“So answer the question,” she pressed.

“Actually, I was a late bloomer. I was nineteen.”

Her brows rose in surprise. “Seriously?”

I laughed. “You sound so shocked.”

With a shrug, she said, “I just imagined you being young. Like fifteen.”

“I was finishing up high school at fifteen. Trust me, for most of my teenage years, I wore glasses, had acne, and weighed one thirty soaking wet.” I shook my head as I was assaulted by a barrage of painful teenage memories of being bullied and being made fun of. It was just another reason that I hated living in the past—it was too fucking painful.

Trying to lighten the dark mood pervading me, I motioned to myself. “I was not always the stud you see before you today,” I teased.

My efforts were rewarded by a laugh from Allison. “I find that hard to believe.”

I couldn’t help shuddering. “Oh trust me, there’s photographic and video evidence.”

She shook her head. “Nope, I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine a time when you weren’t a hottie.”

“As fucking misguided as you are, I gotta say thanks for the compliment.”

With a grin, she took another sip of her beer. “So who was she?”

Shifting in my chair, I couldn’t help feeling a little uncomfortable with her questioning. I mean, where the hell was she going with this? And now because she had brought it up, I couldn’t help wanting to know the same shit about her…or did I?

“You want me to elaborate about losing my virginity?”

“Of course. After all, elaboration is the key element of Southern storytelling, and we are in the most Southern city in the South.”

“True, very true.” I took a long pull from my longneck. For reasons I couldn’t even fathom, I felt the need to defend myself to Allison. “The thing is, I had gotten some action, but I still hadn’t sealed the deal, so to speak.”

“Lovely,” Allison said, wrinkling her nose.

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted me to elaborate.”

She laughed. “You’re right. Please continue.”

“By the time I’d turned nineteen, things finally were looking up for me. I’d just met Jake and the other guys, and we were starting to play at Eastman’s. After being sick, I got put on steroids and started beefing up. I got Lasik surgery, and my mother actually gave me a year’s supply of chemical peels for my acne as a birthday present.”

“But you digress,” Allison said, with a grin.

“I’m trying to save face here about why I was so old when I lost my virginity.”

“Pray continue.”

I laughed. “Anyway, her name was Melanie. She was in some of my law classes at Emory. Since I was feeling more confident, I got up the nerve to ask her out. Thankfully, she said yes, and we started dating.”

Surprise filled Allison’s face. “Oh, so you have been in a relationship.”

“A few, yeah. None really lasted a long time. I did have my heart broken when I was twenty-one.”

“Interesting. And where was the deed done?”

With a wink, I replied, “In a pretty posh suite at the Ritz in Atlanta.”

Her eyes bulged. “Really?”

“Hey, give me some credit here. I’m not the type of guy to lose it in the backseat of a car.”

She giggled. “No, I can’t see you doing that.” Leaning her elbows on the table, she added with a teasing lilt to her voice, “Of course, you had to pick somewhere high-end. Couldn’t lose the V-Card at the Holiday Inn, could you?”

“Hey now. I can’t help how I was raised, even if I try to escape it as often as I can.”

“So we know you had a posh first experience. But what about the relationship itself? How long did it last between the two of you?”

Tilting my head, I delved into my past. “Six months. She was a few years older than me.” At Allison’s continued questioning expression, I said, “She wanted more—a whole lot more than I was ready or willing to give at nineteen.”

“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 fucking 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 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.”