Ellery Mountain 1 -The Fireman and the Cop Read Online Free Page A

for something to say. The emptiness wasn’t awkward but he wanted to say a few words, anything really, that would make Max talk some more. They’d done the whole ‘it is what it is’ conversation. What the hell else was there to talk about?
“I am, you know,” Max said, interrupting the silence. “Gay, that is. That’s part of the reason I moved here. I had some shit at the old place and decided to try another position. Went for the job in the mayor’s office and applied for the volunteer fireman role here.”
“Wha?” Finn responded. Okay, so it wasn’t the most intelligent of reactions, but why the hell was Max giving him the story of his life? Not that he wanted to stop him—after all, Max really had him at the word gay.
“You asked me,” Max said.
“I did? When?” He would have remembered talking the gay word with the fireman…surely.
“Exactly how much do you remember from the fire?” Max asked suddenly. Finn recoiled as he was assailed with images of destruction and orange-tinged black.
“Not a lot. Getting Mike out, the explosion, the desk trapping me, you getting me out. Then I woke up here.”
Max squeezed his hand and released his grip before sitting back in his chair. Finn focused on his soft smile and wondered what was up with the amused expression.
“I could fill you in but suffice it to say you came on to me.”
“What?” Shit. The horror of it was too much to think on.
“You said you always liked firemen and wondered if any of them were gay. Your reasoning, it seemed, for that question was because you liked their bodies and their…” Max was holding back a laugh and Finn immediately hated him. Well, just a little anyway. “Hoses,” Max finished.
Mortification spread like its own kind of fire from Finn’s stomach to his face in great swathes of embarrassment. He groaned and lifted his hands to cover his eyes. He’d said that? He couldn’t remember a single thing from fire to hospital. One minute he’d been pinned and the next he was in here. Hell, the shit he’d said was the kind of dumb talking he did when he was drunk, when cop Finn became I-want-sex Finn.
“Shit,” he finally managed.
“So you don’t remember what I said about cops?”
“No,” Finn said from behind his hands.
Max gently pulled Finn’s hands from his face and leaned over him, so close that his face blurred momentarily in Finn’s vision and he blinked until it cleared.
“Well you were unconscious I said I loved cops, and the way they use their weapons.”
Finn closed his eyes but there was no way he could hold back the snort of laughter. In one sentence Max had reduced himself to a level playing field.
“What are we? Fifteen?” Finn said.
Max smiled down at him. “I don’t suppose you remember saying that you promised me a date as soon as the world stopped spinning.”
Finn gestured at his pathetic self laid flat on his back. “Can I get a rain check?”
Max reached past him to the table on the other side and picked up a pile of paper and a pen. He scribbled for a minute then placed them back down.
“My number. Remember, it’s a small town, mayor’s office, volunteer fireman, hose. Okay, Corporal Finn Ryan?” Max chuckled when all Finn could do was nod in response. Max traced a finger from Finn’s cheekbone to his lips. He leaned across the small remaining distance, pressing his own lips to Finn’s.
The touch was electric, yet nothing more than a gentle taste. Finn hated to think what the hospital-post-fire-taste of him was like and he held his breath as much as he could. Max didn’t deepen the kiss. He pulled back then traced that same finger down to Finn’s throat.
“I’ll see you soon, Finn. Promise. Sleep now.”
He watched Max leave the room, the man’s kiss a brand on his lips and the touch of his fingers a path of heat on his skin. What did he say to this? How did one semi-conscious plea for connection suddenly become so real? He just wished he could remember any of it.
Finn did