“This is laid-back?” Kristine asked.
“Comparatively speaking,” Megan said, grinning. She patted Mindy on the shoulder. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to meet my hot girlfriend and let her know that getting laid helps you on the track. Any excuse, right?”
“Yeah,” Mindy said, grinning back. “I think I’ll let my girlfriend know the same.”
When she got on the bus, she did call Shayna, but it wasn’t to let her know they should have sex for better performance. “Hey, beautiful. You’re not too busy, are you?”
“No, I’m just getting ready for bed. I’m in my PJs.”
“Ooh, should I come over?”
“By the time you got here, I’d be asleep.” Shayna’s voice was tinged with regret.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then, how about that? Say, around noon or one?”
“I’ll be at derby practice. That’s when I have the track booked for my solo work.”
“Yeah, I know.”
There was a beat, Mindy waiting with a grin to see if Shayna caught it. Then Shayna shrieked so loudly that Mindy had to pull the phone away from her ear for a moment. “You mean it? You’ll come practice with me?”
“Yeah,” Mindy said, laughing as she tucked the phone close to her face again. “I think I’d better.”
“Oh, I can’t wait. You know where it is?”
“I’ll find it, don’t worry.” Shayna’s extra practices were at the same track where her team practiced, somewhat further south than Monstrous Regiment’s track, but actually, Mindy suspected, closer to ArriveSpace. That would make it easier, though she wasn’t sure yet what bus went there.
“Now I’m not going to be able to sleep.”
“Then I should come over?”
Shayna gave a deep sigh. “No, I have to be up in the morning for work. You know I do, baby.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll just miss you.” Mindy made a kissing noise into the phone, causing a man in across the aisle to snort into his ramen.
“Well, not for long. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You will. Sounds great. Sleep well.”
“You too.”
Mindy hung up the phone. She wasn’t sure she would sleep. She had a lot of work to catch up on if she was going to be out in the middle of the day tomorrow.
Chapter 11
When Mindy arrived at Shayna’s track the next day, Shayna was just rolling out of the locker room, already decked out in her derby gear—tight spandex leggings, a similar tank top, skates, a helmet, and knee and elbow pads. Her whole body lit up as she lifted her arm to wave to Mindy—as though Mindy could have missed her in the room, even if it had been full.
Mindy walked across the track to hug her, enjoying the soft, sleek feeling of her body under the spandex. She kissed her, but Shayna could only give a light smooch back, since she already had her mouth guard in.
“I was afraid you weren’t coming,” Shayna said, the mouth guard giving her a slight lisp. They were both too used to speaking with fellow players while wearing mouth guards to think anything of it.
“When have I ever stood you up?” Mindy said, her hands on her hips.
“Never.” Shayna smiled, showing off the bright-pink mouth guard. “But you’ve always been a lot more enthusiastic about getting to fuck me than getting to skate.”
“I thought both might be possible.” Mindy reached for Shayna’s ass, but Shayna pushed off with her toe stop and rolled out of Mindy’s reach.
“Working out first. Go get dressed.” She pointed to the locker room.
“Yes, ma’am. Are you going to be a harsh taskmistress today?”
Shayna put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “We’re going to work together on this. I think it would be pretty hypocritical of me to try to be harsh with you. But I’m not going to let you make excuses, either.”
“That’s fair.” Mindy headed for the locker room. She wasn’t sure whether she regretted making that phone call to Shayna or not. She couldn’t be unhappy about seeing Shayna more often, of course—especially in her practice spandex—but now she was worried that they were going to be too sore and tired to have sex, and too focused on roller derby to have the fun, sparring conversations they often had.
What was she worried about? This was Shayna. There was never a shortage of snark, and it wasn’t like they couldn’t talk while they were practicing. This was going to be great.
She just wished she didn’t have to work hard.
She changed quickly, putting on her own leggings and a tank top, then laced up her skates and strapped on her safety gear. When she skated out to the track, Shayna was already doing laps. Mindy skated to catch up with her—or tried. Even though she put on as much speed as she could without losing the ability to control directions, she didn’t manage to draw even with Shayna until Shayna came up behind her.
