The Fighting For Love Series

Chapter 18

An hour later Nick came back to the sofa in jeans and a t-shirt, to find Adam and Mia in tears of laughter about something. They were sitting close together, his leg almost touching hers. Adam’s face was soft, and his eyes were shining. Not many people could make the fierce and ferocious Adam Pierce look like this, and Nick felt a hot wave of jealousy roll through his chest.

Back off, man. Seriously. Don’t you even think about it, Pierce.

Mia looked up at him. “Oh, hi!”

“Hi.” He sat down next to her. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, Adam’s just telling me about some of the things he did when he first started boxing… the whole puking after downing six raw eggs thing.”

“Uh-huh.” Nick noticed for the first time the sparkling red highlights in her hair. “So, Katie’s ready for you, man.”

“OK.” Adam got to his feet, casually pulled off his tank top to reveal his massive, tattooed upper body, in all its glory. Nick glowered harder. “Thanks, Mia. It was great talking to you.”

She stood up. “You too. Thanks for your time.”

She stretched up on her toes, and Adam bent down to accept her kiss. As her sweet lips met Adam’s rough cheek, Nick seriously considered beating Adam over the head with Mia’s laptop.

She sat down again, gave him the smile of an angel. “So how did it go with Katie?”

“It was fun, actually.”

“Did you see any of the pictures?”

“Yeah, she showed me on the camera. I think they’ll turn out OK.”

“I’m sure they will.” Mia looked at the curve of his muscles, visible even through the material of his shirt, and knew they would look incredible in black and white. He’d be gorgeous.

“So – what do we talk about?” Nick asked.

Mia wrenched her eyes from his massive forearms. “You. We talk about you.”

“Alright. Shoot.”

**

Adam looked at Katie’s face. She was seriously pissed off, he could tell, but he didn’t care.

“Look, all I said was that this angle would be better. I think it’ll get better light. I don’t get why you’re so defensive about it.”

“I am not defensive,” she spat out. “I am, however, the photographer. You are the boxer.”

“Oh. So, what? I don’t get to have an opinion? About my own damn photos?”

Mia heard their raised voices and looked over at them.

“Uh-oh,” she said. “Oh, no.”

“What?” Nick asked, spinning to see what she was looking at. "What's wrong?"

“Ummm. Hang on, OK? I think I’d better go over there for a minute.”

Nick stood up. “What’s going on?”

Mia didn’t answer him, and he followed her across the gym to where Katie and Adam stood glaring at each other.

“Hey, guys,” Mia said, her eyes resting on Katie anxiously. “Everything OK?”

“Oh, sure,” Katie said. “Sure. Except for the fact that Adam here wants to tell me how to take photos.”

“Come on,” Adam protested. “I made one suggestion about the light. One suggestion about one thing. That’s hardly taking over the f*****g show.”

“You know how many suggestions I want about the light from a non-photographer? Zero. That is exactly one less than one.”

“Jesus Christ. OK, I think we’re done anyway, right? You got enough?”

“I do.” Katie tossed her head. “More than enough from you, thanks.”

“Fine. It was very nice to meet you, Mia.” He turned to Katie. “You, not so much.”

“Ditto,” Katie said. “Thank you, Nick. It was a real pleasure to work with you.” She stared at Adam, her dark eyes spitting fire. "You, not so much."

“You too,” Nick said, aiming for politeness, because damned if he wanted her mad at him.