Chapter 6

Monday morning I was working out alone in the weight room when Bob Huntley came in and walked over.

"Stewart, why weren't you at practice Friday afternoon?" he asked without any greeting.

I finished my last rep on the bench press before sitting up and replying, "I was on my way to Toronto for my girlfriend's band CD launch party and concert."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"I told Coach Benson and he approved it," was my reply.

"You should have told me," he responded angrily. "A concert is hardly a good enough reason to miss a practice either."

"It is when it's your girlfriend's band playing their first concert and launching their first CD," I told him. "Again, I let Coach Benson know and he was ok with it."

"From now ask me for permission to miss any practice time," he stated.

"Well then, I'll be missing this Friday afternoon's practice as well; I have a modeling gig in Windsor for the afternoon and the weekend," I told him.

"Let me get this straight, you're going to miss practice for a modeling gig?" he asked, looking astonished.

"That's correct," I said, standing up. "I have another one in October but that will be between games in New York so I probably won't miss anything but a morning skate. I'm sure you know about the Canadian Junior team tryouts in late November and the tournament in late December if I make the team. Finally there is the Olympic team in February but that's a long shot."

"Oh, is that it?" he asked sarcastically.

"I think so but I'll be sure to let you know if there is anything else that comes up," I responded.

"It seems to me that you don't have the best interests of the Michigan Wolverines at heart, Stewart," he stated. "I'm going to suggest to Coach Benson that we consider moving on without you if you're going to be missing so many games."

"Coach Benson and I discussed all of this before I went to the Junior and Olympic camps this summer," I told him. "He is ok with it but by all means please confer with him. If everyone decides that the Wolverines are a better team without me then I'll step aside."

"You would lose your scholarship and be kicked out of the university!" he exclaimed.

"I'm not on an athletic scholarship," I told him as I picked up two dumbbells. "I'm not sure what your agenda is, but I would get my facts straight before proceeding. While I don't think I'm the end all, be all of defencemen, I do think I have something to contribute this season. If you disagree and can convince the powers that be that your opinion has merit, then I guess I'll need to find somewhere else to work out and skate."

"My agenda is to put the best possible team on the ice and have everyone prepared to play the first game," he replied. "When you miss practices, it's detrimental to the team."

"Missing one practice this week shouldn't be too dramatic," I told him. "It will give the others a bit more ice time and a chance to impress. I think we have bigger things to worry about than me missing two hours this Friday afternoon."

"I don't like your attitude Stewart," Coach Huntley stated. "I think your fame has gone to your head and you're going to be trouble this year."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," I replied. "Now if you're done, I'm trying to work out so I can be prepared for today's practice."

I started to do a set of arm curls while looking directly at him. I usually had the utmost respect for my elders, as I was taught by my parents, but I had none for this man. I found myself not caring what he thought about me or what his agenda was. If he, and whoever else was working with him, thought that the Wolverines were going to be better without me, they would be sadly mistaken. Rather than bother arguing with him, I would let my play on the ice do my talking for me.

He stomped off when he realized I wasn't going to talk to him anymore. I put a little more energy into my workout to release my anger at the man before taking a quick shower. After getting into my gear, I was the first one out on the ice and started my warm-up stretches before skating for a bit. I took out any remaining frustrations with Coach Huntley by trying to put a few pucks through the netting at the back of each goal until the rest of the team joined me on the ice.

Coach Turnbull, the defensive coach, assigned Joey to be my partner again, with John partnering up with Ian, Brian with Sam Cookson and Chris with Peter Chekov. Don and Randy, sophomores from last year, were regulated to the fifth and sixth pairing with Alfred and Tim Robson, the last two rookies. It was clear that the last two pairings were going to have to work twice as hard to make the team.

During breaks in the action, I got to know Joey better. He was from Kalamazoo, Michigan, which was about an hour and a half due west of Ann Arbor. An older sister also went to Michigan, studying chemistry while a younger brother and sister were still in high school back home.

