Page 7 of Unbridled

For her, anyway.

His anger about her leaving him turned ugly and it took a while for him to finally face the fact she wasn’t coming back to him. She’d rather stay single the rest of her life, read piles of books, and pull out her vibrator when needed.

While it kept life simple, sometimes loneliness crept in. It was that combination of loneliness and curiosity that made her search out a place like Double D Ranch.

“So, if it’s not years of shitty sex with an asshole partner, what made you come here? I’ll go back to my previous question about it being curiosity.”

“More or less.” Again, she wasn’t discussing her former relationship with a stranger—she didn’t even know his name—behind a building.

“And what did you see, do, or hear to bring that about?”

Oh crap.Should she admit it? Saying it out loud could make her sound like a naïve fool.

“You don’t have to be ashamed of your answer. We don’t shame people here. We encourage. Support. We even teach.”

Teach.Maybe that was what she needed. Someone to hold her hand and explain the details. Details that could very well be wrong in many of the romances she’d read. At the time, she hadn’t cared about accuracy since it was only fiction, but now…

Holy shit.Maybeallthe books got it wrong and she was totally unprepared. She needed to know the truth. “I’ve…read things.”

“Articles?”

She shook her head. “No, books.”

“How-tos?”

“No…”

His brow dropped low.

“Fiction,” she explained, wondering if she’d regret it. “Romance, erotica…”

“Wait…” He huffed out a breath. “You came here solely because you read sexy romance novels?”

Heat filled her cheeks. “That was stupid, wasn’t it?”

“Did you do any of yourown research?”

He thought librarians were smart. She just proved him wrong. “Isn’t that what this is?”

He threw his head back and laughed.

She pulled in an irritated breath. “Have a good night.”

He quickly sobered. “No, wait!”

When he grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving, she glared at his hand. He released her immediately and threw up his palms in surrender. “Sorry. I wasn’t laughingatyou but because…”

“Because I’m a fool.”

“No. If anything, you’re brave. I’ve never read a romance novel but I can’t imagine…” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is they opened your mind to trying new things, right?”

“Yes.”

He shrugged. “Then who cares about the reasoning used to come here? The fact is, you’re here. Now you can safely see and experience all this place has to offer…in reality. The beauty of this resort is you can do as little or as much as you’d like. No pressure. You can spend your whole stay simply observing, if you wish.”

His voicereallysounded familiar, but she still couldn’t place him. “Do you work here?”

He hesitated. “I’m not an employee.”

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