Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

KRIS

There was no way I’d heard him correctly. My mind flipped through everything I’d ever read about mythical sea creatures and spirits, finally landing on the tiny bit I knew about sea wraiths. “Your shop was attacked by the angry soul of someone who died violently at sea?”

Levi nodded. “And it’s not the first time wraiths have attacked Lifeboat. This time it was only a broken window. Marvin told me last time a selkie pup was taken.”

With every word Levi spoke, my mind spun faster and faster until I was dizzy trying to sort out the details. He’d asked earlier if I was freaking out, and I really wasn’t, though maybe I should have been.

But I also knew what I’d seen with my own eyes. Levi wasn’t lying, and I knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t lie about something like this.

“So what are you going to do?”

“I have no idea. For right now, I just want to enjoy the rest of tonight. I want to help you cut down more Christmas trees and spend time with your family. I want to sell records and prepare for Poseidonia, and maybe while I’m doing those things, I’ll figure out the rest.”

My hand found his where it rested on the edge of the ATV’s bucket seat, and I wrapped his fingers with mine, giving them a squeeze as we pulled up to the barn. Several seasonal employees unloaded the trailer, and a few minutes later we were on our way back to the front parking lot. The lines had shrunk, but there were still plenty of people milling around, drinking cocoa, and taking pictures in the falling snow. Warm light spilled from the windows in the workshop, and a quick glance inside showed my dad in his element, every seat taken as he walked the group through assembling their wooden toy kits. Swags of evergreen wound with white Christmas lights hung around every door and window flickering like hundreds of tiny flames in the wind and making the snow look like falling glitter. It was beautiful, the kind of picture that ended up on Christmas cards.

Levi’s eyes were wide as he took in the scene, and there was something sort of magical about seeing the whole thing through his eyes. Maybe everyone who’d said I just needed to find love to find the joy of the holidays had been right.

But this wasn’t love. Was it?

No, it couldn’t be. It was too soon.

But it was definitely like . And more than a little lust.

A thought resurfaced in my mind, one I’d had right before I fainted. Had I already felt one of Levi’s tentacles that night in his apartment? Remembering the soft slick slide of something that definitely didn’t feel like regular human skin had my cock thickening behind my zipper, and I couldn’t keep my mind from wandering to what else Levi’s tentacles could do. Specifically in the bedroom.

I opened my mouth to ask a very inappropriate question to find Levi was already walking toward the barn door. He looked over his shoulder, a wide smile stretching his lips. “Are you coming or what?”

“I hope to.” My muttered response was inaudible over the wind and distance, but I did my best to smolder in Levi’s direction, and his smile went from happy to flirtatious in the space of a heartbeat.

Glad to see we were on the same page, I climbed out of the ATV and followed him to the barn door.

“Levi! Where is your coat?” My mom came out of nowhere the second we crossed the threshold. She wrapped Levi in a tight hug, then did the same to me. “Kristopher, it’s snowing! I know I taught you better than this.” She gestured at Levi from the top of his head, where he was still wearing my hat, to his soggy sneakers. “Why is your boyfriend running around without a winter jacket?”

My boyfriend? My gaze swung to Levi to gauge his reaction to the b-word my mom had just casually dropped with all the subtlety of a nuclear bomb. He was smiling.

“Well, Mother, I was supposed to have the day off because of the KELPS holiday party, but I got a call saying you guys were overrun out here, so my boyfriend ”—I stressed the word, letting it roll around on my tongue and finding I really liked the sound—“is dressed for a pizza party, not cutting down trees.”

Completely ignoring me, my mom turned to Levi. “Did you really leave the house without a coat?”

I could swear I saw sweat forming at Levi’s brow as he looked between me and my mother, trying to figure out how to navigate his very first Mary Kate Kringle interrogation.

“I, uh, I had a little mishap. Ripped the sleeve right off.”

A snort slipped out when I tried to hold in my laughter. Yeah, more like Levi hulked out of his jacket and left the thing totally decimated, but sure. A ripped-off sleeve. Let’s go with that.

“Oh dear.” My mom rubbed her hands over his shoulders and bare arms, fussing over him like he was a child even though he was…well, I didn’t actually know how old Levi was, and I added a note to my mental tally of things I needed to ask him about krakens. Did they age the same way as humans or was it like a dog years thing? Was Levi actually hundreds of years old?

“I’m fine, Mrs. Kringle. I swear I’m not cold.”

She huffed at him. “First, I told you to call me Mary Kate. Second, I don’t believe you. I know we have some extra winter gear around here somewhere. Let me go find it while you boys check in with Keith.”

