Our guest Nancy Nortcott is not only gracing us with her presence today, she's brought a friend along with her. I know this crew is always happy to see another hottie walking the decks, but this hunky hero isn't the wild child type ready to toss back the rum. The line to loosen him up starts on the quarterdeck. Take it away, Nancy. 

Any chance Josh Campbell, the hero of my paranormal romantic suspense novella Protector, might’ve had to sow wild oats evaporated with his mother’s death. Josh was eight when his mom, a deputy sheriff, was killed in a drug bust gone bad. Within a couple of years, his father was drinking heavily, dumping all responsibility for the family, including Josh’s two younger sisters, onto Josh.

Desperate to keep his family together, he managed to keep himself and his sisters fed and clothed and in school, and he even managed to teach his siblings a little about magic. When he was sixteen, his aunt learned what had been happening and stepped in. She and her husband gave Josh and his sisters the safety and security he’d thought were gone forever.

After two tours of duty as an Army helicopter pilot in Afghanistan, he took a job flying for a helitack crew, a group of firefighters using a helicopter to fight wildfires. There he met a gutsy blonde, Edie Lang, who instantly attracted him. Unfortunately, Edie was a firefighter on the same crew, a woman in a very dangerous job.

After what he and his sisters had gone through after their mom’s death, there was no chance Josh would get involved with a woman who regularly risked her life. No way, no how. Not gonna happen. 

Except it almost did. One night, drawn by grief for fallen comrades, he and Edie almost got together. But Josh backed away--came to his senses, as he would put it. Edie wasn’t made for flings, and she didn’t fit his long-term plans. His kids would have the safe, stable home life he’d longed for.

Now Josh flies combat missions and medevac for the southeastern mages in their battle against their deadly ghoul enemies. Dark magic users, ghouls can’t breed among themselves or eat anything other than fresh kill.  They kidnap mages and Mundanes, or normal humans, for breeding purposes--and occasionally as snacks, though they keep animals for food.

Josh’s life is rolling along just fine until a wildfire roars through the nearby Okefenokee Swamp.  The helicopter contracted for firefighting there is battling another blaze, so the mages’ council lends the firefighters Josh, along with a Huey fitted out for water drops and medevac.

When he picks up a paramedic for transport to an injured firefighter, he’s dismayed to discover the paramedic is Edie.  Worse, he’s as attracted to her as he ever was.

Their reunion doesn’t thrill her any more than it does him.  When a guy promises he’ll come back after answering an emergency page, she expects him to do it.  And her continuing attraction to him, after three years of not seeing each other, truly aggravates her.