Something Gained

Chapter Seventeen

I walked into my hotel room in Portugal. We had extra time here, it was only Wednesday, but there was lots to do. I got changed into some cycling shorts, an oversized T shirt and some vans and walked back out of my room. It was a quick turn around, we had to get to the track and check some bits out. I hadn't seen Daniel yet and I was so excited! But I knew it was tough because I could literally only be with him properly behind a closed door, but I had to remain professional.

As I walked down the corridor and got to Lando's room I heard a whistle from behind me, I saw Michael and Daniel strolling down the hallway. I couldn't wipe the grin from my face. I bit my lip to stop looking like a Cheshire hat and gave them a wave.
"Nice to see you made it back" I said, I turned to knock on Lando's door.
"Yeahh, did you have a good time in Monaco?" Michael asked, Daniel was a little bit on the quiet side I thought to myself
"I did, it's actually really nice there. It's nice to chill out and just enjoy it, normally it's all about the racing" I said, Lando swung open his door and walked out to join us in the hallway.
"Hey guys" he greeted. "Let's go then" he said. He linked arms with me and pulled me along to walk with him down the corridor.

At the track the boys went straight to the garage, where the cars where still being put together properly. I went to catch up with Zak in his office. I knocked on his door and let myself in.
"Alex. Hi come in, come take a seat"
"How are you Zak?" I asked as I sat down opposite him at his desk
"I'm good. How are you?" He asked. I nodded and put my thumbs up. "I wanted to check in with you and the schedules for the upcoming races, to try and give us a smoother balance with what we're doing"
"Okay yeah cool, what we looking at here" I opened up my laptop I had brought with me and started typing notes down.
"So short day today obviously as we've not long arrived. Get the circuit walk done, But tomorrow we need the drivers here from 10am, as we've got the two practice sessions. We'll do a briefing with the whole team first, then what have we got media wise" he asked
"Well we've got the YouTube channel that we'll film bits and pieces throughout the day, I know press will be here from the get go so I'll probably pull them in at 9am, that way they can speak to people, talk to fans and then be ready to get the team together, we've got a couple of calls and news bits to do as well but they're scheduled in for Friday, and then they've got some merchandise and things to sign and sort out ahead of the weekend"
"Yeah 9am sounds good, can we get the filming done today and after practise tomorrow?" He asked
"Yeah absolutely, the calls are scheduled already for Friday but practise session is 12pm? So I've made it so we get those done from 3pm till 5pm, and then we'll
call it a day, then it's just focusing on qualifying for Saturday, they can do the merchandise before then, get that wrapped up by 2pm so they can be ready for 3pm and then that's it pretty much. But that's kind of what I want to stick to so that after qualifying it's just speaking to the press as normal and then focusing on briefings and the race"
"Yeah absolutely that sounds great, you've got a handle on it. Get those schedule typed up for the week and then can we use it as a template going forward?"
"Definitely, then we all know where we're at for the most part" I said, I closed my laptop.
"Great, good job. I'm heading down to the pit lane anyway now so let's go" he said getting up from his chair. It was so easy to be comfortable around Zak, he had such a good heart. You had to do your job and her stuff done, but as long as you did that it was good.

We left his office and walked down through the paddock to the garages where the team was.
"Are you guys going to walk around the track now?" I asked
"Yeah we're about to leave now, why?" Lando replied
"I'm just going to sort out a few things, can you meet me in the trailer when you're done?" Lando and Daniel nodded. As they walked out Daniels hand brushed mine and he looked at me. It was such an odd look, something was definitely up. I'll talk to him later maybe. I left the pit lane and walked back to the trailer and sat in my office getting some work done and checking emails and things while I had the peace and quiet to do so.

There was a knock on my door about an hour later and Lando and Daniel walked in and sat down on the sofa. I carried on tapping away on my computer responding to emails
"Good walk?" I asked
"Yeah man, ready to get the car out!" Daniel said, while Lando nodded in agreement
"Okay, so I've sorted out things and we've got quite a few things that need filming. So I need you to go eat and then to get changed into your McLaren tops, so we can do a video for social media, and then we've got a couple of other bits and then we're good to go" I said, I closed my laptop and looked over at them, "come on chop chop, meet me in the media room when you're done" they both laughed and got up and left my office. I followed them out and went ahead to set up the cameras and the bits they would need. I forgot they needed their new helmets for one of the videos, as I walked back out the room I saw Lando
"Lands I need your new helmet, is it in your room?" I shouted down the stairs at him
"Yeah it's on the desk" I nodded and went upstairs to their rooms, I'll go get Daniels, his should be in his room as well. I walked in without knocking and he was standing in just his underwear, the door closed behind me
"What a delightful sight" I said as I leaned against the door
"Knock?" He quizzed turning round
"I don't have to knock" I said biting my lip as I stared at his toned body, his arms. His eyes flashed down to my mouth and back to my eyes and he walked towards me.
"This is true, you can see a lot more of this, all you have to do is ask" he whispered, the heat rose to my cheeks and I couldn't speak "You okay there, you seem a bit flustered" he said, he took my hands in his and pulled my arms above my head and pinned them there with his hand against the closed door, he came so close to my face, I was prepared for him to kiss me, but he diverted to my ear, "is there something you like" he whispered while his other hand brushed up my thigh.
"Daniel" my voice got stuck so it came out as more of a squeak, "I erm, I have work to do" I said, "and if someone catches us"
"Don't worry, everyone's busy putting everything together or eating lunch. You can be quiet can't you?" He was looking in my eyes, his breath hitting my face as he spoke so lowly it almost was like a growl. His hand was still moving around my body
"Quiet?" I asked
"Yeah, you can keep the noise down, make sure no one hears" he said kissing my neck. This man, I didn't know what to say. Thankfully my work phone started ringing. I pulled my arms down and took my phone out of my pocket, Daniel didn't move an inch, he kept me pressed against the door.

"Hello?" I had to force my voice to sound slightly normal. Daniel started kissing my neck and I couldn't concentrate
"Hey Alex, it's Michael. I'm just wondering if you know where Dan is?" Oh brilliant, how was I going to escape this one. Daniel must of heard who it was because I could feel him smirking as he kissed me neck
"Erm no idea, I thought he was going for lunch?" I'm not sure if my lie worked?
"Oh okay cool, if you see him can you just let him know I'm on the canteen" he said, I nodded and then realised he couldn't see that so i said yeah and cut the phone off.

"Right stop, you gotta stop. You're teasing and you know we can't do this" I said
"But you drive me crazy. I haven't seen you for over a week and all I've thought about is you, I can't concentrate" he replied, he had stopped kissing me and instead was now resting his forehead on mine and looking directly into my eyes
"is that why you're quiet?" He nodded
"I've missed you and I don't know how to act when we're around other people" he said, I put my hand on his check and he closed his eyes.
"We can do this later" he huffed at me and turned round. I walked up behind him and put my arms round him and let me hands trail from his chest to his stomach getting lower, "not that I don't want to, because I do. But we can't"
"So why are you now winding me up?" He asked, it was his turn to not be able to speak properly
"Because, you just teased means, and now I'm simply returning the favour" I played with the waistband of his underwear before letting go and turning and walking towards the door, I gave him a smirk before letting the door shut behind me.