Page 2 of His Reward
“I didn’t fall,” I reminded him as we shuffled out of the dressing room and over to the area where officials gestured for me, Mike Hall, who’d won silver, and Oliver Sagwa, who’d won bronze, into a line to take to the ice again for the ceremony. “I skated cleanlyandappealed to the crowd and the judges.”
My comment was met by a stern frown from Father and a look of barely concealed jealousy from Marco.
“Remember who you are,” Father said, as if that statement trumped everything.
I countered his sternness with, “Remember our deal.”
Fatherhumphedbut didn’t have time to add anything else before the three of us who would take the podium were ushered out onto the carpet that had been laid over the ice for the ceremony.
I had a long-standing deal with my father. It had been part of my demands when I’d flirted with the idea of leaving him and Marco to find another coach so that I could get out from under the too-heavy mantle of the Monteverdi legacy. I was twenty-five and had enough money from competition prizes and sponsorship deals to leave anytime I wanted. I didn’t even live at the family compound anymore. I’d bought myself one of the stunning, beach-front condos in the fancy section of Barrington last year, too. I stayed with Father and Marco because they actually were damn good coaches.
But the deal was that every time I made it onto the podium at a competition, and every time I went into heat, I was allowed to have one entire week away from everything. Away from training, away from my diet regimen, and especially away from them. My family was not allowed to ask questions about where I went or what I did. The only caveat was that I also stayed under the press radar.
That was no problem at all for me. Like I said, absolute secrecy and discretion was demanded of anyone who played as part of the Dark Fantasies Club.
As I stepped up onto the podium to receive my gold medal and the bouquet of gorgeous flowers that went along with it, I thought about the particular Dark Fantasies Club event I would be attending in just a few days and beamed. It was a piece of cake to look genuinely joyful as I straightened and waved to the audience from the top of the podium. The upcomingDark Fantasies Club omega auction put an amazing smile on my face. Only hand-selected, elite members of the club were invited to participate in omega auction events. I’d submitted my application, of course, but I hadn’t expected to actually be accepted.
That was the gold medal that really mattered to me.
I was gracious in accepting all the accolades that came to me for winning gold on the ice, though. Like I said, I truly did love figure skating. I worked hard at it and had given up a normal life to be standing where I was just then. I stood proudly with my hand over my heart as the national anthem was played, then posed for pictures with my fellow winners, who also happened to be some of the best friends I had, before stepping down and heading back to the locker room to pack it all up for the night.
“I’ll take that,” Father said, removing the medal from my neck right before we reached the locker room door.
“And I’ll take those,” Marco said, snatching the bouquet from my arms for no real reason at all.
“We’ll meet you in the lobby in twenty minutes, no more,” Father said with a nod before letting me head into the locker room with the others.
“Man, if I had a dad like yours, I’d quit skating in a heartbeat,” Oliver said, shaking his head but also grinning, as we headed into the tightly guarded locker room. Only competitors were allowed in, both because we showered and changed in there and because the event organizers knew that sometimes we just needed our own space, free even of coaches.
I laughed at Oliver’s well-intentioned comment. “They’re bastards,” I said with a shrug, “but they know skating.”
“I don’t think I could handle the kind of intense scrutiny they push on you,” Oliver went on as we stripped carefully out of our costumes and headed for the showers.
The other competitors who hadn’t gone through the medal’s ceremony had already showered and were mostly gone, so it was just me, Oliver, and Mike in the almost-but-not-quite private showers that lined one wall.
“I’m used to it,” I said over the spray as I quickly scrubbed the competition sweat from my body and hair. “And I have systems in place to help me cope with their whole…thing.”
“What systems?” Mike asked from the shower on the other side.
I’d known Oliver and Mike since juniors. The locker room was kind of like the Dark Fantasies Club in that we kept each other’s secrets to a fault. Some competitors were nasty with each other, but Oliver, Mike, and I had always been each other’s best and sometimes only friends on the grueling competition circuit for years.
“You ever heard of the Dark Fantasies Club?” I asked as I stepped out of the shower and grabbed one of the oversized towels to dry myself off.
“That’s the underground club thing for people who are into kinky shit, right?” Oliver asked as he stepped out with a towel around his waist, leaving only his light-brown chest exposed.
“Yep,” I said with a broad grin.
Mike came out of the shower on the other side, already half dry. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those kinky fucks,” he said with a teasing grin.
“Oh, I’m so kinky I would make Corbin Johnson blush,” I told them with a wink.
They laughed, partially because Corbin Johnson was a formerly prominent alpha figure skating judge who had been caught at a party being spanked by a female alpha while dressed as a baby.
Oliver stopped laughing suddenly and blinked. “Wait, seriously?”
“Yes,” I answered with a shrug, heading over to my locker to change into my street clothes.
“There’s nothing wrong with being kinky,” Mike said as he joined me to change. “I mean, I’m not, but I don’t kink shame.”
