Hot as Sin

by Bella Andre

  Leaping off the leather seat, the dirt bike dropping onto the dirt, Sam ran after her. She was fast, but he was faster. He grabbed her arms, not letting her take another step toward certain danger. She struggled hard, trying to pull away, and he had no choice but to imprison her against him, her back pressed hard against his front.

  "What if April's inside? I have to save her!"

  It was a big leap, but he understood why she'd gone there. April's safety was all she could think about right now.

  But if he couldn't get her to listen to reason, there'd be more than one casualty today.

  "We don't know if she's inside. And it's not safe for you to go anywhere near that building," he said firmly in her ear to make sure she got it.

  "But what if she is? I can't let her burn to death!"

  There was no reason in her voice, only desperation. He understood, but it didn't mean he was willing to risk losing her.

  The tall dry grass in front of the building was already engulfed in flames. Before he could even get near the cabin, he'd need to put out the grass fire. Still, he wouldn't let her go until she'd regained control.

  "The only way I can get to the building is to light a backfire."

  "No," she gasped. "Not more fire."

  "When the two fires make contact, they'll burn each other out. It's the only way."

  Finally, she seemed to understand, giving him an anguished "Okay."

  He was still afraid that she'd make a run for it when he released his hold on her and pulled several flares out of his pocket. A couple spilled to the ground and Dianna picked them up. Looking at the trees, he studied the direction of the wind to make sure the flames weren't going to blow straight toward them, or toward the crowd of people who should have known better and evacuated the site already.

  But he didn't have time to warn them of the dangers of loitering so close to a live fire. If Dianna's sister was inside, he had to save her.

  If it wasn't already too late.

  He'd been in the very same position with his brother Connor, had watched him suffer agonizing burns. Even though he'd done all he could to save him, he'd always wished he could have done more.

  Would Dianna ever be able to forgive herself if April perished in the fire? And would she forgive him for not saving her?

  He reached for her hand and she dug her nails into his knuckles as the fire ravaged the ground in between them and the cabin. And then, less than a minute later, a path cleared in the field into a mass of sizzling embers.

  "I'm going to try and get in the cabin now, but I don't want you to follow me. It's not safe."

  Sam could see that Dianna wanted to fight him on it, but he had to make sure she understood.

  "I can't help whoever is in the cabin if I have to help you too."

  "Just hurry," she said, quickly giving in. "Please."

  Without his turnouts, the heat emanating from the ground was intense, but he'd been in far hotter forests. He ran toward the small building, all of his focus on finding a way to get inside, considering that the entire front half was already on fire.

  Quickly jogging around the perimeter, he found no doors, no windows to enter from. He'd have to go in the front by diverting the fire from the door.

  Grabbing a large branch off the ground, he climbed a nearby tree behind the building and launched himself onto the steaming roof. Moving quickly, he ripped off old roofing tiles, exposing the thin wood planks that covered the beams.

  He worked fast with the stick, ramming it into the wood, busting a hole in the ceiling. Any second now, flames would find the new source of oxygen and shoot out the hole. If he wasn't careful, he'd be caught in them, but if he didn't make the hole big enough there wouldn't be enough oxygen to divert the flames from the rest of the structure.

  A split second before fire rushed out of the hole he'd made in the roof, Sam jumped out of the way, launching himself the eight feet to the ground.

  Like clockwork, the flames moved away from the door. Moving around the front, he kicked it in. The smoke was black and thick, but he'd spent ten years maneuvering through these kinds of conditions, and his eye was trained to look for limbs, to listen for coughing and look for bodies.

  But the building was empty. Completely empty.

  Sam heard the familiar crackle of a building about to implode and in the nick of time he got out of the building and ran like hell. The walls started falling in on themselves before he reached Dianna.

  "Where is she?" Dianna screamed at him.

  "She wasn't in there."

  She fell to her knees, her face in her hands.

  Sam had never felt so helpless in all his life as he squatted down to gather her in his arms.

  The man watched Dianna Kelley from the parking lot, waiting for the perfect moment to make his move.

  Her sister was already in the trunk of his car. When he got back to his compound, he'd punish the girl for the way she was thrashing around, for the noises she dared to make. Fortunately, with all of the commotion from the fire--children and women yelling and crying, sirens finally making their way into the campground from an oncoming Colorado Department of Forestry fire engine and police cars--no one could hear his prisoner struggle.

  He'd been furious when Mickey woke him up out of his dark dreams with the news that April had escaped. But it had been fairly easy to guess where she'd end up. Tigiwon was as close as they got to civilization around here and straight down the hill from his lab.

  After speeding down the single-lane road to the campground, he'd spotted her on a pay phone, probably giving Dianna instructions on where to find her. Moving silently, he'd followed the girl after she hung up the phone, keeping out of her range of sight until she made the mistake of believing she'd really gotten away.

  As she took the narrow trail that led between the parking lot and the ranger's station, after first making sure they were alone, he'd jumped her, slamming his fist into her jaw once, then twice, until she crumpled to the ground.

