Fighting Strong

by Marysol James

  “Come for me again, Katie,” he whispered against her lips. “I want to feel it all around me, on every inch of me.”

  She gasped as his thrusts got faster, stronger. As his orgasm approached, he started shaking from the effort to hold on, to wait for her. The thought that this fiercely strong and gentle man was so close to coming inside her set her off and she came hard, in a blinding flash of light.

  Adam felt her whole body quake and he gave in to his own release. He lifted her right off the floor, plunging one last time, reaching for the very heart of her. All he felt was the sweetness of making love to this incredible woman; he was consumed by her. She looked down and watched his face contort with ecstasy as he expanded inside her, then exploded. He groaned and gripped her hips, holding her on his throbbing cock until every burst had been wrenched out of him.

  Adam exhaled and opened his eyes. She was staring down at him, her eyes full of tears. Right away, he propped himself up on his elbows, his huge chest heaving.

  “Katie?” He touched her face. “You OK?”

  She nodded. Tears slid down her cheeks.

  He sat up all the way and wrapped both arms around her. “Hey, now. Tell me the truth. Are you here with me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Say my name, sweetheart.”

  “Adam.” She kissed him. “Adam.”

  “OK.” He pulled back a bit and looked in to her eyes. They were bright and loving, and he saw that she was there, totally present and aware. She hadn’t gone back to that dark place of her childhood this time.

  Katie gave a shaky sigh. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m really OK. I promise. I just – it’s never been like that for me before.”

  “Yeah, for me either.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  He lay back again, bringing her down with him. Slowly, he rolled her to one side, still inside her, and she curled her leg around his body, trying to keep him close for as long as possible. They gazed at each other and kissed, gently.

  “Hey,” she whispered. “Have you got a date for the photo exhibition next week?”

  “Yeah.” He ran his hands over her back. “My girlfriend. She’s brilliant and brave and beautiful.”

  “She sounds pretty great.”

  “She is.” His eyes held hers. “She’s amazing.”

  Chapter Ten

  Katie looked around the gallery nervously. Everyone was wandering around with glasses of wine, staring at her photos, making comments. She knew that some people loved them, some people hated them, and most people fell somewhere in between. She took a deep breath and tried to remember that she was happy with her work, that she wouldn’t change anything even if she could.

  A large hand touched her lower back and she turned, relieved. “Adam.”

  “Hey, baby,” he said. “Sorry I’m late. It was impossible to find anywhere to park.”

  “That’s OK.” She took him in, looking him up and down. “Wow. You look great.”

  He smiled at her and her heart did a back flip in her chest. He was wearing a snug pair of black dress pants and a crisp white dress shirt. The top buttons were undone, his strong collarbone visible and his tattoos peeking out. Her breath caught.

  He lowered his mouth to her ear. “And you look delectable.”

  She flushed bright red. “Really?”

  “Oh, yeah.” He admired her long, lean figure in the tight dress. “You look gorgeous in purple. I think that’s your color.”

  “Thanks.”

  He accepted a glass of wine from a passing waiter. “So, how’s it going here?”

  “Good, I think.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. A few sales already.”

  “Which ones?”

  “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  They walked around the large room slowly, and Adam looked at the almost life-sized black-and-white photos. The men in them were athletes, strong and muscled, and Katie had made them look like Greek gods. When they got to the one of Nick, Adam stopped, stunned. His friend looked like he was literally flying through their air, his leg extended, the curve of every muscle visible.

  “My God, Katie. This is incredible. I think it’s my favorite.”

  Her eyes were warm. “But you haven’t seen yours yet.”

  He looked around. “Hey, yeah. Where’s the one of me?”

  She took his hand. “This way.”

  They went back to the entrance of the gallery and she pointed. “There.”

  He blinked. The picture of him was the biggest one in the exhibition, and it was the only one hanging from the ceiling and not from a wall. And there was something else.

  “Katie,” he said softly. “It’s in color.”

  “Yes.”

  “But I thought you only worked in black-and-white.”

  She shrugged. “You’re different.”

  Adam looked at the photo again and felt tears in his eyes. She saw them and moved closer to him, leaning in to his strength and heat. He held her, his lips in her hair, still staring at the photo.

  “So,” Katie said. “What do you think of it, really?”

  He shifted his gaze down to her beautiful face. “I think I was right about how to make the photo perfect.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “About it being too dark and needing to be reshot.” He grinned. “You fought me on it for almost four months, but the picture needed more light.”

  “You think?”

  “Yep. It’s all about the light.”

  “What about the color?”

  He studied it again. “Huh. Maybe you’re right, actually.”

  “No, you are, but only partly. It needed light and color… and one more thing to be perfect.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “OK.” Adam brushed her dark hair back off her forehead. “What was that?”

  “An emotional connection between me and the subject.”

  Adam felt a huge wave move through his chest. “And you think you have one?”

  Her eyes were bright. “I know I do.”

  He took her face in his hands, not caring even a little bit that they were in a packed gallery or that people were impatient to talk to Katie. He kissed her, his tongue licking her lips gently, probing her, simulating what he wanted to do with their lower bodies.

