Chapter Seventeen #2
They’d lost their damn minds.
Clearly.
* * * The Ravensmire Castle * * *
In Town
Not Far Away
Afternoon
When the plane landed, he’d gone to the ONLY town nearby the airport.
A part of Riley believed he was chasing his tail, but he needed to see his lover again.
The whole flight there, he’d been rehearsing his plan to get him back, and he knew it would work.
All he had to do was get him alone, seduce him, and then talk him back into his life.
And if he said no, he’d be mean.
A guy had to do what a guy had to do.
Right?
Only, now that he was in the town, he wasn’t sure how to go about this. Then, it hit him. He was a reporter, or was one, so just ask questions.
The closest place where people were congregated was a pub not far from where he parked his rental. Going in, it wasn’t too busy.
As he sat at the bar, he saw the special was fish and chips, so he opted to get that.
“There’s a lot of Americans here lately,” the bartenders said, walking away to put in his order.
That caught his attention.
The man not far away was nursing a pint, and watching him.
“Hey,” he said.
The man nodded.
“Are you with the other Americans?” he asked. “Two just left, and there seems to be so many running around.”
That might be who he was looking for after all. This was a small village, and off the beaten path. This would be the ideal place Michael would go hide.
He’d bet on it.
“Yeah, I’m supposed to meet them, but I’m a little lost. If I show you a picture of one, can you tell me if he’s been in?”
The man pointed at his beer.
“If you pay for my round,” he said.
Riley hoped this was worth it. He wasn’t rich—like Michael—especially now that he’d lost his job.
Pulling out his phone, he showed the man a picture of him and Michael together.
“Nah, he wasn’t in today. He was in last night. He got mad at me in the bathroom.”
He lifted a brow.
“Why?” he asked, as he drank his own beer.
The man was to the point.
“I went in there to get the name off the wall of this whore. He takes dick for anyone in the village. He nearly throttled me over it.”
He blinked.
“Really?” he asked. “That doesn’t sound like him,” he stated.
The man nodded.
“It was him. He told me to never call him, and to mind my manners. Then, he scraped the number off the wall.”
Another man came over.
“Yeah, he must be a friend of Graham’s,” he said, sitting down next to his friend.
That name registered.
Oh, and it hit hard.
“Graham?” he asked.
The second man nodded.
“Yeah, the village whore,” he said. “The man must know him or something. When he left here, he headed toward the castle where the whore lives.”
What the hell was this?
Was his man out of his damn mind?
Sleeping with whores?
On top of that, he knew there was a guy from Michael’s past by that name.
He had a ‘G’ tattoo on his thigh.
This had better not be the same Graham.
Oh, shit.
“Do you know how I can reach him?” he asked. “Not the man who threatened you, but the whore?”
He laughed.
“If you do, the big man will likely beat your face in,” the second guy admitted. “He wasn’t playing.”
Riley was getting pissed.
“Do you have his number? Or can I just go up to the castle?”
They both laughed.
“Oh, you can go up, but it’s surrounded by a gate, and you’ll never get in.”
Riley strummed his fingers on the bar top. Had his fiancé come back here to rekindle his relationship with the man he’d broken up with years ago?
Did he have someone on the side?
He did travel a lot with the Blackhawks.
When his fish was put down, he began eating, thinking about how he could get the other man alone.
Just to talk.
Well, that was a lie. He wanted to give him a warning, and keep him away from his man.
Michael belonged to him.
They would be getting married.
SOON.
All he had to do was make him see that this was ridiculous.
Glancing over, he saw the two men.
“How about this?” he said, sweetening the pot as he came up with a plan. “I need to confront the whore because the other man is my fiancé.”
They both laughed.
“Oh, your boy is playing with some cum dumpster. You might want to call that wedding off. I will say though, he’s a good fuck. He lets you do whatever to him.”
Honestly, Riley didn’t care.
“I’ll pay you each one hundred dollars to help me get him into town later tonight, so we can talk. After, you can have him.”
Both men lifted their brows.
“Have him?” the first one asked.
He nodded.
“Fuck him, abuse him, and do whatever you want to him. Get your friends together. I don’t care. I just need him away from my man.”
Both men said nothing.
“Three hundred each.”
And that made them way more willing to help.
“You have the number, right?” he asked.
They both nodded.
“Then, you help me get him here, and you can fuck him all you want. I just want him to come here alone so I can talk to him.”
And that wasn’t what he wanted.
No.
He wanted to watch the two men destroy this Graham guy for daring to get his fiancé’s attention.
But he’d meant what he said.
