Backburn

By Maren Lee

The only thing Dillon Yates loves more than overtime is women, but pickings have gotten slim in his small town and he’s out of fresh meat. The deputy sheriff is working a roadblock for a fire outside Imminence, Montana, when he spots her on a truck full of wildland firefighters: a gorgeous woman wearing fire engine red lipstick. He has no idea what she’s doing here, but he knows he has to meet her.

Lauren Davis loves her bold lipstick, but she loves her job more. She’s a hotshot firefighter and she’s had to fight for respect in the male-dominated field. All of that goes out the window when her boyfriend turns out to be a cheating scumbag and everyone on her team knows it.

Lauren is ready to burn her ex out of her brain.
Dillon is looking to burn up the sheets.

A fire brings them together, but do they have the kind of sparks that’ll burn hot for only one night...or is there a promise for more?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maren Lee
• Release date: Jan 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463513941

Maren Lee

Maren Lee is a former bartender, current mountain woman, and contemporary erotic romance author. Her first novel, Ride-along, was written on a dare and she loved doing it so much, she decided to write a whole series based on the Bounty County Sheriff's Department hotties. With four books in the series down, Maren has no plans to stop creating this world of small town hot alpha cops and the women who love them. Maren lives in the tiny mountain town of Atlanta, Idaho with her husband, three dog children, and her one weird-ass cat. She loves all things outdoors, reading romance novels, and drinking wine (not necessarily in that order).

Book preview

Backburn

A Stand-Alone Bounty County Series Novella

Maren Lee

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Due to profanity and graphic sexual content, this book is not intended for anyone under the age of eighteen.

This novella was originally released in December of 2018 as part of the Cop Tales Anthology. Only minor edits have been made.

Backburn - Copyright © 2018, 2020 by Maren Lee

Editing by Laura Hull, the Red Pen Princess

Cover by Coolest Internet Friend Ever

Cover Photo* by Maren Lee

*The photo of the dead trees on the cover was taken atop the mountains overlooking Atlanta, Idaho in the summer of 2019. In 2013, a serious wildfire raged throughout the region. The landscape is painted with these ghost trees. Every year we return to our beloved mountain town, we are amazed at how life finds a way (shoutout to Stephen King and Jurassic Park). Despite the devastation, the fire made way for new life. Just six years later, we are surrounded by baby pine trees, beautiful wildflowers, and the grasses essential to wildlife and mudslide prevention. It makes me hopeful.

For my Aussie friends...

Author’s Note and Request

This stand-alone Bounty County novella is about a hotshot firefighter; the kind of firefighter who fights wildfires all around the world. In January of 2020, these brave men and women are currently fighting the large, devastating blazes in Australia. Lives have been lost, homes destroyed, and animals displaced. If you are able, here are some organizations that could use your donations right now:

Port Macquarie Koala Hospital

Australian Red Cross

New South Wales Rural Fire District

Country Fire Authority (Victoria)

Country Fire Service Foundation (South Australia)

Currumbin Wildlife Hospital

Animals Australia (sending emergency vets to fire devastated areas)

Thank you.

Xoxo,

Maren

The only thing Dillon Yates loves more than overtime is women, but pickings have gotten slim in his small town and he’s out of fresh meat. The deputy sheriff is working a roadblock for a fire outside Imminence, Montana, when he spots her on a truck full of wildland firefighters: a gorgeous woman wearing fire engine red lipstick. He has no idea what she’s doing here, but he knows he has to meet her.

Lauren Davis loves her bold lipstick, but she loves her job more. She’s a hotshot firefighter and she’s had to fight for respect in the male-dominated field. All of that goes out the window when her boyfriend turns out to be a cheating scumbag and everyone on her team knows it.

Lauren is ready to burn her ex out of her brain.

Dillon is looking to burn up the sheets.

A fire brings them together, but do they have the kind of sparks that’ll burn hot for only one night...or is there a promise for more?

Chapter One

Fire season was good for overtime.

Dillon Yates loved overtime nearly as much as he loved having the money in his pocket. The more change in his drawers, the more territory he could cover, and the more chicks he could bang. Because when it came to the ladies, he just couldn’t be confined to Imminence, Montana, anymore. Dillon was pretty sure tapped all available, good looking (and a few not...so...much) women in town. He’d even shared a few ladies with Cole McDaniels, his best friend, roommate, and coworker. Dillon didn’t mind a good ol’ threesome now and again, but the same options were getting tiresome.

So he had a plan to branch out to the big city of Billings for new pussy. Branching out seventy miles away required money, though, and Dillon didn’t have a lot of it as an employee of the Bounty County Sheriff’s Office.

Yeah, Dillon was glad it was fire season. Roadblocks meant overtime and hazard pay, so he was excited for the money. But this particular fire was