by Sean Michael
“Yeah, well, I’m not your everyday diver, am I?”
“No. Not by a long shot. You are something special.” Vince slid his hand down to cup Austin’s ass. “And not just for your diving, yeah?”
“Yeah, I’m a kickass trampolinist too.”
Vince laughed. “Sure. And if your diving career doesn’t work out, you can switch sports.” His ass was squeezed. “Sexy brat.”
“Are you trying to seduce me on the trampoline?” Austin scooted closer, begging a kiss.
“I might be.” Vince’s tongue traced his lips, teeth scraping across the bottom one.
“Uh… oh, good. Okay.” He tugged Vince closer.
Vince squeezed his ass again and pressed them together so they were touching knees to shoulders, mouths joining, Vince’s tongue pushing deep. He pulled them both up onto the trampoline, rolling together. Vince’s moan filled his mouth, his strong body pushing against him, rubbing. He slid his hand into Vince’s boxers, started rubbing. Yeah, he wanted some of that.
“Oh, fuck, baby. You think we should do this out here?” Vince’s mouth might be asking, but his body wasn’t, Vince’s hips moving, pushing the hard prick into his palm.
“It’s gotta be dark enough.” Austin started pumping harder.
“It is.” Vince didn’t make any more protests, simply moved with him, mouth leaving a wet trail over his neck.
Oh. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, that felt like a fire, like… like something. “More.”
Groaning, Vince gave him more, biting into his skin, not breaking it, but drawing the blood to the surface—Austin could feel it growing hotter.
Then Vince found his nipples, plucking as Vince’s hot prick leaked into his hand.
His hips rolled, humping the air, about as close to coming as Vince was.
“Soon. God.” Vince pushed harder, jerking now, and closed his hot mouth over Austin’s right nipple, tongue licking the waxed smooth skin.
“Uh-huh. Uh-huh. C’mon.” Austin groaned, shoulders leaving the trampoline. “C’mon.”
“Baby….” Vince’s mouth closed over his shoulder, muffling the loud cry as Vince’s prick throbbed in his hand and heat splashed up over his skin.
He nodded and followed along, the rush of pleasure leaving him shaken and melty.
“Do you have any idea how sexy that is?” Vince asked, rubbing his cheek against Austin’s shoulder, stubble catching on the mark he’d made.
“Hmm?” He wasn’t sure what Vince meant, but he’d go with it.
“You coming without me touching your cock. Sexy as hell.” Vince nibbled his way up to Austin’s mouth. “Come back to bed.”
“Yeah.” Yeah, he thought so. Definitely time for….
He got up, legs buckling under him. Man. Time for a snack.
A snack, then bed.
Vince’s arm went around him, the move almost casual. “You want a sandwich, baby?”
Austin nodded, leaning hard. “Yeah. Yeah, Vince.”
Man. Now.
Vince got him settled in a chair, and in short order had a glass of milk and a ham-and-cheese sandwich in front of him. “Eat.”
He nodded, stared at the sandwich, sort of lost for a second.
Vince took his hand and wrapped it around the glass of milk, bringing it up to his mouth. “Drink.”
Shaking hard enough the milk spilled, he managed to get a few swallows.
Vince helped him get the glass back onto the table and tore off a bit of the sandwich, stuffing it into his mouth before rubbing his back. “Come on, baby. Chew, swallow.”
“S… s… sorry.” God, that tasted good.
Vince’s eyes met his, full of worry and sympathy. “New rule. If you get up in the middle of the night, grab yourself a bite to eat before you do anything.”
“Pop-Tarts?” It was worth a try.
Vince laughed. “Oh, nice try. But no. We’ll get it right.”
The hand on his back slowed, turned into a massage. “And now I know you’re feeling better.”
“Yeah. Yeah, needed a snack.” He finished the sandwich, the milk. “One more glass?”
“You got it.” Vince filled his glass for him. “Drink up, baby. I’m taking you back to bed.”
“I’m with you.” He sucked the milk down, ready to sleep for a month, happy deep down.
Vince’s smile was slow and sweet. “Yeah, you are.”
