Page 75 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

Temple University

Sunday

Morning

A rriving at the university, there was a little more life on the campus that Sunday morning. More of the students were out and about, bundled up as they braved the chilly air. They walked in pairs and groups—likely, heading out to the cafeteria.

It was feeding time at the college, and many of them needed to get some food.

How did they know?

Some of the college kids looked like they’d partied hard the previous night.

Well, they knew how that felt.

Been there.

Done that.

At the dorm, this one was so much easier to access. There were elevators that anyone could access, and it definitely wasn’t co-ed.

How did they know?

Well, it smelled like a men’s locker room inside. The stench of male stinkiness combined with ramen noodles wafted through the halls.

As soon as they smelled the stale piss in the elevator, they opted to walk up to the guy’s room.

No one wanted to be in a closed-in urinal.

“Ahhh, I remember this smell,” Gene admitted. “It smells like college when I went there.”

Blackhawk stared at him.

“Yeah, if you forgot to shower and eat a vegetable,” he stated.

Gene laughed.

“I’ve got bad news for you, Ethan. I wasn’t eating vegetables,” he joked. “I had other things in my mouth as much as possible. We already established I am and was a whore.”

Blackhawk snorted.

Of course, he did.

A midwestern boy in a college?

College was a free-for-all for Ethan, too, at times, and he wasn’t gay. He could only imagine what Gene was doing in his horny youth.

He wasn’t going to complain.

Someone had learned how to be an amazing lover, and Blackhawk wasn’t going to knock that.

EVER.

“What about you?” Gene asked, as they headed up to the fifth floor by way of the stairs.

Ethan glanced over.

“Me? In college?” he asked. “Was I sleeping around? Is that what you want to know?”

He nodded.

“For the most part, I was focused on studying. You know how hyper-focused I get on rising to the top. I wasn’t going to drop the ball when it came to my free education. As for sex…I had plenty of it.”

Gene grinned.

Why wasn’t he shocked?

Ethan was gorgeous and exotic with those sexy cheekbones, and midnight-blue eyes.

“A nerd?” he asked. “You, Mr. Blackhawk? I’m sure that drove the ladies crazy,” he teased.

Blackhawk was amused.

“Not a nerd, per se,” he offered.

Gene clued him in.

“A nerd uses ‘per se’ ,” he admitted. “Just sayin’,” he joked.

That amused Ethan.

It was nice to be with a partner that didn’t feel threatened by his sexual past. Ethan had spent a lot of time trying to prove he was worthy.

Of what, he didn’t know.

“I knew that I had one chance out of that life,” he admitted.

“At eighteen, I left, figured out how to do paperwork damn fast, and got into college. I finished in three years, and got the hell out. I had good grades, and I tested well for the FBI. Sex to me was about getting off and fulfilling those urges. I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I’m not good at them.”

Gene let him talk, but his partner was damn wrong.

He was very good at relationships. They had a good one between them, and he didn’t give himself enough credit.

As usual.

“After college, I moved to DC, and started my life. Before this job, it was all about getting this job. Now, it’s all about keeping this job. I didn’t screw around in college because I knew if I failed, my life would be back on the rez.”

Gene was curious.

“How many people did you sleep with in college?” he asked.

Ethan laughed.

“You want a number?” he asked, pausing on the stairs in the stairwell. “Maybe twenty in four years. Like I said, I had one shot at this.”

Gene kept asking.

“Did you have a girlfriend?”

Blackhawk was amused.

“Yes, on and off. It was nothing serious like what we have. She was nice, and most of the time, we were together because we were in the same class. We had sex sporadically. I guess now, as I look back at it, she was more a booty call than girlfriend.”

Gene heard the tone.

“I was the opposite. I wanted to get laid as much as humanly possible. Good Midwestern boys worked on the farm, not the farmhands.”

Ethan laughed.

“Don’t get me started. I’ll be thinking about you shirtless lifting bales of hay all sweaty and hot.”

Gene grinned.

“Well, yeah. How else was I supposed to get the sexy men to follow me around. I’m not pretty like you, Mr. Blackhawk,” he said, running his fingers over his chiseled cheekbone.

It sent chills down Ethan’s body, right to his dick.

When he licked his lips, Gene felt that to his core. Well, so much for being sexed out.

He.

Was.

Not.

Ethan moved closer to Gene, and since they were between floors, and no one was in the stairwell, he took that moment to be his partner.

In life.

“Did you have a boyfriend in college?” he asked, his body inches from Gene, as he was toe-to-toe with him.

