But t
here's one thing that you really should know, when you find yourself faced with his back, there's a birthmark there that's a sight to behold, your jaw might even go slack.

Julien Breaux (pronounced bro) is a real twenty-three year old guy who has a particular birthmark.

That's where the story begins.

Chapter 1

"I write romance novels," Shea Miller said. She was talking to a girl she didn't know yet, but one she was reasonably sure could help her with a question.

"Get out!"
Christina said. The young coach had just finished teaching a Jiu Jitsu class for 3-5 year olds, and was tugging at the belt of her gi to loosen it as she climbed the bleachers to talk to Shea. "I read romance all the time."

Shea gave
her a little wave and smile. "My name's Shea Miller. I wrote a series called Summer Crush."

"
You're kidding! That's so cool! I think I've seen that come up on Amazon," Christina said. She sat on the bleachers next to Shea and regarded her with a sweet, curious expression.

"
I'm Christina."

The two shook hands and exchanged a smile.

"I told you I'm an author because I have a question I need to ask you. I don't want this to come out awkward, but I think you might be friends with this guy, and I wanted to ask you first." By the time Shea was finished with her preamble, Christina was nodding and wearing an expression that begged to be given the rest of the scoop. Shea complied without Christina having to say a word. "Let me just add that I'm happily married, and I'm not trying to get fresh with this guy—but do you know Julien?"

Christina
nodded.

"
I'm a little perplexed by the birthmark on his head. To be honest, when it first caught my eye, my first reaction was to feel sorry for him, like it was unfortunate or something, but after looking at it for a few minutes, I realized that not only did I
not mind
it there, but I actually
preferred
it there." She looked at Christina in disbelief. "I think I'm in love with that thing."

Christina
laughed. "I know, right? I like it too."

"Here's the thing," Shea said.
"If I write a character based on him, which is my goal here, I'd not only want to use his real name, which I love by the way, but I'd also be describing the birthmark. It'd be pretty obvious who'd inspired the character if anyone from the gym read the book."

Christina
hadn't lost her excited expression the whole time Shea talked. "Oh my God, Julien would be
thrilled
, you have no idea."

"Are you sure he wouldn’t be offended? Do you think he likes that thing? I mean
I
like it, but you never know how people feel about their own stuff."

Christina smirked.
"Did you see his haircut?"

She was talking about the fact that Julien wore his hair in a short, beautifully faded
mohawk that not only revealed, but perfectly complimented the birthmark. The simple act of letting his hair grow out could have concealed most of the mark, but his haircut made that clear statement that he didn't mind it being seen.

"Yeah, I thought about that," Shea said. "I've just never used such obvious details
as inspiration for a character, and I wanted to make sure he wouldn't be offended by me speaking plainly about it. Because I'll need to ask him some questions about it and everything."

"He'd totally be okay with that,"
Christina said, wide eyed.

She
was a good friend to Julien, and was clearly excited about the possibility. This, in turn, put a smile on Shea's face. She already had her heart set on using Julien as inspiration. They exchanged a few more words and a one-armed hug before Christina walked off to get changed and go home. Shea kept her seat in the bleachers and watched her boys finish their Jiu Jitsu class. They'd only been in town for a week or so, but joining a MMA gym was one of the first things they did when they moved.

The night before, Shea attended her first women's kickboxing class, and
Julien Breaux had been her instructor. She was always on the lookout for elements of people's personalities that she could use for inspiration in writing, but she found it perplexing that she wanted to use so much of Julien's.

There
were a ton of things about him that intrigued the writer in her—his name, for one thing. Even more than her love for writing romance novels was her love for reading them, and she always loved it when the big, tough, muscular hero had a name that could be slightly feminine, like Angel. The name Julien struck her a little like that, and she really wanted to use it for a hero in one of her books. The fact that the real Julien personified a character in a romance novel in other ways made the whole thing seem meant to be.

Here's the thing that
was going to make the character Julien different, and to be honest, Shea didn't know how her readers would respond to the idea… Julien had a birthmark that started on the side of his head just above his ear, and extended downward in much the same sort of shape as the shaved part of a mohawk. It stretched all the way down onto his neck—sort of below his ear. It looked like intricate mapwork in that gorgeous red. Shea was a lover and collector of tattoos, and was totally taken aback that she almost thought of Julien as lucky for having this thing that was, in her mind, obviously a tattoo from God.

So
, even though she didn't know how her readers would respond to a lead character with a huge, red birthmark on the side of his head, she could see plain as day how it looked in person, and it was totally freaking gorgeous. She just hoped she could describe it so her readers could imagine it right.

"Or maybe I'll just use him as a cover model, and they can just see for themselves," she thought. She smiled as she stared past the action happening
on the mats during her boys' class. She had to hold in a giggle and she imagined trying to make out what his torso looked like under the shirt he wore to coach kickboxing class. She was almost sure it would be at least pretty good under there since he was a big, tough fighter and trained like six days a week.

It was a no-brainer that she would be using this guy Julien, birthmark and all, as a main character
in one of her books, and maybe, now that she thought about it, as the real cover model too.

Within a week,
she got a text from Christina. They'd exchanged numbers, but Shea was still surprised when she saw the coach's name on her phone.

Christina
: "I hope I didn't overstep my bounds, but I mentioned the book thing to Julien, and he was so excited!"

