Going for Gold (13 page)

"Bryce." I hoped my voice sounded alluring and
sexy. I traced the waistline of his pants.

He grabbed my hand to stop me from exploring further.
"Are you trying to make this impossible?" he whispered.

"No." My heart was beating so loudly that I thought
he could probably hear it. "I want to celebrate your victory."

He pulled the hem of my dress down and sat up a little
straighter. "Not tonight."

I hadn't thought about him turning me down. He probably
thought I was such a slut. I removed my leg from his and sat up straighter too.
I bit my lip and turned my attention back to the movie. I was so embarrassed. I
could feel his eyes on me, watching my reaction. Was this just a game to him?
To see how much I'd embarrass myself because of this stupid sex ban? I folded
my arms across my chest.

The bed sagged slightly, but I didn't look toward him. I was
so mortified. I squeezed my eyes shut. For some reason I wanted to cry.

"You have no idea how much I want you, Alina," he
whispered in my ear.

His words and his warm breath against my skin made me swallow
hard.

"You're all that I can think about." He kissed the
side of my neck. "I want to kiss every inch of you. I want to taste you. I
want to hear you scream my name." He lightly bit my earlobe.

Holy shit.
I pressed my thighs together.

He grabbed my chin and tilted my face toward his. "I
just meant that we can celebrate together after you get your gold. I don't want
to jeopardize your chances of winning."

I got completely lost in his blue eyes. "Kiss me."

He smiled. "Yeah, I can do that." His hand slipped
to the back of my neck as he pulled me closer to him. He was such a good
kisser. But I could also feel his restraint. He wanted to rip my dress off just
as badly as I wanted to rip all his clothes off. He seemed to pull back way too
soon.

"I can't wait until Saturday night," I said. I
nestled my head onto his chest. In just a few days I'd have gold around my neck
and Bryce on top of me. And I couldn't deny the fact that I was more excited
about the second one.

Thursday

Bryce

It was hard to get out of bed. Not because I was depressed,
but because everything was so perfect. I had won my race, and more importantly,
I had kissed Alina. And it had taken every ounce of restraint in me not to take
it further. All I wanted to do was pin her to the mattress last night and have
her. I didn't even care that there were other people in the room. It was like I
needed her. And she had kissed me like I was the air she needed to breathe. She
definitely felt the same way about me that I did about her. Life was good. I
wanted to stay in bed as long as possible so that nothing could make that
feeling go away.

"Dude, come look at this," said Tim. He was on his
laptop at this desk. Alex wasn't anywhere to be seen. Alina and Kristen had
left last night after the movie.

I had wanted to ask Alina to stay. I wanted to hold her all
night. Hell, I wanted to do a lot more than hold her. Saturday couldn't come
fast enough. "Do I have to?" I groaned. "I thought I was going
to be able to sleep in now that my race is over."

"Sleep in a different day. I need your help."

"Alright, one second." I rubbed my eyes, rolled out
of bed, and pulled on a pair of athletic shorts. I didn't feel comfortable
wearing boxers around Tim after he wanted me to check out that dude in the
showers the other day. "So what am I looking at here?" As far as I
could tell, it was just a team photo of the USA diving team.

"I think I might have found Python!"

"Who?"

"Python. The guy with the giant penis. See." He
pointed at the crotch of one of the divers. "Doesn't it look like he has a
huge bulge?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Please tell me you're
joking."

"Oh, you think it's not big enough? Hmm...I guess you're
right."

"No, I meant that you're joking about trying to track
him down."

"Would the CEO of the Guinness Book of World Records
pass an eight foot tall man on the street and not measure him? I don't think
so."

"What does that have to do with this?" I asked.
"Are you the CEO of a company that keeps track of records for the world's
largest penis?"

"No, I just want to ask him how he does it. Please just
tell me if you think this might be him."

"I don't know. Instead of looking at his package, why
not look at some of his other features that would actually be visible in the
photo."

