#BURN (Fever Falls Book 2)

by Devon McCormack

  I rolled toward him and propped myself up on my elbow. “God, you’re fun.”

  “You’re fun too. And that was…whew.”

  His hair fell across his forehead, and for some reason, I felt the impulse to reach out and push it to the side. Maybe because it annoyed me that anything would cover any part of his perfect face.

  “I was pleasantly surprised by that. Never had anyone play around back there.”

  “So top-curious, but maybe a little bottom-curious too? Maybe interested in a little anal?”

  His cheeks pinkened.

  “Are you blushing?”

  “Oh, fuck. Yes, I think I am.”

  “I guess I finally found the thing that makes Jace Kruse a little uneasy.”

  “Not anal. I’ve had anal with women before, but the thought of doing that with a guy…and with him in me, I don’t know… That’s strange, isn’t it?”

  “I’ve heard good things about it,” I teased. “And I’m great at what I do. I’ve been doing it long enough that I could make it a really good time.” He was clearly full of curiosity about it, but I could sense his uneasiness too. “For a guy who puts his life at risk on the job every day, I would think a little butt sex would be nothing.”

  “Apparently that’s easier to manage than taking a dick up my ass,” he said, all smiles. “I’m sure if I did it, I’d be great at it.”

  “That’s more the Jace Kruse confidence I’ve come to expect. Yes, I bet you’d be real good.”

  “But you don’t like to bottom?” he asked, and I could tell he was interested in that department as well.

  “You like this ass?” I angled toward him so he could check it out, and he snarled.

  “I’d definitely be confident in being able to help you out there.” And the way he was eyeing it, I didn’t doubt him.

  “Ah, so here’s our issue. We both think we’d be great tops for the other. Huh. Guess there’s only one way to find out. I’m here for a few days. I can make time for a little training session. Show you how to be a top pro.”

  “Oh, really? You make it sound like this generous favor you’re doing for me when really I think you just want to get your dick up in me.”

  “Hey, I’ll be fair. I can be persuaded, if you can be persuaded.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m in the business of negotiating, so what if we make a deal to settle our little top dilemma? I’ll let you hit this, and you let me hit that. Even Stephen.”

  “This week?”

  “Eh, we’re working together through this whole project for a year, so I say we just move at a comfortable speed for you. You’re the noob—my little ass-virgin.”

  Jace’s gaze shifted around, obviously thinking it over, before he started laughing. “That sounds hot.”

  “It’s gonna be hot, especially when you’re getting a piece of this ass.”

  “Which will be when?”

  “Whenever I fucking want it. It’s not a race or anything, but this is the extent of the deal. I can’t deal with complicated shit.”

  “Oh, me neither,” Jace said sternly, and something about how clear his response was only made me more confident that we could just have our fun and let that be that.

  I reached my hand out. “Let’s shake on it, then.”

  “Deal, Mr. Munro.”

  As he released my hand, I said, “You know I’m just tricking you so I can tap that, right? All’s fair in love and top wars.”

  “And here I figured I was the one getting the good end of this deal,” Jace said, eyeing my ass again. “A real nice end.”

  “Well, now it’s shaken on and a done deal, befitting of a fucking Bridget Jones’s Diary movie.”

  Jace’s forehead scrunched up as he eyed me skeptically. “I’m pretty confident that’s not anything like something that would happen in a Bridget Jones’s Diary movie.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I don’t watch those. Do you?”

  “I’ve seen…all three.”

  “Oh, more surprises from Jace Kruse. You like romantic comedies?”

  “I love romantic comedies.”

  “Okay, so Hottie Firefighter with a Shar-Pei, and he can also make fried chicken, loves rom-coms, and isn’t already married and saddled down with a nice woman and three kids?”

  “I just got that Shar-Pei, thank you very much, but no, that’s not something I’ve ever been interested in. Not my style. I like keeping my options open. And with the hours I work, it’s always been easier to have fun and leave it at that. I have my friends, and that’s enough for me.”

