Fighting to Win (The Elite Book 1) (4 page)

C
lapping
a hand over her mouth to smother another yawn, Julia glanced at the time. Mitch’s race should be happening soon. Both Mitch and Brett had secured spots for Team USA. The top two swimmers from Australia finaled, both their times better than Brett’s. Altogether, the final eight competitors’ times were all within seconds of each other.

There was no guarantee that Mitch would win.

The support team for the American swimmers had doubled since the heats earlier in the day as more athletes from other sports came to watch history possibly being made. Mitch not only had to compete in the 400m individual medley final but the 400m freestyle final too. If he won gold in either event, he would tie the record of gold medals won by a single American athlete at the Olympics.

Julia prayed to any deity listening that he would at least get one gold. Two would make it even sweeter. She assumed when he said he’d meet her after the medal ceremony, he meant after his last event.

“Not long now,” Brooke said to her.

“Nope. It’s good to see so many other team members here supporting the swimmers.”

Brooke chuckled. “Drake went around everywhere after the heats to make sure the swim team had a lot of support. I imagine when it comes to the track events, Mitch will be doing the same and gathering support for Drake.”

“So true. In some ways I hope to watch Drake compete in the semis of his event, and in other ways I hope I can’t,” Julia said.

“Yeah, I hope you can’t watch Drake either. I’d rather see you going from press conference to press conference than Trina being the one doing that.”

Julia didn’t know what she’d done to deserve Brooke’s loyalty, but knowing it was there boosted her confidence. “Trina’s been diving well.”

“Sure, but you killed it at the trials. I heard her in the locker room complaining loudly about how you didn’t deserve to be at the trials and she was going to lose again to you. I’d never warmed to her before, but after hearing her rant, I disliked her even more. I was kind of disappointed when a second position in your event became available.”

“You and me both,” Julia muttered.

“I heard that,” Brooke said, wagging her finger.

Julia laughed. “It will be our little secret.”

Conversation died when the music sounded, announcing the arrival of the competitors. Julia’s heart leapt to her throat, and she clamped her mouth shut against it. As he had been the previous times he’d come out for his event, Mitch had his headphones on and he was shaking his arms, keeping them loose.

He made his way to his chair, and Julia wished he’d look in her direction, but she knew he wouldn’t do that until he’d finished the race. Once he hit the pool deck in a major competition, his focus was always totally on the event.

“Oh God, I can’t watch.”

Brooke’s hand landed on her arm. “Of course you can. You’ve done it a million times before.”

“Slight exaggeration, but things were different between us then.”

“Doesn’t matter. You’re here supporting him and the rest of the team. You can keep your ass firmly planted on this seat next to me. I need moral support too.”

Julia turned to her friend. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well…” Brooke’s face turned red. “I really want Mitch to win, but I wouldn’t mind it if Dane won.”

“Dane Parkland, the Australian swimmer?”

“Uh huh.”

“We’re going to talk about this later,” she stated as the announcer began introducing swimmers to the crowd.

Brooke nodded as she clapped loudly when Dane’s name was called. Mitch’s name was next, and the roar from the people around Julia almost deafened her.

Normally Drake would be sitting beside her, and she would grab his hand to hold onto for support. He wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity, which was unusual, but she couldn’t worry about that. Instead she grabbed Brooke’s hand.

“May the best man win,” she said to Brooke.

“A dead heat would be interesting, wouldn’t it?”

Julia laughed. “Yes, although what would happen then? Two gold medals awarded?”

“I have no idea.”

Julia squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before opening them again in time to see Mitch step up onto the starting block. He was, no doubt, visualizing his every stroke, every turn, and the moment he finished. She hoped whatever he saw came true.

“On your marks. Get set.”

The gun sounded and all eight men entered the pool with a massive splash. Julia jumped up with the rest of the people around her, all leaning forward to see whose head would pop up out of the water first.

Her breath hitched when Dane’s head appeared a fraction of a second before Mitch’s. Their arms pounded in and out of the water, almost in perfect synchronization as they headed down the pool. They turned together. Whoever came out of the turn first always seemed to have the better advantage over the rest of the pack. Her focus wasn’t on the other racers; her eyes were glued to Mitch’s position in the pool.

