by Michelle Day
Chapter 17
Gavin arrived at the health club a little early and wasted no time in getting changed and jumping into the pool to wait for Liana. The little girl hadn’t progressed as well as expected and Linda had suggested to Gavin and the child’s mother that it would be advantageous for her to have one on one lessons with Gavin so instead of using the training pool, Liana and Gavin had their own sectioned off area in the shallow end of the main pool.
Tanya, Vicki and Rachel, the three receptionists, greeted Angel briefly then went back to their poorly disguised drooling.
“What’s so interesting?” Angel asked, leaning over the desk.
“Gavin’s shift just started,” Rachel replied pointing to the pool as Gavin stood up in the shallow end and greeted his pupil. “It has to be illegal for any guy to be that hot.”
“He’s even hotter when he’s wet,” sighed Vicki.
“He’s just a guy,” Angel put in to disbelieving looks.
“He may be just a guy, but he’s a hot, single guy.” Tanya replied.
“Who doesn’t give us the time of day.” Rachel added.
“Maybe he’s gay,” Tanya mused.
“I don’t think so,” Angel interjected. “That’s not how it seems at school anyway,” she bluffed, she’d let them know before she left that Gavin was hers. “You have a customer,” she turned to face Novak as he came through the door.
“Holy shit, he’s huge,” Tanya whispered.
“And gorgeous,” Rachel replied.
“He’s a total shit,” Angel told them. “Hi Novak.”
“Ah Angel, long time no see.” he smiled.
“Why are you here?” she asked, allowing Novak to wrap her in a hug, she whispered, “don’t let the girls know I’m seeing Gavin just yet.”
“I came to find you,” he released her. “And I fancied a swim, are you going to join me?”
“Not today, the gym calls,” she replied.
“Shame, I like the way you look in a bikini.”
“You aren’t too bad in trunks yourself,” she flirted. “It’s just such a pity that you err on the side of arsehole.” She smiled.
“Bitch.” Novak threw at her as he turned to face the three young ladies watching the exchange. “Good afternoon ladies,” he turned on his heart stopping smile.
“Hi,” chimed the three flustered females.
“Novak, this is Vicki, Tanya and Rachel, girls, meet Luke Novak.”
The three girls vied for the best spot behind the desk in order to get right in front of him.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Novak crooned.
Angel left him to it and made her way to the gym, stealing a glance at Gavin as she went, the comments from the present yummy mummies about his physique and the bruises on his shoulders didn’t pass her by and she was grinning like a Cheshire cat as she entered the gym.
Gavin caught the collective intake of breath from the watching women and glanced up, all eyes were on the other end of the pool, he turned to see Novak sauntering his way to the deep end, his rock hard abs tensed in order to show them off at their best. Gavin smiled and shook his head, his friend would forever be the king of posers when there were women present. Novak saw Gavin’s smile and returned it, along with the fist of rock before diving into the water. Gavin turned back to Liana who had also witnessed the stares and the smile exchanged between the two boys.
“Is he your friend?” she asked.
“He’s my brother,” Gavin replied. “Let’s get on shall we? You’re doing really well, maybe next week we’ll try a bit of front crawl.”
With the lesson over and Liana handed safely back to her mother, Gavin unclipped the floating rope line and put it away before joining Novak and being drawn into a friendly speed competition as they swam laps.
Novak gave up first, “I have to give up smoking,” he panted, treading water. “You’re pretty good with that kid, I’m impressed”
“Cheers,” Gavin answered. “I’m getting out, I’ve started to wrinkle.”
“That’s the best excuse yet.” Novak called as Gavin glided away.
As Gavin stood and stepped out of the pool he turned back to his friend, “I’m sorry, which one of us still has a girlfriend?” he asked.
“Ok, point taken,” Novak stood in the shallow end. “Talking of girlfriends, yours appears to be waiting for you,” he gestured towards the waiting area.
