Golden

by Sean Michael

  “Coach!” He loved how Coach made him smile.

  The blowing continued, moving to his hip and then over his prick.

  “Tickles. Tickles, Coach.”

  Coach just chuckled and blew against his balls. That didn’t tickle. That felt good, and his legs drew up. Coach’s hum also felt good, vibrating through him. The soft touch of air left Justin with goose pimples. That was oddly intimate—not arousing, he was too sated for that—but it warmed him deep inside. The soft touches and kisses and puffs of air continued, Coach touching the skin behind his balls, blowing on his hole, nuzzling his inner thighs.

  “You…. That’s my hole, Coach.”

  Coach’s head popped up, Coach staring at him, eyes mock-wide. “It is?”

  “Yes.” He snorted, grinned.

  Coach grinned up at him, then licked his hole and gave him a wink.

  “Hey….” He drew away, sighed.

  Coach frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Nothing, I just… I can’t get it up again.”

  “So?”

  Justin shrugged. “I…. You licked me.”

  “I’m enjoying you. It doesn’t have to lead to anything.” Coach stroked his inner thighs.

  He’d never had anyone touch him without wanting something.

  Soft kisses followed Coach’s fingers. Then he rubbed his cheek along the same path. Justin couldn’t decide whether he wanted to pull away or push closer. The gentle touches were unnerving as fuck.

  “You smell so good down here.” Coach nosed his balls and rubbed the patch of skin behind them.

  “You… you can’t say things like that.” Could he?

  “Why not? It’s the truth.” Justin heard and felt Coach breathing in deeply.

  “Because it’s….” Justin didn’t even know. He didn’t have an answer.

  “Sexy?” Coach grinned at him.

  “It’s just… people don’t say things like that.”

  “I’m not people, babe.”

  Coach tugged Justin’s right ball into his mouth. Wet heat surrounded Justin, and he groaned—less turned on than melty, weirdly soothed. Coach hummed, then loosed Justin’s ball and took in the other one. It was like being covered with a heated blanket, making Justin’s limbs feel heavy.

  When Coach was done, he kissed his way up Justin’s body, ending at his mouth for a long, slow kiss. Justin felt loved. Adored. Like he was home.

  Coach curled up around him, settling in with him like they had nothing better to do all day than be together like this. Justin relaxed completely, took a deep breath. He could handle this. He so could.

  “Love you, Justin.”

  Justin kissed Coach’s chest. Good. This was good.

  Chapter Ten

  CHRIS WATCHED the kids swimming up and down the lanes. Okay, he watched Justin watching the kids swim. Once they’d each done twenty laps, he was going to introduce them to Justin, let the kids do a little hero worship. The kids and Justin both deserved it. But in the meantime, he was watching his lover’s face.

  Justin was hungry for it. His eyes were fixed on the pool like he was watching his competition, not his students. Justin would have already done his laps, except they’d… uh, “slept in,” and now Justin was going to have to wait until after the practice for his daily swim.

  Besides, Chris wasn’t sure if he’d have gotten to see this hungry side of Justin if he’d already had his swim, and Chris needed to see it. It confirmed what he was beginning to suspect—retired or not, Justin wasn’t done competing. Justin had work to do—a lot of it—but the chops were still there, the basics.

  He wandered over. “So? What do you think?”

  “About what?”

  “About the kids. See any potential here?” He was pretty sure Justin would make a great assistant coach. Justin knew what it took, what a good swimmer looked like, after all.

  “Couple of them. Lane three. Six.”

  Chris nodded and grinned. Bang on. He’d known Justin could do the coaching thing. He was pretty sure, though, that it would be a few more years before Justin had time to help him coach. Four in fact—there were more gold medals in his swimmer. Justin wasn’t done. Oh, he’d needed the break when he’d left. Chris was sure that had been the right thing. But he could read the hunger in Justin, even if his boy didn’t know it was there yet. He thought Justin needed to prove it to himself as much as anything.

