As I was planning the story for Rescue Me, I realized I set most of my books in the summertime, and I decided I needed a winter story, after all, I've lived with snowy & cold weather all my life. In western New York, where the Silver Fox Romances are set, summer weather lasts a much shorter time than winter. It was fun adding all those realistic winter details into the story
Blurb:
After years of playing it safe, Bonnie Petrowski’s first
attempt at being wild and spontaneous leaves her spinning off the road during a
blinding snowstorm. The sassy widow has few regrets, but never owning up to her
feelings for her late husband’s best friend is one of them. And now it might be
too late.
Firefighter Joe Waterman isn’t going to let a little thing
like a blizzard stop him from getting the hell away from his big empty house.
He doesn’t get far, however, before discovering a small car buried in the snow.
When he recognizes his friend’s widow inside, his unwanted attraction to her
still blazes hot enough to melt the snow piling up around them. After he
rescues her, not only do the sparks continue to zap between them - Bonnie wants
to talk about their feelings for each
other.
Joe made a promise years ago and he’s bound to keep it. Even
if it means he and Bonnie can never have a chance at forever together.
Excerpt:
“Kick
off your boots and hang your coat on the hook over there.” Joe didn’t know why
his voice sounded strangled.
He
froze as he watched Bonnie shed the snowy coat and boots, then step out of the
wet, heavy sweatpants. He nearly choked when she turned to him and he got the
full impact of the woman he hadn’t seen in the past two years.
She’d
always been curvy, with hips that flared out just the way he liked it. But
right now that purple dress clung to her curves in a way that was almost
sinful. The V neckline showed off her mouthwatering cleavage. And her bare
feet…somehow seeing her toes with their pale pink polish made a low growl slip
from his lips.
“Did
you say something?”
“No.”
He turned and hung up his coat, then kicked his boots clear across the mudroom.
“Where did you go dressed up all fancy like that?”
Her
eyes widened, then narrowed. “Out to dinner.”
He
scoffed. “You drove all that way for a date?”
She
stepped over the clumps of snow, stomped past him into the kitchen, then
whirled around. “I didn’t say it was a date.”
“Dressed
like that?” Joe followed her, stepped up close. He caught a faint scent of
something flowery. She’d put on perfume for this guy.
Bonnie
propped her hands on those luscious hips. “So what if I went on a date. What’s
it to you?
She
was magnificent when she was wound up. And she was right. It was none of his
business. Except when he had to rescue her from her car. “He should have come
to you if he wanted to see you. Not make you drive in this crappy weather.” If
Joe knew who the jerk was, he’d—
“He
didn’t make me,” she snapped. “He said he had an early morning, so I offered to
make the drive. We didn’t know the weather was going to get bad. It was spur of
the moment. It was romantic.”
Romantic?
Nothing about the last couple of hours had been romantic. Something in her tone
sounded defensive, made him think she wasn’t telling him everything. “So who is
this guy?”
“You’re
not my father, Joe. What’s with the interrogation?”
“I’m
just concerned.”
When
she rolled her eyes, he was reminded of the cute young woman she’d been when
Frank first brought her around. Bright and sparkly with no shadows haunting her
eyes. “Don’t worry about me. I’m doing fine.”
“Of
course, you are.” The thought of Bonnie dressing up like that, all pretty and
sexy, for some guy he didn’t know bugged the hell out of him. Joe knew being
pissed that she’d never dressed up for him
made no sense at all. He’d watched her run off to Erie because that was the way
it had to be. But his screwed up emotions were no reason to treat her this way
now.
“Thank
you for getting me out of a ditch. I’m sorry I snapped at you, but I’m really
tired and—”
“Sure.
Follow me. The guest room has its own bathroom and you can use all the hot
water you want.”
“A
hot shower sounds wonderful.”
“I’ll
grab some dry clothes and leave them on the bed, then put on a pot of decaf.”
“That’d
be great.”
Joe
watched her pad down the hall, then went into the master and rummaged around in
his dresser for something for Bonnie to wear. He finally grabbed a T-shirt and another
pair of sweatpants. He stepped into the guest room and heard the shower running
behind the closed bathroom door.
As
a firefighter, he was the kind of guy who ran into a burning building when
everyone else was running out. But right now, knowing the woman he’d loved for
years was naked behind that closed door, he ran away like the flames of hell
were at his heels.
Pre-order Rescue Me now and read it in seven days!
All the Silver Fox Romances are standalone stories, but if you haven't read book #1, you catch up with Choose Me before Rescue Me releases!
And of course, you can sign up for my mailing list at any time for info on new releases and mailing-list-only giveaways!
Natasha
