Angel (4 page)

'You look great in everything,' Gemma told her.
'I think you should get them all.'

'Don't be stupid, I can't afford all this!' Angel
said.

'Get a store card then,' Gemma whispered
wickedly.

'No way!' Angel exclaimed. 'I'll never be able to
pay it back.'

'Come on, you got some birthday money, didn't
you?' Gemma persisted.

'Yeah, but I was supposed to be saving it for art
school,' Angel replied.

'Do you really want to go around all summer in
your jeans and crappy old T-shirts when you could
be wearing these?' Gemma held up a pair of mini
silver shorts that Angel had especially fallen in love
with. 'Or this?' Gemma picked up a cute green and
white polka dot boob tube. 'Or this?' Gemma
reached for a slinky green shirt-dress. 'And how
could you walk away from this?' she said finally,
picking up a gorgeous little red pleated mini and
waving it in front of Angel.

'You bastard!' Angel joked, knowing that she was
not going to be able to resist. But she didn't get too
carried away, choosing items that she could wear in
the day time – well, except for the silver shorts,
which would be hard to get away with except in a
club, but she just had to have them.

'Oh my God!' Angel exclaimed as they walked
out of the shop and into the late-afternoon
sunshine. 'I can't believe I just bought all those
things.' Plus, Gemma had insisted she buy a string
of red beads, a long gold chain, several bracelets
and a sweet scarlet handbag. 'I need a drink! Let's
get a beer.'

'All in good time,' Gemma promised. 'But first
we'll go and see Mum and get you that manicure
she promised you for your birthday. And then,
Cinderella, we will get a beer.'

That night as Angel curled up in bed, Prince
snoring gently on her bedroom floor, she couldn't
help smiling at how the day had turned out. At the
salon Jeanie had cracked open a bottle of wine to
celebrate Angel's birthday and the three of them
had gossiped, giggled and bitched away a couple of
hours. Mainly about Mel, who used to go to Jeanie's
salon until one day she'd accused one of the staff of
burning her during a bikini wax and threatened to
sue, even though there had been nothing wrong
with the temperature; it was just the kind of person
Mel was.

'He's bound to leave her soon,' Jeanie assured
Angel, knowing all about her obsession.

'He definitely will if he sees Angel in her silver
shorts!' Gemma exclaimed. 'You've got to wear
them next time we go clubbing.'

Angel was glad Jeanie and Gemma had such
confidence in her ability to attract Cal. Even though
she felt better than last night, she was still smarting
from his rejection. Just before turning off her light
she pulled open the drawer in her bedside cabinet
and reached for the photo of Cal, unable to go to
sleep without one final look at him.

In the weeks that followed, Angel tried to put all
her energy into completing her art coursework and
preparing for her final exams. She so wanted to do
well. Frank still insisted he wasn't going to fund
her. All her life he had drummed into her the
importance of not getting into debt and Angel
worried that if she took out a student loan, she
might never be able to repay it, especially doing a
subject as uncertain as art. Gemma had no such
worries. Her parents were going to pay for her to
do a beautician's course.

'Your mum and dad are well tight,' Gemma told
her friend. 'Can't they see how talented you are?'

Angel shrugged; the two of them had talked
about this so many times before, and there really
wasn't anything more to be said. Her parents were
never going to change their mind.

But even though she was working hard, and when
she wasn't working she was off riding, she couldn't
help thinking of Cal. She frequently dreamt of him –
intense erotic dreams where he didn't push her
away. Now that she had kissed Cal, her desire for
him had increased so it was like a physical ache at
times. She tried to avoid going to places he was likely
to be, but Brighton wasn't that big a city and she
often saw him when she was out clubbing. He'd be
with Mel, who clamped herself to his arm and
wouldn't let him out of her sight, and even if Angel
was certain that he'd seen her, he never came over
and said hello, so she kept her distance.

Angel and Gemma couldn't stand Mel. She was
always dressed head to toe in designer labels
because her property developer daddy was loaded
and always gave his little princess what she wanted.
Mel was no stunner and it took a lot of effort and
money to get her there. She went to the hairdresser's
twice a week to get her long blonde hair
blow-dried, she was permanently tanned because
she made frequent trips to a spray booth, her nails
were fake square-tipped French-manicured, her
teeth had been bleached and she was never seen
without full make-up. She was stick thin with large
boobs and although she denied it, Gemma and
Angel were convinced they were silicone. 'You just
can't be that skinny and have tits,' Gemma was fond
of pointing out. She and Cal had been together for
nearly a year and everyone knew that she was
desperate for him to marry her. Neither Gemma
nor Angel could understand what Cal saw in her
and questioned Tony at length to try and find out.
But Tony insisted she was gorgeous, what was their
problem?

'It must be her big tits,' Gemma said to Angel.
'What else could it be?'

