BEAST (14 page)

“No, it doesn’t do much for me.” All his life he’d heard comments about him and football. People took it for granted that he’d play some type of sport. But he always turned down the offers. It just wasn’t what he wanted to do.

He shifted his weight. “Well, I guess I better head back in-” He said.

“Chris, remember that time you kissed me?”

He hid his grimace. “I recollect that you ran away and stopped hanging out with me.”

She rubbed her neck. “I always wanted to tell you how badly I felt about that. It’s still something that haunts me.”

Crap. She wanted to come to terms with her own sense of guilt. He rubbed his fingers through his short hair, lightly scratching his scalp with his short nails. He was about to make up some statement about the past being in the past when she continued to speak.

“I had the biggest crush on you, Chris. That’s what I’ve wanted to tell you. And I didn’t turn away from you because of your
hairlip
.” She looked down. “When you kissed me I didn’t know how to deal with it. My mother’s boyfriend used to kiss me and well…I never told anybody. But I wanted to tell you that being friends with you made things better.” Christopher blinked his eyes, his mouth parting. “It gave me a place to go so that I wasn’t at the house and you made me feel safe.”

She tried to smile but her eyes were too pained for it to look real. “I know I hurt you when I ran off. But I didn’t know how to deal with it. And then your family moved away and I couldn’t ever say I was sorry. But I wanted you to know that…” She swallowed. “
the
only good memories I have as a kid is when I was with you. And you saved my life Chris; and I mean that literally. And…I’m really sorry for what I did.”

“Debbie…Oh god…why didn’t you tell me?
I would have…” His stomach felt like it had dropped to his feet. But anger was slowly blossoming inside of him.

“You were my friend, and that’s what I needed.” She smiled then and this time it touched her eyes. “I remember running with you in the mountains, and getting water from the spring, and lying in the grass looking at the clouds. And those are good memories and I want to thank you.”

He reached out slowly and let out a deep sigh as he pulled her into his arms and hugged her. She clung to him and then pulled back and looked up into his face.

“Did you ever get married, Chris? Did you ever meet a girl?”

He sighed. “No. I was too shy.”

“Nobody but me knew you were shy, Chris.” He watched her quietly. “In school they all thought you were too cool to bother with them. You never looked
scared,
you just looked like…you didn’t care. It made you very cool.”

He laughed bitterly.
“Right.”

“I know you cared, Chris. I’m saying that no one else did.”

He stared at her for a long time and then touched her chin so that she looked him right in the eye.  “What ever happened to your mother’s boyfriend?”

“He died a few years back; drunken accident.”

“How long did he hurt you?”

“The funny thing is, Chris; he stopped when I started being friends with you. I believe that he thought I’d tell you.”

“I wish to hell you had.”

She shook her head. “I could hardly even tell myself.”

He hugged her again. “I’m sorry Debbie. I’m sorry that we lost our friendship.”

“Me too, Chris.”
She pulled out of his arms and then she quickly stood on her tiptoes and gave him a brief kiss.

“I better get home. But I’m happy I got a chance to see you.”  She walked away and then turned and waved.

“Me too, Debbie.”
He called.
Me too
.

~***~

Christopher glanced up nervously when Ashleigh walked into the room. She always came in looking full of energy and ready to tackle the workout without complaints.

“Good morning. I know people always ask stupid things like, ‘How was the funeral.’ But how was the funeral?”

He grinned. “It was actually a very nice funeral as far as those things go. I got to see a lot of family that I hadn’t seen in a long time. And I had a long talk with my Uncle Ray—it was his wife that passed. I also got to see an old friend. How was your weekend?”

She made a face, reached for her thermos and then plopped down across from him to begin her stretching.
“Boring.”

He cleared his throat and untwisted the top off his thermos as if in deep thought, or perhaps stalling for time. Finally he just looked at her. “Ashleigh, I was wondering if you might want to have dinner with me…sometime.” There! He’d said it. He felt nervous sweat beads begin to form on his brow.

“Okay.”

Christopher blinked. She said okay? Did she hear him? She just said, okay…

“Okay?”

She nodded and her eyes were bright and big and beautiful. He smiled.

“Okay.” He nodded once and they continued stretching.

When Ashleigh left the gym room she couldn’t wipe the pleased smile from her face. She sighed and entered the office and faced her
two friends
.

“Christopher and I are going on a date.”

Kendra and Lance exchanged brief looks. “Well it’s about time.” Kendra said.

“It was pretty obvious that you
’re crushing on
him.” Lance said.
 
“Does this mean that you’ll stop saying ‘Christopher this and Christopher that?’ all damned day?”

Ashleigh’s eyes bugged out. “Crush? You are crazy. I mean…I like him but that is far from a crush…”

Kendra patted her belly and looked miserable. “You were making goo
goo
eyes at him all during lunch the other day.”

