Free Riveted (Art of Eros #1) by Kenzie Macallan

got good at those to avoid the pain of sex. It got to the point I would fake being asleep when he came home so he wouldn’t even try to have sex with me. But in the last year or so, he didn’t seem interested anymore. Of course, by then, I suspected he was doing it with someone else. So, you see, it wasn’t his fault. It’s the way I’m designed.” She huffed out a breath glad to be done with the recounting of her horrible sex life and she could go back to knowing she would be alone for the rest of her life.
    Raquelle stood up abruptly. She couldn’t hold it in anymore and yelled, “Holy. Fucking. Shit! Are you kidding me? Mara, he didn’t do anything to get you ready for him. What a fucking psychopathic pig! And he forced you to give him a blowjob? I would have bitten the damn thing off! I should have killed him while I had the chance. What you experienced with him was not normal. It was abusive and inconceivable, to say the least. What was he thinking? And you’re right, the reason he wasn’t interested anymore was because he fucked around on you.” Mara knew Raquelle had popped a cork when she turned away and started cursing in Italian with hands flailing madly in the air. Their parents had brought them up bilingual, which had its advantages, sometimes.
    She blankly stared at Raquelle, as if she had snakes coming from her head.
    What the hell is she talking about? Get me ready? He certainly wasn’t going ‘down there.’ He referred to her sex as ugly.
    She understood why he cheated; it didn’t take a psychologist to figure it out. Watching Raquelle angrily stomp around had her dumbfounded.
    Leigha’s eyes grew wide and horrified. “Okay, first, Raquelle, you need to calm down because this isn’t helping Mara. Two, thank God you used condoms because that man got around. Third...” She hesitated for a moment, as she tried to piece something together. “It sounds like he was punishing you for something. He had to have known he was hurting you. I don’t think he was an inexperienced man when it came to the bedroom.”
    Wow! Now, there’s a perspective out of left field.
    “Punish? But why would he punish me? I didn’t do anything to him or even embarrass him. In fact, I tried to stay out of his way most of the time. I was always trying to be the good wife.” Mara’s head reeled leaving her perplexed. A piece of yarn from her imagined beautifully knitted marriage had come unraveled until nothing was left but an ugly muddy pile of nothing. She related to the pile of yarn, her life unraveling before her eyes. She tilted again, completely off-balance. Mara had that uneasy felling before and knew it was coming, but this was different, something unexpected, as dizziness took over.
    Raquelle had come back to the conversation and stared at Leigha as if she held all the answers to this mystery.
    Leigha went on to explain her theory. “He was doing something right with someone, because the woman we saw him with was definitely experienced. There’s no way a woman like that was going to put up with abuse in the bedroom.”
    “You know, you’re right. I didn’t think of that. So, why was he so cruel and abusive to you, Mar? God knows he married you for the trust fund money.” Their father had set all three of them up with a trust fund to make sure they were well taken care of, but with the understanding they would also stand on their own someday. Each of them learned quickly how to manage money and the trust funds still did quite well.
    Mara turned to Raquelle, noticing the grief in her eyes she hadn’t seen before, and she started to cry. Her head hung in her hands and she sobbed, taking in huge gulps of air. Her mind and emotions were on overload, her head spinning at this newfound information.
    She mumbled, “How could I have been so stupid and naive?” Her sisters held her and tried to reassure her it was Brock who was the problem.
    “We all experience sex differently. Mama never sat us down to talk