Page 23 of Santa Has Tentacles

The only other furniture was a large bookshelf that took up one wall and was filled with books. There also seemed to be several different types of e-readers. “Your home is great but you’ve got so many books. That’s impressive.”

Oh, he loved that.

Puffing up his chest as he set me down, Saint looked very pleased with the praise. “Our species has not had informationdocumented on dead plant life in a century. It is a wonderful experience.”

So he liked antiques too?

The smell of books?

He seemed kind of tactile, so maybe it was a touch thing.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying them.” And it gave me an idea about what to get him for Christmas. With a week to go, I hadn’t planned on buying for a boyfriend or partner…or whatever we were heading toward being.

“Can I look at your books?” If I was staying the night and he seemed like he was going to keep me, I was pretty sure that meant I could be nosy.

“Yes, my Colby.” His voice was soft and one of his smaller tentacles ran over my head. “You may study any part of my home.”

Yep, he was going to keep me.

Maybe that hadn’t been just a rumor…dirty books weren’t supposed to be instruction manuals.

“My space will always be open to my mate.”

I really should’ve paid more attention to the rumors running around online…and I was going to double-check to see if I’d been reading fiction or had somehow wandered into the nonfiction section.

“Thank you.” Keeping my response simple seemed like the best way not to have to talk about the way he kept using that word.

Watching me wander over to the shelf made him just as happy as cuddling me, though. And I had to admit, seeing him so excited made me excited…just in a very different way.

I was hoping that would go unnoticed as I browsed through his history books and everything from aMurder, She Wrotebook to erotic romance novels.

Oh, I’d read that one.

“Do books arouse you? I have heard of humans becoming aroused by inanimate objects but I have not seen the phenomenon in person.” Saint walked into view with a curious look on his face and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he was thinking.

“No.” That’d be hard to explain if I was, though. “I was aroused because I’d made you happy.”

I wasn’t sure that sounded any better, honestly.

“You were very happy and I like making you happy.” That part made perfect sense to me. “That feeling somehow gets translated into arousal, though. Maybe because you already arouse me and I like you? It’s definitely a sub thing and not just randomly attaching to everyone that’s happy around me, though.”

I didn’t get aroused when I made my boss happy, but he was kind of a dick.

“Human submission is highly varied. I have been told, however, that it is not always connected to sexual pleasure.” He didn’t question that, which I thought was kind of odd, but it didn’t seem like the time to ask questions.

It was definitely one I was going to look up online, though.

“I will be doing my best to connect submission and sexual pleasure in our mating bond, my Colby.” His tone said he’d already made that decision and talking him out of it would be a pain in the butt. “Human relationships progress more quickly and you bond more strongly when pleasure is involved.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong about that.

“As a species, you respond well to positive reinforcement.” He was confident about that too. “So I will be doing extensive reinforcement to attach you to me physically.”

That would’ve been less funny if he hadn’t picked me up and wrapped me in his limbs again. The literal way he attached me to him had me trying not to laugh.

“Humans are fascinating.” His tone said he honestly believed that, so I couldn’t be offended.

“You’re cute and I thought it was funny that you talked about attaching me to you physically as you picked me up.” Curling into him, since I kind of wanted to reinforce his holding and cuddling, I shrugged. “The way the words matched what you said but didn’t match is funny.”

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