Aaron Jones quits his job as an IT tech and decides to tour the east coast of the U.S. before flying home to Britain. But hitching rides isn’t easy, especially when there’s a heat wave going on. Standing on the side of the road, thumb extended and bottle of water empty, Aaron starts to despair. Seeing a cute guy trying to hitch a ride, trucker Ben Knight picks him up before the cops do. Aaron is relieved to be out of the heat, but gratitude almost instantly heats up into something more potent when he gets a look at his rescuer -- a handsome, mature bear. Ben cannot believe anyone as incredible as Aaron could be interested in an overweight guy with too many miles on the clock. What happens when they finally reach Newark and the heat between Ben and Aaron rivals that outside?

Heat Wave: Newark

“Her only fault is she asks too many damn questions.” Aaron wasn’t going to tell Ben what she’d asked about him.


Ben scratched his beard and grunted again. This time it seemed to say, “I know the type.”


Aaron was proud of himself for being able to translate bear speak. “My first morning at work she extracted my entire life history.”


Aaron was saved from having to translate that by his phone vibrating. It was a message from Tammy which concluded with an emoticon that indicated she was green with envy. Aaron smiled, replied with a teddy bear and a stuck out tongue emoticon, and slid his phone back into his pocket.


“I’ll miss her.” Aaron sighed. She was the only thing he’d miss about that awful company.


Aaron yawned. Even with the efforts of the small dashboard fan, the temperature inside the cab was climbing ever higher. It didn’t help that he hadn’t slept much the night before. So Aaron found himself nodding off, before jerking awake and apologising to Ben.


Chapter 4