I hold up an empty coffee cup for her and she nods while taking a seat on one of the bar stools at the center island. She perches on the edge of her seat, quietly sipping her coffee and watching me cook. After I finish her eggs, getting them just the way she likes them, I push them over to her and start on my own breakfast.

Hard days means I am going to need a bigger breakfast than the easy and light days. I know how my body works, and I guess Avery is a bit shocked as her eyes grow wide with how much food I’m preparing for myself. I will be burning through my workouts today, so I need a lot of energy to use up.

“Um,” Avery grins as she watches me eat. I have four scrambled eggs, a mountain of hash browns, a pile of bacon and then a huge homemade smoothie of bananas, spinach, strawberries and protein shake compound.

Grinning back, I dig in. Well, maybe shovel would be the correct term, but I do try to keep my mouth closed while I chew at least.

“Skip dinner last night?” she giggles as I begin moaning in happiness. I fucking love bacon. I demolish the entire pile.

“Training, my sexy little Raven,” I tell her. I don’t want her to think I eat like this every day.

And I am back in training mode. I received a text this morning from Dale with a time and date for three months from now. I have my date, and I am going to pound that little fucker into the ground. I am legally going to be permitted to punish that fucker as much as I want. I have five full rounds at five minutes each. I can last and perform that long, let’s see if fuckface can.

“Already? I thought you got to take a break,” she says and snags one of the last pieces of bacon from my plate. I growl playfully at her.

“Careful, missy,” I say before taking a huge drink of my smoothie. I try offering her some of it, “I swear it really doesn't smell that bad, and it is really tasty.” But she shakes her head and pulls away.

“But to answer your question, I usually do. But after Ethan pulled his little stunt yesterday with the media, I agreed to go again in three months. It’s a shorter break than usual, but they probably figure that we both already...

Avery breaks in with, “Again? What do you mean again? And what stunts?”

I'm shocked that she knows nothing about what has been transpiring. But then again, she may be Ethan’s friend and my girlfriend but that doesn't mean she follows the fight news.

“Yeah,” I answer her, giving it to her straight. “He’s done nothing but spout shit off to any reporter who will listen to him, claiming I cheated. And he’s demanding a title shot with me. I'm going to give him one too, this way he can't come back again. Two losses in a row should put his shit show off track for at least a year.”

“Wait, what stunts?” she asks.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and bring up yesterday’s press conference before sliding it over to her. “If you want, go into the messages part and see what all Dale has sent me. Your friend has a mouth on him.”

Avery sits there for a long time as I finish my food. I see her going through the articles that were written and the video from the press.

I pick up the dishes as she puts the phone down. “Are you going to kill him this time?” she asks and there is absolutely no mirth in her voice as she looks up at me.

“No. But since he wants to try and push my buttons and flat out tell everyone that he can take me out any time he wants... I am going to give him a full five rounds to try it. Five rounds of me punishing him.”

I don't know what answer she was expecting, and that might not have been the best thing I could have said, but I won't lie to her.

She shakes her head and looks down at her hands, trying to hide her confliction. “He is so fucking stupid.”

“Yep.”

Chapter Fifteen

Chase

Avery is quiet as we drive to her apartment. She decided after breakfast that she wanted to come with me today to see what I do on Nightmare Days. I think she thought I was kidding when I called my training day that.

She comes out of the apartment wearing a pair of black yoga pants and still has the t-shirt of mine she swiped from my closet when we were getting ready. A backpack on her shoulder, she smiles as she slips into the car. I hang up the phone with Dale and smile at her.

“What’s up?” she asks as I p

ull out of her driveway.

“I was talking to Dale. He wants to know what press releases our camp will be putting out about the upcoming fight. I told him to do the exact same thing as last time.”

“Holy cow, are you serious?” She turns to me and her eyes are opened wide. “Ethan was so infuriated, you only talked about how you were preparing for the fight. He said you were full of self-righteous bullshit.”

“Yeah, I do that most times when other guys start talking all their shit. I don't like talking shit, so the more they do, the more I put on the humble guy who is training his butt off approach. It usually pisses them off pretty good.”

Tags: Izzy Sweet, Sean Moriarty Pounding Hearts Romance
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