When her car slides off the road, Laura Barber finds herself about to be stranded in the mountains by a snowstorm. It's bad enough that she's going to miss a job interview but things get worse when the man who can offer her shelter is Ethan Gould. She has avoided him since she embarrassed herself in grad school by making a drunken, explicit proposition that he turned down. Laura assumes she's that last person Ethan wants to see. Fortunately for them both, she assumes wrong.

Ethan can't believe he has a second chance with Laura. He turned her down once because he didn't want to take advantage of her drunken lack of inhibitions. After that moment though, he couldn't seem to get her attention. Now, they are about to be stranded together for several days... a perfect time to revisit all those suggestions she whispered in his ear and which neither has forgotten.

I expect an erotic novella to be hot, HEAT RISES takes it one step further and makes sex fun. Laura and Ethan thoroughly enjoy challenging each other to push past their inhibitions and go for what they want. The sexy games they play give the story a bubbly rather than humorous quality that I thoroughly enjoyed. HEAT RISES is the first book in Ms. Gaines Cabin Fever series. I can't wait to see what's next.