by Kaye, Laura
That’d been two weeks ago. Now, they were just about done figuring out how to blend all their furniture and possessions. Dani left the basement exactly how Sean had it—because she loved it just the way it was. The rest had been pretty easy, too.
“You sure you don’t mind me going out?” Sean asked as he swept into the kitchen wearing a pair of jeans and a DCFD sweatshirt and looking fine as hell, scars and all. “I know we have a few more things to go through.”
“No,” she said. “I think Tara and I might do something anyway, so go have fun.”
He pinned her against the counter, braced his hands on either side of her hips, and waggled his eyebrows. “I know how we could have lots of fun.”
Grinning, Dani rolled her eyes. “There’ll be time for that later.”
“Promise?” he asked.
She laughed. “Do I ever tease you about sex?”
“All the fuckin’ time, woman,” he said, kissing her soundly.
When they finally broke apart, she laced her arms around his neck. “What are you guys gonna do today?”
“Lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl and then shopping for a birthday gift for his little brother.” Sean shrugged. “After that, I’m not sure. Whatever he wants is fine by me.”
“That sounds nice,” Dani said, loving how much Sean was enjoying being a Big Brother. The week after the 4th of July, he’d received his match with a ten-year-old boy named Tyson Marvin and they were thick as thieves already. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the boy loved comic books and Sean basically had the sense of humor of a ten-year-old. Dani just adored how good Sean was with Tyson. The way he mentored and looked out for that boy made her love Sean Riddick even more.
When had she ever been able to resist good-guy Sean? Clearly the answer was never.
Sean kissed her cheek, then grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “Maybe tonight if you’re up to it we can begin our X-Men marathon.”
She laughed. They’d finished the Marvels Avengers marathon during the summer. There’d been more than twenty movies! And she enjoyed the heck out of them all. “How many movies are in this universe?”
“Woman,” he said, surprising her when he scooped her up and sat her on the counter. “Just go along for the ride here, would ya?”
She smirked. “Another robust universe?”
“Something like that.” He planted a quick kiss on her lips. “Gotta go. I’ll text you and let you know what time I’ll be home.”
“Sounds good,” she said, appreciating the view as she watched him leave. Damn that man did all kinds of justice to a pair of jeans. Smiling, she sat right where he’d placed her for a long moment and thought about what he’d said.
Home.
That word didn’t just sound good to her, it felt true.
She was home. For the first time in so long. Really, she felt that way whenever she was with Sean. That was her new truth.
Dani picked up her phone and texted Tara. Hey, the boys are off playing so I am free for maid of honor duties all day long!
Tara responded right away. Oh, I am totally taking you up on that!
Smiling as they made a plan, Dani realized how far she’d come these past few months. Her happiness for her friend was genuine and easy now. The pain she’d carried for so long was gone. It wasn’t that she never missed Anthony, but it was different now. The happy memories had become comforting to remember. And she could talk about Anthony in a way she hadn’t for years. It was like finding a part of herself again.
To that end, she’d emailed the Kiowa tribe’s enrollment office which kept records related to all its members to see if it had any genealogical information about Granny’s family. These days, she was all about nurturing the roots of the life she’d become determined to have. One with love and family and connection and meaning. And happiness—just like Anthony had wished for her.
It was all due to Sean Riddick, her biggest champion, her fighter, her hero, her best friend.
The man who helped her find the strength to fight again.
After so long, Dani could truly and finally say she had everything she needed and so much that she wanted. Now, she was going to fill her days with love and laughter and make sure to appreciate the amazing ways her life had changed every damn day—to the very end and beyond.
* * *
Thank you for reading! I hope you loved meeting Daniela and Sean. See how it all started with Noah and Kristina’s sexy, emotional, and hard-fought friend-to-lovers romance in FIGHTING FOR EVERYTHING—DOWNLOAD IT NOW!
And if you’ve enjoyed my Warrior Fight Club books, you’ll love Caden and Makenna—two strangers who meet while trapped in a pitch-black elevator—in my Hearts in Darkness Duet which begins with a freebie!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD HEARTS IN DARKNESS
Nobody's tortured alphas destroy me quite so utterly as Laura Kaye's and I love them -- and her! -- all the more for it!" ~ USA Today Bestselling Author Samanthe Beck
"I totally loved it!!! I read it in one sitting and it was just one of those books that I didn't want to put down. This story was not only SWEET, but also HOT and SEXY!!! I'd definitely recommend it!!!" ~ Aestas Book Blog
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The Warrior Fight Club Series!
Fighting for Everything
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Loving her is the biggest fight of his life…
Home from the Marines, Noah Cortez has a secret he doesn’t want his oldest friend, Kristina Moore, to know. It kills him to push her away, especially when he’s noticing just how sexy and confident she’s become in his absence. But, angry and full of fight, he’s not the same man anymore either. Which is why Warrior Fight Club sounds so good.
Kristina loves teaching, but she wants more out of life. She wants Noah—the boy she’s crushed on and waited for. Except Noah is all man now—in ways both oh so good and troubling, too. Still, she wants who he’s become—every war-hardened inch. And when they finally stop fighting their attraction, it’s everything Kristina never dared hope for.
But Noah is secretly spiraling, and when he lashes out, it threatens what he and Kristina have found. The brotherhood of the fight club helps him confront his demons, but only Noah can convince the woman he loves that he’s finally ready to fight for everything.
Fighting for What’s His
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Resisting her only makes him want her more...
Private investigator Billy Parrish’s is good at three things—fighting, investigating, and sex. MMA training with the other vets in the Warrior Fight Club keeps his war-borne demons at bay—mostly, and one night stands ensure no one gets too close. But then his best friend from the Army Rangers calls in a favor.
