“It’s nicer sleeping skin-to-skin. Besides, what if we wake up the same way we did yesterday? We can’t keep ruining all of Erik’s clothes.”
Sonny wiggled under the blankets and I tried not to get hot at the way he moved, longing to see all that creamy skin and mark it with the suckers on my tentacles.
Declan still hesitated. “My body has changed since you last saw it.”
Sonny gave him an unimpressed, “No shit, Sherlock.”
“No, not just that. I mean I’ve—”
Sonny was as used to Declan cutting himself off as I was because he waited for Declan to finish his sentence.
“I’ve lost a lot of muscle,” he said at last.
This time, the unimpressed look which Sonny gave him was outstanding.
“This might surprise you to know but I do actually like you for more than your muscles.”
Declan gave a weak chuckle. “Yeah, I know. Sorry.”
Sonny wiggled again. “It’s fine, you don’t have to be naked if you don’t want to. Lay down and cuddle me.”
Declan sighed and began to strip off his t-shirt and shorts. I let him do it himself, because reaching to take his boxers off would have put my face too near his groin and I didn’t want my body to behave any more erratically than it already was.
He flung his clothes over the side of the bed and slid under the blankets beside Sonny, who looked over at me, his big eyes sincere.
“You’re not going to be the only one dressed, are you?”
I appreciated him including me in the nakedness, especially as I wasn’t sure what was going on with our relationship here. Was I really part of something or was I an extra?
I undressed quickly and slid into bed before either of them could see the semi I’d been sporting as they’d undressed.
Instinctively, it seemed, Declan lay on his back and held his arms out, and Sonny and I both rolled into him, our heads resting on his shoulders. It meant we stared at each other across Declan’s chest and Sonny gave me a smile before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.
I woke to Sonny’s loud gasp and the jolt of Declan waking up at the same time as me.
It happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to react. My brain wasn’t fast enough to wake up and the first I realised that I had released my tentacles in the night was when I felt the cool air hit them as Sonny threw back the blankets and looked down at his body which was long and lean and pale in the moonlight, wound around with my indigo tentacles curling up his thigh and over his chest.
I withdrew them as quickly as I could, pulling my octopus back inside me and squashing it down.
But it was too late. They had seen.
“What—?” asked Declan, still blinking awake, confused.
If it had only been Declan, I might have managed to persuade him that he was dreaming, that there hadn’t been anything slithering over him.
Not Sonny, though. His eyes were clear and wide with shock. I could see at a glance there was no way I’d be able to pretend nothing had happened. He knew.
Before he could speak, I jumped out of the bed and rushed to the door. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I needed to get away. I really, really needed to get away, to sink down into cool water and the silence to think and hide.
“Wait!”
Sonny was up and coming after me. I heard his footsteps as I grabbed the doorhandle and yanked. The door opened but a body hit me from behind, propelling me forward with his body weight and the door slammed shut again.
“Wait, where are you going? You can’t leave!”
Sonny pulled away just far enough for me to turn round. Declan was still scrambling out of bed, shoving the blankets back so he could swing his legs round and reach for his crutch.
I met Sonny’s eyes. He still looked shocked. But not… not repulsed.
