“I get naked in front of total strangers in the changing rooms,” I said. “The people taking the pictures and on the staff have seen better bodies and worse bodies than mine. We all have butt cracks and genitals. I don’t see what the big deal is. And it’s not like anyone is going to see my nipples or anything.” Then I blinked. “Neither one of you needs to be there, right?”
Ivan coughed again, and Coach Lee’s face turned bright red. Her sputter could probably be heard around the world as she replied, “Jasmine…. the shoot isn’t of you by yourself. They want you and Ivan together.”
Me and Ivan together.
Naked.
“It would be great for the two of you to do it,” Coach Lee added, trying to put some enthusiasm into her tone, like that would convince me. “Just a quick shoot. Knowing both of you, you’d get it done as fast as possible.”
“I’d have to get naked in front of him?” I hooked my thumb and pointed it toward the idiot that was smirking from his spot on the seat. I didn’t need to glance at him to know he was doing it. I just knew he was.
She nodded.
I didn’t even think about it. “No.”
Ivan’s laugh, this lazy, bright thing that got on my nerves every time I heard it, filled the room. “You said a second ago that you get naked in front of complete strangers.”
I shot the idiot in a fleece pullover and navy blue sweatpants a look. “Yeah, strangers. Not people I need to see every day.” I scoffed. “Not you.”
He wrinkled his nose, clearly enjoying the shit out of this. “Yeah, you know me. You know you can trust me—”
I laughed. “No.”
“What am I going to do? Take a picture of you and post it on the Internet?” He made a face.
He had a point, but… “No.”
“I trust you to not post a picture of me naked,” he offered, like that would help.
I shot him another look. “Why would I do that? Nobody wants to see that anyway.”
He rolled his eyes and made an exasperated noise in his throat that I had seen and heard him do at least a handful of times over the years when he didn’t know what to say in return, AKA I’d won. “I don’t get what the big deal is.” He changed the subject. “She was worried you would tell us no, but I thought for sure you’d say yes. It’s the highest-selling issue.”
Fuck me.
Ivan tipped his head to the side and gave me that clear, smug face again. “We made a deal.”
Damn it. “I know we made a deal,” I hissed, suddenly feeling off.
“We have to do it.”
I wanted to lift my hands up to cover my eyes, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t. But shit. Shit. I looked up at the ceiling and let out a breath.
“You know I’ve seen naked women before, right?” he asked, with what might have been humor or smart-ass in his tone.
I shook my head and kept my gaze upward. How the hell had I gotten into this? And how could I get myself out of it?
It was one thing for a bunch of other girls to see me butt-ass naked.
It was one thing for a total stranger to see me in my birthday suit.
But it was a completely different thing for this man who used to tease me for years about my body to see me without clothes.
I was going to have to look him in the eye for the next year. Listen to him for that time period.
One of the last people in the world I would ever want to be that vulnerable around would be Ivan. He didn’t need more ammo for his arsenal. God forbid he make a comment about the size of my ass when I didn’t have underwear on. I’d probably try to pull his dick off.
But…
I had given them my word. I was going to do whatever I needed to do to take advantage of this time we were going to have together. And if that meant having to get shit about my small chest or the shape of my belly button or my vagina lips… it was going to be his dick that got ripped off.
Son of a bitch.
“So… yes?” Coach Lee asked, sounding hopeful.
I still wouldn’t look at them as the reality of the situation hit me right in the chest. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“Don’t look so pissed. We’ll get it done as fast as possible. Holding you up fully clothed is bad enough, I don’t want to do it when you’re naked.”
I didn’t hesitate flipping him off, even with my attention on the ceiling. Lowering my gaze, I gave him a mean smile. “I don’t want to see your junk either.”
The idiot winked. “Aww, it’s not junk, Meatball. It’s the good stuff.”
I gagged.
Chapter 7
Spring/Summer
“Would you stop?” Ivan hissed at me at the same time he bumped his leg against mine under the table.
“You quit. I’m on my side, you keep your legs together.” I hit my knee against his right back, even though I had told myself I was going to be good and get through this next hour like a champ.
Because I could.
And I would.
For sure if he hadn’t sat next to me.
I wasn’t going to be the one to screw up this interview that Coach Lee had set up for us. If anyone was going to do it, it was going to be this jackass beside me. We had done pretty well since our meeting, where Lee had asked us to try and not hate each other and keep our ugly looks and words to when we were in private... or at least not in earshot of anyone else. She still hadn’t made the same mistake of leaving us alone either, so there was that.
But today was the day we really had to be on our best behavior. I thought it wouldn’t be a problem. I’d survived worse things for sixty minutes
Then Ivan had decided to sit next to me, and I started to doubt myself. I had already been sitting at the bench in the LC’s staff break room when he had slid in. We were supposed to be waiting for the journalist or blogger or whoever she was to come over and ask us questions in preparation for the official announcement that Ivan and I were now competing together.
Except we weren’t supposed to say it was only for a season. Lee had briefed me on that yesterday. The only people that need to know that is us.
Great.
Shifting my legs so that the inside of my thighs were pressed together and not touching Satan’s so this lady wouldn’t walk in in the middle of us arguing, I looked around the empty kitchen area and tried to ignore the heat of Ivan’s body not even an inch away.
Then his lower thigh bumped into my knee. Again.
“Why are you touching me?” I whispered, barely moving my lips, eyes on the door. I didn’t trust myself to look at him.
“You’re touching me,” was his smart-ass—and stupid—response because he’d been the one to move.
I still didn’t glance at him. “Why are you sitting next to me?”
“Because I can.”
“You’re too close.”
“I’ve been closer to you.”
I side-eyed him. “Because you have to be. Go sit over there. Away from me.”
He was already watching me with those creepy clear blue eyes. “No.”
I blinked, and he blinked right back at me.
Bitch.
“Then move so I can go sit across the table.”
“No.”
I turned my head to fully get a look at him. His hair was neat and brushed over backward, without one strand out of place. Today he was wearing a sweater I recognized, in a shade of gray so light it was almost white. It made his eyes stand out… if I noticed that kind of thing. “Move,” I said.
He repeated himself.
“Move or I’ll make you move.”
That time, he shook his head.
“Why?”
“Because it’ll look better if we’re sitting together.”
I opened my mouth to tell him he was stupid, but… I closed it.
The corners of his mouth flexed a little, just a little.
I scrunched up my nose and made myself look back at the door. A minute passed. Maybe two.
Where was this lady? We had cut practice short to do this. We had barely started moving forward with training. We were doing side-by-side jumps together, and… it was going great. We moved so similarly, especially with jumps, that there were hardly any corrections for us to make. I could tell Coach Lee was pleased. I knew I was.
Ivan knocked his leg against mine out of the blue once more, making me glance back in his direction. He was making a face at me. “Stop doing that. You’re making the whole bench shake.”
What the…?
Oh. I hadn’t even realized I’d been shaking my knee. I stopped and shoved my hands under my thighs.