Blaze (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 8)

by Ophelia Sexton

  Finally, Dimitri said, "My parents…well, they're awful people, actually." His mouth quirked. "If you're a New Yorker, you probably heard about the feds arresting them for all kinds of illegal shenanigans related to the bank they owned."

  "I'd wondered about that when I saw your name stenciled on your firefighting gear," Damaris lied. "It's not a very common last name."

  "Yeah, I know." His smile had a bitter edge now. "They're a big part of the reason I left New York. But anyway, my parents went crazy when they found out that Nika was pregnant and determined to marry Ash. I mean, they pulled out all the stops and did some really cruel things. I tried to stop them, but I was fresh out of college and only twenty-one at the time and no match for my dad."

  Damaris hadn't heard about any of this. Which worried her. Just how complete and accurate was that dossier? "What happened? Is your sister okay?"

  "Yeah, it all worked out okay in the end. My parents, uh, disowned me for taking my sister's side. In retrospect, that was the best thing that ever happened to me. Anyhow, Ash and Nika got married, the FBI busted my parents at the wedding, and Ash's mom Elle invited me to stay at the ranch and more-or-less adopted me." He sat back and took a swig of his coffee. "Now I've got a great job, a great family, and the world's cutest nephew."

  Envy seized Damaris. He was so lucky!

  In her childhood, how often had she prayed for a nice family to adopt her? She'd learned the hard way that no one would rescue you. You had to save yourself and build your own family.

  "Are you in touch with your parents at all?" she asked.

  He shrugged. "My mom calls me every couple of weeks and tries to pull me into whatever crooked scheme she's cooking up. And she and my dad come to visit once or twice a year." He sighed and put his mug down on the table. "If it wasn't for the fact that they're both excellent grandparents, I'm sure that Ash and Nika wouldn't have anything to do with them. Not after the way they treated Nika. Hell, I still hold a grudge against them because of the way they treated my sister."

  "I don't blame you," Damaris said, and meant it.

  He seemed very protective of his sister, and in Damaris's experience, that kind of loyalty was rare and precious.

  "How about you?" he asked. "Are you close to your parents?"

  She had been expecting a question along those lines. Still, she couldn't help feeling a decades-old twinge of loss and grief.

  "No," she said flatly. Reluctantly she added, "They both died in a car accident when I was Sophie's age."

  "I'm so sorry to hear that." Dimitri's voice was filled with genuine sympathy. "What about Sophie's father? Is he in the picture?"

  Damaris shook her head. "He ghosted me as soon he found out I was pregnant. I never saw or heard from him again, and he never paid a penny in child support."

  "What a loser," Dimitri said, his expression disgusted. "He lost out on the chance to know his daughter, who's sweet and smart and funny…just like her mother."

  Damaris felt her cheeks grow warm. "I wasn't too smart around Noel, but I like to think that my taste in men has improved over the years."

  She remembered how naïve she'd been when she met Noel at age seventeen. She'd been so desperate to convince him to love her that she'd let down her guard. He would fall in love with her, and then they'd have a wedding just like the ones on TV.

  The day she found out that she was pregnant had been the most terrifying moment of her life. The second most terrifying moment came the next day, when Noel called her "stupid" for getting pregnant and just walked away, leaving her alone and in tears.

  He disappeared, and she didn't have the resources to track him down. That was when she realized that no one was going rescue her. She would have to rescue herself, and to do that, she needed to finish high school and find a way to support herself and her baby.

  Then Dan and Jim had come into her life as her latest set of foster parents. It was as if she'd been drowning and someone had thrown her a life ring.

  Too bad she'd gotten mixed up with Tony and his dirty business dealings. Her second dads would be so appalled and angry with her if they ever found out. So she'd let them slip out of her life.

  "Speaking of that…" She saw Dimitri's eyes light up with an eager expression. "You don’t have a girlfriend or anything, do you?"

  He shook his head. "Nope. I'm available."

  "Good," she blurted and felt her face grow hot.

  What was it about him that made her lose her cool like this?

  I only asked him that because I need to get him alone sometime soon.

