{Release Day & Exclusive Excerpt} Variable Onset by Layla Reyne (@LaylaReyne @CarinaPress @ANovelTakePR)

Variable Onset
by
Layla Reyne
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Publisher: Carina Press
Release Date: May 4, 2020 (Ebook)
Length (Print & Ebook/Audio): 243 pages
Subgenre: M/M Romantic Mystery/Suspense
 
To catch a killer, a special agent and his former student will need to get close—to their target, and each other. Layla Reyne returns with a stand-alone romantic mystery.
 
When the serial killer known as Dr. Fear seemingly reemerges after a cooling-off period, Special Agent Lincoln Monroe wants on the case. He knows his research on the calculating criminal, who targets couples and uses their worst fears to kill them, could prove invaluable. But nothing can prepare Lincoln for the agent waiting for him in Apex, Virginia: a brash and cocky former student. Carter Warren is everything Lincoln is not, and somehow everything he wants. And they’ll be going undercover. As newlyweds.
 
For Carter, seeing Lincoln again—and flustered to boot—pokes his raging bear of a crush something fierce. He thinks posing as lovers will provide the perfect bait for Dr. Fear. But pretending to be married forces them to confront fears of their own…like giving in to the very real chemistry between them.
 
With evidence pointing to the possibility of a copycat killer, Lincoln and Carter will have to race to separate truth from fiction. But when another couple goes missing, finding the killer will test every ounce of their training, skills and the strength of their bond like never before. 

About Variable Onset from Layla Reyne:
 
A prickly FBI instructor meets his match - and undercover husband - in the brash, flirtatious former student who made his professor days hell… and who always had the hots for teacher. With their cold case suddenly heating up, will things get too hot to handle, in their fake relationship and in their investigation, for the unlikely pair to survive?

Read Our EXCLUSIVE Excerpt from Variable Onset!

In Variable Onset, a whodunit mystery meets a romantic will-they-or-won’t-they as a prickly FBI instructor teams up with his former student—as undercover husbands—to catch a serial killer. Will things get too hot to handle, in their fake relationship and in their investigation? Read on for an excerpt!

“We should go to the library. Or to the lab.”

Carter didn’t see how that would do Lincoln much good in this state. He’d just be pacing a smaller area. “We should wait for direction from DC as to next steps,” he said from his seat at the table. “For now, why don’t you sit?”

Lincoln walked past him, commencing lap fifteen. “We’re hours past the kill window for Ruby and Chase.”

“They’re not gonna call mid-op, and the op likely pushed out the window. Distraction and delay.”

Lincoln rounded the kitchen island. “Or it sped the window up.”

“Why don’t you grab your guitar and play something?” Carter suggested. If Lincoln’s skills with the guitar were half as good as his talent at the piano, it was something Carter wanted to see and hear, a distraction for them both. “You sing too?”

A stutter step, a curse, a dark glare from the other side of the table.

“Ooh,” Carter drawled. “That’s a yes.”

“I’ve done enough playing today already.”

“Except this is for an audience of one. Your husband, Professor Polk. No pressure. You can handle that.”

“No,” he clipped out, headed back for the kitchen.

“Tell me about the stage fright.”

Lincoln spun and flung his hands in the air. “For fuck’s sake, Carter, why?”

Carter pushed out of his chair and approached his partner like he would a caged lion, which was about how Lincoln looked right now. Face scrunched in anger, blond hair askew, practically growling, definitely prowling. Carter advanced with caution, aiming at not getting eaten alive. At least not in the bad way. “Because the thought of playing in front of crowds makes you feel ill,” he said. “And maybe that feeling, plus the pacing, will make you feel even worse. So you’ll stop pacing.”

Lincoln narrowed his eyes and leaned back against the kitchen sink, creating more distance between them. “You are diabolical.”

“And curious.” He rested a hip against the island, letting Lincoln have his space.

“I’m supposed to be the pissy house cat.”

“Oh don’t worry, babe, you still hold that title. Your lion’s mane is out to here.” Carter held his hands up on either side of his head.

Lincoln frantically smoothed down the ruffled locks. “Fuck you.”

Mission accomplished, Carter turned for the cabinets, grabbed the tequila bottle and two shot glasses, and returned to the table. “Come. Sit.”

“Cat, not a dog.”

He filled each glass with two fingers’ worth of the tequila. “Hence bribes.”
​
Steps approached behind him, and Carter bit back his smile.

About The Author ~

​Layla Reyne is the author of Dine With Me, and the Fog City, Agents Irish and Whiskey, Trouble Brewing, and Changing Lanes series. A Carolina Tar Heel who now calls the San Francisco Bay Area home, Layla enjoys weaving her bi-coastal experiences into her stories, along with adrenaline-fueled suspense and heart pounding romance.

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