Hot Touch (Love To The Rescue Book 3), page 1
HOT TOUCH
LOVE TO THE RESCUE
BOOK 3
MAYRA STATHAM
CONTENTS
Untitled
Blurb
Prologue
1. Alejandra Verdusco
2. Alejandra
3. Nathan
4. Nathan
5. Alejandra
6. Alejandra
7. Nathan
8. Alejandra
9. Nathan
10. Alejandra
11. Nathan
Epilogue
What’s next?
About the Author
Also by Mayra
Acknowledgments
UNTITLED
Hot Touch
Love to the Rescue book #3
By Mayra Statham
Copyright © 2025 by Mayra Statham
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover Design: Cormar Covers
Cover Image: Deposit Photos
Editing: Julia Goda of Diamond in the Rough Editing
BLURB
A quiet evening at home turns into a smokey nightmare.
The hot touch of the doorknob tells me I need to get out the window, and fast. As I fight to open it, I promise myself that if I make it out of my tiny apartment alive, I’ll never live with even one regret.
Before I can open the window, a tall, muscular fireman pushes through my bedroom door. And like the heroes of the books I’m obsessed with, he carries my curvy body out of there without stumbling. The moment we’re outside and under the stars and fresh air, his helmet comes off. At one look, something inside of me comes to life.
He’s older and devastatingly handsome. Way out of my league! But he’s looking at me like he recognizes me, too. One soft caress against my face, and I feel more alive than I’ve ever felt.
Is this delusion and smoke inhalation, or can it really be love at first sight?
DEAR READER, This is an OTT, insta-love, whirlwind romance with a rugged fireman daddy who is more than up for the challenge of teaching his sexy little firecracker all about how to handle his hose! It’s love at first sight for the big guy, and his heart is suddenly filled with hope at forever. Nate’s daddy side is awake and ready to claim Alejandra as his own!
PROLOGUE
NATHAN BENSON
“I better get Vi home,” Logan said. I nodded, feeling him walk away.
My eyes moved back to the happy couple on the dance floor, and I tried to ignore the ache inside my chest. I was happy for my buddy. Ronnie was a paramedic for the local private EMS company that worked alongside our small mountain city fire department. I’d known him for a long time and knew just how big tonight was. He’d been through a lot, and it was good to see the big guy happy for once.
My gaze moved to find Logan, who was at the table with Vi, helping her put on his suit jacket. She looked around, and when our eyes connected, she sent me a sweet smile and small wave before her police officer husband, and my friend, walked them out and towards their car.
Two great guys.
The best friends a guy could have.
Now they were both married, coupled up with women who I knew without a doubt in my mind were their soulmates. What about me? My thoughts got the best of me, and no matter how much I tried to shake it off, I couldn’t.
What about me? I wondered again and all throughout the night when I got home.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t had relationships. I’d had some. Some serious. Some not so much.
I’d even been engaged once.
I rolled out of bed and walked around my house. Down the empty hallways I’d thought would be filled with family pictures framed throughout the walls of places and vacations we’d gone on. Instead, the only thing that hung there was some painting I’d created with my sister when she’d talked me into going to one of those paint and sip things.
I stood in front of it and frowned.
It was of two light sabers crossed with one another. Did I mention the paint and sip she’d talked me into had been for Star Wars Day? I love you. I know. Written beneath. The famous epically romantic line spoken by Han Solo and Princess Leia.
I laughed at myself.
Hopelessly unromantic, my sister had called it. She couldn’t understand why I thought it was as romantic as what she thought about Mr. Darcy’s hand gesture in Pride and Prejudice. What would it be like to have someone in my life?
I was forty-three now. Never married, engaged once, and having lived with two girlfriends in the past. None had ended horribly; it just hadn’t worked out. I didn’t have kids. I owned my home.
You’d think that alone would make me a catch.
I walked into the living room and plopped my ass onto my recliner before turning on ESPN. There was a baseball game replaying, the announcers’ voice a little boring as I caught my reflection in the mirror on the far end of the wall. I wasn’t a bad-looking guy, and I was a fucking fireman, for fuck’s sake. My body was in shape. I knew how to smile to make a girl’s heart pitter-patter.
But that was the problem.
Women were all up for checking out your mouth-to-mouth skills and seeing how well you worked your hose for fun. But being hooked up to someone who worked the hours I did? To a man who ran into danger when everyone else ran out?
That shit wasn’t for the faint of heart.
Maybe I wasn’t meant to find anyone.
But Logan and Ron did. They worked similar hours. Encountered the same kind of dangers.
Maybe it’s me? Maybe I am the problem? Maybe I wasn’t meant to share quiet nights watching prerecorded games while some woman sat next to me and read or crafted, or fuck, watched the game with me?
Maybe all that lovey-dovey shit wasn’t meant for me?
