The Yoga with Goats incident was an embarrassing memory and most people would have been humiliated, but Lucy wasn’t afraid to laugh at herself. She missed having a friend who felt the same way. Iyanna was so much fun to be around and now she was living up here among the stars while Lucy was still stuck back on Earth.
The thought made her sigh with unaccustomed sadness, since she was usually a cheerful, upbeat kind of person.
Iyanna picked up on her mood at once and gave her a concerned look.
“Hey, what’s wrong all of a sudden?”
“Oh…I guess it’s just that I miss you.” Lucy shrugged awkwardly and pushed a sheaf of blondish-brown hair out of her hazel eyes. “Now that Mike and I have broken up—”
“Wait—you broke it off with Mike? But I thought the two of you were talking about getting married!” Iyanna said, frowning.
“We were but well…it just wasn’tright. You know what I mean?”
“Oh,Iknow.” Iyanna nodded wisely. “Don’t forget, I basically left my own fiancé at the altar when Dra’vik burst in during the wedding ceremony.”
“I know—I heard all about that!” Lucy said. “I wish I could have seen it.”
“Let me tell you, it was a sight to behold. My parents arestillgetting over it.” Iyanna grinned. “My Mom only wanted family at the ceremony—I bet she’s glad now that she didn’t invite all her friends from church just to watch me run off from my nice, perfectly normal-looking human fiancé to be with the Devil.”
Lucy snorted laughter as her friend’s description.
“Well, Dra’vikdoeslook kind of devilish—at least from the pictures you’ve sent me,” she pointed out. Her friend’s new husband was nine feet tall, covered in scales, and had horns sprouting out of his temples. Plus, as a Drake Monstrum, he could actually breathe fire. She supposed anyone could be excused for thinking he was the Devil. Yet, Iyanna seemed perfectly happy with him.
“You’ll get to meet him in person at dinner tonight,” Iyanna told her. She wiggled her eyebrows expressively. “And who knows—by then you might have a Monstrum of your own. With those curves of yours and your honey-colored hair and eyes—I saw the way the pilot who brought you here was looking at you!”
Lucy felt herself blushing. The pilot had been a Felinus Monstrum who looked like a black panther. He had been extremely charming on the flight from Earth to the Monstrum Mother Ship, pointing out various stars and constellations and telling her little tidbits about how the Monstrum were coming to enjoy their new home in this universe, since their own universe had been overrun by the evil Darklings.
But she reluctantly shook her head.
“No, I’m not really looking for anyone right now. Mike and I just broke up last month—it’s still too fresh.”
“Whydidyou break up, anyway?” Iyanna asked, frowning. “You never told me.”
“Well, I mean…” Lucy shifted uncomfortably. “I hate to say it but he wasboring.I mean, neither of us was getting any younger and he never wanted to try anything different.”
“Different in thebedroom, you mean?” Iyanna arched her eyebrows meaningfully. “You wanted to get kinky and he didn’t even want to turn on the lights?”
“Something like that,” Lucy mumbled, blushing. She and Iyanna used to talk about everything but this kind of thing was, well,private.
It had all started when she’d happened upon a BDSM romance novel. She had never cared much for the Fifty Shades books when they came out—they were poorly written in her opinion—and she hadn’t bothered to watch the movies either. But this particular book, which happened to pop up as an ad on her e-reader, had piqued her interest.
She had read the book—which actually had a pretty good plot—from cover to digital cover and found herself incredibly intrigued. She and her fiancé had been together for years and had never tried anything adventurous—now she had a whole slew of ideas to spice things up in the bedroom!
Only Mike wasn’t interested in getting spicy. When Lucy asked him to blindfold her and tease her, he didn’t want to. So then she suggested thatsheought to try blindfolding him—maybe even tying him up—and teasinghima bit. To be honest, this idea excited her evenmore—she liked the idea of being in charge—especially since she never had been before.
But Mike vetoed this idea even more stridently than the other.
“I don’t know why you want to change something that’s working just fine for us, babe,” he’d said impatiently, when Lucy had brought it up. “We’rehappywith our sex routine—have been for years.”
“Would youlistento yourself?” Lucy demanded. “Our ‘sex routine’?” Since when is sex supposed to become routine? All we ever do is Missionary position in the dark. It takes exactly five and a half minutes from start to finish—I know because the alarm clock is right beside my pillow. And then you roll off me and start snoring!”
Mike looked taken aback.
“Geeze, I didn’t know you were just laying there watching theclock,” he said stiffly. “Are you really so bored with our sex life, you feel like you need to get all kinky and weird?”
Lucy had blown out a breath, feeling suddenly guilty. Maybe she had been too harsh on him—after all, this was the first time she’d admitted that she found a lot lacking in their intimate times together.
“I’m not trying to be ‘weird,’” she’d protested. “I’m just wishing we could getcloserto each other. I mean, when you let yourself be vulnerable with someone, it brings you together, right?”