40. Cassidy

This has gotto be a dream. Seriously. I"m not lucky enough to have this view in real life.

Hayden's jumping rope in his home gym, his sweaty abs flexing with every movement. He"s shirtless, his tattoos glistening with sweat, and I can"t look away. I"m transfixed. Hypnotized. His gaze meets mine as he keeps up the steady rhythm of the rope hitting the floor, and he smirks, knowing exactly what he"s doing in those fucking gray joggers and backwards black hat.

I don"t think he"s wearing underwear, either, because things are... bouncing.

My phone"s practically burning in my hand with the need to record this, so I do, lifting it up and aiming at just the right angle to capture everything. I didn"t think anything could distract me from the show, but then an Instagram notification pops up over the screen. At first it"s just a trickle of a few notifications that I try to ignore, but then it turns into a flood.

Huffing out a breath of annoyance, I click into the app and my already queasy stomach flips over. I have to swallow back bile when I see what my shitbag of an ex-boyfriend has done now.

There"s a picture of me sitting on Hayden"s lap in my bar. It"s not a great picture, but it"s not terrible, either. No, what makes this nausea-inducing is the caption he"s put up with it. "Guess it doesn"t matter which teammate she"s with as long as he"s got the $$$, right @hayv29? #sloppyseconds"

To be honest, I probably should"ve seen this coming. Roman"s an attention whore, and when he"s not getting mine, he lashes out. He did it the entire year we were together, and here he is doing it again. He"s even tagged my freaking bar. I"m scared to look at the comments.

I"m distantly aware of the ropes thwacking to a stop, and then Hayden"s in front of me. He gently pries my phone out of my hand and looks down at it. His face goes dark, and his eyes narrow as he reads the caption before scrolling through the comments that I'm sure are fucking awful.

"Fuck," he mutters, handing my phone back to me as he grabs a towel to wipe the sweat off his face and chest. "I"m sorry."

I"m really trying to keep my shit together. My eyes are stinging, but I don't want him to witness me falling apart. I never cry and I blink hard to keep the tears from falling. I will not let Roman make me cry. "It"s fine."

He wraps his arms around me, pulling me into his chest so that I can feel the steady beat of his heart against my cheek. He"s sweaty and my skin sticks to his, but it"s comforting all the same. "It"s not fucking fine. I"m going to fix this, and then I"m going to end him for hurting you."

I lean back and look up at him. "Hayden, no."

He frowns down at me, his jaw tight with anger. "Yes. You don"t deserve this shit and that's not who you are." He runs his fingers through my hair and then leans forward to kiss me softly. "Let me handle it."

I sigh, knowing he"s not going to let this go. He"s stubborn as hell, but so am I. So I swipe my phone back from him, take a deep breath, and click into the comments. Yeah, it"s probably not smart, but I need to know what I"m dealing with.

It"s worse than I thought. There are comments about how I"m a whore and how Hayden should be careful before he catches something or that I"m just using him for his money. Comments dragging me, making shit up and stating it as fact. The nausea hits hard and I have to breathe through my nose to keep from throwing up. I was already feeling queasy this morning, and this just about pushes me over the edge.

I notice a couple of people have tagged my bar, so I click into the account for The Sin Bin and the hate is actually kind of impressive. There are a few positive comments, but mostly it"s negative. Laughable if it wasn"t hurting my business.

Hayden watches me as I scroll, his face growing darker and darker as he looks down at my phone and sees the shit people are saying about me, him, my business. He takes my phone back and sticks it in his pocket before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the room. "Where are we going?"

"Shower," he says, not looking back as he drags me down the hall and into his huge bathroom. He turns on the shower and then starts stripping off his clothes before reaching for mine. I"m too numb to stop him as he strips me bare and then pulls us both under the hot spray of the water.

He grabs my shampoo and pours some into his hand before working it through my hair. I groan because it feels amazing.

"Don"t do that," Hayden says, his voice rough. "I'm trying to be good here. I want you to understand how much I worship you, Princess. Not just your body—all of you." His fingers brush across my forehead as he tips my head back against his shoulder and the warm water rinses through my hair. "Those comments are bullshit and you know it. You don't deserve it, and Morozov will pay for putting his shit on you like this."

"Maybe I do," I whisper, looking up at him with tears in my eyes. "Deserve it, I mean. Maybe this is what I get for being with someone like Roman."

"The fuck you do," he scoffs, running his fingers through my clean hair to get out the tangles. My tears mix in with the warm water and run down the drain like they were never there. "What you deserve is to be cherished and adored every second of your life, with no exceptions. And when the opportunity presents itself, I'll fucking destroy Roman for what he's done to you."

"Hayden, no. You can't risk your future, everything you've built—"

"Yes. Fuck yes. He doesn"t get to treat you like shit and get away with it." He turns off the shower and grabs a couple of towels before wrapping me in one and himself in another. Then he pulls me out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. He sits me on the edge of the bed and then grabs his phone.