Angel came down the steps that separated the pool from the viewing area, a towel in her hand, she stopped on the fourth step down, Gavin had reached the step below her.
“Hi,” she smiled and handed him the towel.
“Hi,” he replied. “Can I take you home?” he asked.
“My home or yours?”
“Er, wherever you want to go,” he replied. “But I’d prefer it if you came to mine.”
“Oh,” her smile broadened, she lent closer to him. “Why would that be?”
“Because that way I get to go down on you,” he whispered, enjoying her blush.
“You only want to take me home so that you can have sex with me,” she clarified.
“I don’t want sex; I just want to eat you.”
Angel giggled then closed the gap between their lips, making him stretch to kiss her.
During this exchange, Novak had wrapped his towel around his hips, and headed towards the now stunned young ladies occupying the reception desk. Since it was evident that Gavin would be with Angel yet again this evening, he figured the least he could do would be to try and hook up with one of these pretty young things.
“At least now we know how Angel knows he’s not gay,” Rachel said.
“What a bitch, she let us sit here and make fools of ourselves drooling over him while all along she’s his girlfriend,” Tanya answered.
“I thought she was seeing Quinn?” Vicki asked.
“Was, past tense.” Tanya said.
“Ladies?” Novak interrupted them. “I appear to have lost my locker key; I don’t suppose you have a spare?”
Vicki got to him first. “Sure,” she told him. “I’ll get the master set and join you in the locker room.”
Novak walked away thinking And the winner is Vicki.
Angel and Gavin turned a few heads as they walked through the college corridors hand in hand. Gavin left her at the door of her first lesson and headed off to his, telling her would meet he at her locker at morning break.
The morning flew and before she knew it, Angel had her locker open and was loading her art equipment into her bag. She felt someone stop next to her and fully expecting it to be Gavin she turned smiling in his direction.
“Hi Angel,” Tim, one of Quinn’s closest friends was where Gavin should be.
“What do you want Tim?” she asked, she liked Tim, he had always been nice to her and had put Quinn in his place a few times and perhaps her tone was a little harsh.
“Quinn’s been trying to call you, says you won’t pick up. He’d like you to call him.”
“Well I’d quite like him to drop dead.” Angel shrugged. “But I guess we don’t always get what we want.”
“He says he’s sorry.” Tim persisted.
“I don’t care.” Angel replied.
“I don’t believe everything he told me.” Tim said.
Angel stopped stuffing her bag and turned to look at him. “You don’t?”
“No, I know I’m his friend, but his ideas and opinions have been a bit off lately, I only agreed to come and talk to you so that I could make sure you were ok. He told me he rescued you from Gavin, is that right?”
“Try turning that statement around,” she huffed.
“Hey sweetheart, sorry I took so long getting here.” Gavin appeared on her other side, he scowled at Tim. “Are you ok?” he asked her squeezing her arm.
“I’m fine,” she leant back against him, then addressed Tim. “Do you honestly think I’d be with Gavin if he’d beaten me up?”
“No.” Tim replied, stepping back
from Gavin’s scowl. “I’m sorry I disturbed you, I hope you didn’t mind.”
“I mind.” Gavin spoke. “You and the rest of Quinn’s followers need to stay well away from Angel.”
“I’ll spread the word.” Tim replied before turning to his own locker a small way down the row.
“Tosser.” Gavin breathed still scowling in the other boys’ direction.
“Tim’s ok, he’s not like the others that hang around Quinn.”
Gavin stepped around in front of her, pulling her into his arms and resting his cheek against hers, closing his eyes, he breathed in the scent of her freshly washed hair before lightly pressing his lips to her cheek. Angel’s fingers slipped into the neck of his shirt and prised open a few extra buttons so that she could place her hand on his chest as he held her and feel the warm soft skin over his heartbeat.
Tim watched the tender embrace and knew without a doubt that the story Quinn had told him was complete and utter bullshit. Gavin wasn’t the bad guy in all this which had Tim wondering if Quinn had completely lost his mind.