  He pulled back no more than inch and whispered in to her mouth, “I love you, baby.”

  And she whispered back – without even one tremor of hesitation or fear – “I love you, too.”

  About

  ‘Fighting Love’ (Fighting For Love #3)

  Fighting Love

  (Book #3 of the Fighting For Love Series)

  Dear Reader,

  I very much hope that you enjoyed Katie and Adam’s story, and catching up with Mia and Nick in ‘Fighting Strong’ (Fighting For Love #2).

  The next book in the series, ‘Fighting Love’ (Fighting For Love #3) will be about Reena and Mitch and will be published on September 9th.

  If you want to know when it is available for purchase, please check on one of my social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, and my blog). I will be announcing its release in all of these places, and posting some ‘teaser’ excerpts.

  Excerpt from

  ‘Enemy Within’ (Unseen Enemy #1)

  Dear Reader,

  I’m very excited to introduce you to my new series, the ‘Unseen Enemy’ series, and to offer you a short preview from the first book ‘Enemy Within’ (Unseen Enemy #1).

  When Emma Cartwright pulled in to the parking lot of Shooter’s Bar on that Friday night, she was a woman with a mission. Like the best of missions, it was simple, clear, and had a defined and measurable aim: Emma was going to go in there and pick up a scorching hot man and go home with him.

  Shooter’s was, she knew, hands-down the best damn place in Denver to embark on such a mission. According to Kat, the guys in this place were pretty much after not
hing but a good time. And Emma needed a good time tonight.

  She sat in her car for a minute, running over the game plan in her mind. OK, so a few deal breakers in terms of her choice for her very first one-night-stand:

  First, Kat said Shooter’s attracted lots of soldiers passing through, and Emma wasn’t so interested in guys recently back from combat. Chances are they’d be traumatized, and she had more than enough trauma going on in her life right now. No, tonight was an escape for her, and as such, she wasn’t interested in damaged, possibly dangerous, guys. And she’d have to keep her wits about her here: no getting drunk and putting herself in a bad situation with the wrong guy.

  Second, nobody too sweet. He had to be a nice guy, clearly, but not relationship material. She had a tendency to get attached to sweet guys, guys who held her hand and wanted to take her for dinner. But if this was just casual sex, then she didn’t want it to be with a guy that she’d really want to see again.

  Third, she needed to lie about herself. Not her name; that was going a bit too far. But she definitely didn’t want anyone knowing that she was a psychologist – that tended to freak people out even at the best of times – so tonight she was going to be Olivia Jameson’s personal assistant. She was sure that Liv wouldn’t mind the deception, though she was pretty certain that her actual assistant Nigel most definitely would.

  As if she had conjured Olivia up just by thinking about her, Liv’s ring tone trilled from Emma’s purse. She pushed ‘reject’ and then turned the ringer to vibrate. She knew that Kat and Liv and Jenny were all anxious to hear about her most recent test results, but Emma didn’t want to talk about that right now. Tomorrow was fine for gloom and doom. Tonight was about grabbing on to life with both hands, as hard as she could, as many times as she could take it.

  She knew what she was doing was unhealthy and reactionary. If one of her patients received the kind of bad news that she’d gotten that day, and they then turned around and flung themselves full-on in to a one-night-stand, Emma would have plenty to say about that. She’d say they were in some major denial, and desperately trying to avoid inevitable pain, and maybe even engaging in some complicated form of self-harm.

  Shut it, Dr. Cartwright. Looking for affirmation of life is completely normal when you’ve been marked by death.

  She looked at herself in the mirror. Her blue eyes had shadows under them and she looked pale. She slicked on a bit of concealer and blush and shook out her long, dark hair. She unbuttoned the top button of her shirt, hesitated, then undid the second one. And there she was, a curvy, thirty-one-year-old woman looking good in her tight black skirt and high heels, a pretty young woman just looking for a good time.

  In the mirror, Emma met her own eyes for a few seconds.

  Here we go.

  **

  It was the same Friday night that he had had the week before. And the week before that and before that. The same damn Friday night that he’d have the next week, and the one after that. Every Friday night was the same, and Dean Jessop was sick to death of it.

  Not that he was in Shooter’s every fucking week, but the location hardly mattered, did it? If he was in Shooter’s or at The Cave or drinking beer with Dallas and Chris and Jim at his place, it was always the same. He was always the same. And God knows, the women were always the same.

  Dean glared around the bar, pissed off at the noise and heat and smell. The other guys were all paired off already with women draped over their laps, and he knew as the lone man without a chick, he was a vulnerable target. Sure enough, the blonde at the bar was still eyeing him even though he’d shot her down pretty firmly earlier in a fit of bad mood. He knew she figured that after a few more drinks, he’d change his mind about her. The sad thing was, she wasn’t wrong. Another two rounds, and he’d be ready to go home with just about anyone.

  “Hey, Dean. You gonna relax and get in to the spirit of the party?”

  He looked back at his friends. Chris’ chick-of-the-night was up at the bar getting another horrible fruity drink and Chris was leaning forward, staring at him.

  “I’m trying, man. Slim pickings tonight.”

  The two women at the table looked offended.

