“Sorry!” she cries.
I splash back lightly, just a little flick of one tentacle, enough to splash water over her shoulder. “It’s nothing. I’m used to getting wet.”
Madelyn hesitates, then sends another little wave of water at me. “We lived about three hours from the Jersey Shore. I have to admit that I wanted out of the big city and into a little town because I hoped being a single mom would be easier in the ‘burbs. When I found out this place had a lake, it was a bonus. Zack loves the water.”
“What does Madelyn love?” I ask, another tentacle aiming water at her. It’s juvenile and relaxed, and probably what both of us need.
“Um. Zack. Biking. Sports movies. Figure skating. Guys who spoil me and my son.”
My eyebrows arch. “Guys? More than one?”
“No, but he seems big enough for two.”
The splashing fight lulls when I raise both hands and four tentacles above the water. “I could be handy enough for three.”
“I love guys who are there, being handy. Helping me out around the house. Helping Zack feel like he has a dad for the first time ever. Making me feel—” Madelyn’s words die off, and her relaxed expression vanishes.
“Making you feel like what?”
“Like myself again. The person I could be. The person who won’t get left.”
“The person who is wanted?” I suggest.
Slowly, shyly, she nods. “Yeah. Like that. So corny, huh?”
“You make me feel like that, too. You and Zack. For the first time in almost forty years of life, and almost a decade alone, I feel like someone wants me around. Needs me, even.”
“I think we do. That’s really scary to admit. I don’t want to rely on someone else.”
“But what if he won’t leave?” I whisper, floating to her, letting my tentacles move slowly through the water, gradually, gently wrapping her up, bringing her to my chest.
“That might be scary, too. What if I don’t know how to live with someone again?”
“You’ll learn. You can do something as hard as raising a child alone—you can do something hard like letting a new person in, if he proves himself.” I cup her face, and my thumbs trace over her round cheeks. “I’m trying.”
“You’re succeeding,” she whispers, and then pulls my mouth to hers.
I’m kissing a monster in the middle of the lake at sunset. A beautiful, wonderful monster, a kraken who reminds me that I’m a desirable woman and still thinks that it’s cool that I’m a mom. Beyond cool. Worthwhile. Amazing. I kiss him like this is my last chance at the fantasy, even though I’m worried about getting called out for public indecency or something.
I shouldn’t have worried. Mercer pulls me deeper into the water so that just our heads are above the surface. In the shadows, you can barely see us—but beneath the surface, there’s so much to feel.
Hard body, cradling my soft one. Tentacles, twining around each leg, going from ankle to inner thigh. Pulling my legs apart ever so slightly.
“Madelyn...” Mercer groans through a kiss. “Should we go back to the shore?” he grunts.
“Huh? Now?” I pant as his lips find my throat. “Why?”
“Because you don’t want to rush.”
“We’re not rushing. This is a nice pace,” I say, dragging my hands down his shoulders. Over his pecs. I find one tentacle floating and curling near his waist, and I pull it into my grip. I flick my thumb back and forth across the surface of the suckers and feel them flex and close, sucking in tiny tidbits of my skin.The same thing happens all up and down my legs, from the sole of my foot to the seam where my thigh meets my pussy, making me gasp.
Mercer’s gasping as well, eyes closed as my thumb explores the delicate little rings of muscle, pressing into them and dragging down more firmly. “Good?” I ask, my own voice shaky.
The tentacle grasping my right thigh flexes a little in response, and the thick, muscular curve cups my mound for a split second before snapping away.
“Good?” Mercer parries, voice ragged.
“Mmhm.” My lips are pressed tight, eyes closed, as if I have to hide from the enjoyment.
