No, I haven’t been abducted by aliens. I’m still here. But as you can see, I’ve been busy.

I spent the month of June doing research for my next book, then got down to business in July. I’ve spent every day of August writing, and I’m now down to the last few chapters.

Slow Burn, the next book in my contemporary Colorado High Country series, will be out on Sept. 20 from all ebook vendors. I will be out in print about a week later (due to the longer process involved in getting a book into print format and creating physical copies).

The book tells the story of Eric Hawke, the chief of Scarlet Springs’ small rural fire/EMS department and a member of the Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team. We met him in Barely Breathing as Austin Taylor’s best friend. Now he’s getting his own story.

Victoria Woodley is the heroine in this story. If you’ve read Barely Breathing, you know that she and Eric don’t get off to a very good start. There’s that little moment where Vic, not knowing who he really is, leans in and says, “Firemen are my favorite color.” This becomes pretty embarrassing for her.

Set about a year after the end of Barely Breathing, it picks up the week before Lexi and Austin’s wedding. Vic has flown out to join the rest of the bridal party — bride, groom, bridesmaids, and groomsmen — for a week of Colorado adventures. Fresh off a dating nightmare, she has given up men. She doesn’t expect to spend much time with Eric, but things turn out differently than she might have imagined.

Everyone is on vacation in this book, so there’s not as much rescue action or firefighting/EMS work as there might ave been. Lexi and Austin take their friends boating and horseback riding at the Cimarron (mentioned in the I-Team series in Skin Deep, Striking Distance, and Soul Deep). They also take them whitewater rafting and spend an evening glammed up at a casino in Central City. It’s all a long party to celebrate their upcoming wedding.

Amid the pre-wedding festivities, Eric and Victoria are forced to confront their combustible attraction for one another and just about burn the town down.

I don’t have a finished back blurb for you yet, but I can share an excerpt.

Here's a sneak peek at Slow Burn. Enjoy!


Eric stood on the deck in his swim trunks and flip flops, counting and inspecting floatation vests to make certain there would be one for everybody. “Did you say Sasha is coming, too?”

Sasha Dillon was the youngest member of the Team at twenty-three. She was also a world-champion rock climber whose success enabled her to live off sponsorships. Petite with a delicate face and long, blond hair, she attracted men by the dozens. Those who didn’t recognize her thought they’d found a new belay slave or a little woman they could impress—until she roped in and made them look like amateurs.

Taylor dumped ice into a large cooler, covering cans of soda and bottled water. “Sasha, Lexi, Britta, Vic, you, me, Moretti. That’s seven.”

“Did you have to count that on your fingers?”

Taylor laughed. “Hey, at least I can count.”

Eric couldn’t resist. “Hey, Moretti, can this old tub handle seven people?”

You could call Moretti names to his face, but no one insulted his boat.

Moretti’s head popped up from below the helm where he’d been tinkering all morning. “Fuck you, Hawke.”

“You wish.” Eric grinned.

That had been too easy.

One of the newer members of the Team, Jesse Moretti had served as an Army Ranger and had seen combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He’d come to Colorado from Louisiana on vacation, discovered rock climbing, and hadn’t looked back. Still, he missed fishing and boating the Gulf, so he’d thrown down a bundle for a fancy speed boat.

“They’re here.” Taylor waved, a big grin on his face.

Yeah, the guy had completely lost it over Lexi, and Eric was happy for him. Sure, Eric had had the hots for Lexi, too. He’d been the first one to notice her in junior high, but he’d been too damned shy to say anything to her. Taylor had been state ski champion in high school and had had more confidence than Eric. When she’d first come back to Scarlet, Eric had thought he might connect with her, but, nah, man. She and Taylor had gotten back together in a matter of days. Anyone could see they were made for each other. They’d been each other’s first serious relationship and first lover, and now they were finally getting hitched. It was the perfect happy ending, and it couldn’t have happened to better people.

Lexi led her flock of friends toward the pier, the lot of them wearing cover-ups over swimsuits, except for Sasha, who wore a bikini over her slender body as if it were street clothes.

“Hey!” Lexi called to them. “Sorry we’re late.”

“We were about to leave without you.” Taylor joked.

He met them at the stern and helped the women aboard, first Lexi, then Vic and Britta, while Sasha climbed onto the starboard gunwale and stuck her wakeboard in the rack before hopping into the boat, a sunny smile on her face.

 “Vamanos!” she called to Moretti. “Let’s go.”

Lexi introduced Victoria to Moretti. “Vic, this is Jesse Moretti. He’s with the Team. He’s also one of Austin’s groomsmen. Jesse, this is my best friend and maid of honor, Victoria. She and I were roomies in college.”

Moretti looked at Victoria as if she were lunch, puffing out his hairy pecs. “Have you ever been on a boat?”

The big idiot.

She nodded. “My brother owns a boat, and he takes me out sometimes.”

“What kind of lakes do you have around Chicago?”

Dear God. Had he really just asked that question?

Dude!

A smile tugged at her lips. “Oh, lakes like Lake Michigan.”

“Right. Yeah, I knew that.”

Sure you did.

“Have you gone boating on a real lake?” Victoria fired back. “Not that there’s anything wrong with this one. It’s cute.”

Was she flirting with Moretti? And, hey, was she dissing the reservoir? Okay, so it was manmade and wasn’t very big, but not everything could be a Great Lake.

Moretti grinned. “I grew up in a house two miles from Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. Does that count?”

Irritated, Eric walked over to the starboard side and reached for the stern line. “Are we going to get out on the water, or are you going to stand there talking?”

They got down to the business of unmooring the boat, Eric and Austin handling the lines, while Moretti started the motor and maneuvered the boat into open water.

Sasha walked up to Moretti. “This is a speed boat, right?”

“You want speed?” He opened the throttle, and they were off.

Wind hit Eric full in the face, clearing his mind, easing his irritation. What did he care if Victoria and Moretti connected? It’s not like he had any claim on her. She wasn’t really his type anyway. He was attracted to sporty women, women who didn’t waste time on makeup and clothes, women who….

Lust hit him square in the chest, derailing his train of thought.

Victoria had taken off the short white dress she’d worn as a cover-up and was making her way toward him in a black bikini, her hair blowing in the wind.

Holy hell.

He’d known she had a knock-out body, but … damn. His gaze moved from the swells of her full breasts to her narrow waist to the curve of her hips and her gently rounded belly. He wanted to touch every sweet inch of her, kiss every inch, taste …

She turned and bent down to grab a can of soda, her luscious, round ass barely covered by the fabric of her bikini.

X-rated images flashed through his mind—her bent over just like that, his hands on her hips—

“You might want to close your mouth,” Britta whispered in his ear.

Eric snapped his jaw shut.

Okay, so he’d been staring and thinking things he shouldn’t think. But, Jesus, who could blame him?

Mark your calendars for Sept. 20, and get ready for another mountain adventure. If you haven’t tried the series, there’s still time to read Barely Breathing, though both books stand alone.

Kindle US: http://amzn.to/24FQEd9
Kindle AU: http://bit.ly/1NnOkDd
Kindle UK: http://amzn.to/1rILChz
Kindle CA: http://amzn.to/1TypzAv
iBooks: http://apple.co/1SZOq0T
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/1T6mwWb
Nook: http://bit.ly/21OfDt4
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1VTk6L2
ARe: http://bit.ly/1PAVu2x
Amazon Print: http://amzn.to/1Tkf61R

Just FYI: This isn’t romantic suspense like the I-Team series. It’s straight contemporary romance. That was confusing for some readers, though I tried to be very clear about it.

(c) Copyright 2016 Pamela Clare