Wayward Son (Jensen Family #3) (12 page)

“Come on
,
” s
he turned away from him and seated herself at the kitchen
table.

Dinner over, Gavin helped clear the plates, stacking them in the
dishwasher, a job he was used to doing at home.

“I can see why the boys at work won’t shut up about your car
,
” Linda Palmer co
mmented as she handed him plates
.
“It is a beauty”

“Thanks
.
”

“Oh to be young again and have a car that simply makes you feel alive
,
” Julian put in.

Gavin pulled his keys out of his pocket and offered them to Julian
.
“Take her for a spin
,
” he told the older
man.

“No, no, I couldn’t
.
” Julian
refused.

“Yeah you can, go on, you know you want to
.
” Gavin urged.

Julian reached for the keys
.
“Hey Linda,
want to know what it f
eels like to be twenty again?” H
e asked his wife.

“Absolutely
,
” she answered.

“Er, Julian?”
Gavin cut in
.
“You break it, you fix it
.
”

“Sure, sure
,
” Julian grasped
his wife’s hand and they scurried towards the front door.

“Watch this
,
” Angel told
Gavin
.
“You could do anything to me right now
and they wouldn’t bat an eyelid
.” S
he stepped into the
hall
,
“Dad?”

“Yes Angel
?
” Julian replied
tersely, struggling with his trainers.

“Gavin and I are going upstairs now, to my room, you know, where boys
aren’t allowed
.
”

“Ok
.
” Julian
Answered.

“And we’ll be all alone in the house, no one here to check up on
us
.
”

“Whatever sweetheart, I tr
ust you. Are you ready Linda?” H
e dragged his wife out of the door, Gavin was laughing as it slammed
shut.

“That was hilarious, all I need to do to get you alone is hand over my
car keys, I should throw you over my shoulder a
nd
carry you up the stairs
.
”

“You will do no such thing
,
” she told him
.
“You can come up and start my laptop
while I get changed though
.
”

Angel’s room was mostly painted white except for one wall which had a
huge mural of a fairy in bold red’s
,
blue’s and
purple.

“That. Rocks
.
” Gavin said.

“Thanks, I painted it, I’m working on designs for the other walls
.
”

“You did this? It’s so fucking cool, you should go to art school or
something
.
”

“I’m looking into it, here
,
” she handed him
her sketch pad
.
“The other
designs are in there, I’ll be right back
.
”

Gavin sat on the edge of her bed and began leafing through the pad,
amazed at the quality of her work. Hearing an aerosol being sprayed he looked
into the full length mirror between the room’s two wind
ows. The fact that the mirror was situated directly opposite the en suite
bathroom hadn’t escaped his notice.

Angel hadn’t closed the door properly and it had swung further open from
the weight of her dressing gown
hanging on the back
. She was down to her
underwear by the time she
noticed. As she reached for the door she glanced at the mirror and saw Gavin’s
eyes trace the entire length of her body, pausing at the Chinese dragon tattoo
that encircled her hips its tail pointing toward her pubic region, its
head tilted towards her navel. She could swear he wasn’t
breathing as she watched him. His lips parted as his gaze fell on her breasts
then his eyes met hers, he swallowed and looked away, she closed the door.
Moments later she came out of the bathroom
.
.

“
Ok
peeping Tom. Get a good look did you?
”
S
he said taking
the sketch pad from him, he jumped to his feet.

“You left the door open, it wasn’t like I meant to look
,
” he defended himself
.
“I’m really glad I did
though
co
z damn girl,
you’
ve got it going on
.
”
H
e drawled in a
fake Deep South accent
. He shook his head.
“This is such a bad idea, me being alone in th
e same room as you.”

“You could always apologis
e
,
” she told him.

“I could
,
” he mused
.
“But I’m not going to, I’m not sorry I
saw you, nice tat by the w
ay
.
”

“You’ve got more front than Brighton
,
do you know that?”

He smiled and shrugged
,
“I’ve been told
I’m bold
,
” he confirmed,
“It happened Angel, we’re both still in one piece, I’m guessing I’m going to
have some very pleasant dreams
,
but we really
should
move on, oh and I promise I won’t tell Quinn
I’ve seen you in your undies
.
”

“You can’t tell anyone about my tattoo either, that’s my secret
.
”

“Cross my heart and hope to die
,
” he vowed.

Angel shook her head at his obvious cheesiness then opened her laptop
and switched it on
,
“You owe me
,
” she said “You know one of my big
secrets therefore you should tell me one of yours
.
”

Gavin once again sat on the edge of her bed
.
“Ok,” he replied somewhat reluctantly
, “i
t doesn’t go out of this room?”

“Cross my heart a
nd hope to die
.
” she grinned.

“Bitch
,
” he whispered,
then, “About three months before I started at the college, I had my eighteenth
birthday
.
”

“What?” S
he plonked herself onto her dressing
table chair
.
“You’re just a
baby
,
” she herself was approaching twen
ty
.
“But how are
you at our college?”

“I got advanced a couple of years, studying comes easily to me, when I
started becoming disruptive in lessons the teachers automatically thought it
was because I didn’t get it, when they realised I was playing up becau
se I was bored
,
they bumped me up a year, they did it again within three
months. I’ve been a straight A
student all my
life. My last two schools were hell, I was treated like a kid by the older
pupils, there were a few exceptions to that of course but for
the most part they made it very clear they didn’t like
having me in their year so I promised myself I wouldn’t tell anyone my age when
I came here, now only you and I know
.
”

“Wow, you haven’t told anyone, not even Kiera?”

“Nope
.
”

“But you act like one of u
s
,
” she breathed.

“I am like one of you
,
” he answered.

“Can I ask you something else?”

“You can try
,
” he nodded.

“How did you get your criminal record?”
S
he asked
.
H
e sighed and reached for his bag, removing his Biology text book before
replying.

“That’s a
question for another time; we should
get some work done
.
”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pried
.
”

“It’s ok, I will answer the question, just not yet, I don’t know how much
I can trust you do I?”

“True, I’ll grab another chair
,
” she left her room, returning
moments later
with a small stool. Gavin was running his fingers through his hair when she
came back, something she had noticed he did when he was becoming irritated
.
I
t was a gesture that was usually accompanied with a frown and an
unconscious squaring of
his shoulders, it was also an
incredibly sexy gesture that stopped her in her tracks every time he did it.
She wanted to touch his hair, it was always so clean and shiny
,
with inviting natural waves that on
occasion would stick out at odd angles causing Ga
vin
to frown and pull faces as he tried to catch sight of the err
ant wave and
tame it.

Placing the stool beside her, she beckoned for him to si
t
next to her. He directed her to a
website “Genetics for Dummies
,
” and they set
to work.

Gavin managed to lose h
i
mself in genetics; he had to.
B
eing this close to Angel would have driven him mad if he hadn’t had s
omething else to concentrate on.

“So if you follow those basic rules you should be fine
,
” he said pointing to the monitor, he
turned to her, she was lookin
g directly at him
.
“Angel, you aren’t even looking at the
screen
.
”