he’s going to make her pay for ruining his reputation.

She torched his reputation. Now she needs his job—and he's demanding she fake-date him to fix it.

Breeze has spent years hiding from life behind the counter of her late parents' café in Glades Bay. No time for romance, no room for fun—just grief and endless coffee orders.

Until a freak fireworks explosion burns Steamy Sips... and her apartment with it.

Desperate and jobless, the only gig she's qualified for is at the rival café across town—the one owned by Jem, the tattooed, leather-clad single dad who rides with The Free Birds biker club. The same man she just eviscerated in a viral rant, calling him and his "thugs" a danger to their sleepy town.

Jem doesn't forgive easily. But he needs the locals to see him as a reformed family man, not a threat. His price for hiring her? Fake a scorching-hot romance for a few weeks. Public dates, hand-holding, convincing smiles. Make Glades Bay believe he's just a devoted dad rebuilding his life.

The more they fake it—the forced proximity, the electric touches, the nights when the act slips into something dangerously real—the more Breeze sees the man behind the bad reputation. A protector. A father. A lover who might just heal her broken heart.

But if the town discovers the lie, or worse, if Jem's dangerous past catches up, she'll lose everything. Again.