Flirting with Fire Read online

  The light turns green and he accelerates and I’m still unable to take my eyes off of him.

  “We’re home,” he says, parking by the curb.

  I move to open my door.

  “Hey, that’s my job.” He quickly takes the keys out of the ignition and exits his truck, and I look out the window.

  We’re not at my house and we’re not at his apartment, we’re at the flip house.

  He opens my door, asking for my hand then leading halfway up the walkway and taking both my hands in his.

  “Why are we here?” I ask.

  “Because this is where I want to start our life together. We gutted this place and pieced it place back together at the same time as our love for one another grew. I only want to stay here and build a life with you until this house is overflowing with kids, pets, and grandkids.”

  “You want to move in together?” I can barely push the words past the growing lump in my throat.

  “This is our home. It’s not just a house, it’s what brought us together, Madison, and I want to finally give you the happily ever after you deserve here. What do you say?”

  I stare up at the house that reminds me a lot of myself—good bones, a little disastrous at first, but now with some love and attention, the best parts of it are clear to see—inside and out.

  “I say…yes!” I jump up in his arms and he catches me, circling me around.

  “I love you, Madison.”

  “I love you.”

  “M and M forever,” he says and leans in to kiss me like a seal to all my wishes coming true.

  Epilogue

  Mauro

  It’s been three weeks since we moved into our home. I love the sound of that—our home.

  Next week is Thanksgiving and we thought about hosting—strike that—Madison wanted to host, but that isn’t going to happen. My ma likes to cook and I’m not having my family, aka Luca, mess up our new home.

  We’ve been looking for another property to rehab together, one that will hopefully be on the cheap since we didn’t end up pulling our money out of this one, but in the end, it was worth it. We built this home together.

  Madison’s car pulls up along the curb since we’ve yet to get the detached garage we weren’t thinking about adding when it was a flip property. Lucky for us the parking isn’t terrible on this street.

  I hide behind the doorway of the bathroom and hear her turn the key in the lock. She enters and flips the light switch that doesn’t work.

  “Damn it, we couldn’t have blown a fuse. Where is he when I’m stuck in the dark?”

  I flip on the switch of twinkle lights, the same ones I used the first time we made love. I’m hoping she’ll see the rose petals lining a pathway for her follow and take the hint. I peek around the corner.

  “Mauro,” she sighs, her hand covering her mouth.

  I’ll never grow tired of my name falling from her lips.

  She walks down the pink rose petal path, dropping her purse, jacket, and bag of groceries on a chair as she goes.

  Stopping at the dining room table, I see tears prick her eyes from the glow of the real candles I’ve set along the table, illuminating the words I’ve spelled out with custom-made M&Ms.

  The message is short. Two simple words that hold the key to my happiness.

  Marry me?

  I emerge from the bathroom and she looks at me, her eyes pouring with love. I already know what she’s going to say.

  “It’s so quick…”

  “No, it’s not.” I round the dining room table I ended up refinishing for us. “I don’t want to waste any more time. I want us to be married. I want you to have my name. I want to see your belly swell and watch our kids grow alongside you. I want the bath time, the goodnight stories, the scraped knees. The learning to ride a bike, building a snowman.”

  “I’d love to be Mrs. Mauro Bianco.” She smiles and I grab her, swinging her around, my lips finding hers.

  “You’ve made me so happy.”

  Her feet fall to the floor as I lower her.

  “How did you do this in M&Ms?” she asks, placing one on her tongue.

  “Hey, you can’t eat the ones I used to ask you to marry me.” She laughs into my chest. “I had to use M&Ms, they’re our candy.”

  I pick up one from the bowl I set beside my question, holding it up for her.

  “Maddie and Mauro.” She sighs again and I put it in my mouth. She steps closer and wraps her arms around my neck. “You’re too romantic, you know that, right? How will you ever top this one?”

  I kiss her, and unlock her hands from around my waist, falling down onto my knees and grabbing the ring box from the chair on the table. Taking out the one-carat diamond with white gold band, I present it to her, sliding it on her left hand.

  “It’s perfect,” she says, gazing down at her hand.

  “It was a hard decision, but I thought simple and classic like my girl, worked best.”

  She presses her lips together and I think she’s trying not to cry.

  “The best part is that now everyone knows you’re mine.”

  She falls to her knees, her hands cradling my cheeks. “I’ve always been yours.”

  “And I’ll always be yours,” I promise.

  I brush my lips along hers.

  “Pinch me, Mauro?” she asks once I have her laying down on our hardwood floors.

  “I’ll do more than pinch you, baby.”

  “I mean it. Tell me this is real?” Her fingers massage the back of my head.

  “It’s real. We’re in love and we’re going to live happily ever after.”

  “I couldn’t love you more,” she whispers like it’s a secret between the two of us.

  I lay on top of her, kissing her neck. “Words I’ll never grow tired of hearing. But just so you know, I love you more.”

  Then before she can object, I crash my lips down on hers, swallowing down her moans.

