by Jayne Blue
“That’s because I thought it was you. They designed it that way.”
“They designed you rubbing up against her and...” Cassidy didn’t finish the sentence.
“She is an actress, she was cast because she looked like you, and when I didn’t take the bait, they slipped me a sleeping pill. Two, actually.”
“Oh, god, Jessie’s telling the truth? You should have called the police or something! How can I believe...” she stopped mid-sentence.
“I’m fine. I told you I’ve only been with you since I laid eyes on you and that’s the truth.”
“Is this where you bring up that I was with Zeke?” She was yelling now, not caring that the walls were probably thin as hell.
“I don’t want to talk about him.” Craddock stood now. She had pushed him into the fight, despite him clearly trying to stay calm in the face of her emotions.
“I don’t want to talk either. About him, about anything. I just want you with me.” Cassidy’s heart spilled out. The heart she had been trying to close to him was aching for him, and she could not stop it anymore.
There was no other word for it but lunge. Cassidy lunged at Craddock. What she had been struggling to reign in broke free.
He caught her, her feet dangled off the floor and she planted her mouth on his. She was hungry for him, out of her mind, and she found herself opening his mouth with her tongue. He let her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he easily held her off the ground. Cassidy could not get enough of him. She realized he was letting her kiss him but something was off. She stopped. Embarrassed. She had expected him to want her still.
“What? I thought this was what you wanted.” She unhooked herself from him and hopped down, she felt her face flush hot.
“I want you, this, us, but I don’t want it for just a night. If you’re playing with me, I...”
“Playing with you?”
“I love you too much, want you too much, is this you letting me in? All the way?" Craddock’s voice cracked and it was quiet and vulnerable.
“All the way.” Cassidy stood there wanting nothing more than to have him take her in his arms. She wanted no more misunderstandings or missed signals or jealousy between them.
“I promised you I wouldn’t touch you until you asked,” vulnerability gave way to something almost ferocious. His voice deep and intense. He would honor his promise even though she was making it clear she was ready, she thought.
He was right. She would say it. She needed him. In that moment, Cassidy thought she might say anything to have Craddock.
“Touch me, I need you to touch me, be with me, I am begging you.” She could not believe what she had just said but it was true.
Something like a sigh of relief came out of Craddock’s mouth and he grabbed her face between his big hands. He leaned down and kissed her. It sent heat shooting through her body; she nearly tore at him to get closer. Her desire for him had been pent up for too long.
He kissed her eyes, her chin, and ran his lips down her neck. He moved his hand along her back and up under her t-shirt. In one quick motion, he pulled it over her head so she was there in her bra and jeans.
“God, look at you. I want to look at you.” He said and undid her jeans and pulled them down. She stepped out of them, he trailed kisses up her belly, between her breasts, and back to her mouth, the two of them desperate to get even closer, feel everything.
She was on fire with wanting him. Craddock pinched her nipple beneath her bra and she moaned. He used his mouth to free her from the cups of her bra and she leaned back as he rubbed the rough stubble of his chin over her.
Her breasts felt heavy and the harder he squeezed and bit the more she writhed up against him. He maneuvered them down on to the hotel bed and she ripped his t-shirt off. She ran her hand over his hard abs. She wanted to look at him too but not now, she wanted nothing now but him inside her.
She felt his hot fingers between her legs. Cassidy almost came right then.
“Craddock I can’t wait. I want all of you, please.” She did not want him to play with her or take his time. She wanted him to claim her right now, forever.
Craddock did not need her to say it again. He slid into her, hard, his heat, his size pulsed inside of her, and she held on to him, devoured him.
“Oh god baby, I can’t live without this again.” He breathed the words into her ear and found a punishing rhythm. She matched his strokes. It was fast and frenzied. She cupped his fine ass in her hands and pushed him deeper into her. She raked his back as he stoked the orgasm that was right there immediately ready to explode.
“Oh, Craddock, oh!” The hardness of him pummeled into her. She could not hold her legs together and she put her feet down on the bed as he slid up and down searching his own release in the midst of hers. Craddock seemed almost out of his head.
“Fuck,” he said as they knocked into the headboard over and over. She denied herself this, him, for so long and she did not care if the room next door woke up. They were lost in each other’s bodies. In the rightness of their connection.
Craddock’s motions slowed but they stayed together, entwined.
“I love you so much. Please don’t leave me again. I can’t take it.” He whispered into her ear.
“I love you too. I love you. I love you.” She said and rained little kisses with each declaration
The guard she had worked so hard to keep up was gone, done, over.
Craddock
He did not know what had turned the corner in her mind, her heart, but only that she had decided to trust him and let him love her. It was all he needed.
She lay with her back to him, his whole body cupping hers. He felt her soft cures fit into his hard planes. He slept for a while and he knew she did too. Craddock listened to Cassidy breath. He rubbed her arms, her round little bottom, and every part he could reach. He had wanted to let her sleep but he needed her again, this time slower, but without a doubt now.
He had missed this so much, being able to touch her when he needed to. He always needed to. Craddock ran his finger down the length of her back and up again. He reached around and slid his palm over the little buds of her nipples. He felt them pebble and a soft sigh escaped her lips. Cassidy reached her arm up and stretched to put her hand on the back of his neck. Her body opened up for him.