  “See, I knew I liked you. Same here, minus being able to cook and the Shar-Pei, so it’s just me, my job and being awesome at it, and I do love being awesome at that, and the freedom to have all the fun I want and that my body demands.”

  “All the fun that my body demands. Yes, I very much enjoy being able to live my life that way.” Jace grinned as I checked out his crotch, which was getting hard again.

  “Well, I’d hate to leave your body hanging,” I said, sliding down and getting on my knees. “I say one more BJ before we call it a night.”

  “Fine by me.” He’d hardly spoken the words before I had that cock in my mouth, and he relaxed on his back as I started working him up all over again.

  I sucked him off good, letting him shoot on his abs again, enjoying the show before it was time for me to Uber back to my hotel.

  * * *

  “Work…that’s right,” Quincy, the photographer, called to Jace as he stood before the pumper in the lot behind the fire station.

  Bare-chested, abs tense, sun glistening off his oil-soaked bod, Jace wore boots and his uniform pants as he posed for the camera. He apparently knew his body well enough to stand in the most flattering positions for his physique. Or perhaps it was simply that there weren’t any unflattering angles for Jace Kruse, particularly when lit with natural sunlight and a couple of reflectors on C-stands.

  His buddies Zed and Joshua, also in just pants and boots, flanked him on either side. Judging by how much they cracked jokes between the more serious expressions they offered for Quincy, it was clear they were enjoying being models for a day. They agreed to pose with him for a few faux-casual poses, because Lord knew the fire station would only be filled with hot, shirtless firefighters like those in a Sean Cody porn.

  It was one of the shoots I’d set up around the station for the day. We were fortunate that with Jace’s connections, it was nearly effortless to get locations around town. I had to practically strong-arm a few of the venues to take our money since they wanted to help their buddy out. That was a first, something I wouldn’t have seen happening much in LA.

  I made my way through the lot, passing Quincy’s PAs as I FaceTimed with Hacksmore, showing him a preview of the work.

  “Yes, this looks perfect!” Hacksmore said from the spa he was at in Tokyo as he received a massage. “I’m more than content with the publicity we’ve had so far, so all this is just going to be icing on the cake until our first billboard and commercial launch. Where’s Elliott?”

  “He’s getting our next location ready for us.”

  I slouched in a chair beside Carter, who was chilling in a chaise lounge, keying away on his iPad.

  “Keep up the great work, guys,” Hacksmore said.

  “I’ll send you a Dropbox of the images we single out and the full shoot for your perusal.”

  “Excited to see everything. Get me some amazing ammo so we can clear this one out of the ballpark.”

  “Don’t think we’re going to have any issues with that,” I said, full of confidence, not so much arrogant in my own abilities as much as sure of the magic that was our Hottie Firefighter.

  I wrapped up my conversation with Hacksmore, and we ended our FaceTime session as I enjoyed the view from my chair. Carter continued scrolling away on his iPad beside me.

  “Slacking on the job?” I teased.

  “I’m reviewing the questions and prompts we discussed
for Tandy, the videographer, whose name you probably didn’t even remember when you called her earlier…”

  Too true.

  “…and that’s only after confirming with the other locations we’ll be at later, leaving a shit review for the no-show makeup artist, placing our Asian fusion order to be delivered to Fever Pitch, and replacing the photographer’s music selection with my MP3 player because I can only handle hearing Britney’s ‘Work Bitch’ three times before I’m gonna lose my fucking mind.”

  “See? Just like I said. Slacking.”

  “I can at least position myself to enjoy all this manliness.”

  I checked out the guys’ hot bodies. Even if they weren’t the guys Jace hit the gym with, they sure got their own time in whenever they did go.

  Damn.

  Quincy called, “Okay, can I get Mac in for a couple of shots?” And then he turned to a PA who was giving Mac all the belly rubs he could have possibly desired.

