Page 16 of Santa Has Tentacles

“We…” Swallowing as his limb teased right below my bulge like he knew just how close he could get without actually touching it, I had to try again to get words out. “A lot of humans have very vivid imaginations. In…in this case, my brain started to flash through ideas about what you might do.”

It’d flashed through a lot of images…mostly based on stuff I’d seen and read about.

With him right in front of me, touching me and watching me, it was a lot easier to put myself in situations I’d only seen before.

“You did not indicate a fear response at the idea of being punished.” He pulsed the tentacle that was wrapped around mythigh and it sent a shiver through me. “You were…I think the human response was curiosity.”

His ability to read me was going to be both wonderful and frustrating.

“I…I heard that you could pick up on more of our reactions than other humans could. Like heart rate and stuff. I didn’t realize…I didn’t realize how much information that could give you.” I really should’ve thought about that in more detail, though.

The books I’d been reading clearly hadn’t exaggerated as much as I’d assumed they had.

Fuck.

Nano had known I thought he was cute at the very least.

As I tried to decide if I owed him an apology or if I got to just ignore it like he had, Saint slowly nodded his head and responded to my rambling.

“There is variety in human reactions based on past trauma and arousal responses. However, I will quickly adapt to your signals.” He seemed so confident, it didn’t occur to me to doubt him. “Was my understanding of your reactions accurate?”

Ugh.

Lying would really fuck things up in the long run.

I was smart enough to see that right off the bat but I was still sub enough that I didn’t like tattling on myself. But pleasing the alien who was going to spank me pushed me into the honest side of things fairly quickly. “Yes, Sir.”

Before I could decide how honest I was supposed to be when he asked a question, he went still and shook his head. “Our waiter approaches.”

With our drinks.

He looked at us slightly suspiciously and I realized our going silent so quickly was a big tell that we’d been discussing something not safe for work…or a restaurant. “Not even long enough for me to bring your drinks?”

Saint shrugged. “Humans are interesting and require many questions.”

We were fun and he was nosy.

Got it.

Rolling his eyes, our waiter seemed to understand that translation as well. “There’s no way you’ve looked at your menus yet, so I’m going to give you a few more minutes. But human social conventions in restaurants have a rule where you have to tip better if you take up more time than average at my table. Nothing outrageous but you need privacy and I need to make a living.”

Looking at both of us as I tried not to laugh, he frowned. “Limbs stay outside clothes. We’ve got a table of cops and I don’t need to worry about you two getting an indecent exposure charge.”

He’d definitely seen a lot of them date humans.

“I will remember the human social customs.” Saint nodded but gave him a firm stare like the sexy Dom he was. “I will also remember the human social custom of polite service.”

I’d have felt embarrassed but our server laughed as he walked off.

“I’ve only been here at lunch. It’s a totally different experience at dinner.” It was fun. “I take it you guys have had classes about restaurants?”

“I have attended several lectures of varying intensity.” Saint’s limb went back to its slow pulsing. “I have been told that originally the lecture was one part. Even humans with a firm grasp of social customs did not realize how complicated service could be.”

Some waiters were definitely more interesting than others.

“I’m glad someone finally realized there were layers of how restaurant service and that kind of stuff could work.” I wasn’t sure I’d have thought to prepare them for someone like our waiter. “We probably have discussions and give examples based on the best service or just the average type.”

But they weren’t the average customer so that might have something to do with it too.

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