Thankfully, Shayna slowed down so they were matching each other’s strides. She was breathing hard—Mindy couldn’t help noticing the way her breasts rose and fell—but didn’t look as though she’d been overstraining herself.
“You’ve gotten faster,” Mindy said. She’d joined Shayna in lisping a little with the mouth guard in. She would have been tempted to leave it out—after all, they weren’t going to be experiencing the full, vicious contact of an actual roller-derby game, with just the two of them on the track—but she had the feeling that Shayna would have sent her back to the locker room if she’d rolled out her without her full set of protective gear.
Shayna smirked. “How do you know? We’ve never skated together before.”
“Sure we have. Our teams have played against each other.”
“Yeah, but you were sticking with the pack and I was trying to pass it. Not quite the same.”
Mindy shook her head. “Won’t you accept a compliment when you hear one?”
“You compliment me too often to take it seriously.”
“But usually I’m complimenting your looks. And you’re gorgeous, by the way, so you should take every single compliment seriously.” Mindy reached for Shayna’s chest, grinning when her hand was batted away. “I’d never give you a compliment I didn’t mean, honestly.”
“Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t complain.” Shayna gave Mindy another smile, still sideways but a little more genuine. “But I don’t think I’m really any faster. Let’s just see if you can keep up.”
With no more warning than that, Shayna kicked to a higher speed, sprinting off toward the opposite end of the track. Laughing, Mindy picked up her own speed, determined to catch Shayna.
This time she worried less about her trajectory and ended up having to catch herself on the low walls that surrounded parts of the track. She kept her speed up as high as she could, determined to reach that gorgeous hourglass figure that was like a carrot dangling in front of her. She easily pictured herself sliding up behind Shayna and slipping her arms around her narrow waist.
But as they continued to make laps around the trap, Mindy didn’t get any closer. Her laughter and smile faded as she needed more and more concentration just to keep breathing. The muscles in her legs burned as she labored for more speed.
Finally, Shayna stopped, backing up to the wall. Mindy came to a wobbly halt, almost crashing on the wall beside her. She turned to try to say something snarky, but found herself gasping for breath, her lungs straining as she worked to be able to speak.
Shayna smiled at her, a triumphant grin. “Maybe I did get faster.” She was a little out of breath herself, but obviously hadn’t been laboring as hard as Mindy to skate quickly.
“You win,” Mindy said, half-gasping.
“Yeah, I do.” Shayna reached out for Mindy’s hand and squeezed it. “I guess in part, I wanted to show you the importance of working hard. If you keep up the practices with me, maybe you’ll get as fast as me.”
“That’s not my highest priority.” Mindy was getting her breath back now. “I’m a blocker.”
“Don’t you play pivot so
metimes?”
Mindy shrugged. It was true that she’d been the pivot, the alternate jammer, in quite a few jams, but that had always been more of a formality than anything. “I’ve never had to take the star.”
“But what if one of your jammers gets injured again, and you aren’t prepared to step in? What if Monstrous Regiment loses the bout because you didn’t work on your speed?” Mindy opened her mouth to respond, and Shayna held up her hand. “I know it’s never happened, but that doesn’t mean it never will.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.”
“No?”
“If one of my jammers gets injured, I’ll be too busy freaking out about the injury to worry about the game. That’s what happened when Megan hurt her shoulder.”
Shayna shrugged. “Maybe so, but I have to think about every possibility. Now let’s work on the speed some more.”
Mindy groaned. “Shayna maidele, my lungs, they ache. Take pity on a poor old woman.”
Shayna laughed in her face. “You can’t try that on me. I’m immune to Jewish-mother guilt even if it’s not coming from my hot, strong, capable girlfriend. But if you can’t handle the speed, we’ll try something else. Hands and knees.”
