Chaste (McCullough Mountain) (5 page)

He
deserved that. Over the past ten years he’d earned the reputation of Center
County’s man whore. Getting his stones broken was part of the shtick. “You’re
just
pissy
, because you’re also on the do not diddle
list.”

Sue
laughed, her head tipping back as she twisted the cap of a longneck. “Oh,
please! You were on
my
do not diddle list way before I was on yours.
Boy, you couldn’t handle all this Latin spice. I’d burn your tongue right off.”

He
waggled his brows suggestively. There was no denying Sue was beautiful. Long
legs, tapered waist, tight African curls clipped close to her face in a way
that outlined her wide Latino eyes, she was definitely a novel species of
beauty in these parts, but she was also his employee and treating the help to
some Kelly McCullough naked goodness was a definite no-no.

Ashlynn
Fisher was a no-no for other reasons. He and Ashlynn attended high school
together and she was in several of his classes back in the day. Those big brown
eyes had watched him then too. Of course, back then she looked nothing like the
striking blonde she was now.

In
high school, Ashlynn wore plain clothes, no makeup, and always had her face
hidden behind wide framed glasses. Her hair had been long and she was the type
to keep her head down, hiding her features behind a curtain of unkempt flaxen
waves.

She
reminded him of the church mouse sort, pure and innocent in more ways than one.
In a small town like theirs, everyone knew everyone down to the color underwear
a person chose each morning. Ashlynn’s mom had passed away when she was only in
grade school. She and her dad, Roy Fisher, went to the same Catholic church his
family belonged to. Kelly hadn’t been to church in years, so he’d missed a
great deal of her post-ugly-duckling stage. It was always a little jarring
running into her in town and realizing the mouse had turned into a fox.

Not
that she had ever been ugly. Ashlynn Fisher possessed one of those deep throaty
voices that cut right to a guy’s libido. He’d never forget the day she asked
him for a pencil in Trig class. His cock did cartwheels the moment that bluesy
voice touched his ears and he’d done a double take, sure it hadn’t come from
the straggly blonde mouse.

For
weeks he’d entertained fantasies of those big brown eyes staring up at him,
mouth full, as he fisted all that messy hair—but that’s all it ever was, a
teenage fantasy. The voice, much like the innocuous reality of the girl
herself, didn’t mesh with the kind of man Kelly was, even back then.

She
was the type of girl everyone overlooked, quiet and disheveled in an odd
appealing way that remained feminine. He assumed it was due to having a farmer
for a father and no mother to teach her all the beauty tricks women used. But
sometime in the past few years Ashlynn outgrew that stage—outgrew it like a
caterpillar outgrew its resting place. Now she was stunning in her own unique
way, but that didn’t negate her virtuousness, which was somehow evident in
every shy glance he caught her sending his way.

Gone
were those long, white-blonde waves and big glasses. Now her hair was cropped
shorter than his. Natural shades of platinum framed her heart shaped face like
a pixie. Her lily-white skin still showed no signs of makeup, but she didn’t
need it. Gone were those hideous Sally Jessie glasses and in their place sat
trendy, narrow black frames.

She
didn’t dress like the other women in town. Most girls rocked skintight jeans
and shirts meant to accentuate the goods in the colder months and FM pumps and
sexy shirts in the warmer seasons. Not Ashlynn though. She wore men’s flannel
and baggy pants that gave nothing away. All. Year. Long.

All
of that, however, had nothing to do with why Kelly wouldn’t touch her. It had
to do with the secrets she kept that seemed to whisper through those soft brown
eyes when she stared at him. Ashlynn Fisher was one hundred percent, without a
doubt, virgin.

He
didn’t know the details. Didn’t need to. Didn’t know if it was a choice or
circumstance sort of thing. All he knew was that he liked it rough, dirty, and
hard and she was not that type of girl.

