Chapter 12
TWELVE
“Shit, shit, shit.”
Nick continued to swear as he dashed across the hall from Bax’s flat into his. It was a good idea for him and Bax to have their adult time in Bax’s apartment. Not only was there no chance of the kids accidentally walking in on something they shouldn’t see, but it helped him to shift gears in his mind so he could give Bax his full attention. Or at least as much of his full attention as he could.
The baby monitors were a necessity, but sometimes, just sometimes, like that morning, when he’d been balls-deep in Bax, so close to coming that he could taste it as he watched Bax get lost in pleasure, they were a colossal pain in the arse.
“Hey, babies. I’m here,” he said as he hurried into the nursery that Jordan and Macy shared. He went on to sing his usual morning greeting, “Good morning to you, good morning to you, good morning, dear babies, good morning to you.”
The babies calmed their sleepy morning fuss and reached out to him as he scooped up first Macy, then Jordan.
“That’s better,” he cooed in his daddy voice, praying he didn’t smell too much like sex and Baxter.
Then again, they were toddlers. They wouldn’t know what the smell was.
He was used to their morning routine, as frantic as it could be. He got the kids up, plopped them in front of the telly, feeling deeply guilty about rotting their brains and how it made him a terrible dad, then filled small bottles for them. While they zoned out in front of CBeebies, he quickly jumped into the shower to clean up the remnants of his night with Bax.
“Shit,” he hissed into the shower spray. He’d run out on Bax more or less in the middle of things, before either of them could get off.
That was why his balls ached so much. He had been so focused on getting back to the kids that he hadn’t even taken a second to jerk off in Bax’s bathroom before racing to take care of his kids.
By the time he turned the shower off, quickly toweled off, and scrambled to put his work clothes on, he felt like the worst boyfriend in the history of the world. He didn’t even feel like a good father, really. Someone somewhere would probably take him to task for having the telly babysit his kids while he showered. At least he’d gotten into the habit of showering with the bathroom door open in case they needed him for anything. They were too young to worry about seeing him naked, but Jordan in particular was getting older by the second. There’s been a couple times that winter when Nick had caught his son staring at his genitals with more curiosity than indifference.
He couldn’t not shower with the door open, though. He couldn’t leave his babies alone for too long either. There really wasn’t a good solution, unless he locked them in some sort of cage while he took a shower.
A knock on his flat’s door just as he and the kids were finishing up a slightly more substantial breakfast pulled him out of his racing thoughts.
“Morning, Mr. Turner,” Imogen said, all but stumbling into the flat with her book bag, her coat half undone. “Sorry I’m late. I had a night class last night and overslept this morning. I’m not sure how this term is going to work, to be honest. I have so much work, and I’ve got a few classes coming up that I will have to take during the day. Your mum said she could take the kids when she needs to, though.”
“Thanks, Imogen,” Nick said, the tightness in his chest that he always felt when anyone mentioned his mum having the kids gripping him. His mum still pestered him on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis about having the kids live with her. “I’ve got a nine o’clock class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays this semester, and I want to put in at least half an hour of work on the unicorn before then, so I have to run. But we’ll talk about this later.”
Imogen waved goodbye and went straight for the kids, who loved her. That was one less thing for Nick to worry about.
One less thing out of what felt like a million. He still had to prepare for the new class, even if that just meant setting out a display of all the equipment they would be using during the session. He really did want to get a few minutes of work done on the unicorn, too, once the forges were warmed up. It was so close to being done, but every time he looked at it, he saw another join that needed smoothing, a bit that needed sanding, or a minor detail that he should really add to make the whole thing shine.
And then there was Bax. He huffed out a breath thinking about Bax as he reached the forge and went through his routine to rekindle the fires and bring the whole thing up to the temperature he needed to work. He adored Bax. He couldn’t believe that he’d found so much happiness, closeness, and satisfaction with another man.
Of course he was bi. How had he not realized that before? Touching, kissing, and fucking Bax came as naturally to him and gave him just as much pleasure as being with Raina had. Sexy times with Bax were like opening a brand new box of candy that he’d always known about but had never tasted and discovering it was his new favorite thing.
