avoid contact other than up with Ted.
The bus started rolling. She curled herself into a ball in the seat and laid her head on a pillow. Her body was completely closed off as she shut him out. He had hurt her. Shit, that was not in the plan.
He was an asshole. She had had Dylan’s best interest at heart, and maybe some jealousy, when she confronted Sunny. In the end, he turned what could have been a breakthrough with her into a jab at her.
The fighter in him had to learn to surrender if he wanted her to trust him. He was determined to remember that the next time Cassidy let him in. If there was a next time.
Craddock moved to the back of his bus to the bedroom and closed the door. She deserved space right now. He understood at least that much.
Cassidy
They had made it to their first hotel. At some stops, they would be bunking in the busses, and plugging in to campgrounds, she had been told. At other places, they would go to hotels, and thankfully, this first stop was a hotel stop. She could get out and away. Dylan and she sat together at dinner and he was planning to go to sleep in Craddock’s bus instead of their hotel. Dylan was practically giddy about the idea.
“I never went camping so it’s just like that.”
“Well I’ve never camped either but I kind of figure it’s not as fancy as those three buses.”
Zeke came over to their booth, his crew mostly staying away from Craddock’s thankfully. Craddock was at a nearby booth with Jessie and G-Man. The three talking shop she supposed as she saw them pantomime grabbing an arm or turning someone over.
“Hi Zeke.” Dylan greeted him.
“Hi Dylan, I heard you talking about camping. I have done a lot of it and these busses are much better. Especially for the basic needs if you know what I mean?” As much as Zeke and Craddock hated each other, Zeke never took it out on Dylan. Dylan, well, he was nice to pretty much everyone, even people who bullied him.
“You mean the toilet!” Dylan laughed; body functions were usually hilarious to him. Of course, they were hilarious to Jessie, G-Man, all men.
“Yep.”
“Cassidy, there’s a gift shop, can I go look?” Dylan was determined to get a trinket from every stop they made it appeared.
“Okay but come right back here okay? I am supposed to keep an eye on you. You don’t want your brother to fire me!”
“Got it. I’m going to spend five dollars so I need to take some time to decide.” Dylan walked to the restaurant gift shop.
“Do you mind if I sit with you for a minute?”
“I don’t mind.” Instead of taking Dylan’s spot across from her in the booth, Zeke slid next to her. Cassidy leaned away a bit to try to have some distance between them. She wondered how Craddock would react to seeing her talk with Zeke. Then she dismissed it. It was not his concern.
“So, where are we?” Zeke got right to it.
“Just outside of Milwaukee.” Cassidy could not take much for relationship drama so she tried to joke.
“Yes, true. Where are we?” He pointed back and forth to her and him.
“Well, I want to be your friend. Can I?”
“That’s where we started. Are you with Craddock?”
“No. I work for him, with Dylan.” Zeke pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at her but he did not question her answer about Craddock.
“Well if you need a break and want to roll with me for some of the trip my bus door is open. I promise not to jump your bones.” She laughed at the phrase and Zeke gave her one of his boy-next-door smiles.
Cassidy felt the tension between them ease a bit.
“That bus does look pretty saintly on the outside, no woman need fear for her virtue.” While Craddock’s bus was wrapped in pictures of his face, his abs, and played up his dangerous sex appeal, while Zeke’s had only one image of him on both sides, his handsome face. Zeke’s bus was finished in white, blue, and gold. Craddock’s in red, black and she noticed a little Irish green.
“Well that’s what they’re selling I expect. I’m working with 21C marketers and all that.” Zeke blushed a bit. Something Craddock never did.
“So were you selling when you announced that you were going to win me back at the end of your last fight?” That was still out there and she needed to get past it if they were going to be friends.
“Oh, that. Yeah. I guess I got carried away. I wasn’t on Tough to the Top; I’ve got to do other things to build my name.”
“I see. Maybe leave me out of your next stunt.”
“So I’m getting that this isn’t the b
est time to ask you to wear a Preacher’s Son Ball Cap and temporary tattoo?”
She laughed. Zeke could always make her laugh.
“I’d like a permanent one or no deal.”
