Temper: Deliverance: Book Three of the TEMPER Saga, page 28
As soon as the money was in the bowl, the monk turned silent and raised his head. Lana repressed an instinctive reaction to step back. Two milky-white eyes topping a lined and emaciated tanned face bored into hers. Razor-thin lips stretched, revealing toothless gums.
“Beware the path of love, lest it becomes the path of death.” Carried by a powerful voice, his words rang clear and sharp in the late afternoon heat. Then it was over. The man lowered his head and went on chanting.
Cold sweat broke on Lana’s back and forehead. Mouth dry, at a total loss, she could only gape at the man. Haunting memories of past brushes with other creepy messengers, some allies, some enemies, rushed forward.
We’re supposed to be done with all of this!
“Lana san!” Yuki’s voice shook up Lana. Her spouses were jogging down the street to catch up with her, Yuki holding Nana in a baby carrier in front of her.
“Isao, come, we’re leaving,” Lana told her son still under the gate. This time, he complied immediately and ran to her open arms.
“Bye bye!” he said, waving his little hand at something behind her. The cat, no doubt.
“Are you all right?” Yuki asked, worried, when they reunited.
“Yes, don’t worry. I’m flustered, stressed and walking on jelly legs, but I’m fine. This sprint killed me though.”
“You’re indeed flushed red and sweating,” Naruhito pointed out with a frown as she handed him Isao. She repressed an eyeroll. He was never one to soothe her bruised ego. “It is high time you start running laps and doing push-ups again. We will begin with a series of twenty as early as tomorrow.”
“Twenty? Oh no, I can’t!”
“Thirty then.”
“What? Goshujin sama, why are you doing this?”
“Forty.”
“All right, all right! Stop, please! My arms hurt already.”
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About the Author
Readers will find behind the pen name Lila Mina a woman in her early forties who has been living in Japan for a decade with her family. After nearly twenty years of using her writing skills for drafting legal briefs and business reports, she went back to her first love: fiction. These days, you can find her practicing aikido, writing or editing her manuscripts in local coffee shops, or sipping delicious green tea at home.
Inspired by the rich and complex Japanese culture and folklore, her stories feature strong and mature female protagonists facing their inner demons or ruthless enemies and who are never shy to embrace their desires.
The TEMPER saga is her first major published work of fiction.
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Table of Contents
1 An Unlikely Ally
2 A Different Kind of Toy
3 As Sharp as a Blade
4 The Witch of the East
5 The Clearing
6 Painful Revelations
7 Loving Declarations
8 Sickening Revelations
9 Fighting Back
10 Trusting Him with Her Life
11 Healed
12 A Shroud of Bloody Snow
13 Awakening
14 A Mother’s Sacrifice
15 Getting to Know Each Other
16 Their Daughter
17 Mending Wounds
18 Back to Training
19 Sweet and Alluring Revenge
20 Setting the Record Straight
21 Bittersweet Joy
22 Her Spitting Image
23 A Love Tempered by Hardship and Duty
24 Face to Face
25 Freedom
Glossary of Japanese terms
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Lila Mina, Temper: Deliverance: Book Three of the TEMPER Saga