The game droned on, and my eyes finally grew heavy. My head was still filled with my lonesome thoughts as I drifted off into a fitful sleep. That night felt like a fever dream. I dreamt of bright, light brown eyes that smiled at me with a look. Eyes I’d never looked into yet felt like they knew me. A gaze so strong, the connection and pull so fierce it found me lifetime after lifetime. I love you. I know. The words danced in the dream. The deep sentiment. To tell someone you loved them and they knew in their core just how much. How fucking dedicated you were to them. How much of a priority they were to you. How important they were.
My dream was frustrating, though. No matter how hard I tried to get closer to her, her dark hair dancing in the wind, I couldn’t get to her. She felt like she was just within reach, like I could almost touch her. Smell her. Yet she wasn’t. What the hell kind of dream is this? I woke up reaching for her. The sound of her laughter in my ears made my chest ache to hear it again.
I hadn’t even been awake for two minutes when my alarm annoyingly went off, and I groaned.
“Shit,” I muttered. My body felt sore from sleeping on the recliner, a knot on my neck when I rolled my head. I’m too old for this shit. Not that I could dwell on that or my dreams all that long. I had to get to work.
Dressed and ready, my duffle over my shoulder, I locked the front door. Maybe it’s better this way? Being alone and on my own without anyone worrying about me every time I stepped out of the house, wondering if I would return. Maybe I didn’t need anyone in my life.
Shit, wasn’t that what dating apps were for, after all? I could download one and have some company on my next day off. Maybe I’d been on this whole no-sex thing for a little too long? A year. A fucking year.
I shrugged off the feeling of something coming.
Something that would change the course of my life. But no matter what I tried, throughout the next forty-eight hours, I couldn’t shake it. No matter what I tried, my body felt like it was on edge.
Waiting.
Ready to pounce.
And it wouldn’t be till the last call of the day that I’d be reminded there was a reason I always trusted my instincts. Always went with my gut.
One hot touch can change your life without even knowing it.
And those light brown, almost golden eyes I’d dreamt about?
They would come and make the world stop in the worst moment possible.
ONE
ALEJANDRA VERDUSCO
“Oh, come on, Ale! Come with us!” my younger sister whined with a high-pitched annoying tone only a sister could love before she plopped down onto my bed and poked my belly.
“Ouch! Stop that!” I growled, grabbing a hold of her offending digit. “And I already told you,” I groaned, “I have a meeting first thing in the morning and then––“
“Then nothing!” Jackie cut me off. The brat. “I’ll buy and deliver you Starbucks every hour on the hour if you need me to.” This made the granite-like exterior of my face crack. My lips twitched. Not because of how ridiculous my sister sounded but because I knew she would do it.
Jackie and I were not only sisters but best friends. Or I should say, Jackie, Liz, and I were sisters and besties.
We fought like cats and dogs but had each other’s backs through and through.
My baby sister’s suggestion was en example of that. Though, there was no way Liz would ever waste money that way. Not ever, not my frugal-as-hell older sister who knew the value of a dollar and how to make it stretch in a way no one else did. Nope, she needed a crowbar to pry her wallet open.
“Do you have any idea how much that would cost?” Liz shouted from my bathroom, where she was finishing getting ready. I had to cough away my laughter.
Yup, my older sister was all about saving a nickel. Especially regarding coffee. She hated spending money on that when she knew just how much better the stuff she made at home was. In her eyes, it was sacrilege to spend money on things you could make yourself. But then again, she’d taught herself how to brew some of the best coffee I’d ever had, so it wasn’t a loss when Liz made everyone coffee instead of us doing a run to Starbies or our favorite local coffee shop, Pine and Grind.
“Who cares?” Jackie rolled her soft green eyes. “That’s what I work so hard for.” Now I pressed my lips together to not literally laugh out loud like some kind of hyena.
I loved Jackie. She was the creative, free spirit of the three of us, but she hardly worked. Well, I shouldn’t say that. She worked, just not in the conventional way. Don’t get me wrong, she made money, more than I did, in fact, but her line of work wasn’t your… typical nine to five.
Liz came into view, stepping into the doorway and looking like a runway model in her black, long-sleeved sequined mini-dress that made her long legs look never ending. She looked like a super model instead of a nurse.
I glanced down at myself and fought from frowning. Comparison is the thief of joy, I reminded myself. I wouldn’t gain anything from it. As the middle Verdusco daughter, I was used to others comparing us. I’d had a lifetime of it since we were all so close in age.
Liz was the beautiful, smart one.
Jackie was the beautiful, creative one.
And me? I was… the middle sister. The plain, reliable one. The one they could always count on to do… well, their taxes, literally, or be their designated driver.
Let’s be honest, I was the boring one.
“Jack might be crazy“—she stirred her fingers sideways by her ear—“but she’s not wrong. You should come with us.” She leaned against the doorway looking like she should be posing for Vogue or something. Her long sleek straight hair was up in a high ponytail, making her already incredible bone structure look even better. “Please?” she pleaded. That soft please wormed its way under my skin. I pressed my lips together.
