Into The Team (10 page)

He didn’t go after him.

Monday’s training went by without issue. The lads showered and changed afterwards, and headed back to the house where they ate and rested. The pool hadn’t been filled, so no one was swimming. Todd had an early night.

Tuesday, his nerves had settled, and on his way to training that morning he felt good again and had all but forgotten about last week’s odd moments.

But when lunchtime arrived, the boss summoned him.

“Charming young lady you have,” Aiden remarked.

“Thanks, boss.”

After tapping a few keys on his keyboard, studying the screen for a second, the man relaxed in his chair and gazed across the desk.

“Two weeks tomorrow, we have a charity match against Eastend United reserve team. And I’m thinking of putting you on the bench for that game.”

Todd stopped breathing, wondering if he’d heard those words clearly. “You want me on the bench for the game?”

Aiden nodded as he gazed through the window. “It’ll be an opportunity to see how you respond to a stadium full of people,” he said. “And I want to see if you can filter out the chants and whistles and cheers and all the other noises a crowd can dish out.” He returned his gaze to focus on Todd. “Not everything that comes from the crowd is positive.”

Todd smiled, he knew even the home fans could be brutal to the players.

“So, do you think you’re up for it?”

Before he could think about it, Todd said yes. “It’s what I want boss.”

“Good.” Aiden smiled. He got up and stood by the window. A second later he gestured for Todd to do the same.

Todd stood beside him.

“Jason Collier’s out there now.” Aiden nodded to where the man jogged around the pitch.

“I want you to train with him for an hour this afternoon. Don’t worry about getting back to the house; I’ll arrange a car to take you.”

Todd swallowed, took a breath. His stomach had tightened again.

“Ok, boss,” he said, keeping his tone neutral.

“Get to it,” Aiden said without looking at him.

Outside the office, he stopped to breathe. He knew what this meant. This was a test of all the boss had said to him on Friday. They were not just empty words. It was time to show the boss that he’d made his decision about the club, about what he was willing to handle.

He walked slowly down the stairs to the ground floor, his legs quivering as if he were back in school and some tough kid had threatened him with a schoolyard beating. When he reached the bottom, the lads came out of the locker room, ready to head off back to the house. They didn’t notice him as they turned to the main exit.

Standing against the wall of the corridor, he frowned, trying to tell himself this was good news. The boss wanted him to succeed; he wanted him on the first team. It was no secret that managers used charity matches to exercise the young rookies, and now Todd had his chance to step out in full kit, in front of the fans and cameras and all those eyes watching from pubs and sitting rooms. He couldn’t believe it was coming so soon.

A grin broke on his face and for a moment his legs seemed to find their strength again. But it lasted only a short time. As he gazed through the doors leading out to the field where Jason Collier was chipping balls into one of the nets, he told himself this was what he wanted and that nothing bad could happen.

Pressing his lips tight, he focused on the man he had to face and sprinted across the field. The boss would be up there at his window watching him, so this was no time to fuck up and lose it like a sissy. It was time to be a man.

Although the tension in his gut swam like a shoal of fish, he knew he could turn that into adrenaline for the next hour and have a good session. He was, after all, training with a first class player.

“How’s the ankle?” he asked with a friendly smile when he reached Jason.

Jason didn’t reply but tapped the ball up and down rapidly with the toe of his boot as if to demonstrate it was in full working order. He launched a speedy cross to Todd, forcing him to leap up for a header. He slammed it back down to Jason’s feet.

“Good stuff.” The man nodded and frowned.

Without further chit-chat, they sprinted up and down the field, passing the ball to each other in rapid succession. With the ball in play, it was easy for Todd to forget about the situation, and right now he felt like he was out there on the field of the stadium, getting ready to play for goal. He lost all his concerns as he and Jason played a few tackles against each other.

Wayne and Craig joined them ten minutes later. The four men paired up and went head to head in a frantic half hour of attack and defense. The adrenaline flowed well, and Todd knew if he kept up his progress he’d be invincible for the charity match.

They cooled down with a jog before heading inside.

Todd felt settled. The extra training had given his head that melted, can’t-be-bothered type feeling, and he undressed securely with Jason and the others. They hit the showers talking about groin strains. Josh McKenzie had suffered one during the game on Saturday, and could be on the bench next week.

There were no tactile moves during the showers. The four men washed and rinsed and talked the usual man talk.

Wayne and Craig finished and headed out.

“Taking a bath?” Craig asked them.

“No.” Jason shook his head as he rinsed. “I think I’ll sit in the steam room.”

Jason finished rinsing and headed out without saying a word to Todd. Standing alone in the shower room, Todd wondered if he should follow him. He supposed it was stupid to think he was under some unspoken arrangement, but he couldn’t help think that the boss had set something up with Jason. Maybe this was Aiden’s way of encouraging the kind of play he’d spoken of; the kind of play between Aaron and Pete in those years leading up to the millennium when the Northborough club had almost won the title.

Should he go to the bath, or the steam room? Or should he just get dressed and go back to the house?

Going back to the house would indicate some failure on his part. And getting in the bath may indicate he was snubbing the man he’d been ordered to train with. As he stepped out of the shower block and glanced into the bathroom, he saw Craig and Wayne spaced about a foot apart in the water. Their heads rested on the edge, their faces gazing up.

Turning away, he looked down the walkway to the steam room door. The frosted glass revealed nothing. The charity game was in his head, and whatever he did between now and then, could sway the boss’s decision to put him on the bench. So, with that in mind, he strolled towards the glass door.

He grabbed a towel along the way but decided not to cover himself. He’d need the towel to spread across the tiled seating, or just rest against his crotch in that casual, modest way.