  What fun is marriage without a couple fights over who loves who more?

  Later that night, I’m eating a row of M&Ms off my fiancée’s stomach, when my phone rings.

  I’m not on call so I won’t be answering it. Whoever it is, has lousy timing.

  The ringing stops and starts right back up.

  “It must be important,” Madison says, sitting up and ruining what I had planned once I passed her belly button.

  “Stay there.” I point to her and she giggles, falling back down to the mattress, three lonely M&Ms right above her small patch of hair.

  I reach for my phone, seeing Cristian’s name.

  “This better be important because I’m…”

  Madison’s knee nudges my ribcage and I stop talking. She’s still shy about giving my brothers any confirmation that we’re sleeping together. Pretty sure they’ve figured it out.

  “A call came through,” he says.

  “Another warehouse fire?” I ask and Madison sits up, the M&Ms falling off her body.

  There are still no leads on who is setting the fires, but the one that almost took my life was found to be arson as well.

  “No.”

  “Okay, Cris, stop fucking around so I can go back to eating M&Ms off my fiancée.”

  “First off, way too much information. Second, congratulations. She decided to ruin her life and accept your proposal?”

  “Did you call me to piss me off?”

  “No, like I said, a call came in tonight. It was Mom and Pop’s house.” I jump up from the bed, throwing Madison’s clothes at her as I try to locate my own from the pile on the floor.

  “Ma?” I ask.

  “She passed out and she’s on her way to the hospital. I’m on my way over from the station, said I had to leave for a family emergency. Luca’s doing the same. I’m sorry to ruin your night with Maddie. We tried to wait and see, but when the paramedics decided she needed to be checked out at the hospital, we had to call you.”

  “Cris, you call me ASAP always. Madison will understand.”
/>   “She’s heading to Mercy,” he says.

  I click the phone off without saying goodbye and Madison is already pulling up her pants.

  “What happened?”

  “Ma’s being transported to Mercy. She passed out.” I finally find my boxers and pull them on.

  Madison comes over, pulling me into a hug, calming my nerves a bit. “It’s going to be okay, Mauro. They’ll figure it out.”

  I hold her a little tighter, hoping and praying she’s right.

  Whatever happens, at least I’ll have her by my side.

  Meet the middle Bianco Brother, Cristian, in a sexy boss’s daughter romcom standalone.

  Grab your pre-order of CRUSHING ON THE COP now and get it for $2.99 (Price will go up on release day).

  FREE BOOK! SCROLL ahead for a sneak peek into an enemies-to-lovers FREE book, CHARMED BY THE BARTENDER. You can’t miss meeting Cole Webber!

  “The laughs, the swooning, it was all perfection.” ~ Amazon Reviewer

  CHARMED BY THE BARTENDER Sneak Peek

  I need another jolt of liquid courage before this guy shows up. I look up to order another drink expecting to see the pretty blonde who’s been serving me all night, but instead my eyes meet a set of hazel eyes fringed with dark lashes. Those eyes are set in the face of a guy whose bone structure would make any model jealous. Further inspection tells me that his body is no less impressive. Muscles bulge beneath his taut t-shirt, the hard planes of his chest and abs clearly visible beneath. My gaze darts back up to his face to see a half-crooked smile and a gleam in his eyes that tells me he knows how hot he is.

  After some work to reconnect my brain synapses with my tongue I’m finally able to speak.

  “Hey. You don’t look like the last bartender,” I say and push my empty glass toward him.

  “You’re right. She’s much cuter than I am.”

  His grin widens. And oh! There’s a dimple, too. I’ve always been a sucker for a guy with a dimple. Then again, who isn’t? I think of dimples as being the key to the chastity belt.

  “Ready for a refill?” He nods down to the empty glass.

  When I remember that a stranger is on his way to meet me so we can have sex together, panic flares inside me. I desperately need that drink.

  “Yes!” I say with too much enthusiasm.

  He doesn’t comment on my over-excited nature, thankfully. “What’ll you have?”

  I ponder for a moment, thinking that I need something stronger than what I’ve been drinking—I’m going to need to be buzzed for this—but unsure what to order. “Something that will put hair on my chest,” is my brilliant response to his question.

  His gaze darts down to my cleavage. “Now why would you want to go and ruin a perfectly good chest like that?” He arches a brow, but instead of waiting for me to reply, he turns and begins to make my drink.

  My face heats and a small portion of the confidence I’ve lacked lately returns. I smile to myself as he grabs a glass and adds ice to it, enjoying the way the muscles in his arms contract and relax as he sets about his work.

  I’m so lost in ogling his body that I barely notice when he sets a drink in front of me.

  “For the lady,” he says in that deep, slightly raspy voice.

  “Thank you.” I lean forward and draw the drink up the straw, not missing the way he’s watching my lips with intense focus. The sweetness of the cola hits my tongue first and then the taste of whiskey followed by something else I can’t place. “This is really good. What’s it called?”

  “A Stiffy.” One corner of his lip tips up in a grin.