Shayna suited actions to words, getting down on her own hands and knees, her skates braced against the wall behind her. Mindy took a moment to admire the way her figure looked down there, licking her lips, before Shayna looked up with a half-lidded gaze that made Mindy drop down as well before Shayna really snapped at her.
“Pushups,” Shayna said. “How long has it been since you’ve done any of those?”
“Not that long. Lisa made us do them during Simon Says.”
“Wasn’t that the time you got out? How many did you do?”
She couldn’t remember. “Less than five. But I wasn’t as motivated as I am now.”
Shayna snorted. “Just see if you can keep up with me, then.”
“Again?” Mindy complained, but Shayna was already sorting herself into a plank position, and Mindy couldn’t just let herself sit there and wait.
Mindy’s arms gave out long before Shayna’s did, and Shayna ended up doing almost twice as many as Mindy—though Mindy wasn’t sure, as she hadn’t been able to count. When Shayna got to her feet, brushing off her hands, Mindy hauled herself upright, groaning.
“You are out of shape, babe,” Shayna said.
Mindy shook her head, looking down at Shayna. “Not fair. I’m taller, I must weigh more than you do.”
“Being taller gives you more leverage,” Shayna retorted. She pinched Mindy’s hip. “And look at this, you haven’t got an ounce of fat on you. I probably weigh twenty pounds more.”
“How come you get to pinch me and I don’t get to pinch you?” Mindy complained, reaching out to grab Shayna’s breast, but Shayna evaded her again, a wicked smile growing across her face.
“I don’t like that look,” Mindy said.
“I’ll make you a deal.” Shayna rolled her shoulders, loosening up.
Mindy crossed her arms. “Lay it on me.”
“Catch me, and you can grope all you want.” Shayna took off skating without giving Mindy a chance to propose an alternative. Mindy didn’t think twice about speeding after her, a grin spreading across her face.
They did two laps. Three. Four. Twice Mindy thought she was about to catch up with Shayna, her reaching hand almost brushing Shayna’s hair, but then Shayna would seem to just slide away from her as she sped up again. When it happened a third time, on the fifth lap around the track, Mindy realized that Shayna was doing it on purpose.
It might have annoyed her if it hadn’t been so hot. Mindy was starting to become distracted from the skating by the damp warmth between her thighs. If only Shayna would let her catch up…
Suddenly Shayna changed directions. Her speed barely diminishing, she sped right into the locker room. Eyes lighting up, Mindy skated after her.
This time she managed to catch up—even if she had to endanger life and limb by allowing nothing but the natural friction of the floor and her own grip on the locker-room door to slow her down. Her momentum slammed her into Shayna and against the door of a locker, knocking the breath out of both of them.
Mindy tried to suck in air and make sure Shayna was okay, but before she could say anything, Shayna had her arms around her neck and was kissing her. Mindy, never one to pass up a kiss, slid her hands down Shayna’s body, gripping her hips and kissing back.
But that only lasted a few minutes before she had to break away. “Time out,” she gasped, her chest heaving. “I have to catch my breath.”
“Maybe you pushed a little too hard,” Shayna said.
“Well, you got me really motivated.” Mindy tried to slow down her galloping heart. Maybe she had pushed a little too hard.
But now Shayna was in her arms, her soft curves pressing against Mindy’s body, and that was all worth it. She should have agreed to join in on these training sessions ages ago, just to have this.
Finally getting her breathing under control, she lowered her head, kissing and nibbling at the soft skin of Shayna’s neck and ear. Shayna gasped, her arms tightening around Mindy’s neck, her skates rolling back and forth.
Mindy wondered for a moment if they should get their skates off, but then Shayna’s hands were slipping down and covering her breasts, and she decided she couldn’t wait. She peeled up the front of Shayna’s tight workout top—they were both damp with sweat all over, but to a derby girl, that was sexy—and squeezed her ample breasts, moaning with pleasure.
Shayna seemed to be just as impatient as she was. Her hands were traveling down Mindy’s body, sliding under her leggings. Not to be outdone in this, just as anything else, Mindy gave Shayna’s nipples one last tweak and went for her leggings.
