Chapter 3

 

Blake

 

The harsh itch of carpet burn scraped my cheeks, waking me out of my sleep. Or, sort of woke me up at least. The sun streaming in through the curtains was too bright for me to open my eyes.

“Shiiiiitttt,” I drew out, my throat dry as I slowly sat up. My head was pounding, and all I could think about was how bad I needed a drink of water and a shit-ton of Tylenol.

I was still in my clothes from the night before and almost forgot where I was until I saw the beige carpet of the Olympic village dorms. The same carpet they had in the lobby and boasted about on the tour my parents made me take when they tried to convince me I needed to stay there.

How the hell did I end up in the dorms? And on the floor? Did I win the bet? If so, why the hell was I still in my clothes? Shit that Soju was strong and the last thing I remembered was getting in a cab with Kelly. I wanted to kiss her so damn bad, but she turned her cheek to me. And that was all I could remember. There had to be something, though, or else why was I here. Unless I ended up in someone else’s room…

“You’re awake!” A soft voice gasped.

Slowly I turned in the direction of two twin beds. In the one closest to the wall sat Kelly Johnson with her perfect blonde hair tucked into a bun and a clean blue tracksuit on. Even though the beds were small as hell, she looked even tinier, sitting there with her knees to her chest and her eyes wide.

“Damn, that sugary stuff knocked me out. I don’t even remember coming back here…” I slowly went to a standing position, cracking my back muscles in the process. I was getting too old for this all-night drinking shit. Come to think of it, since I started training harder for The Games a year ago I couldn’t remember the last time I drank. Explains why I was knocked out so hard.

“Did we…?” I asked, looking for any sign that I was still wearing a condom and would need to flush that ASAP.

She shook her head fiercely. “Oh no. By the time we finished that last bottle and left the bar, you passed out in the Uber. I didn’t know where your room was so I brought you here, and you seemed pretty comfortable on the floor. You snore, though.”

I laughed slightly then stopped, rolling out my shoulders. Damn that hurt even to laugh. I was going to surely get my ass kicked on the slopes today with practice. I guess this supposed luxury carpet wasn’t as great as the tour guide boasted. “You just let me sleep it off? What about your roommate? Shit, I have to look like an ass.”

Kelly pursed her lips. “My sister is my roommate, and she was up early to get to the rink. She didn’t ask what you were doing on the floor, but I’m sure I’ll get an earful after the opening ceremonies tonight.”

“Fuuuu,” I stopped and shook my head, trying to stop the pounding. “I forgot about those.”

Kelly raised an eyebrow. “You forgot about the opening ceremonies? The entire reason we’re here?”

I laughed slightly. How could I forget? My first opening ceremonies and my parents wouldn’t stop talking about it. Or how different it was in their day when no one had smart phones and could actually watch the ceremonies instead of tweeting it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they found a way to sneak in and carry the Canadian flag themselves instead of the Refugee bobsledder who was elected. “Yeah. I think I just had a brain fart. Blame the soju. Speaking of that, I’m hungover as hell, want to get some McDonalds? My treat. We can call it a breakfast date.”

“Um, McDonald's doesn’t sound appetizing, and I need to get to practice. We only have so much time on the ice today that isn’t shared with every other country,” she said, her words trailing as she finally stood up but her eyes wouldn’t meet mine, they just stayed on the floor, taking tiny steps toward the foot of the bed.

I grabbed her hand before she could walk past me and there was a jolt of electricity. Not static electricity but a warm tingle that I usually didn’t get just from holding some girl’s hand. I had the same surge last night when she let me tuck her hair behind her ear. It may have started as a bet to get in the skater’s panties, but part of me was glad I hadn’t gotten that far with her. It meant I got to spend more time with the girl who cared enough to take a drunken Canadian snowboarder home and let him pass out without alerting the media.

“Thanks for taking care of me last night, Kelly. It’s been a while since anyone’s done that for me. If it were one of the guys, he would have probably left me for dead.” I laughed it off but stopped when she smiled softly.

“It was nothing, really,” she whispered, catching her teeth in her bottom lip and damn if that little bite didn’t cause that surge of electricity to go straight below my belt.

I leaned in, fully realizing that after a night of drinking I probably smelled like ass and my breath was like a swamp donkey. So instead of trying to do what I really wanted to do to this girl, I put my hand on her hip and let my lips graze her cheek. “No really, thanks,” I whispered.

