Wild Heat (Hot Shots: Men of Fire #1)(15)
Author: Bella Andre

But even as she said the words, she felt herself soften. She knew how it felt to lose someone.

Logan’s face shuttered closed. “You always feel this sorry for your suspects? Interesting strategy.”

She clamped her lips together. Fine. She got it. He didn’t want to talk about whatever Joseph was dealing with. And he was right. They weren’t friends. They weren’t even acquaintances. Still, from everything she’d read in Logan’s file and her brief meeting with Joseph, she could see that Joseph was far more than a mentor. He was a father.

A sharp pain dug in beneath her breastbone: Logan’s love for Joseph was one more potential mark against him. Had watching Joseph slip away day by day sent Logan over the edge? Had it sent him back into old patterns that had long been buried by Joseph’s love? Was Logan Cain a playboy with a penchant for arson?

Or was he a true hero who’d gotten caught up in an arsonist’s trap as the perfect foil?

She looked at his profile, his strong nose and chin, his full, masculine lips. Was she having a hard time imagining him committing arson because he really was a good man? Or was it simply that she’d tasted the heat of his kisses?

Logan slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a deer running across their path. “I’m sorry,” he said, surprising her with his apology. “I shouldn’t have said that. All I’m asking is that you leave Joseph out of this.”

Conflicting emotions tore through her. Logan had shown her kindness in her darkest hour six months ago, but all she could give him in return was a bullet list of reasons why he was guilty of arson. She knew why he was pleading her to stop questioning Joseph, but it would be unprofessional and unethical for her to ignore an important source.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“You can if I give you what you’re looking for.”

Heat bloomed beneath Maya’s skin. They were just words, not an invitation. She steadied her breathing before she replied.

“It depends on what you give me.”

“Underage drinking.”

She was momentarily insulted. He didn’t really think that lame information was going to be enough, did he?

“What else?”

“What makes you think there’s more?”

“Your parents wouldn’t have sent you away because you broke into their stash a couple of times.”

“Probably not,” he agreed, his voice far too easy, far too calm for her to believe he was confessing much of anything to her. “I liked drugs and guns too.”

She shifted in her seat, wanting to make sure he understood who he was dealing with. “If you’d lived in the city, I’d care. I might even think you’d been into gangs. But Boulder? Come on. You wore hemp and smoked pot and went hunting on the weekends.”

His lips curved up in that devastating smile again, but this time he spoke with an edge. “Okay, then, why don’t you tell me the reason my mother sent me into what seemed like the middle of butt-fuck when I was seventeen and only wanted to get in trouble and get laid?” He caught her eyes before she could respond. “Fortunately, girls like a guy who knows his way around the woods.”

He allowed his eyes to move down her body and land on her br**sts. “And I definitely knew my way around in the dark, only using my hands to feel where I was going. Even when I was just a horny kid.” He turned back to the road. “But I don’t need to tell you that, do I? It’s the one thing about me that you already know for sure.”

Maya shifted in her seat to stare straight out the window. She hated that he knew her weaknesses, knew right where to jab for the greatest impact.

He came at her again. “Since you’re all out of questions, how about I ask you a couple?”

His deep, rich voice grated on her nerves. She’d never wanted to punch and kiss someone at the same time.

“How about you don’t?” She crossed her arms over her chest and pressed her lips together. She was not going to let him get to her.

“What were you doing in that bar back in November?”

“I don’t go to bars.” Which was entirely true, minus one stupid, grief-induced blip.

“Maybe you don’t anymore, but you sure as hell did six months ago.”

“You’re the one who’s going to be spilling secrets right now, Mr. Cain. Not me.” She wanted to shoot herself the minute the words came out of her mouth.

“Any time you want to share your secrets with me, Maya, I’m more than willing to listen.”

She knew exactly how he’d “listen” to her, given the chance. But she had no intention of taking the bait. He’d never learn her secrets in a million years, never lull her into saying something stupid with his seductive kisses, his knowing hands.

Just then, Logan’s radio crackled and he reached past her knee to turn up the volume. “Reporting a motel fire at 696 Lake Tahoe Boulevard, Highway 50. Station 3 and Station 4 have been dispatched to the scene.”

Maya stiffened. “That’s my motel. The one that’s on fire.”

His hands tightened on the wheel. “Who else have you pissed off today?”

Her heart pounded as the damning words left her mouth. “Only you.”

Logan flattened his foot on the gas pedal. She was pushing too hard. Getting too close. Joseph was right. She was smarter than any girlfriend he’d ever had, even though she definitely wasn’t standard girlfriend material. No, she was the kind of woman a guy wanted to chain to his bed until he’d had his fill, all the while knowing that day would never come.

Sentence by sentence, question by question, she was pinning him up against a wall. It wasn’t fair to use their attraction against her, but he couldn’t resist watching her get flustered every time he so much as danced around the subject of sex.

Six months had passed since he’d tasted her. Touched her. But now that she was sitting so close that he could reach out and pull her onto his lap, he realized he hadn’t forgotten one damn thing about her. The way her tongue had slid against his. The way she’d pressed her br**sts into his palms and rubbed into his calluses. The slick, wet heat between her legs.

Of all the ways he thought they’d meet again one day, he couldn’t have imagined this. Anger rode him. But he couldn’t let anger get the best of him, not if he wanted to see his way clear of the accusation. Which meant he needed to get a grip. Fast. Especially since they were several blocks away from her motel and he could already see flames and smell smoke through the truck’s doors and windows.

Adrenaline shot through him and his thigh muscles clenched in an instinctual response to the fire. He wasn’t an urban guy, this fire wasn’t his domain, but he’d worked dozens of structural fires in the past whenever the stations were short-staffed due to illness or vacation or babies being born.