Stronger with You (With You Trilogy) (27 page)

“You were
being
an asshole!” I pouted, which had Jason and Josh laughing again.

Craig and I stared each other down. I guess I was feeling a little brave with Jason and Josh nearby. I would usually have lowered my gaze by now.

“Maybe a little,” he conceded eventually, shrugging and pulling me into his side for a one-armed hug.

That was unexpected
. I’d been waiting for some sort of threat of retribution.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that, actually,” he said. “Why did you do it? You must have known Ian would be pissed off.”

“If it had been you, and I’d have just left you there like that, how would you have felt?” I countered.

“More than a little pissed off,” he admitted after a few seconds thought.

“I couldn’t just leave him there,” I shrugged.

Craig shook his head in amusement and grinned at me. “I never thought I’d see the day when you stood up to Ian when none of us did.”

“Maybe I’m just less of a girl?” I teased.

“Don’t push your luck,” he cautioned, still smiling a little.

“You lay a finger on her and you won’t have any balls left for her to kick,” Jason warned, smiling but I suspected he was very serious.

I saw Josh looking at him like he was insane, probably questioning his death-wish tendencies just like I was.

“Don’t write cheques you can’t cash, Reed,” Craig grinned light-heartedly.

“Mate, any man can win a fight if his reason to win exceeds that of his opponent,” Jason said seriously.

“You really think that’s true?” Craig asked with amusement.

Jason nodded earnestly.

Craig thought about it for a second, his forehead wrinkled in concentration.

“I call bullshit,” he said eventually. “If that was true I never would have gotten stuffed in a locker at school.” He laughed but I could still see a trace of resentment in his eyes.

“Karl and Matt?” I asked sadly, shuffling closer to him.

“Mm,” he mumbled, still frowning.

“Not getting stuffed in a locker is not a good enough reason to fight,” Jason shook his head. “Your sister
is
, and you’ll do well to remember that,” Jason grinned.

“She’s alright I guess,” Craig shrugged, squeezing me again to let me know he was joking.

“You coming to the fight tomorrow, Carter?” Josh asked.

“That’s the plan,” Craig nodded. “Already talked to Simon about it.”

“Are you going to fight?” I asked, made curious by the tone of voice he was using.

“I might,” he said conspiratorially.

“Who?” I asked.

“Don’t be nosey,” he chided, squeezing my arm gently.

I pouted and crossed my arms over my chest childishly. I couldn’t help it, my brothers always brought out the child in me. I saw Jason laughing at my reaction and stuck my tongue out at him playfully. I figured Craig was probably just going to have a friendly match with Simon even though they weren’t in the same weight class. I knew they’d done it a few times before.

“We should get ready,” Jason said, pushing himself up from standing. He moved over to stand in front of me and lifted me up from the sofa, picking me up so that I was hanging over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Craig laughed at me and I giggled like a child in between demanding that Jason put me down. He, of course, ignored me and carried me into his bedroom so I could get dressed.

***

They were all staring.
Why are they all staring?
We’d literally just arrived at the track and Jason had disappeared round to the back of the building by the track to go to the toilet.

“Sorry,” I mumbled to Craig, shifting awkwardly under the stares of the people around us.

“What for?” He frowned, apparently completely oblivious.

I guess he’s used to it,
I thought to myself, assuming the attention was because of his MMA successes. I glanced around at the crowd and noticed that the majority of people staring were girls and, judging by the way most of them were undressing him with their eyes, it had nothing to do with martial arts.

“Your boyfriend has a tiny bladder,” Craig grinned, nudging me with his elbow playfully.

I shot him a pretend scowl that I knew he’d see straight through and he laughed at me. I enjoyed seeing him happy and light-hearted, it made me equally happy. His playfulness was a little contagious and I squirted him a bit with my water bottle as punishment for mocking Jason. I squeezed harder than I intended and his blue running shirt received a big wet patch on the chest.

“Sorry,” I giggled, looking up at his face to see how he was going to react.

His eyebrows knit together and his mouth set in a hard line but his eyes remained happy. He was messing with me, or at least I hoped he was. “Three,” he said slowly, staring at me with the same firm expression.

