WILD HEAT Read online

  For two days, they'd hashed through the details of the Desolation Wilderness case, and by Tuesday evening, she'd finished writing up the report. Albert hadn't asked a lot of questions about Logan beyond the case. He didn't have to. Not when it was obvious where her heart lay.

  “I'm staying in Lake Tahoe,” she'd told him.

  “Logan?” had been his response.

  She'd had to laugh at herself. Clearly, love had been written all over her face. And then Albert had surprised her again. He'd felt confident that she was safe, so he was leaving town. And he'd made an appointment for her to meet with the superintendent of the Forest Service. Alone. This wasn't his case, he'd told her. And he wasn't going to take any of the credit.

  William McCurdy was a very sharp man, his questions and comments concise and to the point. But she'd refused to leave his office until she was one hundred percent certain he supported Logan's innocence, even though the samples from his garage had been a match in the explosion by the housing development.

  “Of course he's not guilty,” McCurdy had told her. “Unfortunately, based on the meager facts initially at hand, I had no choice but to suspend him until we'd conclusively ruled him out as a suspect.”

  Much to her surprise, at the end of their meeting, he'd offered her a job working directly for him. The ever-shrinking line between the city and the country was putting wildland firefighters' lives in greater peril than ever before as they worked to save not only forests but houses and homeowners, often getting caught in the middle. McCurdy needed someone to keep an eye on the urban interface.

  She accepted without hesitation. Lake Tahoe was now her beautiful new home.

  The lake was less than a quarter mile from the Forest Service headquarters, and she made a beeline for the beach, smiling at the news the superintendent had given her that the fire was officially under control. Smoke jumpers and extra hotshot crews had been called off. Amazingly, they'd found Jenny on the mountain. Alive. McCurdy didn't know anything else, but she'd call the hospital soon enough and get the rest of the details for her report.

  She kicked her shoes off as she walked toward the clear blue water. The sky had lost its look of dark gloom, the clouds quickly shaking off the gray to return to their usual bleached-white glory. She was finally ready to take in the beauty all around her.

  She listened to the water lapping up on the shore, watched a couple of toddlers giggle as they rolled in the sand, and then someone was saying her name and she turned around and saw Logan standing right behind her.

  Her heart pounded like crazy, just like it had the first time she'd seen him six months earlier, standing in the doorway of the bar; just like it had five days ago when he'd pulled off his helmet after running up the mountain and she'd realized he was the man she was after; just like it had when they'd finally made love and she'd known love was exactly what she felt for him.

  Deep, unending love.

  She drank in the sight of him. He was so beautiful, so big and strong.

  And he was alive.

  But even though she was desperate to be alone with him, to tell him everything that was in her heart, naked and in his arms instead of standing in the middle of a public beach, she needed closure first.

  “What happened to Jenny? Is she going to die?”

  Logan's eyes were dark with regret. “Sam found her. She was badly burned, but still breathing. The doctors don't think she'll live without life support.” He paused. “And she's pregnant.”

  “She told me she was pregnant when I was taped to the tree,” Maya said, swallowing hard, vividly remembering the horrific scene. “She was going to tell everyone it was your baby.”

  “I should have guessed. I should have known what she was plotting.”

  “No one could have known,” Maya said firmly. “She was a jealous woman who went over the edge. I wouldn't have picked her out of a crowd.”

  He moved closer. “Every time I think of you with her, I go a little crazy.”

  “I'm not going to say I wasn't scared, because I was.” She smiled at him. “But I was never worried. Not for a single second. Because the best damn hotshot in the world was coming for me.”

  She didn't want to talk anymore, so she launched herself at him, knocking them both down into the sand. He pressed a row of kisses along her jawline.

  “I'm glad you're still here,” he whispered into her ear, sending shivers up her spine.

  He rolled them over so that the warm sand was at her back and he was blocking the sunlight with his beautiful face. She wasn't confused anymore. All she wanted was Logan. Forever.

