Cheater: A Summer Games Short Read (Going for Gold) (9 page)

The first four gymnasts finished their routines. Collette was next, followed by Bryn, and then the Russian and Romanian gymnasts would finish the event.

Bryn and my girl were at the chalk bowl prepping for their turn. Bryn’s mouth opened and closed without pause. She was probably trying to throw Collette off her game. Little did she know that Collette was rock solid in her routine and her confidence.

Collette said something I couldn’t lip-read, and in the next instant, Bryn was clapping her chalk-filled hands in front of Collette’s face. The dust cloud billowed into Collette’s eyes. She fanned the cloud from in front of her face, but it was apparent from her tearing eyes she’d been ineffective in her attempt.

The fans were on their feet calling foul. The roar in the arena was deafening. Two judges approached Collette and pulled Bryn from the edge where she’d gone to hide. I wanted to jump the bar and race to Collette, but that would be worse. What Bryn had just done would be scandal enough. She was a cheater in every sense of the word.

A medic flushed Collette’s eyes while the judges went back and forth. Collette walked forward and shook her head. She mimicked what happened—except she made it look like it was her own fault. She pointed toward Bryn and shook her head.

What is she doing?

It was apparent in the next minute what Collette had planned. She was competing, and not even a cheater could keep her from that beam. The cameras around the arena zoomed into Collette’s face, and her image took over the jumbo screens. Her eyes were nearly swollen closed. My heart hurt for her. She said she could do her routine with her eyes shut, and it looked like she’d have to.

She mounted the beam and closed her eyes completely. The arena was silenced watching my girl beat a four-inch-wide, sixteen-foot-long beam into submission. The only time she opened her eyes was during her dismount. When she landed it, the entire arena erupted into applause.

Her score was nearly perfect, and it would take a miracle for Bryn to unseat her from her gold medal position.

When Bryn approached the beam, hisses and boos filled the air. It didn’t matter what Collette had told the judges, everyone had seen what really went down. Bryn wasn’t used to people’s ire; she was America’s sweetheart. The unfriendly crowd proved to be her undoing. She fell off the beam twice, eliminating her chance to stand on the medal platform. Karma had a way of catching up, and Bryn was long overdue.

Outside the arena I was back on my knees, kneeling before my queen.

“Get up, you silly man. I’m done competing, and I need cake and eye drops.” And that was how the evening started. Her poor eyes were almost as red as her lips.

“You have to tell me what you said to her to make her so mad.” I picked Collette up and carried her to the athletes’ bus.

“Well, first off, you need to know what she said to me. She commented on the name Snow and told me you didn’t like your women frigid and cold, and I told her to go peddle her poison somewhere else.” Collette slipped her hand inside my shirt and rested her palm over my heart.

“That was it?”

“No, she told me I’d never be able to give you what she did.” Collette started with a giggle that turned into a laugh. The athletes around us stared.

“How did you respond?”

She shrugged and said, “I told her that syphilis wasn’t something to brag about.”

My laughter joined hers full force.

T
he call came
in at midnight. Collette and I had just arrived at the gym. Late workouts were part of our normal routine. Reporters weren’t lying in wait, and the gym was always empty. It was perfect. Most athletes slept when it was dark. My little spitfire demanded I train.

My dad’s face lit up the screen, and I knew Mom was gone.

It was on its third ring. “You have to get that.” Collette pulled the phone from my hand and pressed answer before she pushed it against my ear.

“Alec?” Dad’s voice was flat and emotionless.

My throat was on fire. My eyes burned with impending tears. “She’s gone?” It was more of a confirmation than a question.

“Yes, son. Her body is gone, but her spirit lives in you. Finish your task and then come home so we can honor your mother.”

I swiped at the tears that poured freely down my face. “I’ll make her proud, Dad.”

“You already have.”

We ended the conversation by saying we loved each other. In the center of the mat, I lay on my back and thought about my life. I wanted to keep crying, but I couldn’t. There was no time for that. I had a promise to keep.

At twenty-one, I’d seen the world, been doted on by parents who loved me unconditionally, competed in the Games, lost a girlfriend, and gained a soul mate. Could it be called luck? I wasn’t sure, but I had skill, and tomorrow it would collide with opportunity. One chance was all that was left, and if Collette could compete blind, I’d be able to compete with a broken heart.

“Let’s do this.” I hopped up from the mat and began to stretch.

“Alec, we don’t have to do this. You have nothing to prove.” She tugged my arm, trying to guide me to the door.

“You’re right, I don’t have anything to prove, but I’ve never shirked on a promise. I told my mom I’d stay to the end and do my best.” I pulled my sweats off and stood in the corner. Pass after pass I overextended, under-rotated, or just plain and simple ate mat.

Frustration must have been all over my face because Collette paced off ten feet, stripped herself bare in front of me, and lay down on the mat.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m giving you proper motivation.”

“Hit the damn mark, Alec. I want to make love to you.”

How in the hell did she expect me to hit my mark when she was lying naked on it? Her pale skin was in deep contrast to the royal blue mat. Her black hair fanned out around her shoulders, and her lips glistened under the fluorescent lighting. My dick twitched in response.

“Collette. What do you want from me?”

“Perfection.”

She pointed to the area above her head. “This is your mark, unless of course you’d like to aim between my legs.” She scooted down and spread her legs before me. Sweet pink flesh beckoned me. “Hit your mark and I’m the reward.”

I took off like a bullet from a gun. My hand hit the ground between her legs, and I was in the air doing a perfect double twist, double back, with a flawless landing. I felt it the moment I sailed over her body. She was the pause. The flat. The breath.

