Free Yours Book 2: Gaining Experience (Yours Series) by Blue Saffire Page A

still hadn’t become an open book to more than Luke, Kevin, and Wyatt, but I had opened up to having more friends around.
    Ivana was like the center to our little group. She kept us in line and kept us focused. It was never anything sorted. Everyone knew she was mine. Ivana was just our glue. Like a sister to the guys, but she was my world for so long.
    One day that all changed. My world’s collided. I thought my mother and father would approve of Ivana, but I was so wrong and everything just went wrong from there. The guys are the only ones outside of me that know the truth of most of all that happened and we all like to pretend that none of it happened.
    Especially Kevin, he has always felt like he failed me somehow. There was nothing he could have done. The people to blame are no longer breathing. At least most of the people to blame are no longer amongst the living. I have a feeling I will be getting to take care of the rest soon.
    Wyatt’s voice brings me back to the call I am on. I left Sephora to make this call. I am now standing on my back deck looking out at the ocean. The view is calming against my raging insides.
    “I’m all over this one. I’ve wanted to find that slippery bastard for years now,” Wyatt clips into the phone.
    “My sister is involved in this shit now,” Luke growls. “You and I know this is the real reason I wanted you to stay away from her, Nick. Whatever you need, it’s yours. This one now falls in all of our backyards.”
    “I appreciate that Luke, but you and I both know this was coming to your door one way or another. Sephora was never exempt from this. Anyone any of us have loved have been moving targets for the last eight years,” I point out in frustration. I love Luke, but he can have tunnel vision when he wants to.
    “Pointing fingers will do us no good,” Andrew says sternly. “Nick is right, this has been coming for us and it has been well played, but I’m tired of playing. It’s time we get our hands just as dirty.”
    “I agree,” Kevin grits.
    “I feel the same. Things are different this time. I plan to be the last man standing this round. Losing is not an opposition. Find that bastard, Kev, and find out once and for all who is helping him pull these fucking strings,” I snap and end the call.
    I want to toss my phone right through the glass doors behind me. My time is up and it is much too soon. I have to come clean. My dark past is about to make or break the one person I truly love. The one person that has never wanted anything from me but love.
    I can only hope that my little butterfly doesn’t turn and fly away from me. I am going to need her now more than ever. I will rip this world apart, tear any obstacle that stands in my way down, before I lose Sephora, make no mistakes about that.
    Those are my thoughts as I watch the sea begin to rage to match the emotions rolling inside me. A storm is coming, but I am the eye at the center of it. I have always been the one to watch.

Chapter 9
Friends & Family
    S ephora

    N ick has been unusually quiet . Kimmie and I have spent most of the day lounging around in front of the TV. Winston and Kevin stopped in to inform us that we would be working from home until further notice. I didn’t protest. Something in Nick’s eyes this morning silenced my need to assert my independence.
    I have so many questions swirling in my brain, but I am trying to be patient. There is no question that Nick has to start talking if we are going to remain in this relationship. He has put this off long enough.
    There are things in his past that have made him the man he is today. He has said as much. ‘Baby, you know that I have a particular preference in the bedroom. There are reasons for that preference.’
    I remember his words clearly. I also remember the look he gave me when I went to ask him to elaborate. And I remember his promise to tell me those reasons. ‘In time we’ll get to those reasons,’ were his words.
    I think we are at