Jamie Denton Under Fire

Under Fire

Jamie Denton

Harlequin Temptation, Nov 2003, $4.25, 219 pp.

ISBN: 0373691505

At the Ivory Tuttle, Jana Linney drinks wine with her two best friends when she confesses that though she has had sex she has never had "one screaming orgasm". Her friends after their initial shock and pronouncement to the world or at least to the nearby pool tables challenge her to approach the nearby stud she has been admiring. More to shut them up and encouraged by her alcoholic buzz Jana picks up firefighter Ben Perry to share a one-night stand though she has never done anything remotely as brazen.

The morning after Jana wants more as she finally knows what sex is all about. Ben agrees as he has had the best night of his life. However, she arrives at the fire station in her official capacity as an OSHA investigator looking into the death of one of his peers. He orders her to drop off the case because she is personally involved and let someone else investigate, but Jana refuses insisting they can keep the professional apart from the personal. Ben has doubts as he plans to heat up the sheets with Jana for a lifetime.

Jana should have distanced herself from the investigation because of perceptions of bias by her making inquiries to include the man she loves even if she does everything correctly. That nit picking aside, the story line is a raging inferno with the OSHA subplot adding intrigue as an investigation not as a conflict between the protagonists. Jamie Denton provides a torrid terrific ending to the Perry brothers' trilogy that readers who like it hot will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner