Page 8 of Now Comes the Dark

Roman looked at him properly for the first time. When he’d caught sight of him in The Viaduct, in the dim light and from across the room, he had fancied him straight away. That first impression didn’t do justice to how hot he was up close. Roman was in shock and reeling from his ordeal, and he still fancied the hell out of him. Intense grey eyes gazed from beneath a slightly hooded brow, giving his handsome face an air of mystery and danger.

“I think so,” Roman said, snapping back into focus. “Still shaken, I guess. I’ll get over it.” He sipped his drink. The vodka was cheap and harsh with a syrupy sweet mixer. It burned the back of his mouth and throat, but he swallowed it gratefully. Mallon was right, he did need it, more than he realised. He took a deeper drink.

Mallon sipped his whisky. Roman caught the slight grimace as he swallowed. He pulled out a packet of cigarettes and lit one. Roman didn’t know many people who still smoked. It was so outdated and would usually put him off, but it would take more than that to turn him off Mallon.

He released a sigh. “I can’t believe how lucky I am that you came along when you did.”

Mallon nodded, his mouth set in a firm, serious line. “I was looking for you. I searched every room of The Viaduct for you, from the top to the bottom, even in the dark.”

Roman coughed. “You did?”

Mallon nodded, exhaling smoke. “I had given up. Figured you’d found someone you liked more. I was on my way here for a nightcap when I saw the disturbance up the street. I didn’t know it was you until I’d cracked that asshole’s nose.”

Despite the tension of the last half hour, Roman laughed. “You were looking for me? I was searching for you. I gave up when I found you in one of the vaults with Cameron. I figured you had found what you were looking for.”

“Cameron?”

“Dark hair. Around my age. Mixed heritage. ‘Fuck me’ tattoo on his arse. He sucked your dick.”

“Oh.” A flicker of a smile. The suggestion of dimples in his cheeks. “He was just a…snack. Not even that. Terrible blow job. All teeth. I didn’t even come.”

Things had taken a surreal turn. Roman had gone from the shock of an assault to sporting an erection and feeling horny in a few short seconds. “I suppose I should be grateful. If it wasn’t for your disappointment in Cameron, you might not have come looking for me.”

“That’s one way to look at it. Another way is…if I had found you, I would still be in the vaults fucking you, and you would never have encountered those assholes at all.”

Roman blushed, uncomfortable with the rapid gear change. As attractive as he found Mallon, he was too shaken to think about sex. “I can’t believe that happened to me. In all the time I’ve lived here, that’s a first.”

Mallon put an elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. “I’ve heard this a problem in your city. The violence. Yes?”

“It didn’t used to be. I’ve been here for six years, first at university then for work. It was always a safe, tolerant city. It’s only in the last eighteen months that things have taken a turn for the worst. I take it you are passing through. You don’t live here?”

“I’m here for work. I don’t know how long for. Just a week this time, but it may be longer in the future.”

“Then it hasn’t been a great introduction. Like I said, Blyham hasn’t always been like this, but now… I don’t know what to think. It’s sad.”

“Sad, yes. But no different to many other places.” Mallon stubbed out the cigarette. “I travel a lot, and this kind of trouble is on the rise everywhere I go. As more far-right assholes come to power and run the countries, it gives the narrow-minded bigots, the intolerant minority, a sense of entitlement. They think they can do what they want. And most of the time they do, because they get away with it. You should learn to fight. Learn how to defend yourself. You might have to on another night.”

Roman looked into those serious grey eyes. He didn’t follow politics or have an allegiance to one party, but what Mallon said sounded true enough. The entire country seemed to teeter on the edge of a shit-pit of hate and violence. He doubted Blyham was worse than any other city. It was an all-pervasive problem.

Roman finished his drink in another mouthful. The taste was horrific, but the alcohol had a soothing effect on his nerves. Under different circumstances he would have been shy and uncomfortable sitting with a man he desired so much. Of the guys he had fucked in the last year, he struggled to remembera meaningful conversation. In an era of apps and hook-ups, talking to a stranger was rare.

As Mallon had saved his life, he figured they were beyond those awkward, getting-to-know-you moments.

He raised the empty glass. “Another? I’ll get them this time.”

Mallon gave a terse shake of his hand. His mouth turned downwards. “I’d rather not.”

Disappointment struck like a slap in the face. “Oh.”

Mallon banged his half-touched drink on the table. “This is piss. Worse than piss.”

Roman laughed nervously. Mallon spoke his mind. Maybe that was the European side of him. “It’s as good as it gets in here. The drinks have always been rough.”

Mallon leaned closer and put a hand on Roman’s wrist. The scent of his aftershave was intoxicating. Even the smoke and cheap whisky on his breath was attractive. “I don’t want to stay here. Come to my hotel. I have liquor. We’ll have a good drink then I’ll fuck you, like I wanted to earlier.”

Roman’s heart was in his throat again. Not through fear this time, but animal attraction and desire. The touch of Mallon’s hand, the closeness of his face, it was impossible to resist. “All right,” he said.

Mallon leaned closer, his head tilted. When their lips met, Roman felt an electrical exchange between them. It went straight from his mouth to his groin.

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