  “What’s in it?” I ask as I lean in for another sip. I’ve never been a huge whiskey drinker, but this stuff goes down smooth.

  “It’s my own creation.” He winks and leans over the bar so close to me that his lips are practically touching my ear. “If I told you there’s no telling the things I’d have to do to you to keep you quiet.”

  A shiver runs up my spine and he must notice because he chuckles as he backs away, amusement lighting his eyes.

  “What’s your name?” he asks.

  “Whitney Knight. Most of my good friends call me Whit, though.”

  He places both palms on the bar top and lets his weight transfer to them, causing all the muscles to bunch up. Not that I notice because that would be slutty since I have another guy on his way here to screw my brains out.

  The scent of his cologne wafts my way as he leans in just a little. “I hope I have the pleasure of being able to call you Whit someday then.”

  I swallow hard, my tongue feeling heavy in my mouth. “What’s your name?” I ask in a breathy voice that probably gives away how turned on I am at that moment.

  “Cole,” he says simply.

  Cole. Just one look at this guy and I know he’s trouble. What I can’t be sure of yet is whether he’s more trouble than he’s worth.

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  Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings

  We hope you enjoyed Maddie and Mauro! We feel like we introduced Mauro to you ages ago (for any new readers, he premiered in our Bedroom Games series last February. And then we sprinkled the brothers in through the Charity Case Series, just to tease you some more. #sorrynotsorry

  The original idea for the setting of a family run Italian deli came from a place Piper visits for lunch sometimes. It’s cute, been in town forever and the family that runs it is always warm and welcoming. From there we decided that we’d love to do a series about three Italian brothers, each of whom work as a different emergency services provider. (When you try to integrate characters throughout series as much as we do, you have to plan ahead!)

  When we plot out a new series, we try to give you a storyline that we haven’t wrote before. Flirting with Fire falls under the classic troupe, ‘Ugly Duckling’—where the girl who wasn’t pretty in high school suddenly loses the glasses and braces and drops a few dress sizes, transforming her into a swan. We didn’t much care for the name of this trope for obvious reasons and were happy to find that the trope has been renamed ‘Beautiful All Along’.

  Although neither one of us liked going back to high school, it was enjoyable to write a story where the characters each have so much growth. Proving again, high school doesn’t define who you are and who you will become.

  Maddie was a beautiful woman inside and out all along, but she had to find it within herself to really understand that. Her outward appearance wasn’t what Mauro fell in love with, he fell for the person she is. And once she saw herself the way he did, they could have their HEA.

  Vanessa and Cristian’s story is coming up next in Crushing On The Cop...we have some ideas up our sleeve and although it’s a ‘Boss’s Daughter’ trope, there’s SOOO much more to their story.

  * * *

  Now let’s put our hands together for our awesome team!

  The cover is awesome thanks to Letitia from RBA Designs and we appreciate her hard work but Colton Bensen did give her a pretty gorgeous face to work with. Are we right?

  Wander Aguiar for his top-notch photography skills making Colton our Mauro.

  Ellie from Love N Books for line editing. We’re still working on giving you a manuscript with more notice (thanks for always being so accommodating and constantly getting it back to us on time).

  Shawna from Behind the Writer for being ready when we are, offering not only her eagle eye but story development, too.

  Dani Sanchez and the whole Inkslinger PR gang for their organization and planning to get Flirting with Fire out there to the bloggers and readers.

  All the bloggers who carve out time to read and review our books. We know there’s a lot of books out there and your reading time is precious. Thank you! xo

  All our early ARC readers, first for wanting to read our stuff early and for posting their reviews.

  And of course, all our unicorns. <3 What can we say that we’ve haven’t in prior CUR’s? Without sounding like a cheesy romance novel you keep us going. Without our
faithful group who love our characters as much as we do, we wouldn’t be inspired to develop more heroes and heroines for you to enjoy!

  xo,

  Piper & Rayne

  About Piper & Rayne

  Piper Rayne, or Piper and Rayne, whichever you prefer because we’re not one author, we’re two. Yep, you get two USA Today Bestselling authors for the price of one. Our goal is to bring you romance stories that have "Heartwarming Humor With a Side of Sizzle" (okay...you caught us, that's our tagline). A little about us... We both have kindle’s full of one-clickable books. We're both married to husbands who drive us to drink. We're both chauffeurs to our kids. Most of all, we love hot heroes and quirky heroines that make us laugh, and we hope you do, too.

  www.piperrayne.com

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  Also by Piper Rayne

  The Modern Love World

  Charmed by the Bartender

  Hooked by the Boxer

  Mad about the Banker

  * * *

  The Single Dad’s Club

  Real Deal

  Dirty Talker

  Sexy Beast

  * * *

  Dirty Truth

  The Manny

  Doggie Style

  Chore Play

  * * *

  Bedroom Games

  Cold as Ice

  On Thin Ice

  Break the Ice

  * * *

  Charity Case

  Manic Monday

  Afternoon Delight

  Happy Hour

  * * *