Whittled Down by the Mountain Man Hotshot
(2026)(The third book in the Copper Peak Blaze series)
A Story by Lilah Hart
A steamy hotshot romance about a sawyer everyone reaches for and no one ever really sees, and the traveling light-stringer who makes every town beautiful and never stays long enough to be kept—thrown together for one color-week weekend before her van rolls on to the next town.
She makes the whole town worth looking at. He's the only one looking at her.
I've spent twenty-three years being the one who makes things pretty. They hire me, praise me, take their photos, and forget my name by the time the lights come down. Being good at something has only ever cost me the people around me. So I keep everyone at arm's length, hand them a task instead of myself, and I stay packed to leave before anyone can decide they're done with me first.
Then Calhoun Vance walked up my stretch of Prospect Street straight off two weeks on a fireline—sent to lift and haul—and refused to be just another set of hands.
He's the crew's lead sawyer, the one they point at the heavy work and never think to ask a real question—so he knows exactly what it is to be prized for what your body does and wanted for nothing else. He's big, quiet, wry, older than me by more than a decade, and certain from the first afternoon in a way no man has ever been about me. When the merchants' association offers to keep me on for good, it should be everything I want. Except they want the displays. Nobody's ever just wanted me.
But Calhoun's done being the man who hands over everything except himself. And three days is all he needs to decide I'm the one thing he'll ask for out loud—in the middle of the street, in front of the whole town, where he can't take it back.
Click Read Now or Buy Now for the mountain man hotshot who walked off the fireline, looked straight past the prettiest thing in town, and refused to let her strike the set and slip away as one more clean goodbye.
Featuring these tropes:
She makes the whole town worth looking at. He's the only one looking at her.
I've spent twenty-three years being the one who makes things pretty. They hire me, praise me, take their photos, and forget my name by the time the lights come down. Being good at something has only ever cost me the people around me. So I keep everyone at arm's length, hand them a task instead of myself, and I stay packed to leave before anyone can decide they're done with me first.
Then Calhoun Vance walked up my stretch of Prospect Street straight off two weeks on a fireline—sent to lift and haul—and refused to be just another set of hands.
He's the crew's lead sawyer, the one they point at the heavy work and never think to ask a real question—so he knows exactly what it is to be prized for what your body does and wanted for nothing else. He's big, quiet, wry, older than me by more than a decade, and certain from the first afternoon in a way no man has ever been about me. When the merchants' association offers to keep me on for good, it should be everything I want. Except they want the displays. Nobody's ever just wanted me.
But Calhoun's done being the man who hands over everything except himself. And three days is all he needs to decide I'm the one thing he'll ask for out loud—in the middle of the street, in front of the whole town, where he can't take it back.
Click Read Now or Buy Now for the mountain man hotshot who walked off the fireline, looked straight past the prettiest thing in town, and refused to let her strike the set and slip away as one more clean goodbye.
Featuring these tropes:
- Mountain man hotshot sawyer, all muscle and few words, valued for his hands and starved to be seen
Traveling display designer who makes every town gorgeous and never stays to be kept
He fell first—and looked straight past the sparkle
Instalove on a ticking clock: one color-week weekend before her van rolls on
Virgin heroine, possessive alpha hero
GENRE: Contemporary Small-Town Firefighter Romance (Wildland/Hotshot)
TROPES: instalove, he fell first, age gap, forced proximity, opposites attract (rooted vs. rootless), small-town, virgin heroine, ticking-clock, mountain man firefighter
TONE: quiet intensity, fast fall, banter, tender first-time heat
HEAT LEVEL: steamy open-door, first-time chemistry, possessive alpha heat
COMPS: Copper Peak Sparks series, Copper Peak Blaze Books 1–2, mountain man instalove, wildland hotshot romance
Genre: Romance