Balance (Off Balance, #1)

by Lucia Franco

"Any coach who has been coaching for ten years and says he never fell in love with an athlete or vice versa is lying."

My name is Adrianna Rossi. I'm sixteen, and a competitive gymnast. Elite gymnast, to be exact. Or I would be, as soon as I had the right coach.

sweet baby Jesus, the man was perfection.

"Welcome to World Cup Academy of Gymnastics."

Yeah… This was definitely going to be a big problem. Like when your gynecologist is hot kind of problem.

"Konstantin Kournakova," I said in a terribly fake Russian accent. "How do you spell that? There are too many vowels and corn in it."

Note to self: His default personality is dick. Got it.

"Your eyes…" I whispered, "they’re beautiful." The corners of his mouth curled up, his full lips twisting into a grin.

In that moment, I'd come to the conclusion Coach Kova was a closet lunatic.

"Do you think you are the first gymnast to show wear and tear on their hands from bars, malysh”

"You're so pretty when you laugh, Aid," he whispered, his nose rubbing mine. Goose bumps broke out across my skin. "Your whole face lights up," he added, this time against my lips as his hand slipped into the back of my hair, kneading my head. "You can make fun of me all you want if it makes you laugh the way you just did."

His thumb caressed the side of my face. "And you are no child, not to me at least."

He turned my hand over and inspected them, his thumb delicately running in circles on my palm. "Sorry about these." Then he turned his back to me and left, leaving me speechless. It was then I realized Kova had a thickand hard erection.

Two things I was sure about. One: Hayden was right about treating my hands properly. Two: There was something mentally wrong with my coach.

He groaned low under his breath. "Do not do that." "Do what?" "Look at me the same way I am looking at you."

He may be hot as hell, and I may have wanted to lick and slap him at the same time, but he could be a complete asshole.

The man was a walking sin.

I wanted to kiss my coach… And I was positively certain he wanted to kiss me.

It was that simple. Only it really wasn't. At sixteen and thirty-two, it was anything but simple. What it was, was morally wrong.

"After a workout, my body is weak, and my control sucks, Ria. I have no control now," and then he slammed his mouth to mine.

"Do not look at me like that." "Like what?" "Like you are hurting, upset. It…" he stammered, "affects me more than I care to admit."

"You are not making this any easier." Then he strode toward me and crushed his lips to mine.

With a kiss like this, he could have anything he wanted.

"What I would give to feel the real thing, to feel you on my cock."

Be still my heart. I loved how my name rolled off his tongue.

I was probably tempting him in ways he'd never been tempted before. Ask me if I cared. I didn't.

"It doesn't just happen, Adrianna. You can't just accidently fall and a dick slips into you. It doesn't work like that."

"You are my greatest weakness. From the moment I set eyes on you, I have been fighting my attraction."

"I am going to own it so you never forget what I feel like inside of you, after tonight, you will never forget me,"

I lost my virginity to my coach. Though, I didn't actually see him as my coach. I saw him as Kova, a man with buried emotions and a bittersweet past.

"I make the rules, remember? I am the coach. You are the gymnast. And who said this was a relationship anyway? You have a lot to learn, Ria." "This is much more than a relationship. You just don't want to accept the reality of it."

"Go ahead and land your dismount."

"Now let me show you how I land a dismount."

"Fuck it."

"Desire can be deadly. Temptation can be toxic. But do I think it knows it is being lured? No,"

"You are the bright light that beckons me…And I am okay with it. Thing is, I realized I like talking to you, Adrianna. I like being around you. I have never told any other gymnast or friends about my mother and her secret, only Katja. It feels natural with you. I forget you are only seventeen. You are a fighter, and no matter how much you get pushed down, no matter what you have against you, you do what you have to do and you do not complain. You are strong and resilient. You are relentless, and I find that fucking attractive as hell. It is a turn on, but it is also why I treat you the way I do."

"I think a lot of it has to do with attraction more than anything. Attraction is the root of all evil, not money like some say. It can be everything you have ever imagined and destroy everything at the same time. All relationships begin with attraction that leads to some form of lust. It is a natural reaction that comes from the body. Do I think that you purposely seduced me?" He chuckled with a small smile. "Not exactly." Brushing a lock of hair behind my ear, he said, "The fire that burns inside of you to be better, to prove others wrong about you, is dangerous, and that is attraction in itself. It is a hell of an attraction. We will both be our ruin if we do not stop while we are ahead."

Everyone was phony and only looked out for themselves. They were what I called Wonder Bread people. Fake, gluey, and tasteless.

"Suck it." I paused. "I don't know how," I said softly. It was true, I had no idea how to. Kova lowered his eyelids, an impish smirk formed on his face. "It is simple. Open your pretty little mouth, roll your lips over your teeth, and suck."

"You are so beautiful it hurts. You hold yourself together even during the toughest times. You are a force to be reckoned with, something no one will see coming."