I was tempted to go out.
To go dance and have fun with my sisters, who were genuinely my best friends and wanted to spend time with me. But even if I wanted to go, I had nothing to wear. Nothing fun at least. My eyes skirted to my closet, one that Jackie had rummaged through just forty minutes ago. No. I had nothing sparkly like Liz or colorful like Jack. All my clothes were sensible. Functional. Neutral-colored pieces for the office that got the job done.
“I’m okay,” I answered, hating the sound of it coming out of my mouth. “I have a new book and an early meeting.” Somehow, the idea of a new book didn’t do it for me tonight. I couldn’t get the slight ache of wanting to go with them out of me. To go and have fun.
“Fine, you party pooper.” Jackie sighed with a dramatic eye roll, something she had perfected by the time she was seven. She leaned in and kissed my forehead. “Don’t stay up too late if this meeting is as important as you say it is.”
She rolled out of my bed and shook out her pretty, brightly colored tropical-printed mini-dress that fit her perfectly since she was about my height. That was all we shared in common. Her short pink-haired bob brightened any space she walked into.
“I’m going to go steal a water bottle, is that cool?”
“It’s not stealing if you ask for it.” I sighed. “Get one for Liz, too!” I yelled, and my eyes connected with my older sister.
Liz, I noticed, was looking around the small space of my one-bedroom apartment. “You should move out of here,” she muttered. “It cannot be safe to live here.”
“What do you––“ I stopped myself from lying. I knew it, and so did she.
My place sucked.
The building was old, and the landlord had no intentions of fixing it up. Plus, the area was not the greatest. Not that our little town had a bad area per se, but it wasn’t the safest. And there was no way Mr. Chambers would fix anything more than a lightbulb without raising the rent. Old wires popped out of one corner, and water damage stained the ceiling. It wasn’t much, but it was mine.
“What would you rather I do? Move back in with Mom and Dad?” I asked with horror showing on my face. I loved my parents, but there was no way I’d move back in with them. I was a grown woman.
“No,” she gasped. “Imagine.” She made a face, the two of us burst into a fit of giggles, and I noticed her shoulders relax a little.
We had the kind of parents who made you want to gag from how disgustingly happy they were together. It was cute but gross at the same time. And now that they were empty nesters, they were always out and about on dates and whatnot. There was no way I would want to interrupt that. Not when they had done everything they could to raise and give us anything we could have wanted. And that included sometimes working two to three jobs to make sure that when we all graduated college, we wouldn’t be buried under a mountain of debt.
“I was thinking…” she started to say. I pressed my lips together.
“That’s never good.” The words slipped past my lips dryly, and she shot me a look that said, Really?
“I was thinking, what if you moved in with me?”
“Move in… with you?” My eyes widened. That was the last thing I would have thought she’d say. But Liz shrugged like she could care one way or another. “My place isn’t that bad.” I shook my head and got out of bed. My feelings were a little hurt. Both of my sisters did very well, and it wasn’t a secret they made more money than me, but I couldn’t help but feel a little defensive. My apartment wasn’t the Ritz, but it wasn’t terrible. I was done with this little sister visit.
“I didn’t mean anything by it.” She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. Something flickered in her eyes. Something I couldn’t read. “I was just thinking… I’m hardly ever home, and it would be nice to know that… that someone is at the house.”
“To take care of your plants?” I guessed, but she shook her head.
“No, smartass.” She made a face. “My plants are on a watering system.” I rolled my eyes. I didn’t even want to know how much something like that even cost. “I just… I just mean it would be nice not to be home alone when I’m home,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically soft.
My older sister was a tough nut. One who hardly ever cracked.
“But I get wanting your own space. It’s why I moved out, too.”
“You bought a mansion.”
“It’s hardly… it’s a house. That’s it. I mean, I guess”—she sniffed her nose as she looked around my room—"compared to this place, I can see why you would think my place is a mansion,” she smarted off, but I could see the humor in her eyes sparkle. I gasped my mouth open before I laughed.
“Go away!” I got up and shooed her towards the kitchen. But the moment I was close enough, her cool, smooth hand took mine and my eyes locked with hers.
“Will you think about it?” she asked quickly. I felt my brows narrow.
“You okay?” I watched as my stoic sister opened and shut her mouth. I knew she had changed her mind about whatever she was going to say.
“I’m fine.” She shook it off, letting go of my hand. Just like that, that bored, unamused mask slipped over her pretty features. “I just thought maybe being sorta roommates would be fun. I’m usually only home half the year anyhow.” Something about her offer stuck with me.
“Text me how much my rent would be and what utilities look like, and I’ll think about it,” I said, obviously surprising the two of us. I wasn’t sure if I was serious or not. Her place was huge, but not only did I work from home, I was a homebody. Her place was nice, great, but would I want to spend all my time there?
