Chapter3
Owen Bliss
I could barely keepmy eyes open when Ashlyn was in my room earlier. But not now. I’m awake, fully alert, and we’re going to talk about how it’s possible we spent the most spectacular night together and then she walked out the door without a fucking word. “No more pretending you don’t know who I am?”
She crosses her arms over her chest and her right brow rises. “I wasn’t pretending. I had no idea who you were when the surgery nurse rolled you into recovery from the OR.”
Does she think I’m stupid? “I highly doubt the surgery nurse dumped a patient on you without telling you my name?” I hold up my armband. “Even if she didn’t, it’s clearly written right here and all over my chart.”
She works her bottom jaw back and forth as she shakes her head. “Of course she told me who you were but the name Owen Bliss means nothing to me; I never knew your last name.”
“How could you not?” Everyone at school knew me. Every. One. But she didn’t go to UT.
“You introduced yourself as Owen that night. That was it. No last name.” She didn’t try to find out who I was? That stings.
“Your last name is Shepherd. Ask me how I know.” Ashlyn needs to understand that I didn’t wake up to an empty bed the next morning and just say to hell with her. That night meant something to me. And it hurts to know it meant so little to her.
She points to her name badge. “Shepherd. It’s clearly right here so I don’t have to ask.”
“I’ve known you were Ashlyn Shepherd for five years. How? I spent the following Monday tracking down your friend Brittany so I could find out what happened. Why you took off on me like that.”
“And her response was…?”
Why is she being so sharp with me? I’m not the one who left. “She said you thought I was an asshole and never wanted to see me again. Told me to leave you alone and never show up in your life.”
Her arms are still crossed as she stares a hole through me. “Yup. That’s exactly right.”
“I don’t understand. We had a great night, or at leastIthought we did.”
She laughs but I don’t mistake it for amusement. “I guess it was a great night for you. You got laid.”
Oh hell, no. She doesn’t get to play that card with me. “You make it sound like I took advantage of you. Do I need to remind you that you’re the one who started taking off my clothes first?”
She lowers her voice. “Only after I woke up with you between my legs.”
“I went down and ate your pussy until you were coming all over my face. The way you screamed my name sort of left me with the impression that it was a great night for you too.”
“Oh my God.” She flaps her hands like a new bird trying to takeoff in flight. “Shh. You can’t say things like that. Anyone walking by can hear every little sound behind this curtain.”
“I’ll say a lot more than that if you don’t tell me what happened.” Yeah. I’ll threaten to announce a lot of things if it earns the answers I’ve been wanting for so long.
She uncrosses her arms and places her hands on her hips. “I made a trip to the bathroom and was approached by your girlfriend in the hallway. She confronted me about sleeping with you. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for me?”
Not possible. I fucked a lot of chicks while I was at UT but I never had a steady girl. “What did she look like?”
“Redhead. Several inches taller than me. Super skinny.”
Alexandra. I can’t believe that bitch is behind ruining my night with Ashlyn. Maybe even ruining what could have been something really good between us. “She wasn’t my girlfriend. She was my stalker.”
Ashlyn’s eyes soften and her fists relax. “Your stalker?”
“Yeah. Alexandra was a baseball groupie. Screwed anything with a bat or ball but she became obsessed with me. I had to take out a restraining order not long after I met you because she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Ashlyn steps backward until her body is pressed against the wall. “All this time was a misunderstanding? No way.”
“I swear I didn’t have a girlfriend the night we met. But if I had, I can promise you it wouldn’t have been that whore.” No way I could ever date someone who’d been reamed out by most of my teammates.
Ashlyn closes her eyes, tilts her chin upward, and presses the back of her head against the wall. “I’ve been wrong all this time?”