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Game of Hearts by Cathy Yardley
Release Date: January 30th 2018
Series: Fandom Hearts #3
Pages: 236
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Kyla Summers has been offered the opportunity of a lifetime to get her cosplay business off the ground, and only one thing stands in her way. She needs someone to take over the auto shop, and there’s only one person she can think of to call…
Jericho Salomon hasn’t been back in his home town since he joined a biker gang and rode off nine years ago. When his best friend’s kid sister calls begging for help, he knows that he owes the family a debt and he intends to pay. This is easier said than done once he finds that the kid is all grown up…
She needs a pair of skillful hands. He needs to keep his hands off. When sparks begin to fly, can they keep things strictly business, or will their hearts get hopelessly tangled? No more games, it’s time to play for keeps.
{EXCERPT}
She sighed. “GMC van owner? Wears a beanie?”
“Yeah. You know him?”
She shrugged. “He was kind of a sexist asshat when he dropped it off. Was looking for the mechanic — a man, obviously, not a woman like me.”
She couldn’t help but notice that Jericho looked her over quickly, lingering on her chest just a second after she said woman. His eyebrow went up. “And you didn’t kill him?”
“Nope. I did my patented calming technique, went hyper-cheerful, and sent him on his way.”
Jericho moved closer, all but whispering in her ear. “Someday, you gotta teach me this technique of yours.”
She shivered. I’d love to teach you muscle-tensing and relaxing techniques. Which only brought back memories of last night’s dream.
“Do you really want to know?” she quickly asked, heading off that avenue of thought.
“Yeah, I do.” He smiled at her.
“Promise not to tell anyone?”
“Who am I gonna tell?” She could tell he was trying not to laugh. “Okay, I promise.”
Now she was dying with embarrassment. What was she thinking? Leaning forward, she buried her head against his chest, then muttered, “I do kegels.”
She felt him stiffen. “You… eat bagels?” he asked.
She started snickering, then giggling, then laughing even harder, until he laughed along with her, lightly looping his arms around her.
“Not bagels,” she corrected, breathlessly, her cheeks hurting from smiling. “I do kegels.”
He blinked, leaning back to stare at her. “You do… kegels?” he repeated.
“When I get stressed out, or a customer pisses me off, or I get mansplained by some douchebag cosplay guy or something,” she whispered. “I just smile like Pollyanna on meth and do kegels until the desire to strangle them passes.”
He stared at her for a long moment, and she wondered if he was shocked or uncomfortable, until he started laughing, much like she had. In fact, he’d released her and was doubled over, leaning against a wall. “Oh, my God,” he said, wiping at his eye. “You are too much. Really. You are nuts.”
“Sure, laugh now,” she said, poking him in the midsection and looking up at him, her eyes bright with mischief. “But someday I’ll be a Zen monk who can bend a metal bar with her hoohah, and who’ll be laughing then, huh?”
About Cathy Yardley:
Cathy Yardley is an award-winning author of romance, chick lit, and urban fantasy, who has sold over 1.2 million copies of books for publishers like St. Martin's, Avon, and Harlequin. She writes fun, geeky, and diverse characters who believe that underdogs can make good and sometimes being a little wrong is just right. She likes writing about quirky, crazy adventures, because she's had plenty of her own: she had her own army in the Society of Creative Anachronism; she's spent a New Year's on a 3-day solitary vision quest in the Mojave Desert; she had VIP access to the Viper Room in Los Angeles. Now, she spends her time writing in the wilds of East Seattle, trying to prevent her son from learning the truth of any of said adventures, and riding herd on her two dogs (and one husband.)