After the normal drills, Coach Huntley spent a good portion on special teams, with half the team running the power play while the other half were on the penalty kill. We used the full rink and each set of five or four players would switch on the fly when the puck went out of the zone, thereby practicing the all-important player switches as well as the plays themselves.

The final twenty minutes was a scrimmage and Joey got an assist when a forward tipped his point shot past the goalie. I got a goal when I moved in from the point, faked a shot which got the rookie forward to go down to block the shot, and then dragged it around him before blasting it past the goalie from the top of the circle. Coach Huntley stopped play at that point and chewed out the forward for his uncontrolled attempt at blocking the shot as well as the rest of the defensive players for getting out of the way of the shot.

"Yeah right, like anyone else is stupid enough to get in the way of Stewart's slap shot," a voice from the bench said, causing most of the team to laugh.

"You do the same things in practice as you would do in a game," Huntley said, looking around at everyone. "You hesitate in practice and you'll do the same in a game. I don't care if Stewart is shooting or your grandma is; you go down in a controlled position if you're close enough so the shot doesn't get through. Is that understood?"

No one said a thing as he looked around for about ten seconds before he blew the whistle and had both sides change up. After we were done about fifteen minutes later, I quickly showered and said goodbye to Joey and John before hustling up to the main campus to my corporate computer systems class.

The professor went over the structure of modern IT departments as well as the importance of timely data for corporations before assigning the first project on how we would go about setting up a system for a rapidly growing manufacturing company with separate, disjointed systems at each of their three plants plus their company headquarters. We had three weeks to complete the project.

After he was done, I took the elevator upstairs and walked into Doctor Tolbert's office. He was assigned to be my project advisor for my fourth year project and we would meet once every two weeks at this time to go over the progress. I knocked on the open door and the grey-haired professor looked up and smiled as he waved me in.

"Mr. Stewart, I presume," he said as he stood up and offered his hand.

I shook his hand as I responded, "Yes, Doctor Tolbert, it's nice to meet you."

"And I you," he replied. "I've been hearing good things about you from your professors. Your AI project was very well done and your marks are all excellent. I'm looking forward to hearing what you intend to do for your project."

I explained my need for a quicker way to receive and digest large amounts of information in my AI theories and expressed my interest in exploring the networking and database programming needed to improve the existing capabilities.

"I know it's not a topic that will have a flashy presentation to show people, but it will be very useful in my future endeavours," I concluded.

"I assume you will start with the current state of each topic and express, in general terms, the reason for your need for a better system, before exploring how to improve each area," the professor said.

I dug out my project proposal from my book bag and handed it over.

"This is what I've done so far," I said. "It explains the current state of each topic as much as I've been able to determine. There are probably better systems in place but they are either being used for secret government needs or private corporations. As you will see, I've approached a couple of corporations and they have provided their current technology so I have a baseline to start from."

The professor started to flip through the pages but had to slow down to read the contents of each page. It took him ten minutes to get through the whole report.

"Very impressive start to your research," he finally said when he looked up at me. "Alright, I agree with your project proposal and look forward to seeing what you come up with. We'll meet at this time every couple of weeks and a simple page or two will suffice for an update. Please give me some notice if you need any help with a particular topic so I can research it in advance."

"Thank you Doctor Tolbert," I said as I stood up. "I'll try not to bother you too much with this."

"No bother, I'm sure it will be very interesting to help with rather than some of the other student's attempts," he replied with a chuckle.

I smiled back before leaving his office. The rest of the day was spent on homework and projects before afternoon practice. When I got home, I read my email and was happy to see that both Kim and Mitsy were very happy with the final version of the climbing game and they were already setting up Beta tests before starting marketing and production of the game CDs.

