He had. At least, he thought he had wanted to know, until Mercy—his ex-girlfriend Samantha’s best friend—had actually told him. When he’d run into her at the grocery store, he hadn’t been able to help asking why Samantha had broken up with him the previous month. The real reason. It wasn’t that he was heartbroken exactly, not anymore, but he’d thought they’d been moving towards something serious after five months together and instead she’d started drawing away and then dumped him. Mercy had always been bluntly honest, a trait he’d liked about her, and he’d practically begged her to tell him the truth until she’d given in. He’d just wanted to know what he’d done wrong so he could fix it in the future.

But how was he supposed to fix being boring in bed? Their sex life had started to wane, but it hadn’t been bad. At least, he hadn’t thought so. They had sex. She orgasmed. Unless she was faking it? Self-doubt surged. His shoulders hunched.

“Well it’s not like she was exciting either,” he grumbled defensively. Dammit, he’d tried to please Samantha in bed. Even if she hadn’t always been very helpful about communicating whether or not she liked what he was doing. He shoved his hands in his pockets, feeling vulnerable and... well, just not good. “I would ask her what she liked or if she wanted me to do anything different and she always just said it was fine. And it was fine for me too, but not exciting.”

Still looking sympathetic, Mercy patted him on the shoulder. “I think you two were just looking for different things in... in that area. Or, maybe the problem is you were both looking for the same thing. Sam’s not always great at communicating, I know, but one of the things she wanted was for you to stop asking and just do.”

Luke wanted to throw his hands up in the air in exasperation. “So I was just supposed to read her mind?”

“No, but... look, have you ever heard of kink? Look up kinky books on your e-reader and read some of those, and I think you’ll figure it out. You’re a good looking guy Luke, and you’re pretty awesome. You two just didn’t jive in the bedroom; it happens.”

Part of him didn’t want to follow Mercy’s advice about checking out kinky books, because he was still annoyed Samantha couldn’t have just told him what she wanted or what she found so boring about sex with him, but after about a week he couldn’t help himself. If it would stop the constant thoughts and self-doubt running around his head, what could it hurt?

After about a week he finally gave in and went searching for ‘kinky books.’ There were plenty available for free. Not that he couldn’t afford to buy a few books, but he was still feeling pretty resentful and the idea of purchasing books to explain exactly how he’d been lacking in the bedroom only made him more so.