Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The Day Before Christmas Eve . . .

M atthew's hand shook as it hovered above his smartphone while he stared at the screen. In the middle of numerous emails from friends and family, newsletters, ads, and spam was one from the community college he'd been waiting for all week. Somehow, the subject line appeared bigger than all the others, nearly leaping off the screen at him.

Paramedic Program: Final Exam Results

Nervous energy coursed through him. The email's contents would tell him if he was now a full-fledged, certified paramedic or a complete failure. Okay, maybe not a complete failure, but a failure nonetheless.

If he hadn't passed, there would be one more opportunity to retake the test. A second failure would mean repeating an entire year's worth of classes, including clinical rotations and practicals, before getting a third chance.

He hadn't expected the results to come in until after Christmas, but the email had been sent at 9:42 last night, about an hour after he last looked at his inbox. He'd shut his computer down when Del had called to say hello. The conversation quickly advanced to some of the hottest phone sex Matthew had ever had in his life.

"Well, are you going to open the damn thing or stare at the screen all day?" his regular partner, Paramedic Adam Zimmerman, asked from over Matthew's shoulder.

They were only an hour into their shift. After ensuring their ambulance was fully stocked and their gear was in working order, they grabbed coffee and egg sandwiches at a nearby bagel shop and returned to the fire station to await their first call. While eating breakfast, Matthew scrolled through his social media accounts, liking and commenting on several posts, before opening his email app. Now, he couldn't decide whether to tap on the one from the college or wait until after Christmas. If he failed, he'd be miserable for days—not exactly how he wanted to spend the holidays, especially since he would see Del tonight at the homeless shelter, where they would serve food and hand out donated gifts.

The past two weeks with Del had been magical. They'd gone on a couple of dates, played at the club, talked on the phone, and texted whenever they could. Del was a combination of a perfect gentleman, a caring and fun partner, and a sadistic Dom, and Matthew couldn't get enough of him. As far as he could tell, everyone who met Del liked the man. He'd already become friends with several Dominants at the club and joined a few of them for drinks at Donovan's Pub the other night while Matthew was at work.

He was glad that Del would join him and his parents tonight. From their conversations, Matthew knew the other man was also an only child whose mother passed away a few years ago, and he wasn't close to his father. Matthew didn't know why but figured Del would tell him if and when he wanted.

Matthew had always been an open book, but many people weren't. Being a masochistic submissive in the BDSM lifestyle was the only aspect of his life he hid from anyone since coming out to his family and friends during his sophomore year of high school. The only reason for that was most of the vanilla people he knew wouldn't understand it and would assume he was in an abusive relationship with someone. He kept no deep, dark secrets from his friends at The Covenant—nothing he was ashamed of or felt wasn't any of their business.

While he didn't feel Del was hiding something about himself that he was ashamed of, Matthew didn't know everything about him. Okay, they'd only known each other for a short amount of time, so he couldn't have learned everything yet. But it appeared Del wasn't as open as Matthew, which was fine since their relationship was new. Hopefully, the man would share all his secrets with him someday.

Adam nudged Matthew's shoulder. "Come on, Behan. Open it. Or do you want me to?"

The two had been partners for the past four years, ever since Matthew's previous partner was promoted, and they became good friends almost immediately. After knowing Adam for six months, Matthew introduced him to his cousin, Pia. He'd been confident they would be perfect for each other, and he was right. Last year, he was a groomsman at their wedding, and now, their first child was due in March.

"I'll do it. Just give me a minute, Zim." He glanced around. They were the only two people in the kitchen/dining room combo on the station's second floor. The firemen were all downstairs, cleaning the engine and ladder truck, inspecting the equipment, exercising in the gym, or doing whatever.

Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly, then tapped on the email that would reveal his fate. Of course, his scores didn't immediately appear on the phone's small screen, nor did any indication of whether he passed the entire program or not, and he had to scroll down a bit to find the information.

"Ninety-six!" Adam bellowed and grabbed Matthew's shoulders, shaking them hard, before the number registered in his mind. "I fucking told you! I knew you passed! I goddamn knew it!" He released Matthew and ran to the nearby half-wall overlooking the garage. "Behan passed with a fucking ninety-six!"

Cheers, whistles, and applause erupted from below.

"Way to go, Behan!"

"Nice job, man!"

"Congratulations!"

"Drinks are on you next time!"

"Fucking awesome!"

They were a great bunch of men and two women, and if any of them had an issue with his twinkness or sexual orientation, they never showed it. He was always invited to parties and nights out with everyone else. After working with most of them for over five years, he'd earned their respect and even treated several when they'd gotten injured on calls. Two years ago, there'd been one guy who made numerous derogatory statements about Matthew to the others, and a few reported him to the captain, who booted his ass out of the station. The captain's college-aged interracial daughter was a lesbian, and he refused to allow any bullies or bigots on his crew.

Matthew's grin spread, and he couldn't take his gaze off the scores for the written exam and the practicals, which he'd aced as he suspected, afraid they would change if he looked away. He raised his voice to be heard downstairs. "Thanks, everyone!" After a few moments, his shock wore off, and joy and triumph kicked in. He jumped up and danced around the room like a lunatic on speed. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! I did it!"

Adam laughed. "I know!"

"I gotta call . . ." Before he could finish with "my parents and Del," the station's alarm blared, and his and Adam's radios squawked to life with a dispatcher assigning them to a possible heart attack. Well, damn. Work first, then there would be time to celebrate.