I called Willow after a quick meal and got up to date on her day with the media and radio stations. She said Donna and her were getting along quite well before she had to go. I spoke to Elizabeth and Asuka next before continuing with my homework. Asuka decided to spend the night with Elizabeth in Lansing so I was alone again. She promised to spend Tuesday night with me and Elizabeth was going to join me Wednesday night in Ann Arbor. I went to bed and decided I didn't like sleeping alone.

The rest of the week was uneventful as practices got more intense and homework and projects took up more of my free time. Tuesday night at the dojo was a bit different as Sensei decided to change things up and have me go up against them without weapons while they wielded a selection of staffs, knives, pikes and swords. At first they were the dull practice swords but they graduated to the real thing to make sure I kept my edge up. That night Asuka came back to the condo and stayed the night, greatly reducing my stress level for the following day.

Wednesday evening, Elizabeth came over, just as stressed with her workload. I picked up some Italian takeout on the way home after practice and had it on the table when she arrived.

"Hey there Gorgeous," I said with a smile.

"Hi Michael," she replied before plopping down in a chair.

"You look exhausted," I observed.

"It's been a busy week already," she responded. "I stayed up late trying to get ahead so I could spend a night with you but I still have some homework to finish up for tomorrow."

"I do too, so after supper we can work on it before I give you a nice massage," I told her. "I hope you're hungry."

"I'm starving," she replied as she eyed the food.

We talked a bit while eating and then I had her start her homework while I cleaned up the dishes. For the next couple of hours we did our assignments until we finished just before ten. Elizabeth insisted on taking a shower before we headed to bed. I had her lay on her stomach and gave her a full body massage and she fell asleep before I finished with her legs. I chuckled and covered her up before lying down beside her.

I left Elizabeth a note before leaving for practice. She texted me later in the day, telling me how sorry she was she fell asleep but how good she felt with a good night's sleep and a wonderful massage.

Asuka and Sensei seemed to take much pleasure in hitting me with long staffs Thursday evening, while I had to do my best to defend without the benefit of any weapons. I was stiff and sore when we were done and to make matters worse, Asuka decided not to join me at the condo. After a hot shower, I went to bed more than a bit frustrated.

Friday morning's practice was intense as Coach Huntley had us doing more wind sprints and skating drills than normal before concentrating on defensive zone coverage for most of the practice. John and I talked during a quick moment when we were both not involved in the drills.

"Coach Benson seems to be letting Huntley handle most of the practices now," John observed.

"Yeah, I noticed that," I agreed. "I wonder if his health is giving him some problems."

"Maybe, I'll try to find out more," John responded. "Huntley has it out for you, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, he didn't like it that I missed a practice last week and I'm going to miss this afternoon's as well," I answered. "He thinks I'm letting everything go to my head."

"Hell, if I could figure out a good enough reason to get out of practice, I would so gone right after this one," John reacted.

When it was finally over, I walked up to the Engineering building and attended my Robotics lab. I was paired with a short Chinese engineering student who was all business as we worked through teaching our small robot how to pick up cubes from a stand and place them at another location using a teaching pendant. The physical movements generated a program that we then had to modify to allow for stacking of the cubes.

After lab was over, I hustled back to my condo to grab my packed bag and then drove to downtown Detroit. I took the tunnel under the Detroit River and made my way along Riverside Drive until I found the address I was given. I turned into the driveway of a huge house that overlooked the river. It was a three storey modern mansion with a stone exterior. I parked my car and grabbed my suitcase before walking up to the front door. A young man answered the door after my knock.

"Michael, you made it!" he said in an effeminate voice. "I'm Rodrigo, Calvin's boyfriend. Calvin and Donna are just finishing up a shoot before they break for lunch with you. Come on in and I'll show you to your bedroom upstairs on the second floor."

"It's nice to meet you Rodrigo," I replied to his exuberate greeting and followed him up the stairs.

"Ok, Donna has that one and yours is beside hers on the left side," he said. "The photographer Trey and his assistant Monique have the two on the right while Calvin and I are in the master bedroom on the main floor."