She turned red. “I mean, so what if I am crushing on him a little. Is it a big deal?” She looked expectantly at each of her friend’s; especially Kendra.

Lance rolled his eyes. “As long as it means you’re over DeAngelo then I’m pleased as punch. Besides…he’s got a damn nice body.”

“Hell yeah…” Kendra said. “He is…scary looking with the scars, and I’m not sure what was up with the lump on his head, but it’s obvious that he’s a really nice guy.”

Ashleigh smiled. “I forget about those scars. Well maybe that’s not true...” She began to feel warm. It wasn’t that she forgot about them, necessarily, but found herself wanting to run her fingertips over them and then her tongue…She gushed and caught Lance scowling at her.

“God, you need a
cold shower
.”

Kendra stared at her with half narrowed eyes. “You are nasty. I know what you’re thinking.”

Ashleigh shook her head in denial
but then
ducked her head and hurried to her office in embarrassment.

CHAPTER 6

Christopher took the good natured ribbing because he really had no choice. But at least he had avoided whatever plan they had created in their idle time to get him and Ashleigh together. He ran his reports, did his sweeps and transported the prisoners all with a goofy smile on his face. Was he the cool guy? The idea made him chuckle out loud several times. His shyness scared people away…

And poor Debbie.
Good thing that child molesting asshole was already dead or he’d kill him. He actually wished that he was alive so that he could torture the bastard and THEN kill him. Beast popped his neck and several prisoners were unsure of what to make of the giant, scarred, guard that smirked one minute and scowled the next. One thing was for certain; the sight of him alone assured that none of them would be stepping out of line.

That night Christopher stopped at the grocers. He could take Ashleigh out…but why do that when he could have her all to himself if he cooked dinner for her? He picked out the things he wanted to make and then he went home and dusted although he was fairly neat due to his military training.

That night when he got on the treadmill, it wasn’t the mountains that he saw but the sway of Ashleigh’s hips when she walked and the smile that she easily flashed. God, he knew he had it bad for her. He had it so bad that he even contemplated leaving the subbasement just to say hi to her when she lingered in the cafeteria or went for a break. He was the cool guy, right? Well if he was so cool then why didn’t he feel like it?

Ashleigh spent her evening shopping for new underwear that wouldn’t fall down around her ankles. And then she wondered what Christopher would think of white lace, or did he prefer black translucent nylon? She couldn’t believe that she was thinking like this about her friend!

But then again she could. She remembered being cradled in his arms half in and out of consciousness and some man had called him Beast. He’d said Beast take care of her, or something in that vein.

Ashleigh stared grimly into space. Once upon a time she only cared about how someone looked, how good she looked, how good they looked together. Ashleigh knew the truth; when it’s all said and done it wasn’t Christopher that was the Beast, it was her.

He was just a beautiful man waiting for someone to see past his outer wrapping.

~***~

The plan was for Ashleigh to meet Christopher at his place Saturday evening. He wanted time to make a good dinner and not to just whip something up after work so he opted for Saturday. He wouldn’t tell Ashleigh what was on the menu and reminded her that she was the one that had said she liked ALL food.

“Well if you can cook the way that you can whip up a smoothie than I’m not worried.”

He had just given her a mysterious smile. “I do fair to
middlin
’ in the kitchen.”

Her brow quirked up in humor.
“Um…I don’t know what
middlin
’ means. Is that another country phrase like, ‘I’m
fixin
to’, or ‘over yonder’?” She hid a grin.

“Oh pardon me. I forg
ot I was talking to a city girl,” h
e said while watching the stop watch.
“Time.”
And they began their next set; jumping jacks. It was the set he most looked forward to, and anguished over. The way her body parts moved beneath her clothing as she jumped caused him to worry about her seeing certain of his body parts becoming ‘happy.’

But then he
began thinking
about the camera and how many of the guys were becoming ‘happy’ as they watched her ample breasts and rear-end bouncing up and down. She was definitely losing weight, but her ass was not going anywhere, and that thought made him want to smash the camera. He would have to tell her about the camera. Once, when he’d turned his back he’d caught her briefly adjusting her bra and he almost lost it at the idea of someone else
perving
her
while she was doing that
.

After he called time and they waited the thirty seconds for the next set he decided to casually mention the camera.

“Hey, did you know that there is a camera in here?”
Okay, maybe that wasn’t so casual.

Her face took on a surprised look. “What?
Where?”
She looked around.

Christopher gestured to the ceiling and she saw the little black ball no bigger than a golf ball
nestled into the ceiling tiles
. “They’re all over…and some you can’t even see.” He decided that he would
not tell her that the
only
reason he had
mention
ed it was i
n case she wanted to put her boob back into her bra after jumping jacks when she thought no one was watching. Somehow he thought that might freak her out.