Chapter 14
“Love, I do not wish to leave you.” Trinli giggles, pumping her thighs as she rides me in the early morning light. Her breasts bounce, the sweet little nipples still wet from my mouth. I thumb her clit, not wanting to rush but knowing the children will be up soon and I must be at work.
We have been married for almost eight months.
I have listened to men complain about the demands of their wives, their children.
They were not married to Trinli. Jakob, Riordan, Gabriel and little Noemi were not their children.
I married my best friend. Our existence is not easy, it is not designed to be, however, life with Trinli and the babes is as easy as breathing.
She is my true partner, which makes working through the difficulties this world guarantees less daunting.
There is nothing we cannot figure out side by side.
Holding her in my arms as we slumber is a peace I never knew existed.
Making love to her is a daily revelation.
Watching the babes change, grow, and explore brings me great joy.
I have been searching my whole life for this.
For her. For them. It pains me to think of her life before I found her, but she assures me regularly, everything needed to play out exactly as it did so that we could find one another.
True happiness isn’t something handed to you, it is something you earn.
“Paddy,” she whispers my name, her tone dripping with overwhelming arousal.
She is close to finishing, I can feel it in the constriction of her quim, the way her nails dig into my chest, and her rhythm stutters.
“Breed me. I want to be completely yours.” I thought I felt something different this morning.
I didn’t want to ruin the moment by questioning her.
She removed her diaphragm. To have a child with me.
My chest burns as my heart hammers, my bollocks tight with my seed, ready to fill her up and brand her from the inside out.
She is mine and she wants the world to know it by the swelling of my babe in her belly.
With a low growl, I bend my knees behind her for leverage and fuck up into her with everything I have. My thumb rubs insistently across her clit, my free hand gripping her hip so hard, my fingers sink into the soft flesh.
“Touch yourself, a mhuirnin, pinch and tug your tits for me. Take your pleasure and give me mine.” She rolls her body faster and faster on top of me, taking me so deep.
Her fingers pluck her nipples, her back arching, her pussy pulsing and spasming, milking me.
Moments later, her body trembles, a high-pitched keen rending the air as she floods my lap with her release.
I cease fighting for control, and with both hands on her hips, I pull her down as I drive up until I come with a bellow.
In the moments of charged silence that follows, her chest against mine as we catch our breath, I hear the children stirring from their beds in the other room.
Because of my overman position with Magnus Mining, I was afforded a larger home with two separate bedrooms. It was a good day when I filled the empty space with my sons and daughter, while their mother filled my empty bed.
Good became great when Trinli and I made love the first night they were all here and we didn’t have to worry about little eyes and ears.
“Husband, you are going to be late. Freshen up, I will start your tea.”
“Thank ye, Wife.” Crudely, I cup her slit from behind, grinning when my leaking seed coats my palm.
“Perhaps you should delay your own freshening up and give my spunk time to settle.” Her body shakes as she laughs, the force pushing more of my release from her body.
A frown pulls my lips down as I quickly push as much of it back in as I can while she squirms away from me.
Over her bare shoulder, her porcelain skin on display unashamedly, she winks at me as she bends over to retrieve her shift she threw off.
I lick my lips, the sight of her glorious and bare bottom, our combined arousal glistening in the early morning light, causing my prick to twitch.
“You will just have to fill me up again later to make sure it takes hold.”
Swallowing hard, I force myself to meet her eyes. She lifts her arms and slides the shift down until her body is unfortunately covered. “Ye want to have my babe?”
Her eyes soften, a sweet smile tipping her lips. She crawls over my still naked form and cups my jaw, her eyes bright and warm. “I want everything with you, Padraig.”
“I love ye, a mhuirnin.”
“And I love you, honey.”
An hour later, I am walking into the main office for my meeting. I come to a stop just inside my manager’s office, surprised to find Arthur Brown, the superintendent, and an unknown gentleman in an expensive suit.
“Morning.” I greet cordially, warily eyeing the stranger and Mr. Brown.
I thought this was a meeting between my manager and I.
“I am afraid I am underdressed, if I had known it was a formal affair I would have worn my best overalls.” Mr. Brown’s eye twitches as he glares at me, but the stranger tosses his head back with a loud, infectious laugh.
I smile in response, stick my hand out and approach the superintendent first. “Mr. Brown, always a pleasure, sir.” I turn to the still chuckling man after my hand is ignored by Brown.