  Setting the cabin on fire had been pure genius. It was the perfect distraction so that he could not only take April to his car unnoticed, but given that he knew Dianna was on her way to collect her sister, it was the ideal opportunity to finally take his true prize captive as well.

  If only that goddamned guy would leave her side for thirty seconds, maybe he could get close enough.

  Moving away from his car, he headed toward the throng of people surrounding the fire engine. At the first available opportunity, he'd be ready to spring.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  TWO HOURS later, after the cop cars and fire engines drove away, after the crowd of bystanders had grown bored and dispersed back to their campfires and card games, after she and Sam had circled the campground twice looking for clues and found absolutely nothing, Dianna was on the verge of giving up hope.

  She'd never been able to forget the pain of being eleven years old and watching the state official drive away with April. Losing her own baby had been brutal and, of course, the breakup with Sam had been horrible. But sitting against a tree, her knees under her chin as she wrapped herself into a tight ball on the forest's dirt floor, knowing her sister was at the mercy of some anonymous creep ... well, that was almost unbearable.

  Sam had offered to deal with the police alone, but although she'd felt so raw and her fears about her sister burning alive in that cabin were still jammed in every pore, every cell, every single breath she took, Dianna had felt that it was best if she spoke directly to the cops.

  Not that it had mattered. Sure, the police had taken notes. They'd looked concerned. But they'd also made it perfectly clear that they didn't have the resources to jump on the case, not with a couple of recent murders in the area taking top priority.

  "Why aren't they going to do more to find her?" she asked Sam. "It feels like they're hardly taking me seriously."

  To Dianna, it seemed like the cops had been much more concerned about who had set the fire, asking Sam endless questions about how
he'd been able to put it out without a water truck and fire gear.

  Sitting beside her now, his arm around her shoulders a shock of warmth against her cold limbs, Sam pressed his lips against the top of her head.

  "Nothing's changed from our original plan," he reminded her. "We're going to find April."

  She longed to believe him, but she wasn't sure she could anymore. Her life had turned into a bad dream. A surreal nightmare. She desperately wanted to get the hell out of here and pretend that none of this was happening, that everything was exactly as it had been before she'd come to Colorado.

  But she couldn't do any of those things. Because April was still missing, even after they'd come so close to finding her.

  "I'm not going to lie to you. I've been up against some pretty nasty wildfires, but I've never been in a situation like this before." He paused, brought her hands to his lips, and pressed a kiss against her knuckles. "I've never had you by my side, either. That's why I know we're going to find April and bring her home."

  She wanted to listen to his words, rather than all of the voices in her head telling her that they were too late, that she was never going to see April again. But letting herself believe that everything was okay after April's phone call had been her biggest mistake.

  Having hope ripped away had shattered her beyond repair and she felt broken inside.

  "How can you have that kind of faith in me?" she whispered. "I'm failing her, Sam."

  "You sure as hell aren't failing her. You're pushing yourself to the limits to help her. And trust me, April knows you well enough to know you're not going to give up. You're tenacious. And you love her. So even if she can't escape again, she's going to hold on and wait for you. She knows you're coming. She's always known it."

  Dianna could hardly swallow past the lump in her throat. "I'm just so scared, Sam." God, she hated tears, hated feeling weak and completely out of control. "I hate that I don't know what to do next."

  "Of course you're scared. She's your sister and you love her. But you've got to see that this isn't much different from fighting to pull April out of the foster system."

  "It is," she protested.

  "Not really. You didn't know much about the people she was living with back then. But you knew she was unhappy, so you fought and fought and fought and fought for her. You won, Dianna. You won." He closed his eyes and bowed his head against her hands before looking back into her eyes. "You're going to win again. And I'm going to be with you every step of the way."

  A flash of lightning crackled overhead and thick drops of rain began to fall.

  She was still silently digesting his optimism, his faith that they'd find April despite this crushing blow, when he pulled her to her feet.

  "I know you want to stay here in case she comes back, but we don't have our gear and I'm not going to risk you getting sick in the wind and the rain tonight." Before she could protest, he added, "And if she can get to a phone again, she'll know where you are. She'll call the Farm first."

  She knew he was right, but even as she let him take her over to the dirt bike, she hated leaving the campground without having gotten one step closer to finding April, hated thinking that the person responsible for all of this pain could be standing in the forest watching them right now.

  ------

  As they drove the dirt bike on the trail back to the Farm, Sam's heart went out to the incredible woman holding him tightly from behind. He thought he'd been through hell with Connor, but not only had he been able to immediately rescue his brother, he'd had the satisfaction of personally wiping out the fire responsible for melting Connor's skin. Whereas Dianna was moving forward with no clues, only more disasters, more misfortune.

  There was none of the exhilaration of their ride in the other direction, none of the laughter. Even the blue skies were now gray, spitting cold rain at them as a final insult.

  She shivered against him and all he wanted was to get her out of her wet clothes and settled in a warm, dry spot with some food and water. When they came to the first of the wide tree trunks in the middle of the trail, Sam made a spur-of-the-moment decision to try to carry the bike over the barrier.

