Page 11

ELEVEN

All the candles Bax had lit, incantations he had spoken, and intentions he had put out into the universe to find a new spiritual home, which a lot of other people would have called prayers, the gods had definitely delivered. All through February, he was happy. He and Nick were happy. They were together, and within days of the winter festival, everybody knew it.

“I think the two of you make an outstanding couple,” Rafe commented as he sat at one of the other desks in Hawthorne House’s office, poring through a catalog of glass-blowing supplies. Now that he was back, and with the spring session of classes starting in early March, he had been throwing himself at the task of updating and stocking the glass shop, which had been built in one of the outbuildings that had once been a stable. “I always thought Nick was as bent as the rest of the Hawthornes, even though he’s not one of us by blood.”

“Every person on this planet is a little bent,” Robert said from where he was trying to do something on Rebecca’s computer on the other side of the office, though he was about as comfortable with computers as he was with bramble patches. “There is no such thing as completely straight.”

“My parents would argue with you on that one,” Early laughed as they stepped into the back part of the office to fetch a stack of photocopied papers. “Then again, they also think people are rigidly binary.”

“We all know how wrong they are,” Robert said, glancing up from the computer and winking at Early.

Bax felt so warm at the exchange. He was ridiculously proud of his family, of how open their minds were and how accepting they were of everyone. All the reasons that people with so-called traditional morality despised them—like Nick’s mum, in all likelihood, though Bax still hadn’t figured the woman out—were the very values that he prized the most. The world might not have shared the Hawthorne family’s outlook yet, but Bax hoped it would someday.

“I think you and Nick make a wonderful couple, too, by the way,” Early said before heading back to the front part of the office.

“I’m almost sad we didn’t have some sort of a pool about when the two of you would get together,” Rafe joked as he finished typing his order into the computer, then leaned back in his chair. “If I’d been home last fall, when the two of you first made eyes at each other, or so I’m told, I would have organized the most epic betting pool this family has ever seen.”

“Yes,” Robert fired back at him with a cheeky grin, “and we would have started a pool for when you’re going to run off to some foreign country and abandon your family again.”

Rafe straightened with a look of mock surprise. “I’ve never abandoned my family,” he said. “I just have a fine appreciation for travel and absorbing the culture of foreign countries by living in them for a while.”

“Translation, I would rather be anywhere else but in England, at Hawthorne House,” Robert said, still teasing.

“That’s not true,” Rafe protested. “I just have…reasons why I would rather be somewhere else.”

“What’s his name?” Bax asked, laughing. “Or is this an ‘a man in every port’ sort of a situation?”

“That’s not it at all,” Rafe said. “I don’t have anyone special anywhere.”

“He had a bad break-up about three years ago that started this whole travel thing,” Robert told Bax with a sly look.

“Oh, I get it,” Bax laughed. “I’ve done the whole running away from heartache, too.”

It could be argued that coming to stay at Hawthorne House to do the audit was running away from Damien. That might have been his reason for arriving there, but it wasn’t his reason for staying.

In fact, when he finished the audit at the end of February, Bax didn’t make any plans to move out or move on. His intention all along had been to launch his own LGBTQ-supporting accounting firm, and he could do that from Hawthorne House as easily as he could from an expensive office in London. Uncle Robert was more than happy to let him take over one of the empty classrooms and set it up as office space.

“The Hawthorne family is incredibly generous,” Nick said as they talked about all their new endeavors in bed on the first day of March and the new session of classes. “They could have kicked me and the kids out anytime they wanted.”

“Uncle Robert and Aunt Janice would never do that,” Bax said, sliding one of his legs between Nick’s until he could feel Nick’s balls against his thigh. “They love you. We all love you.”

They were lying side by side. The room was still dim in the early morning light, but he could see the sparkle that his comment brought to Nick’s eyes. It was still way too soon for the L-word, but Bax felt all of the emotions behind the word. Not to mention how intensely he felt the other L-word, lust.

Nick made the low, growly sound that drove Bax crazy and rolled into him, pinning him to his back. For a guy who hadn’t ever examined his sexuality, Nick was embracing that part of their new relationship thoroughly.

He pressed his body along Bax’s and swooped down to draw a searing kiss from Bax’s mouth. Nick had grown incredibly adept at kissing him with the fire and passion that Bax liked. After a few fumbling weeks of figuring out what they both liked and wanted, things were definitely starting to click. The magic moment had come when Nick discovered that he didn’t have to be gentle or soft with him and that Bax actually liked their size difference and the feeling of being overpowered.

Once the pieces fell into place, Nick had become an incredibly toppy top, and Bax had no complaints at all about being a bottomy bottom. Bax had talked him through a lot of the aspects of having a relationship with a man that he’d been clueless about, from positions to PrEP, and now they were in a place where everything was just about perfect.

