The Hot Line Read Free Page A

and caress her curvy body until she gave herself over to him, completely, his to do with as he pleased.
    There was a wholesomeness about her, a fresh girl-next-door look that really got under his skin and warmed his blood faster than a quick shot of Scotch. It surprised him, really. With her good-girl features and curvaceous body, Sara was the antithesis of the hip, polished urban women he normally dated.
    But, with just one smoldering look, Sara could set a fire to his libido—a fire that if left unattended, would likely rage out of control and reach dangerous proportions.
    Naturally he had no intention of leaving said fire unattended. As a firefighter, it was his duty to tamp down every blaze, even if it meant taking matters into his own hands. Nostrils flaring, he clenched and unclenched his fingers at the mere thought of doing so.
    Although he’d been duly warned to stay away from Sara, she’d been invading his dreams as well as his every waking thought for the last few days. Christ, he’d never met a sexier woman. And the way she looked at him with dark, passionate desire smoldering in her eyes had his cock swelling to the point of pain.
    “What’s the matter? Can’t take the heat?” Dean Beckman taunted, laying his cards out to reveal three jacks. “Or is Shelly at it again?” He nodded toward the private phone kept near their sleeping quarters.
    “She called here earlier,” Brady Wade piped in before he, too, tossed his cards down. He then bent to pat Jag, his chocolate Labrador retriever. Since Brady had a love of Labs, Station 419 was the only one around without the requisite dalmatian.
    Mitch cursed under his breath and rocked his chair back on two legs. Shelly, his ex-girlfriend of over a year now, never failed to call on the heels of a bad breakup. The woman went through men faster than their trucks went through water.
    “She sounded upset, like she’d been crying. I guess she’s looking for a strong shoulder to latch on to,” Dean said.
    “That’s one way to put it,” Mitch replied. They all knew it wasn’t his shoulder she was looking to latch on to, and he certainly had no intention of being her bedmate between guys.
    A while back, he’d thought that he loved her and that she actually cared about him. But he quickly learned that like every other woman he’d been with, she merely wanted the fantasy. It was his dangerous, heroic job that attracted women, not the man beneath the uniform—a man who worked long hours and was away from home frequently. Since his last breakup, he’d finally learned to shut down emotionally, giving himself physically while keeping a cool, hardened exterior.
    At the sudden thought of giving himself physically, his mind raced to Sara. She wanted the fantasy with him, he could tell. One night of hot lust while on vacation. He’d seen it in her eyes, read it in her every gesture.
    Although Mitch was more than willing and capable of fulfilling Sara’s wild firefighter fantasy, he’d been duly warned by Nick Cameron to keep his distance. Since Mitch had a reputation as a one-night kind of guy, Nick had cautioned him that Sara was a small-town girl who didn’t delve into brief affairs. According to Nick’s fiancée, Cassie, Sara didn’t take sex lightly; therefore Nick asked Mitch to keep his distance because the last thing he wanted was to see one of Cassie’s best friends hurt while in Chicago for the wedding.
    Not only was Nick Mitch’s coworker—he was also his friend. A friend who’d saved his ass a time or two in the line of duty. Mitch held Nick in high regard and owed it to him to abide by his wishes.
    Which meant that tonight, and every night hereafter, until Sara returned to Iowa and he managed to work her out of his system, he’d be taking matters into his own hands.
    Literally.
    Still he could lie in bed and fantasize about her, couldn’t he? Imagining what it would be like to taste her mouth and her breasts or to open her soft pink lips with his