As Gavin and Angel headed out to the quad, the rugby coach called his name, stopping the couple in the doorway.
“Glad I caught you,” Coach said as he approached. “We have a game on Wednesday.”
“I know,” Gavin grinned, coach wasn’t one for getting to the point quickly.
“I’ve been thinking, as Quinn isn’t here and he isn’t match fit anyway, it’s about time you stepped up and took your place as Captain. What do you think?”
“I think that’s an outstanding idea.” Gavin’s grin broadened, Angel squeezed his hand.
“I thought you might,” Coach returned the smile. “I expect you in the gym tomorrow lunch time and all day Wednesday, you’re mine, I need you and the rest of the team fully prepared for the match in the afternoon.”
“Yes coach.” Gavin agreed.
Once in the quad, Angel turned to him, “This is great.”
“Yeah, it does mean that I won’t be able to hang out with you tomorrow lunchtime though.”
“I can always have a sly work out at lunchtime and watch you.”
“Yeah, you could. Are you coming to my band rehearsal this lunch time?”
“Try stopping me.”
They joined Kiera, who spent the rest of their morning break berating Gavin for introducing her to Novak, it didn’t take long for Gavin to get annoyed. He snapped at her and reached for his headphones. Apart from Art, all of Angel’s other lessons were with Gavin which meant they arrived at the music room together.
The rest of the band greeted them warmly then set about running through a few tracks while the present girlfriends sat back and watched. Then they all gathered around Gavin’s laptop as he showed them footage of the type of music he had been writing when he had been in the band with Novak and James.
At the end of the day, Gavin took Angel to his house. Coming around the car, he grabbed her and pulled her into a deep kiss
“I’ve wanted to do that all day,” he said. “Being near you at college is torture.”
“You’re going to have to learn some self control little boy,” she mocked.
“I have plenty of control, I’ve hardly touched you all day.”
“Bollocks, you touched me at every available opportunity.”
They were in the kitchen now where they found a note on the table telling them that Paul was in the London office and would be home late, Suzanne had gone shopping and Novak was on a date and not to expect him back at all that day. Paul had also noted that someone would be coming to survey the pool and quote for its refurbishment and that he was sure Gavin could cope with that.
“Shame, we have the house to ourselves,” he grasped her hand.
“Shouldn’t you be resting up for your big game?” she said allowing him to lead her to his room.
“I should but hey, I can do that tomorrow,” he replied. “But if you don’t want to, it’s not a problem,” he added.
“I never said I didn’t want to,” she reached for his shirt front. “You should wear shirts more often, they are much easier to take off than t-shirts,” she pushed him back onto the sofa and straddled his lap, leaning in to kiss him.
Gavin wasted no time in undressing her, making her stand so that he could remove both her jeans and his, then pulling her back onto his lap, entering her swiftly. Angel kissed him again before sitting up.
“I can’t do this,” she said. “I feel really awkward this way,” she explained, Gavin reached for her and pulled her into his chest, wrapping his arms around her, he turned so that she was on the sofa and he was on his knees in front of her.
“Better?” he asked, she nodded wriggling her hips closer to his giving him encouragement he really didn’t need.
Angel got a stony greeting from her parents when she got home, with her flushed face and dishevelled appearance, it was more than obvious that she hadn’t gone to Gavin’s house to study, she grabbed something to eat then disappeared to her room for the evening, texting Gavin to tell him she would meet him at college the following day in order for him to avoid a lecture from Julian.
Paul surveyed the missing tiles and the large crack in the liner of the pool when he returned home that evening.
“It’s no wonder the bloody thing leaked,” he commented to Suzanne.
“How long will it take to repair?” she asked.
“I’m going to have the whole lot stripped out and start again,” he told her. “They reckon about four weeks.”
Gavin walked down the now dry swimming pool to join them in peering at the damage. “Four weeks?” he asked.
“I’m afraid so.” Paul replied.