Before she could say anything back, I let go of her side and turned to the door, getting out as quickly as I could then let out a deep breath.

This was only a bet. That’s what I had to keep telling myself, even though after spending just one night, not even sleeping with the chick, and I was starting to wonder if I wanted to win because it was a bet, or because I liked this girl.

 

***

 

Even though The Games didn’t officially begin until after the opening ceremony, snowboarding and other sports had qualifying runs that morning.

After grabbing a quick shower, I called an Uber and headed out to the mountain with coffee and a burrito in hand. My head was still pounding and not just because of the hangover, but because I couldn’t get my mind off the blonde figure skater. Which wasn’t going to help my situation, since I was about to meet up with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum who I was sure would bring up the bet right away.

“Hey, look who showed up, the man whose now twenty-five grand richer,” Erik said, clapping Liam on the shoulder who turned around to look at me as I sauntered toward the rail the guys were leaning on. There was an area all along the slopes for spectators to watch the preliminaries for slopestyle and another area for the athletes. Though, us snowboarders and skier’s kind of took over the athlete area since there were a ton of us and most spectators with tickets waited until the actual events.

“Not yet,” I mumbled, before stuffing my mouth full of burrito. I wasn’t even sure why I said it. I could have lied. I mean I did technically sleep in the same room with her, just not screw her.

Liam raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest, his puffy coat crinkling with each movement. “Then what were you doing last night? Playing chess?”

I blew out a breath and shrugged. “I don’t know, man. I guess I was too drunk and passed out. But we still have two more weeks, and a lot can happen in that time.”

“For your sake, I hope you’re right,” Erik said, clasping his hand on my shoulder.

I could have said something smart back, but instead, I watched the American guy take his turn down the slope. I’d been immersed in snowboarding culture for so long I couldn’t remember a life that wasn’t surrounded by freshly fallen snow and a bunch of guys drinking energy drinks and trying to outdo each other.

I may have been pretty laid back with most things in life, but when it came to the sport, I was competitive as hell. I was always pushing myself to outscore the previous guy and anyone else at the top. I could blame my Olympic parents on that one, I guess.

But now that the score was a person, it was a different kind of competitiveness.

I couldn’t deny that I wanted Kelly, the ice princess. The girl may have been tightly wound up. I thought she was nothing more than a snob when she turned her nose up at me. Then after a few drinks, I got to see the real girl. The shy and innocent one. The girl who took a drunk snowboarder home and didn’t think twice about it. These douchebags didn’t deserve her time, and I probably didn’t either. But that didn’t stop me from wanting a few more stolen moments with her. Bet or not, Kelly Johnson had me captivated.

“So, you seeing her tonight?” Erik bumped my shoulder and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Probably. It is the opening ceremonies,” I replied.

Erik laughed and put his arm around my shoulder and the other around Liam’s. “And The Games are just beginning!”

 

***

 

I didn’t even have time to shower after a run down the slopes before my parents were messaging me to see when I’d be at the village for Opening Ceremonies. It wasn’t even close to time, and I was planning on downing a few energy drinks and napping before I even thought about heading over.

I swiped my messenger app open, seeing a bunch of missed messages. I guess they must have been trying to get in touch with me when I was out the night before and that morning when my phone died, so I left it to charge while watching slopestyle then heading for practice.

I typed in a quick message and agreed to meet them at the village for dinner before the opening ceremonies, briefly wondering what Kelly would be doing for dinner and how soon I would see her again.

Stepping into the shower, my thoughts flew to Kelly with her long blonde hair and that tiny hint of cleavage as she leaned over, giggling and sipping her drink. The girl could get me hard just thinking about her, which wasn’t uncommon. She was gorgeous, sexy as all get out, and I was a man, so, of course, those thoughts brought my hands to my dick to release the pressure the thoughts of her bringing.

When I’d cleaned up and put on my opening ceremonies outfit and stepped out of the bathroom, Erik and Liam were already dressed and waiting in the living room, flipping through random shows on the TV.

“Dude, how long were you jacking it in there? Your parents have been blowing up your phone,” Liam said, tossing me the device.

I caught it and saw their messages, questioning where I was. I didn’t even think of the time passing. Their messages got more urgent saying they had someone “important for me to meet.” Which probably meant one of their old colleagues or something that they wanted to use to brag about their glory days.

“You guys ready to go,” I grumbled, putting my phone in my pocket.