She attached a photograph of him standing with his back to the camera, looking out at something that looked a lot like the Grand Canyon. Shea thought it might have been taken recently since she heard the day before at the gym that Julien
had just gone out West with one of the other fighters. They lived in swampy south Louisiana, and the photo hadn't been taken around there, that was for sure. Shea could see his birthmark in the photo, and looking at it made her smile. She couldn't wait to write about it. She typed out a reply Christina.

Shea: "
I don’t mind at all that you mentioned it to him. I'm so glad to hear he's excited! And thanks for the bonus photo. ;)"

Christina
: "I can't wait to read the book!"

Shea: "I'm excited
about it too. I've never used such an obvious characteristic of someone I know."

Christina
: "Julien's an excellent choice. He's got a lot going for him."

Shea: "Thanks for running it past him. See you at the gym."

She went into the next room and showed her husband the photo Christina had just text her.

He squinted at the screen, trying to figure out who it was. "Oh, is t
hat the guy from the gym? Your muse?" He drug out the word muse like he was trying to tease her about it.

She looked at him with a serious expression. "Are you gonna be weird about this? Because I'd rather not even get started on the project if you're gonna be
taking it the wrong way."

Chris
laughed. "I'm just messing around with you. I don't care what you write about, as long as you don’t sleep with him."

Shea laughed.
"I'm not gonna sleep with him, stupid, but I will have to talk to him. You know, ask him questions about the birthmark and everything. I think I'm gonna make his character a MMA coach like the real guy, so I'll have some questions for him about that too."

"Just go write your book, Shea. You know I don't care if you talk to the guy. Just do like I said, and keep from sleeping with him, and we'll be fine."

Shea smiled and turned on her heel, headed to work. She resolved to ask the handsome coach for his number the next time she saw him at class. She smiled at the fact that her job included interviewing hunks and trying to catch glimpses of their torsos, and she loved her husband for being confident enough to let her.

****

Shea took Julien Breaux out to dinner the night after his first fight. It wasn't planned like that. He had a few fights fall through before one finally worked out, and she happened to text him during the week before that one finally happened. He had been training fighters and training
with
fighters for the last five years, and hadn't taken a fight until now.

Earlier in the week, when she asked him if he would sit down with her over dinner for an interview, he told her
he could do it that coming Saturday night. She knew his first fight was scheduled to happen the night before, and she reminded him of this fact, but he assured her he wanted to do it.

Julien won his first fight, thank God.

It wasn't really a big deal to Shea, since, for the sake of the book, she could just lie and say he won even if he hadn't. Or better yet, she could just go ahead and make it really juicy. Maybe she'd say he was a pro fighter with eighteen knockouts under his belt or something.

As she drove to pick Julien up, she made a mental note to think about how experienced she wanted his character to be. She was relatively sure she'd write him as
having more than just one fight. That would probably be one of the details she was planning on changing about his character.

"Is it going to be weird for you if you read about yourself in a book, and some of the details are
the same, but others aren't?" It was one of the first questions out of her mouth when they sat down in the booth at the restaurant. "Because a lot of what I'll be writing will be facts about you—like your name and your job and your birthmark, but other things won't be like you at all. For instance, I might have him tell jokes you'd never tell, or make decisions you'd never make. I don't want you to read it and be thinking
she's got me all wrong
. I hope it's clear that I'm using a lot of who you are as a character, but I'm in
no way
trying to represent you as a person. It's just physical stuff."

He smiled
at her from across the table. "I'm cool with that," he said. "Just don't make me a serial killer or anything."

"
Never!" she said with mock horrification. "I write love stories."

"I wouldn't mind hearing my love story," he said.

"I'm sure your real story will be great too, but I can promise that in my book, you'll get your happy ending."

A
server in a gingham shirt and a plaid bowtie showed up at their table, so Shea and Julien paused the conversation to place an order for drinks and an appetizer.

Shea continued as soon as the server walked off.
"So, how was the fight last night? I heard you won, but I don't have details. Did you submit him?"

"
Yeah," Julien said. "Rear naked choke."

"That's awesome
. I'll bet you're excited."

He shrugged.

"What?" she asked.

"I guess you just hope for a knockout or whatever."

"Are you kidding? I'd
much
rather watch a submission than see someone's lights go out."

Julien shrugged again, but smiled this time as if to say maybe a submission wasn't so bad.

They talked for the next two hours straight. She asked him questions about being a fighter and coaching other fighters. They talked about other aspects of his job including the women's kickboxing class she'd been going to. He told her the story of how he got into fighting in the first place, and she asked for more details about the fight he had the night before—things she was curious about like, "What was going through your mind when they called your name," and "Do you hear shouts from the crowd when you're fighting?"

Toward the end of their time together, she got around to asking him questions about his birthmark. He told her it was called a
Port-wine stain, and that he'd been born with it. He said it might have shifted slightly as he grew, but otherwise had stayed the same since he was born. She asked him if people ever said anything about it, mean or otherwise, and he recounted a few stories of awkward questions or comments, but not really anything too terrible.

She wasn't really surprised that he didn't get many rude comments about it because, let's just
be honest here, the thing was a freaking asset to his appearance. She told him the fact that she loved the mark surprised her, which made her like it even more. This thing that may seem undesirable at first glance, actually made him
more
beautiful. The contradiction itself was sexy, and she smiled thinking how she couldn't wait to share Julien and his beautiful birthmark with her readers. She asked him if he cut the mohawk specifically to show it off, and he got all humble and shy and said he just liked mohawks. She liked his humility, but figured he must know it looked good on him.

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