Page 52 of Santa Has Tentacles

“Yes, please.” I’d already started thinking about that when one tentacle skimmed over a box of brownie mix and slowed down to go back to it. “Would you like us to bring that back and we can make it together?”

His kitchen was small but it was functional, and we couldn’t ask the human helper to find me dessert every time I stayed over.

“Yes. That is a good idea, my Colby.” His words said good but his tone and the way he’d started petting me said he was thinking about something.

So I just waited.

He was about as subtle as a sledgehammer, so I knew it wouldn’t take long.

It didn’t.

One box of brownies and two bags of chips later, he finally decided to get it out. “Humans have very strict social norms surrounding the transplantation of personal objects.”

He must’ve been nervous for the sentence to come out so interestingly.

“Yeah, we don’t just randomly leave our stuff at other people’s houses.” I was pretty sure that was what he meant, but I was glad when I got a very human nod. “So you’re wanting to make sure that I understand what signals I’m sending you when I bring over stuff like food from the pantry, the Christmas stuff, and some clothes?”

Not a surprise, considering he’d tried to poke at it several times already.

“Yes, my human.” Saint had read enough romance novels to pat me on the head, though. “You are not ready to discuss such topics. However—”

Ugh.

However.

“Thank you for understanding that.” Hmm. “I haven’t always made good decisions when something happens quickly.”

If I’d been a little, I’d have just shoved a binkie in my mouth and ignored everything else around me.

“I get excited and things just go wrong.” Very wrong. “But you don’t do that. I know you guys are trustworthy and honest about what you want. I read books.”

Books that were clearly a lot more accurate than I’d realized.

“I have seen your books, my Colby. You have read accurate books based on our domination-based relationships with humans.” Saint didn’t seem to think that was pushing my weird limits around our current conversation, but he also didn’t try to go any further. “Acknowledging that is acceptable.”

So we were done?

I waited to see what would happen next, but he seemed content and that was kind of unnerving if I was being honest.

But since he was honest, I probably had to be too.

“Are you going to write a book about us someday?” Ignoring that I was the one pushing my own limits, I focused on his happy sound.

“Me?” He seemed surprised by that but he didn’t let it distract him from whatever made him head out of the kitchen without a second thought. “I am not a writer of human relationship fiction.”

“I don’t know…” My teasing tone got another bubbly sound from him. “You have a good imagination and you like reading all those dirty books on relationship fiction. You’re even in monster groups.”

Dirty ones.

Were there boring ones?

Fuck. I’d given myself more questions to look up.

Chapter 16

Colby

I wasn’t going to ask if he needed help carrying anything…or if he thought I’d brought too much, but that was because he had more limbs than I did and nearly all of it had been his idea.

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