Chapter 14
Rory had an investor and the terms from Mr Gilbert were rather simple. It was a better deal than the one Bennington had proposed which had required a meeting with his rather scary lawyers and large contracts that he had spent the last two days reading and re-reading until he wasn’t sure what they said.
Instead, with Mr Gilbert, he would retain his land, and the coal business would be a joint venture between himself and Mr Gilbert—the new coal business would even pay a lease to him for the use of the land—with Mr Gilbert handpicking the employees who would run the show. As part of that, Rory would agree to employ every woman that Mr Gilbert sent north to him. Mr Gilbert and his friends ran a charity that saved women from abusive situations and found them new lives. It would help Rory and it would give Mr Gilbert’s charity another safe place for women in need to escape to, and of course, as Mr Gilbert said, there was good money in coal, so it was a good investment too.
He should be relaxed.
Malcolm rested his hand on Rory’s thigh under the table and the glorious heaviness of his fist was exactly what Rory needed. What he craved.
“My Lord, there’s a problem with the dessert that we need to sort out,” Mr Gilbert declared.
“There is?” Lord Lawndry looked incredibly confused, and then Mr Gilbert winked.
“Come with me.”
How Mr Gilbert knew that Rory needed a moment alone with Malcolm was a mystery, and one he was incredibly grateful for. As the pair left the dining room, the tense air in his lungs slowly eased out on a long sigh.
“He’s an interesting—”
“Will you?” Rory paused as he spoke at the same time as Malcolm. “Who is interesting?”
“Mr Gilbert.”
“Yes, he has an intuition about people that is finely tuned. He understood my problem immediately and outlined a resolution. The only thing is that I will need a manager to help me on site. I don’t have the skills required. Too many of my formative years were spent boxing.” He tried to laugh, at himself, but it came out strangled. Mr Gilbert would pick most of the management team, he was allowed to bring one person to the team, and then the locals would form much of the labour which was the entire point of the enterprise; to give the locals work after everything had been lost when after the salt crash.
“Luckily I have spent years doing project management.”
Rory blinked. “You want the job?”
Malcolm grazed his hand along Rory’s thigh. “I have the skills, and I’d like to spend some time getting to know you.”
Rory stared at Malcolm, at the way his skin glowed with a flush and his eyes were slightly wider, and how the shake in his hand, still resting on Rory’s thigh, was more of a tremble.
“You are nervous?”
“Yes.” Malcolm’s giant chest rose and fell. “I have a good job here, friends, a comfortable life, and I’d be risking all of that to come and work for you.”
“You’d be working for Mr Gilbert, really, given the way he’s structured the new business.” Rory didn’t bring expertise, only land. “He is doing the employment, so you’d need to talk to him about it.”
Malcolm tilted his head. “Do you not want me to come?”
“I do.” Rory’s heart galloped and damnation, he felt alive. “I really do. I would also like to spend time getting to know you.” He, all of a sudden, knew he could have what Mr Gilbert and Lord Lawndry had, and what Mr Mardin and Lord Bennington had. They were a perfect match in bed sport and perhaps—hopefully—a better match for a life lived together.
“Then you’d better put in a good word for me with the owners, and get me a decent job on this new project of yours.” Malcolm frowned.
“And if it doesn’t work out, I need to know that you are going to have a plan and somewhere to go.” Rory couldn’t have Malcolm’s wellbeing and finances tied to Rory. It was unequal and unfair and might mean he’d stayed when he didn’t want to stay anymore.
“What do you mean?”
Rory reached up and brushed his fingers over Malcolm’s jaw. “I know that good things can end badly—”
“Like your fight with Johnson.”
“Yes. It destroyed me for a long time and I don’t want...” He paused. “I can’t control the future and I need to know that if we do this, that you are free to walk away at any time. That if things go badly that you’ll still have a future. I want this set up so that I know you are staying for me, and not because you have no other options.”
Malcolm squeezed his thigh. “Thank you. Mixing a job and this, us, is a big risk.”
“I think it will be worth the risk.”
“Does this mean you want me?” Malcolm asked.
“Yes.” It was that simple, and he leaned over to kiss him.
“When dinner is over, will you come to my rooms?”
The answer was incredibly easy. “Yes. Tonight and every night.” Rory kissed Malcolm and it was everything, a glorious homecoming of a kiss, and it went on and on until someone cleared their throat.