He was still a little squeamish about the idea of Bax fucking him, but Bax said if he was strictly a top, that was fine. He’d had his mouth around Bax’s cock once at this point and had liked it much more than he’d thought he would. He was still a little squiffy about swallowing, but then again, he also found wiping snot off his own babies’ noses gross, so it might not have just been the whole eating cum thing.
He’d be willing to give it a try for Bax, though. There was something undeniably hot about having a guy panting and sweating with pleasure because you had them in your mouth. He needed to learn how not to choke when Bax went deep, though. Or maybe that was the whole point of?—
“Is this where the forging class is?”
Nick nearly leapt out of his skin at the question, asked by a burly young woman with her hair tied back in two ponytails. God help him if she had the ability to read minds.
Which was a ridiculous thought, but still.
“Yes, this is Introduction to Blacksmithing,” he said, forcing himself to greet the woman with a smile.
He glanced at the clock fastened to one of the beams on the side of the forge. They had fifteen minutes until the class started, but it wasn’t unusual for students to arrive early on the first day of class.
The woman came forward with a slight glitter in her eyes and held out a hand. “I’m Lauren Michaels,” she said as Nick took her hand to shake it. “I’m a friend of your sister Joann’s, actually. She told me I should take your class.”
Nick nearly groaned. Not only had his mum not given up on trying to take his babies from him, apparently she and Joann hadn’t given up on finding him a new girlfriend either.
What would they think if they’d known he’d been daydreaming about sucking Bax’s cock when their latest offering had made her appearance?
“Hi, Lauren,” he greeted her. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve just got a few more things to set up for the class, but feel free to look around while I do. Just don’t touch anything until after the safety briefing.”
“Sure, sure,” Lauren said. She followed him as he moved to the shelves and cabinets at the back of the forge. “Need any help?”
He wanted to say no and to add that if Joann had sent her to woo him, it wasn’t going to happen. He was spared from having to hurt anyone’s feelings when two other students showed up.
“Welcome,” he greeted them, avoiding Lauren’s offer. “Make yourself at home. Look around, but don’t touch anything until after the safety briefing.”
Lauren didn’t seem offended by his lukewarm reaction to her. Maybe she was just there because she was interested in forging.
He put his worries as far out of his head as he could as the new students settled into the forge. Not only did he have to set out the tools and instruments he would be introducing everyone to, now he felt like he had to keep an eye on everyone to make sure they didn’t do the one thing he’d told them not to do and touch stuff.
It was a lot like being a dad to toddlers, actually. People seemed to think women were better at multitasking than men, but Nick was pretty sure multitasking was something everyone had to learn when they became a parent so that the next generation didn’t accidentally kill themselves. That went for students as well as kids.
His new class seemed like they were going to be pretty responsible. The two new arrivals were college guys who Nick immediately pegged as the kind who played D&D, especially when one of them asked if they would be learning how to forge swords.
“No,” he answered with a laugh. “This is basic blacksmithing. You’ll be learning how to make a rod of iron into a square-sided spike and, if you really get the hang of it, how to make a horseshoe.”
“Oh, good,” a new, chipper voice said. “I’ve always wanted to learn to make my own horseshoes.”
Nick turned around and his heart sank as he saw Bax’s friend Callum striding into the forge.
Even dressed in heavy dungarees and work boots, Callum managed to be a picture of sartorial elegance. He wore a tweed newsboy cap, but his hair was perfectly coifed under that. He smiled broadly at Nick as he walked right into the forge, shrugging out of his long wool coat, and hung it on one of the pegs at the edge of the forge as if he owned the place.
Inadequate didn’t begin to describe how Nick felt in Callum’s presence.
“Callum,” he greeted the man. “Are you taking this class?”
“If that’s alright with you,” Callum said, the picture of old fashioned friendliness.
“Er, of course,” Nick said, shuffling slightly.