  Dimitri slammed his mug down and stood so quickly that he pushed his chair over. It fell to the carpet with a soft thump as he came around the table to her.

  "I'm available," he repeated hoarsely. "And I'm all yours, Damaris."

  She rose out of a reflex born of constantly dodging Tony's passes but stood her ground as Dimitri reached out and cradled her face between his big hands.

  He stared down at her with a raw hunger that instantly rekindled all of her unsatisfied desire.

  A trick of the light made his gray eyes shimmer with gold as he bent with slow deliberation.

  Damaris was rigid with anticipation. She knew this was a really bad idea, but she'd been waiting for this moment all night, and it was all she could do to restrain herself from grabbing him and hauling his face down to hers.

  She felt his breath against her lips like a warm caress. An instant later, his lips brushed hers, feather-light.

  Heat seared through her, racing down her spine, kindling an urgent throb of desire between her thighs. She gasped, and he pulled away.

  Oh no, you don't! I want a real kiss, dammit!

  Her self-control shattered. She rose on tiptoes, snaked her arms around his neck, and pressed her mouth against his.

  He tasted of coffee. His lips were firm, and the light scrape of his stubble against her skin was maddening in the best kind of way.

  His arms came around her, and he pulled her in close. Hot damn, all she could feel was hard muscle as her breasts pressed against his broad chest.

  After an instant, he took control of the kiss, keeping it exquisitely gentle. Teasing brushes of his lips turned into light nibbles, each contact sending a jolt of pure pleasure through her.

  She had never been kissed like this before, a slow, sensual exploration that lingered and caressed without any hurry.

  Up until now, Damaris hadn't been too crazy about kissing.

  Now she realized that maybe her lack of enthusiasm wasn't due to something wrong with her. Until this kiss, she'd always thought of kissing as being grabbed and slobbered on before the guy tried to shove his tongue down her throat.

  But Dimitri was kissing her like he was savoring the taste and feel of her. It was a revelation that set her world on fire.

  Damaris could sense his hunger straining against the leash of his self-control as he continued to drive her crazy with his lips. Finally, he gave her his tongue in a sensual exploration that made her want to melt under him and let him do whatever he wanted to her.

  Her heart was hammering, and the hard beat was echoed by the urgent, aching throb between her legs as she pressed herself against him and lost herself in that amazing kiss.

  A firm bulge nudging her belly told her that Dimitri was just as turned on by the kiss as she was. He wanted her.

  Panting, she realized that she couldn't let this go any further, not with Sophie in the next room.

  Not with her special assignment hanging over their heads.

  But would Dimitri be willing to stop? After all, she'd all but thrown herself at him…and he was a very big, very strong guy.

  With an effort, she broke the kiss and tried to step away.

  Dimitri's hold on her tightened momentarily. Then, to her astonishment, he released her.

  Tony would never have done that. Or any of the other guys that she had briefly dated.

  "I—" Damaris had to take a deep breath to steady herself.

&
nbsp; She could still feel his arms around her, and the amazing, maddening sensation of his mouth moving against her. "I think we should call it a night. Thanks for dinner and the movie…and for being so nice to my kid."

  "I had a great time," Dimitri said, his voice deeper and rougher than usual. "You're a very special, very beautiful woman, Damaris. I'm looking forward to our next date."

  As if he couldn't help himself, he bent and gave her another one of those teasing, delicious kisses.

  She followed him to the door.

  "I'll see you at the ranch tomorrow afternoon," he said, making it sound like a promise.

  Then he departed, leaving Damaris feeling like the world had just shifted under her feet. Her body was on fire for him, and her thoughts were in turmoil.

  Despite her best intentions, despite knowing it was a bad idea, she'd fallen for Dimitri Medved. She couldn't help it. He was everything she had ever wanted in a man—strong, loyal, and above all, good.

  And he was far better than she deserved. And I can't ever let Tony find out that Dimitri kissed me.

  With that thought came the realization that she had been struggling to deny since she had first met Dimitri.

  I can't do it. I can't kill him.

