Love and Other Games

by Ana Blaze, Melinda Dozier, Aria Kane, Kara Leigh Miller

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author makes no claims to, but instead acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following word marks mentioned in this work of fiction including brands or products such as:.

  Copyright © 2013 by Ana Blaze, Melinda Dozier, Aria Kane, and Kara Leigh Miller.

  LOVE AND OTHER GAMES by Ana Blaze, Melinda Dozier, Aria Kane, and Kara Leigh Miller.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by Swoon Romance. Swoon Romance and its related logo are registered trademarks of Georgia McBride Books, LLC.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  CONTENT ADVISORY: The publisher and authors recommend this title to readers over age seventeen due to mature content and language.

  Edited by Georgia McBride

  Published by Swoon Romance

  Cover designed by Su Kopil

  Cover art licensed by Shutterstock.com

  LOVE AND OTHER GAMES

  TROUBLE WITH GOLD

  MELINDA DOZIER

  ICE GOLD

  KARA LEIGH MILLER

  THE GIRL BEHIND THE GOLD

  ARIA KANE

  WORTH MORE THAN GOLD

  ANA BLAZE

  Trouble with Gold

  Melinda Dozier

  Chapter One

  “Okay, buddies, this is the place.” Chris declared, displaying a wide grin under his retro beanie hat, splaying his hands out by his side.

  Ty bumped into him when he stopped in his tracks and frowned at his other teammate, Adam. “What’s he talking about?”

  They’d been in the Village for a day now. Once he slept off the jetlag, he explored the grounds, the mountains calling his name. He was at the freakin’ Olympics, baby! The first informal party took place tonight and that’s where they headed.

  When Adam displayed a wicked smirk in return, Ty looked at Chris and back to the quiet area around them. Fresh snow lay around a statue bearing the five interlocked Olympics rings symbolizing the continents of the world, a small frost along the edges. This was not the Community Center. “Why are we stopping here?”

  Adam nodded to Chris, ignoring Ty’s question. “It’s a good place as any other.”

  “What the hell are you two talking about?” Ty folded his new US Snowboarder-jacket collar up to block the breeze around his neck. He looked around to try to figure out what they referred to. “The party’s in the community center, isn’t it? And there’s no one around here.”

  Chris stood in front of him and tapped his shoulder, a smug smile directed at Ty. “We all had to do it.”

  “Do what?” Ty zipped up his jacket and narrowed his eyes. What could they do here?

  “Time to join the brotherhood, man.” Adam patted him on the back.

  Aw, shit. They were up to no good. A puff of vapor exited his mouth as the realization came to him. He should have known; his nickname wasn’t Trouble for nothing. In fact, his well-known pranks at the X-games still linger in the half-pipes of Aspen.

  Chris laughed and rubbed his hands together. “You’re the virgin of the games, dude. You had to know something was gonna happen.”

  Ty stamped his feet to warm his toes. “What do I have to do?” No big deal. He could play another prank if he had to. What pissed him off was that they completely blindsided him tonight and he had no idea what they had up their sleeves. No one else surfaced around them and the quiet echoed off the snowy ferns.

  “See that Olympics statue in the corner?” Chris pointed. When Ty nodded, Chris continued, “You need to run around it, jump through one of the rings, slide a 180 – with your boots only – and we’ll take a picture. Then run back without falling.”

  Ty shrugged. “Sounds simple.”

  His friends smiled back at him. Chris spoke up, his eyes lit with a twinkle of mischief, “Without your clothes on, Trouble.”

  He flinched, a bitter tang in his mouth. They had to be kidding. His toes were already numb and he wore boots. “No clothes? In this cold?”

  “Yep.” Adam chuckled, a smile as wide as one of the Olympic rings.

  Ty glared, thrusting out his chest. “You guys are assholes.”

  “You’ve got to do it, dude.” Chris pulled out his Smartphone and punched buttons to bring up the camera application. “Let me just bring up Instagram.”

