Page 8 of Sticky for You

I nodded into my knees. I could think of one part of my monster’s anatomy that was the perfect size. I wanted it inside me so badly. “He says he’s a lion.”

“That explains the big hair.”

I raised my head. “Wait, you know what a lion is?”

Crimson sighed. “Tim, there’s a big world outside of Valentine Growville, and it’s full of monsters. You’ve never been anywhere else.”

“Why would I want to leave town?”

I’d never gone beyond the town limits. There were some like Crimson, who had. Monsters came through here sometimes, though. I’d played hide the sausage with a lot of them. Then I sent them on their way. None of them stayed, and I never asked what they were. Why would I when I told no one we were rhubarb?

“We stay here because our town is perfect for us,” she said. “Why don’t you find out why your monster is here? Maybe he needs to find his perfect place, and that could be here. You should also encourage him to stay away from the c-r-u-m-b-l-e.”

I shivered. “What if he doesn’t want me… to talk to me now he knows I’m his mate.”

Crimson’s eyes bulged out of her head, and I put out my hands just in case I needed to catch them. “Mates!” she screeched, and I was sorry to say her eyes were on their own, when my ears were complaining at the noise.

“Didn’t I say that?” I asked, keeping my ears covered, not taking any chances when the eyes were back to bulging.

“No!”

“Oh… I thought it was a given with how much I want him.”

She gave me a knowing look. “Twirlie… sometimes! You just…you really beat the stalk.”

I bit my lip. “You think I should try again, then?”

She fixed me with a steady gaze that seemed to bore straight to my heart. “You won’t be able to stay away from him, young Twirlie. If he’s your mate, then you won’t have a Great Rhu chance in pie against the draw.”

I gasped, sighed, and sagged on the counter. “Then how is a little stalk like me supposed to catch a lion?”

“He’s not the stalk I would have picked for you, but that’s the way the rhubarb strings. You’ll have to get jiggy with the lion real soon. You know what happens if you don’t.”

“You don’t mean—”

“I do.”

I clapped my hands over my mouth. No one wanted a wilted piece of rhubarb… no one!

Chapter Five

Maximus

One day post monster incident!

My head was full of singing rhubarb stalk. He never quit the commentary and between that he sang!

Sing it with me, lion…

We were born to be alive. We were born to be alive. Yes, we were born to be alive.

Twirling, full high kick, naked butt shimmy, full hip bend into a bouncing split.

What the fuck was that? My mind boggled as I battled to shut him out and failed as he sang on.

Yes, we were born to be alive, yes to be alive, it’s good to be mated.

Time is not on my side.