A Daddy for Christmas 3: August (Daddy for Christmas 3)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Still out of breath, he took off for the stairwell and climbed up to the fourth floor. He went right after pushing through the door and only stopped running when he got to the room where the class he was supposed to be live-modeling for was held.

He pushed the door open as quietly as he could, but a dozen heads turned to look at him, including the professor, who was butt naked on the little dais, doing the job that Auggie was supposed to be doing. He swallowed hard, trying to keep his panting at bay.

“I’m sorry I’m late. My bike was stolen and I had to walk and it took longer than I was expecting, and—” He cut himself off, the teacher clearly not impressed.

“It won’t happen again,” he finished. He needed this job.

And if he lost this one, it would get around to the other art teachers who used him as a model, and they might look for someone else too.

“Go get yourself some water or something and be back here in a half an hour. You can take over the modeling after the break.”

Oh thank god. He bobbed his head. “Thank you, thank you. I’ll be back in plenty of time, I promise.” He was, in fact, going to park his butt in the hall right outside the classroom as soon as he found a bottle of water because now that he was no longer running, he realized just how thirsty he was.

He closed the door behind him as quietly as he could and went back along the hallway, looking for a vending machine that had water.

There were usually machines on every floor, and this floor was no exception.

It was way at the other end, but it was there, thank god, because he didn’t want to wander too far away and not be back on time.

He didn’t think he’d get another chance if he screwed up again already.

There were three slots for water and they all had sold out on the little sign in front of them instead of the price.

Damn it. He’d have to go with something else.

His choices were two flavors of Gatorade—which he hated with a passion.

The fake sweeteners they used upset his stomach.

That also ruled out all the diet drinks, which left him with just Coke as an option.

The caffeine would make him jittery and cranky, but he needed something because now that he wasn’t running anymore, he was also feeling a little light-headed.

Sighing, he dug through his pockets, discovering he didn’t have any change on him. So he pulled out his wallet and used his debit card, hoping like hell he had enough in there for the Coke. He knew his balance was pretty damn low, which is why he’d walked instead of picking up an Uber to get here.

He grabbed the Coke from the dispenser and headed back down the hall. He sat on the ground and opened his Coke, taking a swig. Then he rested his head back against the wall, nursed his drink, and cursed his bad luck while he waited for the class to go on break.

Twenty-five minutes later, the door opened and people started spilling out. Auggie jumped up and as soon as he had a chance, he went in.

“Thanks for being so understanding, and I’m ready to get to work,” he said as he went in.

The teacher half turned toward him, jeans partway up to his underwear-covered butt.

His very tight, amazing butt. Auggie forced his eyes upward, but that didn’t make anything better as the guy wasn’t wearing his shirt yet and he had an amazing back.

Gorgeous muscles. He made a much better model than Auggie did.

He sure hoped the class wasn’t going to be disappointed by having him take over.

He pressed his lips together tightly so he didn’t voice any of his thoughts out loud.

The guy pulled his jeans the rest of the way up and grabbed his T-shirt. “I’m sorry your bike was stolen.”

“Oh. Yeah. Thanks.” Auggie shook his head. “Assholes. It’s my only mode of transportation, and you can’t rely on the bus service to get you anywhere.”

“Well, I hadn’t modeled in a long while. It’s good practice for maintaining stillness.” The guy held out his hand. “Thor Helmson.”

Auggie wiped his hand on his jeans and shook. “August Tanner. Everyone calls me Auggie.”

“Good to meet you, Auggie. The class reconvenes in ten minutes.”

“I’ll just stay here if that’s okay.”

“Sure. Just figured you might want to make sure your bladder was empty.” Thor—was the guy’s name really Thor?—nodded toward the bottle in his hand.

“Huh. Yeah, that’s actually probably a good idea.” Especially given he’d drained the entire thing while waiting in the hall. He hadn’t even given any thought to the fact that he’d have to sit there for forty-five minutes, not moving, let alone getting up and going to the bathroom mid-class.

God, he was such an idiot. And in front of the professor no less. The very studly professor. He bet he’d have to think cold thoughts to keep his dick from showing any interest in the man while he was naked.

