Over a year ago, I wrote a Christmas novella about the men of a fire and marine rescue station in Clearwater, Florida. I designed
Santa Wore Leathers as a kicking-off point for a series of books about these hunky heroes, even though the romance was about a man-shy reporter with a thong-stealing German shepherd and her new muscle-bound next door neighbor. Oh ladies, Dan "Wolf" Wolford was the kind of man to get all the women hot and bothered...especially her.
So, here we are in July and book one of this Firemen's Wild Heat series--
TO CATCH A FLAME--releases on October 2nd. If you haven't read
Santa Wore Leathers, you didn't get to meet Wolf's youngest sister, Cassie. Now Cassie is a bit of a dreamer, a spitfire and she's had a crush on her brothers' co-worker at the station, Quinn, for three years. But Quinn doesn't think he's good enough for her...besides relationships aren't his thing.
As a bridge between the Christmas novella and the book coming out in October, here's a brief segment. A special moment between the hero and heroine of the novella AND the first teeny-tiny step of Cassie and Quinn coming together.
A FREE READ!
Christmas in July...what could be better?
CHRISTMAS
DAY WITH WOLF AND BECCA
Becca
was so stuffed from Christmas dinner, she didn’t think she could move from her
spot in the corner of Wolf’s sofa. Every one of his siblings had brought a side
dish and dessert, while he’d baked ham and steamed shrimp and crab legs. You
had to love a man so secure in his masculinity, he could man the kitchen to
cook for his family. Her gaze swept over her muscled hunk in his black leather pants
and Santa hat. He could do his fair share of cooking in the bedroom, too, and
the shower and the kitchen counter…and on his Harley. She squirmed a little.
Didn’t her bottom still bear the imprint of his bike’s speedometer?
As
if he sensed her movement, his attention turned to her and a slow, sexy smile
spread. His eyebrows rose for a fraction of a second almost to signify he read
her thoughts. Now that they’d worked through their issues of trust and
desertion, they’d grown closer; if that were possible. He was so intuitive to
her moods and needs.
“Want
more wine, sweetheart?” Wolf whispered a kiss across her lips. “Might help ease
that sore bottom.” Low laughter rumbled from his chest.
Her
nipples peaked so they could hear his almost silent message. “No, I’m fine.”
“Indeed
you are.” He winked and moved across the room to offer April and her fiancé
more pinot grigio.
Soft
holiday music wove through the crevices of the raucous conversation between his
entire family. They certainly knew how to fill a house with teasing and
laughter. Wolf’s large Christmas tree was surrounded with wrapped gifts. The
largest one—the stroller for Jace and Wendy Anne’s unborn baby—sat off to the
side, wrapped in Santa paper and red ribbon.
Cassie
flounced onto the sofa next to Becca. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face
pinched. She clasped the younger woman’s hand. “No word from Quinn?”
She
shook her head and leaned her head against Becca’s shoulder. A long sigh
shuddered from her slender body. So, Christmas wasn’t merry and bright for
everyone. She wrapped an arm around Cassie and looked for Wolf. He’d know how
to handle his baby sister. Their gazes connected, and he reached for something
on the window sill.
“Hey
Cassie, you’ve got mail here.” He handed her some envelopes. “Thought you had
your address forwarded.”
“I
did, but you know the mail system. If my name’s spelled different, it doesn’t
get pushed on through.” She shuffled through them. “A bill. Ugh. Two credit
card offers. What’s this? Looks like a Christmas card. No return address.” She
tore it open. “Merry Christmas to Someone Special.” She flipped it open and
gasped. “It’s from Quinn. He didn’t forget me after all. Oh, look, he wrote ʻTo the sweetest pain in the ass I knowʼ. How
romantic is that?” Her eyes sparkled with excitement.
Jace
laughed. “Quinn’s not big in the romance department. He’s not a believer, sis.”
Cassie
held the card to her chest. “You just give me time. I’ll make a believer out of
him.”
Wolf
handed Becca an envelope. “You’ve even got mail coming here.”
She
took the envelope. “Me?” She turned it over, read the printed label. “Must be
an ad of some kind.”
“Open
it.” Cassie elbowed her.
Wolf
leaned a hip against the arm of the sofa to read over her shoulder. “Better not
be from a damn man.”
“Oh,
shush.” She slipped her finger under the seal and tugged on the card. “This
can’t be for me. It’s an anniversary card.”
“Really?”
Wolf took the envelope and studied it. “Read it out loud, sweetheart.”
“Yes,”
Wendy Anne chimed in. “Maybe we can figure out who it’s supposed to be for.” A
chorus of agreement followed.
“It’s
a fiftieth anniversary card. How did it get sent to me?” She opened it to hunt
for a signature and found, instead, a long hand-written note.
“Read
it to everyone.” Wolf nudged her.
“ʻHappy Anniversary, my love. You’ve given me
many wonderful memories over the years. I never thought it was possible, but I
love you more now than I did the day I proposed.ʼ” She glanced at the
family gathered around her. “Oh, this is too personal to read. I feel as if I’m
eavesdropping. Is there a return address on the card? I need to see the right
woman gets this.”
Wolf
extended it in front of her so she could see. “Nope. Read on, sweetheart. Maybe
there’s a clue. A name. Something.”
“Okay…
‘Do you remember the day Einstein stole
your red thongs…’” She glanced at Wolf. Darn if he wasn’t wearing an
innocent expression. Note to self: Don’t play poker with this man. “ʻ…and I chased him around the yard? Or the time I fell off the ladder because I
was looking at you in those leather pants you wore? Then there was the day you
broke your nose and had that cute lisp. And the night—Christmas Eve—when I
pulled the Harley into a cove of palm trees and palms and we made love against
the handlebars. I remember all those things and more. But mainly, I remember
our first Christmas together when I pro…’” her vision flooded with tears
and she blinked them away. “ʻ…when I
proposed to you in front of the whole family.’”
The
card fluttered to her lap and she wiped the tears from her eyes.
Wolf
was on bended knee in front of her, an opened ring box in his large hand. “Will
you marry me, Becca Jade Sinclair?”
She
slipped off the sofa and pushed Wolf back to the floor, straddling his hips. “Yes.
Yes, I’ll marry you.” He slipped the square diamond surrounded by smaller
diamonds from the jeweler’s box, kissed it and then slipped it on her finger.
Wrapping his arms around her, he rolled her over to kiss her as only he knew
how to kiss—and her toes curled in the new stiletto boots he’d given her for
Christmas.
Everyone
clapped and cheered. Einstein, thinking it was play time, trotted in from the
kitchen wearing a sweater that proclaimed “I’m the ring bearer.”
“Where
did he get that sweater?” Her heart was practically bursting with happiness.
“Cassie
knitted it for him.” Wolf nuzzled her neck.
“So
the whole family was in on this?” She glanced around, noting everyone was
wiping away happy tears.
Wolf
nipped her jaw. “Hey, this is the Wolf pack. We do everything together.” A slow
grin spread and his hand gently caressed her sore bottom. “Well, almost
everything. I love you.”
When
she’d least expected it, she’d found her alpha, her love and her family. What a
difference a year had made. “I love you, too, Wolf.”
.gif)
