her as she stared, open mouthed, at the two combatants in the ring. Her hand touched the bands while her eyes remained transfixed on Axel’s amazing, bulging and sweaty muscles. Although Xander was no slouch, in her mind, no man had ever compared to Axel in both strength and perfection. He was like a Roman statue, all perfectly toned and tall, looking even more fascinating by the sweat making all that glorious skin glisten in the overhead lights.
What happened next was completely her fault. She was still watching but she must have moved slightly because Axel was suddenly distracted. Just as he looked over in her direction and their eyes caught, Xander’s left fist swung out, catching Axel’s jaw. Kiera watched in horror as Axel’s head snapped to the right, then his body fell, almost in slow motion, to the mat.
Kiera had no idea how she’d gotten through the ropes so quickly, but by the time she reached him, her own boxing gloves were torn off and thrown to the side in her effort to get to her man.
“No!” she screamed, running towards him, bending down to take his beaten face between her hands. “Are you okay?” she cried, feeling like her stomach was going to toss out everything she’d eaten earlier today. “Speak to me, Axel,” she begged, her fingers shaking as she tried to get the helmet off of his head. “Just say something. Anything!”
“I’m okay,” she heard him groan. She couldn’t believe it, but his groan almost sounded like laughter but that was impossible!
Kiera sobbed out her relief. “Where are you hurt?” she asked, running her hands over his body and his skull in an effort to find out if anything was broken.
“Only my pride, honey,” he said, lifting his hand and touching her face gently but his fingers were still wrapped up in the boxing glove so it wasn’t a very effective caress. “I’m sorry if you were worried,” he said so only she could hear him.
She laughed, shaking her head. “You took a pretty hard fall. I think you should see a doctor.”
Axel laughed as well, putting his arm around her shoulder. “No need but you can help me up,” he offered.
She wrapped her arm around his waist and lifted, feeling his enormous weight produced from all that height and those muscles. “Let me take you to the emergency room, just to make sure your head is okay.”
She heard several chuckles behind him and Axel smiled lightly. “Really, I’m fine except for my pride. I got distracted and Xander took a good swing. It’s happened before.”
She tilted her head as she looked up at him. “And it really doesn’t hurt?” she asked.
He smiled down to her, genuinely touched by her concern. Hell, he’d take several more hits if it got her running to him like she’d just done. “No. There’s enough safety equipment. I’m fine, really.”
He stood up, but kept his arm around her shoulders. It felt too wonderful having her close again and he forgot, for the moment, all of his anger at her perception of her job, and him, as temporary.
She watched him walk, noting that he wasn’t limping and didn’t have any trouble weaving or falling into her. “Well, I guess that’s a good thing,” she grinned, even smiling at Xander as he approached, taking off his helmet. “If it doesn’t hurt, that gives me a bit more confidence that I can handle boxing.”
“Why is that?” Axel asked, unsnapping his own helmet.
“Because I got a week long pass to try out the gym. I thought it would be fun to try boxing,” she explained.
The two men stared at her for a long, suspended moment. When Xander actually took a step back, Kiera looked up and caught Axel’s furious expression.
“What?” she asked, glancing back and forth between the two men.
“You will NOT be doing any boxing,” Axel almost yelled, thinking he would take apart any man who stepped into the ring with her. He would not allow her to be beaten and punched by anyone.
Kiera stepped back, looking at him strangely. “But you just said that there’s a lot of safety equipment and you didn’t get hurt. You even went down, almost knocked out, by Xander’s last punch.”
Xander chuckled as he walked away quickly. Axel, on the other hand, moved so he was standing right in front of her. “Kiera, listen carefully, I will not allow you to take up boxing. It is too dangerous.”
She squared her shoulders, not intimidated by him at