They could do whatever they wanted with him. That didn’t matter.
Because the trash took itself out.
And it would.
Again.
* * * The Ravensmire Castle * * *
The Castle
Five P.M.
When he woke up, Graham nearly panicked. The bed beside him was empty, and Michael was gone.
It took him a second to figure out that it wasn’t a dream.
How did he know?
He had the shiny gold band with the two stones in it on his finger.
Immediately, he calmed down.
He recalled them falling asleep after some truly magnificent sex. If he remembered correctly, he knew where Michael would be.
After sex, someone liked some food.
So, he got up, found some clothes, and looked around. Both of their kilts were on the chair, folded neatly. Someone had tidied up, and he knew who that would be.
His man.
“I have a husband,” he whispered, giddily. “And it’s D’Artangnan.”
He did a jig, shook his ass, and then went to go find the man he loved.
As he was walking down the stairs, he heard pots and pans in the kitchen, and could smell food.
And he knew what he was making.
Graham jogged the rest of the way down the stone staircase, and into the kitchen.
At the stove, D’Artangnan was stirring something in a pot, and flipping something in a pan.
“Well, well, well, the grilled cheese and tomato-soup bandit has struck again.”
He began laughing.
“I’m predictable, huh?” he asked.
Oh, he was.
When Graham reached his side, he stopped stirring to pull him into his body and kiss him.
It was heated, and there was plenty of tongue.
Yeah, marriage was a good thing, and Graham knew it. He was never getting off of this train.
“Baby,” Michael said, breaking the kiss. “You make me want to go back to bed.”
Graham cupped him through his jeans, and Michael wasn’t lying.
That made him giddy.
This was for him.
“Well, I mean, we can. Someone left me in bed,” he stated.
Michael set him free to turn off the soup. After sex, he’d slept a bit, until he heard some doors slamming in the castle.
That woke him.
After going to investigate, and finding nothing, he opted to make food.
Everyone else had likely eaten in town, but he and Graham hadn’t.
Unless you counted swallowing to be nutrition. So, he’d been compelled to make something he always did when they were younger.
“I haven’t had grilled cheese and tomato soup in a long time,” Graham admitted.
He couldn’t.
It made him think of D’Artangnan, but now, he could have both.
“Well, I was hungry, and I knew you needed to eat. You’ve lost weight,” he stated. “I like my man with some meat on the bone,” he said, slapping him on the ass.
Graham actually laughed.
It was hard to eat when you were laying flat on your back at the bottom of the barrel.
“I could eat,” he admitted, wrapping his arms around Michael’s waist and resting his face against his shoulder.
He felt so good.
This was a miracle.
“Why did you get up?” he asked. “Just for food?”
The man shook his head.
“No, the castle is haunted. Someone was slamming doors. I got up to investigate. Imagine how weird I looked trying to surprise a ghost.”
He laughed.
Honestly, at some point, you got accustomed to it, and didn’t pay it any attention.
He was at that point.
“Want to eat?”
Did he?
Absolutely.
As Michael filled bowls with soup, Graham carried them to the counter and dug out some silverware. He met his man there with a plate full of grilled cheese sandwiches.
Someone was very hungry.
“Eat up,” he said, sitting beside him and placing his big hand on Graham’s thigh.
It was so peaceful.
When both men continued eating, Graham was thinking about doing this all the time, and then that made him think about the pink elephant in the room.
Where would they go?
He really loved his job, and he didn’t want to leave Scotland, but he would if D’Artangnan needed to go back. He’d already dropped the ball in their relationship, and he wasn’t doing that again.
PASS.
“So, do we talk about what we’re going to do now that we’re married? Are we staying or going? We both have jobs, and they are miles apart.”
He was aware.
And Michael had been thinking about it.
They were going to have to work this out before long because he did have a job. While he told Elizabeth he didn’t think he was coming back, that was making an assumption. This was a couple decision.
“Well, we’re married now. That has to be something we discuss as partners. What do you want to do?” he asked.
He was to the point.
“I have a reputation here. While I love it, and I want to be here in this castle, I know that being seen with me is going to be embarrassing. I’ve fucked a lot of men here.”
Michael put his sandwich down, and turned to face him.
“Are you going to fuck anyone while we’re married?” he asked.
Graham gasped.
“NO!”
Michael was to the point.
“Then, your past isn’t going to embarrass me. If you cheat on me, that’s going to embarrass me. We both have pasts, Graham. Hell! My ex is a little bit crazy. He sent so many flowers to the Blackhawk house, and the FBI buildings…”