Full Contact (Worth the Fight #2) Read Online Free Page A

kind of guy. At least, he hadn’t been. Slade had been deluding himself into thinking the attraction he had to Jessica was just sexual. Slowly he was coming to realize that Jessica wasn’t like any other woman he’d ever dated, and his feelings toward her weren’t like any other feelings he’d ever had. He’d never been interested in anything other than sex, but suddenly this date with Jessica felt important. Seeing his best friend and his sister so in love surprisingly made him feel empty, as if something was missing.
    “Well, I’ll leave you crazy kids to your crazy suburban problems. I have to go get ready.”
    Damn Chrissy and Jack. Now he was nervous about his date.
    —
    Jessica was ready. She still got a little winded every now and then, but for the most part she was feeling like herself again. She wore her favorite white shift dress and had paired it with pink strappy sandals. Perfect for spring. Perfect for a first date.
    She wasn’t good at walking in heels, but she loved wearing them. One of her favorite things about Slade was how tall he was. She could wear whatever heels she wanted and he would still be taller. Well, the same could be said about Dennis, because he was a pretty big guy too. But nothing in comparison to Slade. He was huge. She estimated he was at least six foot four. Her own personal Conan the Barbarian. That was the only way she could describe him. But his most impressive feature, what had her mesmerized from the first day she’d seen him fighting some poor schmuck who never stood a chance, was his blue eyes. Because of his milky white skin and black eyelashes, his blue eyes seemed even bluer.
    She hadn’t been able to believe it the first time Slade asked her out. She knew the women he usually dated: blond, busty, and dumb. Hell, they’d approached him in front of her a few times. Yet he was clearly interested in her.
    Jessica looked at herself in the mirror before answering the knock on the door. “Give me a sec, gotta go fix my hair,” she said as she flung the door open without even a glance on the way to her bedroom.
    Slade caught her by the waist so quickly, she almost fell. “Hello to you too.” His eyebrow arched and the corners of his lips moved up slightly.
    “Oh, sorry.” She reached up and gave him a peck on the cheek, then tried to escape to go fix her hair, but his grip was too tight. He lowered his head and gave her a soft kiss on her jaw, then nuzzled her hair.
    Her body instinctively became gooey; thank goodness his grip around her was tight. “Oh,” she said dreamily, her eyes closed, as he pulled away. “That was…” Her words trailed off, and she sighed.
    He chuckled before taking her hand in his. “Seriously, Jess, I’m not fucking around—you gotta start looking before you open the door.” Talk about mood swings!
    “Relax, I knew it would be you.”
    He shook his head in irritation. “So, what’s wrong with your hair? You look beautiful.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
    She looked up at him and made a face as she pulled on a strand of hair. “Really?”
    He laughed, then scanned her body from the toes peeking out of her high-heeled sandals to the top of her hair. “You’re hot, Jess. Trust me.” He reached for her hand and led her outside. She quickly snatched up her purse before he closed the door behind her.
    Jessica was not happy to see Slade’s motorcycle.
    She reached into her purse, grabbed her keys, and shook them at him. “Slade Martin! You’ve lost your damn mind if you think I’m going to get on that bike. You ask me out to a nice restaurant, I get all pretty for you, and then you show up on that thing? Hel-lo!” She waved at herself. “Hair, dress, shoes!”
    He was the typical oblivious male, she thought. On one hand, he was overbearingly protective; on the other, he came to the date on his motorcycle!
    Fully expecting some fallout from her little tirade, she was surprised when instead he looked at her and