I set my suitcase on the bed and followed him up the stairs to where they were doing the photo shoot. Rodrigo put his finger to his mouth before leading me into in a large room with a balcony that had the Detroit skyline as a background. It was a warm day for mid September, so the French doors were wide open. Donna was reclining on an antique settee, dressed in a long negligee with a slit up the side to show off her legs. The top was a low-cut V that showed off her ample cleavage with her long blonde hair draped over her shoulders. She looked very much a woman rather than a teenager.

The photographer was a tall, good looking Scandinavian, also with long blonde hair. He was moving around the couch taking photos from all angles as Mr. Klein looked on. There was a dark haired woman standing near him with a comb and brush in her jean's back pockets and a makeup kit and spray bottle in her hands.

"Ok, let's see a bit more cleavage," Trey said, reaching down to pull one side of her negligee a bit more off her shoulders to expose more of her top breast.

"Lovely," he said as he smiled at her. "Let's have more of your leg as well."

Donna nodded and pulled the leg higher up to let the negligee drop off her top leg. Her entire thigh was exposed to just below her hip.

"Excellent," the photographer told her. "Monique, pull her hair back so she's more exposed."

The dark haired woman moved in and, with a couple of brushes and strategic placement of hair pins, quickly had Donna's hair out of the way. Rodrigo moved to Calvin's side and whispered into his ear which had him turning around to look at me. His all business look changed into a smile and he moved over to me.

"Michael, it's so good to finally meet you," he said as he gave me a two-handed handshake. "Welcome to our photo shoot."

"Mr. Klein, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," I responded. "I wanted to thank you for all that you and your company have done for me and my friends."

"You're quite welcome, but you've paid it back tenfold in new business," he replied with a smile. "My, you are a big one. You and Donna are going to look fabulous together. We're almost finished here and then we'll have some lunch before getting the two of you together."

"Sounds good to me," I replied. "I must say you've transformed her into a beautiful woman."

"Yes, she's ready to bloom," he agreed. "Let's be quiet so Trey can get this last set of shots before we break."

Monique stepped back to where we were standing and smiled at me as she stood beside me. I smiled back at her and then watched as Trey was, in my opinion anyway, overly touchy feely with Donna as he positioned her in the pose he wanted. After a couple of minutes he was satisfied and started taking another round of photographs.

It took him another ten minutes to take them all as he first took some from ground level and then moved a ladder to the end of the settee and shot more looking down at her.

"Alright, I think we're done here," he announced, looking back at us. "Oh, I see Michael is here. It's time for a break."

He helped Donna up as he smiled at her. She returned the smile and then they both came over to where we were standing. Donna came right up to me and gave me a kiss and a hug.

"Hi Michael," she said when she finally let me go.

"Hey there Donna, you're looking very beautiful and sexy," I told her, grinning inside at the small pout Trey had on while watching us kiss.

"Thanks, but it's everyone here that is making me look good," she replied with a smile at the others. "Between the beautiful clothes and Monique's hairdo and makeup, just about anyone would look wonderful."

"Nonsense, you're a stunning beauty," Calvin said. "We're just happy you're ready to let the world see you like this. Alright, we have lunch prepared down in the dining room on the main floor. Why don't you get changed and meet us down there?"

Donna nodded and the two women left the room.

"Michael, this is Trey, our photographer for the weekend," Calvin continued once the women were out of the room. "I use him for all of my personal photo shoots."

"Trey, it's nice to meet you," I said, shaking his hand.

"Likewise," Trey replied. "I'm excited to be able to work with you and Donna. I think we'll make history with this shoot."

"That's what Donna is hoping for, as is Mr. Klein, I'm sure," I replied.

"Definitely," Calvin said.

Trey walked over to a nearby table and took out the data card from the camera and popped into a laptop. He motioned us over and started scrolling through the pictures.

