Blue Moon: Too Good to Be True (2 page)

The three bouncers that guarded the front at all times gave him a short wave as he made a quick left onto Pacific Avenue, heading toward the freeway to his sanctum…home.

Chapter Two

“Oh please, give me a goddamn break Maximus, you need a fucking enema you’re so full of shit,” Luna yelled. Max grimaced at that last comment. His girlfriend was a real pistol. Max wasn’t even looking for a commitment when Luna put that label on them after only dating for three months. Her bloodred curls—they were probably auburn, but the word blood seemed to fit right now—bounced around her head angrily as she shook it from side to side. She watched Max act like he was cleaning his small oceanfront apartment.

“I really can’t just up and take you on a vacation right now, Luna, work is crazy… I’m a fireman for shit’s sake. The July Fourth weekend is one of the busiest weekends for Virginia Beach and you know that. All uniforms are required and needed to report to duty. You’re a hair stylist with your own shop, of course you can come and go whenever you feel like it, but some working stiffs like myself don’t have that luxury.” Max eyed her, annoyed as she huffed out a breath at his last remark. He thought he may have had her stumped there but he could practically see the gears turning in her brain under her blood…auburn curls.

“Really! Max, really, you’re gonna go there…I mean really.”

Wow! She sounds like the SNL Weekend Update “Real y” with Seth and Amy.

He quirked his lips up a little when he thought about the hilarious skit on Saturday Night Live.

“Oh hell no, I know you are not laughing at me. Max, do you think this is a game? You think this is funny? Really?”

Oh give me a fucking break… real y
. Max groaned internally.

“I am trying to plan some quality time with my man. First, you shoot me down and then you laugh about it in my face,” she screeched at him.

No, actual y I wasn’t… but I will laugh at your silly ass when you get the hel out.

“Well maybe I should just go to Atlanta with my girlfriends and you can stay here alone this weekend and think about what you had when it is gone,”

she threatened bravely. She crossed her arms over her ample chest and tapped her manicured toes angrily, waiting for his reply.

Oh yes there is a God, and he is willing to give me a weekend without Luna!
Max could only hope.

“Um…look, Luna,” he stated gently after taking a deep breath. He put both hands out in front of him in a gesture that said to calm down and lower your voice. “I understand that you want to spend time together but I just don’t see how that’s going to happen on this particular holiday weekend. I think—”

“It doesn’t happen any fucking holiday, Max,” she protested.

“You’re absolutely right, babe, my schedule does suck, but once I make sergeant”— he saw her roll her eyes, probably because he’d used that same excuse the entire three months they’d been together— “things will get better and my schedule will be almost normal, then I can put in a request to take a little bit of leave time. You know I had to use the time I had saved two months ago to go to my Aunt Janet’s funeral.” He held his breath and waited after that statement to let it sink in.
Take that
.

His aunt had raised him and his brother Ryker after losing their mom to breast cancer when Max was thirteen. Although he was thirty-three years old now, it still hurt to think about her being gone…so he tried not to. He felt kind of bad using her death as his trump card to squash an argument with his girlfriend. He lowered his head and stared at the scattered array of magazines on his coffee table when he felt soft arms come around his back and crowd him close from behind.
Now that’s more like it… you crazy bitch
.

“I’m sorry, baby,” Luna said gently, stroking his belly as if he were an excited dog. However, Max wasn’t the one that was bat-shit crazy.

“I’m just aching to get away for a while. These damn tourists get on my nerves during the fourth.” She paused and squeezed a little tighter around his middle and rubbed her sized DD breasts against his lower back. Her five-foot-three-inch body was flush against his muscled six-foot-one-inch frame.

“You really don’t mind if I go with a few of my girlfriends?” she murmured weakly.

“No, of course—” He stopped abruptly and adjusted his excitement level after noting her perplexed expression. “Of course I would love to be with you,” he said more calmly. He tilted his head back so his five o’clock shadow

rubbed gruffly over her mean curls. She giggled and squirmed against him.