So
as flattered as he was to have her show up every week or so and shyly ogle him
from afar, he wouldn’t be entertaining any fantasies where Ashlynn Fisher was
concerned. Not now, not ever.

Keeping
his head down, he hustled past her table and shot behind the bar. Happy hour
was ending and O’Malley’s was getting crowded. Rushing to fill another order,
he met Sue at the ice pit.

She
bumped him with her hip. “You should go talk to her.”

He
filled his shaker and reached for the 151. “Drop it, Sue.”

* * * *

Ashlynn
sipped her diet soda and stared through the crowd as Kelly McCullough hurried
to meet his customers’ demands. Her heart tightened as he flirted with a
brunette ordering a round of shots. Why couldn’t he look at her like that, with
those piercing blue eyes that accented the blue tips of his unruly black hair?

Kelly
McCullough was one of seven siblings, each one beautiful in their own right.
Kelly, however, was different. He was the black sheep, the tattooed rogue that
put any woman in his path under a spell. He cursed and slept around like a
tomcat in a scrapyard and she’d been obsessed with watching him since the
moment he sat next to her in American Literature 101 ten years ago.

However,
it wasn’t until later that year that she’d fallen hopelessly in love with him.
No matter how much he played at that careless façade he wore so well, she knew
there was an honorable guy beneath all the sex appeal and humor.

After
losing her mother she’d lost a lot of direction. No one was there to teach her
how to be a teenage girl and there were moments she felt so out of the loop,
even as an adult, she tried not to dwell on what she didn’t have and focus more
on the blessings she did have.

She’d
been rushing off to the nurse’s office, fighting back tears with everything she
possessed. It hadn’t happened at home or somewhere safe. No. She’d gotten her
period right in the middle of Algebra and hadn’t realized something was wrong
until she’d stood and heard everyone laughing.

Mortified,
she rushed to the bathroom and nearly had a panic attack. It took her a minute
to understand what was happening, her grasp on the things to come as a female
so slight and stunted from being raised on a farm by her dad. However, living
on a farm had taught her the basics of life cycles and she’d pieced it
together.

She
waited in that bathroom stall, terrified, for the entire third period. When the
bell rang she listened to the roar of student voices moving through the hall.
The second the corridors quieted she bolted to the nurse. Her eyes pinched with
the effort to contain her tears of humiliation. She was almost there when she
turned the corner at breakneck speed and crashed into a gaggle of girls who
never talked to her.

They
did talk to her that day, calling her things like
Mary, Mary quite contrary
and
Dina
.
No one really
saw
Ashlynn. She’d
perfected the art of being a wallflower. Rumors had flown that morning and
those girls wouldn’t let her pass without getting in their digs.

Blinking
back her tears, she tried to press by, but there were too many. Her heart raced
like a caged sparrow, frantic and trapped. Then
he
showed up out of nowhere, a true knight in shining armor.

“Hey, Amber, Cara.” His typically
easy going mannerism shifted as those sharp blue eyes took in the scene,
understanding that of the six girls loitering in the hall, one desperately
wanted to escape. His smile faltered. “What’s going on?”

“Hey, Kelly,” one of the girls
purred. Every female at the school, even some of the teachers, seemed to perk
up whenever Kelly tossed a glance their way.

Kelly ignored the girl and tilted
his head curiously at Ashlynn. Her back was to the lockers, hiding the mark of
her shame. Never in her life had she been so desperate to escape a situation.

“You going somewhere, love?”

Too afraid to speak, she merely
trembled and prayed the moment would be over soon. He didn’t know who she was,
but he was her one reason for liking school.

“Haven’t you heard, Kelly?” One
of the vipers said, her voice syrupy and cruel. “Little Ms. Heehaw here got—”

His head snapped around and he
cut the girl’s words off with a look so cold even Ashlynn shivered. “Shut up,
Cara. She’s upset.” He turned back to Ashlynn, eyes softening. “Did you have
somewhere to go?”

