Temptation, The Complete Serial Series 1-4 (The Temptation Serial Series) by Casey L. Bond

spine, I gripped the steering wheel as though it was his neck I was wringing and answered with a growl. “I’m perfectly fine, as you can see. Now, can we go, please?”
    He chuckled. “That depends on where you’re goin’, Darlin’.”
    “Does that southern drawl drop panties for you everywhere you go?”
    He smirked, pretending to ponder the answer to my question. “Most of the time, yes.”
    “Well, it doesn’t do a thing for me, so unless you’re writing me a ticket for something, we need to go. We have a meeting.”
    Officer Vain stiffened. “Meeting with whom? For what?”
    I rolled my eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business, but we have a meeting with Willy about renting a condo at his complex.”
    He ducked his head into the car, like… into the cab, and smiled while I tried to crab-crawl backward into Sin’s lap. She shoved me forward. Traitor bestie.
    With a wry smile, he affirmed, “His condo complex, huh?”
    “Yes. Now can we go?”
    He ducked back out of the car and I released a pent-up breath. Tapping the roof, he drawled, “Y’all take it slow around here. Whole town’s a speed trap.”
    Then his feet crunch-crunched back to his cruiser.
    I wasted no time leaving him in the dust.
    I needed to see Willy. STAT.
     
    ***
     
    Willy was an old man with floppy wrinkled skin so tan it looked like he was covered in leather. We found him at the condo complex, dipping a test tube into what looked like a brand new swimming pool. The complex itself was a set of eight. I’d have called them townhouses because each condo had an upstairs, downstairs, and even a small back porch, but each was its own building; separate from the rest, providing enough privacy but still allowing for a sense of community. The eight white-sided, miniature houses were arranged in a circle and shared a beautifully landscaped common area with a pool in the center.
    “Well, well. What have we here?” Willy said, rising to his feet. He had on jean shorts and nothing else, not even shoes. His head was bald on top, but with a long, gray biker-ish braid in the back that hung down to the edge of his jean shorts. It had obviously been a very long time since Willy saw a barber.
    “Hey,” I said with a wave. “Rose from Lyra’s sent us to see you. She said you had a condo available for rent on a monthly lease?”
    He ticked his head back. “Rose sent you, huh?”
    “Yeah. She said you… it’s no problem. Maybe she was mistaken.”
    Morgan and I turned to go when he stopped us. “I think it’s okay. I didn’t know she was sending you is all. I can rent it to you by the month. The owner might throw a fit, but I’m the property manager.” He hiked his jeans up on one side with the belt loop and stood a little taller, straightening his bowed back.
    I smiled. “How old are you, Willy?”
    He wagged his eyebrows. “Old enough to be your grandpa and still too young to care, sweet cheeks.”
    That made me throw my head back and laugh. Willy would be one awesome property manager. He put a cap on the test tube and waved for us to follow him to a small building situated between two of the condos.
    “Gotta test the chemicals in the water and make sure we have the right balance, we do.”
    What was he, Gollum? We ? Maybe he was speaking for the owner and himself. Or maybe Willy was just eccentric.
    He sat the tube down and shuffled through stacks of papers, leaving wet fingerprints to soak into the paper. “Here they are!”
    Sin nudged me and grinned.
    I took the paper from him and signed on the line he indicated. This place was mine for the next month and it felt like the pile of bricks on my shoulders just got a little lighter.
    “Don’t you want to see it—the condo, I mean?” He grinned. Ornery fella.
    “Nah. I trust you.”
    “Well, you need to know that there’s a couch and full kitchen and a bed, but there ain’t sheets or towels or pots or anything. There’s a shower curtain!” He raised a finger into the