He rolled his eyes and continued to speak in as soft a tone as he could manage. “But I won’t stop you from going and having a little fun just because I’m stuck here working. You go on, babe, and have enough fun for both of us, okay?”

“If you’re sure you’re okay with your woman being in Atlanta with all her single girlfriends, then…I will go,” she countered.

Thank goodness, another argument done. They were having these spats more and more over the past few weeks and they’d all been about his hectic, consuming schedule. He had to do something about their constant bickering sooner rather than later. He just didn’t need that extra stress in his life right now. He had a lot of studying to do before it was time to take his final exams next month. He would finally graduate in August with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, and his promotion to Sergeant would be effective immediately.

Usually it took a firefighter at least six years to make sergeant, but Max had gotten his degree and promotion in only four. He’d worked hard to get to this point. His older brother called him every week to check on his progress.

He just wished his aunt would’ve been here to see their major accomplishments. If it wasn’t for her, he and Ryker never would’ve made it.

He tamped down those thoughts as he felt Luna maneuver her way to his front and slide her perfectly manicured fingers down to grope his cock through the thin sweats he was wearing. She slowly flicked out her soft pink tongue and licked the fireman’s crest tattoo on his chest. A moan escaped Max’s mouth before he could stop it. She looked up at him with beautiful hazel eyes surrounded by thick curled lashes. He had truly loved those jovial eyes when they met, and the way she dominated a room whenever she entered. As always, no one showed their true colors in the beginning of a relationship. He pulled her legs up and let them straddle his narrow waist as he carried her back to his bedroom. She let loose a sexy moan against his throat as he ground his thickening cock against her. Max figured what the hell? What was one more roll in the-sack before he dumped her ass like a ton of bricks as soon as she stepped foot in Atlanta.

A. E. Via

It was Friday night and Maximus was reporting to the fire station to pull a seventy-two-hour shift. He was only required to work forty-eight but he decided to pull his buddy Pierce’s shift on Sunday since Pierce had really looked out for him when he had to take personal leave. Max looked around the station and waved to the usual personnel on duty. He stopped to talk with the crew that was leaving about the action they had seen that day. He dropped his duffel bag at his feet and sat at the kitchen table with Ken, James, Zander, and Keith. They all looked like runners-up for the Mr.

Universe contest. Keith’s shoulders and biceps were so damn huge he probably couldn’t reach back to wipe his own ass. But Max knew if he was ever trapped in a fire he’d love to see Keith’s big ass come barreling through the wall to get him the hell outta there.

They were all going on about the ten-car pileup that was on Interstate 664 that morning during rush hour. Reportedly there were two fatalities and six were still in critical condition. Max said a silent thank-you to a higher power that he didn’t have to see that wreckage. The guys all looked grim as they shook their heads. Most of them probably thought the same thing Max was about this weekend….
this is just the beginning
.

Max went to his bunkroom to make his bed and put his uniforms in the tiny closet for the next three days. It took him a while to shove all the clothes inside, but he always overpacked for his shifts. He’d learned a valuable lesson during his second week of training six years ago. Max had gone out on seven dispatched calls while pulling a forty-eight-hour shift. By the fourth call, he’d completely run out of clean clothes. He vowed that day that he would never again go commando under his polyester uniform pants again. He had chafed balls for a fucking week. He shivered slightly at the memory and finished unloading his bag.

Since his shift didn’t start for another two hours he figured he could get in a few miles on the treadmill in the station’s workout room. Max took excellent care of his body and it showed. He slipped on his VBFD tank top and looked at his reflection in the floor-length mirror attached to the closet

door. Max wasn’t as ripped and defined as some of the other firefighters, but he wasn’t ashamed of that. A unique tribal tattoo circled his left biceps and expanded whenever he flexed it. He pulled the black gym shorts up his hard, tanned thighs that were toned due to running on the beach four times a week. His blue-gray eyes scanned his body and he noted that he should add a few more crunches to his workout regime. The definition was there, but the amber ale beer that he loved so much was visible as well.

