Heat

By Cathleen Ross

The world’s gone to hell, and Helen MacKenzie's only chance of survival is the two sexy commandos determined to keep her safe by taking her to the newly secured Base.
There's an unwritten rule at the Base where women are scarce. The soldier who finds a woman gets to keep her, only this time two commandos want Helen.

When zoologist Helen volunteers to remain at the zoo to protect the animals until help comes to rescue her from flesh-eating braindeads, she doesn't expect her work colleagues to turn too, thanks to the virus that’s changed her world—and everyone else’s—into a living hell. On the day Corporal Peter Clark and Corporal Adam Tenny rescue Helen, she doesn't know which commando she wants more, until she discovers she can have them both.

Heat is a ten thousand word story that is linked to the novel, Base.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cathleen Ross
• Release date: Oct 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311763792

Cathleen Ross

Cathleen Ross likes to write about the quirky side of life. She loves writing erotic romance. Psychic Sex and Shift into Pleasure are her latest Harlequin Spice Brief releases. Psychic Sex was included in the Naughty Bits Anthology. When Cathleen's not writing for Harlequin, she's working on her Forbidden Fantasy self-published series.

Book preview

Heat

By Cathleen Ross

Published by Cathleen Ross at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 Cathleen Ross

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 recipient. 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 and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Acknowledgment A big thank you to my editor, Kate Cuthbert for her vision.

Chapter 1

Zoo keeper, Helen MacKenzie, approached the wooden fence of the elephant enclosure at Taronga Zoo, Mosman, her baby elephant, Snaffles, trailing listlessly behind her. Her boss leaned over the fence snarling, the broken capillaries in his eyes deleted of all color.

It had been three months since the contagion started and communication had died soon after. When contracted, people seemed to lose their minds and became braindead, their bodies decaying like meat left out in the harsh midday sun. That would have been okay if they hadn't also craved flesh: human flesh. Her flesh. Of the ten zoo keepers who had volunteered to stay in the zoo when the contagion had spread throughout Sydney, only she remained. Helen edged closer and steeled herself, her fingers gripping the sharpened stick, determined to kill this time. Her boss moaned, reaching over the fence, his jaws snapping.

To her left lay the moat that enclosed most of the elephant area and she kept one eye on it, because a small crocodile had slipped in recently and she didn't want to get bitten. Fear rippled up her spine as she approached. Her boss' arms waved at her, his blackened, rotting fingers stretching out. With desperate determination, she shoved the sharpened stick into his eye and through to his brain. He dropped and Helen backed away, sinking onto a boulder.

The more braindeads she killed, the better chance she had of surviving, if one of the zoo creatures or starvation didn't get her first. The fruit she'd stockpiled for Snaffles was gone. All canned food stores eaten and anything she could raid from the zoo restaurant, between fleeing the savage braindeads, finished long ago. There wasn't much hay left in the elephant enclosure and, stomach pinched with hunger, Helen had resorted to chewing it like a horse eating its cud.

A two foot reddish snake slid past her boot. Helen froze, her mind racing with snake identification facts. Pseudechis Colletti. A Collett's snake. Deadly. It raised its head and puffed up its body, brown beady eyes staring at her. It gave a short hiss.

Fuck! She didn't know who'd let all the snakes

Reviews for Heat

[mel pate · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good short story. Well written and I definitely wanted more. It is short and ends abruptly. Cant wait for the next book to come out. Hot scenes.