Jac rested her cheek against Mallory’s hair and closed her eyes. She’d missed most of the last week of boot camp. She cared about that, but she cared a lot more about where she was going with Mallory. She opened her eyes and met Mallory’s gaze. “I want to be with you, Mallory. I love you.”

Mallory slid her leg over the outside of Jac’s thigh, gliding her center against Jac’s hip. She was wet, and Jac forgot all about Hooker and Nora Fleming. Mallory kissed Jac, and she was in no hurry. She traced her tongue over the contours of Jac’s mouth, darting inside, nibbling, sucking and savoring. When Jac was breathing like a freight train chugging up the mountainside, Mallory drew back and smiled. Her eyes glinted with unmistakable triumph. “I sort of planned on keeping you. You think I drove all the way down here to turn around and go back without you?”

“I’ll come back even if you cut me from the team. I sort of fucked that up, didn’t I?”

“No, baby, you didn’t.” Mallory kissed her again, gently. “You more than made up for any time you lost this week up on the mountain, getting those kids out. We’ve got a jump tomorrow. Are you ready for it?”

“Yes, I am,” Jac said.

“Are you ready to walk away from all of this? It’s probably not going to be easy.”

Jac grimaced. “I’ve walked away from this before on my father’s orders—this time it’s on my terms.” She shifted closer, pulling Mallory against her belly, needing her everywhere. “I want to see my sister. After that, I’m ready to go.”

Mallory ran her hand over Jac’s ass. “You want to get dressed and find your sister now?”

Jac grabbed Mallory’s wrist and guided Mallory’s hand between her legs. Mallory’s fingers found her instantly, stroking her exactly right. Jac pushed into her palm, wanting to let go, wanting to hold on, wanting to be connected forever.

“In a minute,” Jac gasped. “I need you first. I need you.”

Mallory smiled, stroking her deeper, taking her right up to the edge. “Baby, anytime, anything you need.”

*

Jac knocked on Carly’s door, and after a few seconds, Carly called, “Who is it?”

“It’s me,” Jac said.

The door opened to the length of the security lock, and Carly peered out. “Wow, you’re in so much trouble.”

Jac grinned. “Yeah, yeah. Let us in?”

The door closed, the lock rattled, and then Carly pulled the door wide. She was wearing a ribbed pink tank top and white drawstring pajama bottoms with red hearts, her hair was down and loose, and she looked about twelve. Jac’s heart turned over. Man, she didn’t want to leave her. She drew Mallory into the room by the hand, keeping it in hers. “Carly, this is Mallory.”

Carly dropped down on the bed next to her open computer and drew her legs up cross-wise. She cocked her head and blatantly studied Mallory. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Mallory said, hooking her thumb over the back of Jac’s uniform pants. “Sorry I dragged Jac away tonight.”

“It’s okay. It was just more of the usual, anyhow.” She picked at the hem of her pajama bottoms and looked up at Jac, her face partially shielded by her hair. “So, you leaving, Jac?”

“I’m going back to Montana. I’ll be there for the season,” Jac said. “But I’m not gonna be that far away, Carly. If you need me for anything, I’ll come. If I’m out on the line, I’ll come as soon as I get free.”

“Yeah?” Carly glanced at Mallory.

Mallory nodded. “We can get pretty busy. Sometimes we’re out in the field a couple weeks at a time. But Jac can leave instructions with the base that if you call, someone will get through to us. If you say you need her to come, I’ll get her here.”

Carly sat up straighter. “Yeah? Like, you’re the boss or something?”

Jac laughed. “That’s pretty much it.”

“Cool.” Carly grinned at Jac. “So I guess if you fuck up again, you’ll really be in trouble.”

“Language,” Jac said, still laughing.

“Yeah, whatever.”

Carly grabbed her cell phone off the table. “Okay. Give me your numbers.”

Jac and Mallory gave her their cell numbers, and Mallory gave her Sully’s.

“That last one,” Mallory said, “that’s Chuck Sullivan. He runs our base. Tell him who you are and that I said to relay to me, and he will.”

“I won’t use it unless I have to,” Carly said, suddenly serious.

Jac knelt in front of the bed and tugged Carly into her arms. “You need me, you call. I’m not leaving.”

Carly squeezed her hard, rubbing her cheek against Jac’s shoulder. “I love you,” she muttered into Jac’s shirt.

Jac whispered, “I love you too. Talk to you soon, okay?”

“Okay. You can always text me. You know, if you get lonely.”

“I will. Promise.” Jac kissed her forehead, straightened, and looked at Mallory. “Ready to go home?”

“More than ready.” Mallory looped her arm around Jac’s waist. “It’s good to meet you, Carly.”

“Yeah. Same.” Carly drew her computer onto her lap, then looked up at Mallory. “So you’ll take care of her, right?”