“You look cute talking up the family first thing in the morning,” Nick growled, sweeping a glance down to Bax’s pebbling nipples.

“I feel cute whenever I have your big, blacksmith’s cock hot against my thigh,” Bax flirted in reply.

“I can tell,” Nick said. He reached a hand between them to palm Bax’s straining erection.

They’d been at it for weeks now, but he still caught his breath every time Nick touched his cock. It was like he was so surprised that he could bring another man off that he couldn’t keep his hands off. That had been particularly mind-blowing a few days before, when Nick had stepped up behind him at the kitchen counter while he was making them sandwiches for lunch, unbuttoned his jeans, slipped his hand in, and stroked him off. Bax had been so startled by the treat that he’d just braced his hands against the counter and come within a minute.

Thank the goddess the kids hadn’t been there. Mrs. Turner had them over at her house that day, which was probably why Nick had been so bold in the first place.

They didn’t have to worry about unbuttoning anything now, since they’d spent the night naked together in Bax’s bed. The kids were asleep in Nick’s flat across the hall, as the gentle drone of the baby monitor beside his bed told them. Nick didn’t seem at all fussed as he lowered himself for another kiss.

“Is there some sort of Pagan ritual for starting a new session of classes?” Nick asked, moving to kiss the spot under Bax’s ear, his morning growth of beard scratching the soft skin of Bax’s neck. “Some sort of fertility rite for productivity?”

Bax hummed and threw his arms and legs wide, offering himself to his lover. “You’re doing it now.”

“I thought so,” Nick smirked as he pushed himself up a bit.

He leaned over to grab the bottle of lube from the bedside table, and with a blossom of laughter that he couldn’t control, Bax grabbed the pillow that he’d used the night before and slipped it under his lower back.

The light was still dim, but the blanket fell back as Nick knelt between Bax’s legs, squirted lube on his hand, then slicked it over his thick erection. Bax could hardly breathe as he watched him. He knew it wasn’t the done thing to be greedy for his partner’s size. It wasn’t the size of the boat that mattered, it was the motion in the ocean. He just really had a thing for all of Nick’s body, how massive his muscles were and how powerfully he was built. His cock fit right in with that, feeding the fantasy that he was being ravaged by a mythical creature or the god Hephestus every time the two of them were together.

He was definitely ravaged when Nick quickly lubed his hole then grabbed his hips and lifted them so he could take what he wanted and push in deep. Bax stifled his initial moan of pain as Nick stretched his ring, then let that breath out on a vocal sigh as Nick worked deeper. More often than not, he felt like Nick was splitting him in two when they went at it like this, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it.

Nick was still kneeling, gripping Bax’s hips hard, and watching the way their bodies joined as he pounded into him. Bax gorged himself on the sight of Nick’s powerful, hairy body taking what it wanted from him. He gripped the bedsheets tightly with one hand and his dick with a loose enough grip to stroke and lost himself in the bliss of being fucked into oblivion by a man who could snap him in two if he wanted to. It was so primal that he didn’t even mind any potential mess.

He was stretched and pinned and Nick had just figured out how to slam his prostate to the point where he rolled his eyes back when a shuffle and whimper sounded from the baby monitor.

“Shit,” Nick hissed, completely losing his rhythm and pulling out. Jordan’s tinny, whining cry grew louder, and Nick scrambled back. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Bax was left stunned, splayed, and inches away from orgasm, his hole throbbing, as Nick nearly tumbled off the bed and raced for the bathroom. He panted, eyes wide, hand still moving slightly on his dick as the warm, delicious sensation of being stuffed full petered out into the hollowness of his body closing up again.

By pure willpower alone, he was able to rub a small, unsatisfying orgasm out, but it was ruined by the sound of Macy joining her brother in crying.

“I didn’t hear them stirring,” Nick said, running back into the bedroom a second later, looking marginally cleaned up. He grabbed his pajama bottoms from the floor and nearly fell over putting them on, then reached for his robe on the wall hook next to Bax’s. “They get upset when I’m not there when they wake up.”

That was all he said before tearing out of the room, through Bax’s flat, and over to his own.

A couple seconds later, as he gingerly pulled the pillow out from behind his back and winced as he sat up, Bax heard Nick cooing a morning greeting to his babies through the monitor.

A twist of irritation shot through him, but he forced himself to breathe it away and swing his legs around to get out of bed. He was dating a single father with two small kids. The kids would always be Nick’s priority. That was absolutely the way it should be.

But that didn’t stop him from turning off the baby monitor with a burst of jealous force and stomping into the en suite to take a shower. Things had been thirty seconds away from brilliant between him and Nick. He could have had the orgasm of his life and the deep, deep pleasure of Nick spilling his load inside him if the kids could have just slept for five more minutes.