  “What if I don’t?” Ty lifted his chin and met Chris’s gaze.

  Adam tsked and vapor drifted from his mouth. “It’s bad luck if you don’t.”

  Ty tugged his woolen hat down over his ears. “Is this like that torch urban legend going around?”

  Chris blew into his hands. “No, the torch is not an urban legend. Plus, we all had to do it. Now it’s your turn.”

  Adam leaned against a railing of the steps. “Come on, Trouble, take one for the team. I had to do it in Vancouver.”

  “And I did it back in Turin,” Chris added, sniffling his nose.

  Well, if they both did it, so could he. “Hell, I’ll do it. I’ve done worse.” Ty stood up straight and unzipped his team jacket. How cold could he get? It would only take at most a minute. He chuckled under his breath. His friends were novices at causing trouble.

  When Ty reached his boxer shorts, Chris tapped Ty’s chest. “Wait, Trouble. We don’t want your little dick to freeze off.”

  “Fuck you.” He began to take them off, all while jumping up and down to try to warm up.

  “No, man. Keep them on.” Adam stopped him. “What if someone comes around? You don’t want to get disqualified. And keep your boots on.”

  “Pussies.” Ty pulled his boxers back up and rubbed his arms, causing friction to warm himself. “Ready?” When they nodded, he shot off as if he were a track star instead of a snowboarder.

  Posing at the statue after he turned on his heel, he smiled, “Take the freaking picture,” Both Chris and Ty held up their cell phones, snapping pictures and laughing at the same time.

  A minute later, he stood in front of his teammates. That wasn’t so bad. He held up his fists and screamed, “I fucking love Switzerland!”

  “You sure about that?” Before he knew it, Chris had one arm behind his back and Adam the other.

  Now wait a minute. “What the hell are you doing?” His arms felt like icicles and his fingers prickled from the cold. If they kept him out here any longer like this, he wasn’t sure how he’d stay warm.

  Chris landed a cold metal object around each wrist. “We forgot to mention the second part to our initiation.” His wrists tightened around what had to be handcuffs, then they shackled him to the railing of the stairs they leaned against. “Now you got to find a way out.”

  Adam bent over laughing, clutching his side. “You should see your fucking face, dude. Hilarious.”

  “What the hell? It’s fucking cold out here.” The only sound was the laughter of his friends and Chris taking pictures with his cell phone, again. “You’ll pay for this, assholes.”

  “Sucker.” Chris smiled and his boots crunched through the snow as he walked away.

  Adam stood in front of him, his eyebrows wiggling. “It was cold in Vancouver, too.” He reached to the inside pocket of his USA jacket. “Here are a couple of keys.”

  Ty tried to reach out to grab them, forgetting that his hands were constrained. His wrists burned against the
cold metal. His friend fastened a string with several keys around his neck. “Don’t worry. If you don’t show up to the party, we’ll come back for you.”

  “If I’m not frozen over by then.” Hell, his legs were about to buckle from the cold.

  Adam tapped his chest. “Glad you left your boxers on now, aren’t you?”

  “Mother fuckers.”

  “Welcome to the Olympics, Trouble.” Adam ran off and soon both teammates were out of sight.

  What the hell was he going to do? He tried to reach the necklace with his mouth, then with his tongue, but that didn’t work. He did a little dance, to try to warm up and shake loose the keys around his neck. Nope. Didn’t work. Bending his head down below his knees didn’t work either. He was freaking stuck, and in the ten minutes they were in this isolated area, no one had walked by.

  Oh, those shit-for-brains teammates would pay for this. He wiggled around, stomping his boots on the ground and blew his warm breath out, all while planning revenge.

  ***

  Of course, Nadia got stuck with an American as her roommate, and this one was a piece of work. The party started in ten minutes and Nadia was never late. Never. Leaving a note on Lara’s bed, she left the room without looking back. The community center lay about a ten-minute walk from the volunteers’ dorm, according to her Village map. If she walked quickly, she would get there on time. She didn’t want to disappoint the other volunteers, especially her boss who had to write her a recommendation letter at the end of the games.

