Page 51 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

“What?” he asked.

Ethan was to the point.

“If someone said that about me, or said I was beneath you and you were dating down, what would you do?”

He was honest.

“I’d beat their faces to a bloody pulp and enjoy every single second of it.”

Clearly, Gene didn’t get it.

“But you can say it about yourself and think that I should sit here and accept that?”

Uh-oh.

Ethan wasn’t done.

“What you just said about you, and then about me, puts an exorbitant amount of pressure on me. Remember when I told you that I loved your body as it is? When I told you that you were perfect?”

He nodded slowly, waiting for the pitfall.

“Then why would you put that pressure on me. What if I gained weight, or I fell on my face and was hideous? Would that change us?”

Gene laughed.

“Ethan.”

He was done.

Blackhawk needed a few minutes to calm the fuck down before he lost his temper. It was a slippery slope down, and he was about ready to slide.

Opening the door, Ethan got out, and Gene stared in confusion.

“What are you doing?” he asked, but all he got back was a door slammed in his face.

Oh, shit.

Was his man going to walk to the hotel?

Gene pulled back out onto the main road, and as Ethan walked down the street, alone and in the dark, Gene followed, trying to get him back in the vehicle.

He rolled the window down.

“Babe!”

Ethan ignored him.

“EJ! Come on! It’s cold. I was just making a statement of true facts.”

Ethan flipped him off.

Gene gasped.

“Did you just give me the bird?” he asked, shocked because Ethan didn’t do that to him ever. That told Gene he was hella angry with him.

“EJ!”

Oh, and for Gene, it got worse.

Ethan walked up to a few women who were clearly on the stroll. When he approached them, they checked him out, saw the gun and badge, and looked worried.

“Ladies, can I bother you for a minute?” Ethan asked, knowing they’d help him. They were eyeing up his badge, and he was about to prove a point.

The one hooker looked nervous.

“We were just hanging out and talking,” she said, looking around for more cops.

“Yeah, sure. I’m not in Vice. You can calm down. I’m a Fed and I work homicides.”

That seemed to help.

“Okay, what do you need?” another woman asked.

Gene didn’t know what his partner was doing but he wasn’t happy.

That was for damn sure.

Hookers got mean if you threatened them, and Gene didn’t want to have to fight off a gaggle of prostitutes. They’d end up on the news with his luck.

Ethan pointed.

“See the man tailing me in that Mustang?” he asked.

They all looked over.

“Yeah, we see him.”

Ethan went there.

“I need for him to understand something, and I need another point of view.”

They didn’t seem bothered. In fact, they looked intrigued.

“Okay, my dude. Where are you taking this?” the redheaded hooker asked, snapping her gum.

So, Ethan started asking questions.

“When you’re not hooking up with random men, what kind of a guy do you prefer?” he asked. “What type of guy gets you giggly? You know…if you were in a committed relationship.”

The ladies crouched down to stare into the car, and Gene was horrified.

“He’d do,” the blonde said. “He’s got big hands. I bet they could spank me good.”

Gene couldn’t believe any of this. Was his man insane?

“I like a cuddly one,” the one hooker said. “You know, a guy you can hold onto. Not some skinny dude,” she said, checking out Ethan’s ass. “I like some handles to hold onto. No offense.”

He wasn’t offended.

“None taken. I appreciate your honesty,” he stated.

The brunette was leaning on the Mustang.

“Most guys look like him. All the guys I’ve met like you are gym rats. They stare in the mirror and count their abs,” she admitted. “I bet you have a six pack, pretty boy,” she said.

He lifted his shirt, and she nodded.

“Yep. High-maintenance dudes aren’t as hot as big men with dad bods.”

Gene sputtered.

“Dad bods?” he asked. “What the fuck?”

The redheaded hooker grinned.

“It’s true. We want a man who’ll eat tacos at three in the morning. You don’t look like you like to eat,” she said to the man outside of the car.

Ethan loved food.

He just had a fast metabolism, but she wasn’t wrong. He loved eating ice cream with Gene at three in the morning after sex and cuddling.

The African American hooker tapped her fingers on the roof of the Mustang.

“We like men with meat on their bones. The bigger the cushion, the better the pushin’,” she admitted. “He looks like he can fuck. Wanna try it out, big boy?”

Gene.

Was.

Horrified.

Oh, where did he start with this one?

“Uh, I’m gay, and he’s my boyfriend, but thanks, I think,” he said.

The blonde laughed.

“I like a big daddy. You know, where you can sit in his lap, and he can cuddle you. You look like you enjoy cuddling.”

Ethan smiled.

“He does, but here’s the thing. He believes he’s not sexy. Can one of you tell him he is?”

They all leaned into the window, or tried.

“Yeah, he’s sexy.”

