Tag: olympics

Unmasked first chapter reveal!

Posted September 18, 2017 by Magan Vernon in Books, news / 1 Comment

Title: Unmasked

Genre: Sports Romantic Comedy

Release Date: November 6th, 2017

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Chapter One

Blake

 

“Don’t screw up in preliminaries and get sent home on day one,” Dad muttered, running his hand through his graying beard. I was surprised he didn’t get it colored before The Games and try to keep up with appearances and all that. Actually, I was even more surprised him, and Mom didn’t try and make a comeback. “Sixty-year-old skiing duo makes triumphant comeback in 2018 winter Games.”

“Very supportive, Clint,” Mom nudged his shoulder.

My parents were gold medalist Olympic skiers who raised me in British Columbia where I grew up skiing and snowboarding at the largest ski resort in North America. I grew up hanging around other gold medalists and spent the first fifteen years of my life, traveling around the world on whatever skiing excursion or competition they were on. Hell, I thought they’d never retire, and I’d have to eventually compete with them in The Games. That is if I stuck to skiing and didn’t pick up a board.

I wasn’t one of those privileged ski brats, far from it. Even now, as I sat in the airport, waiting for the chartered flight with the other Canadian athletes to leave for Peyong Chang. , I stood out. Not just because I was sitting with two highly regarded Olympians, but with my long bright blonde dreadlocks and the red and white tracksuit provided by the Canadian Olympic committee, I was hard to miss in the sea of perfectly coifed brown hair. At twenty-six I was one of the oldest guys on the team and the newest member after screwing up each time I tried out for the team since I was fifteen. My parents never let me live that down, obviously.

“Well, I’m favored to win after my showing at Nats, so the worst that could happen is I choke, or maybe that American will get busted for pot again and then I’ll be a crowd favorite if I get some good stoner jokes in,” I joked, trying to add some humor to the situation that was getting more awkward by the minute.

Mom and Dad were flying separate to The Games but somehow felt the need to make their flight at the same time as mine and sit awkwardly at the coffee shop, drinking the tea that Mom complained was “American-tasting.” I didn’t know exactly what that meant. I’d traveled to America plenty of times, now gaining friends and teammates in California. Sure, they weren’t as polite as Canadians and didn’t have as many Tim Horton’s, but their food or drinks didn’t seem too different.

“You know, I should probably head to the wing my teammates are at. Get in some bonding time before we take off,” I said, standing up.

Mom and Dad looked at each other before they stood up as well. Dad gave me a brisk handshake then Mom hugged me, her brown bun almost hitting my chin. At five-foot-ten I wasn’t a very tall guy, but it helped working the slopes. The taller guys were all arms and legs, which were good for skiers, but with snowboarding, I think I fared better being closer to the snow.

“We’ll see you in Pyeongchang. Remember, you’re welcome to our villa anytime if you’re tired of sharing that place with Erik and Liam,” Mom offered with a tight-lipped smile.

Dad smirked, putting his hand on my mom’s shoulder. Mom was petite, but Dad wasn’t a big guy either. Professionally skiing wasn’t meant for the bulky and my parents still trained like crazy, even though they were years out of The Games. They both looked like little dolls standing there in their matching sweaters, and plastic smiles. It would be nice to get away from their scrutiny, even if they were still looking on from the sidelines.

“Blake will be fine, Maggie. You remember how much fun we had fun at our first Games in Austria,” Dad said as Mom’s face fell.

“Just be careful, okay? You’re there for The Games. Not anything else. The celebration can wait until you get home,” Mom added, widening her big blue eyes.

I smiled, giving her another hug. “I promise, Mom.”

I’d heard a lot of rumors about the Olympic village and that condoms were handed out like candy. I had a lot of fun in Canada with women, but this was going to be a whole new plethora of women. Being away with my parents for two weeks, and hopefully, some medals could help me in that respect. As long as my parents didn’t show up when I was meeting a girl and decide to invite her for tea or whatever else they did meddling in their grown up son’s life. Damn it was time I moved out of their place. Hopefully, The Games were good to me and I could finally afford it.

I grabbed my carry on and headed in the direction of the chartered flights, happy to finally be out of their watchful eye.

At my age, I should have moved on with my life, hell, maybe even left Canada for the US and gotten a job in Silicon Valley. But after growing up staring at my parents’ multiple medals on our living room wall, I couldn’t stop chasing the dream and the only way to achieve it was with my parent’s connections. I sucked at skiing, but on the board, I felt alive. Felt at home in the community of snowboarders who weren’t as uptight as the ski bunnies that turned their noses up at me until they found out who my parents were.

As soon as I got to the chartered waiting area of the airport, I was greeted by a sea of red tracksuits. We had hundreds of Canadians going to The Games this year, but like a giant beacon, my buddy, and skiing legend, Liam spotted me, standing up and running over with a huge grin on his face that brought out his face full of freckles.

“Ey, Blake, think the rumors are true about the Olympic village? All of these world-class athletes with pent up sexual energy just going at it like Moose in heat?” Liam asked with a laugh.

