Cheater: A Summer Games Short Read (Going for Gold) by Kelly Collins

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.

Chapter 14
Six Months Later
    “ 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.

Additional Books in the Series
    R eckless by MJ Summers
    Rivals by Jay Ripley
    Havoc by Alison Ryan
    Wild by Lyssa Kay Adams