“What?” I frowned in confusion.

“Two,” he continued.

Oh crap, he’s counting down
. I squealed and bolted across the track to the grassy section in the middle. I heard Craig shout “one” from behind me but I was too busy sprinting away from him to look back.

Clearly, I wasn’t sprinting fast enough because Craig tackled me from behind and pinned me down onto the grass, holding my arms above my head with one hand and grinning down at me. He pulled open the nozzle on his own water bottle and his victorious grin only broadened as the bottle hovered above my head.

“No!” I squealed. “Don’t do it!”

I squirmed a little pathetically but I knew I wouldn’t get away so I didn’t put too much effort into it.

I switched back and forth between giggling and squealing as he emptied the entire bottle of cold liquid over my hair and face.

“You jerk!” I laughed as he let me go and pulled me up from the grass, my hair and face dripping with water.

“You deserved it,” he grinned.

I scowled at him but I didn’t really mind, it was nice seeing him like this.  I was a little cold but I knew I’d warm up once we started the session.

“I’m cold now!” I protested, pouting at him.

He grinned but wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him as we walked back to the rest of the group.

The smile on my face diminished somewhat when I saw Shana walking towards us with Lottie.
I wish she’d stayed in Canada
. I felt my shoulders tensing and Craig must have felt it because he shot me a quizzical look.

“Where’s Jason?” Shana asked me, but she wasn’t looking at me, her eyes were all over my brother.

I watched Craig look down at his wet t-shirt in annoyance. Clearly he didn’t want to wear his t-shirt because he pulled it off and put it over his left shoulder. Lottie and Shana’s jaws dropped in tandem and I found myself rolling my eyes at their exaggerated reaction to Craig’s ink-filled torso.

For once, Craig didn’t pinch me for my eye rolling. I guess he didn’t mind so much as long as it wasn’t targeted at him or the others. He looked like he was rather amused by the girls’ reactions.
God, I hope he doesn’t sleep with Shana
,
even he must have standards.
I almost rolled my eyes again at the thought. Shana really was very beautiful and I knew Craig didn’t care about a girl’s personality for what he used them for.

“Not here,” I shrugged, being deliberately vague.

Shana’s eyes flicked back and forth between Craig and I, the cogs whirring just like they had when she saw me with Adam.

“And who’s this?” She asked, her eyes back on Craig. Not on his face, but scanning every inch of him.

I bit back the urge to vomit at the pathetic display and tried to decide whether I wanted her to know who Craig was to me or not.

“I’m the guy she was lucky enough to share a hotel room with a couple of weeks ago,” Craig grinned.

What the hell?
I glared up at him.
What does he hope to achieve by that?
I saw Shana’s eyes light up happily as though she’d just gotten her hands on the biggest piece of gossip she’d ever seen. She probably thought she had. I found myself less irritated at Craig now that I realised he was messing with her. He was playing a game and I found myself joining in because his playfulness really was contagious.

“Yeah,” I scoffed. “And then you left me on my own in an empty bed before I woke up. Do you do that to all the girls?” I pointed my finger at him accusingly.

“Only the ones that annoy the shit out of me,” he retorted, giving my shoulder a gentle squeeze to let me know he was kidding.

“You came back though,” I smirked.

“I did,” he nodded, flicking his eyes back to the two girls who were still ogling us like we were insane.

Lottie looked a little confused but Shana still looked like she’d won the lottery. Surely she didn’t think I was that stupid? I would never cheat on Jason but if I ever did something to upset him, I wouldn’t be mouthing off about it in front of anyone, especially not her.

I spotted Jason jogging over to us and shuffled away from Craig a little, because I wanted to see what Lottie would make of it.

“What happened to you?” He grinned, noticing my dripping wet hair.

“Him,” I pouted, pointing my finger at Craig.

“She started it,” Craig shrugged, grabbing my water bottle and taking a swig.

“Jesus,” Jason shook his head with amusement. “I can’t leave you two alone for five minutes.”

“You probably
shouldn’t
leave them alone together,” Shana said smugly, smiling viciously at me. Her tone of voice reminded me of the snooty girls at school who loved telling the teachers when somebody had done something wrong because they thought it made the teachers like them better.