Mindy found Shayna’s center just as Shayna thrust one of her fingers inside Mindy. Mindy cried out and flung her arm up to grab onto the locker as her legs threatened to roll out from under her.
They couldn’t keep this up without falling down. Mindy’s mind raced as best it could while Shayna pleasured her and she tried to stroke Shayna without hurting her. Neither of them could get their skates off with their hands down each other’s pants, so what could they do?
Shayna solved it for her by pulling her fingers out, then using her free hand to push away from the locker, the whole time staring at Mindy with eyes huge and dark with lust. The strength of her movement rolled both of them backward—well, backward from Mindy’s point of view. The backs of her knees hit the bench and she sat down automatically, startled, her hand still tangled in Shayna’s hair.
Without missing a beat or removing her hand entirely from Mindy’s leggings, Shayna climbed up onto the bench, her knees wide as she straddled Mindy. She sank down onto Mindy’s hand, and Mindy redoubled her efforts, biting her lip. Shayna wrapped her free arm around Mindy’s shoulders and leaned on her as she moved her hips up and down, responding to the movements of Mindy’s fingers.
She slid her own hand home again, too. With Mindy right on the bench, Shayna didn’t have as much room to work, but she managed it anyway, rolling Mindy’s clit between two of her fingers. Soon Mindy’s heart was racing again and she was out of breath for an entirely new reason.
Or maybe Shayna had been the reason the whole time.
Just as Mindy felt her own orgasm start to build, Shayna cried out, grinding down onto Mindy’s hand. Mindy pressed as hard as she could, pleasure ripping through her, her whole body shaking.
Slowly, Shayna collapsed, pulling her hand free and leaning against Mindy’s shoulders. Mindy tried to hold her up, but her arms were shaking. She took a deep breath and squeezed Shayna. “Shayna schmundie, I need to catch my breath.”
Shayna sat up immediately and smacked Mindy on the shoulder before moving over. “Don’t call me that.”
Mindy grinned. “Unless I need you to get off me.” She adjusted her leggings so she could bend down and start unlacing her skates.
&n
bsp; Shayna smacked Mindy’s shoulder again. “You did it on purpose! You’re awful.”
“You love it.”
Shayna rolled her eyes and bent down to unlace her own skates, but she didn’t argue. Mindy grinned to herself. She figured she’d won.
She changed back into her clothes quickly, though she was tired. It had been a long practice session, and she really needed to get back to work. It was guaranteed to be a slow month, what with the holidays coming up, and she needed to make as much money as she could to keep herself solvent through the end of the year.
Shayna stood up as Mindy shouldered her bag. “You’ll be here day after tomorrow, right?”
“I’ll be here,” Mindy promised. “As long as you are, I mean.”
“If you go places just because I’m there, why haven’t you visited me at work yet?”
“I don’t think your employers want me fucking you behind a stand mixer.”
Shayna smirked. “I told you, I don’t work in the back. We’d have to do it behind the counter, in full view of the customers, and that’s not the sort of advertising they want. I asked.”
Mindy laughed out loud. “Okay, I’ll have to try to come at the end of a shift so I can drag you home afterward.”
“Tempt me with more cookies, and you won’t even have to ask.”
“You’re the greatest. Please, please meet my family.” Mindy pulled Shayna tight against her. “I really want them to get to know you.”
Shayna sighed, leaning her head against Mindy’s breastbone. “Are you sure they’ll like me? You’re not just doing your stupid optimist thing?”
Mindy frowned. “Stupid optimist thing?”
Shayna nodded without lifting her head. “You know, where you think everything’s going to work out for the best, nothing’s ever your fault, that sort of thing.”
Mindy loosened her arms and drew back, a bit stung. “Everything is going to work out for the best.”
Shayna sighed and tilted her head up to look at Mindy. “Can you give me one piece of evidence that your family will like me, other than that you say so?”
“You being awesome isn’t enough?” Mindy raised her eyebrows.
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