Shayna Curtis is new to town, fresh out of grad school, and full of hope for the future. With a new job starting in a month, she’s grateful when her brother arranges a place for her to stay while she apartment hunts. But she never expected her roommate to be so brooding. Or so sexy.
Billy can’t wait for Shay to leave—because the longer she’s there, the more he wants her in his bed. To stay. He can’t have her—that much he knows. But when fight club stops taking off the edge, Billy lets down his guard…and starts fighting for what’s his.
Worth Fighting For
A crossover story with Kristen Proby’s Big Sky Series - order now!
Getting in deep has never felt this good…
Commercial diving instructor Tara Hunter nearly lost everything in an accident that resulted in her medical discharge from the navy. With the help of the Warrior Fight Club, she’s
fought to overcome her fears and get back in the water where she’s always felt most at home. At work, she’s tough, serious, and doesn’t tolerate distractions. Which is why finding her gorgeous one-night stand on her new dive team is such a problem.
Former navy deep-sea diver Jesse Anderson just can’t seem to stop making mistakes—the latest being the hot-as-hell night he’d spent with his new partner. This job is his second chance, and Jesse knows he shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. But spending every day with Tara’s smart mouth and sexy curves makes her so damn hard to resist.
Joining a wounded warrior MMA training program seems like the perfect way to blow off steam—until Jesse finds that Tara belongs, too. Now they’re getting in deep and taking each other down day and night, and even though it breaks all the rules, their inescapable attraction might just be the only thing truly worth fighting for.
Fighting the Fire - March 30, 2021
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One night is never enough…
For firefighter Sean Riddick, Warrior Fight Club keeps the demons of his past at bay, even though it means seeing Daniela England. Her ball-busting sarcasm drives him nuts, and he knows he’s damaged goods anyway, but he can’t help but remember how good they were together that one time. Now he wants to take her to the mats no matter how much they go toe to toe.
ER nurse Daniela England has lost so much that she’s vowed never to need anyone again. Fight club helps her beat back her survivor’s guilt, but it means dealing with Riddick. The hot-but-infuriating firefighter is everything she wants to avoid, which is why their one-night stand was a mistake. Now she needs to keep her distance so it doesn’t happen again.
But when Dani witnesses Sean’s motorcycle accident, she steps up to help him recover. One on one, they get beneath all the snark and find a connection neither expected. As Sean heals, the sparks between them burst into red-hot passion—and ignite old wounds. Now there are fires all around—and they have to decide which they’ll fight and which they’ll let consume them.
Acknowledgments
This was the book that almost didn’t happen.
If you follow me on social media, you might know some of the trials I went through while writing Fighting the Fire. I started writing it while injured and awaiting my first rotator cuff surgery and then got further delayed when, four weeks after that surgery, I fell and severely reinsured my shoulder. However, I didn’t know that for sure at the time because my surgeon wanted to wait before getting a new MRI. So in the meantime I pushed through with physical therapy and trying to finish this book for its new release date. I forced myself to work hard through the pain for two weeks to make that date only for my laptop to be stolen the day that I’d written all but the last chapter. And then I learned that all my backups failed. Dropbox hadn’t synched those last 120 pages I’d written during that final push. The back-up file on my Apple Time Machine at home was corrupted, and though the Mac Medics were able to recover the file, it didn’t contain those new pages either.
I was crushed.
And I was too exhausted and in too much pain to be productive. Finally, a new MRI revealed the extent of the now massive rotator cuff tear I had (3 of the 4 rotator cuff tendons were torn, one in two places, and one of my biceps tendons was also torn) and a new surgery was scheduled, one that the surgeons gave only a 50% chance of being successful. That was really scary, because the options for what happened if the surgery failed were all bad.
The surgery was a success!
Well, mostly. On a good day, I probably have about 80% of my strength and function back. The BEST thing is that most of the time my shoulder is now pain free. And that is truly amazing. But it took all of the crazy year of 2020 to get to a place where I could really write again and to remove all the mental hurdles I’d put up around this book and these characters.
And I’m so damn glad I was able to do it. Because I adore Dani and Sean. I love their banter. I love that they’re both bad asses and nerds. I love that they never imagined how much they had in common with each other, and I adored writing that discovery. I hope you love them, too.
There were a number of people who helped me get to the other side of all these misfortunes. My husband, Brian, and our daughters were so supportive and took such good care of me. My closest friends, Lea Nolan, Stephanie Dray, Christi Barth, and Kate Quinn were relentless cheerleaders who provided motivation and shoulders to cry on in equal measure. Robin Covington provided a much-needed and very appreciated sounding board at a critical juncture. And I appreciated every time my assistant, Franci Neill, checked in on me and that she was always so excited for this book to be completed. Thank you to my agent, Kevan Lyon, who was a great advocate and was always so understanding. I must also give a special shout-out to the team at Audible who gave me the leeway I needed to get through this rough patch until I could deliver the book to them. I’m so grateful that the amazing Andi Arndt was still able to narrate this book, too!
I also have to thank the readers in my Ravens Facebook group for all the support, love, and excitement they’ve shown me through this whole situation. I never received anything except understanding and compassion in response to the delays on this book and it truly has meant the world to me.
I hope you enjoyed this story. It meant so much to me to finally write it, and I thank you for taking my characters into your heart and letting them tell their stories again and again. ~LK
About the Author
Laura Kaye is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty books in contemporary romance and romantic suspense, including the Hard Ink, Raven Riders, Heroes, and Hearts in Darkness series. Her books have received numerous awards, including the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Romantic Suspense for Hard As You Can. Laura grew up amid family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses, cementing her life-long fascination with storytelling and the supernatural. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.
Learn more at LauraKayeAuthor.com
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