Fighting to Win (The Elite Book 1) (5 page)

He placed her on the bed and lay over her, trailing his lips from hers down her neck until he found her breast. He sucked the nipple into his mouth while massaging her other breast with his hand. Her fingers dug into his hair, the pain welcome as he tortured her with his tongue and hand. Her hips thrust up, telling him exactly what she wanted.

Mitch had dreamed about this moment, the moment where he had Julia back in his arms, for so long. Perhaps in the back of his mind he’d known that after the Olympics, he would try to sort things out with her, but it had been a thought he hadn’t allowed himself to fully form.

“More, Mitch. Give me more.”

He knew exactly what more was, and he was happy to give it to her. He released her breast with a pop and peppered kisses down her body until he reached her sex. Her musky aroma, combined with the floral fragrance of her soap, was a heady combination. He placed an open mouth kiss over her mound before sliding his tongue between the slick folds. Her muscles quivered with every stroke of his tongue. Her legs opened wide, giving him better access. His own body was bursting with need. He knew if he didn’t get inside of her soon, he’d blow his load. It had been a long time since he’d been with anyone. No one had appealed to him after he’d had Julia.

He inserted a finger into her slick passage and began to thrust. Her hips moved in time with him. Her muscles clenched around his finger, and he knew she was close to her orgasm. He added a finger, and it was enough to send her over the edge. He lapped up her juices as she came against his mouth.

Mitch lifted his head from between her thighs. Julia’s head was thrown back, and her mouth was open as her body came down from its release. He planned to put that look on her face again. Moving up her body, he reached over to the bedside table drawer. Every athlete was given a supply of condoms. Mitch had never thought he’d use them. But he hadn’t been with Julia at the other Games either. And even though he and Julia weren’t exactly together now, he couldn’t be happier breaking his no condom use track record with her.

He ripped open the packet and rolled the latex over his hard length. His body screamed at him to take her, enter her in one quick thrust. But he wanted to prolong the magic between them. Once again, he found the soft flesh between her neck and shoulder. He pressed kisses there as his hand skimmed down her body. The muscles jumped beneath his fingers as he went.

God, he’d never known her to be this responsive. Hopefully, it was because she’d had a sex drought like he had. Mitch firmly pushed those thoughts away. He didn’t want to think about another man running his hands over Julia. Doing to her what he’d just done. He’d never considered himself a possessive person—until now.

Julia was his.

Even though he knew she was more than ready for him, Mitch ran his fingers along her pussy, flicking at her clit.

“Don’t tease,” she moaned.

“Oh, I’m not.” With a flex of his hips, he slid smoothly inside of her.

Heaven.

That’s the only word he could use to describe the feelings flowing through him as he sank balls deep. He stopped and enjoyed the sensations sparking between them. Then, with slow, measured movements, he slid out and back in again. The need to draw out what they were doing was almost eclipsed by his body demanding he increase the pace until he forgot where he ended and she began. They were a team. And as a team they would reach the finish line together.

Julia’s fingernails dug into his ass. “Move, Mitch. Please,” she begged.

Giving into to her request, he increased his pace, slowly, until they again moved in tandem. She rained kisses over his face, whispering words he’d never heard from her before.

“Fuck me hard, Mitch. I need you so much.”

The muscles in his lower back prickled in anticipation of his own release. Her inner muscles clamped around his cock tighter as another orgasm ripped through Julia.

There it was. The look of complete satisfaction and happiness etched all over her face, and it sent him over the edge. He called out her name as he emptied into her. With a final thrust he collapsed on top of her before rolling to the side, his chest heaving up and down as he tried to catch his breath. Julia’s chest doing the exact same thing. The sounds of their ragged breathing filled the room.

A sense of peace rippled through Mitch. Never had he and Julia slept together before a race. Guys in the locker room talked about how they had to have a pre-race fuck. Other guys said it made them too relaxed and they invariably lost the race. In a few hours Mitch would find out if it helped or hindered him. But one thing he did know: Regret wasn’t going to be an emotion he experienced. If he didn’t have to go to practice he would be tempted to go for a second round.

As he lay there, he could feel her beginning to tense as she came down from the high of her two orgasms.

Mitch looked over at her to find her eyes wide as the reality of what they’d shared hit her.

