Worth Fighting For (Warrior Fight Club 2.50)

Jesse’s gaze cut to her, his brow furrowed in concern. She squeezed his hand.

“Why not, T?” Mo asked, leaning his big arms against the table.

Tara shrugged and played with her water glass. “It’s just…every person around this table has saved someone else’s life. It’s the job. And it feels weird to get praised for doing what’s expected, and what anyone would do for you.”

Mo nodded as he dug into his crab cake. “I get that.”

“Everyone except me,” Kristina said. Tara didn’t know the woman who worked as an art teacher as well as Dani, but she liked her a lot. Kristina and Noah were beyond sweet together, and they’d thrown a killer Halloween party that the whole club had attended and still talked about. “But what you just said makes a lot of sense to me.”

Noah raised Kris’s hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “You saved me, baby. Don’t ever doubt it.”

Kristina leaned over and hugged Noah, but her expression was so moved that Tara suspected she’d done it to hide tears. And, wow. That was relationship goals, right there.

Which made her realize that Jesse was still holding her hand. And that Tara had been honest with the group…and was fine. Her foot was still. Her anxiety had eased off.

“Sorry, T. Didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Just, my buddy seemed damned impressed.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sean. How do you know Jud, anyway?” She gave Jesse’s hand one last squeeze, and then pulled away so she could pick up her chicken sandwich. Jesse squeezed her thigh before he withdrew, a little gesture that struck her as both sweet and sexy.

“Our paths crossed in the navy,” Sean said. “We’ve gotten together a few times since we both landed in DC. But the kicker was he emailed me to ask if I’d ever heard of WFC, because one of his teammates invited him. Don’t know why I didn’t think to invite him myself.”

Tara nodded around a bite. “Yeah, as soon as his foot’s healed up, he’s going to come check it out.”

After that, the conversation turned to Kristina’s teaching, an interesting case Billy was investigating in his work as a private detective, and Mo’s job search. And though Tara listened and participated, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Jesse had done for her.

In truth, what he’d done for her again and again. Taken care of her. Protected her. Been there for her in a way no one had in a long time.

It made her want things she was scared to want. But that didn’t make her desire any less.

Chapter 14

“Thanks for taking me today,” Jesse said as he and Tara crossed the garage in her building toward the elevator. “It’s good to have a way to meet some new people here.”

Tara smiled up at him as she pressed the call button. Tonight was the first time he’d ever seen her wear makeup, and of course she was a total stunner. Then again, he didn’t need her in makeup to see he

r that way. “I’m glad you came and that you liked it.”

They stood side by side. Waiting. And for Jesse, wanting. This day with Tara had done absolutely nothing good for his interest in and desire for her. He was trying hard to respect her wishes, even though denying what was going on inside him felt so damn wrong.

She made him feel like he’d never really known warmth until he felt her sun. Like he’d never really been able to see until he stood awash in her light. Like he’d never realized he’d been locked from heaven itself until she handed him the keys and guided him inside.

The elevator doors slid open, and they stepped in. Tara pushed the buttons for the lobby and her floor.

It was crazy—utterly goddamned crazy—that this was happening to him, and for the first time at the age of thirty-seven, and after he’d only known her for a little over a week. He knew none of it made sense.

But all of that just made him even more certain and feeling even more urgent about claiming this amazing person he’d found and holding on tight. Jesus, he was in a bad fucking way where Tara Hunter was concerned.

He heaved a deep breath.

“You okay?”

A single nod. “Yeah.”

They passed the last floor before the lobby. Almost time for him to leave her again. Which he didn’t want to do.

Fuck it. “Tara—”

“Jesse—” She began at the same time.