“I am. Laina Rose—you can look her up. But before you do...”
“Yeah?”
“Unless she makes the first move, she’s off-limits.”
“Then what’s in it for me?” he joked.
“Consider it a favor. She’s my best friend from high school. Awesome girl—funny, smart, a bit of an activist. Actually, I kind of owe her my life, since she’s the whole reason I moved to Moretta in the first place.”
“You mean she lives there?”
“No, she’s just...been there many times.” James thought her tone was slightly evasive. “Anyway, she’s had a rough go with her ex, and he’s going to be at the wedding. I convinced her that a little arm candy goes a long way in a situation like that. So, yeah—I’m fully using you. Just so you know.”
James shook his head affectionately. Blind dates definitely weren’t his scene, but there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for his cousin. “Okay, but we’re talking a full week together here. What if she can’t stand me?”
“That’s a distinct possibility—”
“Gee, thanks.”
“—in which case you’re free to go your separate ways.”
He hesitated. “Can I think about it?”
“Of course. I’ll call you back in ten minutes.”
“You’re cute. Later.”
After James hung up, a quick glance at Jennifer told him she was now on a call herself, so he used his phone to pull up Laina Rose’s Facebook profile.
Her photo was taken from a distance in front of a mountainous background. It looked like she was dressed for a hike, and from what he could tell she was attractive enough—not that it really mattered, as he wasn’t about to break his no-first-move word to Kiki anyway. He was about to turn his phone off again when he remembered his cousin’s vague remarks about Laina’s connection to the island. Curious, he pulled up Google and typed her name into the search engine.
A few minutes later, he looked up from his phone with a grin on his face. It was almost too good to be true, but why shouldn’t he get something out of the deal too?
He fired a text to Kiki: I’m in.
Copyright © 2020 by Cea Sunrise Person
New York Times bestselling author Chantal Fernando returns to the Knights of Fury series with her most complicated hero yet. He may be the epitome of cool, but this MC president isn’t called Temper for nothing...
Temper
by Chantal Fernando
Prologue
Five Years Ago
“Can I have a whiskey, please?” the brown-eyed behemoth of a man asks, studying me with a little too much intensity for my liking. He’s wearing a black cut over more black clothing, and he smells good, like leather with a hint of cologne. “You have pretty eyes.”
“Thank you,” I reply, ducking my head. My eyes were always a source of insecurity for me growing up, with them being quite bright and amber in color. To say I was teased about them was an understatement. At school they used to call me a cat and say I was possessed. I don’t care what people think about me anymore, a confidence I think comes with age, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t get embarrassed when someone says something about them.
“What’s your name?” he asks, never moving his eyes from me.
“Abbie.”
“I’m Temper,” he says, then clears his throat. “I mean, Tommy.”
“How many people call you Tommy?” I find myself asking, trying to hide my smile. I’ve heard all of the bikers that pass through use road names for each other. I don’t know how many of them actually go by their real names, but it’s nice that he offered it to me. I can only imagine why they call him Temper, and if that isn’t warning to stay away from this man, I don’t know what is.