“Done. Seriously though I came over because I wanted to tell you that I am here for you however you want or need me.”
“So as a friend? You sure? Because that’s what I’ve always needed.”
“I’m sure.”
“Good, and the whole, taking Craddock down thing?”
“Oh that’s still the goal. I’m going to kill him. Whatever it takes.” There was nothing boy-next-door about Zeke when he made the pronouncement.
“Can you do it after this tour is over? I have no interest watching either of you get hurt.”
“Don’t worry it won’t be on this little tour. Meyer set this up to build up G-Man’s title run, it’s not Craddock or my show, and Thompson knows best.”
“He is the 21C boss.” She was relieved that, at least for now, Craddock and Zeke were not the fight they were driving to. They currently did not have a sanctioned reason to tear each other apart right now. She wished the gaming commission could fine them both for trying to mess with her head.
“It’s really good to talk to you. I miss you.” He said.
Nope, she was not going to go there. Not even a little. While it was hell to keep things closed off from Craddock, it was easy to do it with Zeke. She had led him on inadvertently and then he wound up in her bed. Never again, she was getting out of this booth. Now.
“Well I need to go wrangle Dylan, who knows what kind of trouble his five bucks is getting him into.”
Zeke stood up and offered her a hand to get out of the tight booth. Zeke tugged her and she slid out and up. Despite the “I miss you” business, she felt they went a long way toward making things more normal.
“I’m really glad you came over here to talk to me.”
“Me too, we can stop feeling weird and guilty around each other.”
“Right.”
Zeke walked back to his crew and she made her way to the gift shop where Dylan had a pencil, a snow globe with the Milwaukee skyline, and a giant chocolate candy bar.
“Maybe we pass on the chocolate?” She suggested.
“Cassidy, this is the biggest chocolate candy bar I have ever seen. It has to be a record.”
“I bet there are bigger ones.” Cassidy was hoping he opted for the snow globe or pen. She worried about Dylan’s sugar consumption.
“Maybe I’ll make that my mission! Finding the biggest chocolate bar in the world!”
“I like it. Maybe I’ll make it my mission to have you eat more fruit and less candy?”
“I approve.” Craddock had come up behind her and weighed in on the sugar situation.
“Cassidy said I could look around while she talked with Zeke.” Craddock let that one go in front of Dylan.
“Cool, you all set with the pencil or whatever?”
“All set. I’m getting the snow globe though.” Dylan headed to the cash register and left her alone, yet again, with Craddock.
“Talking with Zeke?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“It’s none of your business. Do you need me to do anything else for Dylan?”
“No, he’s fine I’m setting him up in the bus.”
“Yes, camping. Tell him good night.”
Cassidy did not give Craddock a chance to answer or interrogate her any more about Zeke. She walked as fast as her feet could carry her to her hotel room.
It was time for a shower and some time away from every single man on this trip. They had an early morning at the Milwaukee Fight Club Gym. She was exhausted. It was a lot of effort resisting Craddock, feeling normal around Zeke, and making sure Dylan did not eat his weight in chocolate at every rest stop.
Before she could relax, though she did an online lesson. She was getting closer every class to that bachelor’s degree and she had to be disciplined on the road to get it all in. If she was lucky, the longer stretches between towns she might even get ahead.
She also checked in with Dr. Showers. Showers gave her some good advice on her class work and on how to document her activities with Dylan for her internship credits.
Finally, she had a quick talk with Bess. Female interaction would be sparse on this trip. Unless she and Sunny became BFFs and that was not likely.
Cassidy fell asleep while reading the latest Lilianna Hart romance novel. She would have to be careful for Craddock not to see the spicy fair, it would give him ideas and he already had too many.
She was deep asleep when a knock at the door startled her awake.
There it was again. Cassidy rubbed some sleep out of her eyes and padded over to the door in the dark. She had to tiptoe to look though the peephole.
There he was, Craddock, tight white shirt stretched over his chest, sweats slung low, and a look of distress on his face. Shit, Dylan? What was up?
She undid the lock and swung open the door.
“What is it?”