He fumbled the pair of wolf jaw tongs he’d been about to put on the demonstration table, dropping them on the toe of his boot. The clumsy gesture had him hissing and bouncing back on one foot for a second before he could bend and pick the tool up. As he stood, he bumped his head on the side of the clamp he’d fastened to the edge of the table earlier.
“Haven’t had our coffee yet, have we?” Callum joked with him.
“No,” Nick laughed in reply, even though he felt a thousand times more embarrassed than clever.
“No worries,” Callum said. “You’re still the expert here. Head bumps or no.”
Nick couldn’t tell if Callum was making fun of him. He couldn’t tell if Callum was genuine in his appreciation as he looked around the forge or if he really was as fascinated with everything as he pretended to be. He was one of those people who was just so vibrant in everything they did that it was impossible to tell if they were naturally exuberant or mocking you so subtly you couldn’t tell.
Worse still, Callum looked good no matter what he was doing, whereas Nick already had a smudge of soot across his face somehow, before he’d actually done anything that could be considered blacksmithing.
“Welcome to Introduction to Blacksmithing,” he greeted the class more formally once everyone was there. “I’m Nick Turner. I’ve been working in a forge since I was seventeen. If you’ve had a chance to look around, you’ve been able to see that not only do I make things like hinges and horseshoes—” he picked up an old horseshoe he’d made from his demonstration table, “I sculpt in metal as well.” He held out a hand to Raina’s unicorn.
“That’s magnificent,” Callum said brightly. “Your attention to detail is spot-on.”
Nick stood there frozen and flummoxed for a moment. Did he mean that or was he somehow taking a dig at him?
He shook his head and went on. “Since this is an introductory class, we’re going to spend most of our time learning technique instead of making anything elaborate. Apologies if you thought you would have your own samurai sword by the end of May.”
The class chuckled. Callum laughed freely.
The joke wasn’t that clever.
“Now, before you do or touch anything, we need to run through what all of the tools are, how they’re used, and most importantly of all, we need to talk about forge safety. So grab yourself an apron, a pair of gloves, and some goggles, and we’ll get started.”
The class followed his instructions, collecting the required items from storage at the side of the room. Nick couldn’t help but watch Callum as he slipped gracefully into an apron, picked out gloves like he was in some London shop, and smiled at Lauren as they both chose goggles from the shelf. Even preparing for hard, sweaty work, Callum was his own work of art.
On top of that, Nick just bet that he didn’t have kids. Kids who would cause him to run out on Bax in the middle of sex. Callum was probably an amazing lover, too. He probably knew all the tricks of the trade to have Bax howling with pleasure in bed and coming like a fountain as they humped like bunnies.
With someone like that practically begging Bax to run away and join his coven, why would Bax ever stay with him?
The thought was so intrusive and vicious that Nick jerked a little as it hit him. He fought off the rush of inadequacy that thinking about Callum and Bax together gave him by focusing on feeding the fire in the old forge and getting it ready for the demonstration he was about to do. He needed to focus. Children and fire were two things you could never take your eyes off of.
As soon as the class was kitted up, Nick had them gather around the forge itself so he could point out all the different parts and explain what they did. He talked about the differences between the hundreds of years old forge and the new, gas-powered forge and explained why a forge that had been built in the eighteenth century was still just as good as it had been before the French Revolution.
Once that was done and none of his students managed to burn themselves or their clothes, he had them take their seats again while he explained each of the different tools.
He was halfway through that explanation and had just taken a small rod of yellow-hot metal from the forge to demonstrate how to safely strike it against an anvil to shape it when he spotted Bax strolling in to join them.
He smiled. He couldn’t help himself. Bax was the best thing that had happened to him in ages. He didn’t look upset or angry with him for running out earlier. In fact, Bax looked as contented and sexy as ever. The heat in his eyes matched that of the forge behind him.
In a heartbeat, all of the fear and insecurity spitting at Nick like sparks flying from a mismanaged fire settled. There was no mistaking the way Bax looked at him. The sizzle in the air between them was probably obvious to anyone with eyes. It gave Nick the confidence to go on.
