Those Summer Nights
Page 27
"You got this," I whispered.
Chris was two strokes away from the wall when I walked directly into someone. My phone flew out of my hands and crashed to the locker room floor.
"Whoa!" yelled a guy. "What are you doing in here?!"
I looked up for the first time since the race had started. The guy in front of me had his hand on his junk and was scrambling to put his towel back on. My mouth dropped as my eyes landed on his chiseled abs. His chestnut hair was shaggy and stopped right above his baby blue eyes. His bewildered baby blue eyes. Oh my God. I had wandered into the men's locker room. And I'm staring at a naked man that's not Chris!
All I could think to do was scream and run away.
Going for Gold - Chapter 2
"Did he win?" asked Kristen as I sat down next to her at our lockers. "And why is your face so red?"
I shrugged and tried to play it cool. "I dunno."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Don't worry about it. Hey, can I borrow your phone for a second?" I had accidently left my phone on the floor of the men's locker room, but I couldn't tell her that. God, why do I always have to do the most embarrassing stuff?
"What do you need my phone for? I already put it in my locker."
"Mine uh...stopped working."
"So you didn't see if he won or not?"
"Nope. I was just sitting on the bench when you told me I should hurry. When I looked back down, the screen had gone black. I tried turning it off and on again, but nothing happened. I even tried to take the battery out. I'll tell you, those iPhones just aren't made the way they used to be."
"Okay, you can use my phone. If you tell me what really happened to yours."
"What do you mean? I already told you." Shit! How does she know I'm lying?
Kristen raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh come on, you always ramble when you lie. And you can't take the battery out of an iPhone."
"Damn it, fine. I accidentally went into the men's locker room while I was watching the race and I bumped into this guy in a towel. Then I screamed and ran out."
Kristen started laughing hysterically. "Oh my God, are you serious?"
"Yes."
"So you missed your boyfriend's race because you were in the men's locker room?"
"Yes."
"What did the guy do when you bumped into him?"
"He screamed and covered himself. He was as surprised as I was."
"So you knocked his towel off? Did you see his junk?"
Blood rushed to my cheeks as I thought back to the incident. All I remembered was that his abs were amazing. "Not really. I was too busy being shocked that I had wandered into the wrong locker room."
"Did you recognize him? You might have just seen a famous athlete naked! Was it LeBron James? Please tell me it was LeBron."
"Can we please talk about this later? I really need to see if Chris won his race."
Kristen started to open her locker, but just then Coach Hammond poked her head into the locker room and blew her whistle. Practice time.
***
It was impossible to focus during practice. Not only did I not know if Chris had won his race, but I was on edge the whole time hoping that the guy I had bumped into wouldn't show up at the gym. I would have to run away from practice if he did. I couldn't face him after that.
After what seemed like the longest practice of my life, Coach Hammond finally dismissed us. Kristen sprinted with me back to the locker room so that we could get to her phone and see if Chris had won.
There was only one problem. Chris was waiting for me right by the door to the locker room.
Shit. "What do I do?" I whispered to Kristen. I didn't know if I should be comforting him or congratulating him.
"Just play it cool."
"You know I can't do that. Let's pretend like we don't see him."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
Kristen and I stared at the ground as we approached the locker room.
"Hey," said Chris. I couldn't tell if he sounded happy or sad, so I continued with the plan to ignore him.
Kristen pushed the door open and walked in first. I followed, but Chris grabbed my arm before the door closed behind me.
Crap. I looked up. "Oh, Chris. You snuck up on me."
He gave me a funny look. "Really? I was standing here the whole time."
I wiped the sweat off my face and let out a long sigh. "Are you sure? I feel like I would have seen you."
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Weird. I guess I'm just super tired from practice. And you must be wiped after your race." I looked at him to try to get a read on how it had gone. It looked like he was smiling slightly.
"I really am. I can't believe Claude broke the world record."
Damn. He lost. "I'm sorry, babe," I said as I gave him a hug.
He pulled back and gave me a funny look. "Why are you sorry?"
"Because you..."
"Beat the world record too!" interrupted Kristen. She had grabbed her phone and apparently checked the results.
"Yeah!" I said. "Gold medal winner! Wahoo!"
Chris laughed. "For a second I thought you had forgotten to watch it. You really had me going."
"Yeah. I thought that would be a fun prank to play on my gold medalist boyfriend. Gotcha." I punched his arm playfully. Who does that? "So what do you want to do to celebrate?"