  Dianna's teeth were chattering as she got off the bike and Sam didn't have to think twice about hoisting the bike over to the other side of the trail. She'd easily scrambled over the tree trunks on the way to the campground, but now, between her fatigue and her despair, he knew she needed his help.

  The fact that she let him assist her without protest worried him more than anything. He'd do anything to see the spark in her eyes return.

  After what seemed like an eternity of grinding through mud and bumping painfully over endless rocks on the trail, then getting off and carrying the bike over to the other side, they pulled in through the Farm's gates. Sam parked the bike next to an ancient tractor.

  Dianna's lips had a faint blue tinge to them, and he was so worried about her that he bent down, lifted her into his arms, and headed for Peter's house.

  "I can walk on my own," she protested, but her voice sounded weak, wavery, utterly unlike her.

  "I know, sweetheart," he told her. "Let me take care of you."

  Again, it worried him that she didn't fight him on it. He needed to get her warm and dry as quickly as possible.

  At least she noted, "Our tent is in the other direction."

  "You need a hot shower," he explained, "and I figure Peter may be the only person here who's got one."

  A short while later, after pretty much running across the meadow with Dianna in his arms, Sam pounded on Peter's door. The Farm's owner immediately ushered them inside the blessedly warm space looking concerned when he counted only two of them.

  "You didn't find April."

  "I'll explain everything soon enough," Sam said, cutting off any further discussion. "Right now, I need to get Dianna into some warm water."

  Peter nodded. "Follow me."

  Sam was surprised when Peter took them out a back door, down a short gravel walkway, and into a surprisingly nice little guest house, complete with a kitchen, bathroom, and fireplace in the living room.

  "I'll have your bags, clean dry clothes, and food put out for you on the covered deck," Peter said before closing the door.

  Tracking mud across the cement floor, Sam headed for the tiled bathroom. Still cradling her tightly against his chest with one arm, he turned on the shower with the other. Quickly, the water went from cold to hot and he carried her under the spray, both of them fully clothed.

  The look on her face when she finally stopped shivering was breathtakingly beautiful. Telling himself that his job was done, he gently put her down on her feet.

  "Are you feeling better now?"

  A part of him hoped that she'd say no, that she'd beg him to stay.

  Instead, she nodded, her big green eyes holding his captive.

  "Thank you for everything, Sam."

  Even though every cell in his body screamed at him to kiss her, he knew he couldn't. She'd been through enough already without having him paw at her while her every defense was down.

  He forced himself to step away from the water, away from the way her clothes were plastered to her curves, outlining every delicious inch of her body.

  "I'm going to grab our things and lay some dry clothes out for you on the bed."

  God, it was going to kill him to stay out of this shower, especially when he knew she was about to peel off her clothes and let the water run over her bare skin. His cock pushed at the back of his zipper, desperate to come out and join the party. He made himself turn away before she saw how much he wanted her.

  "Take all the time you need to get warm," he said, pausing at the doorway for one last look. "I don't want you getting sick."

  Her cheeks were flushed and he told himself it was simply from the rush of going from cold rain to a warm shower, not that she was having similar thoughts of making love to him. Pulling from a nearly empty well of will, he stepped outside the bathroom and pulled the door
shut.

  Her sister was still missing, for fuck's sake. Finding April was the only thing he should have been thinking of.

  But he couldn't erase the sensual image of Dianna standing in the shower, of how easy it would have been to strip off her clothes. In lieu of a cold shower, Sam walked out the front door, past the food and their backpacks, which Peter had already put on the deck.

  Icy pellets of rain would have to do the trick.

  With trembling fingers, Dianna undid the buttons on her shirt and dropped the soaked fabric to the tiled floor. She tried to take her pants off next, but when they got stuck at her shoes, she sat down and undid her laces.

  The warm water flowing over her head, her shoulders, down her back, felt incredible. But not nearly as amazing as Sam's hands on her skin when he'd held her in the shower. The heat in his eyes had warmed her faster than the water and she'd been seconds from pressing herself against him and begging him to help her forget her worries by making love to her.

  Pulling her shoes and muddy socks off, she sat on the tiled shower floor in her underwear and rewound to the moment Sam had run into the burning building at the campgrounds. He hadn't hesitated for a second, hadn't been the least bit concerned about his own safety. Instead, he'd been intent on making sure that she was all right, that she wasn't going to do anything stupid and hurt herself.

  It was the first time she'd ever witnessed him in action. She'd never seen anything like it, not even in action films with actors playing the part of daredevil firefighters.

  Sam had been a superhero come to life, running through flames, leaping onto the roof and smashing it in.

  And he'd done it solely in the hope of saving her sister.

  Watching him push through the front door of the cabin, her heart had been in her throat. She'd fought the desperate urge to run in after him, to somehow stop him from sacrificing himself for her.

  Her heart squeezed as the unassailable truth smashed into her: She'd never stopped loving Sam. Never. And she would love him forever.

  What she wouldn't give to share her love with him and have it returned.

  Carefully standing back up, she unclasped her bra, her breasts feeling ripe and sensitive, as did the vee between her legs when she slipped her panties off. No question, the physical release of making love with Sam would be phenomenal. But that was only partially why she wanted to be with him.