Fires are blazing across southern Utah, and Aaron Meyers, volunteer firefighter, knows he should be concentrating on the flames. Unfortunately, he's too distracted by former crush, and current New York City fireman, Xander Wescott.<br><br>Xander returns to Utah to help battle the flames threatening his hometown. He remembers Aaron as the gangly kid who used to follow him around, and he's unprepared for just how much he wants to know the man Aaron has become.

Scorched

“Just stings a little. Probably won’t even leave a scar.”


He stood patiently as Aaron stripped him out of the garment, and turned when prodded so Aaron could get a close up look himself. The EMT had used butterfly bandages to hold together the edges of the ragged scratch that ran from his right side along the ribcage diagonally across the small of his back. It wasn’t deep, but it wasn’t a clean cut, either, and Aaron wasn’t entirely convinced Xander’s prognosis was correct.


“Do you want to listen to my lungs, too?”


Aaron laughed it off and shook his head, but he strongly suspected he would spend most of the night with his head on Xander’s chest, marking each beat of his heart and the rhythm of his sleeping breaths. In the meantime, he needed to pull himself together. He didn’t want Xander to think he was going to freak out every time something dangerous happened, or every time he suffered an injury.


Chapter 32