"There are some good ones," Calvin said after he was done. "We'll look at them in more detail later. I'm sure everyone is hungry so let's go downstairs."

Donna and Monique joined us in the hallway and everyone proceeded down the stairs. Calvin led the way to the dining room where a large buffet was spread out on a table along the wall behind the elegant dining room table set for six. A chef was cutting up some roast beef at the end of the elaborate buffet. We had the girls go through first and I insisted on letting everyone else have their turn before me as I hadn't been working all morning. Finally I filled up a plate and joined them at the table, sitting in the open chair beside Donna. She was wearing snug sweatpants and a midriff baring tee shirt with her hair loose around her shoulders.

"Michael, you're going to look like a bloated whale if you eat all of that," she said as she munched on a salad.

"Maybe that tiny belly of yours would if you ate all of this, but this won't show at all in mine," I told her with a grin. "At least I won't faint from hunger like you probably will by just eating just a salad."

"I'll eat more when the shoot is done," she responded. "I've been working out and dieting for two months to get ready for this so I wouldn't look so out of place next to you."

"Oh, I think everyone will be looking at you when it's all said and done," I assured her. "Mr. Klein and Trey will make sure that I'm just a backdrop for you."

Trey nodded while Calvin frowned before speaking up.

"Michael, while your modesty does you credit, you're just as important as Donna is for this shoot," the fashion mogul stated. "Yes, Donna could have done a sexy shoot by herself and had guys drooling over her for a couple of days. However, a risqué shoot with one of the sexiest man in the world will have everyone talking about each photo and video for weeks. And talk is what Donna wants and of course what our company desires; even though we know it's not what you wish."

"Not particularly," I agreed. "Just remember, my underwear stays on, no matter what and I'm not talking any skimpy pair either."

They all laughed and I blushed.

"Of course Michael, we need something to show what we're advertising," Calvin said with a grin. "Donna will be the one pushing the envelope."

I looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.

She grinned and said, "I'll need those big arms of yours to cover me up."

I just rolled my eyes and started eating. I stopped at one plateful so I wouldn't feel too bloated for the afternoon. Calvin showed us the exercise room in the basement and then the pool in the back yard.

"It's heated if you want to take a swim this weekend," he informed us. "We'll be shooting out here tomorrow."

We walked down to the river bank and looked out at the Detroit skyline as a freighter slowly went by.

"Alright, let's get back to work," Calvin announced after a couple of minutes. "We have an eight o'clock reservation at a restaurant in what they call Little Italy here, so we have to about seven to see what we can get done."

He led the way up back inside and up to the third floor.

"Alright, Monique can get started with Michael's hair while Donna can get into her next outfit," Calvin said. "We'll see you out on the balcony in a few minutes."

Monique led us to a bedroom converted to a makeup and wardrobe room. She had me sit in a chair and then helped Donna pick an outfit. I watched in a mirror as Donna undressed behind a screen that let me see her head and calves. She grinned at me as her clothes all came off and she slipped into her outfit.

In the meantime, Monique tried to tame my hair into some sort of style before covering up a couple of scars and blemishes on my face. She picked out a pair of white pants, a white swimsuit for underneath and a white shirt for me to put on when she was done.

Donna came out from behind the screen with a short robe covering her up and sat down in the chair for Monique to fix her hair. I quickly got changed and just did up a couple of buttons on the shirt as I knew it would probably be undone when we started.

"Monique, can you give us a couple of minutes please?" Donna asked when she was done.

"Sure, but don't be too long," Monique replied and left the room.

Donna got up and came up close to me.

"Michael, you know we're going to get very close the next three days, right?" she asked as she ran her hand up my abdomen to rest on my chest.

"Sure," I replied, rolling my eyes at her.

"I just don't mean physically," she said with an exasperated tone. "I don't want you to be just a prop with a bland expression on your face while I fake some passionate pose on top or in front of you. I need you to be involved and want to be with me so it shows up in the photographs. I'm going to do my best to get you turned on and I want you to do the same with me. I've been looking forward to this for a long time and I'm hoping you feel the same way."