"I didn't look at his face. All I know is that he had a
huge penis, great abs, and skin the color of velvety milk chocolate."

"So he's black. Do you remember what hairstyle he
had?"
Am I really having this conversation right now?

Tim stroked his chin. "No, I don't think I saw that.
Just his huge penis."

"I dunno how you're going to find him then. Maybe you
should just give up and pray that I never tell anyone about this
conversation."

"What? Why? We should tell more people so that they can
help us find him. Not telling anyone would be like the police classifying an
amber alert as top secret."

Tim mentioning an amber alert made me think of Em, which
immediately made me think of Rodrigo and that stupid burner phone. If Tim
showing me pictures of well endowed black men hadn't completely ruined my state
of bliss, the thought of Rodrigo certainly did.
Hopefully there aren't any
new missions for today.

Tim was so focused on his hunt for Python that I didn't even
have to be discrete about checking the phone. I just grabbed it out of my
drawer and opened the drafts folder:

Good work yesterday. I'm sure your sister appreciates it. One
final mission: Make sure the USA wins the tiebreaker event.

At first I thought it was an easy assignment because the
tiebreaker was so unlikely to happen, but when I reread it I realized that it
was worded in such a way that made it seem like Rodrigo was certain it would
happen. The only explanation was that Rodrigo had other operatives working to
ensure that the USA and Brazil tied in overall medal count.

I deleted the draft and put the phone back in my drawer.

"Hey Tim, how confident are you that you'll be able to
choreograph a dance that will win Kristen gold in the tiebreaker? If it
happens."

Tim spun around in his chair. "Uh, I dunno. Maybe
fifty-fifty. I mean, my choreography will obviously be the best, but I found a
video of Gabriela doing the samba and she's pretty freaking good at it. And our
backup dancers are another variable that could tilt the odds against us."

"Could you do anything to get those odds a little
higher?"

"I guess I could research the judges to see what they
like, but that's bordering on violating the integrity of the ballroom. And you
know I would never do anything to jeopardize such a beautiful, noble
sport."

"What if someone's life depended on it?"

"I know that it's easy to get sucked into the cut-throat
world of competitive dance, Bryce, but don't you think you're being a little
dramatic?"

Did Tim seriously just accuse me of being dramatic? I
think I might kill myself.

"Bryce? Is everything okay?"

I took a deep breath. It was clear Tim wasn't going to do
anything to improve our odds unless I told him about Rodrigo and his threats
against Em. And fifty-fifty odds of the USA losing and Em getting killed were
way too risky for my liking. I had to tell him. "If I tell you something,
do you promise to never tell anyone else about it?"

"You're the love of my life, Bryce. You know you can
tell me your secrets."

"I'm what? No, Tim. How many times do we have to go over
this? This is the same as the difference between being
in love
with
someone and loving them like a brother."

Tim shrugged. "Still don't see the difference."

"The love of your life is the girl that you want to be
with forever, not something...never mind. It's not worth explaining."

"Whatever you say. Now what was that secret?"

"Remember the other night when the Uber driver drove off
with me?"

"Yeah. He made you carsick."

"No." I lowered my voice just to be sure no one
would hear us. "He kidnapped me and took me to some strip club where this
asshole threatened to kill Em if I didn't help them rig certain events."

Tim looked concerned for a second and then started laughing.
"You had me for a second there. But you're going to have to do better than
that if you want to trick me."

"Tim, I'm serious. Look, he even gave me a burner phone
where he tells me what to do through drafts. He's trying to rig the games so he
gets a huge payout on some bet he made." I pulled the phone out of the
drawer and tossed it to Tim.

"Wow, you're serious? Why don't you take this to
Coach?"

"Because he has Em. He's not messing around. He even
showed me a live video feed of Em sitting in her dorm."

"Shit, really?"

"Yes."

"So what are you gonna do then?"