She screamed loudly when Mitch’s dark head broke the water after the turn. Dane wasn’t that far behind, but Mitch had a slight edge over him. The 400m individual medley was a long, physical race involving all four swimming strokes. She knew Mitch would be pacing himself, but with Dane so close, he was going to have to dig deep if he wanted to ensure the victory was his.

The last forty meters seemed to go in slow motion, with neither man giving an inch. She knew freestyle was one of Mitch’s strongest disciplines; it appeared to be Dane’s too. It was one of the closest finals she’d ever watched..

“I can’t look,” she muttered, but looking elsewhere wasn’t an option.

Each man pushed himself to the brink, and in a massive splash both hit the wall. Julia couldn’t tell if Mitch hit first or Dane did.

“Who won?” Brooke asked.

“I don’t know.”

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the electronic leaderboard. Julia held her breath.

And there it was.

She jumped up and down and grabbed Brooke. Mitch had won. He’d won his fifth gold medal in this third straight Olympics.

“Oh my God, he did it, Brooke. He did it!”

“I know. What a race.”

Julia fixed her attention back to the board—Mitch had won by three one-hundredths of a second.

“Holy crap, it was close.”

On the deck, Mitch was now out of the pool, accepting hugs from his fellow competitors.

Relief poured through her —their time together at the park hadn’t been a distraction for Mitch. Perhaps it was only her reliving the kiss they’d shared. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed his touch until the moment he’d placed his lips over hers.

Mitch looked into the crowd, tracking the rows of people until he found who he was looking for.

Her.

He smiled, and she clapped her hands above her head. If possible, his smile grew bigger. At the moment, everything felt close to perfect.

An hour later everyone in the aquatic center stood for the final national anthem. This time it wasn’t going to be the “Star-Spangled Banner.” The 400m freestyle final had been completed, and this time Dane beat Mitch. Even though she knew Mitch would’ve loved to win another gold, she had a feeling he was happy with his silver. A silver at the Olympics was an amazing accomplishment. Hell, she’d be happy if a silver medal was in her future. It wasn’t like this was his last race yet.

Now the time had come for her to meet Mitch. It was getting late, and she had an early morning practice session. No doubt Mitch would have one too.

The sound of the Australian national anthem filled the center, and the Australians in the crowd sang loudly along with the man standing on the highest podium.

God, she hoped that in a few days, time she’d be standing on that same podium too. While taking gold would be wonderful, she’d be happy with any medal.

“I’m going to catch up with Dane.”

Lost in her thoughts, Julia hadn’t heard the anthem finish. “Sure, Brooke, but I want to hear everything about you and Dane when you get back. Don’t be too late.”

Brooke laughed as Julia waggled her finger at her. “Right, I promise not to be late,
Mom
. But what about you? Are you going to try and catch up with Mitch?”

“Yeah, I’ll try. No doubt the press will want to talk to him, and Anabel will want to ensure he doesn’t have too late a night.”

Brooke grabbed her hands. “Do it. Now I’ve got a hot Aussie to congratulate.”

She gathered up her bag and jacket and made her way through the crowd. One more medal ceremony and the night would be over.

Julia waited outside the arena, breathing in the warm night air. People moved around her, talking about the great swimming they’d seen that evening and commenting on how the first day of the games had been everything and more than what they’d hoped for.

“Julia, what are you doing here?”

She whirled around. “Oh, hey, Anabel, I’m uh…” Julia paused. Would Mitch want her to let Anabel know she was waiting for him?

“If you’re waiting for Mitch,” Anabel said, “you’ll be waiting a while. When he spoke to me he said he had about four press conferences to deal with.”

Julia glanced at her watch. Those interviews could take as long as half an hour, which means she could be waiting for up to two hours.

“Well, it’s understandable—he’s one of the few athletes who has won five golds in three Olympics.”

“It should’ve been six.”

Surprisingly, there was acid in Anabel’s voice. In all the time she’d known the other woman, bitterness over a loss had never been her way. Disappointment, yes.

“Well, you’ve got to admit the Australians have a strong swim team. Dane just missed out on gold in the individual medley against Mitch.”

“Whatever, Mitch is one gold less than what we’d planned.”

Julia wanted to say that even the best laid plans didn’t always come to fruition, but she had a feeling Anabel didn’t want to listen to anything she had to say.

“So is the reason you’re standing out here because you’re waiting for Mitch, or were you about to walk back to the athletes’ village?”