He glanced down at my breasts and smiled.
I laughed. "How about a nice romantic dinner instead?"
"What, are you worried Kristen is going to tattle on you? You wouldn't do that, would you, Kristen?"
"Tattle on her for what? I have no idea what you're talking about." Kristen winked at us and went back into the locker room. She may have hated Chris, but she hated cock-blocking even more.
Chris turned to me and raised one of his eyebrows. "So what do you say?"
I was torn. On one hand, I knew that Coach would bench me if I had sex and she found out about it, which she had an uncanny ability to do. Nina, one of our best servers, would angrily attest to that as she watched our first four games from the bench. But I was also ridiculously horny. I wanted so badly so say yes. I wanted to jump on Chris and kiss him and fuck him right there in the locker room. Shit! My phone is still in the men's locker room. "Let's just see what happens. I'll meet you in the village square at six." I gave him a quick kiss on the lips and then disappeared into the locker room.
I immediately ran over to Kristen.
"Sounds like you're in for a fun night," she said. "He's going to be so thrilled when you tell him you want to do it in public."
"What?!"
"You know, because you lost the best. Don't think I stopped counting after you ran ahead."
"Oh God, I never agreed to that. And anyway, I didn't see any more couples banging on the way here, so really you're the one who has to have sex in public."
"Don't give me that. There were at least three or four more couples banging."
I shook my head. "Not that I saw. So who are you going to bang? Some rando?"
Kristen laughed. "No one, since I didn't lose. Believe me, if I lost, I'd happily admit it. I would love an excuse to bang some hot athlete."
"Do you have video evidence of these people you claim you saw?" I asked. "Pics or it didn't happen."
"No. What kind of pervert do you think I am?" Kristen put her hand over her mouth to pretend to be shocked that I would think such a thing about her.
I shrugged. "Sorry, I win. I'll tell you what though, I'll let you off the hook with the whole public sex thing. Just go into the men's locker room and get my phone and we'll be even."
Kristen scrunched her mouth to the side to make it look like she was actually considering not doing it. "If you insist, I guess I have no choice. How far did you get before you dropped it?"
"I can't remember."
"Oh right, you were too busy ripping some guy's towel off."
"I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Suuure
. Alright, let's get your phone back."
I followed Kristen to the entrance to the men's locker room. She opened the door and pushed me in.
"Hey!" I screamed.
She kept pushing me farther into the locker room. "If I'm going in, you're coming with me."
Oh God. I tried to spin around to get past her and escape, but I didn't stand a chance. She was an outside hitter and I was a libero, which meant she was super tall and I wasn't. She kept pushing me until a group of half naked guys came into view. Some of them were in their underwear. A few of them had towels wrapped around their waists. They all had ridiculously sculpted muscles. It was like I had walked into a museum filled with Greek statues that had all come to life.
"Hey guys," said Kristen, as if it was totally normal for us to be there. How can she be so confident just walking in here like this? I wished I had even half her confidence.
Everyone in the locker room turned to look at us. Half of them tried to cover up, while the other half didn't even seem to be phased.
"Alina was in here earlier and dropped her phone. Have any of you seen it?"
One of the guys wearing only a towel looked at me. "So you're the hot girl Bryce was talking about at practice today, huh?"
"Where is he now?" asked Kristen.
The guy stroked his chin dramatically. "I can't remember." He pulled his towel off and put his leg up on a bench to give Kristen and me a perfect view of his penis dangling between his legs. "But maybe you could do something to make me remember."
I put my hand out to block my view of it. "Dude, gross."
"Hey, you're the ones who came into the men's locker room. I'm just trying to get changed."
"Uh, yeah. I'm not going to blow you just to get my friend's phone back. Anyway, your penis is kinda small." Kristen grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the locker room as all the other guys laughed.
When we were safely back in the hall, I turned to Kristen. "So how do we find my phone now?"
"It sounds like some guy named Bryce has it. How many athletes here can be named Bryce? If we search for Bryce in a list of athletes, I'm sure we can narrow it down to two or three guys."
"Good idea. We'll have to do that later though. I've gotta go get ready for dinner with Chris."
* * *
For more, get GOING FOR GOLD now!
A Note From Ivy
I just wrote the end for my 20th novel and I think I’m still a little speechless. Twenty? How did that happen? Can someone pinch me, please? But the truth is…this book wasn’t always supposed to be my 20th. If I had written this novel straight through (which I pretty much always do), it would have been my 6th novel. It was supposed to come out in 2015. So what the heck happened? Why has this story been bottled up for four years?
