Inferno 0f Love (Firefighters 0f Long Valley Book 2) Read online

  “What?” she asked, breaking into his thoughts, and he jerked his eyes up to hers. “What’s wrong?”

  “Wrong?” he echoed numbly, while his mind spun in circles. Love? I’m not in love with Georgia.

  “Yeah, you’re staring at me all funny.” She said it with a smile on her face, but even through the battle waging within him, he could tell she was confused.

  I’m marrying Tennessee and I don’t want to. There, I said it. Buuuuttttt, there are a lot of things in life that you do even though you don’t want to. It’s called being an adult. I can’t duck my respons—

  “You there?” Georgia was waving her hands in front of his face and he was jerked back to the present. Again. He was starting to feel slightly seasick, honestly.

  “Ummm…yeah. Sorry. Didn’t sleep well last night.” Which was a total lie. He slept better than he had in ages, snuggled down next to Georgia, her soft curves pressed against him.

  Yeah, that was something he was not going to admit out loud. Ever.

  “Well, do you think we should try going back downhill through the burned-out area, or on the side path up to the top?” Georgia was obviously focused on getting out of there, and even though his dick was urging him to go back to the part where they’d almost kissed, he had to admire her single-mindedness. Someone needed to be thinking with their brain, not with parts south of the border, and that someone obviously wasn’t gonna be Moose.

  He pushed himself to his feet to get a better look down the hill. He let out a heavy sigh at the blackened wilderness in front of him. “Honestly, I don’t want to walk through that. Even if it looks like the fire is out, we could kick up embers as we go, and start it up all over again. I think we need to take the side path up to the top of Eagle’s Nest to where my truck is, and then I can drive you back to your car. I’m assuming it’s at the bottom at the trailhead?”

  “Yeah. Man, it seems like years ago when I parked it and started hiking. I can’t believe that was just yesterday morning.” She stood up and wrapped the crinkling solar blanket around herself, moving to his side to look down the hill too. She had this little stripe of dirt on the tip of her turned-up nose, and he shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from reaching out to her and wiping it off.

  Off limits.

  Georgia Rowland is off limits.

  He only had to repeat that to himself another 7431 times before his brain would finally believe it.

  “Well, let’s get to it,” he said, focusing on the topic at hand. “I’d like to call Jaxson and tell him I’m okay. I’m worried that they’re going to waste time and resources trying to save me, so the sooner we get moving, the better.”

  The light was growing a little brighter as the eastern edge of the valley began to lighten. He could see her face easily now – the smudge of ash across her cheek and nose, the soot on her arms and legs. Despite his best intentions, he reached out and instinctively wiped the ash on her cheek away, and then his hand jerked like he’d touched a hot ember.

  He busied himself brushing the pebbles and dirt off his jeans until he got himself under control. If just touching Georgia on the cheek was getting him into trouble…

  He was up shit creek.

  They both turned and looked at Sparky at the same time, who was a fair distance away, curled up on the rock, watching them carefully.

  “Hey, how did you get Sparky up here with you?” Moose asked as he began to pack his stuff away into his bag and lace up his boots. The sooner they got off this hill and back to civilization, the better. Back to his almost fiancée, who he was totally going to propose to soon. That’s who he needed to focus on.

  “I dragged her,” Georgia admitted with a small laugh. “Maybe a dog would know to run away from a forest fire, I don’t know. But I couldn’t take the chance. I would’ve felt awful if she’d been burned up in all of that. She wasn’t exactly happy about it, though, and I’ll admit that there were a few times that I was tempted to give up and just make a run for it. Honestly, whoever did this to her ought to be taken out back and shot.”

  Finished gathering everything up, including the empty wrappers from their M&M feast, Moose slung his backpack over his shoulder and said, “Well, hopefully she’ll be willing to follow us out of here this morning. I don’t particularly want to drag a 50-pound dog through this trail we’re about to go on.”

