Worth the fight

student to get published outside of law review, so I’m not surprised that William remembered the case.   The case was about an athlete who had a three-year endorsement contract with a company that sold an energy drink when he signed the contract, but later merged with another company.  The other company manufactured a drink that was marketed as a drink to mask the use of performance enhancing drugs.  Weiland didn’t want to be associated with a company that touted masking performance enhancing drugs from testing. Unfortunately his contract was airtight.  But in an ingenious move by his attorney, rather than sue alleging one of the contract terms was invalid, which he would have lost, they sued based upon a violation of the contract’s moral clause. 
    So Nico is an athlete of some sort?  That’s not surprising by the way he looks.  He’s a large man and I can tell he’s in great shape even with a suit covering his body.  “Why don’t you give me a little background, Nico?”
    I can’t wait to hear his story for some reason.  It’s more than just for a prospective case, I’m curious who the man is in front of me. 
    Nico starts out by telling me that he is in mixed marital arts. I don’t really know what that entails, but I assume he means some sort of karate expert. As he talks I try to take some notes, but I find myself staring at him, unable to move my eyes to the paper to write.  When he speaks, he looks directly into my eyes and it makes it even harder to break our gaze.  I forget William is sitting right next to him.  There’s no one in the room but me and the man with the deep green eyes who won’t give me a break from the intensity sucking the energy from my body.
    Regina enters the room with coffee for our guests and I ’m grateful for the break as Nico turns his attention to Regina to say thank you.  When Nico turns his attention back to me, I glance up at Regina who looks back from the door then looks between me and Nico and wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.  I pretend to cough to cover my smile with my hand and William offers me his water.  Always the gentleman.
    Nico picks up where he left off and I take a minute to get a better look at his face before he locks my gaze with his again.  I notice a small, healed scar above his left eye and another longer one on his right cheek.  They are faint, like they’ve been there for years, but his tan skin color yields a lighter shade to scars, making them stand out more than they normally would.  The scars make his face look even more rugged and somehow emphasizes the masculinity of his chiseled jaw.  The face belongs to a strong man, a man I can’t take my eyes off of for some reason.
    William speaks when Nico is done and his voice finally makes me remember that he’s in the room.  I hope I wasn’t drooling while his client was speaking.  I try to focus on William as he talks, but my eyes keep wandering back to Nico, who catches me each time.   I see an ever so slight twitch at the corner of Nico’s mouth each time, secretly acknowledging that I’ve been caught.
    William is able to refocus me by drawing me into a conversation about how the Weiland case could apply.  Nico wants out of an endorsement contract he is in because the manufacturer us es child labor.  The fact that the man is willing to give up what amounts to a multi-million dollar contract for such a noble cause makes him even more sexy to me. 
    After almost an hour, William looks at his watch and begins to wrap things up.  Nico asks me my opinion on his case and I tell him I need a copy of the contract and some time to do a little research on the company before I can give an educated opinion. 
    William nods and stands, “Are we on for Thursday, maybe we can discuss it further then?”
    “Umm, yes.”  I catch Nico looking between the two of us.  I think he is observing our interaction.
    Nico shakes my hand again and my heartbeat speeds up at the simple contact.  He doesn’t release my hand right away.  Instead he uses his other hand to motion between William and I and asks, “Are you two a couple?”
    I respond no at the exact same time that William responds yes.  I look to William and then to Nico , who is still holding my hand from our handshake, and I think I catch a glimmer in his eye that matches the smirk on his face.  He’s amused at our answer and I don’t blame him.  He finally releases my hand and I find myself oddly disappointed