Chapter 2

Prague, Czech Republic

Everything was pitch black, and yet he heard voices around him. He felt as if he were floating through time and space all the while focusing on three points of light. What were they? Did they represent something? His body began to tremble and shake as voices began to rise into his consciousness, gradually getting louder and more distinct. At the culmination of his vision, his eyes slowly fluttered open and the 3 points of light dissolved into 3 sets of faces, two familiar and one heavenly.

“How many fingers do I have up?” asks the gorgeous brunette female leaning over him. The other two faces were of Mitch and Doug. Mitch was a setter and Doug was an outside hitter on his volleyball team which just happened to be the US Men’s National Team (Olympic).

Mitch and Doug both moved a few steps away to give the medical staff room once they saw he had regained consciousness. In rare form, Mitch looked over to Doug and whispered, “5 to 1 he goes for her phone number within 2 minutes.”

Doug replied, “Dude, do you know who that is? It’s Pavlina Heikkenin! What the hell is she doing here helping him, aren’t the women playing in Helsinki?”

“Well, what do ya know? It IS her! She sure looks different in street clothes. Must be an off night for her team. Damn, she IS as hot as everyone says she is,” replied Mitch.

“One thing is for sure, I wish I could grab some popcorn and watch the ‘Master’ over there get shot down because they don’t call her the ‘Ice Queen’ for no reason,” Doug quipped as they both shared a good laugh.

“Fingers? What finger ... ohhhh. There are two. Sorry, I was a bit distracted,” Aeden said as he nervously laughed off the cobwebs and general disorientation associated with being knocked unconscious. Pavlina looked over at both Doug and Mitch and in a commanding voice stilted with a heavy eastern European accent, asked: “Well, are you two gonna help him get up or will I have to do it for you?”

The two teammates were jolted out of their revelry and awkwardly helped Aeden off the court to the bench. As Aeden approached the bench, his concern grew as the dizziness persisted. “Maybe I hit the floor harder than I thought,” he mumbled to himself.

Sitting at the end of the bench, Aeden turned to Pavlina while rubbing the back of his head and asked, “What happened? Nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Her green eyes looked deep into his blue eyes as she replied while brushing the hair out of his eyes. “That new hotshot on the Russian team collapsed your block and while no one was looking, took a swipe at your ankles with his feet. The ball hitting your head distracted the R2 enough that he didn’t see what went on under the net. It was an intentional act worthy of at least a yellow card, but I’m not sure what his goal was. The only thing I can think of is he’s trying to intimidate you in case there is a rematch at the Olympics. Your coach said to get you checked out, but we’ll stay here until the end of the match ... unless you start to feel worse. Oh, and your team doctor checked you out and agreed to let you come to one of our clinics.”

As he sat there, Aeden surreptitiously checked her out from the corner of his eyes whenever he thought she wasn’t looking. She was just under 6’ tall with brunette hair down just past her shoulders. Her breasts were a tad on the small side but probably because she didn’t have an ounce of fat on her. He guessed her measurements were something like 34B-24-32 and her weight between 100-110 pounds. Noticing her athletic build, he asked, “You look very familiar but I can’t place it, do you play any sports? I feel as if I’ve seen you around.”

Her lips slowly curled up into a sly smile. “I’ve been active my whole life and am into a lot of different sports and have been known to play some volleyball, too!” she replied. The tone and accent of her voice took him by storm. As the match progressed, they kept making small talk with an occasional comment or two about the action on the court. She was an expert at leaning in and making subtle body contact but never allowing their skin to touch.

“Is she flirting with me?” he wondered She seemed to know everything about him ... another mystery to solve. With each flip of her hair, the view of her neck made him want to pull her into his arms and bury his face there. He had been attracted to many females but these feelings were different. It was a primal urge which was different from anything he had ever felt before. When the match ended, he wasn’t even aware of who had won, but judging by the downcast looks on his teammate’s faces, they had lost.

As he stood to leave with his team, he turned to thank her and possibly get her number but she was nowhere to be seen. A quick search of the immediate vicinity came up empty so he gave up and followed his teammates to the locker room. While the coach ripped the team a new one for poor play, unforced errors and bad decisions, Aeden’s concentration phased in and out. The throbbing in his head just wouldn’t go away and his neck was stiff, not to mention a buzz still actively making its way around the peripheral areas of his senses. The coach dismissed the team and told them the bus leaves in 30 minutes and to be on it unless they want to walk to the airport. It was going to be a long flight home after having lost to the Russians in the fifth set of the finals. Of all the teams to lose to, it had to be them! This was an important game on the international circuit. The Olympics were six months away and the team needed to be firing on all cylinders if they were to secure the top seed thus theoretically giving them the easiest path to the gold medal match.