“No regrets, Jules. No regrets.”

O
nce again
, Julia found herself in the crowds watching the finals of the day’s swimming events. Only a few hours ago she had been wrapped in Mitch’s arms. A blissful moment out of time that couldn’t happen again. Too much was at stake. The 200m freestyle was one of his favorite events, more so than the 400m. Brett had the top time and the best lane for the final.

“Do you think Mitch is okay?” she asked Drake, who had commandeered the seat next to her.

“Yeah. Why? He was pretty happy when I came back to the room.”

“Was he?” Julia fought a losing battle to prevent a blush from taking over her face. The heat climbed up her neck at a steady pace.

Drake laughed. “Ahh, so that’s the reason.”

She could try to deny it, but there would be no point. “Right, so yeah, anyway, do you think maybe because”—she waved her hand around in the air.—“you know, we—”

“Danced the horizontal mambo?”

Well, as embarrassing as it was, at least Drake had the decency not to be crass about it all. “Yeah, that. Will it affect the way he swims?”

Drake shrugged his shoulders. “Dunno, maybe. Although can’t say we’ve ever discussed our pre-event rituals. Guess we’ll find out in a few minutes.”

She could’ve kicked herself. As an athlete, she knew how important it was to conserve energy before a major event. And nothing was more major than the Olympic Games. “If he loses, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“I’m guessing he was as much a participant in the event as you were?”

“Yeah.” Didn’t make her feel any better.

“Well, he knew what he was doing. And don’t worry, he’ll be fine. He’s done too much work to get where he is to let spending some time in bed with you fuck it up. But if he loses, Anabel may not be so understanding.”

Exactly what she was worried about. She’d already had a subtle warning from Mitch’s coach. If Anabel found out exactly how she and Mitch had spent some of their time today, she was sure to get another lecture and a demand to stay away from Mitch. The last thing she wanted was to be the reason Mitch didn’t get all the medals he wanted to get. Maybe it would be better off if she walked away now. Before he saw her in the crowd. She could go back to her room, watch the races on television, and all would be well.

The announcer’s voice blared around the stadium. No chance of making a quick exit now.

“Don’t worry, Jules. He’ll be fine. And he’ll handle Anabel if there are any issues.”

Drake sounded so confident, but she couldn’t help but let that little bubble of uncertainty grow a bit bigger. It had been hard to walk away from Mitch the first time. Even though nothing had been settled between them, after what they’d shared today, she wouldn’t be able to walk away so easily this time. Just being in Mitch’s arms again, kissing him, having him possess her body told her what she’d tried so hard to deny—she still loved him. She had no idea what he felt for her. Maybe he’d needed to scratch an itch. One last time together before he walked away this time.

She sat down with a thump. Mitch being the one to walk away was something she’d never thought about or comprehended happening. The hollowness that had possessed her when she’d used the picture of her and Brett to force Mitch into believing they were over was nothing in comparison to the overwhelming emptiness coursing through her now.

She was in so much trouble.

With a concerted effort she pushed those thoughts out of her mind. No point borrowing trouble.

Mitch will win
.

Any other outcome wasn’t an option. Standing back up, she cheered as loudly as those around her when his name was called.

All the competitors stepped onto the starting blocks. From where she stood, Mitch looked relaxed and in the zone. Maybe he’d been saving himself; doing what was necessary to get into the finals and holding back his best for when it counted the most.

The gun fired, and they entered the pool, breaking the glass-like surface with perfectly timed dives. Being a 200m event, she had four laps to sit through, less than the eight laps for the 400m but no less nerve-wracking. He would use a different strategy tonight. He’d pace himself through the first 100m, then start to put the pedal to the metal during the third lap.

“C’mon, Mitch, you’ve got this,” she muttered, her hands clenching and unclenching.

As she suspected, halfway through the third lap Mitch made his move. Brett had half a body’s lead on him, but by the time they turned for the final lap, Mitch had caught up. As they came out of the turn, Mitch surfaced a fraction behind Brett, but with a couple of strokes he’d edged in front his opponent.

What unfolded before her was a skillful display of a master in his sport at play. With less than ten meters to go, Mitch now had a half a body’s lead over Brett, and the other competitors were tiring while it looked like Mitch was swimming at half pace. Julia knew different. His lungs would be burning as they tried to expand enough to supply the oxygen he needed to finish the race. His arms and legs would be starting to feel like dead weights.

