Welcome back to the Screwdriver character intros. Last week we met Oumou for the first time on the page. This week we meet Yahya, her love interest.
ABOUT YAHYA
Yahya is Danai's cousin. Down-to-Earth and dependable, he runs the local automechanic shop in their small town. He believes in tight-knit families/communities and loves cars. More accurately, the mechanics of cars. 🚗🚗🚗
I've taken the excerpt from the scene in THE TAINTED PRINCE where we meet Yahya for the first time on the page. Enjoy.
Now, Danai swivelled in the opposite direction. An assortment of damaged cars stood on the unpaved forecourt in various stages of repair. The sound of an electric drill clashed with music blasting from a radio and a running car engine.
She avoided the puddles of rainwater as she walked towards the bays where men in oil-stained overalls worked on vehicles on ramps and lifts. The smell of grease, petrol and metal floated in the air.
The scents and sounds filled her with nostalgia, and a smile broke on her face. It didn’t matter where else in the world she’d visited or the calibre of people she’d met. This was home. Where she truly belonged.
One of the men swivelled, probably expecting to see a customer.
“Danai!” he cheered, and the rest of the men turned in her direction, calling out greetings.
“Hello, guys,” she replied, smiling.
“Hey, ti sè,” the first guy, her cousin, wrapped her in a familial hug. “We weren’t expecting you today.”
“Hey, Yahya. I thought I’d make it a surprise.” She untangled from him and patted his stubbled chin. “You know you’re only a few months older than me, right?”
At thirty years old, Yahya was her oldest cousin, the son of her father’s brother, Uncle Hissene. He had a sister, Aminata, who would turn twenty-five this year.
“I’m still older, coz.” Yahya took her travel bag and carried it towards the cabin, which served as the office. “How’s work?”
“Work’s good.” She walked past the small wooden reception counter to the chair in front of a dark-wood table and settled into it. “I have a few days between assignments, so I decided to visit you guys.”
“You missed us.” Her cousin grinned and leaned against the desk. The top half of his blue overall was wrapped around his hips, revealing a white cotton vest clinging to and contrasting against bulging ebony muscular chest, shoulders, and arms.
Danai chuckled. “I did. Where is dad?”
“My dad picked yours up earlier. They had a meeting in the city.”
“Oh. I guess I’ll see him later. How are Uncle and Auntie and Aminata?”
Her dad, Ngarta, and Yahya’s father, Hissene, were brothers. The two of them had started the mechanic shop when they’d been young men. But Hissene decided to go into local politics years ago and was now a Member of Parliament.
“Everyone is fine. Pops is still giving me a hard time about working here. Thinks I should come work with him.”
“Doing what? You love dismantling cars and putting them back together.”
Uncle Hissene had been trying to convince her dad to leave the auto shop and join him in politics. But her father was a simple man who loved the simple life. So, imagine Hissene’s dismay when his son decided he wanted to work as a mechanic.
“I don’t even know for Pops. I have no interest in sitting in an office and getting fat.”
He chuckled as she shook her head in amusement.
“There are things I would compromise but not that.” Yahya’s eyes glazed in a faraway expression.
The Tainted Prince is out now in ebook and paperback.
Come back next time for more about Yahya and Oumou.
ABOUT SCREWDRIVER
Title: Screwdriver
Author: Kiru Taye
A Royal House of Saene spinoff
Genre: Steamy Contemporary Romance
Tropes: friends-to-lovers, blue-collar, small town, forced proximity
BLURB
Small-town boss lady Oumou isn’t interested in international playboy princes, although her best friend is in love with one. She’ll happily settle for the frog, or rather, the local mechanic, Yahya. But it’s never going to happen because he’s family and out of bounds. That’s until they’re stuck together as quarantine buddies, and their attraction combusts in the confines of the apartment. Soon the man so skilled at unscrewing her wheel-nut becomes the sexy hunk satisfying her every fantasy. But what happens when reality kicks in the door?
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