“Andwhat’s that?” Ethan dared to ask.
“You.Me. A couple. I want more, Ethan. I want you to pull your head out of your assand admit that you’re fucking gay. No matter how much you hide, it won’t changeit. And I’m tired of being your plaything.”
Soit would seem they had entirely different views of the situation and as much asEthan wanted to stand back and take Blake’s bullshit, he couldn’t. Not today.
“Youthink you know me?” Ethan barked. “You think I keep my head down because Idon’t accept the fact that I’m gay? Well, you’re about as perceptive as afucking rock, Blake. I keep my head down because I don’t want people in mybusiness.”
“Well,I’m tired of you hiding me.”
Ethanlaughed without mirth. “Hiding you? Is that what you think I’m doing? Care toexplain what people see when you fucking follow me everywhere? Do you thinkthey don’t know? Do you think they can’t figure it out? I’m not naïve enough tobelieve that, Blake. But I can tell you this, we aren’t together. I thought youunderstood that going in. I’m not looking for anything more. And I don’t wantto share my private life with anyone. At. All.”
“Well,I want more,” Blake stated, his eyes narrowed to slits. “I fucking want more.And if you’re not gonna give it to me, I’ll just find it elsewhere.”
“Fantasticidea,” Ethan said calmly, all of the anger draining out of him.
Forthe months that he’d been seeing Blake, they’d had sex, but not once had Blakeever attempted to get to know him. He didn’t ask him questions, didn’t try tounderstand him. And despite Blake’s accusations, Ethan wasn’t interested in himfor anything more because the connection wasn’t there.
“Ishould,” Blake yelled, his temper igniting worse than Ethan had ever seen it.“You’re right. I’m done. Done playing with you. I’m done spending time in yourfucking closet. You want me, prove it. Come out, Ethan. Admit to the world thatyou’re gay. That you’re proud of who you are.”
Ethancouldn’t even come up with a response.
“Stopbeing a fucking pussy, Ethan. Admit it to everyone, or we’re done.”
“Lookslike we’re done,” Ethan said softly, his hands balled into fists at his side.“Thanks for the good time,” Ethan added for good measure, immediatelyregretting the statement.
“Goodtime? Is that what you thought it was? It was pathetic, Ethan. Fucking pathetic.”
Ethannodded, moving away from Blake. He knew what Blake was trying to do. He waspushing him, and Ethan’s thread on his anger was frayed. If he let him keep on,he’d snap, and that was the last thing either of them needed.
“I’mdone,” Blake repeated, sounding defeated. “I quit. As soon as you realize thatI’m the best you’ll ever have, the only man who will tolerate your bullshit,you’ll be back.”
Ethansucked in a breath. He’d heard it all before. Blake was verbally abusive whenhe didn’t get his way, but Ethan had never considered them a couple, so he’dalways been able to ignore it. Now… This… this was beyond anything he could’vepredicted.
Ethantook a deep breath, forced himself to focus on the road. He was grateful hedidn’t have to deal with that anymore.
Forthe last two weeks, he had enjoyed not having someone up his ass about everymove he made. That was only one of the things about Blake that irritated him.The man was possessive. Always wanting to know where he was going, who he waswith, who he might run into. It had been suffocating.
Andnow Blake was showing his true colors, following him like some creepy stalker. Ethanhad no doubt that Blake was going to follow him all the way to Dillinger’s.There wasn’t anything he could do about it either. It wasn’t like Coyote Ridgewas big enough that he could hide and since Dillinger Automotive was just offof Main Street, the flatbed would be a little noticeable.
Turningon the radio, Ethan tried to ignore the black Ford now just a couple of carlengths behind him. When he braked at the four way stop just before downtown,he considered getting out of his truck and telling Blake to go home. He didn’t.
Ifnothing else, he figured Blake was about to learn a lesson. He knew it wasn’tgoing to go well once Blake realized Ethan was going to help Beau out, but he couldn’tvery well leave Beau stranded. After all, Ethan was doing Zane a favor. NotBeau.
Maybehe’d be lucky and Blake would get pissed off and leave. He doubted it, but itwas the only thing he could hope for at that point.
Chapter Five
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Whilehe waited for Zane to arrive, Beau transferred the tools he had in hisroll-around over to the main toolbox and proceeded to load his personal itemsinto his own truck. He had just finished hefting the empty roll-around into thebed of his truck while Ralph and Ricky tracked his every move. The only thingleft was his toolbox, which he had locked in order to keep Ricky out of hisshit. Beau was grateful when he heard the sound of the flatbed’s diesel engineas it pulled into the parking lot.
Consideringhe had told Zane what he needed, he wasn’t surprised to see the black F650backing through the gate slowly, getting closer to the bay doors. Unlocking thewheels, Beau rolled the heavy toolbox as far as he could, desperately wantingto get out of there as quickly as possible. As it was, he’d already had tostall for a solid fifteen minutes because, as usual, Zane was late.
Offeringa few hand signals for direction, Beau helped Zane back the truck in so thatthe bed would lower just outside the bay door. Once the truck was parked, Beaulaunched himself onto the bed in order to retrieve the winch cable.
Lessthan a minute later, Beau hopped back down and took it upon himself to headover to the controls that would lower the bed to the ground. No reason to waitfor Zane because he was ready to get the hell out of there. Listening to Rickywhine like a fucking girl for the last twenty minutes had made him want to stabsomething into his ears just to make the obnoxious sound go away.
Beauwasn’t paying attention to anything around him, with the exception of the flatbedsliding back and dropping down so that he could get the toolbox winched up ontoit. The minutes seemed to tick by slowly while he waited with Ricky’s beadyeyes boring into him from across the shop. Once the bed was down, Beau steppedover to the storage compartment to retrieve the tie straps when Ethan camearound from the side of the truck.
