Page 27 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

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 still 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 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.