Going for Gold (12 page)

Wednesday

Alina

He won!
I was running down the stands and toward the
medalist podium before I even realized my feet were moving.

"Alina, wait up!" Kristen yelled from somewhere
behind me.

I didn't know why I was running. I didn't know what I was
going to do once I reached him. I just wanted him to know how amazing he was.
And sweet, and funny, and sexy, and perfect. He was so perfect. I needed to
tell him.

His eyes locked with mine as he hopped off the podium. He
pushed his way through the crowd easily.

As soon as I reached him I jumped into his arms. Or maybe I
tackled him. But he gracefully caught me as I wrapped my legs around his waist
and clasped my hands behind his neck. "Bryce, I..."

He silenced me with a kiss. But not just any kiss. A kiss
that seemed to reverberate in every nerve in my body. The kind of kiss you read
about in stories. The kind that stops time. Where nothing else in the world
matters but this moment. I ran my fingers through his hair as his tongue
explored mine. I loved the taste of him. I loved how his strong shoulders felt
under my hands. I was in so deep that it felt like my head was spinning.

His hands slid to my ass and I moaned into his mouth,
tangling my fingers in his hair. My whole body felt alive. I wanted him. All of
him.

When he pulled back, his chest was rising and falling fast.
And I knew I was panting so loudly that he could probably hear me.

"That kiss was better than gold." His voice sounded
husky with desire.

"I doubt that, but I love that you said it."
Love.
There I go again.
"I mean..."

He kissed me again. Softer. Slower. More passionate. Even
more mind blowing. I grabbed the back of his neck, deepening the kiss.

I was very aware that his hands were sill on my ass. He
seemed to pull me even closer to him, holding me firmly against him.
Oh God.
I moaned again.

He pulled back again. His smile made my skin tingle. The way
he was staring into my eyes made me blush.

"You were amazing, Bryce. You're so amazing."

His hands slid up my back as he set me back down on my feet.
Luckily he was still holding onto me, because my knees felt weak.

"I wasn't lying," he said. "So much better
than gold."

I wanted to stay in this moment forever. This was what every
athlete dreamed of. Gold. And he had ran to me. He wanted to share this moment
with me. His moment. His victory. I pressed the side of my face against his
chest and listened to his steady heartbeat. It suddenly felt like I already had
what I wanted. Bryce's arms around me. I hadn't felt this happy in such a long
time. Maybe he was right about the kiss being better than gold. His arms around
me surely had to feel better than a medal around my neck.

"I got a bronze," Alex said from behind me.
"Where's my kiss?"

Bryce's kept his hand firmly planted on my back. "Don't
look at me," he said to Alex.

Alex laughed. "I was talking to Alina."

"You should ask Tim for one instead."

"Ew," Tim said. "But surely a silver deserves
a kiss, m'lady?"

I turned around to see Kristen peck him on the cheek.

Tim fanned himself. I feel like he didn't mean for it to be
funny. He just liked acting like every woman from every black and white movie
ever.

"Okay, let me get another picture of the two of you
together," Kristen said.

"Another?" Had Kristen seriously taken a picture of
us making out?

"You think I didn't capture you tackling him earlier?
You don't know me very well. Pics or it didn't happen, remember? That's what
you said."

"I thought you were very graceful," Bryce whispered
in my ear as he smiled for the camera. His hand was still wrapped around my
waist. I hoped he'd never let go.

"It's time to celebrate!" Alex said. "Who's
ready to not remember the rest of the night?"

Bryce laughed. "You can count me out of that. What do
you want to do tonight, Alina?"

"Oh, no. You should go out with your friends to
celebrate."

"I'd rather hang out with you."

That's what Chris should have said. But Bryce wasn't Chris.
He was so much better. "Okay, how about we all go out for a little bit and
get dinner? And then maybe catch a movie or something?"

"That sounds perfect."

"I'm in for dinner. But I'm skipping the movie. Tonight
I'm finding myself a prostitute," Alex said.

Kristen laughed. "You're going to get so many
diseases."

"Maybe I should just sleep with you instead then."