"I have a plan to take him down, but for now I have to
play along. He wants me to ensure that the USA wins the tiebreaker event."

"And he'll kill Em if the USA loses?"

"Yes."

"Shit. Fuck the integrity of the ballroom. I'll do
whatever it takes to win this thing for you."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Just let me work my magic. Em's going to be okay."
He slapped my shoulder reassuringly and went back to his computer.

Thursday

Alina

This is it.
I bounced the ball in front of me and took
a deep breath. Just me and the ball. I tossed the ball up and made perfect
contact with my hand. My serve sailed over the net.

The libero from Italy's team dove for the ball and hit it
short to the setter. The setter ran toward it and bumped it toward the net.

I ran back onto the court, ready to dig the inside hitter's
spike. But the hitter spiked it right into the net.

Oh my God.

"Ahhhh!" Kristen yelled and threw her arms around
me. Soon my whole team surrounded me. The crowd chanted "USA, USA,
USA!"

"We're going to the finals!" Coach Hammond yelled.

We had just secured at least a silver. We formed a circle
around Coach Hammond, our arms interlaced. Half the girls were crying. I looked
toward the stands. Bryce was folding up his sign. I just wanted to kiss him.

"Brazil plays the Dominican Republic in a few hours. So
we'll know who we're up against by tonight. Tomorrow we'll watch all the
footage of whoever wins that game. We're not taking any chances. We're going
for gold here, ladies. No parties. No celebrating. Get a good night sleep
tonight and drink a lot of water. Practice starts at 9 a.m. sharp
tomorrow."

We all put our hands into the middle of the circle and
yelled, "USA!"

As soon as we disbanded, I searched for where Bryce had gone.
I found him standing by the exit with Tim. I ran over to him and threw my arms
around his neck.

He laughed and lifted me off the ground, spinning me in the
air before placing a kiss against my lips. Just when I was thinking how nice it
would be if he pushed my back against the wall, he pulled back.

"Congratulations, Alina. You were amazing."

"One more game."

Bryce raised his eyebrow. "One more game till what?
Gold?"

I bit my lip and shook my head back and forth. "I mean,
yes, but..."

He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "Of
course I know what you're talking about. I actually can't stop thinking about
it. One more game."

I was glad the same thing was on his mind.

"Okay, wrap it up," Tim said. "We have to get
going. People will be arriving to the tryouts in half an hour."

"I can't wait. This is going to be so much fun,"
Kristen said.

"Congrats on the win, gorgeous." Tim kissed her
cheek and put his arm around her shoulders.

Whoa, when did that happen?

"Maybe you're the ones that need to wrap it up,"
Bryce said.

Tim laughed. "Unlike you two, we're extremely good at
multitasking. Isn't that right?" He winked at Kristen and she immediately
blushed.

How did I not know what was going on right now?

"Chop, chop!" Tim said. "We need to go
scrutinize some sexy male dancers."

 I was seriously concerned about Kristen's mental state.

***

"Wow," said Bryce. "Come look at this."

I walked over to the door and peered out into the hallway.
The hallway was filled with guys auditioning to be backup dancers.

"Holy shit," I said. "I thought we'd be lucky
to get five guys. This is insane."

"Where's my first dancer?" called Tim from behind
the judging table we had set up on the far wall of the dance studio.

"Sorry, I'm calling him," said Bryce. He called in
the first guy and then we both took a seat at the judging table.

Tim opened a binder and clicked a pen open. "Name?"

"Artie Williams."

"Thank you, Artie," said Tim. "Just a few
questions and then I'll want you to perform a few moves. Let's see...okay, what
experience do you have with dance?"

"No formal training, but my hips don't lie."

"You think this is a joke? Get the hell out." Tim
pointed at the door.

"For real?" Artie looked shocked.

"Next."

"Can't I show you some moves?"

"Not interested. Next."

"Fuck you, man," muttered Artie as he left the
dance studio.