Jesus.

Christ.

“Ethan, we’ve had our fun. I get it.”

No, he didn’t get it.

Blackhawk wasn’t done.

“He’s afraid that I’m going to fall out of love with him and run away with a woman,” he stated, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet and a fifty. “I need one of you to kiss me.”

Gene was appalled.

“EJ!”

He pointed at him.

“ NO ! You think that some random woman is going to walk up to me, kiss me, and I’m going to suddenly stop liking your dick. So I’m going to show you how ridiculous that is! I’m going to kiss one of them, and you’ll see I’m not an idiot.”

The pretty hooker held out her hand.

“For fifty, I’ll give you more than a kiss. That’s usually head too. He can watch if that’s his kink.”

Gene sputtered.

The redhead laughed and leaned on the door of the Mustang like she was trying to pick up a John.

“If your man is going to kiss a bunch of hookers to try and prove he loves you, that’s all kinds of crazy. He definitely loves you. Do you know where we put our mouths?”

Yeah, Gene did, and that was why he was horrified.

He tried to mitigate this crazy as best he could. It was insane.

“EJ, get in the car,” he stated.

Only, Ethan wasn’t going to until Gene got the whole picture. He could talk to a bunch of women, especially ones where sex was an absolute given, and he still wouldn’t cheat or give him up.

He wasn’t a whore.

“He’s afraid I’m going to go undercover on a date and decide that I prefer women. He’s the first guy I’ve ever been with, and the only other person I’ve said I love you to. I don’t know how to make him understand how HUGE that is.”

The one hooker sighed.

“Baby, men ain’t shit. Their dogs ain’t shit, and their sorry-ass dicks really ain’t shit. He should know that you wouldn’t do that. I mean, I’m standing here with my knockers out, and you haven’t looked once. They are fabulous.”

Gene had to have fallen and hit his head. That was the ONLY explanation for this.

“So the consensus is that all of you would rather have sex with him, than me, correct?”

They nodded.

“I mean, you’re pretty, but I’d rather jump his bones,” the blonde said, pointing at Gene. “I like a big man with a big dick,” she said, dropping her arm over Ethan’s shoulders. “What size shoe is he?”

Gene stared with his mouth open.

Why did he feel so dirty?

Oh, he knew.

The HOOKERS.

“He’s a sixteen,” he admitted.

All the ladies giggled as the one held out her hand and showed him the length of the ideal dick. Only, Ethan spread her hands apart a little more.

“Jesus Christ! Ethan Jackson Blackhawk! Leave the nice ladies of the night alone, and GET BACK IN !”

He was ignored.

It was this or have a fight, and Ethan was trying to be a good partner and not make Gene do battle with his fears every single day. The demons were in his mind, screaming that Gene was looking for an escape route because that was the real issue, and he just didn’t want to tell him.

So, he battled for both of them.

“I love his dick,” Ethan said. “I love his heart, and I love when he cuddles with me. His chest hair feels amazing against my chest or back.”

Two of the women sighed.

“I miss fucking a bear. Dibs on the first one tonight,” the brunette said.

Gene just rested his forehead on the steering wheel. This was the weirdest moment of his life, and that was saying a lot since he was a Fed.

“Me too,” Blackhawk said.

Gene gave up.

Ethan may have approached this being absolutely insane, but he got the point. Ethan loved him, and his worries were unfounded. He’d interacted with a bunch of women, and he didn’t even check them out.

“Okay, Ethan. I get it. I’m an idiot.”

Blackhawk focused on the women.

“Thank you for your help. Go get something warm to drink,” he said, handing them the fifty.

Only, he didn’t get in the vehicle. Instead, he kept walking because his temper was still there. What he wanted was his partner to believe in him.

It was hard enough not believing in himself.

The one hooker shook her head as she leaned on the door. The whole time, Gene watched Ethan walking away.

“He’s a good one. You can tell. People don’t see us, and no one talks to us or buys us coffee on a cold snowy night. It’s all about the sex. He must love you. My tits are out for the attention, and he was a gentleman.”

Gene saw that.

Hell!

Everyone in the whole city could see her tits out at that point, and it was clear that she was cold.

When his lover kept walking, Gene had to do something drastic, and since this was all about doing crazy things, apparently, to show love, he parked right in front of the hookers, and got out. Then, he walked down the sidewalk, catching up to Ethan.

“EJ.”

He ignored him.

Well, Gene took things into his own hands. He grabbed him by the back of the coat, turned him around, and put him over his shoulder.

The hookers cheered.

Then, Gene walked him back to the car, opened the door, and put Ethan on his feet.

“Get in the goddamn car, Ethan Jackson Blackhawk,” he said.

Ethan did.

When he was in the car, Gene nodded.

“Thank you, Ladies.”