Love and Learn (Voretti Family Book 2) by Ava Blackstone Read Free Book Online Page B

want to hook up with some stranger. He could be an axe-murdering psycho crawling with STDs.”  
    “No, it’s not… You don’t understand.”
    “Explain it to me.”
    “You don’t want to know.” Her flat, even tone made his chest go tight. She wasn’t flirting or joking around. She was absolutely serious, and the logical part of his brain picked up on the warning loud and clear. Maybe he didn’t want to know.
    Too bad the animal part of his brain had taken over his muscles. “Wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.”
    “Fine.” Annabelle pounded the rest of the beer she’d claimed not to want. She thumped the empty glass onto the table. “I’m a frigid, genetic freak. I can’t enjoy sex. I’m terrible at it. So how am I supposed to explain how normal human sexual behavior evolved?”  
    Her words hit him like a flashbang grenade—loud and bright and sudden. His ears rang and he couldn’t make sense of anything, least of all what she’d said. How could the responsive, sensual woman he remembered possibly think she was frigid? “Who told you that? Your asshat ex?”
    “No one.” She turned, trying to pull out of his grasp.
    He tightened his hold on her wrist. “Well, it’s bullshit.”  
    The guys at the pool table turned to see what was going on, and he realized he’d gone loud.
    Damn . Why was he so worked up?
    He dialed his volume down. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
    “I’m twenty-five years old and I’ve never had a relationship that lasted longer than a few weeks. As soon as things get physical, the guy decides he’s not ready to commit or he gets back together with his ex or he remembers that brunettes aren’t his type. Most of the time, they don’t even last past the first date.” Annabelle met his gaze, chin jutting defiantly. “That’s not normal.”  
    Ty’s heart pounded in his ears. His vision tunneled, getting rid of every bit of nonessential information. Everything but Annabelle.
    What kind of incompetent asshats had she been dating that she’d gotten such a screwed up view of her own sexuality? He was going to kick every last one of their asses, starting with Christian.
    No. He was gonna relax. Just like his injury, he had to trust this had happened for a reason.
    He took a deep breath, letting the testosterone dissipate enough that he could squeeze Annabelle’s wrist reassuringly and shoot her his don’t-worry-about-a-thing smile. He’d wanted a way to make up for being a shit friend. Well, here was his chance right in front of him, a gift from the universe. “Sounds like the only thing you need is a little one-on-one tutoring. We’ll start tomorrow night.”

CHAPTER 5

    A NNABELLE WOKE UP with a headache. In between lab work, she mainlined Gatorade and dosed herself with extra-strength aspirin, but her head was still pounding at six PM when she left lab for the day. The problem was, she didn’t have a hangover. It was a physical manifestation of nerves over her big mistake last night.  
    What had she been thinking, baring her soul to Ty, of all people? No way was she going to be able to face him in Human Sexuality lecture tomorrow, much less survive whatever “tutoring” he had in mind for tonight. She’d been trying to cancel all day, but he hadn’t responded to her emails. She didn’t have his cell number, and neither did the phone directory, the Internet, or her three remaining high-school friends.
    By the time she made it back to her apartment, the gang inside her head was bludgeoning her frontal lobe. She stumbled down the narrow hall into her bedroom. She’d woken up so late, she hadn’t had time to make her bed, but even with crumpled sheets and bunched up pillows, it was calling her.
    She forced herself past it, to her desk. Inside the file drawer, she flipped through tax returns and medical records until she got to the unlabeled folder in the back. The one that wouldn’t be there if she were a stronger person.
    The bulging