  Chapter 9 – If Wishes Were Horses

  The Grizzly Creek Ranch proved easy to find, which was good, because Damaris lost her cell signal a few miles up the highway from Bearpaw Ridge, and the map app on her phone stopped working.

  Between the effects of Dimitri's amazing kiss and her worries about what Tony was going to do to her for failing to carry out the hit, she hadn't slept a wink last night. She had spent this morning drinking a lot of coffee while her emotions bounced between elation at the thought of seeing Dimitri again and apprehension about having to return to New York if her interview didn't work out.

  When she had sent her resume to Dimitri on Friday, her aim in applying for the position was to stay in contact with him and find an opportunity to arrange the accident that Freddy wanted.

  But she'd woken up this morning hoping against hope that this potential new job would be her ticket out of the life she'd grown to hate.

  "I see it!" Sophie exclaimed from the back seat.

  "It" was a big wooden sign carved in the shape of a grizzly bear standing next to the highway.

  Damaris saw the words "Grizzly Creek Ranch, est. 1871" written in big white letters on the bear-shaped part of the sign. Underneath, in smaller letters, she read "Bed and Breakfast." Next to it, a smaller square sign that announced, "We proudly raise organic grass-fed beef."

  She turned off the highway just past the sign and drove through a big pair of open wrought-iron gates. From there, the car bumped along a narrow dirt-and-gravel road that wound through grass-and-sagebrush-covered hills for another mile or so until it reached a cluster of seven houses set on either side of the road.

  The biggest house was a grand Victorian, painted a cheery yellow, with a wide porch, white gingerbread eaves, and beautiful bay windows fronted by colorful flowerbeds and a big fruit tree in the middle of the flowers.

  The other houses were smaller and ranged in building style from a Craftsman cottage to a modern log cabin with huge floor-to-ceiling picture windows and a wide deck.

  "Do you think that Matt will let me ride Oreo?" Sophie asked, sounding anxious as they approached the yellow Victorian house.

  "I don't know, kiddo. We'll just have wait and see. Promise me that you won't be a pest about it, though."

  "I’m never a pest," Sophie informed her. "I'm just persistent."

  Damaris was still laughing as she caught sight of three people standing under the tree in front of the Victorian. She immediately recognized Dimitri. He stood between an older woman wearing a colorful sundress, and the lanky owner of the Wildcat Springs Texas BBQ restaurant.

  As the Subaru drew closer, Dimitri and Justin waved at Damaris and Sophie.

  Following the example of the other vehicles in the area, she parked on the edge of the road.

  She'd spent some time this morning worrying about what to wear; her suitcase was packed for a vacation, not a job interview. After some thought, she had decided to wear the blue wrap maxi-dress again, since it was the most formal piece of clothing she'd brought with her on this trip.

  To her surprise and pleasure, Dimitri was suddenly standing next to her rented Subaru. He gallantly opened her car door and extended his hand to help her out.

  She felt the now-familiar jolt of pleasure at the contact as his fingers closed around hers.

  "You look beautiful," he murmured as she smoothed the wrinkles out of her dress.

  He squeezed her hand before releasing it, going to open the rear door for Sophie.

  Damaris belatedly remembered the bottle of wine sitting on the front passenger seat and reached in to get it. She had made a hasty shopping trip in town this morning to find a suitable hostess gift.

  "Hey there, Sophie," Dimitri greeted her daughter. "If it's okay with your mom, I've arranged for Matt and his dad Dane to give you a riding lesson while your mom meets with Ash." He glanced over her head. "In fact, here they come now."

  "Wow!" Sophie breathed.

  Ignoring his proffered hand, she scrambled out of the back seat and turned to watch a dark-haired boy lead the black-and-white pony down the road from a barn located a few hundred yards away. A tall, bearded man wearing a cowboy hat was walking alongside the boy and the pony.

  "Can I, Mom? Please?" In anticipation of possibly making contact with real live horses, Sophie had worn jeans, sneakers, and a pink T-shirt with "Self-Rescuing Princess" written across the front in a fancy font.

  As if Damaris would deny her daughter the chance to finally ride a horse!

  "Of course. And it's very nice of Dimitri to have arranged this treat for you."

