Into The Ring (Phenomenal: 2)

14 ~ Beautiful Disaster

"Look this way, eyes just passed my shoulder."

Clarissa watched as Damien suppressed a sigh and did as the photographer asked then glanced at her mother.

"He's not an actor; the point isn't to get girls screaming over him," she said, "Why did you agree to him appearing in gossip magazines?"

"Exposure, love, what else?" her mother said simply as she looked through something her PA had handed her relating to Sinclair.

Clarissa let out the huff Damien had hidden and dropped her chin in her palm, looking at Damien again, posed in his diamond sharp tailored suit, hair slicked back, looking something unlike himself.

"He's going to hate it," she muttered.

"That's fine, love," her mother said, catching the grumble.

"Ok, take five," Jay said, straightening up, his assistant coming over to look at the work.

Damien let out his breath and walked over, tugging at his hair to loosen it out of its rock hair hairspray hold.

"Having fun?" Clarissa asked with a grin as he dropped down onto the chair beside her.

"Ah shush," he said, accepting the cup of water one of the runners gave him and instantly handing it to Clarissa before taking another for himself. "You can see plain as day I'm crawling in my skin at all this."

"Yes I can," Clarissa said, taking a sip, "But you look good, that's a plus."

"If they want people who aren't into boxing to get to know me, they should put me in my usual clothes."

"It's not about knowing you, it's about knowing who we want them to know," Clarissa said and Damien smirked at her.

"Speaking from experience?"

"Born and bred socialite."

"Clarissa, that's enough," her mother said, "Stop making it sound like I'm forcing him into a deal with the devil."

"He signed a contract with Daddy, didn't he?" Clarissa pointed out and her mother pursed her lips at her before walking passed to look at what the photographer had up on a screen.

"Ouch," Damien said, laughing slightly.

"All in good fun," she said before reaching over and running her hands through his hair, smoothing it back again. "Need to put this all back where it was, you can't be a mess for the fangirls."

"Ugh," was Damien's reply.

"Suck it up, they're not that bad."

"I know what they're like. Former champion remember," he pointed out.

She smiled as she adjusted his shirt and jacket, smoothing any creases. "I wish I'd seen you fight before the fall," she said.

Damien looked down. "Nah, it's fine that you didn't. You might have seen my final fight before it all went wrong if you had known about me beforehand."

"Do you not want me to watch that fight?" Clarissa asked, settling her hand on his thigh.

Damien pursed his lips for a moment. "We'll watch it together one day, maybe. Not like there aren't a thousand recordings of it out there."

"After your next win," Clarissa said with a grin. Damien glanced up then smirked back and a shuttering of a camera going off made them look around to see the photographer lowering his camera and looking at the image he'd just shot of them.