Burning Up with the Mountain Man Firefighter
(2026)(The fourth book in the Copper Peak Sparks series)
A Story by Lilah Hart
A steamy firefighter romance featuring a mountain man lieutenant who controls everything, a candle maker who creates with open flame, and a fire safety inspection that burns down every wall between them.
She was pouring wax. He was poring over violations. Neither of them was ready for what caught fire next.
NEVE
The bell rang at 170 degrees.
I was mid-pour, counting down the seconds before the fragrance oil hit the wax, and a man in a fire district polo walked into my workshop with a clipboard and started cataloging everything I was doing wrong. No hello. No small talk. Just quiet authority moving through my space with a focus I felt across my skin before I understood it.
He cited four violations. Blocked emergency exit, wrong extinguisher class, ventilation, storage. He handed me the list without meeting my eyes and walked out.
I read it standing next to my melting pot with wax cooling past the pour window. Every violation included the code, the fix, the equipment specs, and where to buy it. He didn't just cite me. He told me how to fix everything.
He came back the next morning off duty with a Class B extinguisher and mounting hardware for stone walls. He said it was faster than the paperwork. I handed him an unlabeled fragrance blend and asked what he felt. Not what he thought. What he felt.
His hands weren't steady when he left.
He kept coming back. No clipboard, no excuse. I taught him my process and he asked questions in a language built for pressure gauges and equipment specs, and I answered in scent and heat and instinct. I told him about the parents who taught me my feelings were a condition to manage. He didn't flinch. He asked about my work.
Then I showed him who I am with every flame lit and nothing held back, and he walked out without a word. The same silence my parents gave me every time I was too much.
Click Read Now or Buy Now to fall for the mountain man lieutenant who walked into a candle maker's workshop to enforce fire code and walked out undone by a woman who treats flame as a creative tool and feels everything he's spent twenty-seven years learning to control.
Featuring these tropes:
She was pouring wax. He was poring over violations. Neither of them was ready for what caught fire next.
NEVE
The bell rang at 170 degrees.
I was mid-pour, counting down the seconds before the fragrance oil hit the wax, and a man in a fire district polo walked into my workshop with a clipboard and started cataloging everything I was doing wrong. No hello. No small talk. Just quiet authority moving through my space with a focus I felt across my skin before I understood it.
He cited four violations. Blocked emergency exit, wrong extinguisher class, ventilation, storage. He handed me the list without meeting my eyes and walked out.
I read it standing next to my melting pot with wax cooling past the pour window. Every violation included the code, the fix, the equipment specs, and where to buy it. He didn't just cite me. He told me how to fix everything.
He came back the next morning off duty with a Class B extinguisher and mounting hardware for stone walls. He said it was faster than the paperwork. I handed him an unlabeled fragrance blend and asked what he felt. Not what he thought. What he felt.
His hands weren't steady when he left.
He kept coming back. No clipboard, no excuse. I taught him my process and he asked questions in a language built for pressure gauges and equipment specs, and I answered in scent and heat and instinct. I told him about the parents who taught me my feelings were a condition to manage. He didn't flinch. He asked about my work.
Then I showed him who I am with every flame lit and nothing held back, and he walked out without a word. The same silence my parents gave me every time I was too much.
Click Read Now or Buy Now to fall for the mountain man lieutenant who walked into a candle maker's workshop to enforce fire code and walked out undone by a woman who treats flame as a creative tool and feels everything he's spent twenty-seven years learning to control.
Featuring these tropes:
- Mountain man fire lieutenant, discipline and control
Candle maker who creates with open flame
Fire safety inspection turned forced proximity
He controls fire — she creates with it
Virgin heroine, experienced hero
GENRE: Contemporary Small-Town Firefighter Romance
TROPES: instalove, fire inspector/artisan, he fell first, forced proximity, opposites attract, control vs. intensity, virgin heroine
TONE: sensory heat, quiet intensity, emotional honesty, creative passion
HEAT LEVEL: steamy open-door, first-time chemistry, possessive alpha heat
COMPS: Copper Peak Sparks firefighter romance, mountain man instalove, small-town forced proximity, alpha firefighter HEA