chapter fourteen

August 10, 2012 (off camera)

Kasey Summers stared down at the screen of her cell phone, looking at the message she'd just typed to him. He'd just posted that he'd landed in London and she couldn't help but say something. Before she could think twice, she'd sent the simple private message to him— 'so why aren't you in my room right now?'

Grinning to herself, she tapped her foot impatiently, trying to mentally will the phone to produce his reply. She had the man on such a high pedestal that every second she spent in his presence was better than being high on the best drugs known to man. She was giddy. The truth was, she'd had a weakness for the man since she'd watched the introductory video on the website for his training facility in Fort Lauderdale, before she'd ever sought to leave Phoenix. He had that easy smile that just oozed confidence. But it wasn't just his sex appeal she found intoxicating— it was the fact that he was genuinely nice.

The willing of another text message seemed to work when the reply of 'on my way' was sent back. And it was barely a couple minutes before the knock came on the door from the outside, where he stood, propped up against the wall with a smile on his face as he waved to a couple of the hotel guests as they passed him in the hallway. The man in question was the man who trained Kasey before she joined the big leagues of the business, and his name was Christian Kincaid.

The door nearly flew open and a tiny hand shot out the gap, grabbing hold of his good arm and dragging him inside. "How was your flight? Is your shoulder still hurting? Are you hungry?" All the questions came out before the door had even closed and then Kasey's arms were around his waist as she hugged him tight.

Christian beamed ear to ear as he looked down at her, wrapping one arm around her waist in a hug of his own. The other arm was pressed against his chest, since the shoulder was still wrapped tightly as a result. Nodding his head, he grimaced a bit as it was shoved into his chest from her enthusiasm. "Yeah, it's alright. I'm not really hungry, and the flight was good. I slept most of it." He stopped to think for a moment. "That was all the questions, right?"

She nodded, grinning up at him. "Yeah, sorry... I just kinda lost track of my mouth there for a second. It seems to happen a lot when you're around." She had a whole swarm of butterflies in her stomach even though this wasn't the first time they'd been alone in a hotel room. "OH!" She exclaimed, pulling away from the hug, "I got you something when I was in Vegas with Mr... uh, Ryan."

"Did you now? How did that go exactly? Did he behave himself?" Christian asked. He didn't especially like Ryan a great deal, never did. And when he heard about her going to Vegas to see him, alarms went off in his head. For all Kasey's adoration of Christian, he still was quite protective of her and always has been. He was a key reason she got out of the last company she worked for and returned to FFW. He liked to take care of her. "He's been acting kinda odd since he got divorced lately."

Kasey had gone over to her luggage and was rummaging through the side pocket before she pulled out something small and silver. Palming it, she walked back towards him. "Ryan was really nice. Really he was a gentleman and we had a lot of fun! We went a bunch of casinos and he made me feel like royalty. It was awesome." She was standing in front of him again as she held out her hand to him, suddenly shy. Resting on her palm was a silver money clip that she'd had engraved with his initials. "It's just something little, but I wanted you to know I was thinking about you while I was there. Ryan was nice and all but.... he's... he's not you."

That brought a smirk to his face as he took the money clip, admiring the engraving for a moment and wrapping that arm back around her again. "Thank you very much. I will certainly put it to good use, might even go buy a new wallet to go with it." He bowed his head slightly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I'll have to take you out to say thanks, now won't I? How is everything else?" He offered her his hand, gesturing towards the couch where he took a seat and waited for her to join him. "Tell me everything that's been going on."

She joined him, turning so that she was facing him as she sat with her legs curled up under her. "Not a whole lot, really. I went to Vegas and when I went back to Florida to try and train with that Misty girl, that thing happened at the SVW show and their whole class went to DC and then I think there was a wedding or something in there that I didn't know about." She shrugged, "it's all been a blur, really. And I think Kyle probably thinks I'm mad at him because I spent so much time in Florida with you before I went to Vegas. But I didn't tell him I was... y'know..." she blushed, falling silent.

"It's just as well. I don't really like Kyle, if I'm honest. I feel better with you around me than him." He added, reaching forward and patting her leg for a moment. "You can do better than him, Kasey. Guy's a player, I can tell. I know them very well." He didn't elaborate on that, he didn't have to do. "It may not be Aly, but I'm sure it's there. I'd rather see you be happy. You deserve that." He was indeed very protective, and he had made more than one effort in the last week to keep her from going back to Chicago. He just didn't plan for help from Ryan in that regard.

She frowned as she admitted something that was painfully obvious, "I don't like Aly much. She's a weird, creepy slut. The things she says," she bit her lip, "I know she's doing it to get to me, but it's so uber yuck sometimes I just wanna barf. Kyle did stuff with her before we were official... I know it shouldn't matter but it really does, especially since he just lets her run her mouth like that." Looking up at him, she gave him a sad little smile, "I appreciate your advice, Christian. You're one of the best people I know in the whole world and I'm glad I have you looking out for me. Just wish I had you as a manager instead of Mr. Black..." she trailed off as though something had occurred to her. "Hey... what about if I joined Club CK? Then we could see each other all the time and stuff!"

"You want to be part of Club CK? You got it; I don't have a problem with that at all. I can manage you; I thought he was just your agent." That gave him a moment of pause, sliding closer to her ultimately and slipping the good arm around her to hug her towards him. "I'll ALWAYS watch out for you. I always got your back, no matter what, I promise. I wouldn't let anything happen to you. Hell, you got a friend in the entire Kincaid family. Cody adores you. I'm sure Cory would if he got to hang out with you. That's a lot of CKs for support, babe."

She tilted her head and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. "You're the best CK in the world," she whispered, "and I'll be honored to be part of Club CK. I'm gonna make you the proudest guy in the whole wide world!" She was staring at him with total hero worship and adoration in her eyes. If he'd asked her to jump off the hotel roof right now, she would have done it without even thinking— that's how much he meant to her.

"You already have, Kasey. I've always been proud of you, and I'll always look out for you." He hugged her a bit tighter, leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek. The pair locked eyes for a moment before they bridged the gap ultimately, and engaged in a very gentle kiss. Silence hung in the air as it broke before Christian spoke. "Sorry, I was aiming for your cheek...."

"Liar," she chided, grabbing hold of his shirt for support before she kissed him back with all the enthusiasm she could muster.

Christian fell backwards very slowly onto the sofa, wrapping his free arm around her waist and pressing her against him as the pair kissed. As it broke, his eyes widened a little bit in surprise as he looked down to Kasey's body for a second and back to her face.

"Whoa," she was beet red, eyes wide and glowing as they locked on him. "Gimme a sec," she said softly, "I think I just forgot how to breathe."

His eyes danced for a moment, licking his lips as he gathered himself as well. "I don't know..." He was obviously a bit hesitant, considering how long they had known each other.

As she stretched up and pulled her top off over her head, she leaned back down to him with a smile. "Don't worry; I'll work you through the curves."