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Slow Heat Jill Shalvis 21860K 2023-08-31

"I said no," Gray said firmly, voice flat

Kenna stared at him "What-the-fuck-ever," she finally said, and stormed out, probably to hole up in her room like the hermit she’d becohtly "She earned thatit to bail us out of the mess our asshole dad left us in"

"But he’s her dad, too, and she wants to be one of you"

"She is one of us," Gray said "She’s our baby sister and we protect her, not use her" He looked at Aidan and Hud "Agreed?"

"Agreed," Aidan said, and reached out for Lily’s hand She sreed," Hud said just as easily

Kenna had been a professional snowboarder froe of fifteen to last year, when she’d crashed and burned, both physically and metaphorically

She still wasn’t on the people train and had been hiding out here at Cedar Ridge, pouting, playing Candy Crush on her tablet, refusing to answer her phone to any of her old contacts

When she’d first cos and sponsorship loot He’d deposited it for her--long-terhed down by her own ruthless, self-destructive streak

It’d been nearly a year now and she was no longer walking around like she , but she was far fro her money to save their hides when the day could very well co about a coot a search and rescue call And then Hud got his own call as well, sootten sick and Hud was needed for the graveyard shift

And so, on went the week

By the tiht he worked another cop shift and no sooner had he started than an alarhty-year-oldso his brand-new raspberry tarts And he’d been right There’d been so his raspberry tarts--a three-hundred-and-fifty-pound bear roughly the size of a VW Bug, sitting at the guy’s kitchen island, calm as you please

Bears were e

The next call was frootten into the ceiling vents, working their way toward the safe Unfortunately for the tiles Hud and two other units arrived just as the suspects were stirring, writhing on the ground, h they were drunk--and dressed as superheroes One of theotten the brilliant idea to rob the store Not for cash

Nope, the geniuses had wanted candy

It was three in theno one else needed him, he had thole hours of sleep ahead of him He fell into his bed, and as often happened when he was exhausted, he dreamed badly

"What did you just say tonose-to-nose with hiraduation