Chapter Fifteen
VINCE WASN’T sure which one of them was more nervous, him or Austin. He was trying to hide his nerves. Austin needed him to be calm and strong. So he was.
He would have been more convincing if he could have had a cigarette.
Just one.
Pack.
The thing was, he wasn’t nervous about Austin’s dives—his baby had it in the bag. Austin was going to blow them all away.
He was more nervous about how much the past was going to hang over them—he didn’t want any fallout on Austin because of who his coach was.
He pulled the truck up into the UT parking lot—at least they were on home turf today—and turned to Austin. “Ready to go wow ’em?”
“Yup.” Austin nodded, chewing on his bottom lip. “You got some juice and stuff? I get low when I get nervous.”
He nodded. This was the part he wasn’t nervous about—the coaching part; he was made to do this. “In your bag. I’ve got extra stuff in mine.” And a glucose shot, in case Austin hit another drastic low. “Your glucometer’s in there too. Sugars between dives to keep an eye on it—I want any drops caught before you’re on the platform, okay? I’ll be there with you on the deck, so you won’t be alone.”
“Okay. Okay, Coach. I… I’m ready for this, yeah? You’re sure?”
“You’re going to blow them away. You know your dives. All you have to do is go out there and do them, yeah?” He held Austin’s gaze. “You go out there and have fun.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Fun. I got it.” Austin bounced, adrenaline clearly beginning to kick in.
“Yeah, just like that.” He leaned in and gave Austin a hard kiss. “Okay, Austin. Let’s go show them what you can do.”
“Right.” Austin headed in, bag bumping on his skinny ass. Please, God, let the kid dive well.
The place was jumping when they got there, the changing rooms full. He nodded Austin toward the area where the UT divers were changing—somewhat familiar faces. Austin was getting looks, all right—everyone knew everyone, but most of them didn’t know Austin.
Vince was getting some looks of his own, but he nodded at folks and followed his diver.
Jim Halliburton was the first one to walk up to him, and everything in him tensed, until one hand was held out, offered to him. “Vince. Glad to have you back.”
He gave the man a nod and shook his hand. “Thanks. It’s good to be back.” Damn good.
Hell, even the smell of the chlorine and that unique sweat that came up with nerves and competition set his nerves to dancing, only in a good way now.
“Heard that you got a sleeper. Where’d you find him?” Jim had been a talent scout for years, had a nose like a hound.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, Jim.” He smiled at Austin. “Hell, you’re not going to believe it when you see him. He’s something else.”
He couldn’t have kept the pride out of his voice if he’d wanted to—and he sure as hell didn’t want to.
“Yeah? Excellent. I can’t wait. It’s been too long without new blood.”
Vince beamed and shook the man’s hand again. “I’ll catch you later, Jim. I want to hear what you think of my boy.”
“I’ll buy you a beer.”
“It’s a deal.” After a last grin at Jim, he made his way over to Austin, who’d stripped out of his shirt but was still wearing the jeans, keeping the Speedo beneath hidden. “You’ve got to take them off at some point.”
“I can wait ’til closer to the time, Coach.”
“Whatever makes you happy.” He wasn’t going to push Austin out o
f his comfort zone over when he took off his pants.
“You take your sugars?” he asked Austin.
“Yeah. Yeah, they’re good: 110. I’m good.”
Nervous and scared and trying to decide whether or not to snarl at the other drivers—Vince could see it in Austin’s eyes. His diver hated having people stare like he was a freak.
“Come on, strip out of the jeans and let’s go out to the waiting area, get you warmed up.” Give Austin something to do.
Man, he wanted a cigarette. He bet Austin did too.
They’d both be good once Austin did his first dive. He was sure of it.
“I…. Okay. Okay?” Austin asked. Vince had told Austin the drill, told Austin how it was all going to work, but he knew Austin needed to do it.
“Yeah, let me stow my crap and we’ll go out. It’s going to be fine. Just fine. You’ll see.”
“I know.” Stubborn man. Vince loved the set of that chin, the tight lips.