Max never wanted to be a Hulk Hogan look-alike, and he wasn’t a health nut either, but he believed in treating his body good so it would be good to him.

On the way to the workout room, which couldn’t be called a gym because two treadmills and one weight bench did not a gym make, he heard a deep voice yell his name from the other end of the hall. He did an about-face and found Captain Williams standing with both hands on his hips and his feet shoulder-width apart. It seemed to be the only way the man knew how to stand.

His captain watched him intently as he walked the twenty or so feet to the end of the hallway. His gaze probably could reach into the depths of Max’s soul if Max could maintain eye contact with the man for more than a few seconds. When Max neared the end of the walkway, his captain stared a few more minutes before finally flicking his head toward the door to his small office. It really did unnerve Max and a lot of the other men when the captain fixed that all-knowing gaze on them. The man had a naturally strong, dominating aura. He had a way of focusing his eyes on a person so fiercely that it made even the strongest alpha male want to tilt his head down in submission.

“You wanted to see me, Cap?” Max croaked out.

“Yes…I called you didn’t I? Get your ass in here and sit.” His deep voice vibrated through Max’s chest. He pushed his office door open and let Max inside. They were chest to chest and eye to eye as Max made his way through the door and into the twelve-by-twelve foot office.

“Strong, I have the documents you need to sign to finalize your promotion. The official ceremony will be in August, this is just a formality.”

Max cleared his dry throat. “Umm…of course, sir, thank you very much… I’m very ready for this promotion.” Max sat straighter in his chair.

“No shit, Einstein, I know you’re ready, you’ve been working toward this for four years. Look over the requirements and if you agree, get it signed sometime this weekend so Jenna can process it with corporate.”

Jenna was the captain’s personal assistant. She had a petite frame and bronze-colored skin that she didn’t overly enhance with too much Maybelline. Her thin, brown hair was cut in a short style that kind of reminded him of Halle Berry. She was proficient at her job. When she was in a good mood she would make them her world-famous pot roast with homemade applesauce on the side. Everyone loved her because she was several feet shorter than all the fighters, but she wasn’t afraid to get in your face and curse you out, and she was the only one that could calm the Captain down when anyone royally fucked up.

“Yes sir, I will have it in her in-box by Monday,” he replied while quickly scanning the documents. He already knew what his new duties would entail.

When he raised his eyes he noticed the Captain’s dark brown eyes now sparkled and glared at something over his shoulder. Max turned slowly in his uncomfortable chair to see what, or rather who, it was.

In the door stood a soft man at about five foot five inches, light brown eyes that looked almost golden, and looked to weigh about one hundred pounds soaking wet. Max thought he looked like a more mature version of Justin Bieber. His two-toned hair was chemically highlighted, and in one of those spiky hairdos that gave the illusion that it didn’t require styling, when in actuality he probably styled each and every spike. He was holding a brown-and-blue picnic basket while his eyes feasted on the Captain’s large chest.

Mature Bieber gave Max a quick nod of acknowledgment and went gracefully into the arms of his partner. The Captain didn’t hesitate as he wrapped the small man tightly in his arms. With one firm hand he cupped the little man’s dimpled chin, tilting his glossy lips up to slowly come into contact with his own slack mouth. Max stared openly at his boss as he watched him lick the shine off his man’s thin lips. As he tilted his mouth to

the side for a better angle, his Captain’s eyelids slid half-closed, making him appear momentarily drunk.

It was rumored that the Captain and his life partner lived a BDSM

lifestyle, or known to most as a Dom/sub lifestyle.

Max found himself picturing his Captain standing tall in his typical don’t-fuck-with-me stance, decked out head to toe in black butter-soft leather barking out sexual orders to be followed. His almost black eyes demanded complete obedience from his submissive partner.

Max’s thoughts ran rapid has he sat transfixed at the open display of affection. His mouth hung slack on his face, and his tongue was suddenly very dry. The Captain reined in his desire and suddenly cut his hazy gaze to Max. He finally noticed that all eyes were on him and it made Max jump like someone had slammed a book shut inside the compact room.
Way to go,
dumbass
.