Comic Book Romance

By Charles Payseur

Calvin Kant is what anyone would want in a reporter -- an excellent typist, a dogged investigator, and an upstanding citizen. Oh, and a superhero. At least, his alter ego, Maxim, is. Fleeing a messy situation at his last job, Cal has arrived in Capital City without much direction. That is, until his new colleague Liang Lu sweeps him into a dangerous assignment at a maximum security supervillain prison. What could go wrong?

Well, a supervillain prison break could leave both of them trapped and in peril with Cal having to juggle his growing attraction to Liang with his need to protect his secret identity. And that mess Cal was running from could catch up with him at exactly the wrong moment, leaving him vulnerable and unprotected. Luckily for him, though, Liang's got more than good looks going for him. But can the two men save the day, and each other, and find their own comic book romance?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Feb 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685503666

Book preview

Comic Book Romance

By Charles Payseur

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2023 Charles Payseur

ISBN 9781685503666

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Cover Design: Anna Tiferet Sikorska

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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Comic Book Romance

By Charles Payseur

Cal looked up at the Capital City Chronicle newspaper’s building and took a deep breath. Peering at the entrance, which teemed with activity, he pushed his glasses back up from where they had slid down the bridge of his nose. In his other hand, he carried a briefcase with all the essentials: tablet loaded with notes for the articles he had been writing before the move, full pack of protein bars, old-fashioned notepad and pen for when he wanted to look more like how people imagined a reporter to be, and, of course, a spare uniform secreted away in the briefcase’s lining, in case he had to deal with any potentially world-ending threats.

Steeling himself against the press of bodies, he waded into the crowd surrounding the entrance. It wasn’t that he hated people. Not really. He loved the bustle of a newsroom, the noise and the chaos that meant the world was alive and moving. It reminded him of what he appreciated most about people: their eagerness, their drive. It was just that, as Calvin Kant, mild-mannered reporter, he had to be especially careful not to accidentally hip check someone through a wall, or sigh too loud and blow over a food stand. And amid the turmoil of activity that he craved, he was most at risk of someone figuring out he wasn’t just Calvin Kant, but also Maxim, one of the most famous superheroes in the world.

He navigated the crowd without incident, aiming himself past reception and toward the bullpen. It was his first time inside the building, but the layout was similar to the Metro City Metropolitan newspaper. Plus he could hear the collective profanity of a dozen reporters furiously trying to make the morning deadline for the lunchtime online release. The bullpen was organized like a factory: desks arrayed in chaotic lines, while the editor-in-chief’s office sat above it all, separated by a staircase with a great wall of tinted glass so those below could never tell if they were being watched.

First order of business: introduce himself to his new boss. He’d spent years in Metro City, covering politics mostly, and thanks to his Maxim-um speed, he was able to keep up with even the tightest of deadlines. Getting a job at the Chronicle hadn’t been too difficult, especially since the editor-in-chief, Peri Blanc, had only been too happy to steal a reporter from their Metro City rival, J. Janus Jemisin. Those two were fiercely competitive, as they were both from the same graduating class of Howard University, nonbinary, and had reputations for being relentless in the pursuit of the biggest stories. Cal remembered how JJ had given the entire staff a bonus when they were able to scoop the Capital City bridge scandal right out from under the Chronicle’s nose. He also remembered how JJ had nearly fired the entire sports team when reporters from the Chronicle broke the story on the blood-doping scandal with the Metro City baseball team, the Racers.

Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, Cal straightened his shirt and almost missed the movement to his side as a figure dashed around him and up the stairs.

Sorry, fresh meat, the person said, and Cal caught