"Donna, I'll do my best but I'm not that good of an actor," I responded. "You know my three ladies will skin me alive if things get out of hand."

"Don't you worry about your women," she said as she went up on her tippy toes and kissed me while her arms around my neck pulled me down. "I spent time with each of them this week and got each of them to agree to let us get together this weekend. I have a message on my phone from each of them that I'll play for you later and you can call them afterwards if you're still not convinced. The bottom line is that it's okay to let go and enjoy the weekend with me."

"You spent time with Elizabeth and Asuka?" I asked, lightly holding her by her hips.

"I spent Wednesday with Asuka and then Thursday evening with Elizabeth in Lansing," she answered with a grin. "You have three very passionate, gorgeous ladies."

"I do," I agreed. "I find it hard to believe you got them to agree to let this be anything but a normal photo shoot."

"I can be very convincing when I really want something badly enough," she said with a wicked grin.

"You're a very driven woman," I told her. "I'll do my best to make sure the photo shoot meets your expectations."

"Michael, while the photo shoot is very important to me, being with you this weekend is just as important," she said. "I haven't been allowed a lot of freedom in my life up to now and I wanted to make my first free decision to be with someone special."

"I'm honoured you think so highly of me, but we don't know each other well enough to become anything more than friends," I said.

"We'll be getting very close all weekend Michael, I'm sure we'll be more than friends soon enough," she said with a smile. "They warned me that you weren't going to be a pushover. Promise me that you'll be as uninhibited as you can be for today's session and we'll talk later. This should help."

She undid the tie to her robe and opened it up to show off her body in a white bikini.

"You like?" she asked with a smile.

"Very nice," I replied, taking a few seconds to look at her body before moving my gaze up to her face. "You're all grown up and in the right places too."

"I'm glad you approve," she said. "Now let's get out there before they send a posse."

Donna led the way to the balcony where they were waiting.

"Alright, we'll try some with the Detroit skyline in the background to start and then take some looking into the room," Calvin decreed. "Michael, undo the shirt and pull it out of your pants. Donna, off with the robe. Monique, wet them down a bit, but not on the clothes."

As I suspected, Donna put on a full court press from the get-go. She made sure she was as close to me as she could be while her hands caressed me at every opportunity. When my arms had to go around her for a shot, she pulled them in tight while guiding my hands to her bare skin.

Trey or Calvin suggested each pose but Donna was the one to finalize the positioning, making sure to wiggle her bum or hips to get a rise out of me, so to speak. By that time I was just in the swimsuit and we were lying on a lounger.

"Ok Michael, reach behind her and undo her top slowly, stopping when Trey says to so he can take a few pictures," Calvin instructed.

I found the strings for her bikini top and slowly pulled one until the bow knot fell apart. I was told to stop and Trey snapped a few pictures from different angles. I then got the two ends apart and more pictures were taken. Finally the top was loose and the sides of her breasts were showing. After the requisite round of pictures, Donna sat up and slid the top off her breasts and then lay back down on me, wiggling a bit to rub her chest on mine. The bikini top was strategically placed to dangle off one arm to start for a few pictures and then was put on the ground, still in sight.

For the next half hour Donna was positioned in various poses to show various amounts of her breasts and body. In some she was kissing me while others she was looking back at the camera. Next she flipped over and one of my arms covered her breasts while the other was moved to put my hand elsewhere on her body. I felt her nipples stiffen up as my arm kept rubbing them as we posed. They were hard for the next hour as we moved to lie on our sides and then stood up to lean up against the wall. I had to think about some difficult math problems to keep from getting an erection for the entire time.

After a break, we moved inside and got changed into some CK underwear. We spent another couple hours in various poses on and around the settee as well as against the wall. It was quarter to seven when we ended the day's work.