Rolling his eyes at himself, he tossed the can on the way to the bathroom. He relieved himself, washed his hands, and headed back to the class again. The students were already filing back in so he hurried.

Once there, Thor gave him a robe. “You can change in the alcove over there.”

“’K.” He went to the alcove, discovering that it was private from the rest of the room, despite the fact there wasn’t a door.

He stepped out of his shoes and pulled off his clothes before slipping into the robe.

He’d done this last semester too, though not for such a studly professor, so he knew what to do.

He went back into the main room, going right to the dais. “How do you want me?”

“We’ll do different poses each week, but for today, just a relaxed sitting pose.”

“You got it.” Auggie let the robe fall to the floor next to the dais and sat, ankles crossed, hands together in his lap.

He wasn’t embarrassed about having his dick show or anything, but this was the most comfortable position to sit in, and Thor had said relaxed.

Besides, if the guy didn’t like how he was sitting, he’d say something, right? Right.

Auggie picked a spot on the wall across from him to look at and took a deep breath, then tried to kind of zen out; he found that was easiest when nude modeling.

The spot that had drawn his eyes was a painting.

It was wild. Lots of colors, lots of lines and dots, like it was an abstract, but he could see stuff in the swirl of colors, shapes, meaning.

He hadn’t meant to become absorbed in the painting itself, but he was.

Enough so that it was a while before the jitters started to make their way into his brain.

He wanted to move in the worst way. And a couple of times he caught his right leg bouncing and had to force himself to stop. Damned caffeine.

The first time it happened, he only noticed because Professor Thor cleared his throat, interrupting his train of thought.

He sighed, stopped, and sent an apologetic glance at the prof.

Damn it, he just couldn’t win. After that he paid more attention and caught himself every time he started.

He’d been right about the Coke. It hadn’t been the best choice.

He hadn’t had a lot of options though. And at least he wasn’t falling asleep where he sat.

“Okay, there’s ten minutes left,” Thor announced.

“So wind up what you’re doing. We will be doing a new pose next week.

” Then Thor made a final round of the students, talking to them about what they’d done.

Auggie was curious, but he couldn’t quite make out what people were saying.

Mostly he was curious about how the drawings looked, but he knew from last year that they were mostly pretty bad—it was a beginner’s class after all.

Some of them made him look mean, some goofy.

It was probably better for his self-esteem if he just didn’t look.

Still, if he got a chance, he’d probably take a peek.

“Okay. That’s it for today. Let’s give our model a thank-you.”

Everyone clapped and Auggie blinked, surprised. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to take a bow or what, so he just inclined his head a little, feeling awkward. The professor last year hadn’t done that.

He stood and went to grab the robe, quickly putting his hand on the dais he’d been on as everything sort of greyed out for a moment. He blinked a few times, and when he went to grab his robe, he found it wasn’t there.

Thor was holding it out for him to slip his arms into, a small frown wrinkling the handsome forehead. “You okay, Auggie?”

“Yeah, just a little lightheaded—too long in the same position.” He put one arm and then the other into the robe and closed it up with the belt. He didn’t mind being naked in front of the class while he was posing and they were drawing, but once they were done, it felt weird.

“Come and sit,” Thor insisted, leading him over to the big desk and having him sit in the chair behind it. “I’ll get you some water.”

Auggie shook his head. “They’re out.” He pushed his hair off his face, surprised to find that his hand was shaking a little.

“When was the last time you ate?” Thor asked.

“I had… breakfast,” he said belligerently. Not that it was anyone’s business if he forgot to eat a meal or two.

“Let me take you over to the student union and get you something to eat.”

Auggie shook his head and stuck his chin out. “You don’t have to.” He wasn’t a charity case.

“I know I don’t, but I would feel better if I knew you’d had something to eat before you left. You’ve got a bit of a walk before you get home, don’t you?”

Auggie shrugged but admitted, “About an hour, yeah.”

“Go get dressed and we’ll head over together. It’s pot sticker day and that’s one of the things they do really well.”

Pot stickers sounded pretty good actually, and as Auggie went back to the alcove and got dressed, he had to admit, he was more than a little shaky and some food would probably be a good idea.