  After we wrapped at the station, we hit Fever Pitch, where they’d closed shop for the afternoon to accommodate the shoot. I headed to chat with Elliott while the crew worked to light Jace and his buddies. They’d started up a game of cards with a pack Jace had retrieved from the billiards room. Despite how unfazed he seemed by everything that was going on around him, his occasional glance around, wide-eyed and grinning ear to ear, proved he was enjoying himself nearly as much as his buddies.

  It was the more appealing part of the gig, I knew that much. It was all fun and games when it was just a production. When the spotlight was on you and you didn’t have to deal with it affecting your life.

  I slid into a booth with Elliott and Carter. Elliott was scrolling on his phone while Carter keyed away at his iPad.

  “I moved my Nashville flight to tomorrow,” Elliott said. “Figure while I’m close, I can go see Margot Jennings.”

  Jennings was a country music artist who’d recently signed with us, looking to make her transition into pop, and Elliott was still hammering out the details with her people. Though Elliott and I shared several accounts, like Hacksmore, each of us also took jobs we pulled commissions from separately.

  “Trying to bail out of Fever Falls so fast?”

  He laughed, glancing up from his phone briefly. “Not fast enough is more like it.”

  “Oh, come on. It’s a nice place. And it’s not like it’s some small town. There’s a lot going on here.”

  “Up-and-coming,” Carter offered before giggling. Despite being on his iPad the whole time since I’d sat down, as befitted Carter, he was obviously paying more attention than he was letting on.

  “I think you’re more than capable of handling all this,” Elliott said.

  “I’m always more than capable of handling anything. But since we have a night, wanna grab some dinner later? Play catch-up?”

  “I’d love to, but I already scheduled to meet up with Ash Carmichael.”

  It was a fair reason for him to be busy, considering Ash was one of his most popular clients.

  “I’d invite you, but it’s gonna be at his partner’s mother’s place, and I don’t know if they’re going to have room.”

  “No, no. It’s fine. Carter, did you want to grab a bite?”

  “I actually already have a date.”

  “Are we using the word date loosely here?”

  “Nothing loose over here,” Carter quipped, which got Elliott and me laughing. “This little PA can get action anytime he needs it, don’t you worry about me.”

  “Trust us,” Elliott said, “you are the last guy in the world we’re worried about getting some action…so long as you play safe and keep getting tested.”

  Elliott winked, and Carter added, “Please. I think I’m tested about as much as a monkey at the CDC.”

  We all enjoyed a laugh, then tended to some other business obligations before my phone buzzed on the table as a call came in.

  “I see Serena’s name,” Elliott said, his eyes getting wide, like he knew what I was about to endure.

  “Calling for her weekly checkup?” Carter asked.

  I sent the call to voice mail, replying, “And here I thought you understood my mother by now, Carter. We don’t do weekly checkups. We have weekly meetings.”

  “How did she like that yoga retreat she was on?” Elliott asked. “I was thinking Steve and I might want to go to something like that.”

  “Well, she came back enlightened, but apparently she only had epiphanies about how I should be living my life.”

  Elliott and Carter seemed amused at my expense. Nothing wrong with a bit of schadenfreude among friends.

  My phone buzzed again. “I’m gonna go take this,” I said, and went out the back to take her call, entertaining her ramblings for a bit before reminding her that I had to get back to work. As I went back inside, I noticed a guy behind the bar, where I’d seen Dallas working the past few times I’d been here. He was an older man with a bald spot on his scalp, and he cradled a box in his arms, struggling with it as he set it on the counter. He turned to start for a stack of them on an L-cart, so I approached him.

  “Hey, man, did you need any help with that?”

  “I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”

  “It’s no trouble at all,” I said, and grabbed the top box from the cart.

  “Just restocking the liquor. Figured it’d be a good day to do it. If you can line them up on the bar, it’ll be easier for me to get into them. Usually Dallas is here to help me out because my knees are a little shaky.”

