I looked to the sky, dusky blue and dotted with clouds, and watched a helicopter descend to the helipad behind Willow Brook’s Fire & Rescue station. The rotating wind created by its blades sent dust spinning in a circle across the open lot around the landing pad. The helicopter rocked on its landing, but settled quickly. It was a midsummer’s late evening in Willow Brook. Cade had been gone a full two weeks up north at a wildfire. I was chomping to race across the lot to tackle him, but I knew I had to hang back until the pilot and the rest of the passengers disembarked.

A gust of wind blew my hair wild. I brushed it back to see Cade climbing off the helicopter. My heart started banging in my chest, and I forgot to hold back. Dashing across the lot, I collided with him just as he was turning and slinging his gear bag over his shoulder. Amidst six firefighters from his crew and the pilot, he stumbled when I flung my arms around him.

He caught me fast against him, his laugh muffled in my hair.

“Amelia, how many times do we need to remind you you’re not supposed to charge out here until it’s clear?” the pilot asked.

I stepped back just enough to lift my head and looked over at Fred. Fred had been the pilot injured in the crash last year. He was still flying and had now added several routes for the Willow Brook hotshot crews to his rotation. He winked at me and then sobered. “Technically, I have to tell you that, so I’ll just keep at it. Maybe someday you’ll listen.”

Cade’s hand slipped down my back in a heated pass and gave my bottom a squeeze. “No she won’t. She’s more stubborn than me,” he said with a chuckle.

I looked to Cade, colliding with his green gaze, and heat slid through my veins. Two weeks apart, and all I had to do was get near him and my body went wild. It was safe to say our chemistry wasn’t wearing out yet. Fire season in Alaska, which stretched from spring to fall, meant he was gone every few weeks. The absences that had initially amped up my worry didn’t anymore. They only made me a lust-addled wild woman when he returned.

My breath caught, and I almost forgot where we were. Until a balled up towel landed on Cade’s head.

“What the hell?” he muttered as he yanked it off and glanced around.

Beck was approaching from the station and flashed a grin. “Just keeping the PDA to a minimum. How’d it go out there?” he asked, clapping Cade on the shoulder when he reached them and retrieved the towel he’d thrown at Cade.

Cade kept his arm tight around my waist as we walked into the station. I didn’t pay a bit of attention to the conversation around us, while Cade updated Beck and the other guys. I soaked up the feel of his warmth and strength for a few minutes until I decided enough was enough.

“Okay, guys. Cade’s done for now,” I announced, curling my hand into his and tugging him away.

Beck arched a brow. “Sure you don’t want him to shower first?”

I glanced over, scanning his chiseled features and rumpled brown curls. Truth be told, he was obviously in dire need of a shower. Dirt streaked his arms, soot streaked his face, and he’d likely slept in what he was wearing at the moment. Impatient though I was to have him all to myself, I reluctantly released his hand. “Fine. Maybe you’d like a shower first?” I asked, canting my eyes up to Cade.

He threw one of his devastating grins at me—my belly clenched and heat rolled through me—before nodding. “Might be nice. Give me five.”

At that, he lifted my hand and dropped a kiss in the center of my palm before sauntering behind the rest of the crew into the back rooms at the station. I pushed through the door into the front and plunked down in a chair by Maisie’s desk.

Maisie finished up a call and glanced my way. Her wide brown eyes were so similar to her grandmother’s eyes I sometimes felt a pang from missing Carol’s presence here.

“Waiting for Cade?” Maisie asked, managing sort of a smile.

“Yeah. Figured it was fair to let him shower first. It’s not like he can’t as soon as we get home, but it’s been days, so…” I let my words trail off with a shrug.

What I was thinking wasn’t polite to say in good company. Even with Lucy, I probably wouldn’t say what I was thinking, which was I couldn’t wait to get Cade naked and all to myself. I certainly didn’t know Maisie the way I knew Lucy, so I wasn’t about to say a thing.

Maisie’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she nodded. “Yeah, they practically run to the locker room for showers when they get back. They didn’t have a stopover in Fairbanks this time either, so…”

“They’re filthy,” I finished for her with a grin.

