*Excerpt from the upcoming novel, A Champion's Proposal. Please note, this excerpt is preliminary and is subject to editing changes before the official release date.
Prologue
Miss.
Jemisha knew the source of the
deep, yet annoying, voice before she turned around – Mordecai Champion. It was
only a matter of time before he said something to her. He was standing opposite
of her on the other side of the food-filled island in the home of her Savannah
and Harding – Savannah her best friend and Harding, Mordecai’s brother. In
fact, he’d been standing there,
watching her and sipping on a drink, pretending to be otherwise occupied by his
forever ringing and dinging cell phone but that was just a front. He was watching
her, and sipping.
Her eyes automatically rolled.
She refused to pay him any attention. She bounced baby Harley and admired him
for the beautiful baby that he was. He looked just like his father – same hazel
eyes and all – and he smelled so good. And he was a calm baby – must’ve got
that from Harding, too, because Savannah was anything but.
“Savannah had better thank her
lucky stars you took after your daddy,” she said softly. “Ain’t that right,
poochie, poochie?” she said in baby talk.
Baby Harley flashed a drooly,
gummy smile.
“Hellooo?” Mordecai said, seeking
to get Jemisha’s attention once more.
She looked up at him, her eyes
sweeping over his tall frame. Not only was he tall, but he was gorgeous – like
the dangerous kind of gorgeous that
could get a woman in some serious trouble if she didn’t keep herself in check.
He even had the look of a troublemaker – a bad boy. The type to act first and ask
questions later. Whenever she saw him, he always had that insidious smirk on
his face like he’d been up to something.
Probably had.
Mordecai was a ladies man. Why wouldn’t he be?
With black, slightly curly hair, he stood six-feet-four with an amazing pair of
hazel eyes and skin creamy enough to be dessert. He always wore Polos that
conformed to the shape of his muscular chest and arms with jeans that rode his
hips like a cowboy on a racehorse at the Kentucky Derby. He had a pair of dark,
black lashes – the kind most women would either kill for or buy – that curtained
his beautiful eyes and a trimmed mustache that brought out the fullness of his,
square lips.
After she was done smiling at
Harley, Jemisha wiped the smile from her face, looked at Mordecai and said
blandly, “Hi, Mordecai. How are you?”
“I’m me,” he responded.
Her eyes narrowed. I’m me. What kind of response was that?
And why was he still staring at her, leaned up against the counter watching her
like she was the sixty-inch flat screen mounted on the wall in the living room?
She decided to find out. “Um…did
you want something?”
“I would like to spend some time
with my nephew. You’ve been hogging him all evening.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “No,
I haven’t. Savannah literally just handed him to me like five minutes ago.”
Mordecai grinned. She had, hadn’t
she? But he didn’t care. Besides, it was no coincidence he’d visited the family
on the same weekend Jemisha was here. He’d been planning a trip to Asheville
for the longest, but with a heavy workload, he put off scheduling a definite
date. Then his sister Zoya slipped up and asked him if he was coming this
particular weekend because in her words, “Jemisha
would be here, too” almost as if she’d known he’d taken a liking to Jemisha.
She probably had. Zoya was observant like that.
So here he was, staring at the
woman – Jemisha Rayford – his sister-in-law’s best friend. He’d seen her in
passing but never paid much attention to her because honestly, he never paid
any considerable amount of attention to any woman. Couldn’t have no broads
thinking silly things that weren’t going to happen – like him actually wanting
to be in a relationship.
Not Mordecai Champion.
Coming October 4, 2019!
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