Strings of the Heart (Runaway Train #3)(31)

“I see,” she murmured.

“And what about you?” When her usual red flush tinged Allison’s cheeks, I shook my head. “Oh no, don’t think you’re getting out of this one.”

“I’m not,” she huffed.

“Then spill it.”

“Fine,” she muttered. I turned a laugh into a cough when she squared her shoulders determinedly while downing the rest of her beer. “I was seventeen.”

“Man, you beat me by two years, huh?”

“Sex is never a competition.”

“Sometimes it is to see who will finish first,” I mused, which caused her to blush. “Anyway, please continue with the sordid details.”

“Like you, I was in a relationship. Dylan and I started dating when I was sixteen.”

Holding up my hand, I asked, “Just how old was he?”

“Eighteen.”

“Older man, huh?”

With a slight shrug, she replied, “I was a junior, and he was a senior.”

“Cradle robber,” I teased.

“I would hardly call that age difference cradle robbing.”

“Was he like the typical older guy who dated younger girls to get one thing?”

“Not exactly. I mean, our six month anniversary fell right after my seventeenth birthday, and he hadn’t really been pressuring me or demanding anything of me.”

“So where did you do the deed?”

A shy smile pulled at the corners of her lips. “Jake’s farm.”

Her declaration caused me to bolt upright in my chair. “Excuse me?”

“You guys were out on tour, and no one was there. It was the perfect place where we could be alone. I told my mom I was spending the weekend with my best friend, Kim. We didn’t go in the house—we stayed in the loft.”

I shook my head in disbelief at her. “Jake would blow a f**king gasket if he knew you lost your virginity in his loft.”

Allison merely rolled her eyes at my declaration. “Like he hadn’t defiled that place in a million different ways before Abby came along.”

“Actually, he never brought chicks to the farm. I’m pretty sure the only woman he’s ever had sex there with is Abby.”

“Really?” Allison asked, her brows rising in surprise.

“It’s the truth. I’d tell you to ask him, but that would be totally inappropriate.”

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 f**king 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 ass**le’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.”