Unable to speak, she nodded.

He smiled softly and something
inside of her broke open, warmth filling her as her soul recognized an ally.
“I’ll take you, love.”

His hand barely touched her arm,
but he somehow directed her away from the lockers and away from those horrid
girls. She made sure to match his strides, so sure and confident, so that he wouldn’t
see her backside.

Once they turned the corner he
said, as if they were old friends, “Where are we going?”

“The nurse,” she muttered. “I
don’t feel well.”

She’d made it so close before she
was stopped. They were only a few rooms away. He paused outside the office
door. “Well, you’re here.” He met her gaze, those soft eyes staring into hers
curiously. “What’s your name, love?”

Barely able to speak, she
swallowed and—

“Yo, Kel!” Some guy she didn’t
know called.

Kelly turned and she took that
moment to slip into the nurse’s office and escape. He never learned her name
and that was for the best. That was one of the most humiliating days of her
life and that night she’d cried in her bed, unable to explain to her father why
she was so quiet after returning home. Her life was made up of secret moments
like that, moments when a girl needed a mother or a friend and realized just
how blessed those who had such things were.

Ashlynn
sipped her diet cola. She was certain Kelly still had no idea who she was, even
ten years after that hideous encounter. Shy beyond measure, Ashlynn was never
one to keep up with the popular crowd. Kelly
was
the popular crowd. He
wasn’t a jock. He wasn’t trendy. He wasn’t even overly intelligent from what
she could see. But he was a god to women and she—no matter how stunted and
uncultured—was not immune to his charms.

Her
dad, a good Christian man, did his best to raise her properly. She never wanted
for anything and always did as she was told, but there was a part of her that
longed for a mother’s presence, even as an adult. Perhaps having a mother
could’ve eliminated some of the awkwardness that was her existence.

Ashlynn
sighed as yet another girl approached the bar and drew Kelly’s attention. He’d
never smiled at her the way he smiled at other women, eyes set in a seductive
promise, lips curled with sensual intent. God, those lashes…they were thicker
than feathers.

Pursing
her lips, she picked at the soil still under her fingernails. She’d cleaned up
before she left, but as she was walking out the door she’d chased a rabbit from
her lettuce patch. The little bugger had uprooted a few crops and she’d quickly
righted them on the way to her truck to drive to the bar.

The
bar grew crowded and Ashlynn figured she should get going. It hurt too much to
stay and watch Kelly set his sights on a new woman. She was developing a sort
of masochistic obsession with him.

Each
night he chose a new victim. The women never seemed to mind and Ashlynn assumed
that was because whatever he did during those late night hours was enough to
leave them satisfied for weeks to come.

She
rolled her eyes. Maybe “victim” was the wrong word.

“Can
I get you another drink?”

Ashlynn
glanced up at the new bartender at O’Malley’s. Kelly had probably already
conquered her. She was stunning, with wild black corkscrew curls and full lips.
She thought her name was Sue, but wasn’t sure.

“No,
thank you. I think I’m done.”

The
bartender slash waitress eyed her for a long moment. “Why don’t you go talk to
him?”

Ashlynn’s
cheeks drooped as her smile faltered. Was she that obvious? “Who?”

The
woman gave her a pointed look. “Kelly. You come in here at least once a week
and stare at him. Why not just ask him out?”

Heat
rushed to her cheeks. “I come here to unwind. I’m not even sure which one Kelly
is,” she lied.

The
bartender’s lips pulled tight at the corner of her mouth. “Uh-huh. You really
seem to be unwinding with that diet cola. How about a real drink—on me? I’m
Sue, by the way.”

Ashlynn
hesitated past what was probably normal. Her palms sweating as everything
inside of her reminded her she didn’t measure up to pretty girls. She was so
awkward when meeting new people, especially women. She held out her hand, a
trait she’d picked up from her father. “Ashlynn Fisher. It’s nice to meet you,
Sue.”