Kindling

by Ember Cole

Under Fire · Book 4

I was driving into the mountains for a new assignment. Smoke on the horizon. GPS dead. No way out. That’s when he found me— Cole Maddox. Wildfire rescue. Big. Silent. Furious I hadn’t turned back. He threw my gear in his truck and said, “You want to argue or survive?” The fire cut off the road. The radio died. We ended up in a one-room ranger cabin. One bed. Three nights. No distractions—except each other. He barely spoke. I couldn’t stop filling the silence. And somewhere between shared blankets and whispered stories… Then the crew arrived. They pulled me out. And he let me go. Weeks later, I found him in the ER—bruised, burned, alive. I told him, “You saved me in that cabin. Now let me return the favor.”

19 chapters