Worth the fight

beautiful.”  I look around, taking in the entirety of the transformation.  It really is pretty.  Different from the muscle head gym that stands on the other side of the door.  It looks soft and inviting, not hard and intimidating.  “But it looks so…different from the rest of the gym?”
    Nico chuckles.  “That’s because it is different, Babe.”
    “It’s a women’s gym?” 
    “Sort of.”  Pushing his body from the door frame, Nico walks to me.  I stand and watch as he comes towards me, knowing he won’t leave any distance between us, he’ll invade my space.  And he does.  He stops directly in front of me, close enough so that the hairs on my arms raise and my body responds to his nearness.  I’ll never tire of what this man does to me.
    Nico wraps his hand around my neck, pulling me in for a quick kiss on the li ps, releasing me only enough so I can see his face, but our bodies are still touching when he continues.  “This is the new women’s self defense center.  I worked it out with Janna over at the battered women’s shelter you volunteer at.  I’m going to teach classes three nights a week, after the fight gym closes, get women to learn how to defend themselves.”
    I don’t know what to say for a minute, it’s rare I’m actually rendered speechless. Nico doesn’t move. Instead he waits, giving me time to collect my thoughts.  His thumb rubs soothingly up and down the back of my neck while I let it all sink in.  “You did this for me?”  The words come out as a whisper, a thought that escaped my mouth. 
    “I did it for us.  I couldn’t be there for you and your mom when you needed help.  I know it makes no sense, but I’ll never forgive myself for not being there for you then.  But I can try to be there for the next woman who needs to defend herself.”  Nico pauses, searching my eyes for something intently.  “You changed my life, gave me peace.  I promised you I’d spend the rest of my life trying to give back to you what you gave me.  This is just the start.”
    “ I…I don’t know what to say.”
    “Say you like it, Babe.”
    “I like it, Babe.”  I smile up at the towering tough guy looking down at me so sweetly.
    “That’s good.  Because you’re going to be my assistant.”   He grins like a Cheshire cat. 
    I raise my eyebrows in surprise.  “I am?”
    “Yep, I’m going to put my hands all over that body of yours in the front of the room and you’re going to kick my ass.”
    I reach up, locking my hands behind his neck.  Doing my best impression of serious, “I’m not sure I can do that.”
    Nico looks concerned and for a second I feel badly for screwing with him.
    “I’m sorry, Babe, if it’s too hard…”
    “Oh, if it’s hard, I’m definitely not sure I can do it…”  I grin.
    A look of relief passes over his face, but it’s replaced quickly by something else…and that something else looks devilish.  “Oh, it’s a lways hard for you, Babe.”  He yanks me tighter against him, demonstrating his words are spoken with truth as I feel his thick erection push into me.  “Let’s go christen our new office.”
    “Our new office?”
    “Yep, I was going to give you the full tour, but now that’s going to have to wait till later.  Much later.”
    And we do.  We christen the new office…and the new supply room, and the floor…
    ***
     
    Three more months later…
    Elle
                  So much has changed in the past year.  Nico is still the champion, but now we celebrate after a fight.  We’ve started a new tradition of having a party the night after a win at Nico’s gym. Neither one of us looks back to the time where winning a fight only caused pain. 
    My mom even came to the party tonight.  She wasn’t ready to see the fight, but we’re working our way up to it.  Baby steps, no more running backwards.  I watch as Nico’s crazy nephews spar in the ring wearing head gear three sizes too big for them.  Preach, of course, in one corner with one eight year old, and Nico coaching in the other.  And the ref?  Well that’s Vinny, of course.
    Tonight w e’re going to tell our families that we’re getting married.  I wish I had a romantic story to share, maybe that he proposed on a hot air balloon ride, or slipped a fortune requesting my hand in marriage into a fortune cookie.  But I’ve agreed to marry Nico, the black and blue, hotter than hell heavyweight champion, not some pansy Price