Chapter Fourteen
Max led the way throughthe public areas of the ship and into the more decorated inner sanctum. “Are you ever going to invite the kids into this part of the ship?” Max asked.
“When offspring no annoy,” Rick said loudly.
Given James’s ability to drive his father up a wall that might take a while. Even Xander tended to pester Rick when he wanted something. Max might have been able to talk Rick around when it came to Kohei, but that would make the other two resent their brother, and Max wouldn’t do that. He wanted the kids to like each other.
They approached their private quarters, and Max stretched. “I am so tired.” Dealing with Carrington stressed him out.
“Query. Max avoid tangling tentacles from tiredness?”
Max stopped and caught the closest tentacles so he could pull Rick closer. “I am not too tired for tentacles. I am never too tired for your tentacles.”
Rick shimmied.
“I am too tired to deal with Carrington,” Max added.
Rick’s tentacles curled up tight. Max sighed. He should have known better than to bring up Carrington or the con in general. Rick was not on board with demanding fairness from the universe. He tugged Rick toward their bedroom. “I could be on the verge of passing out, and the promise of your tentacles would wake me up.” Max triggered the bedroom door. He backed into the room, pulling Rick along with him.
Rick curled his tentacles around Max’s arms, pushing at his clothing and caressing the newly exposed skin. It was arousing as hell, but then Rick could belch and Max found it hot. “Don’t rip my shirt.” Max went to pull his clothes off, and for a second, Rick held onto him, tentacles curling around him and holding him captive. Then with a blurble, Rick released Max.
“Clothing inconvenient,” he complained.
“I get cold far too easily to give up clothes,” Max said. Besides, the rest of the alien species preferred clothing, some of them had quite extravagant clothes. Running around naked when the rest of the universe was wearing clothing felt far too risqué for Max’s taste. Max was a little impressed that Rick was so unconcerned about what other people thought of his unclothed tentacles.
The door closed once Rick had all his limbs inside the room. While Max had his hands over his head to strip off his shirt, Rick slid closer. He ran his tentacles up Max’s bare chest and around the back of his neck. Other tentacles slid under Max’s pants so the waist band became tight with all the squirming tentacles pushing inside.
“Wait,” Max gasped, distracted by fingers questing down his crack. “Let me get the button.”
Rick brushed the tip of a tentacle across Max’s lips, those talented fingers along the underside of it teasing with feather-light touches.
“Fuck,” Max whispered. His fingers fumbled as he tried to open his pants.
“Fuck,” Rick echoed softly, and then the tentacle slipped inside Max’s mouth.
Max gasped, and then Rick rubbed his collarbone before more tentacles wrapped around Max, undulating and twitching as Rick pushed him back toward the bed. Max found that sucking on the tentacle, unfastening his pants and walking backward was a combination he hadn’t mastered.
He lost his balance and stumbled. Rick tightened all his tentacles so that Max was caught, supported by about a dozen tentacles at once. Rick was strong, but he rarely showed that strength. But he had no trouble lifting Max to the bed.
Max shoved his pants over his ass before Rick could do his rip-and-tear routine. He had a thing against clothing. Rick took the opportunity to shove the pants to the floor, and then Max’s underwear followed, leaving soft, cool tentacles pressed against Max’s hot skin.
Knowing what Rick wanted, Max curled his arm around the closest tentacle before tickling the spot where the underside met Rick’s body. That made all Rick’s finger tentacles wiggle in pleasure. Yep, Max knew his octopus. He grinned as the tentacles around him shivered and undulated.
Rick curled a tentacle around Max’s thigh, pulling his legs apart so Max’s hole was obscenely exposed. “You are a naughty octopus,” Max said.
“Max like naughty.” Rick had a two-toned belch.
He wasn’t wrong. Rick pressed against Max’s hole, and Max moaned. A hundred touches all demanded his attention at once. Max breathed harder as his skin grew more and more sensitive. Fingers danced over his shoulders and his nipples and the backs of his knees, and Max’s brain couldn’t keep up with the way his whole body hungered for more.
That called for a counterattack. Max pulled on a tentacle, exposing the “underarm” area, which was a prime tickle target. Max ran his fingertips over the sensitive skin, and Rick shivered. However, a questing tentacle ran across Max’s pebbled nipple, the fingers teasing and tugging at it as the tentacle curled around.