  “Yeah, that’s my thought too. I’m not sure lane three has the dedication, though.” Maybe if Justin talked to them. Hell, maybe if Justin trained with them….

  “He either does or he doesn’t. You can’t make that.”

  “You can find the right carrot, though. Not everyone is a natural like you.” The swimming itself was all the carrot Justin had ever needed. It was what made him special.

  “What do you use?” Justin was pacing, watching.

  “I’m wondering if meeting a gold-medalist and dangling the Olympics in front of him will help Daniel. Jessica, though, she’s lane six. I think she’s hungry for it all on her own.”

  “She’s strong. Confident. Are they old enough to be in the gym?”

  “I have to clear it with their folks, but yeah, if you agree on their talent, I’d like to talk to them about going to the next level.”

  “Maybe six. I don’t like the idea of carrots.” Or maybe Justin just didn’t want to be the carrot.

  “You ready to meet them? Then you can show them how it’s really done.”

  “Okay. Sure. I like kids, you know that.” Back in their heyday, Justin had mentored a lot of children, young swimmers.

  “I know, babe.” It was one of the reasons why he thought Justin would make a great assistant coach.

  “You better not call me that at work. You’ll get in trouble.”

  He nodded; it had just slipped out. “I’m not hiding you, though.”

  “You have to, don’t you?”

  “If someone fires me for being gay, they’ll have a lawsuit against them.” Of course if Justin went back into the sport, he might not want the world to know he was fucking his coach.

  “Good to know.” Justin actually grinned. “They’re on lap eighteen.”

  “Then I guess we better rescue ’em, huh?” He gave Justin a wink and raised his whistle to his mouth.

  Justin went to the wall, leaned, eyes on the water. Chris gave five sharp whistles, his swimmers coming to a stop when they hit the wall. He heard Justin’s soft, husky laugh. His lips twisted. Justin knew his whistle well.

  He headed for the kids. “Hey, guys, I have a treat for you today. This is Justin Pattern, four-time Olympic gold-medal champion.”

  The kids stopped, stared, then the squealing and yammering started.

  “Oh my God. Was he watching us? Did he see us swim?”

  He chuckled. “You can talk to him directly—he doesn’t bite.” At least Justin hadn’t yet.

  “Are you sure? He’s really tall.”

  He grinned over at Justin. “Sit down, J.”

  “Sure, Coach.” Justin snagged a chair, plopped down. “Hey, guys. So you want to be swimmers?”

  Chris grinned and sat on one of the bleachers, watching the kids and Justin interact. Justin was easy, laughing, relaxed with the kids. Fuck, Chris loved this man. Totally and truly. He would do everything in his power to make sure Justin was happy and fulfilled and loving life.

  He’d fucked up completely, shutting Justin out. He’d almost lost the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him, and for what? He’d thought it was for Justin’s own good, to let Justin stand as his own man. Instead, it had clearly left his beautiful boy flailing. He’d spend the rest of his life making up for that mistake, making sure Justin knew he was talented, special, loved. His.

  Justin met his eyes. “I don’t know. I think he’s a pretty good coach.”

  He gave Justin a grin. He’d been caught in his own head. “Only pretty good?” he asked.

  “Yep. He used to be great, onc
e upon a time.” Oh, little shit.

  He shook his head. “Time to get in the water, Justin. Do some work.”

  “Me?” Justin grinned, winked. “Do I remember how to swim?”

  He winked right back. “I don’t know. You used to be great. Once upon a time.”

  “Yep. Long time ago. What lane?”

  “Four of course.”

  Brat. God, Chris loved him.

  Justin stood up, stripped off his sweats. The kids were staring, openmouthed. They were going to get quite a show. His boy had been the best and was still fucking good.

  Justin looked at him. “What are we swimming?”

  “Give me two hundred of each.”

  Let the kids see how fast Justin was, how each stroke was supposed to look. Even out of practice, he’d seen better form from Justin the last couple of days than he’d seen from any of the kids.

  “No problem.” Justin cut into the water and started moving, body working like a machine.

