Page 44 of Lover from the Waves

“It’s been eighteen years since anyone has seen me naked. Since I’ve been intimate,” she said, her eyes still downcast. “My body… It’s not what it once was.”

Ector reached forward and covered her hands with his. “Nor is mine. You were beautiful then, but you are at your most beautiful here and now, Kathryn.”

She tilted her head back and looked up at him, her features easing as the corners of her lips turned up.

He gently guided her hands aside, released them, and moved his fingers to the uppermost of her fastened buttons. Anticipation thrummed through him, and instinct demanded he simply tear her shirt apart. He resisted the urge despite the desperate need behind it. Slowly, carefully, and with some difficulty—the buttons were not made for big, claw-tipped fingers—he unfastened her shirt the rest of the way. The gap in the fabric revealed a strip of her pale flesh; he slipped his hands beneath the sides of her shirt and swept it open farther, brushing his palms over her belly and to her sides.

He felt every line, every silvery mark, and he took his time moving his fingers over them. Each was evidence of her life, a record just as profound as those they’d watched on the little recording device only minutes before. “You have lived. You have loved. Your body has created and carried life. There isonlybeauty to be found here, Kathryn.”

With two tentacles, he grasped her shirt and pulled it open, drawing it over her shoulders and down her arms to reveal her body to him in its entirety. Her skin glowed in the firelight, and her silver hair shone as it fluttered around her shoulders in the breeze. There was a small patch of darker hair between her legs. His eyes stopped on her chest, and his chest rumbled in appreciation. Her breasts were lush and full, tipped with dark pink nipples.

He smoothed his hands up her stomach until he had her breasts cradled in his palms; they were softer than he imagined. He brushed his thumbs over their hardened peaks, and Kathryn gasped softly as a tremor swept through her.

Ector dropped her shirt onto the ground and moved a pair of tentacles to her legs, settling their tips at her ankles. Slowly, he slid both tentacles up, coiling them around her legs as they moved, sampling the taste of her flesh with his suction cups.

“You are beautiful, Kathryn,” he said before dipping his head to cover one of her nipples with his mouth. He pulled the tempting little bud between his lips and sucked.

Kathryn gasped, and her hands flew to his head, but she didn’t push him away. Instead, she pulled him closer, pressing her chest toward him in offering as she moaned softly. Ector sucked a little harder. Only when her breath hitched did he draw away to switch to her other breast. He licked and sucked, unable to get enough of her taste.

“Ector,” she whispered.

As his tentacles reached her upper thighs, her taste changed. Her flavor became so sweet, so potent—even through his suction cups—that it startled Ector. He raised his head and slid his tentacles higher. Her inner thighs were slick with her oils. Anticipation made his breath catch in his throat as he grazed the tip of a tentacle along Kathryn’s slit, eliciting a whimper from her. He slipped the tip deeper into her folds. Her hips bucked as Ector’s grazed something small at the top of her sex, and a fresh gush of heat coated his flesh in her slick.

“I guess—ah”—she trembled, her lashes fluttering, when his suction cups pulsed against her—"you discovered what else can make me wet,” she said with a breathless laugh.

His mind darted back to a conversation from the first day of their trip; he hadn’t understood what she’d meant when she’d implied something other than the ocean could get her wet. Even then, days ago, she’d been teasing him, had beenwantinghim. That knowledge poured fresh heat into his blood and made his cock strain with want for her.

Withdrawing the tentacle, he lifted its tip to his mouth and slipped it between his lips. Her flavor flooded his mouth with almost overwhelming sweetness. He growled deeply and sucked every trace of her oils off the tentacle, but it wasn’t enough. He could never have enough.

He locked his gaze with hers. Her eyes were wide, and her lips were parted in surprise.

“I want to kiss you,” Ector said.

She nodded and tipped her face up toward him.

He released one of her breasts, cupped her sex with his hand, and carefully slipped his middle finger between her folds to stroke her slick flesh. “I want to kiss youhere, Kathryn.”

Her eyes widened again, and she pressed her hands to his shoulders to steady herself as her hips rocked against his palm. Heat emanated from her. “Oh! You want to… I’ve never…” Her cheeks turned a darker red.

Some of the younger male kraken—those with human mates—had spoken of using their mouths on their females’ slits, but Ector had never truly considered it before. It was simply one of those strange things to which he’d had no connection; he’d seen nothing wrong with it, no reason to condemn it, but he’d been without a mate for so long that it hadn’t warranted a second thought.

But now that he’d had a taste…he was helpless but to seek more.

He slid his hand up along her sex slowly, careful of his claws, his fingers delving deeper into her wet slit, before he raised his hand to his mouth and ran his tongue over his palm to lick away her oils. He couldn’t prevent an appreciative hum from rumbling in his chest. “Then we will learn together, Kathryn.”

She stared at his mouth, eyes darkening sensually as she watched his tongue on his webbed fingers. “Yes. I want you to…kiss me, Ector. Whatever you want. I am yours.”

Those short, simple words—I am yours—struck him with more power than should’ve been possible, blasting directly to his core, where they awoke something primal. Even in the lustful haze that blanketed his mind in those moments, the weight of what she’d said was not lost on him. She’d spoken clearly and confidently.

His. Kathryn was his. His mate.

Nothing had ever felt soright, so important, so certain, in all his life. And he’d never been so possessive of anyone or anything as he was of her in that instant.

He slammed his mouth over hers, demanding everything through a kiss even as he wrapped his arms around her waist. When he lifted her off her feet, she didn’t resist; nor did she resist as he guided her legs up his sides with his tentacles still wrapped around them. He held the kiss all the way down as he laid her on the soft grass near the fire.

Only after nipping at her lip did he break the kiss and pull back, withdrawing his tentacles and moving his hands to her knees. He spread her thighs wider and shifted back, positioning himself between her parted legs, to stare down at her glistening sex. It bloomed like a flower, revealing its pink petals.

So beautiful.

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