As a broad statement, I don’t write erotic romance. Usually, I write contemporary romance with hot love scenes. However, with the rising popularity of erotic romance in mainstream readers, I sometimes find the line between “hot” love scene and “erotic” love scene to be blurred. And that’s what happens in my story, Something’s Burning.

I saw Delilah’s call for this anthology, just as I’d seen her anthology calls. But I wasn’t sure what fireman story I could tell. Then I remembered my brother-in-law. He’s on a large fire department in Tennessee. One day while he was on duty, a call came in for a chimney fire. When the address came through, Eddie (my BIL) was busy putting on his gear. One the guys looked up at the announcement of the address and said, “Loo. Ain’t that your house?” Yep. It was his house!

So I started thinking about a hot fireman lieutenant. What if the fire in the story was his? But what if he didn’t start it…what if he had a gorgeous neighbor who has a slight fire phobia? A neighbor who’s been eyeing him with lusty glances over the wooden fence. And that’s how SOMETHING’S BURNING came to be.

Here’s a little except to get you ready for a FIREMAN in your life!
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SOMETHING’S BURNING

Cynthia D’Alba

Through the burned opening in the fence, Ronan eyed his grill-challenged neighbor holding a small kitchen pitcher. She stood in a short, pink silk kimono that barely covered her crotch. Long, wet hair dripped down both sides of the robe plastering the damp material to her full, lush body. When she turned toward her house to shush her dog, he got a nice view of the back of the robe cupping the globes of her rear and an erect nipple saluting him through the now almost transparent material. His cock sat up and took notice of her bodacious body. He adjusted the crotch of his cargo shorts.

Throughout the twenty minutes it took for his guys to put out the fire and complete the fire report, his neighbor kept tugging at the robe as though pulling the edges closer would somehow maintain her modesty. Instead each tug hiked the hem up a fraction of an inch. A couple of more and they’d all know if she was a natural blond or not.

Bree looked at her grill lying in the mud by the fence. Its legs collapsed, wet coals spilt in the black burned grass next to the remnants of the fence. Now that all the guys were gone, she had to admit, she was embarrassed. First by starting a fire that burned down the fence of a fire lieutenant, but then she stood in the yard with a group of fireman in a short robe that was stuck to her wet body like a second skin. She could have been naked in the yard and the men would have been able to see her body just as well.