Lasciviously gazing up and down at him, I reply, “Hard disagree.”
He titters and stares off in the distance, and I take one quick picture of him. When I track what he’s looking at, I notice a gaggle of kids at a distant playground.
My smile drops; now is as good a time as any to address the elephant in the room. “How’s Aisen?” I ask.
A flash of sadness passes over Reed’s face for a moment before he looks at me with a neutral gaze. “He’s good. Texted me a few times. There’s a lot of adjustment.”
“I can imagine. Living on a boat, joining the circus as a teen. Puberty is already rough.”
“Exactly. I only hope his parents treat him right.”
After putting down my camera, I munch on a chicken salad finger sandwich. “You don’t have to tell me, but…”
Reed sips on a water bottle, then says, “You want to know about Aisen’s parents.”
I nod, and he wipes his mouth with his wrist. “Not much to say. My brother and I grew distant after childhood. We were cold to each other, just like everyone in the Sung family. And that was before I became a kraken and he became a merman.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Eventually, he found a wife to dominate his life.” He laughs bitterly. “I sank my gay self into work. My folks moved back to Korea. Ryan and Shannon joined a monster circus. Life went on.”
“And Aisen moved in with you?”
“One day, Shannon dropped him off without much fanfare. I was the uncle who spoiled him, then the next day, I was his legal guardian.”
His facetious tone makes me frown. “Was the kid already a kraken shifter?”
“Yup.”
A nagging question leaves my lips before I can stop it. “You think that’s why they just let you have him? Because you’re the same monsters?”
Reed stares off at the park and eats a grape. “Don’t tell anyone this, but that’s one-hundred-percent the reason. They wanted a mermaid kid to join their circus, but didn’t know what to do with a kraken.”
“But now that he’s an octopus shifter…” I say, reading his mind.
“Yup. Octopi are apparently super revered in the circus world. Now he’s worthy to join their lifestyle,” he replies in a bitter tone.
He frowns, and I want to take away his pain. I crawl over to him on the picnic blanket and pull him in. My mouth is on his, and I kiss him slowly, knowing it won’t ramp up to sex out here in the open.
“You are every kind of worthy,” I murmur against his mouth.
He smiles and pulls me in for another kiss. That’s how we spend the rest of our date number five—kissing and taking photos of random animals fluttering about the park. Like all days with Reed, it’s a series of precious moments I catalogue in my heart.
The day before Thanksgiving is not particularly crowded at MM Institute. There are no school field trips, so there’s less foot traffic. I’m assigned the thrilling task of decorating the main entrance with Christmas décor. The ladder is sturdy, so it’s an easy assignment. In fact, it’s so boring and monotonous, I find my mind wandering as I tape up ornaments and silver tinsel to a far wall.
What should I get Reed for Christmas? The man has more money than he knows what to do with. My past exes only wanted sex as a present, but I want to give more than just my body. Besides, he gets my ass for free.
But I haven’t gotten all of him. He still won’t show me his kraken form. We’ve barely talked about it other than that one-time, mid-orgasm. I don’t know how to broach the topic.Hey man, you know what would be super cool? If you fucked me with your tentacles!
The very thought has my heart beating faster. Reed looked so strong, manhandling Andrew by the beach. Imagine if he did that to me, I’d be at that sea monster’s mercy.
Getting a boner while on a ladder at work would be inconvenient. Shaking my head, I try to focus on the tinsel in my hands, and not the fantasy of caressing Reed’s tentacles.
“Tinsel and tentacles,” I murmur to myself with a grin.
“Who are you talking to, Skyler?” The deep voice startles me so much I spin and nearly drop the box of decorations.
In reaching forward, I lose my balance and sway off the ladder. “Whoa!” Fear spikes for a second before I’m successfully caught by a giant shark.