She’d guessed that Anabel was hoping for the latter and not the former. While the prospect of standing outside for two hours held no appeal, Julia had given Mitch her word. After everything she’d done to him, no matter how good the intentions, she wouldn’t go back on her word tonight.

At that moment, the door to the aquatic center opened and a group of athletes walked out, Mitch among them. He stopped when he came upon Julia and Anabel.

“Anabel, I didn’t think you’d still be waiting.” Surprise laced Mitch’s words.

“I wasn’t waiting, per se, I was talking to Julia, and why are you outside? Don’t you have press conferences to deal with?”

“I answered a couple of questions with the relay team but decided to let the rest of the guys deal with the rest. I wanted to”—he paused and flicked a look a Julia.
Please don’t say you came outside because of me.
“—uh, I told Julia to meet me, and I wanted to let her know that I was going to be tied up for a little while.”

“I had just mentioned that to her.”

Julia felt like she was intruding on a private family conversation. A conversation she shouldn’t be listening to. Retreat was the best course of action.

“I’ve got an early practice, so I’ll catch up with you soon,” she replied. Then she threw caution to the wind and walked over to Mitch. She leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Congratulations on your win. It was a great race. ’Night, Anabel. Good to see you again.”

Taking a step back from Mitch, she waved to them both and then turned to head down the path toward the athletes’ village.

She didn’t look back even though she wanted to. If she looked back, she would be tempted to say to hell with it and run back into Mitch’s arms.

“
J
ulia
, what’s wrong with you? You came of that turn far too early. You would’ve been deducted at least three points because of that splash on entry.”

Mitch cringed at Mick’s critical tone. He couldn’t blame her coach; Julia’s dive was probably one of the worst he’d seen her do.

“I know. I know,” she responded.

“Well, get back up there and do it again. Try to relax and enjoy the process. You’re too tense.”

Mitch could see her lips moving as she walked along the deck back toward the diving platforms. He imagined what she was saying was less than complimentary to herself.

When she reached the end of the platform, he willed her to nail the dive this time around. A few seconds later, she was tumbling through the air before her arms and legs straightened. She cleaved the water on entry, and as she disappeared beneath the surface, the resulting splash was minimal. His breath whooshed out of him as he heard Mick clapping.

“That’s my girl,” Mick said as Julia reached the edge of the pool. “That was beautiful. See what happens when you relax?”

“Yes.”

“Now go shower, and we’ll have another practice at four o’clock, okay?”

“Sounds good, Mick.”

Mitch made his way down from the stands to the pool. He knew she would probably do another two or three dives before she headed to the showers.

“That last dive was good, Jules. Keep doing that and you’ll be a shoo-in for a medal.”

Julia lost her grip on the edge of the pool and sank back down into the clear water. Mitch squatted down and grabbed her hand when she reached up for the edge again. He pulled her up and out.

“Geez, don’t do that. How long have you been watching?” she demanded.

“Since the beginning of your practice.”

If his words shocked her she didn’t show it as she grabbed her chamois and dried herself off.

“Then you saw some really crappy dives.”

Mitch chuckled. “Yep, I have to admit I’ve seen you dive better. But that last one—whoa, that was spectacular.”

“Thanks. It felt good to finally do a decent dive.” She paused and faced him. “Not that I’m complaining, but what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at practice?”

Everything she said was true. He did have to compete again and he should’ve been practicing, but he wanted to see Julia.

“Yep, but I told Anabel that after last night, I only wanted a light workout seeing as I have to compete later this evening. It took some persuading, but she agreed.”

Mitch glanced around the diving pool. More people were coming in now, and he didn’t want their conversation overheard.

“Are you done, or do you want to do some more dives?”

“I don’t know. Why do you want to know?”

“Because if you’re done, I thought maybe you could join me for something to eat. I remembered you’re always hungry after a practice session.”

Her eyebrow rose at his comment. “Like you aren’t as well after you’re done practicing.”

Mitch laughed. “Guilty as charged.”

When they had been dating they’d often arranged their training schedules to match. Afterward they’d always gone to a café where they pigged out on bacon, eggs, hash browns, and strawberry milkshakes, as caffeine was a substance they both avoided.

“Give me ten minutes. I want to go over a couple of my dives again, and then something to eat sounds good.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you out the front.”

“All right.”

With that Julia walked away and headed back up to the platform. He watched as she waited for the person in front of her to complete their dive. He may not be a judge or a diving expert but he’d watched Julia enough times to know that the person in front of her, while good, wasn’t up to the same standard.

