Hot as Sin (Hot Shots: Men of Fire #2)(24)
Author: Bella Andre

She figured she could easily handle camping and rafting. Water and dirt weren’t her problems.

Heights, however, were.

April. Think of April.

She didn’t have time for the butterflies in her stomach. She hadn’t gotten to where she was by allowing herself to be weak or to ever give in to her fears. She wouldn’t start now, when it mattered most.

“I can handle it, Sam. I work out at the gym with a trainer and I’ve taken some self-defense classes for a segment we did a couple of months ago, even though I haven’t spent much time outdoors. Not since—” She made herself finish her sentence. “Not since I moved to San Francisco.”

He looked into her eyes for several uncomfortable moments. “I can find your sister alone, Dianna.”

Wasn’t he the one who’d told her that he admired her for never running from a challenge? Regardless of the possible danger, she wasn’t going to back down. No matter how hard the going got.

“No way,” she said as evenly as she could, given how fast her heart was racing and how irritated she continued to be with his heavy-handedness. “I’m not going to sit here and wait for you to bring her back.”

“It’s not going to be easy,” he warned her again.

“Nothing ever is.”

His mouth tightened. Clearly, he wasn’t happy with her choice. Well, too bad.

Moving back toward the door, he said, “We’ve got to be prepared with tents. Whitewater equipment. Climbing ropes. I’m going to head out into town to pick up some gear before the stores close for the night. I want you to stay put while I’m gone.”

She didn’t have time to respond to his latest order before he was gone, knowing she had no other choice but to rely on his judgment and decisions for the time being. But as soon as she got her bearings back, she was going to let him know that she was subservient to no man.

Her head was still throbbing, so she downed a couple of Tylenol before packing up the clothes and toiletries she wouldn’t need in the Rockies to send home with Ellen. It didn’t take a wilderness pro to see that pretty much everything in her suitcase except her underwear would be useless on their trek to the commune.

Throwing her lingerie into a pile on top of the bed, she called her friend to quickly explain the situation. Ellen rushed into her room from the cafeteria a few minutes later.

“Are you crazy? You can’t go into the wilderness to find April!”

But Dianna’s mind was made up. “I’ll be safe with Sam,” she told her friend, even though, in truth, the exact opposite was true.

Although she knew with absolute certainty that he would keep her safe from the elements, she also knew that it would be nearly impossible to keep clear of the dangerous temptation he presented. Especially when his touch made her skin tingle and her brain forget why locking lips with him had been—and still would be—such a terrible idea.

“I promise to check in with you as soon as I can.” To forestall any further discussion, she said, “Thanks for taking my bag back home with you.”

“I really don’t like the sound of this,” Ellen said again.

Dianna silently agreed as she gave her friend one last hug good-bye. The entire situation was a powder keg ready to blow up at any second.

———

Sam came back to the hospital with two large backpacks full of gear. He’d had to push past the same wall of reporters on his way in and he was more irritated by them than he had any right to be. They were simply doing their job, even if he hated the way they were all trying to get a piece of Dianna.

She’d been all his once. Now she was a public commodity. And he was as much a stranger to her as any one of the reporters outside.

To make matters worse, he couldn’t get away from the look on her face when he’d asked her why she’d left.

“You honestly don’t know?”

Damn it, no, he didn’t. But now that she was tied up in knots over April’s disappearance, there was no way he could push her on it.

He never should have asked her for an explanation in the first place. Not when it only gave away exactly how much he’d once cared about her. Not when neither of them needed another reminder of how hot their passion had been and that they’d had a bond that went beyond the physical.

She was moving restlessly around the room when he walked back in. He got a full twenty seconds to appreciate her curves before she noticed him.

“Oh, you’re back!” she exclaimed, her hand moving over her heart. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked kissable. Utterly irresistible.

Wanting to keep something in front of the raging hard-on he was sporting, he dumped the contents of the backpacks on the bed.

“Climbing gear, sleeping bags, life jackets, lightweight shirts, pants, socks, waterproof boots.”

“I didn’t realize we’d need so much stuff.”

Still trying to push lust away, he went into teach-a-rookie-the-ropes mode.

“As far as I’m concerned, hightailing it through the Rockies is going to be no different than going in to fight a wildfire. I make sure my guys respect the power of the flames before they head out to beat the crap out of them. I want to make sure you have a healthy respect for nature’s power, too.”

Her eyes grew big as she took in the amount of equipment. He hadn’t meant to overwhelm her, hadn’t meant to make it all sound so frightening. But before he could take a step back and gently explain what everything was, he saw the pile of sexy lingerie sitting in the middle of the bed.

A cold sweat broke out across his forehead. Even at eighteen, when Dianna hadn’t been the least bit into fashion, he’d been amazed by how sexy her undergarments were. All that lace and silk had driven him crazy.

Just thinking of Dianna wearing the red panties made his blood run hot enough to start a fire. Way too close to the edge already, Sam simply couldn’t stop from wondering what she was wearing right that very second beneath her sweater and jeans.

How the hell could he keep it all business, all the time when all he wanted to do was pull Dianna into his arms and taste her sweetness? He shoved a life vest back into the backpack so hard that the shiny fabric nearly popped beneath the force of his fingers.

“Will’s going to meet us in back of the hospital at five thirty a.m. tomorrow.” His voice was husky with repressed need so he cleared his throat before continuing. “Do you feel well enough to check out right now?”

“I’m fine.”