She giggled. “I agree.”
We sat in silence for a few moments. After I popped the tops on another beer for the two of us, my curiosity got the better of me. I detoured to a questioning path I had no fucking business going down. “Besides this Dylan, has there been a lot of other guys?”
Allison cocked her brows at me. “Are you actually asking me for my number?”
Grimacing, I guzzled down half the beer I’d just opened. After I swallowed, I shook my head. “Sorry. That was wrong of me.”
As her fingers played with the label on the beer bottle, Allison stared straight ahead. Finally, she murmured, “Three.”
“Excuse me?”
Her gaze flicked to mine, and she gave me a mischievous smile. “My number is three.”
I sucked in a breath like I’d been sucker punched in the gut. I wasn’t sure why her number mattered to me. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or slightly shocked. Not that in the vast scheme of things, three was that big a number. I knew Jake would be horrified she had been with one guy. “I see.”
Raising her beer bottle to her lips, Allison snorted. After taking a sip, she eyed me. “That’s all you have to say. ‘I see’?”
“Congratulations?” I suggested.
She laughed and shook her head. “Not quite the reaction I expected.”
“And what did you think I would do?”
Tilting her chin in thought, Allison replied, “Go all apeshit and tell me that three was entirely too many partners for a girl my age.”
“Oh please, you make me sound like some uptight Neanderthal man. Your life, including the sexual aspect of it, is entirely your business and yours alone. Fuck anyone else who tries to tell you anything different.”
“Thank you for your candor.”
“You’re welcome,” I replied, with a smile.
“As much as I would like to think I was liberated sexually, I’m still pretty old school.”
“You mean like not wanting to partake in that asshole’s sex games?”
“No, I meant my attitude about who I will be with.” Cutting her eyes over at me, she shook her head. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. It seems the alcohol is freeing my tongue more than I would like. The truth is that two were relationships, Dylan and then the douchebag of late, and then one was pure lust.”
“Seriously?”
“Now you’re getting judgey?”
I laughed. “No, it’s just hard to believe that after how you’ve described yourself that you actually just succumbed to lust.”
A giggle burst out of Allison lips. “Did you just say succumbed?” This time she snorted. “Oh Rhys, you sound positively blue blood when you’re down here and away from the guys. They would so call your ass out if they heard you.”
“Whatever,” I grumbled.
Nudging my shoulder with hers, she said, “Your turn.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“And why not?”
“I don’t want you to think badly of me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Like I don’t already know you’re a slut.”
“Y-You think I’m a slut?” I sputtered indignantly.
“Yeah, I do.”
“I’ll have you know my number isn’t over a hundred.”
“How comforting,” she mused.
Rising to my feet, I stalked over to the trashcan and tossed my beer bottle. “You know, the fact that I’m now a famous musician and have that low a number is pretty impressive. Your brother’s was off the charts.”
“Not surprising that Jake surpassed slut to reside into dirty whore territory.”
My anger dissipated, and I found myself laughing at the summation of her brother. After popping the top of my third beer, I sighed. “I think it’s time for a conversation change.”
“More questions?”
“Sure. Just ones that don’t have anything to do with sex.”
“Sounds fair to me.” With a grin, she added, “Fire away.”
I thought about a safe question to ask her. “Okay, how old were you when you drank for the first time?”
“Sixteen—it was the champagne at my party.”
“Ah, I see.”
“And you?”
“Twelve.”
Allison’s eyes bulged. “Twelve? That’s just a baby.”
“It was just one drink. I didn’t start down an alcoholic path at that age.”
She giggled. “I’d hope not.” Taking another sip of her beer, she asked, “So where was it?”
“It was during a society party of my parents. I wanted to be like the older guys who were there. We’ve already established that I was a socially awkward misfit, so it should make total sense that I was being a dick to try and fit in. So when they dared me to drink a glass of Scotch, I downed it in one gulp.” I shuddered as the memory flickered through my mind. “I thought I was going to die. I think I ended up puking most of the night, and lying to my nanny that it was some stomach bug.”
Allison frowned. “You poor thing.”
I chuckled. “Nah, I deserved it. But it did teach me a lesson about trying to fit in with the older kids. From that point on, I didn’t give a shit about what they thought—I was really my own person.”
“Such a wise revelation to have for such a young person,” Allison mused.
Shaking my head, I replied, “Kids in my world grow up fast. When you’re shuttled away to boarding school practically as a baby, you learn to only rely on yourself. In the end, that’s all you have.”
When I looked up at Allison, tears shimmered like diamonds in her dark eyes. Trying to ease the tension of the moment, I laughed. “Okay, no more beers for you.”
“Sometimes you remind me so much of Jake.”
“I do?”
She nodded. “He tried for so long to close himself off to other people—not to let them see his weaknesses.” A lone tear streaked down her face. “His pain.”
“Allison—”
“I see you, Rhys,” she whispered.
My heartbeat thrummed wildly in fear at her statement, causing me to feel like an utter pansy. Christ, what had I done to make it so easy for her to be able to see through all my bullshit? The better question was why she was still sitting beside me after seeing the real me?
As if reading my mind, Allison said, “I see all of you, and I’m not disgusted.”
Not liking the direction the conversation was taking, I rose out of the swing. I needed to put distance between Allison and myself. Things were getting too personal and deep too quickly. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d opened up to anyone like I had with her. It wasn’t enough that she was so compassionate and caring. At the same time, she distracted me by being so fucking hot. At one moment, I wanted to hug her to me for the comfort she could provide. Then at the next, I wanted to peel her sexy-as-hell black dress off that could make a guy spring wood at fifty paces and stroke every inch of her creamy white skin.
“Yeah, well, I think that’s enough for tonight. You have class in the morning, and I need my beauty sleep to gird up strength to deal with my parents.”
After wiping her tear-stained cheeks, Allison bent over and picked up her sexy heels that she had discarded when we sat down. Her eyes held so much emotion that I could tell she was fighting hard to hold it back. “Thank you for inviting me tonight.”
“It’s me that should be thanking you. I might’ve been auctioned off to a cunt, as you called it, if it hadn’t been for you.”
A shadow of a smile played on her lips. “I’m glad I could save the day.”
Without second guessing myself, I leaned in and gave her a hug. As we swayed back and forth, Allison’s hands came up to grip the back of my shirt. Having my arms around her stirred me on both an emotional and physical level. But with her sexy curves pressed against me, I was certainly focusing more on the physical side. She was so delicate, just like the magnolia on the pendant I’d given her. With her scent and softness overwhelming me, my mind railed at me to pull away. All right, asshole, you have about two seconds to pull away before she feels just how much you’re enjoying copping a feel.