"What are you doing?" I ask as he taps at the screen.

After a few seconds of silence, he rotates the screen so that I can see it. He"s posted the picture of us in the arena after the game, the one where he"s still inside of me, though you can"t see it in the shot. He"s just captioned it #mine. Then he gives me a lopsided grin that"s way too attractive. "Roman"s saved us the when do we go public conversation. Now I can post about you as much as I want."

I laugh because it"s ridiculous, and he looks so proud of himself. And for a second, the despair lifts away. "That won"t fix anything."

"I didn"t do it to fix anything. I did it for me. For us."

Well, okay then.

Hayden walks across the room and disappears into the closet, coming back out and tossing one of his soft t-shirts at me. I slip it on and decide just to trust him. I'm going all-in with this trust thing. He said he"d fix this. I have no idea how, but Roman"s his teammate, so maybe he can get him to do things I can"t. It"s just past breakfast time and I"m already exhausted. And now that the nausea's gone away, I'm hungry.

I look down at my stomach as it grumbles again. "Breakfast?"

Hayden laughs. His hand slides around to the back of my neck as he pulls me closer. "You got it." Then he drops a kiss on my mouth and pulls back after just a hint of tongue, looking down at me like he wants to eat me instead of food as he drags his thumb along his bottom lip.

"What?" I ask, knowing that look means trouble.

He smirks. "Nothing." But then he grabs my hand and pulls me to the kitchen. I sit and watch the muscles in his back flex under his skin as he cooks me breakfast. By the time he"s done, the kitchen island between us is covered with pancakes, bacon, eggs, OJ and the smoothie he makes for me every day. He picks up the glass and hands it to me. "Start with this."

I swear his eyes are predatory as he watches me wrap my lips around the straw and sip.

"You"re so bossy," I tell him after I"ve swallowed. He laughs but doesn"t deny it, grabbing his coffee cup off the counter. It says My Deke is Legendary on the side and he smirks at me as I eye it.

When was the last time I had my morning coffee? I frown, trying to remember. It smells amazing, and I reach out to try to snag it from him so I can take a sip. He pulls it away at the last second. Damn hockey player reflexes.

"If you"re a good girl and finish this first," he says, pushing the smoothie back at me, "then I"ll give you a taste."

I laugh, taking another strawberry-banana flavored sip and then set it down, wondering how he can make one of the worst mornings I've ever had somehow better. "How do you manage to make everything sound so fucking dirty?"

He smirks. "Pure talent."

The air"s heavy between us like always, like it"s taking so much effort to keep even this amount of space between him and me. I set down my half-finished smoothie, wiping my icy fingers on the t-shirt I've got on as I get lost for a second in him. He"s not wearing a shirt and those gray joggers he always wears now that he knows they"re my weakness are slung so low on his hips I can see the tattoo of my name.

Fuck, that"s hot.

I open my mouth, about to ask him to take me back to bed, when my phone buzzes again. I didn't even know he brought it down here, but there it sits on the counter within arm's reach. I"m tempted to ignore it, especially because it"s probably some of the bullshit from Hayden"s or Roman's posts, but the spell"s broken now, so I reach for it.

Hayden tries to grab for it before I can unlock it, but I dodge out of his way.

I hold it up to scan my face while I take another sip of the damn smoothie that Hayden insists I drink every day. I almost choke on it when I see the alert I set up for new mentions and reviews for my bar. There are dozens—maybe hundreds—of new reviews completely bashing The Sin Bin on one of the major review websites. Our rating's trashed, and the room spins as everything I just drank revolts in my stomach.

"Cassidy?"

When I don"t answer, Hayden plucks the phone out of my hand, his eyes scanning the screen as he scrolls through all the hateful comments about me and my bar. All the lies. "Fuck," he says, setting the phone face down on the counter between us. "You need to stop looking at your phone."

I blink, tears burning my eyes again. What the fuck is with all this crying? "I can't just pretend this isn't happening, Hayden. I need to figure out a way to make it stop, or fix it, or I don't know." I tug on the ends of my damp hair. "I have no clue what to do, what step to take next. If I don't figure it out, my business is as good as dead. Reviews are everything. The Sin Bin is a fucking one star. No one's going to give us a chance."

I"m starting to wonder if I should just give in to Roman. Just let him win and stop all this fucking fighting all the time. I"m so damn tired.

Hayden wraps his arms around me, knocking over my smoothie but not giving a single fuck about it. "I see that look in your eye, Princess. Like fuck will I let you give up. We"re winners in this house, understand? We don"t lose and we never, ever fucking quit."

I nod against his chest, letting his words sink in. He promised he'd fix this even though it's not his problem and I have no idea how he'll do it. But I trust him enough to believe him when he says he"ll figure something out.

And that"s more than I"ve trusted anyone in a long time.