'Well, it's not her personality, is it?' replied
Angel. Mel was the most uptight, high-maintenance
woman the girls had ever met, and Angel laughed,
imagining what it must be like going out with
someone like that. Actually, Angel did have a
theory about why Cal was with Mel, but it wasn't
one she really wanted to share with anyone, not
even Gemma. She believed Cal was with Mel
because her money represented success and
security to him. All his life Cal had struggled to
escape his own impoverished upbringing and put
as much distance as possible between his alcoholic
mother and himself. Being with Mel probably made
him feel safe and in control.

'Perhaps she's really good at blow jobs,' Gemma
giggled.

'Oh, come on, can you really imagine Her
Majesty going down on anyone? She'd be too
worried about smudging her make-up,' Angel
replied, exploding into giggles herself.

'Oh my God, Angel,' Gemma managed to splutter
through her laughter. 'You actually cracked your
face!'

It was true – since her birthday, when she'd got
off with Cal, Angel hadn't felt much like laughing.
But gradually the humiliation had worn off and
something good had come of the experience. It was
as if a light had been switched on inside her and
now, instead of wanting to wear shapeless clothes
that hid her body, Angel chose more revealing
outfits. She started to take more care over her
appearance and wore make-up, and because she
was so beautiful even just applying mascara and a
bit of lip gloss made her look absolutely stunning.
As a result, every time she went out she was
pursued by men wanting to buy her drinks and ask
her out. But she never saw anyone who interested
her enough – no one seemed as special as Cal.

That is, until she started working as a lifeguard on
Brighton beach. She had left college and had got a
place to study art. The thought of working in a call
centre or an office filled her with dread, so when she
saw the lifeguard job advertised, she jumped at the
chance. At least that would be the summer sorted out
and maybe something else would pop up by the
autumn. She had always been a strong swimmer and
easily passed the test. On her first day, she found
herself face to face with an extremely handsome man.
He was very nearly as hot as Cal, with Mediterranean
good looks, broad shoulders and a warm smile.

'Hi, I'm Juan,' he said, and to her great surprise
bent down and kissed her on each cheek. Laughing
at her reaction he explained, 'It's how we say hello
in Spanish.'

'I'm Angel,' she managed to reply.

'Yes, I think you are!' He gazed at her and Angel
stared back, taking in his chocolate-brown eyes and
good-looking face and then sneaking a look at his
very toned and tanned body. She was now
very
glad
she hadn't taken a job in a call centre!

She quickly found out that Juan was studying
English at one of the many language schools in
Brighton and planned to open his own bar back
home in Malaga. He was twenty, easygoing,
extremely flirtatious and exactly what Angel
needed. Halfway through their first day together,
Tim, their long-haired, hippy supervisor, came
over and told them there would be a rescue
simulation later in the day and he wanted Angel
and Juan to take part.

'What do you think will happen?' Angel asked
Juan.

'You drown, I rescue you and then I get to give
you the kiss of life.'

Angel giggled; if any of the English lads she knew
had said that it would have sounded dead cheesy,
but coming from Juan, with his delightful broken
English, it actually sounded incredibly sexy. If he
was going to be the rescuer then she wouldn't mind
doing a bit of drowning.

The pair flirted their way through the rest of the
day. The weather wasn't particularly hot so the
beach wasn't crowded and there really wasn't much
to do. Angel had imagined herself spending her
days gazing out to sea and dreaming about Cal, but
there wasn't a chance of that with Juan, who,
desperate to practise his English and flirt with
Angel, talked non-stop. He wanted to know everything
about her and expressed complete surprise
when she let on that she didn't have a boyfriend.

'I cannot believe it!' he said. 'In Spain, this would
never happen! Such a beautiful girl, are these
English men blind?' Angel couldn't help laughing
at him.

At four o'clock, Tim turned up along with some
of the other lifeguards.

'Right then, Angel, I want you to swim out five
metres and pretend to get into difficulty. Juan, you
will then sound the alarm and rescue her, following
the procedures we've learnt.'

Angel quickly stripped down to her red swimsuit
and walked down to the sea; there she kicked off
her trainers and dived straight in. It was bloody
freezing! She gritted her teeth and swam out. Once
she thought she had gone far enough she stopped,
turned to face the beach and started treading
water, shouting out, 'Help!' Immediately Juan tore
off his T-shirt and ran into the water.

Top banana!
thought Angel. Even from a distance
Juan had the most gorgeous body.
He can rescue me
any time!

Juan quickly swam out to Angel with a very
impressive front crawl. Angel grinned at him but he
was obviously playing things by the book as he told
her not to panic, ordered her to hold onto the float
and started towing her back to the shore. As soon as
he could stand he scooped her into his arms and
carried her onto the pebbles. He laid her gently on
the ground and put her in the recovery position.
Then he leant over her and started massaging her
heart, put his finger into her mouth as if to remove
any obstruction and knelt down and put his lips
against hers. Angel froze, feeling embarrassed by
the other lifeguards eyeballing them, but also
intrigued. She closed her eyes, trying to imagine
that they weren't surrounded by ten other people
and that Juan was going to kiss her properly. Then
Tim called out, 'That's it, well done,' and pressed
the button on his stopwatch.