When I landed I ran to her and covered her with my body. “Why now, Snow? This wasn’t really about me sticking my landing, was it?”

She started peeling off my clothes piece by piece. “No, it was about knowing who you really were before I gave myself to you. I’ve been with one man, and he wasn’t worthy of me. I promised myself to protect my heart and my body until you came along.”

“What makes me worthy?”

“Everything, Alec. You’re kind and gentle. You’re caring and compassionate. You love deeply. You’re honest and forthright.” She pulled at my shorts and smiled. “And you have a big cock.”

I loved the way she said “cock.” It sounded dirtier when it came out of her mouth. Naked, on the mat, on the spot I’d need to hit tomorrow, I worshipped her body.

She was beautiful, and her skin glowed under my kisses. I traced my tongue along her flat stomach and buried my face between her legs. Soft and supple, her skin felt like velvet under my tongue. She squirmed and lifted off the mat when I stroked her clit. Her hands gripped my head in place while she shuddered in my mouth. Her pleasure had to come first because I knew the minute I entered her I’d be done.

Hard as a rock, I kneeled before her body. “I have no condom.”

Collette reached for her pants and pulled one from her pocket. “I’m like one of your Boy Scouts.” She raised two fingers, then three, as if trying to figure out the proper salute.

I pulled the condom from her hand and rolled it on my overzealous dick. This was supposed to be special, and here I was making love to her in the middle of the floor mat. Somehow it seemed fitting. This was one of her gold medal events. I’d have to focus and give my own gold medal performance right now.

Braced above her and nudging at her entrance, I looked into her eyes and saw love. “Collette, I’m falling in love with you.”

She reached up and pulled me deep inside her. “Fall harder, Alec. I’m good for you and you…are good for me.”

Her muscles gripped me like a fist. My senses were swimming with sorrow, lust, and love. It was a powerful combination that rattled my mind, squeezed my heart, and cradled my cock. I fell deeper in love with each thrust. We moved like a dance. Two bodies. One rhythm. One goal.

She writhed against me and moaned into my kisses. Just when I thought I’d lost control, she jumped with me into the abyss, and we rode out the climax together. I wasn’t sure whether it was in my mind, or in the air, but I’d heard my mother’s voice telling me to live, and I silently promised her I would.

We were pulling on the last of our clothes when the cleaning crew arrived. I wanted to tell them to leave that one space on the mat alone because it was mine, but I knew they couldn’t, and I knew for the rest of my life I’d never miss that mark again.

My final event was tomorrow afternoon, and Collette would be with me, but until then, we had several hours to make love. When we reached the lobby I asked her to hold out her hands. She did so without question.

I picked up the condom bowl and dumped what remained into her palms.

“Really, Alec?” Condoms fell from her fingers to the floor.

“Too much?” I shoved the escapees into my pockets.

“You’re too much, but this—” She raised her condom-filled hands. “—might last until morning. Then we have to raid my dorm lobby.”

God, I loved this girl.

We napped and made love all night long. I wasn’t going to be on top of my game tomorrow, but I’d give those seventy seconds all I had. Collette deserved the rest.

* * *

I
t was my rotation
—the last of these games. In the corner I stood and saluted the judges.

My first three passes were perfection. Flexibility, strength, and power poured from my body. Prepped for the last pass, I stared at the spot where Collette had made love to me. Where she took my broken heart and pieced it back together with her love. Her voice echoed in my head.
Perfection.
And it was. It was a gold medal performance. When I stuck the landing, I searched the crowd for her. She waved my mom’s bandana through the air and mouthed the words “I love you.”

I’d arrived in Rio uncertain, heartbroken, and alone. The medals I’d earned validated who I was as an athlete, but they didn’t tell the story about who I was as a man. I wouldn’t have figured that out without the help of a fairytale princess with hair the color of ink and skin the color of snow. She taught me that need and want were different, that the best of friends made the truest of lovers, and that it didn’t take a gold medal to be a winner.

“
W
e’re going
to be late for school.” I stood in the gym in the east wing of the house.

“I want to drive today.” She held out her hand demanding the keys to the truck.

“You’re impossible.”

“Yes, but you love me.” She slid against my body and pressed her lips to mine.

It was true. I did love her. Collette Lamont had packed her bags and moved to Colorado because she said I needed her. A truer statement had never been spoken.

We were both enrolled at Colorado College. She was following in her mother’s footsteps by getting a degree in elementary education.

I was studying business so I could someday fill my dad’s shoes.

“I’m serious, Alec. I want to drive.”

I didn’t care whether she drove. I just loved to get her riled up. She was so beautiful when she was flushed. “Tell you what. I’ll race you. Handstand race across the mat, the first to finish drives.”

“You’re on.”

We took our positions, and she yelled, “Go!” As soon as she left my field of vision, I fell from my position and stood up. My little spitfire was on her feet running to the end.

“You’re a cheater,” I called out from my place on the mat. She stopped dead in her tracks.

“I was just evening out the playing field. You have an unfair advantage with your long arms and upper-body strength.” She tried to look remorseful, but it didn’t work with Collette. Everything she did was deliberate, and with purpose.

“Oh. My. God. You cheated in Rio. I should have had you in my bed that night when you ‘won.’” My finger quotes weren’t lost on her.

“Oh, Alec, are you really going to make me feel bad about that?” She licked her red lips.

“Nope, but you owe me.”

We never made it to school that day. Collette happily did her penance in the middle of our home gym, where I proved to her that I could hit my mark every time.