He headed out into the sunshine to wait.

H
e’d expected
her skin to have the lingering aroma of chlorine, but instead an enticing floral scent teased his nostrils. Mitch plunged his hands into his pants pockets to prevent himself from grabbing Julia’s hand; maybe going to find some food with Julia wasn’t wise. If he took her hand, he’d be tempted to pull her closer so he could bury his nose in her neck and inhale deeply, before kissing the same spot. Did her skin still taste sweet?

“Any idea where you want to go?”

What would she do if he said he wanted to take her back to his room and feast on her? Drake was at a session in the gym, and he mentioned something about getting some physio on his ankle. So they would have the room to themselves for a while.

Maybe they could get takeaway.

Or maybe he could get his hormones under control.

“How about we go to the café in the village?”

“That’s going to be pretty crowded.”

With the direction his thoughts were heading, being in a crowd was probably the best thing for the both of them. But if she was talking about it being crowded, did that mean she wanted to be alone with him, too? Nah, it was his imagination running away with him. He hadn’t seen her and Brett making an effort to hang out together, but that didn’t mean anything. He couldn’t watch her all hours of the day. And he’d caught a glimpse of them together when the whole team had congregated together before the opening ceremony. They hadn’t seen him, but he’d seen them. The last thing he wanted to think about right now was Brett Hunter. He put up with Brett because he was a teammate and a good swimmer.

Why was he thinking about this shit? He finally had an opportunity to have Julia all to himself. He needed to take advantage of that.

“Do you know of a place where it’s not crowded?”

Julia stopped walking, and he followed suit. Thanks to her sunglasses, he couldn’t see her eyes so he had no idea what she was thinking. The way she was chewing on her bottom lip gave him some idea that nerves were vying for top place within her.

“Well,” she started then stopped, running her tongue across her bottom lip. The action made his body harden, remembering the feel of that tongue on him. “We could grab something to go and then eat in my room. Brooke’s not going to be back for a little while. She had practice then she was going to spend time with Dane.”

“Dane? The Australian who beat me and almost beat me in the 400m individual medley two nights ago? That Dane?”

“Ahh, yeah. That one.”

“Right.”

She held her arms up in surrender. “Look, you know what happens at the Games. People hook up.”

He chuckled. What she’d said was true. There was something about the atmosphere that encouraged people to hook up for a few days of fun. He and Julia had first met in London at the last Olympics. They’d talked, but that had been it. It wasn’t until they reconnected at one of the regional competitions a couple of years after London that he decided he wanted to see more of her. Fortunately, the feeling had been mutual. Until it had all fallen apart after the allegations of bribery came to light.

God, why couldn’t he stop thinking about that?

“Mitch! Do you want to get something to go, or did you want to eat at the café, or do you want to forget this whole thing?”

“No.” His response came out harsher than he’d intended. “No, I don’t want to forget this whole thing. Hell, why do you think I came to your practice? I came to see you.”

“Okay. Well, I’m glad you came to see me.”

Mitch closed the distance between them, knowing it wasn’t the best idea. He didn’t care what was happening around him. He pulled Julia close, lowering his head until his lips almost touched hers.

Right now, he didn’t care what had gone on in the past and what might happen in the future. He wanted to live in the here and now. Even though it could be the stupidest thing he’d ever done, especially with so much still up in the air between them, he couldn’t stop himself if he wanted to.

“This is what I really want to do.”

He captured her lips with his. She offered no resistance, her mouth opening beneath his. Her lips tasted faintly of strawberry, and he knew she must have slicked her lips with her favorite lip balm. He wrapped his arms tighter around her until her breasts were squashed against his chest.

With her in his arms, her body pressed intimately against him, her taste on his tongue, he wanted to tell her that what came between the last time they’d been intimate and now didn’t matter, because there was still something strong happening between them. Something that he couldn’t deny, and the way her fingers dug into his back, she couldn’t either.

He pulled his lips away from hers, pressing small kisses along her jawline toward her ear. He sucked on her lobe, and the sound of her moan directed his blood to his dick.

“We have to stop, Mitch.”

Slowly he became aware of his surroundings, of the birds whistling in the trees. The sound of footsteps as people walked past them. The different languages spoken around him. The realization struck that they stood on the path for everyone to see what they were doing.