  Georgia sucked on her water hose for a moment, and then smiled up at him. “I’m ready to go. Let’s see what happens.”

  They headed down the path to the north, stopping and checking occasionally to see if Sparky was following along behind them. She was, although she was careful to keep her distance. It was going to be interesting to see if they’d be able to get her into the truck once they got back there.

  Well, one problem at a time. No reason to borrow trouble, right?

  “So you never told me why you were up here hiking yesterday,” he tossed over his shoulder as they huffed their way up the switchback trail. “Doesn’t the credit union need you at work?”

  “You would think, wouldn’t you,” she said, and even though she was trailing behind him and thus he couldn’t see her, he could practically hear the disgruntlement radiating off her in waves. “I was basically forced on this little mini-vacation by the head of the HR department at the main branch. Apparently, it’s against company policy to let people accrue too many vacation days because if I quit suddenly, they’d have to pay out all of those days to me. So I was ordered to take some time off. Honestly, next time I am forced to take a day off, I think I’m going to spend it curled up in bed, reading a book. The chances are pretty damn good my house won’t catch fire while I’m laying in bed. Well, at least, I hope not!”

  He chuckled at that, even as his mind focused on the idea of watching Georgia, curled up in bed, wearing an old t-shirt without a bra on and short shorts (hey, it was his daydream – she could be wearing whatever he wanted) and he could sidetrack her from her book by offering to keep her busy doing other much more…entertaining things, and—

  He shook his head at himself. He’d spent his whole life sorta kinda okay with the idea of marrying Tennessee, just like he’d spent his life thinking that PB&Js were fine to eat for lunch. Not exciting, not grand, but…okay.

  For the past couple of weeks, though, he seemed to be struggling with keeping himself in that mindset. Why was he suddenly rebelling against an idea that he was taught along with his ABCs? When he’d hit puberty, he’d started to question it a little more, but he’d never let himself go down that road too far. Tennessee deserved to be happy, and to have a husband who wanted to be married to her. He didn’t get to question whether or not he wanted this. It would just be.

  “How’s your dad going to take you missing so much work?” Georgia asked, huffing along behind him. The air was thin and cold this high up, and even someone as athletic and active as Georgia was struggling with the steep incline.

  “Good question,” Moose said sarcastically, his own breath short and choppy from the strain. It was a worry that had been gnawing at him ever since he woke up this morning. His father wouldn’t be worried about Moose’s physical safety and wondering why he didn’t come home last night, but he would be pissed when Moose didn’t show up at the shop at 7:45 this morning like he was supposed to. “When the call came in yesterday, I was at work. Dad knows that I’m on the fire department, of course, and although he isn’t happy when I leave work to answer a call, we came to an understanding a while ago that this is one of the things that I get to do.” Hopefully he remembers that understanding…

  “That’s not always an easy agreement to come to with your father,” Georgia said softly.

  Are my problems with Dad this obvious to everyone?

  “No, not always easy,” Moose agreed, trying to keep the pain out of his voice. Maybe everybody could guess at the problems between his dad and him, but he didn’t need to actively broadcast them for the world and verify for them that their guesses were right.

 
“When Levi and I were dating, he told me that your dad was paying for his schooling, so he could afford to become a TIG welder. With Levi’s father…” Moose could almost hear the shrug Georgia gave. “It definitely wasn’t going to happen without your dad’s help. I always thought that was so nice of him to see the potential in Levi, instead of just dismissing him because of his…background.”

  Moose just nodded, not trusting himself to speak. If he did, the truth might come out and it was a dark, bitter, ugly truth that no one needed to hear.

  If Georgia could think positively of his dad, well, that was a good thing. Someone ought to be able to.

  They fell into an easy silence as they followed the meandering trail, each lost in their own thoughts, occasionally looking back to make sure that Sparky was following along behind them. She was, although no matter how many times Georgia made that kissy noise and snapped her fingers, Sparky refused to get within arm’s reach of either one of them.