Tim slapped him across the face.

"Dude, what the hell? You know that I hate when you slap
me!"

"Don't disrespect this beautiful specimen."

Kristen linked her arm in Tim's. "You're such a
gentleman," she said and kissed his cheek again. This time he didn't fan
himself. He kind of had a smug look on his face. For a second I thought that
maybe he wasn't gay at all. Maybe he was just the best player I had ever seen.
Because Kristen was definitely crushing on him. I quickly dismissed the
thought.
No way.

***

"There are officially no strippers in Brazil. All the
literature was wrong." Alex took another shot and slammed the glass on the
table.

Tim laughed. "You probably just have to leave the
athletes' village to find them."

"Right. Like I'm going to leave the athletes' village
when people are being murdered on the other side of the gates? I don't think
so."

Bryce's arm seemed to tense around me.

I put my hand on his thigh and looked up at him.

He immediately grabbed my hand, removing it from his thigh.
But he kept his fingers interlaced with mine.

Maybe sex wasn't on his mind. I knew it shouldn't be on mine
either, but I couldn't help it. I felt like all I had been doing since we met
was resisting him. I didn't want to resist him anymore. Indulging on every inch
of him was probably the most accurate description of what I wanted to be doing
right now.

"Maybe you have a super slutty volleyball friend for
me?" Alex asked.

Kristen laughed. "Even if we did, we're on a sex ban.
One of our teammates broke it and got benched for the first four games here. No
one else is going to risk missing out on playing for gold."

"Well, maybe after you guys win. Who's up for that
movie?"

"I thought you didn't want to watch a movie?" Bryce
said. He was rubbing his thumb against my palm like he had on the train.

Was he actually trying to get me alone? My heart raced at the
thought.

"What the heck else am I going to do? Our room is
probably a little bigger since it's for three instead of two. How about we all
go back to our place and rent something?"

"I hope I folded my laundry this morning after ironing.
That would be embarrassing," Tim said and laughed. He looked truly
concerned.

What had he been ironing? Jock straps?

"I'm going to go close the tab," Alex said.

Bryce only had one beer. Instead of celebrating hard like
everyone else seemed to be doing here, he was snuggled up next to me in our
booth. I rested my head on his shoulder. I had never felt this comfortable
around anyone before.

"Are you sure you don't want to dance before we
go?" Tim asked. "I'd love to show you my moves."

Kristen laughed. "Not tonight. But speaking of dancing,
Alina and I volunteered to be dancers in the tiebreaker. Not that it's ever
going to come to that."

"Oh my God. That's fabulous," Tim said.

"And we need backup dancers..."

"Say no more," Tim said. "I can take over from
here. I'll be your choreographer. We can have auditions for proper backup
dancers tomorrow after your game. I'll be a dancer too, obviously. But Bryce
and Alex will have to be understudies. They don't have the proper balance and
grace required for this type of dance. Which one of you is the leading
lady?"

"Kristen," I said. "I'm just the
understudy." I looked up at Bryce. "It would be awesome if you'd be
my fellow understudy."

"If it means hanging out with you, then absolutely. But
like Tim said, I don't have the proper balance and grace required for that type
of dance. So hopefully it doesn't come to that." He winked at me.

"Alex!" Tim yelled when Alex got back to the table.
"We get to dance in front of the entire world!"

"Umm...what?"

Tim filled in Alex as we all walked back to their dorm and
began talking strategy with Kristen. I tuned them out. I didn't care what their
strategy was. There was no way I was ever going to be a part of that dance.

"Didn't Gabriela Santos volunteer for Brazil?"
Bryce asked.

"Yeah."

"So you want to completely annihilate her in your
volleyball game and in the tiebreaker?" He smiled at me.

"That doesn't sound so bad. But I'm just going to beat
her in volleyball. I'm not actually going to dance in the tiebreaker. Besides,
there isn't going to be a tiebreaker."

"Well, it was brave to volunteer."

I never considered myself brave. "Kristen kind of
tricked me into it."

"Still."

