Free Prince of Pleasure by Mandy M. Roth Page A

gut, but she was willing to bank on them. They’d served her well in the past.
    Her cell buzzed and she took it from her pocket, glancing at the screen. Alice, one of her three roommates, was texting again, wanting to know if she was done playing in the woods hunting fake men with wings, and if she wanted a ticket to a local rock band playing back home tomorrow. If it hadn’t been markedly cheaper to split the cost of a condo four ways than it was to pay room and board at the university, she’d have forgone the entire thing—opting for solitude and no meddling friends. As it was, her pockets were not deep enough to warrant a private room. She took what she could get.
    Lucy sighed.
    Alice and the others simply did not understand her or her ways. Though Alice did try. Lucy had to give her credit for that. Mary Ellen and Amber Lynn made no effort to even try.
    No surprise.
    They were more worried about planning their next mani-pedi party than they were about anything else in life. Their grade point average reflected as much. Damn shame their professors didn’t quiz them on the season’s hottest nail polish colors. They’d have gotten top marks, for sure.
    Alice and Lucy had other goals. Alice was studying business with the hope of launching her own company, and Lucy was finishing up a pre-law undergraduate degree, wanting to go on to law school when she was done. In the meantime, she was putting in all the time she could on her hobby.
    So close to finding answers , she texted Alice.
    Stay safe , Alice returned.
    Always.
    Try not to capture anything we can’t house-train, replied Alice.
    Lucy laughed as she texted, So that is a no to the Lockness monster?
    Will it fit in the tub?
    Before Lucy could reply, Alice sent , Ever thought of spending your Friday night looking for a boyfriend? When is the last time you had sex?
    Lucy cringed. I don’t remember.
    My point exactly.
    Lucy laughed again and put her phone in her jacket pocket. She really did need to find a man and soon. Though, that wasn’t exactly easy. The guys who went to her school preferred skinny girls to her.
    Her flashlight cut through the darkness. Most sane women did not venture into the woods, at night, alone, in search of things that could, in theory, be dangerous. Though she didn’t believe they would be. If Lucy was correct, and she was betting her life she was, what she sought was peaceful and misunderstood. In her short time in the small town, she’d already managed to develop something of a reputation as being anything but sane or rational.
    The crazy girl who hunted for monsters that weren’t real.
    At least according to their narrow minds.
    She didn’t care.
    She knew better.
    She was a woman on a mission, and she could sense deep down that she was close to making a breakthrough. It was the perfect time to delve deeper. The semester had ended at college and the next wasn’t due to start for nearly six weeks. Plenty of time to try to prove her theory.
    Her professors even questioned her interest in her “hobby”—as they called it—cryptology. But she enjoyed it immensely. It filled a void for her, one she’d had from an early age. It wouldn’t pay the bills; the law someday would—at least, she hoped. She was in her junior year, but had at least another year and half to go. She’d be a fifth year senior, for sure.
    She sighed. So many students were anymore.
    She tried to take as many classes as she could to make her money stretch—since the cost was the same for her to take twelve or nineteen credit hours. Apparently full-time was full-time. And she would probably be closer to completion if she took interim courses and classes over the summer, but her passion demanded she give it her attention as well.
    She didn’t fall into the habits of some who took up the torch of studying what most believed didn’t exist. No. Bigfoot and the Moth Man weren’t her thing. She took an altogether different path. One far less traveled.
    Men who