Tara held up a hand. “Let me deal with Clay, okay? The boys might have a personal issue with Jackson, but I don’t. Since they aren’t here and I’m in charge, I’m assuring you that I’ll be absolutely fine in this man’s company, so I’ll see you and Elijah tomorrow afternoon for your shifts.”
Boom. Mic drop.
Jackson tamped down the grin threatening to appear. Beautiful and defiant—a woman who knew her own mind and was strong enough to assert herself when warranted. Another huge fucking turn-on, especially when he thought about controlling that rebellious streak of hers in the bedroom. Calling the shots. Pinning her down while she bucked beneath the onslaught of his mouth and fingers. Taking her hard and deep and demanding her surrender.
He exhaled a slow breath, which helped, somewhat, to banish those images from his mind. Hank scowled at him one more time—and thank fucking God he wasn’t a mind reader—but didn’t argue further with Tara. Within the next five minutes, Elijah and Hank were both gone, leaving him alone with Tara.
“You all are a loyal bunch, aren’t you?” he asked wryly.
“Hank’s a good guy,” she said as she bent down to retrieve her purse from a locked cupboard. “But yeah, he’s loyal, too. He’s former military and he lost his leg and right eye to an IED, which also caused facial nerve damage. Clay hired Hank when no one else would.”
Jesus, there was no way he could compete with Saint Clay. Not on any level. As much as his twin irked him for being so cool and reserved with Jackson, he had a lot of respect for the man and how he treated people. It said a lot about Clay’s character and the kind man he was. One with integrity, despite his shitty upbringing.
“Is this donut date going to be an issue with the guys?” he asked, keeping his question light and humorous as he slid off his barstool. Jackson didn’t want to give a fuck what any of his brothers thought about his interest in Tara, but he also didn’t want them to give her flack about him, either.
She came around the bar, keys in hand as she switched off the lights in the main area. “As much as I love those three guys like they’re my brothers, they don’t have a say in who I see.” Now that she was on the same side of the bar as him, she stopped an arm’s length away and met his gaze. “Are you having second thoughts about me?”
The unexpected hint of doubt and insecurity swimming in her blue ey
es had him instinctively reaching out to touch her, to reassure her that he wasn’t a man easily intimidated when he wanted something. And his desire for Tara was only growing stronger, not lessening in any way, and he wasn’t ready to walk away from whatever was happening between them.
He brushed his fingers along the soft skin of her jaw, and when her lips parted slightly and her eyes softened, it took every ounce of restraint he had not to slide his hand around the back of her neck and pull her mouth up to his for a hot, deep, claiming kiss. Instead, he settled with the knowledge that she wouldn’t have stopped him if he had followed through with the impulse. Her clear consent would have to be enough for now, because he didn’t think he’d be able to stop with just one taste.
He gently caressed his thumb along her full bottom lip before dropping his hand back down to his side. “Believe me when I say I’m not even close to changing my mind about you,” he promised her.
Her tongue skimmed across the place his finger had just touched, and she looked up at him with a smile that was filled with relief and quickly turned to bright-eyed sass. “Good. Now let’s go get donuts.”
Chapter Four
Jackson glanced in his rearview mirror to make sure Tara was still following his car. The donut shop was only a few blocks away, but she’d insisted on driving herself, which was fine with him. But considering the area, he wanted to keep a close eye on her and her vehicle until they arrived and he had her safely inside the place.
Which was ridiculous, considering Tara seemed street smart and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She gave him the distinct impression that she could handle all sorts of trouble without the help of a man, but he was quickly discovering that she roused protective instincts in him that he was finding hard to shake. In a short time, she’d gotten under his skin, and it was even more shocking that he’d allowed his fascination with her to evolve into something close to an obsession. And now here he was, taking Tara on a date, of all things, when it was nearly midnight on a work night.
He grinned and shook his head at the insane situation. He was going to be exhausted tomorrow at the office, but he didn’t really care. For the first time since his divorce three years ago, he actually wanted to get to know a woman better, instead of bypassing any kind of getting-to-know-you conversation and getting down to the basics of sex and physical release.
His infatuation with Tara was out of character for him, but he wasn’t going to question such a strong, instantaneous connection to this woman when so much in his life had been clouded with uncertainty and that vague sense that something was missing. With the discovery of his adoption and having a twin brother, he now understood where that void stemmed from and why he’d always struggled with a disconnect from his own family.
There was something about Tara and her lack of judgment about who he was that made him feel as though he finally fit in somewhere, that maybe, possibly, he’d found someone who truly understood him.
The illuminated sign for Angelo’s Donuts came into view, and Jackson turned into the small corner lot and parked his car behind the brick building. Tara’s older-model Toyota took the space next to his Porsche, and they both got out of their vehicles at the same time and met up behind his.
“Nice ride,” she said, nodding her head toward his shiny gray Carrera. “Aren’t you afraid your car might get jacked in this neighborhood?”
The thought had crossed his mind, but he wasn’t about to admit it and come off as an egotistical jerk who had an issue being in her part of the city. “That’s what LoJack and insurance are for, right?” he said of the tracking and recovery system he’d purchased with the car.
She laughed lightly. “I guess so. Hopefully you won’t have to put it to the test.”
They walked toward the front of the building, where two police cars were parked. The uniformed officers were standing by the trunks of one of their vehicles, drinking coffee and eating a donut while shooting the shit with each other. He glanced at the men, expecting one of them to be Levi—because of course that would be just his luck—but neither of their faces was familiar.
Jackson placed a hand on the small of Tara’s back as an excuse to touch her as he guided her toward the front entrance, nodding toward the show of law enforcement. “I don’t think I have to worry too much about my car,” he said in a low voice. “The place looks pretty well protected.”
“Yeah, the cops around here love Angelo’s.” As they passed the officers, Tara gave them a friendly nod, then said in a low voice only Jackson could hear, “Then again, what decent cop doesn’t like a good donut?”
He chuckled as he opened the glass door for her. “That’s so cliché.”
“I know, but it made you laugh.”
She gave him a cheeky grin as she brushed past him with a bounce in her step, and he had to resist the urge to smack her ass for being so impudent. The fact that he was that comfortable with her, this quickly, should have had him throwing up his walls to keep his emotional distance, but instead he let himself embrace the relaxed, easygoing sensation coursing through him. Tonight was all about enjoying himself with Tara, without second-guessing or over-examining whatever this was developing between them.