Page 5 of Lover from the Waves

Kathryn smiled. “No, not at all. I was just reminiscing.” She turned her head toward the others, seeking out her daughters and grandchildren amongst the crowd.

Austin and Ben were playing tag with a group of children around the place where the relay had begun, and little Megan was sitting at one of the tables with her mother and father, Charlotte and Taylor. Allison was standing with a group of women from town, chatting near the leftover food. Kathryn wasn’t sure where the other two little ones, Emma and Logan, had run off to, but she knew they were just like the others—laughing, smiling, enjoying themselves.

Once again, that insistent sense of loss and displacement struck Kathryn. She felt like she was watching her family move on from the outside. Her smile wavered. “They grow so fast, don’t they?”

Ector hummed. “They do. Hard to believe how small they all were, though sometimes it seems like no time has passed at all. At least in my head. My bones certainly feel those years.”

She chuckled, turning back toward Ector. “Mine too. If not for those aches—and what I see when I look in the mirror—I’d still believe I was in my twenties.”

His answering smile was warm and disarming despite the flash of sharp teeth it offered her. “You are beautiful, Kathryn.”

“Oh.” Heat flooded her cheeks, and she glanced away, bringing a hand up to cover the side of her face. No one—noman—had complimented her like that in a long time. “That’s kind of you to say. Thank you.”

At the bottom edge of her vision, one of his tentacles slid toward Kathryn over the sand. Her heart fluttered. How could she go so suddenly from feeling every one of her fifty years to feeling like a giddy teenager again?

Before he made contact, he withdrew the tentacle. Kathryn couldn’t hold back a pang of disappointment at that—not that she understood her disappointment, or the desire thrumming through her body.

Whatiswrong with me?

Had she gone so long without an intimate touch that she now craved the tiniest caress from Ector’stentacle? They’d only spoken with one another perhaps half a dozen times in a couple years, and it had never been anything more than innocent small talk.

“I know the customs of our respective peoples are different,” Ector said, easing a little closer, “and that humans tend to take a somewhat subtler approach, but… I have lived long enough to have lost some patience for subtlety. I find my eyes drawn to you more and more often as of late, Kathryn, and I would like to know you better.”

Kathryn’s eyes widened and again locked with his as a huff of laughter escaped her. This was…unexpected. She hadn’t been in a relationship with anyone since her husband’s death all those years ago. At first, the pain of loss had kept her from seeking companionship, but even when that ache had eased, she’d been so focused on her children and her work. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had opportunities over the years, it was just…she’d never felt the spark. And as the years passed, Kathryn had set aside any thoughts of finding a new relationship. She’d had her routine, her work, her daughters who needed her…

But she didn’t have to worry about the girls anymore, did she? They had husbands and families of their own, while Kathryn went home to an empty house every evening.

It’d been so long since she’d been intimate with anyone, she wasn’t sure how to even go about it anymore. Colin had been the only man she’d ever been with, and he’d passed away eighteen years ago.

Keeping the corners of her mouth tilted upward, Kathryn shook her head. “You really aren’t subtle, are you?” She reached out and placed her hand on Ector’s striped shoulder, meaning to let him down gently, to tell him she wasn’t looking for a relationship, but the moment she touched him, something overcame her. She couldn’tstoptouching him. She slid her palm down to his chest, relishing in the feel of him. His skin was so different from a human’s. It was soft, like velvet, but everything beneath it was solid muscle. Enticing heat radiated from him.

Ector’s smile stretched a little wider. “I am normally, but today… I wanted to try something different.”

“Something…different?” she absently asked as she stared at her hand, which had dipped a little farther down his chest so her fingertips could trail over his abs. Something within her warmed, and her breath shallowed.

So many muscles…

This time, his skin definitely changed, going from drab green to a deep maroon right before her eyes. One of his tentacles brushed the top of her bare foot and curled loosely around her ankle. His suction cups pressed against her flesh like small lips, offering gentle, soothing kisses.

“Am I appealing to you, Kathryn?” he asked in a rough whisper.

It was only then, hearing those husky words, that Kat realized what she was doing.

I’m feeling up a kraken! In public!

She yanked her hand away and snapped her gaze back up to his. Heat flooded her face. “I’m so sorry! I…I don’t know what came over me.”

“No need to apologize.” He extended his arm, hooked a strand of her hair with one of his claws, and lifted it slightly, rubbing it between his fingers. “This has intrigued me since the first time I saw you. So lovely.”

Kathryn’s breath hitched, and her sex clenched, flooding with liquid heat, but she did not pull away.

Oh, fuck me.

The new color on Ector’s skin only darkened. “Now who is not being subtle?”

Kat’s brows angled down in confusion.

What is he talking abo—

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