“Make sure you have a firm grip on your tools before you hammer anything,” he said, striking the quickly cooling rod a few times. “I can’t tell you how many accidents we’ve had because of dropped iron when it’s yellow to cherry red. That’s why we wear protective clothing. You do not want to?—”
“Oh, hello,” Callum greeted Bax while Nick was still in the middle of speaking. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Every one of Nick’s insecurities came rushing back at him, and his grip on the tongs loosened enough for the glowing iron rod to slip on the anvil.
Fortunately, he was able to catch himself before everything he’d just told his students, the ones who were paying attention, not to do happened. He thought fast enough to pretend he’d done it on purpose.
“See how easy it is to lose focus?” he asked before carefully moving the rod back to the fire.
“You handled that brilliantly,” Lauren said, smiling at him.
“Handling it brilliantly would have been not letting it slip in the first place,” he said with a sheepish smile. “Now, if everyone wants to grab a set of tools and get set up at one of the stations in the forge, we’ll take our first steps to making something useful.”
The students started to move, and Nick forced himself to the thing he’d purposefully ignored until then, Bax and Callum talking. From the look of things, Bax had answered Callum’s greeting while Nick had gone on with his demonstration. The two still seemed to be exchanging pleasantries, but as soon as the other students got up to claim one of the workstations, Callum did a doubletake, then stood as well.
“I guess I’d better focus,” he told Bax. “I’m here to learn metalworking from a master, not to chat, after all.” He nodded to Nick with a smile, then went to collect tools with the other students.
Nick let out a breath, trying to dispel his uneasiness with it, and headed over to Bax. More than anything, he wanted to greet Bax with a kiss, but between the fact that he didn’t want to get dirt or soot on Bax’s clean clothes and the sense of propriety that told him kissing in front of your students wasn’t a good idea, he held back.
“Sorry,” Bax said before Nick could get out his own apology for running out that morning. “I forgot you have a new schedule this session. I don’t want to interrupt.”
“I’m glad you came down here,” Nick said, smiling at Bax with his whole heart. “I feel like I owe you an apology for—” He finished by clearing his throat when one of the college guys veered close enough to overhear them.
“Perfectly understandable,” Bax said, holding his hands up, like they were discussing how Nick had drunk out of Bax’s coffee cup instead of leaving him all hot and bothered and spread in the heat of the moment. “The kids come first.”
“You should have come first,” Nick murmured.
Bax gasped, his face brightening into joy. “Nicholas Turner, did you just make a sexy joke?”
Nick blinked and thought about what he’d said. Only then did he catch the possible double entendre in his words.
“No,” he laughed. “I wasn’t trying to make that joke, but I guess I did.”
Bax laughed along with him, which set the world to right again.
Until Callum stepped up and said, “What did I miss?”
Nick wanted to punch the sophisticated, smarmy bastard in the nose.
Except, Callum didn’t really deserve that. It wasn’t fair of him to start off whatever association the two of them might have with jealousy.
“Nothing,” Bax answered, just a touch frosty. “We’ll talk later,” he said, winking at Nick.
“I hope so,” Callum answered, like Bax had been talking to him. “I’m determined to convince you to join the coven, after all.”
Bax laughed, but Nick could see in his eyes that he didn’t really find it funny. “Later,” he said, brushing Nick’s arm.
Bax winked as he turned to go. Nick caught himself sighing, half because he was head over heels in love and half because everything seemed so much harder than it should have been between them. If it wasn’t the kids, it was his class. And now Callum had thrown his spanner in the works. But wasn’t that just the way of everything in his life right now? Kids, Teaching, Art, and Bax.
“Right, let’s get started,” Callum said. “I can’t wait to learn how to wield the element of fire like a pro. Then maybe I’ll snag the attention of a man like Bax, too.”
Nick dragged his focus to Callum in time to have Callum wink at him, like the two of them were coconspirators in the art of love.
Or maybe like Callum was acknowledging his competition where Bax was concerned.
Either way, uneasiness rippled down Nick’s spine. It was going to be a long spring.