“Shall we dine? Cook doesn’t want the food ruined by waiting anymore.” It was the butler, whose presence made more sense now that Rory knew about Mr Gilbert’s charitable works. Dinner was a pleasant affair. Mr Gilbert was a fine conversationalist and he indulged Lord Lawndry’s occasional interjections that he couldn’t believe Malcolm was giving up horology to go and run a coal mine.
“There’s a big future in coal.”
And finally, Rory and Malcolm, stomachs full and hearts happy, grabbed a hackney cab back to Malcolm’s rooms.
Once they were safely inside where no one could see them, where no one would remark on two men staring hungrily at each other, Malcolm apologised for the size of his room.
“I like it,” Rory said.
“Why?” Malcolm frowned.
“The small room makes you seem even bigger. The Colossus filling the whole space, like the champion you are.”
Malcolm shook his head but was smiling. “What nonsense. You are a champion too.”
“Yes.” He was. And one day he’d be able to own that title without the taint of his last fight, or maybe he wouldn’t but he was here with someone who understood the complexity that came with his career.
“Are we really going to do this?" Malcolm asked.
“This being sex right now, because I hope so.”
Malcolm smiled. “Definitely that. And also ... Are we going to live together and run a business?”
“Yes. My castle is big enough that if it doesn’t work out, then we’ll be able to avoid each other while still running the business.”
Malcolm reached up and cradled his face. “Stop being so negative. Not everything ends in disaster.”
“I hope you are correct.”
“I have enough hope for both of us.” God, this man would humble him forever with statements like that, and so Rory did the only thing he could. He leaned down and kissed Malcolm and poured all the sentiment that he was still only beginning to understand into the kiss. He ran his hands over The Colossus’s broad shoulders, over his heavy muscles and rounded stomach formed from years of sitting behind a desk, and he worshipped Malcolm with his hands and his mouth, to try and say all the things he needed to say.
“Will you come for me?” Malcolm whispered in his ear, and Rory shivered.
“Yes.” And he wanted to know one more thing. “How did you know to ask?”
“I can feel you thinking too much. I can feel you worrying about what might go wrong, and I want to you think about what can go well instead. I want you to get undressed, get on my bed and show me The Long Laird in all your glory and I want you to forget everything else and come for me.”
“For my champion.” Rory’s mind focused on Malcolm. Having a task made it easier to get out of his own head and into the moment and damned if that wasn’t the loveliest gift that Malcolm had given him. He didn’t need declarations of love, or solutions to his problems – although he had those now – he had Malcolm who saw him, the real him, not the Champion, not the broken man dragged through the courts, not the man who couldn’t breathe when he smelled the scents of leather and sweat. Malcolm saw all of that and accepted it as part of his true self, and it was for that reason that Rory had fallen in love.
“Rory. Stop thinking.” Malcolm pushed him onto the bed and Rory smiled.
“I think I could love you.”
“I know. I feel the same way. I wouldn’t give up my life here in London for just anyone.”
Rory frowned. “But you are unhappy in your job.”
“Sometimes.” Malcolm nodded. “It’s a job with security and sure, it has some challenges, but I’ll always have those, wherever I go simply because of who I am. I’m giving up guaranteed security to risk being with you in a place I’ve never even visited.”
When it was put like that, Rory had only one question. “Why?”
“Because I think you are worth taking a chance for.”
Rory jumped to his feet and wrapped himself around Malcolm, pressing kisses everywhere. “Thank you. I am honoured.”
“As Tommy would say, now it’s up to you to show me that the risk is worth it.”
There was something clinical about the way Malcolm said that, as if he hadn’t quite leaped into love yet, but that didn’t bother Rory. Odd, noticing that would’ve bothered him in anyone else, but Malcolm’s actions spoke louder than his cautious words. He was here, The Colossus, big and real and taking a chance for Rory. Malcolm’s choice to come north with him and work with him was a giant leap of faith and Rory was determined to honour it. Rory sank to his knees, unbuttoning Malcolm’s fall to access his broad cock and using his hands and mouth to say all the things that threatened to burst out of his chest. How he wanted to hold Malcolm forever, and be held by him, how he appreciated being cared for by him in moments of crisis, and especially...
“I will spend my days loving you.” Rory knew this would work out, despite it being only a few days since they’d met, because Malcolm had seen him at his worst and he’d protected him. Rory was the one who had the most learning to do, the most to give as they moved into the next stage of their life together. Malcolm was a complicated, interesting man, and it would take a lifetime to discover everything about him. Until then, it was easy. He slid his mouth over Malcolm’s cock and worshipped the man until he came. For his Champion.