“Padraig Fitzgerald.” He takes it with gusto, shaking our joined hands with a firm grip.
“Emil Laurent.”
“Mr. Laurent is one of the biggest textile manufacturers in the country, if not the world.” Mr. Brown boasts as if the achievement is his own.
“He is looking for a new coal company to partner with to power his new machinery. Normally, we would negotiate here in the office, however, Mr. Laurent,” Brown’s face puckers like he ate a lemon, “requires a tour of the entire operation and refused assistance from anyone in management.”
Ah. I understand now. “Technically, I do qualify as management.” I brush my hands across my overalls, then pick at the perpetual dirt under my nails. Laurent chuckles, his eyes darting from me to the other two men. It is quite clear who “works” for a living and who works.
“I am sure that is ‘technically’ true, however, I do feel better about negotiating millions of my dollars when I personally perform a thorough investigation of the operation.” He eyes Brown once more.
“And you are not dressed for the occasion.” He waves his hand toward the door behind me. “Shall we?”
I cough into my fist to clear my throat. “Uh, would you care for a pair of overalls, sir?”
“Emil or Laurent, please. And that is not necessary, I have my own.”
Mr. Brown grabs my upper arm when I turn to leave. “You are representin’ Magnus Mining Company, son, do remember that on your investigative tour. The future of Magnus Mining…and its employees depends on contracts such as Mr. Laurent’s.”
Grinding my back teeth, I simply nod in understanding and continue out the door. Laurent follows behind me. We are quiet as we move further away from the office, however, he taps me on the shoulder just short of the entrance to the mine.
“I need to change. One moment.” Without a care in the world, Laurent removes his jacket, vest, and shirt.
From a small satchel I did not realize he carried, he produces suitably stained overalls and carefully folds his other clothing to fit inside the satchel, before slipping the overalls over his suit pants and undershirt.
In an instant, this successful businessman transforms into a blue-collar worker.
Grinning, I nod with approval and take us into the mine.
He asks knowledgeable questions, speaks to a few miners and the young trapper boys that operate the ventilation doors.
We discuss techniques, comparisons to other mines, he even asks me for the differences from the mines of Ireland and here.
It is hard to imagine that hours pass so easily.
The expensive suit fooled me at first, thinking he was just like Arthur Brown.
But Emil Laurent is nothing like anyone at Magnus Mining.
He is compassionate, insightful, and sharp.
He tried to be discreet, but I caught him handing over several coins to the men and boys he spoke to for their trouble.
I think if given the chance, they would be happy to be troubled again anytime.
We blink against the midday sun as we emerge from underground. Emil dusts off his overalls, wiping his hands against them, then drops his head back and smiles into the sunlight with his eyes closed.
“God, the only man suited to be underground is a dead one.” A laugh bursts free, which has happened quite a bit today. “Tell me, Paddy, are you married?” I grin proudly.
“I am, sir. My beloved Trinli.”
“How long have you been married to your beloved Trinli?”
“8 months.”
“Any babies on their way?”
I think back to this morning and my grin grows. “Too early to tell, but I am honored to keep trying.” We share a chuckle. “Though, Trinli has four babes from her first marriage.”
“Widow?”
“Aye. She was married to a spineless philandering weasel. He passed in a collapse 8 months ago.” Emil’s dark eyebrows shoot up his forehead in surprise.
“You do not waste any time, do you?”
“Well, truth be told, I would have taken her and the babes away from him if it were legal. However, when he died, the company gave Trinli 5 days to either marry another miner or leave.”
“5 days?!?” He rubs his hand over the back of his head and glares in the direction of the office.
“Her husband, weasel or no, died in a collapse of their mine, and they gave her less than a week to remarry or she would be homeless?” I nod, that would be the gist of it.
“And tell me, were they giving her any type of compensatory package to assist her financially?” I shake my head and his glare hardens.
“You are paid in company money, correct?”
“Aye.”
“Hmm.” He is quiet for a few moments. “This is rather forward, I apologize for imposing, but I wonder if I might join you and your lovely family for supper this evening?”
“Oh.” Well, you could knock me over with a feather, I was not expecting that at all. Yet the idea of conversing with him more is appealing. “Of course, it is Trin’s day to prepare chicken stew for the patch.”
“The patch?”
Smiling proudly once more, I point in the direction of our little patch town. “It is easier to show you, sir. My Trinli will amaze you.”