"That was kind of harsh," said Kristen.

"Not really. I only want dancers who will take this as
seriously as I do. Let's hope the next one is better."

Bryce brought the next dancer in, a guy named Lucas. Tim
greeted him in the same way he had with Artie, starting with a question about
his experience.

"I've been practicing ballet since grade school,"
said Lucas. "My friends made fun of me, but it really helped me take my
game to the next level."

Tim scribbled down some notes. "Good, good. Have you
ever performed competitively?"

"A few times."

"How do you feel about being nude on stage?"

What?
"What does that have to do with
anything?" I whispered.

"Just trying to keep him on his feet. Part of dance is
being able to improvise. The stage can be a dangerous mistress for an
inflexible performer."

"I've never had to be nude for ballet, but I'm willing
to do whatever the performance requires of me," said Lucas.

Tim nodded approvingly. "What are your thoughts on
devil's threesomes?"

Oh my God.
He's just trying to get a third for him and
Kristen. I started to tune out Tim's super inappropriate questions and Lucas's
answers. Instead I started to think about all the places in the dance studio
where Bryce and I could have sex. Definitely pressed up against the mirrors.
Maybe he could do me from behind with my hands against the stack of workout
mats. The ballet barre would give us some great angles to explore. The
possibilities with that were pretty endless...

"Have you practiced the dance piece from the
website?" Tim asked, drawing me out of my fantasies.

I was slowly losing my mind. All I could think about was sex.

"Yes."

"Then let's see what you've got." Tim hit play on
his phone and a Spanish sounding song started playing.

I didn't know what the dance was supposed to look like, but
from what I could tell, Lucas did awesome. All of his movements were crisp and
on beat.
Is this the actual dance?
There were more hip thrusts than
would generally be appropriate, but I guess it was a strip dance. And maybe I
was just imagining it because I was so freaking horny.

Tim hit stop on his phone. "Great, thank you, Lucas.
I'll email you later tonight to tell you if you made it or not."

"Thank you for the opportunity." Lucas turned and
left the room.

When the door was closed, Tim turned to us. "So what'd
you guys think?"

"I thought he did great," I said.

"Yeah, he seemed good," agreed Bryce.

Tim nodded. "I agree. My only concern were his looks. I
thought he looked a little weird."

"I thought he was cute," said Kristen.

"Alright then, I guess that's a yes for him. Kristen has
a great eye for the attractiveness of male features. Let's get the
next..."

The door opening interrupted Tim. A woman with a measuring
tape around her neck walked into the studio.

"Can I help you?" asked Tim.

"Hi, I'm Annie. I'm the stylist."

"Ah, excellent. Is what I sketched out going to
work?"

"Yes, I think so. I just need to measure the girls and
then I'll be able to get to work. It's going to be a rush, but I can make it
happen."

"Great. Girls, will you please go with Annie to get
measured?"

I kind of wanted to sit here and keep daydreaming. There was
no point in me getting measured. There wouldn't be a tiebreaker. And if there
was, Kristen would do it. "Sure," I said instead and followed Kristen
and Annie into an adjacent room.

"Strip down to your panties and bras," Annie said
as soon as the door was closed.

I glanced at Kristen. But she didn't hesitate at all. She
pulled off her jersey and slid off her spandex shorts.
Okay.
I stripped
down to my underwear and sports bra too.

Annie was a master with a measuring tape. She expertly
wrapped it around us, writing down measurements in her notebook. I was a little
suspicious of some of the measurements. Like the one that ended an inch under
my ass. And the one that just ran from right under my breasts to right above my
underwear line. Whatever outfit Tim had sketched must have been as miniscule as
possible. But it was a strip dance. The outfits had to be sexy.

"I hope you girls like sparkles," Annie said as she
wrote down a few more things in her notebook.

Kristen laughed. "Perfect, that's what I requested. Tim
is really doing a good job, don't you think?"