Rather reluctantly, Juan took his mouth away
from Angel's and helped her to her feet, putting a
towel round her shoulders as by now she was
shivering.

'That was pretty much perfect, Juan; I hope the
rest of you were watching that. Thanks, Angel, for
doing your bit. You'd better have a hot shower, you
look frozen!'

That night Angel went on and on to Gemma
about how gorgeous Juan was, and how much she
fancied him.

'More than Cal?' Gemma teased.

'Differently to Cal,' Angel replied. 'Juan's my
holiday romance and maybe something more, who
knows?'

The two girls sat on Gemma's bed as she experimented
putting make-up on Angel for her
beautician's course. Now that she had finished
college, Angel spent even more of her time at
Gemma's. There just didn't seem to be a good
reason to go home. She would only have to put up
with her dad nagging her about taking a proper
subject. Though, of course, she only got to spend
time with Gemma when she wasn't out with Tony.
Luckily for Angel, his sports physiotherapy course
kept him extremely busy, so she still got to see lots
of her friend.

To her surprise, Angel was loving the summer.
Suddenly they were in the grip of a heatwave and
while so many other workers were trapped inside,
longing to be outside, Angel got to spend all her
time at the beach in the company of the delicious
Juan. After a week of working together, he asked
her out for a drink after work. Angel had no
hesitation in agreeing. He was such good fun to be
with and she loved the way he made her feel so
good about herself – he was always complimenting
her, telling her how
bella
she was. As soon as their
shift finished Angel sneaked into the toilets of one
of the many bars lining the sea front and changed.
She put on a tiny black halter-neck dress that gave
maximum exposure to her tanned back and legs
and a pair of high wedge sandals that made her legs
look even longer. A quick coating of mascara and
liner and a slick of berry-coloured lip gloss and she
was ready. Juan looked suitably impressed as she
stepped out of the bar. He had swapped his work
clothes for a pair of faded jeans and a white T-shirt
and dark glasses. Angel was expecting that they
would hang out by the sea, but Juan had other
ideas.

'You deserve to go somewhere special,' he said
and he whisked her off to the chic Hotel du Vin for
champagne cocktails.

'God!' Angel exclaimed, looking at the price list.
'Can you afford these?'

He shrugged. 'My mother sent me some extra
money. I want to spend it on you, Angel.'

Two cocktails later, Angel was enjoying herself
enormously. They were flirting nicely and, almost
imperceptibly, Juan had edged closer to her and
put his arm round her shoulder.

'Why don't we go back to my flat, Angel? I really
want to kiss you and I don't think the people here
will approve.'

Angel smiled – she liked his directness and she
wanted to kiss him too.

As soon as they got outside Juan pulled her into
a doorway and started kissing her passionately.
Good
, Angel thought to herself,
very good. Eight out of
ten
.

Back at his flat the kissing continued and the
caresses started. Juan ran his hands all over Angel's
body, sending shivers of delight rippling through
her. He undid the halter-neck top of her dress and
started caressing her breasts, first with his hands,
then he kissed her nipples, gently sucking them so
Angel felt a white-hot flame of desire ignite within
her. As he kissed her nipples he started caressing
her through the silk of her thong. It was exquisitely
pleasurable and Angel found that she didn't want
him to stop, and she helped him slip off her
underwear. He showered kisses on her stomach
and moved further and further down her body,
ending up his journey between her legs.

'Oh God,' Angel moaned. It was so good, all her
being was concentrated on the meeting of his
tongue against her flesh. She didn't want him to
stop and gave in to the sheer pleasure. Minutes
later, he brought her to the most intense and
satisfying orgasm of her life.

When she came to, he was clearly ready for
more, and she felt so languid and satisfied that she
couldn't resist running her hands all over his body.
She pulled off his T-shirt and started kissing his
chest.

'Angel, I have, how you say, preservatives?'

'You what?'

'Condoms.'

'Oh.' She was momentarily jolted out of her postorgasmic haze.
It was all happening a bit too fast. 'There is something I can do for you,'
she said, reaching down and unbuttoning his jeans and moving down the bed.

'Hiya, Angel, we're having a few beers down there,
by the West Pier, d'you want to join us?' Gemma
and Tony stood in front of Angel and Juan's
lifeguard tent.

'That would be great, we finish in ten minutes,'
Angel replied.

It was the end of another blisteringly hot
summer's day. Even at six p.m. the sun still felt
strong and the beach was packed. Angel's hair was
full of natural bronze highlights from the sun and
she was a deep golden brown. Instead of her all-in-one
costume she had taken to wearing a tiny
red bikini.