“Oh?” Jason asked, raising his eyebrow quizzically.

I glanced at Craig and I could see he was barely holding back a laugh.

“Yeah?” Craig prompted, smirking slightly. “Why’s that?”

Shana looked at Craig in confusion but still didn’t cotton on. She was so desperate to believe that I’d done something wrong that she was ignoring the obvious signs that I hadn’t. Craig and I had the same eye colour and similar cheekbones. We looked alike apart from the fact that he was much taller, musclier, and covered in tattoos. I looked down at my feet so that she couldn’t see me smiling.

“Because you two slept together!” Shana exclaimed. I could tell she was trying hard to look horrified, but she wasn’t hiding her glee very well.

Jason looked at her and furrowed his brow as though he didn’t really understand what was going on.

“I guess she knows I’m more of a man than you are,” Craig shrugged at Jason, keeping his face impressively neutral.

“Craig!” I yelled, slapping his bare arm hard and making a satisfyingly loud noise.

“You’ll regret that,” he warned.

My legs were already moving but I didn’t get the luxury of a countdown this time. I’d barely taken two steps before he caught my wrist, pulled me back towards him, and emptied the contents of my own water bottle over my head. Since I was standing up this time, it completely soaked my t-shirt as well and I felt my skin goosebump as the cool water dripped down my back and chest.

“Craig,” Jason scowled, pulling me away from my brother. “She’ll freeze, you jackass.”

“She’ll be fine,” he laughed, tossing my empty water bottle back at me. “Here.” He handed me his mostly dry t-shirt at me and I pulled it over my head, still scowling at him but not quite so much because I could see the nasty red hand print forming on his arm.

“Sorry,” I pouted, rubbing it better.

“Mhm,” Craig answered, cocking his head at me and raising his eyebrow.

“Let me guess, didn’t hurt?” I asked him.

“Only my ego,” he grinned. “You’re two for two now.”

“I told you I was dangerous,” I teased, quoting the words he’d said on the night of his fight against Brock Hemler.

“I never doubted it,” he said mockingly.

Lottie and Shana were still staring at us. Shana looked a little crestfallen that her sabotage plan hadn’t caused the fireworks she’d been expecting.

“Don’t you care that she’s cheating on you?” Shana asked Jason incredulously, crossing her arms under her bust and thrusting them not so subtly upwards.

“She’s not cheating on me, Shana. Don’t try and stir shit up,” he scolded her and I was a little glad to see that he genuinely looked a little irritated.

“But-” she started.

“That’s enough, Shana,” he warned again.

“Shana, this is my brother,” I explained, smiling politely. I saw her face fall and thought that maybe we’d been a little too mean. We probably shouldn’t have done it. “Sorry, we were just kidding around,” I apologised, feeling guilty for being so cruel.

“Brother?” Shana asked, the cogs whirring again as she took in the information.

I got the horrible impression that she was up to something and from the way she was looking at Craig, it probably involved him.
Would it be weird to ask him
not
to sleep with her?
It probably would. I shouldn’t care anyway. If she wanted to sleep with my brother then it would just make her another notch on his bedpost. It had nothing to do with me.

Jason grinned at the way Lottie and Shana were ogling my brother and dragged me away before he called the group in and I had to force his hand away from mine so I wouldn’t have to stand next to him in front of everyone. He gave me his usual disapproving look but didn’t stop talking to the group and explaining the session.

He and Craig were clearly still trying to decide who was top dog because they spent the entire session trying to outdo each other despite the disapproving headshakes I gave them every time they lapped me. They both looked happy though so I figured it was fine as long as it didn’t get out of hand.

“They may as well just have a pissing contest and get it over and done with,” Grayson laughed, his breathing still a little heavy as we rested between sets.

“Don’t give them any ideas,” I groaned, watching as the two of them competed for who could get sweatiest.

I shouldn’t complain, when Jason sweat, he smelt like fresh paper. I don’t know why that was sexy, and it probably shouldn’t have been, but it was addictive. However, I got the feeling their playful competition could easily turn into something more sinister if they stepped it up a notch.