By the time he was done with his shower and dressed for the day, Bax had managed to let it go. If he wanted Nick, and he most definitely did, he had to accept certain things about him. He liked the kids. He wasn’t a natural with them, but he liked them. He was learning. His whole life was new, so it was only right that he adapted to the additional newness of being with a man who couldn’t and shouldn’t make him the sole center of his focus.

That didn’t stop his brain from grumbling that at least Damien never pulled out and left him inches from coming because a baby cried somewhere as he headed downstairs to his new office.

“What’s gotten into you?” Rhys asked when Bax ducked into the arts center’s office to grab a tea.

Bax huffed an ironic laugh. It was what had slipped out of him that bothered him.

“Just the usual perils of dating a single father who needs to put his kids first,” he answered.

Rhys nodded. “Interrupted, eh?”

“Yep,” Bax replied with a sigh. “I’m trying not to complain,” he went on. “I’ve got work to do anyhow. I didn’t really need to spend the whole morning in bed.”

“How’s the new accounting business coming along?” Rhys asked.

Bax winced. “Alright. Not perfect. I need more clients before it can really be considered a business, and I’ll admit, I’m being picky about my clientele because of my mission.”

“Have you tried The Brotherhood?” Rhys asked. “I bet a lot of them need an accountant. Or how about your old friend Callum? The one who keeps trying to woo you to join his coven?”

Heat flushed through Bax. He didn’t exactly feel guilty about the way Callum had tried to call or text him a few times per week since they’d met at the winter festival. There was nothing flirtatious or suggestive about Callum’s messages. He just really wanted Bax to join his coven. His overtures were friendly and concerned for Bax’s well-being.

There was the tiny caveat that Bax had found out from one of his other friends, that Callum had stopped dating the guy he’d been seeing off and on for a year. But if Bax stopped talking to every one of his gay friends who had just been through a break-up, he wouldn’t have any friends left.

“Callum could be an option,” he admitted, taking his tea and heading out the office door, Rhys walking with him. “He owns a florist shop and has a lot of connections in the gardening world.”

In fact, Callum might be an excellent resource for finding work. As long as he wasn’t trying to swerve around Nick to get into his pants. Callum had seen the two of them together. He was smart enough to figure out they were dating. Bax didn’t think he was the type to steal someone else’s man, or at least to try, since there was no way he’d be stolen from Nick, but you never knew.

He decided to try his connections with The Brotherhood first. Once he was settled in his office, he went through his contacts and compiled a list. It was still far too early in the morning to start making phone calls to old men with money, though, so within an hour, he hit a wall. That was the problem with starting a new business like the one he wanted. Working hours were all well and good, but you couldn’t sit at a desk for nine hours a day wishing and hoping clients would drop out of the sky.

It was getting close to nine-thirty by the time he decided to take a walk down to the forge to ask Nick’s opinion on Callum. He and Nick had been doing other things instead of their morning walks of late and he needed the exercise. Besides, if he was going to approach a guy who had even a hint of interest in him about work, he was damn sure going to run the idea by his boyfriend first.

He felt better just making the decision to seek Nick out. It was still cold outside, but spring was beginning to peek its way out from the browns and beiges of the landscape surrounding Hawthorne House. Soon, the earliest spring flowers, snowdrops and crocuses, would begin to poke up through the dead leaves. The trees would show pale green buds, then unfurl into full, green leaf.

It was a fitting metaphor for the new life he was building for himself. He was a new man discovering new things. And sure, it was painful to have your lover rush off to tend to his kids in the middle of sex, but at least they’d had the moment they’d had. He wasn’t even sure if Nick had rubbed one out in the bathroom or if he was starting his day with blue balls. Who knew? Maybe they’d have a moment at the forge where he could drop to his knees and give Nick the relief he needed.

That blissful fantasy flopped hard as Bax approached for forge only to hear voices. It was warm enough that Nick had taken down the canvas walls surrounding the forge, leaving the whole thing open to the elements. A second too late, Bax remembered Nick’s class schedule for the spring session meant he taught at nine in the morning on Mondays.

Instead of slipping into the forge to ask his boyfriend’s permission to contact someone who might be interested in him and to give him a blow-job, Bax showed up just in time to interrupt Nick giving his initial safety talk to the half-dozen adult students taking his blacksmithing class. It seemed somehow fitting that Nick’s almost completed unicorn statue grinned down at him from the corner of the forge, reminding him of something else that demanded Nick’s attention before him.

Whatever sullen emotions tried to reach up and ruin Bax’s mood, they were thwarted as soon as Nick saw him approaching and broke into a smile. That smile shot straight to Bax’s heart, letting him know everything would be alright.

Nick continued with his lecture, which was basically, “Don’t do anything stupid and don’t touch hot coals without protective gloves”, but his arrival had been noticed. A few of the students twisted to take a look at him as Bax walked into the forge.

One of those students, who was seated near the back, was Callum.

“Oh, hello,” Callum said, momentarily ignoring Nick’s lesson. “Fancy seeing you here.”