  “You guys watching? Pretty cool, huh?” It always caught his full attention when Justin started swimming.

  Half the kids were fascinated, a few unimpressed, but a couple of them? They were hungry for it. The two that Justin had pointed out, in fact. Chris nodded, pleased.

  His swimmer moved fast. Then Jessica joined him. She couldn’t keep up, but the girl was seriously trying.

  That was their up-and-coming swimmer. She really would do well with Justin in the pool with her. Chris could imagine sending them both to the 2020 Olympics, and Jessica was young enough to go through ’28.

  He could feel that old excitement starting at the base of his spine again. The one he always felt with Justin, but a little sharper now, a little more. Two swimmers. He could have two swimmers at the next Olympics, and then Jessica for the next two after that, maybe another swimmer or two from the next crop of kids. He and Justin could have quite the stable.

  Oh fuck, he was making some long-term plans in his head. He had done this with Justin, years ago, and it had worked, mostly. Right up until he’d let Justin retire and had kicked Justin out of the proverbial nest to help him fly on his own.

  Okay. Enough kicking himself in the ass over that one; he needed to move forward.

  He cheered Jessica and Justin on and nodded at the other kids. “Don’t you want to go up against a champion?”

  A number of them shook their heads, obviously intimidated.

  “Justin would love to have you in the pool with him.”

  Daniel started swimming, along with one of the other girls—Jessica’s best friend. Not very good at swimming but very good at trying.

  “That’s it! If you want it, you have to take it, guys. No one is going to hand out medals because you’d like to have one.”

  Slowly, all the others joined in. Jessica was struggling—they’d all already done laps, and she was reaching muscle failure.

  He blew his whistle as she got near the wall, calling them all out of the pool. He didn’t want to dampen her enthusiasm, and there was no reason she had to keep up with Justin. Yet.

  Justin kept swimming, letting him talk them down, point out Justin’s form. They spent another fifteen minutes there, and then he dismissed them for the day, promising to bring Justin back tomorrow.

  Justin kept swimming, taking one lap after another. Chris let him, sitting on the edge of the pool and kicking his feet.

  Finally the blond head popped up. “So, did they like it?”

  “You’re their rock star, J.”

  “Used to be.”

  “Uh-huh.” He could see the way Justin was glowing from the day.

  “Gonna do a few more. Just to feel them.”

  Chris chuckled. That’s why Justin was a champion. “I’ll swim with you, babe.”

  “Cool.” Justin took off, not worrying about him in the least.

  He didn’t mind. He wasn’t going to try to keep up with Justin, but he enjoyed being in the pool with his swimmer. He had to work out to keep in shape, so it might as well be in the pool. Justin wasn’t a sprinter. He was in for the long races, body meant to conserve energy. He didn’t do badly in the 400s, but it was the 800 and the 1500 where he excelled, where Justin had won his gold medals.

  Chris still couldn’t keep up with him for more than a lap or two, and so he didn’t try. It felt good to be in the water, though, to know that Justin was the person sharing the pool with him. To know that his swimmer, his boy, was swimming again.

  He did half a dozen laps and then rolled to his back to crawl lazily up and down until Justin was ready to come out. The swimming went for almost another hour before he went for the whistle. He thought maybe Justin would have swum all day if he’d let him.

  He found enough breath to blow three times and then sat at the edge of the pool, panting.

  Justin pushed it, doing an extra lap before slowing down.

  “You need to listen to and obey the whistles, J.” He wagged his finger, but despite the joking gesture, he was serious.

  Justin rolled his eyes but nodded. “I was going to.”

  How many times had he heard that? He shook his head. “Going to, shmoing to—you do. That’s an order.”

  Justin treaded water, moving slowly. “So what now?”

  “You need to eat. We can talk about how you want to proceed while we do.”

  “Proceed?” Justin came to the edge.

  “With coaching, with swimming. You’re looking pretty damn good out there.”

  “Thanks.” Justin drew himself up. “You think your bosses will be okay with me working here?”