  Sophie caught the hint. "Thank you, Mitya!"

  He laughed. "My pleasure. Let me introduce you both to Elle Swanson, who owns this ranch, and then we'll go meet Matt and Dane."

  In a charming, old-fashioned gesture, he offered Damaris his arm.

  She took it because her strappy sandals, while cute, weren't designed for walking on uneven ground. The last thing she needed to do right now was fall flat on her face in front of a bunch of strangers whom she wanted to impress.

  As an added bonus, she got to feel the hard muscles of Dimitri’s forearm moving under her palm.

  Elle Swanson was tall and solidly built, with warm brown eyes and frosted dark blonde hair. Her dress was a flattering dark pink color, and she wore matching lipstick.

  Justin Long was standing next to her with his arm around her shoulders, and Damaris noticed that Elle's arm was snugged firmly around his waist.

  "Howdy there," he called as Sophie, Damaris and Dimitri approached. "Nice to see y'all again."

  "Hi, Mr. Long!" Sophie called.

  "Welcome to the Grizzly Creek Ranch, Damaris," Elle said, smiling, as Dimitri steered Damaris to a halt. "I'm Elle. Mitya has told us all about you."

  Elle extended her hand, and Damaris took it. "Thank you so much for inviting Sophie and me to dinner. I brought you a little something…I hope you like red wine."

  "That's so thoughtful of you. Thank you," Elle said as she graciously accepted the bottle. Her smile deepened as she looked at Damaris's daughter. "And you must be Sophie. Mitya told me that you really like horses."

  "I do!" Sophie answered. "Do you have a lot of them here at the ranch?"

  "Of course," Elle answered. "I've always had horses, and this place really wouldn't feel like home without them."

  By now, the pony and his two humans were just a few yards away.

  "Hi, Sophie," said the dark-haired boy whose photo they'd seen on Dimitri's phone last night. "I'm Matt, and this is my pony Oreo." He flashed a grin at the big, bearded man walking at his side. "Oh, and this is my dad."

  "Nice to know where I rank in your world, son," the man said dryly. "Hi, I'm Dane Swanson." He smiled at Damaris. "And you mus
t be Sophie's mom, Damaris. You two look a lot like."

  "Dane is Elle's oldest son and the manager of this ranch. He's also our fire captain," Dimitri explained.

  Like Dimitri, Dane Swanson was a big guy, tall and broad-shouldered. He had dark brown hair and intense hazel eyes that crinkled at the corners when he smiled.

  "Pleased to meet you," Damaris said, shaking Dane's hand. "Thank you so much for offering to teach my daughter how to ride. She loves horses, but there isn't much opportunity for riding lessons where we live."

  "My pleasure."

  Damaris wondered if it was something in the local water that made all the men around here look like football players.

  She extended her hand to Dane's son. "Hi, Matt. Thank you so much for the treat you've arranged for Sophie. She's been looking forward to meeting Oreo ever since Dimitri mentioned him yesterday."

  Matt grinned. "We're gonna have fun. Oreo's pretty good with newbies."

  Dane said, "Mitya mentioned that you're interviewing with Ash and Steffi this afternoon and staying for dinner afterwards. I look forward to getting acquainted."

  Sophie, who had retreated into her usual shy demeanor around strangers, stretched out a tentative hand in Oreo's direction. The pony's nostrils flared and he snorted, making Sophie jump. She hastily dropped her hand.

  "Can I pet him?" she asked Matt. "I've never touched a real live horse before."

  "You've never seen a horse before?" Matt asked, looking astounded. "Where are you from?"

  "New York City," Sophie answered. "And I've seen horses before—police officers ride them. I've just never petted one before." She gazed at Oreo longingly. "He doesn't bite, does he?"

  "Not usually," Matt answered.

  "He can be a little shy around strangers," Dane interjected. "Why don't you make friends with him first?"

  The big man reached into his pocket and handed Sophie a piece of carrot.

  "Offer it to him like this." Dane demonstrated by flattening out his hand palm-up.

  Sophie followed his example and tentatively offered Oreo the carrot. Damaris held her breath as the pony stretched its neck in her direction.