Ciaran immediately regretted asking because of how Fray flinched.
“Nope. Not that he’d let me know anyway.”
“Fray, I’m sorry,” Ciaran whispered.
He tried to smile. “S’okay.”
It clearly fucking wasn’t.
“Hey, Sawyer,” Hendrix called, still not looking up from his tattoo work on Otis’s back. “Want some ink?”
Sawyer’s smile became a slow grin, then he shot Ciaran a quick glance. “Hey, so random question, probably stupid, likely inappropriate....”
Ciaran snorted. “Okay.”
“Do you have... ink? Like how far does the whole octo-likeness go? Because I would absolutely get your ink tattooed into my skin.”
Ciaran slow-blinked, because Jesus Christ. Every set of eyes in the room were on them. Even Hendrix stopped tattooing and looked up.
Ciaran felt himself blushing. “Uh....”
And of course it was Fray who laughed first. “You kinky fuckers. You wanna know what other kinky shit they do?”
Ciaran pointed his finger at him. “One more word about that, and I will fucking burn you so bad, you’ll wished you were never hatched.”
Everyone laughed, Sawyer included. He wasn’t even embarrassed, just really happy, so Ciaran couldn’t even be mad. “So uh, yes,” he mumbled. “There could be ink.”
Sawyer turned to Hendrix. “So that’s a yes. Book me in.”
Ciaran made a sound that was far too purry for the company they were in, but he didn’t even care. Fuck yes, having his own ink tattooed into Sawyer had never even crossed his mind, but now... now he wanted it so fucking bad.
Fraser gave him a hard shove. “Fuck, will you stop that. You’re killing me here.”
It didn’t help that Sawyer was leaning into Ciaran, his hand in Ciaran’s back pocket. Ciaran was too happy to care.
He hadn’t expected to feel so much just by simply watching Sawyer talk with Kellan and laugh with Otis and Hendrix. He felt... complete. Fulfilled, if that was even a thing.
Just so fucking happy.
He’d wanted to stay in and spend hours and hours exploring and mapping Sawyer’s body. But now he was so glad he’d not missed this.
The familiar sound of Tobin’s boat coming back into the Cove caught their attention, and Ciaran didn’t miss the way Fray’s eyes went to the window—how he tried not to look but couldn’tnotlook....
“Does he need us to help unload?” Dylan asked.
But as the boat pulled up, Tobin appeared, tossing the mooring rope over the pylon and tying it off in one easy go. Then someone appeared behind him...
Someone was on the boat with him.
He wasn’t alone.
He brought someone here? Into our sanctuary?
From the shadows, from what little light shone from Tobin’s place, they could see the person was small, petite, had long curly hair... and she was smiling. She was pretty.
They watched as Tobin held his hand out to help her off the boat. She stepped onto the dock, he opened the door to his place, and she went in.
“What the fuck?” Aurin whispered.
