Healing the Flame

**Healing the Flame**
**The Bad Boy of Engine Company 22, Book 2**

He runs into the fire. She refuses to let anyone burn her again.

Firefighter Jax Brennan is the bad boy of Engine 22-reckless, charming, and allergic to anything that feels like forever. Three weeks after handing back the key to the only woman who almost made him stay, he's left with an empty keyring and the familiar quiet that always drives him toward the next risk. When a warehouse fire goes sideways, Jax makes the kind of call that saves a life... and lands him in Harbor City General with second-degree burns and a captain ready to bench him for good.

Dr. Claire Ellison has one unbreakable rule: no firefighters. Not as patients she gets invested in. Not as anything else. She learned the cost the hard way-the scanner left running, the empty side of the bed, the silence that never fully leaves. When the notorious Jax Brennan is wheeled into her trauma bay smirking through the pain, she treats the injuries, shuts down the charm, and draws the line in permanent marker.

But Jax doesn't do lines. Light duty leaves him restless. A shallow cut becomes an excuse. Another visit becomes a pattern. Claire keeps shutting the door. Jax keeps finding reasons to stand on the other side of it. The chemistry is sharp, the boundaries sharper, and every forced proximity-wound checks, late-night ER runs, the residual heat neither of them can ignore-chips away at the walls they've built.

He's the man who runs toward the flame because staying still feels like drowning. She's the woman who refuses to love someone the job might take. Between the station's found-family chaos, the weight of past losses, and a slow-burn heat neither of them planned, Jax and Claire will have to decide whether some rules are worth breaking... and whether the quiet after the fire can finally feel like home.

A steamy, emotional firefighter romance packed with banter, forced proximity, protective heat, and the kind of healing that only comes when two people stop running. Perfect for readers who love bad-boy heroes, strong heroines with hard boundaries, and second chances that feel earned.

*Healing the Flame is Book 2 in The Bad Boy of Engine Company 22 series and can be enjoyed as a standalone.*