Page 33 of Forged

By the time baths were finished and the kids were dried, their bums in fresh nappies, and tucked into bed, Nick was ready to crawl into bed himself. It had been a long, long day.

He dragged himself back to the main part of the flat, bracing himself for the clean-up he knew had to happen in the kitchen, but was surprised to find that Bax had cleaned everything up already.

“You’ve even loaded the dishwasher,” he said in utter amazement as he stepped into the kitchen.

Bax laughed and turned away from the sink, where he was rinsing the rag he’d used to wipe down the counters, and reached for a towel to dry his hands. “Just because I’m not a father doesn’t mean I don’t know how to clean up a kitchen.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Nick said, still glancing around the space in amazement.

“It was my pleasure,” Bax said, putting the towel back then walking over to Nick. “So is this,” he added, then grasped the sides of Nick’s face and pulled in for a kiss.

Nick should have expected it, but the kiss surprised him as much as finding a clean kitchen had. Mostly, it surprised him with how much he enjoyed it. Bax was warm and smelled good, despite it being the end of the day. He kissed with so much confidence that Nick couldn’t help but surrender to it.

He expected the kissing to go on, wanted it, even, but Bax pulled back and smiled at him. “Let’s grab a beer and have a seat on the couch,” he said.

Nick’s temporary warmth and ease tightened into worry. That was the sort of thing someone said when they wanted to have a serious talk. He wasn’t sure he had the brain cells for any sort of serious talk.

But once they had their beers in hand and were settled close together on the couch, toys scattered on the floor around them, Bax just sat there, smiling at Nick like he was a relaxingtelevision program that he had been looking forward to watching all day.

“Hello,” he said as Nick started to grow tense beside him.

“Hello yourself,” Nick answered. He was terrible at flirting, terrible at peopling. But something about Bax put him at ease, even though he thought he should be more nervous than anything around him.

“You look knackered,” Bax went on. He used his free hand to brush Nick’s cheek and the day’s growth of beard that now fuzzed the bottom half of his face.

“Kids do that to you,” he said. “I don’t know how you’re still on your feet, since you’re not used to the pace.”

“I’m not on my feet, I’m on your couch,” Bax said.

Nick laughed and took a sip of his beer, since he didn’t know what else to do.

Bax drank as well, and even though Nick felt the conversation should probably be going somewhere, it didn’t. It was just the two of them sitting on the couch, kids’ telly playing in the background, drinking beer and staring at each other with increasingly goofy grins.

Nick wished he was a brilliant conversationalist, like Raina had been. He wished she was there so he could ask her what he was supposed to do with all the new and hot feelings racing through him. Of course, if Raina was there, he wouldn’t be contemplating kissing Bax again.

God, he wanted to kiss Bax again. He wanted to do more than that. He wanted to tackle him and cover his body with his own. He wanted to learn what a man’s body felt like when things were hot and heavy. He wanted to play with another man’s cock and balls and discover whether he really liked it as much as he was beginning to believe he might.

“What are you thinking about?” Bax asked, twisting to put his half-finished bottle on the table that ran along the back of the couch.

Nick’s face blazed hot at the question before he could even contemplate the answer.

He surprised himself when he replied with, “Why did you turn Callum down when he invited you to his coven?”

Bax’s hazy, sexy look mellowed into something more serious. “It isn’t what I want right now,” he said.

Nick frowned slightly. “But it’s what you wanted a few weeks ago, when you first came to Hawthorne House. I thought you would still want something like that.”

“I want you.”

The words were so bold and raw that Nick couldn’t breathe for a second. For once, Bax wasn’t teasing or joking. The heat and the need were all there, in his eyes. He felt them reflected in himself.

“I want you, too,” he said quietly.

“Then take me,” Bax said, his voice dropping to a deep, sonorous tone.

Nick jerked like he would move forward, but the kinetic movement didn’t go anywhere. It just made him look anxious and twitchy.

“I don’t know how,” he admitted, his eyes glued to Bax’s.

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