  Getting her into the truck is gonna be a bitch.

  Speaking of the truck, he spotted it in the distance, parked at the base of the giant boulders that he’d had to climb last night.

  “Almost there!” he said, wiping the sweat off his brow. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon but he was already sweating up a storm. He really needed to get out and exercise more often. He was hellaciously out of shape. Doing oil changes on combines did not count as exercise.

  The trail widened as it flattened out, and Georgia was able to fall in step next to him. She had a light sheen of sweat on her forehead too, but she didn’t seem quite as out of breath as him. Not surprising, if a little damaging to his ego. Georgia regularly ran marathons, something he could only dream about doing. His father would kill him if he took that much time off work.

  “So how are we gonna get Sparky into the truck?” Georgia asked as they neared it.

  “That’s what I’ve been wondering. She doesn’t hate human beings; she’s just scared of them. So she probably won’t bite if we make a grab for her. Did she try to bite you at all yesterday while you were dragging her up the trail?”

  Georgia shook her head, her flushed cheeks and glowing skin giving her the appearance of a Greek goddess. Goddess of Exercise and Sex.

  Pull it together, Moose.

  “No. She whined a lot, and she pulled against her collar, but she was never aggressive. I got her to come to me using beef jerky, and then I snagged her collar. Do you have any jerky left?”

  “Yeah, I was saving it just in case we were stuck out here for another day or something.” He slung his backpack off and pulled the Ziploc baggie out of the front pocket. “Let’s see if she’ll come to me.”

  He shook a little piece out into his hand and held it out for Sparky, clucking his tongue and talking softly as she circled him, trying to find a way to get the jerky without actually coming up to him. She was probably starving, and a part of him felt bad for using that hunger against her.

  Despite that, she wasn’t willing to grab for the jerky. She was hungry, just not that hungry.

  “Don’t take this personally,” Georgia said softly after a while, standing off to the side and watching his fruitless efforts, “but the chances are damn good that whoever abused this dog was a male. Statistically speaking, anyway.”

  Moose straightened up and looked at Georgia, feeling the impact of her words like a punch to the stomach. She was right, although he hated to admit it. It didn’t say much about his gender – much that was positive, anyway – that was for damn sure.

  “She might be more willing to come to me,” Georgia continued, when Moose didn’t say anything. “And, we did bond a little when we huddled together at Eagle’s Nest to escape the fire.”

  He nodded and held the jerky out to her. Her reasoning was spot-on, even if it made him feel a little dirty, a little sick at the idea that just because he was a male, a dog would automatically assume that he was also an animal abuser. Not pissed at the animal for making the assumption, but pissed at his fellow men for making it a reasonable belief to have.

  He moved off to the side and watched Georgia get to work. She dropped to her knees in the dirt and sand, holding her hand out with the prize in it, waiting quietly for the skittish animal to come up to her. “It’s okay, pretty girl,” she cooed, as Sparky got closer and closer, her nose quivering in the early morning light. “We just need to take you back to town. We need to find someone to love you, all right?”

  Sparky whined a little, and then her head darted forward as she tried to snatch the jerky from Georgia and run before she could be caught. Georgia’s hand snagged her collar just in time, though, and despite the fact that Sparky was fast and strong, jerking Georgia forward to land face first in the dirt, she refused to let go. The poor dog strained to get away, paws scrambling in the dirt, her prize in her mouth, but Georgia had a death grip on the collar.

  A part of Moose wanted to bellow with laughter but he instead ran to Georgia’s side, scooping the large dog up into his arms and carrying her to the truck before Sparky could drag Georgia halfway to Georgia. He heard Georgia roll over in the dirt, sputtering and laughing. “Thanks a lot, Sparky,” she said between the spits in the dirt. “Next time I decide to save a dog from being burned to death, I’m gonna keep this in mind.”

