Blood Heat (Dangerous Ground #3)

Title: Dangerous Ground 3: Blood Heat
Author:  Josh Lanyon
Publisher:  Just Joshing
Buy link: Amazon.com (Second Edition)
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length:  Novella
Rating: 5+ stars DIK

Summary Review: This is Josh Lanyon’s best action/adventure and love story so far. I’m in love with Taylor and Will.

THE BLURB

Special Agents for the Department of Diplomatic Security, Taylor MacAllister and Will Brandt have been partners forever and lovers for four months, but their new relationship is threatened when Will is offered a plum two-year assignment in Paris.

Will believes the posting only means postponing what they both want. Taylor fears that kind of separation will mean the end of their new and still-fragile relationship.
It’s a bad time to find themselves in the middle of the New Mexico wilderness responsible for the health and welfare of a suspected terrorist. Especially when everyone else they run into seems determined to see their prisoner — and them — dead.

Dangerous Ground Series

THE REVIEW

Whenever I start a new book by Josh Lanyon it’s like a box of dark chocolates because I know that when I taste it, behind the delicious rush as it hits my tongue will be the bittersweet, melting, rich flavour that is orgasmic. Blood Heat, the third book in the Dangerous Ground series is definitely the darkest chocolate.

If you have not read any of the books here is a very brief synopsis of the series. Special Agents Taylor MacAllister and Will Brandt have been partners for 3 years and lovers for 4 months. They are still getting used to being lovers, working out relationship issues and a few other grievances such as Taylor daring to get shot in the chest and almost dying in Book 1, which is still a sore point between them even though he is now back to full field agent status. In Blood Heat, in addition to hunting down and trying to recapture a fugitive who was accused of killing a Director at the Agency, Will had been offered and was considering taking a prestigious job in Paris which Taylor feels will be the end of their relationship. He believes strongly that Will should give up the promotion, even though he understands what it would mean to him to lose it, and in addition, if he were the one offered the assignment he would have turned it down flat.

The book opens with Taylor and Will fighting over Will’s pending offer, while at the same time having a job to do by finding their fugitive, Hedwig, the girlfriend of a Russian drug kingpin and murderer, before anyone else does. It didn’t take them long to run her into ground where she was hiding out in New Mexico with her ex high school BF Reuben Ramirez, a dog breeder. After disposing of Reuben, they find Hedwig but surprise! surprise! She’s 8 months pregnant! Could things get worse? Hedwig swore she was an informant for the Department and had been framed for the murder of the DDS Director by someone high up in the department, but who would believe a suspected murderer? Right when they have their captive and believe they are home free, on the way to returning her to her rightful place – behind bars – they encounter a new obstacle, their car had a flat tire. If that wasn’t enough, they have a much bigger problem, literally and figuratively, in the person of Fugitive Recovery Agent (or bounty hunter) Nemov who had a very big gun trained on them, one that was likely to go off at any moment. After handcuffing the Special Agents together and taking their car keys, Nemov left with his bounty to collect the very substantial price on her head. But would our hardy and resourceful heroes give up and slink away with their tails between their legs? Not very likely.

I won’t tell you how they managed to free themselves but eventually they drove away, none the worse for their adventure, in the driving rain which soon turned into a flash flood with enough water to wash away a small town.  They eventually had to abandon the car or drown. This was just one of the many adventures that poor Will and Taylor had to endure, and I loved all the action in the book which kept getting more and more perilous and death defying. This book was so action packed that I hardly caught my breath before they would be facing a new threat. The pace was so fast and furious I had to take a break a few times, I was exhausted. But much as I love a good action/adventure, and this certainly exceeded my expectations by a long shot, what raised this book to new heights were the palpable emotions between Taylor and Will.

If you’re looking for a romance where the love was exquisitely portrayed you don’t have to look any further than Blood Heat. This couple had never been very open about their feelings or demonstrative about their affection for each other, at least not at the same time, and it was no secret that they found it difficult (especially Will) to express their feelings. In Blood Heat all the emotions are on the surface and the barriers are down as they face the real possibility of 2 years apart, should Will accept the assignment.

There was one kissing sequence that was very sensuous:

Will leaned in, and his mouth covered Taylor’s, rough but sweet, his tongue seeking Taylor’s. Taylor opened willingly to that kiss, forgetting for a second his scratched, scraped hands and the rain running down the back of his neck. They kissed a lot these days, especially for men who had never been much for kissing. Taylor had become expert in all Will’s kisses, from the hungry, lustful kisses that always made his own cock rise so fast it hurt, to the tender, almost cherishing kisses that Will generally saved for when he thought Taylor was sleeping. That dawn kiss beneath the pine trees rippled through him like an electric shock, a reminder that, tired, wet, and lost as they might be, so long as they were together, they were all right.

Better than all right.

Much better.

The sex was exquisite.

Taylor’s breath caught as Will’s mouth trailed, tasting, kissing from his collarbone to his chest. The combination of soft lips and sharp teeth was maddening in the best possible way. He ran his fingers through the damp, dark silk of Will’s hair, raised his head to kiss Will’s ear, which was all he could reach. He groaned and dropped back as Will’s mouth closed around one of his nipples. Excitement and pleasure arrowed straight to his groin. He gasped, arched up, pushing the hard, sensitive nub of flesh into Will’s mouth.

“I like that.”

“I know you do.” Will was smiling indulgently

And this, in the end:

He could hear the slow, heavy pound of Will’s heart, and though he was not much for poetry, he suddenly remembered lines from some forgotten time and place — all his times and places having led, it seemed, to this moment.

The bleeding to death of time in slow heart beats,

Wakeful they lie.

Blood Heat was an exquisite, tender love story and kick ass adventure, rolled into one incredible package.

There should be skid marks as you run to Loose Id on October 12 to buy a copy of Dangerous Ground 3: Blood Heat. This book can be read as a standalone, but I would strongly recommend reading the first two books in the series Dangerous Ground, with that erotic hot tub scene in the woods, and Old Poison first.

I confirmed that the release date is now October 19 so get those credit cards ready. 🙂