“I will,” Mallory said. “I absolutely will.”

Chapter Thirty-four

The klaxon blare jerked Jac upright out of a sound sleep. In the second she took to orient herself, Mallory had already slipped out from behind her and was jumping into her pants.

“Call out, Russo,” Mallory said, yanking a sweatshirt down over her head. “We’re at the top of the jump list. Let’s go.”

“With you.” Jac tossed back the top of the sleeping bag and hopped out of the warm cocoon of their bed onto the cold floor of the loft. Her heart was pumping hard, her belly coiled with sweet anticipation. First call out as a real smokejumper. First jump with Mallory as her partner. She dove into her clothes, grabbed the PG pack she’d left by the ladder, and slid down, hands curled around the side rails, her feet barely hitting the rungs. Benny had the hangar doors open and was climbing into the plane. She sprinted after Mallory and hit the yard running, the sound of the engines firing up behind her. In the equipment room, they grabbed chutes and equipment crates, and ten minutes later, they were airborne. Cooper was the designated spotter, and Jac settled next to Mallory on one of the benches running along the side of the cargo space. Anderson and Kingston and a couple of the veterans sat across from them. She leaned close to Mallory and shouted, “What do you know?”

“Small burn up in Marten Canyon. No access roads, so we’ll be it for a while.”

Jac nodded. Too hard to talk above the noise. Not much else to say. That’s what they did—got there fast, got there first, and contained the burn before it really had a chance to get started.

She was glad to get started. Ready to test her skills. The best part was she didn’t have to prove anything, not to herself, not to Mallory. She mattered to Mallory, no matter what she did—she knew it in her bones.

Mallory squeezed Jac’s arm. “What are you smiling at?”

“Just thinking about the last couple of days.”

Beneath her visor, Mallory blushed. Jac grinned. She’d passed her last practice jump and made the team along with everyone else. Mallory had given everyone a two-day pass, and except for a skeleton crew, the station had been pretty deserted. They’d driven to Bear Creek, rented a room in the only hotel in town, and spent the entire two days’ leave in bed. She couldn’t think of a better way to spend whatever time off they might have in the next few months. The rest of the time, she’d be working with Mallory, and that was pleasure in itself.

Cooper signaled he was about to open the doors, and Jac braced for the onslaught. Cooper slid them back, cold air rushed in, and he dropped the streamers out the opening and gauged the wind direction and drift. Whispers of smoke wafted into the cabin, and Jac’s skin tingled. Soon enough, they’d be on the ground and the fight would be on. She glanced at Mallory. Her face was calm, her eyes fiercely focused. Following Mallory into battle was easy. Jac trusted her completely—fighting forest fires, fighting her personal war—she’d never be alone again.

Cooper motioned for them to line up. Mallory was incident commander, so she and Jac would jump first. When Jac dropped into the sky a few seconds before Mallory and counted down, she knew with absolute certainty Mallory would be right beside her. When she pulled her chute and looked back to check it, Mallory’s chute opened, and they steered down together, landing almost simultaneously. Jac rolled, disengaged her chute, and quickly stowed it. She joined the others clustered around Mallory, who was directing the crew to collect the equipment crates and assigning posts. When everyone moved off, Jac was the only one remaining.

“You’ll be here.” Mallory indicated a spot ahead of the fire front where they were going to cut. She pointed in another direction, then tapped a spot on her map. “The safety zone is here. You clear on that?”

“I am,” Jac said.

“I’ll be down here.” Mallory circled a spot at the end of the line. “Not far. If you need me.”

“I know.” Jac touched Mallory’s cheek with her fingertips. “I know you’ll never be far. Neither will I.”

“Then I’ll see you when we beat this one,” Mallory said.

“You can count on it,” Jac said.

Mallory nodded briskly, tapped Jac’s helmet, and turned away.

Jac shouldered her pack and pulled out her pulaski. Time to cut and dig.

Mallory turned back. “Hey, Hotshot.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

The flames dancing in Mallory’s eyes had nothing to do with the fire, and Jac felt the burn in every inch of her. She touched a finger to her chest in a silent salute. “Roger that, Ice. I love you too.”

Blood Hunt Excerpt

Keep reading for a special preview of BLOOD HUNT,

Book Two in L.L. Raand’s Midnight Hunters series.

Sylvan, the Wolf Were Alpha, forges an uneasy alliance with Vampire Detective Jody Gates, heir to a powerful Vampire clan, to battle a shadow army of humans and rogue Praeterns bent on destroying any hope of legal acceptance of the non-human species. With outside forces threatening to destroy the Praetern Coalition, several female Were adolescents turn up missing, and chaos descends upon Sylvan’s personal guards when Sylvan and her new mate are overtaken by breeding frenzy. While Sylvan struggles to protect her Pack, Jody fights her destiny as well as her growing hunger for human reporter Becca Land.