  “I’m not referring to you, of course, ladies.” Dean flashed them his charming smile and they calmed down. “I mean everyone else.”

  Dallas ran a massive hand up and down the redhead’s leg. “Uh-huh. We sure lucked out, huh?”

  “I think we did, baby,” she purred back. “The second you guys walked in, every woman in the place wanted to be where I am right now.”

  “And where you’ll be later,” Jim said. The blonde on his lap smirked and rubbed his broad chest.

  Yeah, OK, Dean knew that the four of them made an impressive group when they walked in to a room. Tall, muscular, strong, with a general air of don’t-fuck-with-us, they were all former soldiers now living semi-civilized civilian lives in their own ways. They weren’t in active combat anymore, but every man still lived and breathed what he had been through in Afghanistan, and they were one tight group. It seemed to Dean that women couldn’t wait to work their way in to their little circle, but it was a hopeless case: no woman would ever be able to be much more than a fuck to any of them.

  Dean, Jim and Chris had been through training together and then served in the same unit. After two tours, they had been fully operational and highly-trained and skilled killers. By contrast, Dallas had been the sharpest sharp-shooter around. He had been brought in for extreme situations and he’d blow someone’s head off, pack up his shit, and then disappear until the next assignment; as befit a sniper, the man had practically been a ghost. Despite that, they’d all become friendly. There was lots of downtime when waiting for a target to emerge from a building, and they spent it hanging out, talking, learning to totally have each other’s backs.

  Back in the real world now – as Dean still had to remind himself to call it – they stuck together, they picked up women, they fucked and drank and worked out. And they talked; they talked all the time about sports and poker and their jobs. But never about anything else. They knew better than to go back there unless they absolutely had to.

  Dean sighed and looked around the bar again, wondering if maybe he’d just give the whole night up as a lost cause. Maybe he should just duck out, leave the boys to it. Go home alone, have a beer and watch some bad late-night movie on TV with his feet on the coffee table.

  Dallas saw Dean’s face and knew his friend wasn’t in to it. “Hey, man. One more beer before you go. Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, OK.” He shrugged his huge shoulders. “Sorry, guys. I’m just not feeling it tonight.”

  “You’re not feeling that?” Jim nodded at the blonde leaning on the bar so her ass jutted out. “Really?”

  Dean’s well-practiced eye took her in. Tall and curvy and in a tight dress which left nothing at all to the imagination, he thought she wasn’t even wearing the tiniest of tiny thongs under it. She was all cleavage and thighs and deep tan, and he honestly couldn’t figure out what the fuck the problem was here. She was stretching her neck and arching her back, displaying herself for him, but he didn’t want one single thing that she was offering.

  You’re just tired. Take a night off from it all.

  “No, not really.” Dean turned away from the blonde again. “But yeah, I’ll grab one more beer and head out. You guys need anything?”

  They shook their heads and Dean got to his feet. The blonde obviously thought he was coming over to her, because her eyes lit up as he walked towards her. When he passed her and kept on walking, he heard her make a loud sound in her throat and mutter something under her breath.

  Ignoring her completely, he walked farther down the length of the bar and leaned on the counter. It was damn hard to get service in this place if you didn’t have boobs hanging out, but the guys tending bar did know him a bit. One caught Dean’s eye and he nodded and held up one finger. The guy nodded back and grabbed a bottle of beer. Dean took it and sigh
ed and stared around again, wondering if maybe he should just get shit-faced and go back to the blonde. He was sure she’d forgive him if he played nice.

  “No, thank you. I appreciate the offer, but no thanks.”

  The voice was low-pitched and sweet and it came from right next to him. Dean glanced to his left and saw a dark-haired woman standing there talking to some guy. He was clearly drunk and leaning in pretty close to her.

  “Come on, why not?” the guy slurred. “One drink never killed anyone, did it?”

  “Thank you,” the woman said again. “But I have a drink.”

  “And I’m offering you one more.”

  “No, really –”

  “Tight-assed bitch,” the man said, his voice rising. “I’m not fucking good enough to have a drink with, is that it?”

  Startled, the woman backed up right in to Dean, spilling his beer. She turned.

  “Oh, God. I’m so sorry…”

  “Not your fault,” Dean said.

  “Hey, bitch.” The man grabbed the woman’s upper arm and jerked her around. “Don’t fucking turn your back on me!”

  That was enough, Dean decided. He stepped around the woman and nailed the guy with a glare. The drunk dropped the woman’s arm right away and blinked at Dean’s ferocious scowl.

  “I do believe that the lady said no, thank you,” Dean said in a low, controlled voice. “Take the rejection like a man, and move on. Lots of women in here would love a free drink and anything else you may be offering. You don’t need to bother with one who’s not all that keen, huh?”

  The idiot opened his mouth to protest but then he seemed to reconsider. His eyes focused a bit and he saw Dean’s height and width, took in the tattoos on his muscular arms. Dean knew his eyes were glittering bright, his face set and hard. He had seen his friend’s faces change quick as a knife-flick when confronted by even the most minor of annoyances in the real world, and in the blink of an eye they looked like the killers they were. It about scared people to death.