Page 40 of Forged

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.

---