“Yes, we do.”

Suddenly, food wasn’t as high on his list of priorities as getting Julia alone. Mitch entwined his fingers with hers and led them toward the building housing his room. He had no idea where her room was, didn’t plan on asking in case it was in the total opposite direction.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Somewhere where there’s not a chance of us being interrupted.”

“What about food?”

“We’ll figure that out the closer we get to my room.”

The idea of going to his room must have appealed, as she didn’t voice any objections.

It wasn’t long before they were in the air-conditioned comfort of the building where he and Drake were staying.

“I’m in the building next door,” she murmured as they headed toward the elevators.

“Convenient.”

“I suppose.”

Adrenaline pumped through his veins with each step he took. He was fighting the urge to once again take her in his arms. It was so stupid to be doing this. He hadn’t seen or spoken to her in months and yet, a week after seeing her at the airport, all he wanted to do was reacquaint himself with her body. See if all the sensitive areas he’d found while they were dating were still as responsive to his touch as they’d once been.

The elevator arrived, and as some members from the Swiss team piled out, he ushered Julia into the empty cart.

He reached for her but she took a couple of steps away.

“Don’t, Mitch. Not here.”

He gave a short, sharp nod and then redirected his attention to the illuminated square counting up the numbers to his floor.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight, finally.

The doors whispered open. He waited until Julia preceded him out of the elevator before cupping her elbow.

They reached the door, and he extracted his key card from his pocket and slid it through the scanner to unlock the door. The rooms were nothing special. They didn’t need to be. They were neat with two beds. Not as big as a queen-sized bed but bigger than the single he’d slept in as a boy. There was a small kitchenette and a bathroom that, thankfully, the door to was shut. While he tried to keep his things in order, Drake tended to have an issue with personal space and usually spread his stuff all over every surface possible.

The air-conditioner blew softly over him, the temperature probably cooler than what Julia was used to, given the way she was rubbing her arms.

“Why do guys’ rooms have to be so much colder than a girl’s room?”

He slid his arms around her and brought her back flush against his chest. “It’s all a ploy, you know.”

“A ploy?”

“Yeah, it gives us an excuse to warm our dates up.”

She swiveled her head so she looked up at him, a smile on her face. “Is that right?”

“Yes it is.” All he could think about was touching her lips with his own again. He’d locked the door on the way in. They were all alone. No one was likely to interrupt them.

“I thought we were here to talk,” she whispered as she turned in his arms so that her breasts now brushed up against his chest.

“Talking is overrated.”

Her fingers tiptoed up his chest, his muscles twitching beneath her touch. “Don’t you think we have a lot to talk about before we take this any further?”

He pulled at her shirt tucked into her capri pants, needing to feel her flesh beneath his fingers again. “Jules, you know and I know that talking was never on the cards. You were the one who suggested we go back to your room.”

Once he got the shirt out of her pants, he tugged it up. She offered no resistance and raised her arms, allowing him to whisk the clothing over her head. He tossed it to the ground.

He moved his hands to the back strap of her bra; he squeezed and twisted the catch, the little metal hook and eyes coming apart easily.

“This is what was always going to happen,” he murmured against her skin. “You, me and a bed. It was as inevitable as the sun rising in the east.”

“You’re right.”

He didn’t give her a chance to say anything else as he possessed her lips once again. He trailed his hands around to cup her breasts. The weight was familiar in his hands, as if it were only a couple of weeks, not months, since he’d last touched them. Her moan as he brushed a thumb over her nipple vibrated against his lips.

The need to feel her skin to skin on the bed threatened to overwhelm him. Mitch pulled his lips away from hers and ripped off his shirt before dealing with his pants, glad he’d worn flip-flops instead of running shoes. In seconds he was naked; Julia had done the same.

He took a moment to look at her. God, he’d missed her. Her breasts, the perfect size to fit in his palm. Her muscle definition, a tribute to the regular exercise regime or running and light weights she did to keep herself in shape for her sport.

But she had a softness about her, too. A softness that called deep to his soul. A softness he couldn’t wait to lose himself in again.

“Jules, I’ve missed this.”

She cupped his cheek. “Me too.”

This time it was Julia who closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around him. He scooped her into his arms, reveling in the feel of her against him, and carried her to the bed, all the while letting her know through his tongue thrusting in her mouth just what he planned to do to her.