Page 71 of Kringle and the Kraken

He was sitting up in bed, his torso bare and one of his tentacles holding his phone as he scrolled. The second I walked through the door, his gaze swung my way. “I thought you got lost.” Then he noticed the box. “What’s that?”

I set the box on my nightstand and stripped out of my clothes, knowing Levi was naked under the sheets. When I was snuggled in beside him, skin to skin, I reached for the box and passed it over.

“You didn’t have to get me anything.”

I smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I didn’t.”

He raised an eyebrow, and I nodded toward the box. “You’ll see.”

One of his tentacles tugged at the bow until the ribbon fell away, and Levi lifted the lid then carefully extracted the glass bottle from the tissue paper inside the box. He gasped when he held it up and saw what was inside.

“Oh my gods. Kris, this is amazing!” A happy sob slipped from his mouth. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Inside the bottle, I’d constructed a nineteenth century clipper ship, but the ship wasn’t the most impressive part. I’d also formed eight purple-blue tentacles coming up from the water that wrapped around the ship, two of them twisted into a heart over the bow.

A tear slipped from one of Levi’s gorgeous golden eyes, and I swept it away with my thumb. “I love you, Levi. I’ll spend the rest of forever trying to show you how much.”

He set the ship carefully on his nightstand and launched himself into my arms, his mouth colliding with mine in a kiss that said more than words could ever convey.

I spent the rest of the night tangled in his tentacles and wrapped up in his arms.

And there was nowhere else I would rather be.

THE END