  Moose laughed even as he struggled to keep Sparky contained in his arms. She was strong and damn determined to get free. His laughter turned to a grunt of pain when Sparky hit a particularly…sensitive spot with a back paw. “Halp!” he croaked, his voice cracking like he was 14 all over again. If he didn’t put Sparky down, and quick, his ability to engage in certain activities was going to be greatly curtailed.

  “Oh, sorry!” Georgia yelped, and he heard her scramble to her feet and hurry to his side, throwing the back door of the quad cab open. Moose shoved the dog inside and slammed the door shut, then bent over, hands on his knees, as he tried to quell the pain radiating through him. The world went a little black around the edges, but finally, he could at least straighten up.

  Georgia was sending him a painful smile of sympathy, and he grimaced back. “It’s…I’m…it’s fine,” he finally got out. “Thanks for your help.”

  The pain settled down to a dull roar and he looked over Georgia, checking her over for scrapes and bruises. She seemed fine, other than being covered head to toe in dirt and sand. He began brushing at it, trying to help her clean off but then his hands were going over her tits and his hands jerked back and he realized with a stifled groan that he could report everything was still in functioning order.

  Down, boy, down. Now is not the time.

  Not that it ever would be the time with Georgia.

  He ignored the pang of pain that lanced through him at the thought. “Ready?” he asked her, and when she nodded, he headed around to the driver’s side, slinging his backpack off and throwing it into the bed of the truck, Georgia following suit with hers. “We have to move fast; we can’t let her out.” Georgia nodded her understanding, and on the count of three, they both flung their doors open. Whining, Sparky hesitated, trying to decide which door to jump out of, but her hesitation cost her the opportunity, and they were both inside with the doors shut firmly behind them before she could go anywhere.

  They bust out laughing, the kind of laughter that bubbles to the surface after a hugely stressful experience, as Sparky just whined, pacing back and forth in the backseat.

  “All in a Thursday morning,” Moose said with a cocky grin as he started the truck.

  “You sure know how to show a girl a good time,” Georgia said dryly, flipping the passenger side visor down and using the tiny mirror embedded in it to get the majority of the dirt off her face.

  “Hey, when I showed up, you were in eminent danger of being burned alive,” Moose pointed out as they bounced their way down the rutted dirt road and towards civilization. He’d left that piece of shit rope tied to the boulder at the top of Eagle’s Nest, but he wasn’t about to chance letting Sparky escape i
nto the world just to go back and get it. He could retrieve it some other time. “I figure anything after that has to be considered an improvement.”

  “That’s true. Dining on the finest cuisine of crushed peanut M&Ms, being dragged through the dirt by a dog that’s terrified of me, and almost freezing to death right after almost being burned to death. Best vacation I’ve ever been on!”

  As they both laughed again, Moose had to hand it to her – Georgia had a grand talent of making light of even the worst situations.

  It was a talent he admired. Honestly, she had a lot of those.

  He was beginning to wish that she didn’t, though. It would make his duty in life a hell of a lot easier.

  Chapter 10

  Georgia

  Once they were within cell phone range again, Moose called Jaxson to tell him that he was all right, and then called Adam Whitaker, the local vet, to find out if he’d be willing to come to the fire station to look Sparky over. Adam agreed easily and Moose hung up.

  “Dammit, Georgia, I just realized that I should drive you down to your car at the trailhead,” he said, his forehead crinkled with worry, “but I don’t want to risk letting Sparky escape in the middle of nowhere. She’s only gonna fall for the ‘come here to eat this beef jerky’ ploy so many times before we won’t be able to lure her anywhere with the promise of food. Would you mind if we took Sparky to the fire station first? I’ll drive you up here to pick up your car afterwards, I promise. I’d just like to get Sparky checked over; I’m worried her former owner might’ve done internal damage or something.”

  Georgia’s heart squeezed at the care and attention that Moose was showing a dog he’d only just met; a dog that had done her best to castrate him just a half hour ago. Not every guy would be so focused and worried about a random dog’s well-being.