"Chloe this is a bad idea. There are press people right outside of this door! Do you know how easy it would be for one of them to walk right in and see us?"
It was a scene that any paparazzi in the world would have mortgaged their house to get a shot of: Beca Mitchell, twenty two year-old Olympic silver medalist in ice dancing for the United States, caught in a very heated make out session with twenty four year-old Chloe Beale, one half of the Olympic gold medal-winning ice dance team of Chloe Beale and Tom Lawrence. It would be a front-page scandal, a national news story. Not only were Chloe and Tom Beca and her partner Jesse Swanson's training partners (Chloe and Tom were also competing for the United States and they practiced at the same rink that Beca and Jesse did) but they were also Beca and Jesse's biggest competition.
Beca and Chloe had known each other for five years, ever since they started training at the same ice rink, but had only started secretly dating four months ago. Beca and Jesse had never pretended to be anything other than best friends and partners, but Chloe and her partner Tom had gone public with their relationship right after the last Olympics three years ago. The relationship was more for the public's benefit and their image than it was for them personally, but while Jesse was well aware of Chloe and Beca's secret romance, Tom had no idea of it. And Chloe wanted to keep it that way- at least until they were done competing in this year's Olympic games.
Currently, the two rival ice dancing teams were in Sochi for a pre-Olympic press conference. Jesse and Tom had gone off to talk to people before the press conference, but Chloe and Beca were alone in the green room- and using the rare moment of privacy to their full advantage.
Chloe used her significant height difference over her tiny girlfriend to forcefully push her up against the wall of the green room. She pinned Beca's arms above her head, latching her lips onto the delicate skin of the smaller girl's neck.
"I don't care if anyone sees us," she mumbled, her lips trailing from Beca's ear to her collarbone and back again.
Beca tried to free herself to no avail.
"Do you know how much of a scandal this would be? If somebody caught us like this? We don't need a scandal right now, Chlo. In fact, this would be about the absolute worst time to have a scandal."
"Any press is good press." Chloe argued. "There's no such thing as bad publicity." She grinned charmingly up at Beca, using the full force of her baby blues to her advantage. Her fingers trailed under the hem of Beca's shirt, and she felt a burst of triumph when she saw Beca pull her bottom lip between her teeth. She was clearly fighting a losing battle.
"Yeah, actually the public would eat something like this up." Beca admitted with a slight laugh.
"I wanna eat you up." Chloe winked, sinking to her knees in front of Beca. She lifted the bottom of Beca's shirt, trailing her tongue across the sliver of pale skin right above the waistband of her jeans. Beca moaned quietly, weaving her hands through Chloe's loose red hair and tugging gently. Just then, the door to the green room swung open. Both Chloe and Beca's hearts leapt into their throats and Chloe launched herself backward from Beca, using her Olympic level of balance and agility to land gracefully on her feet. She recovered quickly; cool as a cucumber, but Beca's face was bright red. Thankfully, it was only Jesse, Beca's skating partner, standing in the doorway. He quickly took in the disheveled clothes and guiltily red cheeks of his partner, and Chloe standing a suspiciously wide distance from her, and his dark eyes flashed with an immediate understanding of the situation. He crossed his arms over his strong chest, his jaw set.
"They're waiting for you guys out there." He said simply.
Chloe gave Jesse a bashfully apologetic smile and locked eyes with Beca for a brief moment as a goodbye gesture before walking out the door. Beca took a second to smooth her hands down the front of her shirt, and without looking at Jesse, walked out of the green room. Jesse and his long legs caught up with her in two seconds.
"That was reckless and stupid, Beca." he said under his breath as they walked down the hallway. "Somebody could have seen you."
"I know. I'm sorry."
The guilt in Beca's dark blue eyes softened Jesse's anger. He reached down and gave her hand a squeeze.
"You just had to go and fall for the enemy, didn't you?" He shook his head, only sort of teasing.
Beca shot a half-smile back at him.
"Yeah, well, when do I ever make things easy for myself?"
"That would be... never."
Beca had to agree. It would have been so easy to fall for Jesse. To make her family, and certainly her fans happy. But despite the close friendship that she and Jesse had shared for the past ten years, they had never developed any sort of romantic feelings towards one other. Chloe on the other hand...
