Going Up In Flames
- Series: Originally part of Sapphire Falls Kindle World; now a Konigsburg novella
- Release Date: May 19, 2016
- ASIN: B0994VCYK8
- Genre: Romance
- Available Formats: eBook, eBook and Paperback
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Jorge Delgado can cook anything, and this time around it’s barbecue. Running the Barbecue King’s food truck for the Sapphire Falls Town Festival should be a no-brainer, but his new assistant is a major distraction. She’s got him feeling some heat that doesn’t come from the firebox. And as if that weren’t enough, someone’s trying to sabotage his smoker and keep the people of Sapphire Falls from discovering the delights of Texas barbecue.
Kirsten Engstrom thought she was taking a temporary kitchen assistant job at her hometown festival. She didn’t know Texas barbecue came with a heaping helping of tasty chef. Now she’s dreaming of a future with a hot cook after the festival closes down—a future that can’t happen with one of them in Omaha and the other in the Texas Hill Country. Can a couple of cooks beat the odds and stir up something sweet together? Maybe. But for now they’ve got a vandal to catch—and barbecue to cook.
NOTE: This book was originally part of the Amazon Kindle World series for Erin Nicholas’s Sapphire Falls. However, after Amazon ended the Kindle World program, I bundled Going Up In Flames together with Shelter From the Storm as a new Konigsburg collection: So Happy Together.
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Excerpt
She turned a corner toward an open field where some cars were parked, not the street where she’d been parked before.
He raised an eyebrow. “City parking lot?”
“Sapphire Falls style.” She paused next to her compact that had more than a few years and a few dents. “Here we are.”
He turned to face her. Reflected light from the street highlighted the slope of her cheekbones, the elegant shape of her nose. The rounded crescent of her lips. They edged up ever so slightly at the ends, like the shadow of a smile.
Almost without thinking about it, he leaned forward at the same time that she rose up on her toes.
Her lips were soft, yielding beneath his. He ran his tongue along the seam, then nibbled lightly. She opened for him on a sigh, and he let his tongue slide in, touching, tasting, enjoying. His hands moved to her hips, feeling the slight curves against his palms. He slowly pulled her closer until their bodies touched, knees to shoulders. Soft breasts caressed his chest. The swell of his arousal was achingly obvious.
Her hands moved along his arms to his shoulders and then looped behind his neck. Her hips moved against his, and heat flowed through his muscles like molten steel. He let his lips drift to the side of her throat, following the beat of her pulse to the dip at the center of her collarbones.
She moaned, the sound moving through his body like quicksilver. Even the air around him seemed to vibrate with the sounds of arousal.
His body was on fire. His brain was mush. All he could think of was finding a horizontal surface as soon as possible. He pulled back slightly, eyes dazed, ready to go to the next level as soon as they could find a flat space.
And heard the sound of laughter coming from the street nearby. Very nearby.
Fuck. Just fuck. He moved back a step, catching his breath.
Kirsten stared up at him. Her eyes were slightly dazed too, but like him she was coming back to her senses. Quickly. “Wow,” she murmured.
He nodded. Wow summed it up nicely. Still want to go home? Want to hear some alternatives? He couldn’t for the life of him think of a way to ask that didn’t make him sound as scummy as the guy in the funnel cake stand.
“Well, I guess I’d better get home.” She gave him a quick, slightly nervous smile.
He leaned forward, sliding one arm around her waist, and kissed her again, putting everything he had into it—all the passion he could give. And then he pulled back. “Good night, Kirsten.”
She stared up at him again, touching her lips with her fingertips as she caught her breath. “Good night, Jorge,” she whispered. “See you tomorrow.” She turned and unlocked her car, sliding into the driver’s seat.
He watched her drive away, trying to decide if he’d been an idiot or not. On the whole, he thought not. Good night, Kirsten. And yeah, you most definitely will see me tomorrow.