“Sweet, I don’t have to clean the pool for four weeks,” Gavin grinned then ducked as Paul swiped at his head. “That’s a bit of a bummer Dad, I’ll have to use the pool at the health club or sneak into the college one.”
“I’m sorry it’s inconveniencing you.” Paul commented.
“Seeing as there will be someone here working, do you think it would be a good idea to have a roof put over the hot tub?”
“Doesn’t that defeat the object of it being open to the elements?” Paul asked.
“Well, yeah, but seeing as it is directly under my window, which I always have open by the way, it may deflect some of the sound coming from it when you two get your groove on in the middle of the night.” Gavin replied.
“You can hear that? Oh my God.” Suzanne blushed.
“Actually, most of the time, I get to see it as well because I have to get up to shut my window.” Gavin told her.
Suzanne gasped. “Oh my God,” she said again before turning to her husband. “Get a roof put over the hot tub,” she told him. “In fact, enclose the whole bloody thing, how embarrassing,” she breathed, her embarrassment not helped by the fact that both men were now sniggering. “It’s not funny,” she told Paul.
“Come on Suzie, you’ve never been shy and it’s not as if Gavin’s shocked that I like to have sex with my hot wife,” he laughed.
“Just for that comment, you can have the hot tub moved from under his window to somewhere more concealed.” She strode away.
“Sorry Dad, looks like you’re in the dog house.” Gavin laughed.
“That’s ok, does leave me with the dilemma of where to put the bloody hot tub and still keep it close enough to the house so that we don’t have to get dressed to get to it.”
“Too much information Dad.” Gavin pulled a face.
Angel didn’t see Gavin until lunch on Tuesday and even then she did only get to see him as she warmed up on the static bike that overlooked the weight benches in the college gym. The view she had, however, was most inviting as Gavin was on the bench directly below her, his sleeveless muscle shirt soaked with sweat and clinging to his body as he lay on his back pushing the bar and weights above him, while one of his team mates stood at his head, ready to catch the bar in case Gavin’s arms gave out.
“How much are you b
ench pressing?” Coach stopped by Gavin.
“175 pounds,” Gavin gasped, “twenty four reps,” he finished.
“Not bad.” Coach consulted his list of player statistics. “That’s just over your last recorded weight, let’s see if we can have you lifting 250 pounds by the end of the summer.”
Gavin rested the bar in its stand and sat up. “No can do Coach, I have other commitments and need to keep my weight down.”
“If you wish to continue leading this team, you need to bulk up and work on your speed.” Coach replied. “The other commitments can be taken again at a later date.”
Gavin wiped the sweat from his face and glanced up at Angel before replying, “I’ve already told Coach Bates that I would be with him for the entire season,” he said referring to his swimming coach.
“Then I suggest you tell him that you are no longer able to do that.” Coach Byrne replied “Why did you commit to the swim team anyway?”
“I wasn’t Captain at the time so it didn’t matter.”
“It matters now, so you need to drop swimming. Just because the rugby season is almost over it doesn’t mean you can lay off the weights and training you know and I suggest you also distance yourself from personal distractions,” he looked over to Angel.
“I’m not distracting him,” she protested. “I just happen to be here at the same time as he is.”
“Hmm,” Coach muttered, he turned back to Gavin. “I want to weigh you.”
“Yes coach.” Gavin acquiesced.
“Hit the showers boys.” Coach Byrne called as he led Gavin over to the scales.
They had the remainder of the days lessons together then Gavin dropped Angel at her house before returning home and spending a quiet evening with Novak, finally going to bed early and watching television. He was dozing his way through a repeat of C.S.I when his mobile rang.
“Hello gorgeous,” he smiled into the phone.
“Hi,” Angel was also smiling. “I enjoyed watching you in the gym today.”
“I bet you did,” he laughed. “Did you enjoy Coach having a go about my weight too?”
“No, of course not but I do think he’s right. You said yourself that Rugby is your dream and if that means you have to put on more muscle then that’s what you have to do.”