Fire

Fire A. M. Rose Copyright Fire© by A. M. Rose All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the caseof brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. This book is a work of fiction.Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidentsare either the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously.Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales isentirely coincidental. Editing done by LesCourt© services Proofreading done by Kate Wood Proofreading©Cover designed by BCJ Art & Design©"This work by BCJ Art & Design is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.” Blurb Fire is a racing prodigy. Well on his way to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best ones in history. His expectations of the new season were to train, race and win, not to nosedive into the ground and injure his wing. Forced to miss the rest of the season, he’s sent to schmooze with the rich and famous to stay in the limelight and keep the attention on himself. So he schmoozes. And wishes he could be literally anywhere else. Until he walks in. Nose in the air, disdain on his face, and secrets wrapped around him like an expensive suit. Just figures Fire’s mate would be the most pompous little brat ever. On the plus side, riling him up should be fun, right? Rio is a priority. He’s the main character. It’s what he’s used to and he will settle for nothing less than red carpets softening his every step. He lives for the attention and drama, dreaming of a mate who will understand that Rio’s taste is impeccable and he just knows best. Enter his mate. Who disagrees with Rio every step of the way, makes him question everything he thought he knew about himself, but most of all, makes all the skeletons from his past resurface So why doesn’t Rio mind it as much as he probably should? Contents 1. Fire 2. Rio 3. Fire 4. Rio 5. Fire 6. Rio 7. Rio 8. Fire 9. Rio 10. Fire 11. Fire 12. Rio 13. Fire 14. Rio 15. Fire 16. Fire 17. Rio 18. Fire 19. Rio 20. Fire 21. Rio Epilogue Bond About The Authors Also By A. M. Rose Chapter one FireWell, this was boring. Fire looked around the room, the stiff suit they’d wrapped him up in pinching in all the wrong places. He was at a charity event of some sort, having been forced into it by his managing company stating “it’d be good for him” to show up places while his wing healed enough to get back to racing. It was an event to raise money for a school in a remote area, and while it was all geared toward helping children, Fire saw zero children around the richly decorated room. He was good with kids. He had siblings with children of their own, and he liked spending time with them.What he wasn’t good at? Schmoozing with the rich and powerful, ass-kissing, and fake-smiling until they realized they didn’t actually need the third country house and could donate the money to a good cause. Sadly for him, the room was filled with those people. Expensive suits, bejeweled wings, and itty-bitty little finger foods that just yearned for a trip to a burger joint outside his building once he was done for the evening. “Not your idea of a good time?” An amused voice came from his right. He turned, finding himself face to face with a mountain of a man. He had long hair and russet wings with leather detailing on a few feathers. “Is it anyone’s?” Fire asked, and the man laughed, free and loud.“Not sure about everyone else, but I’m with you,” the man said. “Duty calls, though.”“You working?” Fire asked. The man nodded, pointing into the thick of the crowd, where the esteemed Council Leader, Kiran Castillo, was chatting with some equally important-looking people. “Security.” He extended his hand to Fire. “Arne. Miller.”“Fire,” he said, shaking his hand. “Oh, I know,” Arne said, smiling. Fire’s hackles rose just a bit before Arne spoke again. “My mate is a huge fan but was too shy to come say hi, so I said I’d talk to you first and call him over if you weren’t a dick.”Fire snorted at that, relieved Arne wasn’t there to talk about his injury or ask for an exclusive. “I’d say I’m averagely dick-ish but able to tone it down as needed,” Fire said with a smile. “You can call him over. Promise I won’t bite or anything.”Arne stretched up and waved over people’s heads. Fire watched as a gorgeous blond made his way over to them, dark green suit hugging his lithe body and mesmerizing watercolor wings spread behind him in a swoop of fluffy feathers.“Um…”“His wings get that reaction a lot,” Arne said just as his mate approached them and cuddled up against his chest. “Hi, angel.”“Hi,” a soft voice greeted him. Fire smiled at the way he was staring at him—awestruck, but too shy to say anything.“Hey.” Fire extended his hand toward him. “I’m Fire, and I just met your mate here.”The blond took his fingers gently and gave them a squeeze before pulling his hand back, a blush high on his cheeks.“Levi,” he said. “I’m a huge fan of yours.”“I’m very glad to hear that,” Fire said, reaching behind himself to set his empty glass down. “Sorry about missing all the races this season.”“Oh, no,” Levi said, shaking his head. “Just focus on getting better. There’s always next season, and pushing yourself only makes it worse. Wing injuries are no joke.”Fire looked at his unique wings and upon further inspection found a few bald spots where there were no feathers. It didn’t make them any less beautiful, but they spoke of a past injury. Levi brought his wings closer to his body, and Fire averted his eyes from them to