Then it was all over. Mitch slapped his hands on the wall and had a new Olympic record to go with his gold.

“He won,” she screamed to no one in particular as everyone around her cheered.

Drake’s arms engulfed her and lifted her in a big hug. “Woohoo! Told you, you had nothing to worry about. He was just messing with everyone in his semi.”

She laughed. “I guess you’re right.”

“Or, alternatively, his new pre-race regime is going to prove to be a winner for him.”

Julia knew she blushed again, but she didn’t care. That Mitch had won was all that mattered. While it had been wonderful being in Mitch’s arms again, it couldn’t happen again. Their relationship, if they had one, was something they would talk about after they’d both finished competing in their respective events. She’d worked so hard to get on the team that, no matter how tempting it was to ignore the past, they had to face it before a future could be possible between them.

“Someone’s looking for you?”

Drake’s voice broke through her thoughts. She looked down at the pool deck—there was Mitch at the bottom of the stands, looking up at her. He had a huge grin on his face.

Doing the right thing sucked. She’d start doing the right thing tomorrow.

With no thought for how the media would portray what she was about to do—and she didn’t worry about what Anabel thought either—she planned to let Mitch know how happy she was for him.

She pushed past Drake and made it down the stairs. Mitch met her at the bottom and pulled her into a tight embrace. The fact he was wet from his swim didn’t matter to her.

“Congratulations. I was so worried,” she whispered.

Mitch’s response was to plant his lips on hers. Even though she said she didn’t care what the media would do, she was still conscious of everyone watching them as she pulled away quickly.

“Why were you worried?” he responded as he released her.

With the rest of his teammates surrounding him, she shook her head. “Later. I’ll tell you later.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” He leaned toward her and gave her another quick kiss on the lips before he allowed himself to be swallowed up by his team.

Seeing him so happy, she knew that her feelings for him hadn’t died at all. In fact during their time apart, they’d somehow grown stronger.

Julia looked around at the people milling nearby, Ah there was Anabel. She had tears in her eyes. Through everything, Anabel had stood by his side. Her reasoning for wanting Julia to put some distance between her and Mitch made sense. Without conscious thought, she walked over to the other woman.

“Congratulations, Coach,” Julia said before giving the other woman a hug. “You must be so proud.”

For a moment Anabel seemed to hold herself stiff before relaxing and returning Julia’s hug. “Thank you. He’s achieved so much. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Julia loosened her arms and took a step back. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, especially now and seeing as Mitch has more events to compete in, but I can’t walk away from him again. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I want to try again.”

“I know.” Anabel nodded. “Seeing Mitch look for you after his win was all I needed to know how important you are to him. I have to believe you didn’t bribe those judges.”

Julia’s smile fell. “I didn’t. I would never,
ever
do that. I worked so hard to win in Russia. I trained non-stop for weeks leading up to the competition. To have the suggestion that I hadn’t earned my win bandied around in the press almost killed me. I wanted to protect Mitch too, so I did what was necessary to make that happen.” Julia paused. The sounds of the crowd in the arena and the announcer talking over the loudspeaker failed to penetrate the cocoon surrounding her and Anabel. “I hated hurting him, but as you said, I couldn’t risk bringing him down. I couldn’t let what was happening to me tarnish him or his reputation.”

Anabel placed her hand on Julia’s arm, squeezing it gently. “I know. It was hard to see Mitch deal with your breakup. But seeing you tonight and seeing Mitch over the last couple of days, a spark has returned to his eyes. A spark that had been missing for months, and I now realized you’re responsible for that spark.”

Was she saying she wasn’t going to stand in their way if they wanted to resume their relationship?

“Thank you.” Over her shoulder she could see that, even though Mitch was still taking congratulatory slaps on the back, his gaze was fixed on her and Anabel. She returned her attention to the coach and inclined her head in Mitch’s direction. “You should go congratulate your son.”

The other woman nodded and walked away. Julia took a deep breath, and part of the stress that had consumed her over the last year released when she blew out the breath.

Now it was time to concentrate on her own event, and when it was over, explain her actions to Mitch and hope to God he understood why she’d done what she had and was willing to try again.