Smoke blanketed the sky, filtering the light and turning the whole cold world to shades of yellow and gray. The horizon line disappeared only a dozen yards from the cabin and high above it, far in the distance, an orange glow burned. But it rumbled too, like rolling thunder… Is that what fire sounds like, when it’s coming closer…?

“Reilly!” I called again, checking the barn, the back porch, shouting over and over until I was hoarse. I ran back inside the cabin, praying he’d come back to escape the icy cold. I stood, leaning against the doorframe, my breath forming clouds as I panted, open-mouthed. My heart was beating the seconds away; a clock that couldn’t be turned back. Images of Jason and my brother flashed behind my eyes… I’d tried so hard to stay in control, to be stronger than my fears. But I was terrified. Everyone I loved, everyone I’d tried so hard to protect was out there now, lost, in danger… or worse…

I was frozen, unable to choose, unable to move. I couldn’t leave Rye behind. But for Jason’s sake and for the baby’s, I couldn’t stay any longer either…

I ran for the truck, tears streaming down my face. “God forgive me.” I twisted the key in the ignition, feeling my heart tearing in two as the engine roared. Smoke and dust filled the air, whipping against the windshield as the noise shifted… became rhythmic… a sound that I recognized. It wasn’t fire… it was the sound of helicopter blades.

And I recognized him the second his feet hit the ground.

“Ember!” Jason cried out, jerking the truck door open and pulling me into his arms. He kissed my face, my mouth, my throat… my tears. I struggled with his helmet, tearing it off so I could touch his skin. He lifted me off the ground. “I thought I’d find you on the road to Copperton by now. I came to tell you I found Randy,” he shouted, taking my face between his hands, “and to make sure that the cabin was out of danger.” He kissed me before I could speak, until our hearts were pounding in unison. The blades were beating relentlessly overhead. I looked up into his face, needing to know… yet afraid of the truth.

“He’s bruised, but he’s fine,” he shouted, and I felt my knees buckle with relief. He held me tighter, closer and I buried my face into the warmth of his neck. “He’s in the air now, on his way to Aspen to get checked out, just a precaution. He’s not in any danger… he’s safe, Em.” He bent down and lifted me into his arms, carrying me back inside the shelter of the cabin as the chopper lifted off and turned overhead.

“Oh my god,” I gasped. “I was afraid that you… that both of you… I couldn’t…” I felt dizzy, suddenly lightheaded, like there was too much air in my lungs. “I didn’t leave because I can’t find Reilly,” I said, holding onto his arms for support.

“Then we’ll find him together,” he said soothingly. “He won’t be too far off.”

He stripped off his jacket. It slid heavily to the floor as he cupped my chin and stroked the corner of my mouth with his thumb. He was streaked with dirt, his shirt stained with sweat and clinging to his muscled frame. He didn’t take his eyes off my face; he smiled and my whole body relaxed and responded. “There are a couple of crowns still burning, but they’re a long way off. Rye’s spooked by the smoke is all,” he soothed. He ran a gentle hand over my head and tugged my hood down. His hands made soft fists in my hair. “He’ll find his way home… Just like I did.”

He kissed me, sliding one hot, hard hand down the small of my back, cupping my ass and curving my hips toward his. He was hard against my belly, crushing my breasts to his chest. I reached up and tangled my hands in his hair, quenching his thirst with my mouth… with my tongue. He smelled of wood smoke and desire, and he ran his hands down my shoulders, under my sweater… cupping my bare breasts until I was burning with need. He pulled back, looking down at me with an intensity that I’d never experienced. We were safe, home, together for one perfect moment…

He slipped his hand down the front of my jeans and curved it low over my belly. He leaned his forehead into my shoulder and I could feel his breathing, his heartbeat. “You can’t imagine the strength it gave me, knowing about the baby.” He let his fingertips rest against my clit, cupping my sex, holding me and the tiny new life we’d made in one big hand. “There’s nothing in this world that could have kept me away from you… from both of you.”

His hands curved underneath me, supporting my weight as I pressed myself to his shaft. He was hard as a rock underneath his jeans and desire swept through me, extinguishing everything but the heat between us. My body’s needs ran rampant, my breasts swelling and my panties growing wet and slick. I was ripe, ready… desperate to be filled…

“Do you have any idea how much I want you right now? What I wouldn’t give to strip you bare right now…?” he breathed into my neck, down between my aching breasts “I’m going to take every fucking inch of you, babygirl.. taste every sweet, wet, aching inch. God, how I’ve dreamed of this, Em… making love to the mother of my child…

“But we can’t… not here, not right now.” He dragged his eyes back to mine. “We’ve got to find Rye and get you both out of this valley first.” He kissed me again, and my heated core turned molten. “I’m going to possess you, all of you, and I’m going to spend my whole life loving you. But only when you’re safe, Em…

“This is only over when you and the baby are safe.”

The air was strangely still as we climbed into the truck, and in spite of the midday sun lighting streaks in the smoky sky, the air temperature continued to drop. Jason turned the engine over and reached for me.

“We’ll search a one-mile radius,” he said, “and then I’m getting you out of here. Reilly’s too smart to have wandered far, and he sure as hell won’t go any closer to the fire.” He wrapped one arm protectively around me and hit the gas. “Animals seem to have better instincts than most people… he’ll head back towards home.”

“When he disappeared, it felt like an omen,” I said, looking out the window as we drove. “I didn’t know if you were…” The words caught in my throat.

“It’s a fucking good thing I went back when I did,” he replied. “Randy was still caught in the gorge, risking his own life to get another man out…” Jason’s powerful chest expanded with a deep breath. “Carl wouldn’t be alive right now, if it weren’t for him.”

I closed my eyes, picturing Carl’s wife, Andrea. Their kids were about the age Randy and I had been when we lost our dad. “And my brother wouldn’t be alive except for you,” I said softly.

A blast of bitter wind rocked the truck on its tires and Jason tightened his hold on me. I could tell by the way he stroked my shoulder that he was thinking the same thing I was; we were the lucky ones.

For nothing is more unpredictable than wildfire. It strikes with intent, taking whatever it wants with a savage breath, picking and choosing its targets with a cold, beating heart…

It could have come for any one of us.