  We present K-band spectroscopy for several regions of three nearby spiral
galaxies, NGC 613, NGC 628 and NGC 7741. Analysis of the depth of the 2.293
micron CO absorption feature in these spectra reveals that some regions have
deep absorptions, indicative of recent star formation, while others have
anomalously shallow absorptions. We interpret the latter as evidence for a
significant but localised contribution to the 2.3 micron light from hot dust
with an effective temperature of about 1000 K, which could have a significant
effect on the K-band morphologies of star-forming galaxies.