My brother was already waving us over, another stack of brightly colored tickets in his hand. By the time we’d retrieved them, my mom had returned with an old Carhart jacket and a handmade scarf, probably another of Kimmy’s best efforts, and an old pair of rubber fisherman’s boots that fit on over shoes.

“Here. You put this on before you head back out there. There will be no pneumonia on my watch.”

Someone called her name from across the barn and she turned to leave, then dropped a kiss on both our cheeks before hustling away to gossip.

Levi watched her go. “I’m not gonna lie, I kinda love your mom. She scares the absolute shit out of me, but I like her anyway.”

My answering laugh echoed around the barn, and I heard a few people gasp when they saw the jolly sound was coming from me. “Same.” I pointed at the pile of gear she’d left. “You’d better put that on whether you need it or not. You don’t want to know what will happen if she sees you without proper outdoor attire.”

Levi rushed to comply, and then we were back in the ATV and back out to cut down more trees. Probably trying to be a dick, Keith had given us a stack of tickets for the trees located at the far back of the property, but working so far from the hustle and bustle of the barns and workshop meant Levi could shed his coat and use his tentacles, and watching him was nothing short of completely amazing.

Each tentacle was crazy strong, and he used his kraken strength to effortlessly lift the trees I cut into the trailer. We were done in record time, and I got the smug satisfaction of seeing my brother’s shocked expression when we returned to the barn for another set of tickets.

“This is the last group.” He passed off the stack, and Levi and I made quick work of it. My dad had installed lights out in the trees, and they’d come on as it got darker. Without them, it would have been pitch black, but the tall lamps threw enough light to make it easy to see.

When we’d loaded the last tree into the trailer, I reached for Levi’s hand, twining our fingers together.

He looked down at our joined hands then up at my face. “You have snow in your beard.” I lifted my hand to brush it away, but Levi grabbed my wrist. “No, don’t. I like it.”

My smile was wide as we got back into the ATV. I loved spending time with Levi. It was comfortable, like we’d been doing it for years instead of just a few weeks.

“Thank you for not freaking out earlier.”

“I like you, Levi. The fact that you’re a kraken doesn’t change that. It’s just you, but now with tentacles.” I couldn’t help the shudder that rolled through me when visions of everything I wanted those tentacles to do to me flashed through my mind.

“I like you too, Kris.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “I know it wasn’t technically part of our plan for the evening, but do you want to come to my house after we’re done here?”

I was nodding before Levi even finished the question. “Yes, definitely.”

Mischief sparkled in Levi’s eyes when I glanced over at him, and I knew without a doubt we were on the same page. “Excellent. I’ve been dying to get my hands on you again.”

“And other things, right?” My voice came out a little raspy with desire.

Levi’s eyebrows almost hit his hairline. “You’d want that?”

“Um, yeah.” I felt my cheeks heat in spite of the snow swirling around us, and I wondered if the heat there was now creating a void where the snow melted and evaporated before it even hit my skin. “Is that okay?”

“So okay. So very, very okay.” Levi was breathless and adjusted himself in his seat, and I stole another quick glance at him as I pulled up behind the baling barn. The bulge behind his zipper was more noticeable than it had been a few minutes ago.

Not that I’d been looking.

Okay, I’d totally been looking.

I hadn’t gotten to see him in his apartment after Thanksgiving, and I wanted to. I wanted to study his length with my lips and tongue as I swallowed him down. I wanted to hear him come apart because I was making him feel good. And more than anything, now that I knew his secret, I didn’t want him to hold back. I wanted to watch as his tentacles took me apart. I was glad this was turning him on as much as it was turning me on. My cock was more than half-hard, and the more tentacle talk that ensued, the more blood that rushed south, until all I could think about was being naked and totally wrapped up in all of Levi.

Clearing my throat, I asked the question that had been running through my head on a never-ending loop since his reveal in the woods. “Levi, that night, after Thanksgiving, were your tentacles involved?”

His lips tipped into a sexy-as-fuck smirk. “Maybe.”

A groan slid up my throat and through my lips. “Fuck.”

“It’s impossible to control them during sex. It’s too primal, and I can’t hold them back. That’s why I kept my jacket on and told you to keep your eyes on mine. To hide them from you because I couldn’t hold them back, and I didn’t want to.”

I swallowed hard and felt Levi’s eyes on me. “What does it feel like?”

He tipped his head in question. “What do you mean?”

“Are your tentacles sensitive? Do they experience sensation like your hands or, uh, other things?”

Levi laughed, and the sound rolled over me like a tidal wave. “Are you asking me if my tentacles all feel like dicks?”