Chloe had burst into Beca's life five years ago when she and Tom began training at the same ice rink in downtown Atlanta. The fierce competitor in seventeen year-old Beca had wanted to hate Chloe, and to use that hate for her new rival in order to fuel her own competitive edge. But much to Beca's confusion and disappointment, Chloe had been impossible to hate. The bubbly redhead radiated warmth, and like a moth to a flame, Beca had been drawn in immediately. Chloe was bubbly, sweet, open, and had an extremely poor understanding of personal boundaries. She was always touchy-feely with Beca right from the very beginning. She was always finding any excuse to hug her or hold her hand or snuggle up against her. And instead of being put off by this like Beca would have been with just about anybody else, she instead found herself relishing in the physical contact, reveling in the closeness. Their chemistry had built and built until finally one day after an intense practice on the ice, the tension had become too much. The two girls found themselves backed into a corner of the locker room, practically clawing each other's clothes off as they fooled around against a row of noisy metal lockers. And that was it. There was no going back for Beca.
Jesse let go of Beca's hand and wrapped his arm around her slim shoulders. They walked down the hallway with Jesse hugging her close to his body as they followed Tom and Chloe through the double doors that led into the room where the press conference was being held. The room was filled wall to wall with journalists and photographers from different magazines around the world. Beca smiled a bright, well-practiced smile as the flashbulbs went off. She took her seat next to Jesse behind the long table that was set up. There was a water bottle and microphone in front of every seat. Beca unscrewed the cap to the water bottle and eagerly took a sip. Interviews and press conferences were nothing new to her, but she was still sort of shy and found that no matter how many interviews she did, there would always be that tiny bundle of nerves buzzing in her stomach before she had to speak. Jesse gave her hand another reassuring squeeze below the table and Beca smiled gratefully at him. He knew she got nervous before these types of events and always did whatever little thing he could to put her at ease. Jesse's goofy sense of humor and his warmth had charmed everybody who came in contact with him since Beca and Jesse burst onto the Olympic scene four years ago. Beca was more quiet and reserved and they complimented each other perfectly. Jesse really was the best partner she could have ever asked for.
The questions began immediately with the first one being asked to Chloe. Beca couldn't help but stare at Chloe's mouth as she talked. Her gaze trailed upwards and landed on Chloe's eyes. Beca had never seen eyes so blue on anyone before. There were entire fan pages dedicated to the blueness of Chloe Beale's eyes.
"Keep it in your pants." Jesse whispered, his lips pressed against her ear so that there would be no chance of anyone else overhearing. Beca jumped, feeling her cheeks heat up.
"Beca, can you tell me what it's been like to train side by side with your biggest competitors these past few years?" a reporter asked.
Beca cleared her throat slightly before leaning into the microphone.
"Training beside Tom and Chloe everyday has really pushed us to train to the very best of our abilities. These guys are the best in the world, so to be able to see what they can do really helps Jesse and I be the best athletes that we can be. We really couldn't have asked for a better situation. If Tom and Chloe weren't as good as they are, then Jesse and I wouldn't be as good as we are, it's as simple as that."
"How close are you guys?" another reporter asked.
Chloe's tongue was just down my throat ten minutes ago... I'd say pretty close Beca thought to herself.
"We have sleepovers every day." Chloe joked lightly, causing the room to burst into laughter.
"Yeah, and I really can't go anywhere without Jesse by my side." Tom added teasingly, to which Jesse responded by leaning sideway in order to fist bump Tom. Beca smiled. The reporters were eating this up.
"As you can tell, we really hate each other." Beca joked.
"We know it would make a much more interesting story if we really did hate each other." Chloe said. "But we're really just friendly competitors. The competition is fierce, I mean we're both fighting to take home that gold medal, but we're both just going to give it our all and leave everything out on the ice because that's what we came here to do."
Chloe leaned back in her chair and caught Beca's eye, giving her a wink. There was no doubt; both teams came here to win. But Beca had a sneaking suspicion that Chloe was going to find some very interesting ways to spice up these Olympic games. And honestly, Beca couldn't wait.