He stroked, teased, and ran his fingers over every inch of her. The smell of her, the feel of her skin, this was the piece of his life he had been missing and he was not going to miss a second of her. Ever again.
Craddock drank her in. Every scent, sigh, and roll of her hips. She may have dozed off but she was awake now, letting him find those places on her he loved. The places that were haunting his dreams.
Craddock slipped inside with her back to still to him. He reached around, put a hand on each hip, and slowly pushed in deeper. She made a surprised little sound. He backed off a little.
“I’m not hurting you, am I?” She was so delicate compared to him.
“No, I love it.” She said in a voice still edged with sleep.
Hearing her say she loved it was all he needed. He slid one palm over from her hip to the front of her and stroked with his fingers. She cried out.
“That’s it baby.” He said to her.
He pumped into her and at the same time teased her with his fingers. Cassidy’s motions sped up, so did her breathing. Craddock held back. He would wait until he knew she was over the edge. He wanted to know without question one thing. He needed to be sure.
“No one can make you feel like I do.” He said as he slowed his rhythm to nearly a stop. Cassidy whimpered. She had been almost there and he deliberately stopped, held back, while he demanded her answer.
“Craddock, please.” There was a desperate tone to her voice, and it was exactly what he had been after.
“Say it. You are never going to feel this way with another man. Ever.” He pulsated into her once again and stopped. She writhed in his hand.
“Tell me.” He
said.
“Yes, damn it Craddock. You’re the only one that can do this to me. Please don’t stop.”
He did as she commanded now until he could not tell where she ended and he began.
Afterwards he finally slept, deeply, with Cassidy in his arms. He had no intention of her being anywhere else, ever again.
Chapter Five
Cassidy
Craddock and she decided it would be best if he slipped out of her room in the early morning to be there when Dylan got up. They would have to tell him but neither one of them thought it was a good idea to have him wake up with no idea where Craddock was.
“Do you sleep in the tank top and panties?” Craddock had hopped out of bed and was retrieving the clothes they had flung off.
“What? Are you doing a survey?” She watched him slide his sweats over his dangerous hipbones.
“Just the other day, when I was in here, you had that on. It was fucking hot.”
“Do you want me to?” She pulled up the sheet around her. Feeling shy all of a sudden. Craddock crawled back on the bed and ripped down the sheet. Exposing her.
“I do.” He leaned over her and pushed her breasts together and showered kisses on her both her nipples. He was insatiable before and it apparently had gotten more intense in the time they were apart. She wanted him again, too, but they had to stop.
“Fine. I’ll wear it for you but you better get next door.”
“Ugh.”
“The last thing we need is a Dylan meltdown!”
“You’re right.” Despite agreeing with Cassidy, he did not move away from her. Cassidy entwined her fingers in one of her favorite spots on Craddock, the back of his neck. She was always itching touch him there for some reason. She felt her body responding to him and knew they would blow the plan to get to Dylan early if she did not put a stop to it.
“Well?” She lifted Craddock’s head from her breasts.
“Right, right.” He popped a kiss in her nose and bounded up towards the door. She had not seen him this lighthearted maybe in the entire time she knew him.
“Go. I need to shower.”
“Fine.” Craddock finally left. Cassidy hopped out of bed herself and got ready. She didn’t know how Craddock and she were going to work, what it meant for Dylan, but she was open again and trusting. Craddock had earned that and she was going to give him that trust with no reservations.
They all met up at the busses, fighters, trainers, and drivers getting ready for the next leg of their trip. Dylan strode over to her.
“I’m riding on this one with you today. See I’m being totally fair.”
“Totally.”
Dylan climbed aboard their rolling apartment and started fiddling with the DVD player, a key component in his being able to deal with hours of time being cooped up.
“Double crap.”
“What?”
“I think I left the case back in the room!” Dylan did not like to leave anything behind.
“I’ll go get it.”
“And also get Craddock moving?” Dylan called after her.
She walked back to Dylan and Craddock’s room and the door burst open unexpectedly.
Sunny walked out. She adjusted her blouse and looked around. Their eyes met and Sunny put a finger up to her own lower lip and then licked it. She tossed her hair and walked to Zeke’s bus. It was all for Cassidy’s benefit it appeared.
What the hell was that about? What had she been doing with Craddock? It had been less than an hour!
Then she stopped herself. Had she not just committed to trusting him? Craddock emerged next. He saw her and his face registered immediate distress.
“That was not at all what it looked like she...”
“I know.” Cassidy threw caution to the wind. She went on her tiptoes and kissed him full on the mouth. If they were going to stand a chance, they had to be out in the open, honest with each other, and everyone around them.
Craddock put an arm around her and kissed her back. He dragged her hips close to his.
“I see our advice was followed.” Jessie said as they passed her and Craddock still deep in the kiss she had initiated.
“Now if he’d only listen to our advice on the finish for that Kimura.” G-Man added.
“Indubitably.” Jessie added with an English accent. Cassidy felt her face turn bright red as the delicious kiss ended. She could not help but laugh at Jessie and G-Man.
