Flaming Desire - Part 3 (An Alpha Billionaire Romance)

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Authors: Helen Grey
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rain or any lightning warnings appear up here in over a week. Not even some decent cloud cover.”
    “The other?” Matt asked, taking a bit of sausage.
    “Careless camper,” she replied. She sipped her coffee, shaking her head. “Happens every summer, doesn’t it? I just don’t get it. People just don’t think.” She looked up at the mountain.
    I saw tears glistening in her eyes. I stared at her moment, surprised, and then glanced at Matt.
    “Sam’s a vet—”
    “Every time I see a dead squirrel, a deer scampering for safety, the coyotes and the wolves… it’s awful,” she said. “The other day I saw a bear and her cubs; they’d tried to huddle in a thicket…”
    I knew it wasn’t just the sight of animals scampering for life, or coming across the charred carcasses of those that hadn’t made it; it was the fact that the eco-system would be destroyed for years. The animals who had scavenged on the slopes for food would have to find new territory. That meant a burden on another piece of land, not to mention the destruction of the forests and underbrush that would take years, if not decades, to replenish
    Come fall and early winter rains and snowfall, we would see more flooding and mudslides, adding to the devastation. Downslope, ranchers and farmers would have to deal with flooded fields, ruined crops, less feed for their cattle. It went on and on.
    In many cases, wildfires were left to burn themselves out especially if they were caused by nature itself. It was part of life here in the wilderness. But I agreed with Sam. I doubted this fire had been caused by a lightning strike. More than likely a careless camper, a recklessly flicked cigarette, or perhaps even on purpose. Down in Colorado there had been talk of an arsonist who had started numerous fires and was even under suspicion for starting the Waldo Canyon fire down near Colorado Springs, although they were still looking for information regarding that.
    I shook my head. “It’s sad, Sam, no doubt about it.”
    Matt looked at me and then placed a comforting arm around Sam’s shoulder, giving her a gentle shake.
    “Snap out of it,” he urged. “We’re doing the best we can, and the sooner we get this fire out, the better it will be for everyone—animals, nature, and man.”
    She nodded and offered him a grateful smile but said nothing. She wasn’t the only one with a heavy heart this morning. Matt wasn’t exactly ignoring me, but he was definitely playing it cool. I didn’t want to push things or upset the apple cart.
    As I excused myself and placed my empty tray atop others stacked just before the entrance to the tent, I knew that I would have to—sooner or later—determine what exactly it was that I expected from Matt Drake. The sooner I figured that out, the better off I’d be, either way.
    ***
    The crew truck carried Matt, myself, and another group of Hotshots toward the area we had worked yesterday. Then, Matt, I, and several of his other Hotshot crew members—I couldn’t remember their names—headed upslope, weaving our way single file up the mountainside. For now, I didn’t see flames topping the ridge, which was a good thing. Maybe the wind had shifted just enough to blow the fire back on itself, creating a natural firebreak. At the same time, I curtailed wishful thinking, knowing that in the next hour, the next few minutes, things could change.
    I followed Matt up the slope, trying to watch where I placed my feet. The soil was loose. At the same time, I found it very hard not to stare at Matt’s broad shoulders, his narrow waist, the way his hips moved, the way his buttocks so nicely filled his pants.
    Unbidden, I recalled the feel of his cock in my hand the previous day, so soft on the surface, so hard underneath. Like Matt. An odd combination of hard and soft.
    At one point, so enthralled with the sway of his hips that I didn’t watch where I was stepping, I stumbled over an exposed shrub root or something and fell forward.

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