Wayward Son (Jensen Family #3) (54 page)

“Shit
,
” Paul ran his
fingers through his hair then turned to perch on the edge
of Collette’s desk
.
“I’ll leave now and head down there
.
”

“Do you need me to do anything?” Suzanne asked.

“Yes, call Jake and let him know to be on standby then call Linda and
Julian, actually, I’ll call Julian. Can you call the college and find out what
a
ctually happened? Ask if they have any CCTV footage.
Do you have any idea what sparked him off?”

Suzanne told Paul word for word what Kiera had told her
.
“He was provoked Paul
.
”

“Yeah, doesn’t make it right though. Let me know what you find out.”
Hanging u
p, Paul turned to Collette “Make my
apologies to my clients, I’ll call them to re-schedule, explain I have a family
emergency
,
” he grabbed his
jacket and ran for the door, dialling Julian’s number.

A lengthy conversation with Julian on his tortuous drive f
rom London to Kingston resulted in Paul ending up at the
Palmer home
,
a most
thankfully received cup of coffee was handed to him as he took a seat.

“I had a quick chat with Gavin
,
” Paul started
.
“Both Angel and
him are fine. He confirmed pretty much what the school said so I think for now,
I’m happy to leave him in Sussex and deal with the police myself as I’m sure
they will turn up at some point. I’ll go down and get Angel if you decide you
want
her home
.
”

Julian answered
,
“I talked to
Angel
,
I don’t think she will leave Gavin so I
guess ultimately, whether we want her home or not, she’ll stay with him
.
”

“My boy seems to have caused you quite a bit of trouble, I can only
apologise and assure you
that his actions have been
in the best of intentions
.
” Paul said.

“We know Paul, you don’t need to apologise
.
We
do think this relationship of theirs is going to take some careful
management though
.
”

“I agree, they are moving very fast
.
” Paul nodded.

“Ange
l is going to art school in a few weeks
,
we don’t want Gavin to put her in a
position where she doesn’t want to go
.
”

“He won’t, he is mature enough to know that he will have to let her go
,
” Paul rose from his seat
.
“I’m going to the college to take a
look
at the CCTV footage, after that I’m going home,
call me if you hear anything
.
”

Gavin latched the door of the Sussex house after closing it behind him
and headed for the kitchen, filling the kettle and placing two mugs on the
side, preparing to make tea bef
ore turning to Angel.

“I’m sorry you got dragged into this
,
” he said as he leant on the side, his arms folded across his chest.

“I haven’t been dragged into it Gavin, I’m your girlfriend, I’m a part of
this.”

“Yeah, but if I hadn’t made a play for you in
the
first place, none of this would have happened.” He protested.

“You don’t know that. I had a thing for you anyway, why do you think I
gave you a hard time? It’s the Angel Palmer coveted treat em mean pick up
method
.
”

Gavin smiled then
.
“Does it work
as
well every time?” he asked
.
“Because I am one hundred percent
hooked
,
” he poured the
boiling water into the mugs and made the tea.

“One hundred percent huh?”

“Yep, I am totally yours
,
” he confirmed.

She took the mug he offered her
.
“Hmm, I may use that aga
inst you at a later
date
.
”

“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t
,
” he smiled
.
“I’m going to
have a quick work out, I need to hit something.”

“Ok, I’m going to go brain dead on daytime TV then
.
”

Gavin went from the gym to his bedroom, stepping into a piping ho
t shower, standing still and letting the water run over his
body. Tiring of daytime TV, Angel wandered up to Gavin’s room, taking her
sketch pad with her, she sat on his bed and began adding to the sketches she
had done of him while he was sleeping, she wa
s very
pleased with the way they had turned out but hadn’t yet had the courage to show
them to him, immersed in her art, she jumped when Gavin’s mobile rang and
glanced over at it, seeing the caller was Paul, she decided to answer it.

“Hi Paul, Gavin’s in
the shower
.
”

“Hi Angel, can you tell him that everything is fine, I’ve got a copy of
the CCTV footage from the college which I have given to the police, they aren’t
going to pursue him and he’s ok to go back to college so I want him home today
.
”

“Ok, I wil
l. You know Quinn deliberately went
for me to provoke a reaction from him don’t you?” she asked.