  “Yeah, I do. Jessica’s parents especially are going to be all for it because she is going to get home today and be glowing with enthusiasm.”

  “She’s got something.”

  “She does. She jumped right into the pool with you too. We can nurture that spark and get her to the 2020 Olympics. I’m sure of it. She’ll be sixteen then, and I bet she makes the squad.”

  “Cool.” Justin headed for the towels, dried off, then gathered the wet ones. “I’m assuming part of what I do is towels?”

  “Yep. Low man on the totem pole and all.” Chris was going to like having an assistant. He would like having Justin as a swimmer even better.

  Justin nodded, snagging his phone and earphones. “So where’s the laundry room?”

  “Follow me.” He wondered how long it would be before Justin started making competing-again noises.

  Chris gave him two months, and if it hadn’t happened by then, he’d put the seed into Justin’s ear. Justin followed, one earphone in, mind somewhere else. Probably still in the pool.

  He showed Justin where the laundry was and settled with one hip against the dryer. “So what do you think? Are you going to enjoy working with me?”

  “Sure. I mean, it’s a little sad to be the towel guy, but at least I’m in the pool.”

  “You’re more than the towel boy, and you know it. Towels are just one of the assistant coach’s duties.”

  “I know.” Justin chuckled and started the washer. “You know me. If I could just swim, I’d just swim.”

  “It’s a shame you retired.” He watched Justin closely as he said the words.

  “I had to. I was getting older. I was tired. I didn’t want to do it anymore, and I….” Justin wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I thought you and me could hook up. I wanted you so bad.”

  Regret lurched through him again at having pushed Justin out of the nest as fully and as hard as he had. “You never said anything.”

  “I was going to, but then… there wasn’t a reason. I mean, you didn’t want me then.”

  “I was just fucking good at hiding it, J.” He went over and put his hands on Justin’s cheeks, made his boy look at him. “I’ve wanted you to be mine for a long time.”

  “I thought I was. I had this stupid idea that….” Justin rolled his eyes, shook his head.

  “No. Tell me. I want to hear what you have to say.”

  “Well, I don’t
want to say it. Just let it go, man.”

  “Justin….” He growled a little.

  “What?” Oh, pushing.

  “Tell me. Or else.” Chris could push too.

  “Or else what?”

  “I’ll have to spank you.”

  “I don’t. This. We’re at work!”

  “We’re the only ones here. And the rules still apply.”

  Justin tugged away from him. “Look, what’s in my head doesn’t belong to you. You only get to know what I want you to. You don’t get to see my heart until I’m ready!”

  “My heart is already yours, Justin. I don’t want to waste any more time worrying over what happened in the past. And I want all of you—the things you tell me and the things you don’t want to tell me.”

  “Too bad. I’m keeping my stupidity to myself. Deal with it.”

  He growled at his boy. “You are not fucking stupid, boy, and neither are your thoughts or emotions.” That was one rule broken.

  Justin glared. “It’s none of your business, but I had a stupid dream that you’d turn around in the hotel after I announced my retirement and tell me you’d just been waiting for me to do it. You’d just wanted to make sure everything was clear before you could kiss me.” Justin snorted. “Instead you told me to make sure I started job hunting, that you needed my room. I was all used up, and it was time for you to find someone else to work with.”

  He’d never—not once—suggested Justin was worthless or used up. Not one time. “I did not say that. Yes, I wanted you to stand on your own. I wanted you to find your own way because I was not going to force myself on you. I was all you knew. How could I justify making a move on you? But I never, ever, not once said that you were either worthless or used up.” He knew he was practically snarling the words, but he was pissed off, dammit!

  “You didn’t even care what the hell happened to me. All those years together and you never once even called me!”

  “I didn’t think I could! Not without begging you to come home to me. And that was clearly a mistake, one that I regret, but you can’t keep punishing us both for it.”

  “Sure I can.” Justin gazed at him, looking ten years older all of a sudden. “I shouldn’t because it’s just stupid and won’t help, but don’t fool yourself. I totally can.”