  “I love you,” she said, the words falling from her tongue so easily. And then they were kissing again, and she was whispering the same three all-important words between their kisses, wanting to tell him a hundred times, a thousand times that she loved him, to make up for her earlier reticence, her confusion.

  “So many times, I wanted to tell you I loved you.” She needed to explain everything to him, knowing that she could admit her weaknesses, that he would still love her. “I was so scared. I still am.”

  “No,” he told her as he stroked her arms, her back, her hair. “You're the bravest woman I know. The strongest.”

  “I didn't want to love you. I didn't want to love any firefighter, ever again. I thought my mother was crazy sitting by the phone. Waiting. How could she think my father wouldn't come back? He was my hero. I thought he was invincible.”

  “He was.”

  “He wasn't, Logan. He died.”

  “And before that day came he loved you with everything he had. So did your brother.”

  The way he was looking at her, like she was the only woman he'd ever loved—like she was the only woman he would love for the rest of time—made her tremble with desire. And something so much deeper, so much stronger.

  “I've always loved you, Maya, from the first moment I saw you, when you demanded a drink, then decided kissing me was better than getting drunk.”

  She stared at him, surprised by his revelation. “You couldn't have. I was a mess.”

  “You were beautiful. As soon as I touched you I knew you were mine.”

  It had been the same for her. “That day in the bar,” she whispered, “you were all that stood between me and—”

  “I know, sweetheart. You don't need to tell me.”

  “But I do,” she insisted. “You were a flash of light in the darkness. The only person who could help me find my way out.”

  “You would have found your way without me, Maya. I'm the one who needed you. I was running. Just like you. Every day, I was afraid of losing control, afraid of what would happen if I did.”

  “I like it when you lose control,” she teased.

  He smiled and she pressed her fingertips against his beautiful lips.

  “That's just it,” he said softly, his words a sensuous caress. “I can lose control with you, Maya. You make everything right. Perfect.”

  She couldn't stand to keep her mouth off of him for another second, so she caught a handful of his T-shirt in her fist and pulled him closer, a repeat performance of their first kiss.

  His grin was swift and then his mouth was on hers and his tongue was in her mouth, tasting her, branding her as no man ever had.

  “Marry me,” he said later that night when they were finally alone and she was cradled in his arms, and she whispered “Yes” to the only man on earth for whom she would have dared risk everything.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  BEFORE PLUNGING wholeheartedly into writing romance, Bella Andre got a BA in economics at Stanford University, worked as a marketing director, and strutted hundreds of stages as a rock star. Bella now lives in Northern California with her husband, children, and dog, where she is currently working on the next novel in her Hotshots: Men of Fire series for Bantam Dell.

  If you loved Wild Heat, stay tuned

  for the next book in Bella's steamy

  Hot Shots series …

  HOT AS SIN
r />   BY BELLA ANDRE

  Coming from Dell

  THEY'RE LIVING LIFE TO THE EXTREME … AND BURNING UP THE COLD MOUNTAIN NIGHTS

  ONLY TOTAL desperation could reunite Dianna Kelley with Sam MacKenzie, the irresistible bad boy she walked out on ten years ago. But the fearless firefighter with awesome wilderness skills is the only one who can take her where she needs to go. It's a gamble—tracking down her endangered sister while keeping Sam and their undeniable attraction at arm's length. Not easy when they're trekking into a remote corner of the Rockies, where she's got to trust her former lover with her life.

  Despite their past, Sam never could refuse a damsel in distress, especially one who has haunted his dreams for years. He'll help find her sister and get Dianna out of his system once and for all. But soon it's hard to tell whether the greatest threat is from the rushing rapids, the deadly enemy on their trail, or the passion that's sending them straight into the line of fire.

  WILD HEAT

  A Dell Book / May 2009

  Published by Bantam Dell

  A Division of Random House, Inc.

  New York, New York

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the

  product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to

  actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved

  Copyright © 2009 by Bella Andre

  Dell is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.,

  and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  eISBN: 978-0-440-33845-1

  www.bantamdell.com

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