Well, there was this tiny little series I had started earlier that year – The Hunted series – that had just started to take off. And Those Summer Nights got lost in all that excitement. Deadlines for more books in the series got moved around and…Those Summer Nights was unfortunately put on the backburner.
Each summer since then I’ve worked on it a little. Slowly. Bringing Mila and J.J. to life. Piece by piece, summer night by summer night. But usually I never had a whole summer to devote to it. And when the season changed and I’d have to stop writing on the porch, the story would stop. I had to write it during the summer while I could sit outside. It was just this unnegotiable point I couldn’t get past. It was a summer story. And it had to be written in the right season in order for me to properly embrace the characters. But looking back on it…there may have been a bit more to it than that.
I’ve recently been on a romantic suspense/thriller writing kick. And as much as I love creating those darker stories (truly, I do), writing books like that hurt. I try to immerse myself in all my characters, and when my characters are sad or crazy or distressed? Well…I act a little sad and crazy and distressed myself.
But books like this? They make me sane. Writing this book in particular made me sane. And I think that’s why I wrote it for four years every summer. Mila and J.J. are my happy place. The beach is my happy place. And I spent so many summer nights with them I’ve lost count. I don’t know how many summer nights it took you to read their story, but I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you had fun escaping to Rehoboth with me for a little while, it would be amazing if you could share your thoughts in a review.
Read More
Keira and Rory may have found love, but will their new employee at Sweet Cravings find love too? Find out in GOING FOR GOLD:
Alina - The rumors you've heard about the summer games are true. I mean...what do you expect when you put a bunch of sex-starved athletes in the best shape of their lives together in one small village? But it doesn't matter to me. I'm focused on winning gold. Who cares if the hottest guy at the summer games seems intent on winning me over? Because I'm focused on...wait, what was I focusing on again?
Bryce - I need to win gold. I've been training my whole life for this moment. The prize money will be life changing. But there's a woman with golden hair that my eyes keep wandering to instead of the gold medal. I can't get her off my mind. But winning her over is the only game here I don't know how to win.
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Free Short Story
Don't want the sexiness to end? It doesn't have to! Sign up for Ivy Smoak's newsletter to get a FREE copy of her sexy short story, The Tutor.
Sophia has had a crush on Wyatt ever since they met. Tutoring him at the library once a week has been the highlight of her semester. But their sexual tension is slowly torturing her. Wyatt is sexy, funny, flirtatious, and as far as she can tell - completely unattainable.
When it is time for their last tutoring session, she worries it will be the last time she will ever get to see him. She's determined to not let that happen. Dreaming about him and watching him from a distance at his baseball games isn't going to cut it.
Will she have the confidence to confess her true feelings?
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Also by Ivy Smoak
Not sure what to read next? Check out Ivy's suggested reading order!
Sweet Cravings Series (Romcoms)
Playing a Player
Those Summer Nights
Going for Gold
The Hunted Series (James & Penny)
Temptation (Book 1)
Addiction (Book 2)
Eruption (Book 3)
Devotion (Book 4)
The Light to My Darkness (James & Penny cont.)
The Light to My Darkness (Book 1)
A Whirlwind of Color (Book 2)
This Is Love (Book 3)
Men of Manhattan Series
City of Sin (Mason & Bee)
Third Chances (Rob & Daphne)
Missing Pieces (Tyler & Hailey)
Best Year Ever (Josh & Melissa)
James the Christmas Grouch
Made of Steel Series (Romantic Suspense)
Made of Steel (Book 1)
Forged in Flames (Book 2)
Carved in Ice (Book 3)
Standalone Romances
A Christmas Wish
Secrets of Suburbia (Psychological Thrillers)
The Truth in My Lies
Sweet Like a Psycho
Sea of Stars Series (YA Fantasy)
Sea of Stars
Gods of Pentavia (Epic Fantasy)
The Ruin of House Hornbolt
To connect with Ivy, check out her Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
Copyright
This book is an original publication of Loft Troll Ink.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is purely coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any info
rmation storage and retrieval system without the express written permission of Loft Troll Ink.
Cover art copyright © 2019 by Ivy Smoak
Cover photo by BLACKDAY/Shutterstock.com
2019 Loft Troll Ink ebook Edition
Copyright © 2019 by Ivy Smoak
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