Free to Protect

A firefighter romance with survivor-to-survivor chemistry, small-town heat, an instant spark, and a craft-loving heroine trying to resume her life.

A firefighter returning to the flames.

A survivor rebuilding her life stitch by stitch.

The spark neither of them saw coming.

Captain Brett Stewart is a second-generation firefighter whose life changed the moment he threw his body over a woman trapped in a collapsing building-taking the brunt of the flames meant for her. Now healed and determined, he's trying to return to duty to prove he still belongs fighting fires. What he's not expecting is for his pulse to meltdown when he spots a swirl of soft gray and the quiet curve of a smile across a packed fundraiser.

One look. One jolt. He has to meet her.

Jillian Beale knows exactly how fire steals everything. She lived it. Survived it. She's trying to rebuild her life through color, yarn, and the safety of her small-town knitting shop. After a childhood of instability, she thought she found security-until the day it all went up in flames.

She never expects the man asking her to dance to be the same firefighter who covered her body with his in that blaze-the man who saved her without ever learning her name. It isn't until his someone else throws water on their moment that Brett pieces together who she is.

But chemistry like theirs can't be put out. The pull between them is impossible to ignore. Still, Jillian's cautious. She knows better than anyone, touching fire burns. And Brett is fire in every possible way.

Now two survivors must decide if risking their scars is worth what happens when one spark becomes the second chance neither believed they deserved.