I need a favor.

Knox had two simultaneous reactions to seeing Fiona Grady’s name flash across his phone screen as the text came in.

One, he sighed. The woman was a lot of work. She made his life much more chaotic. Something he did not welcome.

Two, his body tightened. Particularly one part right behind his fly.

Dammit.

Hearing or seeing her name made his body respond like he was a fourteen-year-old boy with a crush.

The woman had him twisted up. And worse, she knew it.

He picked up his phone and studied the message.

He was a twenty-eight-year-old man. And not just any man. He was a fucking grump. On purpose. And Fiona knew that as well. In fact, he was especially grumpy with her. She was an animal rights activist who had never met a furry or feathered creature she didn’t want to cuddle and coo at.

It wasn’t her love for animals that annoyed him, of course. It was the fact that she’d started bringing many of her rescues to Autre, Louisiana to live over the past eighteen months in the petting zoo that had slowly turned into an animal park that had slowly turned into a sanctuary for abused, abandoned, and neglected animals.

As Autre’s city manager and right-hand man to the mayor, Knox’s job had become more difficult because of those changes. There were more people underfoot now—visitors to the park, media, school groups, animal rights groups. There was also more paperwork crossing his desk with permits and licensing. There were more events too. Fundraisers, holiday parties, even a couple of protests from groups that believed all animals needed to be free in the wild. Hell, he even had more potholes to deal with now because of the increase in traffic.

And it was all Fiona Grady’s fault.

She was so not his type.

So why did she turn him on more than he ever had been before?

Hello???????

He felt the corner of his mouth tip up as her next text came across his screen.

She turned him on because she had three very important things going for her.

One, she was fucking gorgeous. She had long, dark hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a smile that was quick, bright, and full of mischief. Which he shouldn’t like but worked on him like a drug.

Two, she was fierce. She was petite and barely stood five-foot-one, but her personality and attitude were huge. She never backed down from his growls. He could bitch and bark at her and she hardly blinked.

For some reason he liked that.

She could always back her shit up. She might kick down a door to get to an abused animal and go toe to toe with the abuser, but she also knew the law, would have the correct permits, and would always win if someone tried to take her on.

Fuck, her boldness and her brain got him going.

Three, she lived almost seven hundred miles away. That was good. However twisted up she made him, most of the time she was too far away for him to do anything stupid about it.

I have a scar from the last time I did you a favor, he finally typed into his phone.

That was not entirely accurate. He had dirty fucking dreams from the last time he’d done her a favor.

And the favor before that.

It was the one before that where he’d been scarred.