  A vibration pulled her from her thoughts and she looked at her phone’s text message. Lara had just gotten out of the shower. Figures. She’d take another twenty minutes to spruce herself up, since all Lara talked about was meeting the single athletes. She had her eye on one of the hockey players – Cole something. Nadia, on the other hand, had no time for those frivolous games. Her purpose for being there consisted of gaining experience and hopefully landing her dream job at the Olympic Committee Headquarters later this year.

  Her quick pace continued, but the walk felt eternal. She shouldn’t have taken the shortcut she’d plotted out on the map. Maybe it wasn’t so short. She stopped in her tracks, pulling out her cell phone again to check the time, when she heard a noise.

  “Thank God you’re here,” a male’s voice groaned, in English.

  Nadia looked across the path toward the stairs ahead of her and saw a very well built, tall man, light brown hair curled around his beanie, with a chiseled chest and tight thighs. Wait a minute. Why could she see his chest and thighs? It was zero degrees Celsius. Why would a man be standing in nothing but his underwear? Her mother always warned her about sickos.

  She dug into her purse, searching for her mace – something she carried since her internship in New York last summer. It settled somewhere at the bottom. Great. When she finally needed it, she couldn’t find it.

  “Do you mind?” He said, a little louder. “I could use some help.”

  “I have mace.” She answered, still searching. “Stay where you are.”

  “Not a problem.” He laughed, a deep laugh that sent tingly sensations from head to toe. God, sleep deprivation must be worse than she thought if she had these thoughts about a sicko.

  She shook her head and finally held the mace up. The man remained in the same spot. He had a fabulous smile and a few wrinkles at the side of his eyes, from smiling or being out in the sun. He must be an athlete with that tight physique. “Who are you and what are you doing?”

  Instead of answering, he let out a laugh all while his teeth chattered. An ache sat in her throat. Poor guy. If his blue lips and frosted hair was any indication, he was beyond cold.

  “Are you okay?” She slowly approached the stairs, not sure what the handsome man would do. But, he looked like he was in trouble.

  His eyes perused her from top to bottom and then he looked back into her face. “Better now.” He smirked. “I’ve been stuck here for about ten minutes and you’re the first person I’ve seen.” His lips trembled.

  She ambled over to him. For a moment she was glad she had a large ski jacket on, a fuzzy scarf and woolen hat. This guy had close to nothing. “Why are you stuck here?”

  He jiggled his hands behind him, sounding like a chain on metal. “My buddies thought it was a funny joke.”

  She looked closer and saw that he was strapped to handcuffs. Oh, geez, his fingertips were blue, too. “That’s not funny.”

  “And it’s freaking cold. Want to help me out?” He wiggled his upper body, as if moving it to warm himself.

  She looked around, trying to find anybody else. “Are your friends around here? Am I part of the joke?”

  “If they were around here, they’d have let me loose by now. Come on, I’m freezing. See the necklace around my neck?” He dropped his chin to his chest, his teeth chattering. “There’s about seven keys. You have to try all of them.”

  She sighed, all while looking at anywhere but him. He had a ruggedness and vital power that attracted her and she couldn’t let her thoughts go there … not in a random moment like this. The keys around his neck dangled across a tight chest that she, for just an instant, wished she could feel. His gorgeous green eyes pulled her in like a magnet. But, if this was some game – people always tried to get her into trouble, since she was the serious one. Taking a deep breath, she put her mace back into her purse and looked directly at him. “I really don’t have time to play games. I need to be somewhere.”

  “Yeah, the party. Me, too. I got tied up.” He lifted his leg and rubbed his other one. At least he had boots on. “Please. I’m not going to hurt you. I couldn’t feel you if I tried.” He wiggled his fingers behind him.