At that moment, the door from the back swung open and Beck strolled through. Beck managed the local crew for Willow Brook, which occasionally rotated out to the fires in need of hotshot teams, but they were back up rather than primary like Cade’s team. Maisie’s cheeks went from pink to cherry red, and she ducked her gaze down, suddenly busy typing something. I watched with interest.

Beck nodded in my direction and leaned his elbow on the counter. “You have a chance to submit those orders?” he asked Maisie.

Maisie’s hair, pulled back in a slapdash ponytail with wild curls escaping willy-nilly, bounced when she nodded, but she didn’t say a word, still typing away. Beck reached across the counter and snagged one of her curls, pulling it out and letting it bounce back.

By this point, I was fascinated. Beck took his duties as a ladies man seriously. He was ever cool and definitely didn’t tease like this. He didn’t need to, what with his black curls, flashing green eyes and body honed from steel. I might only get that crazy zing when Cade was around, but I wasn’t blind.

Maisie whipped her head up just as Cade shouldered through the door. Whatever she meant to say, she bit her lip and stopped, her cheeks flaming and her eyes snapping at Beck. Cade barely glanced their way. “See you tomorrow, Maisie,” he said.

At her nod, Beck spoke. “Meet us later at Wildlands?”

Cade glanced my way as I stood, sending my belly twirling with flutters, before looking back to Beck. “Nope. See you tomorrow,” he replied with a wink as he strode to me, caught my hand in his and kept walking. Beck’s laughter faded behind us as the door swung shut.

On the drive home with Cade’s hand a hot brand resting on my thigh, I asked, “So what’s with Beck teasing Maisie?”

“Ah. Saw that, did ya? Yeah, he’s got a thing for her and doesn’t even know it yet.”

I whipped my eyes off the road to him. “Beck has a thing for Maisie?”

Cade chuckled. “Uh huh.”

I forgot what I was going to say next when he slid his hand between my thighs. “Pull over,” he said, his gravelly voice sending a hot shiver over my skin.

Fireweed blew in the breeze, an undulating wave of fuchsia flanking the highway. The sun was setting behind us, its light glinting in the rear view mirror amidst the streaks of red and gold flung across the sky. Denali stood in the distance, immense and regal. I knew precisely where he meant for me to pull over. A narrow dirt road just ahead that wove through the trees toward a lake hidden in the woods. This stretch of highway in Willow Brook was mostly empty of any homes with the tract of forest part of a dedicated land preservation area. We’d visited almost all of our old haunts in the year since we’d reconciled, yet we hadn’t come down here. This used to be a place we made out, way back when we needed somewhere to go.

With heat sliding through my veins and all of my attention narrowed to Cade, I turned into the road, almost hidden amongst the tall grass and fireweed. Within seconds, we were hidden in the canopy of spruce boughs. I could barely think straight with him choosing now to tease me to madness by unbuttoning my jeans and sliding his hand inside. I managed to yank the car into a tiny parking area beside the lake and spun to kiss him.

In a tangle of limbs and kisses, we managed to get my jeans off and his shoved out of the way. Straddling him, I sank down, savoring the delicious stretch of his cock inside of me. I took him to the hilt and stilled when he said my name.

He trailed the backs of his fingers down my cheek. “I missed you,” he said gruffly.

Emotion welled, and I had to catch my breath before I could speak. “Me too.”

“I have an idea.” His finger traced my lips, and I drew it in my mouth for a beat before he tugged it free, trailing a damp path down my neck and along my collarbone.

“What?” I choked out.

Because really, if I couldn’t move soon, I might explode.

“Let’s get married soon.”

My heart flew skyward. “You mean it?”

“I don’t know why we haven’t yet. I was thinking about it while I was away. I figure if I miss you so damn much, I’d better make it official. I was kinda thinking there was no point in the whole wedding planning, but if you wanted…”

I held his face in my hands and peppered his cheeks and lips with kisses. “No wedding. It’s not my thing. I hate planning and everything that goes with it—it’s just silly. Let’s just go to the courthouse and be done with it. We can have a big party after.”

“Perfect,” he murmured against my lips.

He leaned back for a beat, his eyes saying far more than words ever could. On the heels of a breath, he gripped my hips and lifted me, only to bring me sliding back down roughly.

Two weeks without him with my body at the very end of its restraint, my climax was upon me almost instantly. My head bumped the ceiling of the car. Held fast against him, I barely noticed.