“Can I come in?” She stepped back and he entered. She looked left and right to the row of rooms in the outdoor hallway but no Dylan. She closed the door and turned to Craddock now standing in her room, hands jammed in his sweat pockets.
“What? Is Dylan okay?” She had been deeply asleep and now was fully awake in less than a second. The effect was disorienting for sure.
“He’s snoring his brains out. He’s fine.” She saw Craddock’s eyes rake over her, remembering now that she was in panties and a tiny tank top. Not what you would want to be wearing for company, especially this company.
Craddock always looked at her as if he was seeing under her clothes. This was not difficult to do at all in her current state.
“You want to tell me why you banged on my door at one in the morning?”
“I need to sleep.”
“Really? Craddock Flynn? This is why you wake me up?”
“I had to see you, tell you something.” He looked at her from under his lush eyelashes. He was so damn sexy, even when she wanted to scream at him she could not deny the pull toward him she always felt.
“Well?” She was going to be as icy as possible. She crossed her arms over her chest. She realized with some embarrassment that her nipples were prominent in the white tank.
“I’m sorry I made that crack about you sleeping around. It was a dick move.”
“Yeah, it was.” It stung to remember and she refused to believe that it might be true, what he said about her being the only one who’d slept around. If sleeping around was with anyone other than Craddock.
She was clinging very hard to the fact that Craddock was a cheater. She had seen it with the blondes, with the television show, and probably more times that she had not seen. He was a cheater. No matter what, cheaters always said they weren’t.
“I don’t want to hurt you. It was keeping me up, the way we left it.”
“Well fine you apologized go to sleep. You have autographs, classes to teach, and an exhibition tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure if I’ll sleep with you, way out here.”
“You’ll have to. Go back to bed.”
“I hate sleeping without you.” Craddock’s voice cracked. Cassidy swallowed hard and felt her resolve waiver. She stood between the door and this man.
“Go.” She would have to step aside from the door if she wanted him to get the hell out.
Craddock reached passed her to the doorknob. He was only inches away from her but still had not touched her. Just as he promised. She was motionless as he drew in closer. She watched his nostrils flare as he inhaled her scent.
She wanted to reach up, slide her fingers against his dark stubble of his jaw, and touch his lips. She felt heat gather, as he got closer still but did not touch her. He was close enough to feel his hot breath on her neck.
“Very soon you’re going to crawl into my bed. I am going to take off every stitch of your clothes with my
teeth. Then I’m going to fuck you. Hard. Until you’re screaming my name.” His voice was a low growl.
Cassidy lifted her eyes from the almost sneer of his lips to his eyes. He radiated an intensity that unnerved her.
A gasp escaped her own mouth at this raw prediction of their future. She was ready to rip his clothes off at the mental image he had just conjured. But she had to resist. She had to find a way to stop her mounting desire for him to do exactly what he had just said.
She resorted to the tough stance that had helped her survive the death of her parents and foster care.
“You’ll have to settle for your groupies screaming your name I’m afraid.” She bit back at him, lifted her face in defiance.
She could resist Craddock Flynn, dammit. Instead of carefully side stepping him and avoiding contact Cassidy slid her body against Craddock as she moved away. She felt her hard nipples drag across the muscles of his forearm. She was going to beat him at his own game.
Let him sleep on that. She decided to amp up his torture instead of relieve it. He had put them in this situation so she decided to twist the knife a little.
It was his turn to gasp as she deliberately provoked him. Then she pivoted away from his orbit and into the center of the room. His eyes looked dangerous. His muscles were coiled and he seemed ready to leap, she feared she overestimated her resolve and his control.
Then he twisted the door handle and left.
Cassidy exhaled. Taunting him was not the best idea in the world she realized.
All that stood between her and Craddock a few seconds ago was the very flimsy tank top she wore.
She suddenly wished she had packed flannel nightgowns and turtlenecks for this summer tour.
Chapter Three
Craddock
Craddock took a cold shower and then finally had a fitful few hours of sleep. It was only one day in with her and he felt he was losing this game he had set up. He had legitimately needed help with Dylan but forcing Cassidy to be with them was his ploy to wear down her resistance and prove he had never cheated on her. She needed to trust him but that would not happen if let his temper get in the way.