Page 1 of Controlled Burn
Prologue
They said the firehouse would break me.
That I was too soft. Too pretty. Too much my father’s daughter.
They didn’t say it to my face, of course—not at first. But I heard it. In the tone. In the glances. In the way they looked at me like I was either bait or baggage.
I came anyway.
And I stayed.
Not to prove them wrong—but to provemeright.
I know what they see when I walk in.
Glossed lips. Low voice. That stubborn spine I won’t bend for anyone.
They expect me to flirt. To fail. To fold.
They don’t expect me to fight.
But I do.
Every shift. Every call. Every time someone sizes me up like a problem—and I make them eat it.
And then there’shim.
Captain Dean Maddox.
All clipped commands, jaw like a weapon, and that fucking voice that lights my spine on fire.
He looks at me like I’m a mistake he’s dying to make again.
Like I’m a threat he wants to handle—with his mouth.
He doesn’t touch me.
Not where anyone can see.
But I feel it. In every stolen glance. In every breathless pause.
He’s married. He’s in charge.
I should walk away.
But when he looks at me like that—
Like I’m the only thing in the room worth burning for—
I forget who I’m supposed to be.
And that’s the danger.
Not the fire.
Him.
Because I can survive the heat.