I shoved his shoulder. “No.” Then I shrugged. “Maybe? I don’t know. This is not a conversation I ever thought I’d be having. I don’t know the protocol for asking what it feels like to use your tentacles during sex.” I hitched a thumb toward the trailer where we’d stacked all the trees. “I mean, I can’t imagine if your tentacles were that sensitive that tossing pine trees would have been that comfortable. I’m just trying to understand so I don’t accidentally do something to hurt you.”

Levi’s hand landed on my thigh and squeezed. “I love that you’re worried about that because it proves exactly what I already knew about you, Kris Kringle. But to answer your question. It depends. When I use my tentacles for work, it feels like using my human hands I guess. It’s different because in my partially shifted form, my human skin and my kraken skin aren’t the same, but it doesn’t hurt to use my tentacles to lift heavy or rough things.”

“Okay, but what about during sex? You said you can’t contain your tentacles during sex, which is maybe the hottest thing I’ve ever heard, by the way. Is it different then?” My fingers itched for a notepad and pencil so I could take notes, even while my cock continued to swell in my jeans.

“Yes, it’s different.” He turned in the ATV’s bucket seat to look at me. “Let me see if I can explain it.” While he spoke, his hand drifted up and down my thigh, his touch almost enough to distract me from what he was saying. Almost. “You know how when you’re really aroused, your skin feels alive like every touch is amplified?”

I nodded, starting to feel that way. I was hyperaware of the way my T-shirt felt against my chest and the way the damp denim of my jeans clung to my legs. Everywhere Levi touched, it felt like fire trailed in its wake until he was heating me up from the inside out, and all he was doing was stroking my thigh, getting closer and closer to my cock with each pass until it felt like all I could feel was his warm hand sliding over me. “Yeah. I think I know exactly what you mean.”

“It’s like that. Only on a larger scale because it’s not just my human skin that feels like a live wire, it’s every inch of every tentacle.” Levi glanced around. The barn door was closed, and no one else was outside. He wrapped a fist in my coat and tugged me closer until his lips crashed against mine.

The tension between us broke like a wave crashing into the shore, and I leaned into the kiss, my lips forming to Levi’s as we explored each other’s mouths. His hands wound into my hair, displacing my knit hat, and I shoved my hands under his borrowed jacket, my fingers running over the raised lines where his tentacles rested against his skin. As my fingertips danced along the lines, they shuddered, the texture changing until I knew I was stroking over a fully released tentacle.

Levi deepened the kiss, using his hands in my hair to hold me to him tighter as I experimented with different pressures and stroked over as much of his body as I could. He moaned against my lips, and I needed more. I needed to feel him against more of my skin, but I let the kiss linger, falling completely under Levi’s spell, as my hands smoothed over the silky skin of his extra appendages.

Gentle tugging on my scalp that felt different than fingers running through my hair caught my attention as Levi sighed against my lips. “Your hair is so soft, and I can’t wait to feel your beard on me.”

I wanted that too. So badly. We dove back into the kiss, the rest of the world falling away, our focus narrowed down to the slide of our lips and the caress of our hands, and it could have been minutes or hours that we stayed like that as time ceased to exist.

“Oh, man. Seriously? Again with this? My eyes!” My brother’s voice ruined the perfect moment. “What is it with you guys and making out in vehicles?”

Levi’s tentacles immediately receded under my palms, the tentacle in my hair slipping away, and I hated it.

My head swung toward my brother where he was glaring at us, one eyebrow raised.

“What do you want?”

“The last of the trees for one. Not to see you making out with your man again for another. World peace is a close third. I could also really go for a hot dog.”

Next to me, Levi laughed, and I almost kissed him again regardless of our audience.

“You’re an idiot.”

Kevin shrugged. “Not the worst thing I’ve been called today.” He moved around the ATV and dropped the rear gate. “But seriously, we need to get these done so we can get out of here.”

Levi and I climbed from the ATV, both of us adjusting our clothes. I didn’t know if any of Levi’s tentacles had slipped past his clothing besides the one he’d been running through my hair, and I couldn’t help but think that maybe that had been a close call.

Without being able to use Levi’s kraken strength, the process of unloading was much slower, but we got it done the old-fashioned way.

“Okay, now, shoo.” Kevin shoved us out of the barn. “And for the love of every elf in the North Pole, could you please find somewhere that isn’t a car to make out? I don’t think I can handle catching you again.” He pretended to gag as he slid the barn door closed.

“My place?” Levi asked when we got back to the ATV.

“Hell yes.”