Saving Emily by Nora Haley

Jon:
All I wanted to do after the fight was go home, but my buddies wouldn’t let me. Let’s celebrate, they said, and dragged me along to a fancy club. So here I am, nursing a beer and gawking at the waitress.
I can’t help it, I just have to look at her. She’s a goddess.
She is everything I’m not – soft and pretty and nice. Someone who needs protection.
I’d volunteer for the job in a heartbeat, but turns out I don’t have to. Some jerk thinks it’s a good idea to use her to get back at me.
Mistake. Big mistake.
I’m gonna come for her, just as he wants me too, but I’ll make sure he won’t like it.
He won’t like it at all.

Emily:
The first thing I notice about him is how absolutely brutal he looks.
Short-cropped, dark hair, face like a pit-bull, hard, angular but not unkind.
But that’s not all that sticks out about him.
When he smiles his whole face lights up. It’s as though his softer side shines through the tough facade.
I love that.
And I’d love to be the reason for such a smile.
There may be a lot of bad men at the club, but he certainly isn’t one of them…
Emily is a waitress saving up for nursing school, Jon is a bad boy with a heart of gold who’s involved in illegal prizefighting. When they meet they have an instant connection – and that could have been the end of the story. But then some rich dude goes off the deep end about a minor conflict. He comes after Emily and Jon has to deploy all his skill to get her back.