“Yeah, man, let’s do this shit,” Erik said with a laugh.

 

***

 

The village was even more crowded than when we first got there, but like I had a GPS tracker on me, my mom found me within a few minutes of stepping onto the soil.

“Blake! Where have you been?” Mom’s eyes widened, standing on the sidewalk with her hands on her hips. Even in her giant puffy coat and white knit cap, she still looked tiny.

“Sorry, Mom. I got caught up,” I muttered.

“Well, hurry up, your father and I have someone important for you to meet,” she said, looping her arm through mine and guiding me toward a small café.

“You aren’t trying to set me up with someone again, are you? Alexis Cote was one thing, but if you’re trying to find another athlete or even some socialite here for The Games, I’m not interested.” Unless of course the athlete or socialite was Kelly Johnson, but I had a feeling my parents wouldn’t be searching out American girls when they were our number one rivalry at The Games.

“Speaking of Alexis…” Mom’s words trailed.

I stopped and looked down at my mother who wouldn’t look in my direction. “Seriously? You blew up my phone, so you could set up a meeting with Alexis and me?”

Mom huffed as if I just said the most ridiculous thing. “Your father and I ended up sitting next to Alexis’ parents on the plane ride, and they told us about this shampoo sponsor Alexis has. Paid for most of her trip and then some. They were able to set up a meeting with one of the company’s PR people for you. It wouldn’t hurt for you to have some additional sponsors, Blake.”

I sighed. I wanted to object to that, but she was right. All the big sponsors had their guys. I had one energy drink company that only took a chance on me because of some YouTube spots I did. I even had to buy my own board, and my parents fronted the money for the trip. As much as I hated to admit it, it couldn’t hurt to meet with a sponsor, even if I had to deal with Alexis Cote.

And it couldn’t hurt if the bitchy brunette did make Kelly a little jealous. I saw the way she looked at the picture of two of us that I even forgot I had on my phone. She and Alexis had some skating rivalry I guess and what better motivation to have a girl spark some jealousy and want payback on another girl than seeing me with the ex?

I stepped into the warm air of the café, and like an icy cold beacon, Alexis turned in her seat, giving me a tight-lipped smile. Shit, this was probably a bad idea. Even if it would make Kelly jealous or I’d have a chance at a sponsor, I forgot about the fact I’d have to stare at Alexis’ bitchy face for however long this lasted.

While Kelly was petite and looked like a porcelain doll, Alexis was the hard to Kelly’s soft with her dark brown hair pulled into a tight bun and extenuating those cheek bones I was pretty sure could cut glass.

Dad stood up from across the table and so did a gentleman with slicked back hair and a five-o’clock shadow. “Blake. I’d like you to meet Ben Broderick,” Dad said, putting his hand on the guy’s back like they were old friends.

Ben put his hand out, and I shook it, even though Ben slightly sneered his upper lip as if he just caught the smell of something nasty. “Nice to meet you, Blake, your father didn’t tell me you kept the dreadlocks.  I saw those on one of your YouTube videos from X-Games and thought those were just a fun little thing. Not something you actually kept for The Games.”

I looked down at the blonde dreads that fell just below my shoulder blades. “Yeah, kind of a trademark and they work better under my helmet than the Mohawk.”

“At least the mohawk was clean,” Alexis muttered.

“Cleaner than your pussy,” I muttered under my breath so only she could hear as I took a seat at the table across from Ben.

She rolled her eyes. “Real mature.”

“I guess we’ll make this quick since you two have somewhere to be,” Ben said with a nervous laugh, opening a leather folder.

“Okay,” I said, not sure exactly what we were going to make quick or what the details would be.

“We’ll have to get some contracts sorted out, and there is something that the guys in legal will want to add, and it’ll have to deal with those dreadlocks,” Ben said, glancing up at me.

“What about the dreads?”

“You’re going to have to cut them. Can’t exactly sell hair products when you aren’t using them, and we don’t have any kind of product hair style,” Ben said, folding his hands on the open folder.

“You want me to cut my hair?” I asked, even though I heard him perfectly fine. Absently I ran my fingers through my hair thinking about how Kelly had done the same thing the other night. She didn’t think of it as disgusting like Alexis or my parents. In fact, the way she bit her plump bottom lip when she looked at them made me think quite the opposite was true.

Mom let out a shrill laugh and put her hand on my back. “I think that’s what Ben is saying is that after The Games, you know, it could be a new look for you.