This was Liam’s first Olympics, like mine, but he was eight years my junior. In age and maturity. If the rumors were true about the village, the Olympic committee would have bowls of condoms and protein bars waiting for us. Which meant a few of my roommates would probably be spending more time in the village than our place we rented near the mountain.

“If you want to try your luck with the girl’s hockey team, be my guest, but I won’t come pull a hockey stick out of your ass if one of them gets too rough.” I laughed.

“Ha, ha, real funny. I’m sure all you have to do is walk up to any of these snow bunnies, bat those big blue eyes of yours, toss those blonde dreads and tell them you’re the Canadian national champion for snowboarding with Olympic legacy parents. Their panties will drop faster than you can say ‘ey,’” Liam added.

I shrugged and smirked. “Maybe a little more like ‘Ey, I like your panties,’ then they’ll drop.”

So I had a way with women. Maybe too much. That almost got me in trouble when I got involved with a Canadian figure skater named Alexis who also happened to be going to The Games. I didn’t spot her in the crowd of athletes yet, but I was pretty sure her death glare was on me, so I tried to keep my head down.

Liam laughed and shook his head. “You really think you’re that good? Bag a few Canadian mountain women, and some American tourists, sure, but these are world class athletes.”

The flight attendant announced we were boarding, so I grabbed my bag, thankful for the interruption. I didn’t exactly want to discuss my sexual prowess with a guy who didn’t have a filter. Some other athletes were already sneering at us as if we didn’t already stand out with my dreads and his fiery red ponytail

I put my hands up, walking in step with Liam toward the boarding area. “I just agree with you.”

I may not have been like the over muscled guys the girls went for at the gym, but that didn’t stop the girls from checking out my full sleeves, and none of them complained about my long, lean physique. It worked the slopes and their bodies quite nicely.

Liam crossed his arms over his chest, the material of his puffy coat making a sound like a bag of deflated marshmallows. “Okay, smartass, let’s bet on it then. I pick the girl, and if you can have her out of her panties by the closing ceremony, I’ll give you my earnings from my gold medal.”

I shook my head. “This is a really stupid conversation.”

“Only because you don’t think you’ll win,” Liam joked as we walked down the aisle and found our seats.

“Are we talking about the old man choking on the giant slalom?” Our buddy Erik, a slopestyle skier, took the third seat next to us, tossing his duffle bag under the seat. Erik was the tallest of all of us with his short black hair and million-dollar smile; he looked like a golden boy that any girl would bring home to their parents. Though, he was probably the craziest of all of us and wouldn’t be surprised if he snuck alcohol or something harder on the plane.

Liam laughed, shaking his head. “Naw, not talking about the old man breaking a knee on the giant slalom, yet. Just talking about Blake using his good looks to get some tail in Pyeongchang.”

Erik smiled. “Yeah, he does have that brooding, bad boy snowboarder thing going on. That’ll probably get the American girls at least. Maybe even some of the Brits.”

“This is ridiculous, guys. Wake me up when we get to Korea, okay?” I asked, sliding my headphones out of my bag and hoped that was the end of the conversation.

 

***

 

I thought after the very long flight to Korea that Erik and Liam would have dropped the discussion about bagging girls in the Olympic village, but I shouldn’t have doubted their horniness. They were only a few years younger than me, but I felt like I was around a bunch of horny teenagers.

Even after the Uber ride to the village, I thought maybe the guys would forget about it. We still had to go to the cabin we rented that was closer to the slopes, but they wanted to check out the village first. I had bad jet lag, and all I wanted to do was sleep and not have this stupid conversation.

Liam stopped in front of one of the looming buildings. There were hundreds of athletes from all over the world milling around and barely even took a second glance at the two Canadians in front of me talking about how to say ‘fuck’ in different languages.

Liam then turned to face me. “Okay, let’s make this interesting since we seem to be boring you old man.”

I smirked. “Yeah? Gonna find some sheep or something?”

Liam frowned and shook his head before crossing his arms over his chest. “We both know we’re going to get gold in our events. Even if we mess up royally, we’ll get on the podium. If you don’t really think you can live up to your hype, then we’ll head to our place and get ready for the opening ceremonies tomorrow, and then you can go and have tea with your mommy and daddy or whatever else they want you to do at their beck and call.”

I stiffened, scowling as he talked about my parents. “Get on with whatever lame ass thing you’re going to suggest.”

Liam smirked.  “If you wanna make The Games interesting, and maybe go around the world in the sack, then put your medals and money where your snowboard is.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you talking about my actual board or my dick?”

Liam rolled his eyes and put his hand out. “Are you going to take the bet or not? Our medals on the line, if you screw any girl, I pick in the village.”

Mulling the idea over in my head, I thought about the pros and cons briefly. On the one hand, I could lose twenty-five grand if I really couldn’t score with the athlete he picked. On the other hand, I never backed down from a challenge, and I knew Liam would give me shit forever if I did. As long as I just got this over with, Erik and Liam would shut up and maybe talk about something else. Then I could sleep and deal with brunch with my parents or whatever else I’d have to deal with before opening ceremonies and then they tried to tell me how to snowboard even though I don’t think either of them had ever been on a board in their lives.