  “I got you.”

  As I moved the boxes onto the bar, he opened the one he’d carried and started pulling out bottles and storing them on the shelves along the wall. When I finished, he said, “Thanks for the help…what was the name again?”

  “Dax Munro.”

  He extended his hand for a quick shake, offering a friendly smile. “I’m Benny Saders, the manager here. I’m the one your guy Carter spoke to about arranging the shoot.”

  “So I owe you more than moving a few boxes.”

  “How about I owe you a drink? What’ll you have?”

  “Oh, I’ll just have a beer,” I said, trying to be polite.

  He eyed me skeptically. “What do you normally drink? Don’t tell me it’s beer.”

  “A dirty martini, but that’s not—”

  “Dirty martini it is!” he exclaimed before I had a chance to object further. “I need one too, and I make a great martini, so just be an angel and accept it. You’re basically doing me a favor.”

  “Thank you.” I slid onto a stool while he went to work mixing our drinks.

  “So you guys came in and nabbed our Jace Kruse,” he noted, wincing as he finished shaking the stainless-steel shaker. “Nice seeing him running around, getting the praise he deserves.”

  I could tell by the way he said it, he held great reverence for Jace, as I figured quite a few people in town did.

  “From my limited interactions, he seems like a good guy.”

  He practically scoffed. “Let me tell you about this ‘good guy.’ About five years ago, I was watching my niece. I have a humble two-story place a couple of blocks from here. Well, it was past her bedtime, and she was sleeping up in my guest bedroom. I normally stay up and watch a movie until I pass out, so there I was, passed out in the living room with some old John Wayne Western on AMC. Woke up smelling burning, and there’s smoke coming in from the kitchen. I saw it was coming through the basement door, and so I did what anyone would do. I ran through the house, screaming for her, figuring I had time enough to grab her. But I get to the stairs, and it’s already ablaze. Never know how quickly fire can creep up on you until you see it firsthand.

  “I called emergency services, and fortunately a neighbor had already reported seeing smoke coming from the house. But there I was, like some kind of animal, trying to think of every nook and cranny I could potentially find to get up to her. Fire was so hot, I had to get out the front door, but there I was, running around, calling for her.
If I could have climbed up the goddamn walls, I would have. Fortunately, the firefighters were there not long after, and there comes Jace, running to me, and I’m shouting like a nutjob, begging him to save my little Rae. The fire was creeping on the first floor, under her bedroom, which was on the second, and Jace grabbed that ladder and pushed through the AC in her window. He found her crying and confused, coughing up all the smoke billowing into the room.

  “Seeing how horrified she was was hard enough. But to think I would have had to live knowing something had happened to her in my care… I don’t know that I could have lived with that.”

  “I’m glad she made it out,” I said, since it was really the only thing I could say after a story like that.

  “He’s a saint. You would think that a girl who’d suffered that trauma would have a real terrible memory of the whole thing, but Jace spent time with her after, calming her down. It was real sweet of him, and to this day, she just thinks about how kind he was, not at all about the horror of being in that.”

  “Even without knowing Jace very well, that sounds a lot like him,” I admitted.

  “That man and his buddies sacrifice so much and give so much to this community, and if anyone deserves a bit of good luck and appreciation, it’s Jace Kruse.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” I said as he poured our drinks from the shaker into two martini glasses.

  He really is Batman.

  18

  Jace

  I enjoyed getting to play around with Zed and Joshua for a couple of hours for the photoshoot. It felt as though I was taking a short course in modeling as Quincy managed me through the different shots, telling me the best ways to stand and the poses he thought were more “my good side.”

  After we were done at Fever Pitch, we finished up at the park with one more shoot with Mac before I recorded an interview with a friendly reporter. Carter took my house keys and left with Mac to get him home so he could eat and get some rest after the busy day.