Holiday Heat

By Delta Dupree

Café owner Jaylee Bryant found the man of her dreams. Firefighter Derrick Robinson found a good woman to love. Together, they'll heat up the holiday season—unless an underlying fear douses the flames before Christmas Day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Delta Dupree
• Release date: Dec 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458195913

Delta Dupree

Delta Dupree writes as hot as the desert southwest heat where she lives. She and her husband, another romantic at heart, are avid travelers. While touring exotic locations throughout the world, reading has always been Delta's pleasure, but writing novels is her passion. Inspired by the people and the places she has visited, Delta enjoys inventing characters and stories in which lust, love, and destiny move readers' hearts. Visit Delta Dupree & Chayse Manning at their website--www.deltadupree.com--and view their published novels.

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HOLIDAY HEAT

DELTA DUPREE

Copyright © 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

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Chapter 1

Jaylee Bryant glided out of her small kitchen, knowing her filmy red teddy left little to the imagination, even under the matching robe—the perfect outfit to entice the man of her dreams. Derrick Robinson’s kiss-power factor was up there at a ten and able to dissolve her thoughts.

Plush earth-toned carpeting muffled the sound of her high-heeled slippers as she crossed the distance between the dining room and eight-foot sofa. She set their wine glasses on a small table near the gas fireplace burning brightly. A fierce storm had swooped into Denver, chilling everything in its path, but the inside of her townhome was toasty.

One tender stroke up her leg and she melted into Derrick’s strong arms. Nearly a month and, ooh, she was crazy about this man. Big. Strong. Big. Sexy. Big all over. She smoothed her fingers up his hard chest, purred when he drew her close.

Tired, baby? Jaylee asked. She kicked the slippers off her feet then ran her toes up his calf.

Derrick had showered at her place. He wore only jeans now, said he didn’t like the charred odor he’d brought with him. She loved it, having a fascination about firemen…er…to be politically correct—firefighters. She’d inhaled the remnants of smoke, manly sweat, danger.

Um-hmm. He was a man of few words.

Earlier, his firefighting team had battled a two-alarm apartment blaze. The families were transported to a community center. Two pets weren’t so lucky. Derrick loved animals. He loved the gift of life in general.

The day after his baby sister’s funeral, he quit playing football. Collette had perished in a towering inferno, which compelled Derrick to go back to school for certification and training even when he’d already earned a degree in finance. His sister had been blind since birth. Overcome by smoke, she was unable to escape her seventh-floor apartment. Jaylee had cried for Derrick after he left for home because he wouldn’t shed a tear.

She planned to seduce him, banish tonight’s trauma from his mind if she could remember how. Wine, hors d’oeuvres, aromatic candles, roaring fire, sexy lingerie…. What better way to set the mood?

She kissed him passionately, caressing his bare chest without being too brazen.

Better hit the road, he said when her thoughts had begun to melt.

She realized the fire he’d helped put out had probably doused his enthusiasm like the water firefighters used.

So soon? She really wanted to spend more than two hours with her new hunk. Given time, she intended to upgrade his zeal.

Back on duty tomorrow. Volunteered tonight. Team needed help.

He had beautiful eyes, brown as his skin’s coloring, trimmed with a thick bed of lashes any woman would kill to have for herself. Men never fluttered their eyelashes. Well, most didn’t. His lips were awesome—smooth, fleshy enough to sink her teeth into and lick the pain away. She ran her fingers over their fullness then traced the Fu-Manchu he kept neatly trimmed. How long must she wait to do this again?

Forget waiting. Jaylee crawled over his body. She kissed him again, tongue delving, touching every recessed corner inside his mouth. She pressed her pelvis against his in a rotating dance, pleasuring herself, hoping to pleasure him as well. For one hot minute, when his hands guided her hips, she straddled his, dipping, sliding, and bearing down.

He set her beside him. Gotta go.

Well, kiss my…. She didn’t even get a rise out of him when she sizzled inside, ready to bump, grind, and set the pillows on fire. Have to go?

Sleeping alone every night stomped on her last nerve. Before Derrick, when was the last time she’d dated a decent man? Years. And when was the last time she’d let a man set her panties on fire?

Don’t even go there.

JB’s One Stop Café occupied all of her time. Work left few free hours. Those were spent doing things necessary to keep One Stop in business. Long days at the café kept her out of bars, away from worthless devils looking for a free ride with a successful woman, trouble she no longer needed.

She watched him trudged down the hall, all six feet four inches of raw masculine meat. Just look at his V-shaped back, his tight behind, solid thighs…all rippled with muscle.

Next time she’d lather him with feminine seduction. There wasn’t a man around who could refuse her for long. Well, some had. There were also those worthless devils that had used her for convenience. She’d kicked them to the curb and kept right on truckin’, unfazed. No man had broken her heart since college. At thirty-one, no one ever would again. She’d vowed never to cry a single tear over another man.

When the bathroom door squeaked, she spread her robe in open invitation, struck her sexiest pose—one leg bent at the knee.

He ignored her, thrusting his big arms into his ski jacket. Sighing, Jaylee held out both hands for Derrick to draw her easily to her feet.

Oh, yes, she wanted him. Stripped to sable-brown skin. When’s your next day off?

Tuesday. Twenty-four hours on, forty-eight off as usual.

Looping her arms around his neck, she rose to tiptoes. She really wanted to wrap her legs around his waist. Get banged against the door. Wake the neighborhood howling for more.

He pulled her arms free. I’ll call you, he said and dropped a friendly peck on her cheek.

And that will be when? Jaylee wondered, not liking the sound of his vague statement. She wasn’t