It would carry Austin through. And once he’d done his dives and won this meet, well, then he’d know nobody was laughing, because they’d all be jealous as hell.
“That’s my bab—Austin.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I… I need a smoke in the worst way, Coach.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. As it happens, I don’t have any.”
He tossed his stuff in the locker next to Austin’s. “Let’s hit the deck.”
“Okay. Sure.” Austin shimmied out of his jeans and into a sweat suit. “Warm-ups. Meet. Then beer. I’m ready.”
He gave Austin a quick look-over in between jeans and sweat suit—those Speedos were sexy as hell.
“Sounds good.” Maybe he’d even buy a pack of cigarettes for them to share.
“Yeah. Yeah, come on.” Austin was almost vibrating with it, heading out to where the other divers were bending and stretching.
He followed, a familiar thrill going through him. This was it, what they’d been training for. This was it.
He waited with the other coaches, nodding at the ones he knew. His hand automatically went to his pocket, patting it down. He remembered he wasn’t allowed to smoke on deck before he remembered he didn’t smoke anymore.
Austin did his warm-up, hitting the water easily, the coaches around him starting to take note.
Vince bounced on his toes a little. Oh, yeah, and Austin was only getting started. His baby was going to blow them away.
He went over to Austin as he came up out of the water. “How’s it feel?”
“Good. Good. I… It’s weird, the noise, no music.”
“Get used to it—it’ll be even noisier at the Worlds, the Olympics.” He squeezed Vince’s shoulder. “You’re twenty-eighth. You need to stay loose until then.”
“I hear you. It’s cool. I’m cool.” Austin jiggled, eyes going up to the first divers. “They look like they know what they’re doing….”
“So do you, Austin. This is like at the pool and all these other guys thinking they can dive better than you. All you have to do is prove them wrong.”
“I will. I’ll do my best. I swear. I won’t fuck this up for us.”
“I know you won’t. Remember how much you love doing this, Austin. Don’t let the pressure wipe that out.”
“I… I don’t want to lose our money.”
“You won’t. Listen to me, Austin. You’re pure gold on that diving board. I don’t want you to think about the money. I want you to go out there and do your thing. It felt good, didn’t it? Hitting the water just now?”
“God, yeah. It was fucking awesome. This is great water.”
Christ, he loved the way Austin’s eyes lit up like that.
“Then focus on that.”
“Sure. Sure.” Austin gave his fingers a quick squeeze, then went to look outside, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
It wasn’t long before the meet started, divers waiting their turn, and he called Austin back over.
“Okay, Austin. This is it.”
“Got it. I’m good. I’m cool.” Cool and scared and nervous and ready, Vince knew.
“Go for it. Do yourself proud.”
He slapped Austin on the ass, gave him a wink.
Austin nodded, headed up the ladder.
“Is your boy nervous?” One of the Oklahoma coaches glanced at him. “We’ve got some freshmen here ourselves.”
“He was until he climbed that ladder. Now he’s right in the zone.” Vince nodded toward the ladder, grinning as he watched Austin walk out onto the platform.
Austin looked good—relaxed and sure, easy in his skin. The twists went off exactly right, the somersaults just a touch overshot.
Vince whooped, hands in the air. That was his diver, his baby. He knew the next dive would be even better, that Austin would settle into it as he got into the routine of the meet, as good marks went up on the board, proving he had an honest-to-God place here.
Austin pulled himself up and out of the water, searching for Vince, looking worried until he saw his smile.
He met Austin with a towel. “That was awesome. A little overshot on your somersaults—but wait ’til you see the numbers. You’re one of the front-runners.”
“Yeah? Yeah, it looked good?”
“Oh, yeah. And if you don’t believe me, look over there at the other coaches and divers checking you out.”
“Stop it.” Austin blushed dark, dragging his sweatshirt on.
He laughed. “I didn’t mean like that. That’s just me.” He winked and looked up at the boards, eager to see Austin’s numbers.
Ranging from 8.10 to 8.90, they were solid. Strong. Only ten dives to go.
“Look, Austin. Look at those numbers and then tell me if you belong here.” He turned Austin, pointing up at the board.