At the door he paused, wondering if his presence would indicate to Jason that he was up for some close touching. No matter what it indicated, he knew he had to do it. The longer he put this off, the more it would look like he was distancing himself from what the ethos of this club seemed to be. And Aiden said he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to, so no need for concern.

Taking a breath, he grabbed the handle and opened the door.

A rush of steam billowed out. At first he saw nothing. The heat was heavy and close, the steam so thick he may as well have been inside a cloud. But he stepped in and closed the door behind him, breathing in the hot, mushy air.

Heat pressed every point on his naked body as he stepped further inside, and as he did, he made out the dark hairs of Jason’s muscular legs as they spread out along one of the seating blocks. Another step further, and Todd made out his chest, his shoulders, and finally, after one more step, his head.

Jason was lying down with his eyes closed.

Looking at his body, Todd couldn’t help but admire the taut muscles beneath smooth skin. Jason’s limp cock lay across his pubes beneath the flat sinew of abs. His pecs smooth and bulging, his shoulders rounded and firm. To think that in fifteen years Todd could look this good gave him warm thoughts.

Jason opened his eyes and looked at him. A slow smile spread across his lips but he said nothing. Todd sat on the adjacent seats after spreading out his towel.

For the first minute or so, he closed his eyes and rested his mind and felt relaxed enough to not think about what he was supposed to be doing with Jason in here. At first it was easy. The training had taken a lot out of him and the adrenaline from earlier had all but vanished. But the longer his eyes were closed, the more he wanted to open them. He wanted to see if Jason was looking at him. And if he was, he wanted to know what expression was in his eyes.

Every time he heard the older guy sigh, he fought the instinct to open his eyes and look at him. But after several more minutes, he gave in and lifted his lids.

Jason had stretched one leg onto the tiled floor, his thigh bulged at the edge of the seating. His other leg was bent up against the wall, and his cock now flopped over his balls. His eyes were closed and his head rested back on one arm.

Todd couldn’t stop his eyes wandering over his body. Tiny black hairs clung to his legs, beads of sweat glistened across every point of pale brown skin. Looking at his hips, Todd could see no white marks and wondered if the guy was naturally dark skinned.

His balls looked like they’d been shaved, and his pubes looked neatly trimmed. What was it about a guy’s cock that was so fascinating to look at? He found his eyes wouldn’t go anywhere else after giving it a few stares and getting over those ‘I shouldn’t be looking’ thoughts.

He estimated the man had about six inches of limp dick, which made him just bigger than Todd. He had thick and full balls for it to rest on, and they were packed up, not hanging like some guys do.

As he gazed, the sense he was being watched crept into his mind, so he left the balls and forced his eyes up the torso to the head. Jason gazed at him with a pair of sleepy eyes. He smiled.

Todd felt a tinge of embarrassment and said something quickly.

“Is your skin naturally dark or do you use a sun bed?”

Jason glanced along his arm.

“It’s natural,” he said. “How do you feel?”

Heat rushed across Todd’s cheeks and that gripping sensation returned to his guts.

“Ok.” He exhaled slowly and felt his lungs fighting to take another in fast.

Jason lifted his torso, showing every hard muscle that made up his abs. He put both feet on the floor and rested his back against the wall.

“I could do with a rub,” he said, looking at Todd.

Todd didn’t know if that was a suggestion, and simply nodded. Jason stood up and took a step to where he sat.

“Move back a bit,” he said while turning around.

With the man’s butt level with his face, Todd realized what he had in mind. His stomach tightened and his breath held. But at the same time he felt special, as if the moment had offered him a privilege. He slid his butt back and widened his legs.

Jason sat slowly in the space Todd had made, his hips felt hot when they touched the top of Todd’s inner thighs.

“Just give a soft massage around the shoulders,” he said. “The same I did for you on Friday in the bath.”

That reminder made Todd swallow, his lungs felt inflated all of a sudden. He slid back a little more to create room for his forearms, and placed a hand on each of the man’s firm shoulders.

Although his head was dizzy from the heat, he maintained focus and gave a delicate finger rub along the hard ridges of muscle that lined Jason’s upper back and neck. They were tough muscles, and Todd admired the power he felt beneath the smooth hot skin as he pushed his fingertips along.

“Have you ever massaged anyone before?” Jason asked. “Because that feels good.”

Hearing those words felt like he’d been given a pat on the head from a master. He smiled. “No, but I think it’s an intuitive thing. I know about the main muscle groups, and I’ve tried giving myself shoulder rubs before.”

Jason’s head lifted and dropped as Todd probed his neckline.

“Your hands are as good as your feet,” he said.

Todd smiled again and worked the man’s shoulders. The muscles twitched beneath his fingers, the threads were thick and hard.

“How do you maintain such a firm body?” Todd asked.

“That’s almost twenty years of training you can feel right now.” Jason sighed. “There’s not many days in my life that I’ve rested these muscles.”

“I hope my body’s as good as yours when I’m in my thirties,” Todd said, wishing he hadn’t mentioned the guy’s age.

“It will be,” Jason said. “If you’re still playing at thirty five, you’ll be solid. Muscle doesn’t soften unless you become inactive.”

As Todd worked his way further down Jason’s back, he rested his eyes on Jason’s ass crack. It was hard not to admire the slim width of the hulking man’s hips.

Jason widened his legs and Todd felt the solid outer thigh muscles on his inner ones. A flutter sneaked into his stomach. Was this how it felt to relax with a man? To feel the bond of another man?

Before he knew what it meant, that flutter filtered down to his groin.