“As long as you promise to supervise,” Kekoa replied. “I haven’t had the best of luck keeping microwaves and other appliances alive.”
Nyx chuckled at that and finally managed to sit up enough to brush his sandy hair out of his eyes. “You’re not the only one, though so far, I haven’t fucked up the Ninja.”
“Shocked you’re not banned from the kitchen entirely,” they said, sliding their other arm around me to tug me higher up their body.
“Oh, I probably would be if the table wasn’t in it.”
“In all fairness, we only got the damned thing because someone pointed out that we were probably too old to be eating on TV trays. I have never felt so shamed in my life,” I complained, hoping to garner some sympathy from my mate since it was clear they weren’t turned on and needy anymore.
“How, um, how old are you guys anyway?” they asked.
So much for sympathy.
“Walked right into that, didn’t you, Lani?” Nyx said. “Always leaping without weighing the consequences, but now you’re going to have to own up to it.”
“You’re a year older than I am,” I remarked.
“Technicalities.”
The whole time we were going back and forth, Kekoa lay beneath me giggling.
“Thirty-seven,” I grumbled, since Nyx wasn’t any help.
“Which makes him thirty-eight,” Kekoa replied. “Almost old enough for grandpa jokes.”
“Seriously?” Nyx said. “You’re gonna go there?”
“I mean, where else did you expect me to go after a lead-in like that? I thought you were gonna say almost fifty or something, at which point I was going to tell you that you were fuckin’ hot for senior citizens and that island living truly must agree with you. That or all the salt was doing a hell of a job keeping you preserved.”
I don’t know who started laughing first, but the sound of ours together was as wild and rolling as the ocean waves lapping against the shore beside us. I was going to love listening to us fill our home with more for as long as the fates allowed.
“Fine, fine, we’re not dinosaurs, but something tells me we’re considerably older than you,” Nyx said as he flopped in the sand beside Kekoa and splayed his hand across Kekoa’s abs.
I tangled my fingers with his as I scooted off our mate to lie on the other side of them.
“Depends on what you consider considerably,” Kekoa said.
“More than ten years,” Nyx said.
“There would be some truth to that.”
“How much truth?” I asked.
“Ten plus two,” they replied.
“That’s a lot of truth,” Nyx replied as I lay there digesting the fact that our mate was twenty-six years old.
“But not too much,” Kekoa said.
“No, not too much,” I replied.
“Good, I was beginning to worry that you wouldn’t be able to keep up with me.”
“Really?” Nyx said, our eyes meeting over our mate's body.
“I know there are two of you and all,” they teased. “And tag team action is hot as hell, but…”
We tackled them before they could continue, only to discover that our mate was ticklish as hell and as squirmy in their human form as they were in their jellyfish one. Somehow, they wiggled out from between us and floundered through thesand to reach the surf before they stumbled and landed on their ass in a foot of water, laughing as the tide tugged them off balance even further as it rolled out. They wound up on their back with their feet in the air, floundering, the furthest thing from graceful, unlike when they were in their jellyfish form. Though there had been a moment when they’d been swirled around in the current and washed against a rock, where his tentacles had been flailing, much as their arms were now as they struggled to right themselves.