Fourth overall, and Vince knew those numbers were going to get better as Austin settled into his groove.
“Fourth isn’t good enough.” Austin grabbed his iPod and headed to perch in a window.
No, it wasn’t. But it wasn’t where Austin was going to finish up, now was it. Not if Vince knew his diver.
And Vince was pretty sure he knew his diver.
Nine more dives proved him right.
Austin was right up there with the front-runners. In fact, the race for first was a real nail-biter, too close to call. The final dives would tell the story.
He was pacing, watching as the twenty-seven divers ahead of Austin each made their final jumps.
Austin was going to have to post nines all the way across the board to take first, but he only needed to match the numbers on his first jump to guarantee himself a third-place finish.
Vince called Austin over from his perch in the window. “How are you feeling? How’s your sugars?”
“’M okay. Jittery. Ready to get this done.” Uh-huh. Okay. Austin needed a bite.
And there were only a few divers left to go ahead of Austin. He pulled a bar of chocolate out of his pocket and broke off a chunk, then handed it over. “Here. Eat this. We’ll do real food once you’ve nailed this last dive.”
“’Kay.” Austin ate it and one more chunk before heading up to do a 5337D dive. Three and a half twists, one and a half somersaults and Austin was in the water, the barest splash.
Cheering hard, Vince jumped and leaped, pumping his hands in the air. Fucking perfect. Absolutely fucking perfect.
He got high fives from some of the other coaches. When a high-value dive like that went off as well as that one had, everyone celebrated.
He went down to the water to meet Austin as he came up out of the water.
“It was okay?” Austin was breathing hard, getting tired. “It felt okay.”
“No, it wasn’t ‘okay’—you nailed it perfectly. You hardly even dented the water.” He laughed and gave Austin a hug, slapping him on the back.
“Fucking A.” Austin gave him a smile, eyes lighting up. “I did it. Finished my first meet.”
“Yeah, and you finished in first place too. That dive was everything y
ou needed to top the leaderboard.”
Vince looked up, waiting for the numbers to flash, to confirm what he and everyone else here knew—Austin had slipped into the top slot.
So when the marks came up, ranging from 8.7 to 9.3, putting Austin in second place, his mouth dropped open. No fucking way.
Austin arched an eyebrow, looked at the numbers, then those lips quirked. “Huh.”
“Assholes.” Vince growled. “They tweaked those numbers so you didn’t take first. God forbid someone they haven’t seen before could actually break into the sport in the top spot. Every fucking coach here knows you deserved better numbers than those.”
“Why should this be any different than anything else?”
He snorted. Austin had a point. “Because I want it to be. Because that last dive was everything everyone here strives for. Because I wanted you to take the top slot, dammit!”
“Yeah, you and me both. I’m going to go put my jeans on. I so need a beer.”
Austin headed back toward the dressing room, nodding a couple times when people congratulated him.
“Your boy not going to stand on the podium? There’s no shame in second.”
“It should have been first, and we both know it.” Still, standing on that podium would help hammer it home to Austin that he had a place here—he belonged. And it wouldn’t be long before the judges had to admit it and give him the marks he deserved.
“He’s got to put the time in. You know that.” The coach from Corpus grinned, slapped his arm. “Great meet.”
“Hey, a perfect dive is a perfect dive, time in or not.” Vince grinned back, and nodded. “Yeah, your boys did pretty damn good too. Y’all going out for a beer after the medals?”
“We are. You coming too?”
“We might, yeah. Let me go get my silver medalist.” He winked and headed back to the change rooms, looking for Austin.
Austin was dressed and packed up, bag slung on one shoulder, unlit cigarette in his lips. “You ready?”
He shook his head and grabbed the cigarette, wishing he’d known earlier that Austin had a stash somewhere—he could have used one. “We’re not going yet, and you need to put your warm-ups back on. They might have cheated you out of the top slot, but you still finished second. You should be up there, getting that medal. This is what we wanted—to prove to them you belong here. Show them it wasn’t a fluke—go out there, pick up your medal, and then we’ll go have that beer and some food with the other divers. One of the other coaches invited us.”