Flame (Firefighters of Montana Book 5) by Victoria Purman

the size of the DC-3 that took the smokejumpers into the sky. They were so loud in her ears, behind her eyelids, and there were thousands of them, carrying a jar of golden honey through the air towards her, wings flapping, and she suddenly saw honey almond cookies, freshly baked, on a silver baking tray flying towards her, too, sliding off and tumbling in the air as if they were weightless.
    Cady blinked her eyes open. It wasn’t bees. There was no giant jar of honey or flying cookies. It was her front door buzzer, insistent, determined. She’d fallen asleep on the sofa again. The TV was still murmuring softly, the movie she was watching still running. Damn. She’d never find out what happened in Paris. Then she had a flash of fear. The buzzer. Ringing so loudly it was as if someone was leaning on it. Please not her shop. She couldn’t smell smoke. Maybe it was the police? Had there been a break in? She jumped to her feet and stumbled to her stairs which led to the front door at the street below. As she jerked open the heavy wooden door, it wasn’t police officers she found standing there but Dex McCoy.

Chapter Eleven
    “W hat’s with the doorbell?” she demanded, still shaking with nerves from her dream and the thought of her shop being robbed and the police. And seeing Dex wasn’t making her feel relieved at all. Not one damn bit.
    “You didn’t answer. You car’s here and I saw the light on upstairs so I thought something might have been wrong. You okay?” Dex took a step closer to her and dipped his head to look into her eyes.
    “I’m fine.” She huffed. “I was asleep.”
    “At nine o’clock on a Saturday night?”
    “Yeah. Sad, isn’t it? You think there might be one man in this town who might want to show a gal a good time on the only night of the week when she can stay up late, but no. What are you doing here? What happened to your hot date?”
    “She drove away from The Drop Zone before I could buy her a drink.”
    “You mean I was your hot date?”
    “Yes, I mean you. Who else would I be talking about, Cady?”
    Cady held her chin in the air. “The woman on the phone.”
    “That ‘woman’ is eight years old and she’s my niece, Lila.”
    “Oh, shit.” That deflated balloon feeling was back.
    How had Cady forgotten about Mitch and Sarah’s daughter? The whole town had felt their anguish after the accident and had worried even more for them when they turned in on themselves, hidden away out on North Fork in the year and a half since.
    “How’s she doing?”
    Dex’s face almost split in a smile. “She’s great. Exhausting but great.”
    It was about that moment that Dex was smiling about his niece that Cady’s defences dropped. She took a deep breath. “So you want to come up? I’ve got cupcakes. Oops, I know you wouldn’t possibly want one of those.”
    Cady’s breath hitched when Dex stepped up into the hallway, right into her personal space. She stumbled backwards and he closed the door behind them. It became dim, the lights from the street blocked now. Cady pressed herself against the wall as he moved in close. She knew what was going to happen and it had been a long time coming. All those years of waiting, of longing, of pushing the idea away were compressing into this night, this minute, this second.
    “This is what I want.” His hands found hers and he entwined their fingers.
    Then his lips were a breath away from hers and she didn’t wait for his mouth. Since the kiss at his apartment, she’d wanted him. Dreamed about him. Wondered when they would kiss again. She teased, pressed her lips to his, withdrew them, nibbled at his lower lip, ran her tongue along its softness. She tasted whiskey and something else, something more recent.
    “Saltiness,” she murmured against his mouth.
    His fingers tightened around hers. “Sweetness,” he replied as her took her mouth fiercely.
    She tore her fingers from his and slipped them in the tight space between his chest and her