“For heaven’s sake I am about to be the World Champion. I do know a thing or two about the fairer sex.” The pair continued to G-Man’s bus speaking in exaggerated English accents.
“So we’re not keeping it quite eh?” Craddock asked.
“Did you want to?”
“Nope, not at all. And you took relationship advice from those two?” Craddock pointed to where G-Man and Jessie were climbing on the G-Man bus.
“Yep, they’re very knowledgeable.”
They were headed to Chicago with a day stop along the way. Chicago would be their biggest event until the undercard fights in L.A. Craddock had told her.
“So did you order a lot of shirts?” Craddock asked.
“Why’s that?”
“Because Sunny was just telling me the numbers are getting huge for me, Zeke too apparently, but she said based on that and on Meyer Thompson also being there we could be selling out.”
“We’ve got 400 being delivered.”
“Well that will have to do. Right Dylan?” Dylan had ensconced himself in Craddock’s rolling bedroom and was watching his show. Cassidy waved her arms to get his attention and hand him the DVD case she’d fetched. He took it but did not look away from the screen. He had also popped earphones on.
“Hey, we’re about to roll,” she lifted one earphone, “You all set we’re going.”
“Yep.” Dylan gave her a thumbs-up as Expendables 2 played for probably the fifth time since they had left Grand City.
“Great.” She shook her head. Focus was definitely not an issue when it came to his movies and shows.
She felt the bus lurch forward as the trip to Chicago began. She walked into the main cabin of the bus. Craddock was positioned in this usual spot, fully dominating the long couch seat.
He patted the spot next to him.
“Sit.”
She complied with his order and sat on the smaller part of the l-shape. Not only was Dylan able to watch his show on a decent size television in the bedroom area there was another huge screen in the main area of the RV. G-Man’s bus even had a fireplace. Cassidy would never get used to the amount of money these vehicles alone cost Meyer Thompson. Billionaires were a completely different breed.
Craddock had not taken his eyes off her.
He slid up next to her and kissed her neck.
“Craddock I...” He interrupted her with a hard kiss on her mouth. She could barely breathe. Craddock slid her forward and trapped a nipple between his teeth. His hands felt hot through her clothes.
“Your brother is back there. And Ted.” It was a quiet plea.
“Dylan’s not moving until his DVD is over and Ted’s eyes are on the road.”
“They’ll hear us.”
“Not if you’re quiet.” He growled into her ear.
“Craddock Flynn if you think I’m going to be quiet while you debase me in a moving vehicle inches away from being caught.”
“I suppose you’re right. But if I want to get you worked up I can.” He shot a victorious look in her direction.
“Don’t you threaten me or you could get the same treatment when you least expect it.”
“Promises, promises.” His sexy mouth caught her again in a kiss. Every touch they exchanged sparked a fire in both of them.
Being apart but on the bus was challenge enough now, being together on that same bus was even worse.
Craddock
If Milwaukee was big, their stop at Big Shoulders Brawlers Gym was insane. Fans were lined up around the corner for them. They were rooting for G-Man in th
e upcoming fight. They had loved Tough to the Top and a strange new contingent of really polite and clean cut fans were also showing up.
“Our pastor told us about the miraculous recovery Zeke. And how they all prayed for you. It’s really inspired us all.” Craddock heard more than one person say something similar to Zeke as he signed autographs on everything from his picture to a collection of prayer books. There was no doubt that The Preacher was spreading a legend around his son that was helping him increase his fan base. It was a miracle now? Well, that made him the actual devil apparently.
Sunny was, as always, taking pics and posting while they gave their clinic.
When it was time for autographs the set up was similar to the stop in Milwaukee. Craddock looked over to see G-Man’s line. It was impressive.
“I always thought Kane was over-rated. You’ll get him easy.” Craddock overheard one say.
“Watch out. I saw him grab the cage once live and the ref never saw it,” said another. G-Man nodded and took the well wishes.
Dylan continued to do well selling t-shirts and bringing in the merchandise. Craddock kept an eye on Cassidy in the periphery. She did not have to do it but she helped all three fighters with water, a new pen, or more pictures when they ran out.
Along with the fans, Craddock got no less than six business cards from promoters of various products boxing gloves, workout devices and other stuff.
“We’d love to get you to try our gloves,” was one of the pitches.
Craddock nodded and took cards but he was not after the small potatoes. G-Man had a deal with a major glove manufacturer and other than during the actual fight, where 21C endorsement contracts took precedence, he wore the gloves on the entire tour.
Every picture that Sunny tweeted of G-Man he had the gloves on.
“That’s 50K Craddock, 25 per fist.” G-Man had explained. 50K for wearing gloves. Craddock knew that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Chicago’s Big Shoulders Brawlers was a very successful gym in one of the biggest cities in the country and it wound up being a huge event. Craddock could see all their lives changing before his eyes.
Meyer Thompson was there with a handful of suits. Those were the big money guys. The guys who Meyer made deals with for 21C. Meyer was in Chicago because there was money in Chicago. He also checked in on who’s autograph lines were long.