I put my hand out. “All right, buddy, if it’ll get you to shut up, you gotta bet. Now, who’s the lucky lady?”

Liam smirked and nodded his head behind me. When Erik saw where he was looking, his eyes widened. “It’s like she just skated right into your lap.”

I winced and turned slowly to see American pairs skating legends Kelly Johnson and her partner Logan Smith walking toward the dorm. Kelly got the nickname ‘Elsa’ for her cold demeanor. She was the youngest ever female Olympian to compete at the Vancouver Games and was back to get another gold around her neck. When I was with Alexis, she always talked shit about the American princess. They’d been rivals as far back as I could remember. If nothing else, at least flirting with the skater would piss off Alexis, which was at least half a win.

Kelly wasn’t ugly either. Quite the opposite actually with her long blonde hair and bright green eyes. And, if I was honest, the dancer’s body that filled out her American warm up suit wasn’t bad either.

I turned back to Liam. “You’re not serious, are you? I said women, I can’t just take down Logan Smith, even though I’m sure he can give you a nice Double Axel if you’d like one.”

Liam punched my shoulder. “You know who I’m talking about, dumbass. Get the Ice Queen to melt her cold, dead heart, and her panties and that medal money is yours.”

Putting on my game face, I nodded. “You’re on.”

I didn’t even wait for a reply and turned around, putting on my best smile as I walked toward Kelly.

“Hey, you’re Kelly Johnson, figure skater, right?” I asked as if I already didn’t know the answer.

She was in mid-conversation with her skating partner but sighed and turned toward me, her nose turned up, and eyes narrowed like she thought I was the most annoying person in the world. “Yes. Do you want an autograph?”

I laughed, the girl had spunk and this was either going to end up in some very angry sex, or she was going to turn around and leave my ass. I was hoping for the former. “No, I’m Blake Tremblay, Canadian snowboarder.”

She looked down at my hand that I stuck out to offer a handshake. She barely held onto mine before pulling away as if I had a disease she might catch. “Pleasure to meet you,” she muttered.

“Hey, Blake, I’m Logan, Kelly’s partner.” Logan stuck his hand out and shook my hand like he was trying to get the last of the maple syrup out of the jug. If Blondie wasn’t giving into my charm, maybe her curly haired sidekick could help.

“Hey, Logan, at least you’re friendlier than your counterpart here. Maybe you can convince her to go out with me and some of my other buddies into town for a few drinks. Those two guys behind me are Canadian skiers, Liam and Erik. They look goofy, but they’re all right guys.” I added an extra smile and looked right at Kelly with a wink.

Kelly opened her mouth to speak, but Logan got his words out first. “That sounds great. We could use a night out before the craziness begins.”

She turned, her blonde ponytail practically whipping me in the face as she glared at Logan. “Are you serious?”

Logan just smiled and shrugged. “Why not? We don’t have practice until later in the morning tomorrow, so let’s have some fun. Maybe see the city.”

“Well for one, we’re all world class athletes with a reputation to protect. We can’t just go around and get drunk and then end up on the news with some stupid alibi about being robbed that no one will believe,” Kelly said, the crinkles in her forehead becoming even more pronounced. I hated to admit it, but she was kind of cute when she was mad.

“I think we can all handle our liquor, and this is the winter Olympics, we have better stamina,” I replied, even though it wasn’t directed at me.

Kelly turned in my direction, putting her hands on those oh so curvy hips that I wanted to put many parts of my body on. “And second, we don’t know you. You’re some dreadlocked guy in a Canadian track suit. I’m not going to throw out everything we’ve worked for just for a night of fun.”

“When was the last time you ever had fun,” Logan grumbled.

If I was going to ever win the bet, I couldn’t give up on this. Win or lose, this girl needed to get the stick out of her ass, and I had just the one she could replace it with. “Look, Kel, can I call you that?”

“No.” She shook her head.

I smirked. “Kel. I’m just another athlete like you that has a lot riding on these Games. I promise we won’t do anything stupid. If at any time you want to leave, just tell us or I’m sure Logan here would be happy to take you home if we get too rough.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, and I wanted to run my tongue along her perfectly pouty mouth. I knew this girl was going to be a challenge, but I didn’t realize how much her being a challenge was turning me on. I’d have to adjust my pants before too long if she kept looking at me like that.

When she looked back at Logan, I thought she was going to tell him they needed to get the hell out of there, but instead, she raised an eyebrow. “Are you really thinking about this?”

Logan shrugged. “We could use a break, and The Games haven’t even started yet.”

Kelly rolled her eyes. “This is ridiculous.”

“Is that a yes, then?” I asked.

Logan put his arm around Kelly. “We’ll see you in the lobby of our dorms at nine.”

“What did you just agree to?” Kelly snapped.

Logan smiled, pulling her toward the door with a wave. “See you guys later.”

Kelly hiss-whispered at him, and they continued to argue back and forth as they disappeared inside the looming building.

Either this girl was going to show up in the lobby tonight with her skating partner, or I was going to have to figure out another way. Because even if this was a bet, there was something about the girl that I couldn’t help but want to know more about. And that’s what scared the hell out of me.

 

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