Gene’s whole being went haywire.

The scent of mate, the way he was flirting with him, and how sexy he was…

It turned his libido back on.

“No,” Gene said, being honest. “I didn’t do boyfriend. I did hookups. The last man I tried to have a relationship with didn’t work out. It was before I slept with Captain Guy,” he said.

Ethan listened.

Normally, they didn’t have this conversation. He didn’t know why. They had nothing to hide. Instead, they focused on the present.

His hand was on Gene’s chest, and he could feel the hardness of the Kevlar.

They wore it religiously after what happened with Diesel and Javier Hughes.

“How long were you in that relationship?” Ethan asked, enjoying Gene’s reaction to him.

The big man couldn’t think.

Ethan was too close to him, and all he wanted to do was take his mouth with his, and sink into that kiss.

Somehow, he got it out.

“Six months,” he admitted, his heart racing in his chest. “God. I just want to spend all day kissing you,” he admitted. “I love your mouth.”

The wicked grin crossed his features, and he specifically whipped it out for Gene.

“What’s stopping you?” he asked, moving a little closer to the man he loved.

Gene didn’t have an answer for that, mostly because he couldn’t resist temptation.

Instead, he bridged the gap, and found his mouth with his. That euphoria exploded around them, and they both sank into that mating of mouths.

Everything went still in Gene, and he focused on the kiss. Ethan had a wicked mouth on him, and there wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t grateful for that.

He could do this all day long.

When Ethan slowly broke the kiss, he was against Gene’s body, and he loved every second of it.

“Mr. Cantrell, I think your hand is on my ass,” he said, grinning.

Well, yeah, it was.

That’s where he always wanted it.

“You used that grin on me again. It shuts my brain off,” he admitted.

Well, that was good to know. He was going to bring it out a lot more now that he knew Gene was susceptible to it. He planned on using it to get his man riled up.

“Oh, did I?” he asked.

That made Gene laugh.

“You’re sadistic. Keep doing it. I like it a lot,” Gene admitted, as Ethan took a step backward to give them space.

It was work time.

“You’re my longest relationship,” Gene admitted. “I take pride in that.”

His too.

Well, unless you counted Kaya Cheek, but she was likely banging half the men on the reservation—like his brother.

“I can’t wait for our vacation,” Ethan admitted.

Oh, not as much as he wanted to be there. Gene would give his left nut to be naked in Puerto Rico with Ethan.

“That feeling is mutual, Mr. Blackhawk. Trust me on that. I’d head there right now if we could.”

Gene had high hopes that if Corbin and Will worked out, they might be able to do it alone too.

That would be even better.

When Ethan slipped his fingers into Gene’s hand, it gave the man the chills. As of late, his lover was showing more public displays of affection.

Holding his hand.

Giving him the grin.

Sometimes, he’d even kiss him.

Ethan had come a long way in almost the year they had been dating.

Together, they walked up the stairs, holding hands. At the door to the floor they needed to do the interview, they broke apart to get down to business.

“Later, Ethan,” Gene said.

Oh, Blackhawk knew what he was talking about.

Instead of speaking, he opened the door, and they headed toward the room in Corbin’s notes.

It wasn’t difficult to find the next interview’s door. Only, now, there was a distinct smell coming from inside.

Pot.

Marijuana.

Mary Jane.

Yeah, they knew that smell.

All cops did.

What they also knew was someone was doing more than taking a small toke.

That smelled like a king-sized blunt that made you forget everything but how to inhale.

They stared at each other and knew what was coming. This should be an interesting interview.

“Well, do you want to be good cop or bad cop?” Gene asked. “I’ll let you choose—but only because of that truly spectacular kiss you just gave me.”

He laughed.

“I think we just see how stoned he is. Oh, and we probably shouldn’t do the interview in there. The LAST thing we need is to get high.”

“Again,” Gene stated.

Yeah, exactly.

Knocking on the door, they heard footsteps. Then, someone whispered through the door.

“What’s the password?”

Gene handled this.

“We brought munchies,” he whispered back.

Surprisingly, that worked.

It just showed that when you were on pot, you weren’t thinking about a whole hell of a lot except for snacks.

When the door was opened, Gene grabbed the kid by his tie-dyed shirt, and pulled him into the hall.

That’s when they showed him their badges.

It was crystal clear that the kid wasn’t stoned enough because the fear registered in his eyes as soon as he saw the gold badge with the three letters on it.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered. “I’m fucked. My father is going to kick my ass if I get kicked out of this school too,” he stated.