The way he was looking at me made my face flush. I had worn
the dress to dinner that I thought was too sexy for our first date. The sparkly
one that Kristen had deemed appropriate and I had deemed inappropriate. But
tonight I wanted to look sexy. If Bryce made a pass at me, I wasn't going to
deny him. Hell. Having sex tonight would probably help me focus better in the
game on Saturday. Because recently sex was on my mind a lot more than
volleyball. All I could think about since Bryce won gold was how his lips felt
on mine and how his hands felt on my ass.

We walked up the stairs to their room.

"I'm sorry it's such a mess," Tim said immediately
after he flicked the light on in their room. He ran over to his perfectly made
bed and plumped the pillows. And then he removed his athletic shorts from the
ironing board and put them in a drawer.

Who irons athletic shorts?
In fact, the label on them
probably specified "do no iron." Or maybe it didn't, because no one
in their right mind would do it anyway.

Alex turned the TV on and flopped down on the only couch.

Bryce adjusted the pillows on his bed to lean against the
headboard so that we could sit up. "Is this okay?"

I was already kicking my shoes off. "It's great." I
slid onto his bed and pulled the sheets up to my waist.

His Adam's apple rose and fell as he watched me climb into
his bed. He shoved his hands into his pockets and turned toward the TV.

For a moment he seemed engrossed in the news report about
some table tennis player losing.

"He was walking around like he had something up his
ass," Tim said.

Bryce shook his head. He was probably wondering why Tim knew
what that looked like.

"What movie should we watch?" Alex asked. He was
scrolling through the list of titles available on demand.

Bryce walked over to the other side of the bed. He hesitated
for a second before sliding under the sheets beside me. He put his arm around
me and I rested my head against his shoulder. I felt like I fit perfectly in
his arms. His cologne completely engulfed me. I had that fleeting thought again
that I wanted to lick his skin.
Calm down.

"How about that new movie based on the latest Nicholas
Sparks book?" suggested Kristen. "I heard it's just as good as The
Notebook."

"Nah," Alex said, cutting Kristen off. "Let me
check out the adult movies."

"Stop degrading women!" Tim threw a pillow at
Alex's head.

Bryce laughed. "This is basically every night with these
two. Why don't we just watch that new comedy with Owen Wilson?"

"I've been dying to see that!" I said. And we liked
the same kind of movies? If I had to watch one more stupid action movie with
Chris I probably would have killed myself.

"Me too."

Everyone else agreed that it looked good and Alex turned it
on.

Owen Wilson was as funny as Owen Harris was hot. My school
girl crush on Owen Harris didn't seem nearly as strong when I was around Bryce
though. And Bryce was in my fantasies way more than Owen Harris ever had been.

I put my hand on Bryce's stomach. His abs immediately tensed.
God.
I could feel his muscles through his shirt. But I wanted to run my
fingers through the lines of his six pack. I had been dreaming of doing that
ever since I had run into him in the locker room. I moved my hand to the
buttons of his dress shirt. I slowly undid one button and then another. His
body seemed to stiffen even more. Before he could protest, I slipped my hand
into his shirt.
Fuck.
It was even better than I had imagined. His skin
was so soft. And he had at least an eight pack, if not more.

I moved my thigh on top of his legs. I didn't care that it
pushed the hem of my dress up. I wanted his hands on my bare ass. If there was
no one else in the room I would have straddled him and moved his hands to my
ass for him. I would have unhinged his belt in a heartbeat. I so badly wanted
to taste him. Just the thought was making me wet.

Instead, I undid another button and slid my hand even lower
down his torso.

His breathing hitched. He ran his hand down my back and
stopped at the hem of my dress.

Touch me.
I lifted my thigh a little higher, making
the hem of my dress rise even more.

His fingertips slipped onto my ass. He groaned. It was so
quiet and low that I wouldn't have heard it if I wasn't right next to him.

He slid his hand a little lower, cupping my bare ass cheek.
His touch was scorching.

I slid my hand down farther trailing my fingers through his
happy trail.

"Alina." His voice sounded so seductive. Just like
it had after our kiss.