"Yeah," I said.

"I'll be right back," Annie said. "I'm going
to go grab a few fabric options."

 As soon as Annie left, I turned to Kristen. "About
Tim...what's going on between you two?"

Kristen shrugged. "What do you mean? He's such a
gentleman, don't you think?"

"Mhm. But did something happen between you two?"

Kristen laughed. "Of course. He won a silver medal
yesterday. I had to congratulate him."

"What does that mean?"

She raised her eyebrow. "I gave him a hand job during
the movie."

"Kristen!"

"What? It doesn't violate our sex ban. I just pleased
him. I'm still horny as hell. And don't pretend that you and Bryce weren't
fooling around under the sheets."

I wish.
"Nothing happened. We're waiting until
Saturday night."

"Ugh, Saturday night can't come soon enough. Tim's penis
is huge."

"Oh my God."

"What? I'm so horny. If I don't have sex with Tim I'm
going to hop on whatever stranger I see right after our game. At least Tim is a
gentleman. And sexy. He's so freaking sexy."

I laughed. "But aren't you worried that he's gay?"

"What are you talking about? All he does is flirt with
me."

"Right."
Does she not hear the same things I
hear?

Kristen laughed. "You're so ridiculous. Your gaydar is
officially broken. Tim is definitely straight. Trust me."

"Yeah, I guess so."
But probably not.

Annie walked back in holding a few swatches with varying
degrees of sparkle. Kristen picked out the shiniest one. If it did come down to
a tiebreaker, everyone's eyes were definitely going to be glued to Kristen.

We both walked back out into the dance studio.

The guy dancing had his shirt off and was doing the weird
thrusting moves that Lucas had done.

"Brilliant!" Tim shouted. He stood up and started
clapping. "We'll be in touch. But between you and me, you're a
shoo-in."

The guy shook Tim's hand and then left the room.

"Having fun, guys?" I asked and sat back down next
to Bryce.

"Tim is having the time of his life."

"I'm passionate about everything I do." He glanced
over at Kristen.

I guess he'd be doing her on Saturday night.
So weird.

"I truly am enjoying this, but I'd be lying if I said I
wasn't bummed that Python hasn't shown up yet," Tim said. "I was
hoping to lure him out of hiding."

"Um...what now?" I asked.

"You do not want to know," Bryce said and put his
hand on my thigh.

All of my attention was now drawn to his hand.

"Well you have to tell us now," Kristen said.
"You can't just throw that out there and not tell us."

"He's magnificent. He has skin the color of creamy milk
chocolate and a penis the size of a baseball bat."

"Oh God," Bryce said. "Please stop
talking."

"No, this is great. Now they can join our mission to
find him."

"You're a part of this mission?" I asked Bryce.

"Kill me," he whispered.

I laughed.

"He sounds like a great third," Kristen said with a
laugh.

"My kinky woman," Tim said and kissed her cheek.

Kristen's phone started buzzing in her bag. She pulled it
out. "Shit." She looked at me.

I knew what she was going to say before she even said it.

"Brazil beat the Dominican Republic," she said.

I thought I'd be upset. But I wasn't. I wanted to play
against Brazil for the gold. I wanted to beat Gabriela Santos once and for all.
"It's okay. We're going to crush them."

Kristen smiled. "That's my girl."

Bryce put his arm around my shoulders. "You're
definitely going to crush her."

I was glad he'd be cheering me on instead of making out with
Gabriela.
God.
I hated that Chris had just popped into my head.
Stupid
asshole.
He'd be making out with a loser after Saturday night. Because despite
what he had said, Gabriela Santos was not better than me at anything. Well,
maybe strip dancing. But that's just because she was a whore.

Tim called in the next dancer and I let my mind wander back
to all the things I wished I was doing with Bryce. Which first involved him
slowly tracing his hand up my thigh. Yup, I was officially a sex addict.