Joe Hazard filled all of Ros Duncan’s teenaged fantasies, but now she’s an adult with a mission, and no handsome sailor will get in her way.  The first in her family to earn a college education, she escaped Birds Gap, the deadly dull, stifling town of her childhood and the scene of her most embarrassing memories.  However as principal of Bird’s Gap High School she wants to see every child in town go to college not be forced to chose between working in the mines or risking life and limb in the military.

Read an Excerpt from Hazard Duty

The clinch Ros observed the following day was enough to make her mouth water. She could only imagine what it might feel like to be the petite woman with her curves smashed against that wide solid chest, her legs between those lean muscled thighs, her butt held in the caressing grip of those large long-fingered hands and her mouth plundered by those marauding lips. Ros couldn’t see the man’s face, but if it was anything like his physique it was hard and unyielding with a take charge attitude that threatened and comforted at the same time. Ros licked her lips and looked away to realize that her car was drifting into on-coming traffic. She jerked the wheel and pulled back into her lane in time to avoid a much less pleasant collision than the one she’d been watching.

Keep your mind on your driving and off the eye-candy. Nonetheless her peripheral vision registered that the couple had parted. She finally recognized the woman—Odette Miller—who sashayed down the tree-lined sidewalk toward her cherry red roadster. The woman was insatiable.

The man, disappearing toward the back of a rental moving truck, might as well be a stranger. Although, the truck and Odette were clues enough to tell Ros that her neighbor was finally moving in. She lost sight of him as she turned into the drive of the elegant victorian where she rented the third-floor apartment as well as the attic efficiency that she used as a home office. She parked in a slot beside the back stairs and got out into the late summer heat. Hurrying to open the trunk, she filled her arms with grocery bags then headed up the steps.

Normally she loved coming home to her spacious apartment. The turreted painted lady sat at the edge of town on a mountainside, providing terrific views of the valley and the rolling Appalachians that framed tiny Bird’s Gap, West Virginia. The high ceilings and cool blues of her personal quarters echoed the mountain backdrop. The rooms offered a serene retreat much needed after long days riding herd on five hundred plus teenagers, teachers and staff at the high school. Add to that the stress of balancing the contradictory demands of federally mandated regulations, the school board and the PTA. Her home’s serenity was enhanced by the knowledge that an empty second floor walk up separated her from the first-floor apartment occupied by her landlady. With a new neighbor—especially this new neighbor—that separation would disappear and so would a good chunk of Rosalyn’s peace and calm.

She knew from local gossip that he hadn’t married, so she didn’t have to worry about the mayhem of babies or children at play. However, single men kept late hours and tended to party loudly with even louder women. This man’s history was filled with women and noisy, risky, serenity-stealing behavior. Ros shook her head. She was borrowing trouble. He’d been gone for the better part of ten years. Perhaps he now shared her fondness for quiet and solitude. Although, the previous evening’s activities argued otherwise. This particular leopard had probably not traded in his wildlife spots, but anything was possible.

Opening her apartment door, Ros shrugged the bags onto her small dining table and set to putting the groceries away. She’d discover all there was to know about her new neighbor soon enough. Her girlfriends would sniff out every tidbit and dine on gossip about him and Odette for months. Ros really didn’t care. Besides, if Joe Hazard was stupid enough to fall for Odette then he probably deserved her. Ros had no spare time to worry about either of them, not with the start of the school year looming.

The groceries stowed, she flew down the steps to retrieve her briefcase and the files she’d brought home for review. School work was never done. Contrary to popular belief she didn’t get summers off, and year-round, most evenings were filled with work. This one was no different with teacher evaluation files and parental requests to review. She also needed to work on the protest she meant to lodge with the state about drastically reduced allocations.

She collected her briefcase from the front passenger’s seat then moved around to open the trunk. She set the case down and reached for the box of files, balancing it on the edge of the trunk in order to get a better grip.

“May I help.”

Surprise jerked her head up. Impact with the trunk hatch made her eyes water, and she lost her grip on the box. The container tilted and dropped straight onto her foot. She leapt in pain and banged her knee on the bumper.

“Whoa there.

Strong hands grasped her waist, pulled her away from the car and up against a solid masculine chest. Her foot, still caught in the box, dragged along the pavement spilling papers as it went. Heat flooded her, whether from embarrassment or proximity to the man holding her hardly mattered. The result was a rush of nerves. Her breath stopped, and her ears buzzed. She finally sucked in air.

Then he turned her in his grasp. “Are you all right?”

Those hands brushed hair from her face, and she stared into steel blue eyes so hot she wanted to melt. Under coppery brown hair his forehead crinkled in concern or question. She couldn’t tell. Ros did know what she was feeling. That belly flutter was back with a vengeance. Her whole body tingled, and once again she couldn’t breathe. She opened her mouth to tell him to let go, but without air no words emerged. Gasping panic set in. She had to get away from him. This couldn’t be happening. Not like this.  One hand pushed at his chest; the other beat the air in a frantic attempt at freedom.

“Hold on. I’m not trying to hurt you, so please return the favor.”

Ros found herself pinned between him and the side of the car. He had an iron grasp on each of her wrists, and his lower body anchored hers in place. Twist and turn as she might, she couldn’t dislodge him.

Finally she found her voice. “Let go.”

“Settle down, will you. I can’t move away with you bucking and tossing your legs around. You’ll knock me flat.”

She stilled immediately.

He levered himself away and extended his hand.

She stared at the palm and fingers so recently locked around her wrist and wondered what she distrusted most, his hands on her or her response to them.

Above his extended arm his mouth split into a smile. “I really don’t mean any harm. Please allow me to help you.”

He’d done as he said he would, so cowering against her car just because she was afraid to touch him was idiotic.

She placed her hand in his, and he gently pulled her forward until she stood solidly on her own two feet.

“I’m very sorry.”

Heavens, now I have to speak to him. “Not a problem,” she muttered.

“Let me help you collect your things.”  He bent to pick up the file box.

“No!”

Startled, he stopped in mid-reach and glanced at her.

“I appreciate the offer,” she continued. “However, some of those papers are confidential. I really can’t allow you to help me.”

He straightened with the box gripped in both hands then nodded as he held it out to her. “I understand completely.”

She cocked her head, surprised that he understood legal privacy issues. “You do?”

“Basic Training, lesson 103: care and disposal of confidential, secret and top secret documents. I’m in the Navy.”

“Oh.” What could she say? She knew who he was, where he’d been since he graduated high school ahead of her. Everyone in Bird’s Gap knew. Obviously he didn’t remember her, and perhaps it should stay that way.

“Why don’t I hold this for you until you’ve got everything gathered up?”

“That would be very kind of you.” She flushed under his steady gaze then proceeded to fill the box and retrieve her briefcase.

When she finished, he shifted the box to a one armed hold and took the case from her without asking. “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “I can’t read anything while I’m holding both the box and the briefcase as well as climbing stairs.”

“But…”

“No, I want to help. Please, lead the way.”

Unable to think of how to refuse without being incredibly rude, Ros marched up the stairs and into the house, while fishing for her apartment key in her purse.