  She eyed his face, anywhere but his chest … but his fascinating eyes dragged her in. They brimmed with humor and warmth … and need. He needed her and she knew she could trust him. Agreeing, she slid next to him, touching his shoulder. “Oh, all right. How do I get the keys?”

  An irresistibly devastating grin formed across his blue lips. “You have to undo the necklace first.”

  She stepped closer and stood chest-to-chest. “If you’re fooling with me, I promise I’ll turn you in.”

  His mouth slackened. “I won’t fool with you … unless you want me to.” He winked his frosted lashes falling against his cheek.

  Surprisingly, a warmth spread through her body and butterflies swarmed her belly. Why did this particular guy have to have such an effect on her? “I’m just going to reach back and undo the string.” She leaned forward, but first looked into his eyes – so green they reminded her of the evergreen trees outside her home in Lucerne.

  “Any day now.” He said slowly and smirked, awareness in his eyes.

  She cleared her throat and stepped the one-step forward needed to reach behind his neck and undo the string. But it was a tight knot. She leaned in closer and could feel the man’s chest rise and fall beneath her own jacket. Her breath fell out of her mouth onto his neck and she murmured into his ear. “It’s tight. Hold on.”

  He tilted his head into hers, their cheeks touching. “Take your time.”

  An unbelievable urge to nip his ear overwhelmed her, so she tried to hurry, her fingers fumbling with the darn knot. “I thought you were in a hurry.”

  “Your body heat is warming me up.”

  She flinched and stepped away. “Now, really … ”

  He leaned his head back and moaned. “No, don’t leave me.”

  She pointed at him. “Only because your lips are blue, will I continue to help you.”

  He pulled his hands and winced. “You can get closer.”

  When she angled into him again to reach for the necklace, his eyes lit up. Damn, he was cute. She shook her head clear, so she could do the job. If she didn’t hurry, she’d be too late to the party. “I’m just going to wrap the necklace around to your front, so I can untie it from there.” She did so as she spoke and loosened the cord. Finally, the keys came off into her palm. “Okay, let’s try this out
.

  “I can’t wait.” He squinted, a smoldering in his eyes.

  If she wasn’t careful, she’d be pulled in by his charm. His endearing green eyes and chiseled chest would be hard to pass up. She bent down and reached around his trim waist to grab the handcuffs. A bit of a compromising position, given the state of her thoughts, but she had to help the poor guy out before his nose froze off. “There’s a saying here in Switzerland. To be a fool at the right time is an art.” She caught his eye before continuing with the knot. “You better hush, now.”

  “Well, there’s a saying in the US, too. Imagination is worse than the truth. I have a real vivid imagination, and you bent over me like this is not helping.”

  She jerked back after trying the first key and accidentally dropped the other keys by his feet. Great, now she’d have to bend down directly in front of him. “Just my luck.”

  “Yeah, luck.” He nodded his head a big grin on his face. “Wait ’til the guys hear this one. The tradition is lucky.”

  She narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re not lucky. You’ve been out in the cold for fifteen minutes now, and I dropped the damn keys.” She knelt and dug through the snow for the keys. Finally finding them, she looked up to see what he was doing.

  He widened his eyes and nodded. An actual sigh fell from his lips. “Yep. Lucky.”

  She stood up straight and held up a key. “This is the one. I know it.” She reached behind him and – “Dort gehst Du.” She held up the cuffs and let him grab them.

  “Dort what?” He rubbed his wrists and stomped his feet up and down. When he stopped, they stared at each other for a few beats, and she swore time stood still, like in those silly American movies. “Thank you. Now, I’ve got to find my clothes.”

  “I believe that must be them, over on that wall.” She pointed, keeping her eyes on the statue rather than the athlete in front of her.

  He ran to them and picked them up, then back to her. “So, what’s your name?” He pulled on his sports pants on top of his boxers, finally enough so she wouldn’t stare at the part of him that she had wanted to see in the five minutes they’d been together, but somehow avoided it with great discipline.