“Yes I do but I thought he had more sense than that
.
”

“He handled it well until Quinn actually went for him
,
” Angel justified Gavin’s actions
.
“Paul, do I need
to be scared of him?” she asked, Gavin’s focused reaction to Quinn’s
blow had frightened her
.

“Has he hurt you?” Paul’s voice was sharp with concern.

“No, not at all, it’s just the way he reacted to Quinn’s blow shook me a
bit, it was almost instinctual,
I tried to stop him
and he shook me off as if I wasn’t even there, he was quick, focused and
extremely aggressive, I haven’t seen him like that before
.
”

“Why did you go with him if he scared you?” Paul asked.

“Because I don’t believe he will hurt me
,
” she
answered.

“Then you’ve answered your own question. How was he after he hit Quinn?
Was he pumped up and still aggressive or quiet, moody?”

“He was quiet, I wouldn’t say he was moody, more regretful, he knew he’d
made a mistake, actually, if anything, I’d sa
y he was
scared
.
”

“If it helps, I know he won’t hurt you, he has far too much respect for
the female of the species to ever lay a hand on you, and you are perfectly safe
with him. If you are going to stay with him in the long term, it wouldn’t hurt
you to
be aware of the things that will set him off.”
He advised, he heard Angel’s quiet laugh.

“At the moment it seems that anyone invading my space sets him off
,
” she replied.

It was Paul’s turn to laugh
.
“Yeah, you’re
right there. Anyhow, I need to see if I can save the deal I was working on
earlier, you’ll pass the message on?”

“Of course, bye Paul
.
” Angel returned
the phone to the bedside table and went through to the bathroom, the clear
glass of the la
rge, black tiled walk in shower
affording her a lovely view of Gavin’s back, shampoo cascading over the glowing
skin. Hastily stripping off her clothes, she silently slid the shower door
aside and stood behind him, waiting patiently as he rinsed the last o
f the shampoo from his hair and turned his face up to the
jet above him before pressing her body into his back, her arms wrapping around
him, stroking his chest.

Gavin sighed as Angel’s cool body moulded itself to his back, her hands
caressing his chest, h
er lips brushing his shoulder.
He hoped he would never tire of the feel of her skin on his and the way his
body responded to her. He kept his eyes closed as her hands continued to roam
his body, occasionally dipping lower, stroking his legs, fluttering tea
singly across his groin. He felt her take a breath, her
chest pressing harder into his back
.

“Your Dad called
,
” she spoke
.
“He said everything is ok and you
should go home
,
” she gave him
the abridged version of the conversation.

Gavin turned in her embrace
.
“We’ll go back
later
,
” he said
.
“How did he sound?”

“Ok I guess, he said he had to try and save the deal he’d been working on
.
”

“Shit, I forgot about that. He must have left it hanging
to come and sort me out, great,
I’m in for a
bollocking later
.
”

“You
do kinda deserve one
,
” she admitted.

“What?” Gavin asked, feigning shock but unable to keep the laugh from his
voice “You are supposed to tell me I was totally right in what I did, not take
my old man’s side
.
”

“I can see both points of view
,
” she answered
.
“You scared me
Gavin, the way you just locked onto Quinn and went for him, it was chilling
.
”

“I’m sorry, that’s the last thing I wanted to do. You do know I’d never
hurt you don’t you?”

“I know
,
” she confirmed.

“I did tell you there would be things about
me
that you wouldn’t like. I can talk for hours about my temper and the things
that provoke it but unless you’ve seen it in full swing you won’t fully
understand the ramifications of it. I do have a bad temper that flares up, most
of the time these days I
can stamp down on it and
it’s over pretty quickly but sometimes it takes control of me and there’s
nothing I can do but let it run its course, it scares me so it’s only natural
that it will scare you
.
I’m a work in progress Angel, I’m ok most of the time n
ow. I’ll fully understand if you want to take a step back
from our relationship at least until I know that I am in charge and not my
temper
.
”

“I’m not going anywhere. It was a shock that’s all, I’ll know what to
expect next time
,
” she wrapped
her arms arou
nd him, squeezing hard “What now?” she
asked.