Page 87 of Going for Gold (Sweet Cravings 3)

"Yes."

"Well, instead of that, during that part you're going to pull these tabs." Tim felt around on Bryce's morph suit until he located a little piece of fabric sticking out. "Got it?"

I reached out and felt the tab Tim was talking about. "Yeah, okay."

"Great. Kristen, take Alina to the curtain behind center stage. Bryce, follow me. I have a last minute change I want to go over with you."

"What's the last minute..." I started, but Tim had already pulled Bryce away. Not only was I curious about the last minute change, but I had hoped for a few final words of encouragement from Bryce.

I walked with Kristen around the perimeter of curtains until we were on the spot marked as center stage. I peered through the curtain to look for Gabriela's scores on the jumbotron, and... Holy fucking shit. The auditorium had been intimidating when it was empty, but now that it was completely full, it was a million times worse. Kristen was right that I couldn't see the faces of the audience, but I could still tell that they were there. The cameras were just as intimidating. Not only were they showing HD close-ups on massive TV screens mounted on the wall, but they were broadcasting those same images to millions of people around the world. My knees started to feel weak and I grabbed onto Kristen, nearly knocking her over.

"Oh God," I said.

"What's wrong? Shit, did she get a perfect score?"

"What? No. I didn't see her score. I just saw the crowd. Kristen, that's so many people. How am I going to do this?"

"Alina, you're going to be amazing. Just focus on hitting your first few moves and you'll be fine. Now, let's figure out what scores Gabriela got so you know what you have to beat."

Kristen and I looked out through the curtains again and located her scores on the jumbotron. It wasn't broken down by judge, but it was split into the two categories. She scored 28 out of 30 for technical difficulty, and only 15 out of 30 for creativity and sensuality.

"Damn," said Kristen. "Only 15 for sensuality after she pulled her tits out and made out with someone?"

I shrugged and scanned the other scores. Gabriela had scored the highest of anyone for sensuality. The Chinese girl had only scored a 4 in that category, and the other girls both had sensuality scores in the low teens. "It looks like that's the best score yet in that category though. And overall she's winning with 43 out of 60 total points."

"That's great. That means she'll be on the silver medal podium to watch you get gold. You ready to crush this bitch?"

"Yeah, let's do this," I said as confidently as I could muster. Or maybe I should pull a fire alarm.

I moved the curtain again to see the spotlight focus on Owen Harris. Oh my God, I'm going to be performing a strip dance in front of Owen Harris. I wasn't sure why I hadn't realized it before. My heart started beating even faster. This was going to be absolutely mortifying. "I can't do this with Owen Harris watching. I'm going to embarrass myself."

"Whatever," Kristen said. "He's no Professor Hunter."

I laughed. I remembered Professor Hunter's marketing class at the University of New Castle. Kristen had always been so nervous whenever he called on her. I looked back at the stage. Kristen was right to a certain extent. But I wasn't thinking about Professor Hunter. I was thinking about Bryce. And one thing was damn sure. Owen Harris was no Bryce Walker.

Owen Harris raised the mic to his mouth. "Ladies and gentlemen, Alina Smith performing for the USA!" The crowd cheered as Owen Harris left the stage. The spotlight dimmed to black. In the darkness, my backup dancers rushed on stage and formed two lines from the front of the stage back to the curtain. One by one, blue spotlights focused on each of them as they stood up and pointed towards me behind the curtain.

"Go show Gabriela how to dance," said Kristen as the dance track started playing over the loud speakers. "I'm going to go watch from the audience to get a better view. You got this, Alina. Make that bitch wish she never fucked with you. "

It's time.

I didn't have time to think. I just had to burst onto stage. The crowd erupted in cheers as I strutted towards the front of the stage. Hearing that applause and not falling on my face within the first three seconds of my dance was a huge confidence boost. In fact, the applause was electric. And unlike volleyball where people were cheering for the entire team, this applause was just for me.

My confidence grew with every move I hit. For a second I even tricked myself into thinking that it wasn't going to be bad at all, but then I remembered that Tim had choreographed it so that the start was fairly tame. I tried not to think about what was coming.

Grinding was the first sexy thing I had to do, but luckily it was with Bryce.

"You're doing awesome," he said as I dipped low and then pushed up on him. It felt like he was starting to get that erection he had promised me. I wasn't sure if I could do this without him here for support. Or without his hands on my waist.

My mind started to wander to what I would do with his erection after this dance. God, I was so horny. Focus, Alina!

Chapter 36

Sunday

Bryce

Alina looked so fucking hot dancing around in her dress, with the high slits giving glimpses of her lingerie and the low cut neckline exposing her cleavage. Part of my brain was focused on my dance moves, but the majority of my concentration went into not getting an erection. My tight American flag morph suit showed the outline of my penis even when I was flaccid, so I could only imagine what would happen if I got a full on boner. It would turn my crotch into an extremely patriotic teepee.

---