Page 11 of Hummingbird and Kraken

The sensation of Geir’s limbs was like nothing he’d ever experienced. His skin was impossibly, decadently soft. It was smooth like satin but with ropey muscles underneath.

The limbs trapping and exploring him were thrillingly foreign. Weird and alien and unmistakably not human. He let his head roll back, taking in the exquisite knowledge that Geir had actual squid appendages that were tangling around his legs and exploring the hem of his briefs. He’d watched things like this so many times, and now it was gloriously, impossibly, happening to him.

Geir trailed hands down his chest and he tried to arch and move into them, but he was held fast, completely unable to move. He whimpered, giving in to the helplessness, that exultantly freeing feeling of being completely under Geir’s control.

The soft bumps of the suction cups rubbed over him, alternating between the lightest teasing touches and firmer strokes. Two rubbed up and down along his nipples, each little bud teasing him as it worked over that tender flesh.

He squirmed and moaned, loving how those liquid limbs twined tighter around him, circling his legs and arms again.

And then Geir struck, those gentle bumps turning into rows of sharp suction and tiny scratching teeth. Beautiful pain flashed through him, the sweet sensation building up in so many impossible places and around his body.

He’d once had someone line clothespins up along his skin and tug them off all at once with a string, but it was nothing like this, nothing like this deep sucking pull, the dozens of abrasive teeth.

He hadn’t known that the suction cups had anything sharp in them like that, like dozens of tiny nails. He also hadn’t realized that there could be different types of suckers, some with those serrations and others that just pulled roughly at him, sucking his blood to the surface. But he wanted them everywhere. He wanted to be marked up and scored on every inch of his body.

Geir released one limb only to move it over and repeat the action, each burst of pain a fresh surprise. He did it again and again, the lovely scratches building up into columns of pleasure.

Declan was shaking and moaning, jerking helplessly in hopes of getting some friction where he most wanted it, and loving even more that he was powerless to choose.

One silky appendage wrapped around his neck, not tightly, just enough to get his attention, to remind him of his position. He opened his eyes.

Geir was looking down at him, his face an expression of awe. “You really want this.”

Declan nodded eagerly, words spilling out almost without his volition. “So much. Like this. Just more. Whatever you want.”

Geir’s expression darkened, that scowl from their first meeting returning. “I am… territorial.”

It took a minute for the words to make sense. “You mean you want to claim me?”

“I want to… I’m not sure if I’m in control of myself.” He seemed to hate that. “I want to lock you away and fight off anyone else who would try to touch you. It is… difficult to remember that isn’t right. I should… talk to you instead.”

Geir’s silken limbs went back to gentle caresses, but never let go. Declan’s brain started to come back online. “No, Geir, that sounds right to me. I don’t know any other way to say this, but that’s what I want.”

Geir’s scowl deepened. “I want to own you. I want you to be mine.”

“For how long?” Forever, maybe? He knew it wasn’t realistic, but he loved the romance of the idea. That he could be the one to capture that quiet heart and fantastical body.

“This side of me does not think like that. It just wants to claim.”

“Are you planning on doing anything permanent or dangerous?”

Geir scowled. “No.”

“Then I’m yours. Claim me.” Declan knew he was being impulsive. But reality or fantasy, he couldn’t think of the last time he’d wanted anything more.

Geir’s whole body tightened around him, then slowly relaxed. Declan could see Geir’s face tightening as his appendages loosened. He didn’t want to let Declan go, and Declan didn’t want that either.

Geir blew out a long breath, and Declan realized that he was nervous about whatever he wanted to say. “Do you know how, um, cephalopods mate?”

Declan couldn’t help it. He started giggling at Geir’s hesitant, formal language. “I don’t have any idea. How about you show me.” He was going for seductive, but he ended up laughing instead.

He forced himself to calm down, looking Geir in the eye. “Really, I want it. Whatever it is.”

Geir held up one undulating arm, this one a bit thinner than the rest and noticeably free of suckers for about a foot at the end, though the underside looked a little rougher with rows of V-patterned ridges. Like the rest of Geir’s lower half, it now sported black and white stripes.

“Is that, like, a special mating arm?”

Geir nodded hesitantly.