Page 4 of Hold my Reins

Was his junk normal or…monstrous?

He’d only drank one beer. Not nearly enough for this kind of thing. He put his phone on the table and concentrated on finishing his fries until it pinged again.

Who—and what—had he been matched with this time?

But it wasn’t another match.

Whitehorse had sent him a nudge, as if aware that Rox had viewed his profile.

three

Lynck flipped the chairs and stacked them on the tables so he could mop the floor of the Beastly Brewhouse. It was only him in the closed store, so he’d turned off the music. The only sound was the tapping of his hooves on the wood floor as he did all the close-of-business chores. He much preferred closing to opening.

Opening was the wind up to chaos.

This was a peaceful unwinding.

As the mop bucket filled, he checked his phone, which had been buzzing in his pocket. The Monster Match app had found him a new human. He stared at the notification for several seconds. The last three men he’d matched with had wanted sex, with very little talk. Which was fine, but he preferred to get to know someone a bit before meeting up.

For the last couple of months, he’d been tempted to switch his profile to romance because he was so over monster-card-punching humans who only wanted a story to tell from the time they visited a town with a portal. But he hadn’t changed his profile because romance meant more than a casual relationship, and there were things in his past that he couldn’t talk about.

Which left him in a place of dissatisfaction with only himself to blame.

He needed to delete the app.

But he liked sex. What he wanted was what humans called friends with benefits. Something more than once off but less than offering his heart and the truth.

He checked on the bucket, but it was only half full. The sound of the rising water made him want to go for a swim after he finished up. The weather was warming up, and because of the new moon, there wouldn’t be many people by the lake.

He tapped the notification to check out his human match.

His gaze landed on the photo, not taking in any of the important details. While the man’s lips curved in a smile, his eyes were sad. His dark blond hair stuck out from beneath a gray knitted cap dusted with snow, and his cheeks were pink from the cold.

Lynck’s interest inched up.

But hot humans were everywhere. So far, this guy, I_can_drive_a_stick,wasn’t anything special. Lynck smiled at the username.

So, he had a sense of humor, also not rare.

He scanned the rest of the info.

Pronouns: He/Him

Age: twenty-six

Orientation: gay

Likes: cars, pulling things apart and putting them together, playing the piano, open spaces, bright nail polish, ripped jeans, coffee, homemade chocolate chip cookies

Dislikes: selfishness, my given name, vanilla (overrated scent and flavor)

That was an eclectic collection. The only clue as to why they matched was that Lynck also liked open spaces and coffee and taught the violin.

He turned off the tap. Was this human only seeking to hook-up?

His screen dimmed as he contemplated his options: ignore, wait, or do something. He scrolled back to the photo. I_can_drive_a_stick didn’t look like he was after sex. Those guys showed a bit more skin—though it had taken him a while to notice the trend—and didn’t have that sadness in their eyes.

After another moment of hesitation, Lynck sent him a poke to acknowledge the match, leaving what happened next up to the human man.

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