Free Her Journey (Her Series Book 2) by Rachael Orman

say no way in hell would it be okay and I could use that excuse if anyone made a move on me. It’s not like I felt horny. My little dream about Wrench had to be my way of humanizing the asshole he was since I had to deal with him whether I liked it or not. In reality, I would be happy if no one touched me at all. I felt so gross being sick so often and I was so tired I doubted I could have built up the energy to have sex even if I found the want to.
    “Shit, I don’t think I could go a year without sex and you’ve gone at least that long. All the tests and stuff you had to go through before moving down here and everything else since then. I don’t know how you’ve done it. I’d be humping anything that let me at that point,” Ryan mused out loud without looking in my directions, which was a good thing because my face turned bright red. I didn’t talk sex with anyone, especially not with the mother of the babies currently in my womb.
    “I’m just not that kind of person I guess. I haven’t even seen someone I would be interested in heading down that road with.” I shrugged and kept my eyes focused on the pool, hiding behind my own shades.
    “What road? Oh, you’re a relationship person. Sex only after the third date, right? Or some shit like that.” Ryan tried not to smile, but I saw the corner of her lips tilt upward anyway.
    “It’s just how I was raised. Not that I didn’t get into some shit relationships anyway, but I like to think it helps prove the man is in it for more than ass.”
    “Oh, trust me, I’ve been in my own shitty relationships. Guys are mostly jerks. Only need women to get ass, at least the ones I always seem to end up around. Ellis is actually the one who got me out of my last horrible relationship. Probably saved my life too.” Ryan sighed, crossing her arms over her bikini-clad body. Her body was much more fit than mine. I was naturally more rounded in the hips and breasts. Ryan was thin but had large breasts and her ribs were barely visible. I think it was mostly from her treatments since she’d been no where near as thin in older pictures I’d glimpsed.
    “What, did he have to scare off some guy that got too needy?” I asked, thinking of why I had broken it off with my last boyfriend. Needy men were annoying as hell.
    “No. He liked to beat me.” Ryan turned her head away from me.
    I could see it wasn’t something she wasn’t to really talk about, but I pressed her on the issue.“Beat you? No way. I don’t believe it. You are so not the kind of woman that would stay in an abusive relationship.” I had a very hard time believing she would let anyone touch her inappropriately once, let alone hit her repeatedly.
    “Well, some times it’s hard to explain things. I thought I loved him, thought he loved me. I couldn’t see past that. I’d never had a man love me before, besides my brother of course. Sure, he showed it in odd ways, but I wanted to be loved so I put up with it. I didn’t know any different. I guess I kind of thought it was as good as it got until I came home. That’s when Ellis stepped in.”
    “He saved you before the two of you had gotten together? That’s actually really sweet of him.” I smiled at how caring the big man could be.
    “Well, we were sort of together before then.” Ryan grimaced, admitting she’d cheated on her abusive boyfriend with Ellis. She took a deep breath, pushed her glasses up on her head and sat up to look at me. “See, I would sleep around on Jeremiah when we were together even though I knew if he found out he’d get so upset. Why’d I do it? Because somewhere deep inside I hoped if he found out then he’d see what it felt like. He always cheated on me and he wasn’t discreet about it at all. At least I tried to keep it quiet, not that it mattered. He never did find out, or if he did, he never said anything to me. In the end, I don’t think he actually cared what I did when he wasn’t around, until I came home, that