Page 8 of Not So Stranded
I wanted to run my fingers through his hair, wake him up with kisses, but I resisted everything my instincts said to do. He wouldn’t understand and might even be frightened. And though I knew Michael had been afraid of Serion in the beginning before eventually accepting their connection, I was worried about moving too fast with Kit.
Michael had been the only survivor of a boat fire that had set him adrift at sea for nearly two weeks. Serion had sustained him with elixir, but a heightened sexual drive was a side effect in humans who consumed our elixir. Serion had tried for consent, but Michael had been too far gone on instinct to really give thatproperly. Once the effects of the elixir had worn off, they’d both been upset and apologetic about their behavior toward the other. They were deeply in love now, but my siblings and I could all recall their troubled beginnings.
I realized I’d been combing Kit’s hair back from his forehead when he pushed into my hand and sighed. My heart squeezed, that move making me think he longed for physical touch. Humans didn’t seem to get enough of that in their busy lives. I’d grown up cuddling with my siblings, cousins, parents, and friends. Even when everyone was naked! Humans thought that was weird at first, but they always ended up being the fiercest cuddlers.
Risking it, I leaned in and gently kissed Kit’s forehead. “Dream of us,” I whispered. “Not only will I do the wickedest things to every inch of your beautiful body, but I’ll hold you close and never let you go.”
I could’ve sworn Kit’s pretty mouth twitched with a grin for a second there. Maybe his subconscious mind heard me. I left him sleeping and returned to the ocean, hoping he would remember his dreams in the morning.
Chapter 4
Kit resolved to keep his distance from his intriguing neighbors. He didn’t want to study them like the turtles. Maybe the turtles didn’t appreciate him spying on them or counting their eggs as they dropped, but they couldn’t tell him to beat it. The last thing he wanted from Hiaka or Zenori was a dirty look or a yell to leave them alone.
That the two of them were splashing in the waves not fifty feet from Kit’s encampment when he woke up made his resolution a little harder to keep.
As did the dream he’d had about them last night.
Kit didn’t have a lot of dreams that he remembered, but that one was sticking around and then some. He was quite literally sitting there waiting for his erection to fade. And again, having Zenori and Hiaka playing in the water where he could see them had his deviant mind pretending he was in the water with them… Which really wasn’t helping.
Not that what they were doing in the waves was pornographic or anything like that. It was just that they were laughing and teasing each other like lovers did, and there he was sitting on the beach wishing.
His last relationship had been two years ago and lasted all of three months. He could see now that he and Riley had been trying too hard to make things work when they really just had some fun in bed from time to time. Kit had started to wonder if he was better off on his own, not relationship material, and should simply get some when he had an itch to scratch without sticking around after.
But there he was sitting on the beach and longing for someone he could goof around with, cuddle up, and laugh with. If he was wishing for a friends-to-lovers kind of relationship, then he couldn’t be a lost cause. Right? He just hadn’t found the right person yet.
Or maybe the right couple?
“Nope,” he mumbled to himself. “Don’t do that.”
He could think about things and make plans for his future dating efforts, but he was not going to sit there and pretend that he might join a couple of nonhumans. Like that would go anywhere at all. Wouldn’t be taking them home for the holidays! Sure, fine, it wasn’t like he did a lot of that anyway, but how did a human make a relationship work with a cecaelia?
Hiaka would know.
Kit growled at himself because he wasnotgoing to ask those questions and got up to find somewhere semi-discreet to pee. He hated to leave evidence of his presence on the island, but there were some things he couldn’t avoid. And he certainly wasn’t going into the ocean to do it while they were out there. At least he wasn’t dehydrated.
“Good morning, Kit!”
He gasped and flinched, hastily tucking himself away.
“Oh, sorry!”
Kit turned, embarrassment swamping him, and found Hiaka and Zenori standing on the beach. Their tentacles were covered in sand and about two feet of them were holding each cecaeliaupright. Their tentacles moved like legs to propel them forward rather than the slink and pull that octopus and squid used to get around on land. Pushing away his self-consciousness and forcing a smile, Kit went down the beach to join them.
“Good morning,” he said as he got close. “Lovely day, huh?”
“Quite,” Zenori answered.
“Isn’t it?” Hiaka beamed up at Kit. “It’s always prettiest after a storm.”
Right then, Kit’s stomach growled obscenely, like it wanted to eat him from the inside out. Putting a hand over his abs, he tried to laugh it away, but he really was starving. He’d tried fishing after leaving them yesterday, but he’d gone to bed hungry. He should’ve taken them up on their offer, but he’d thought he could do it himself.
“Sounds like breakfast time,” Hiaka teased with a big grin.
Kit forced a laugh only to have his stomach cramp as it growled again. He winced.
Hiaka came closer and took Kit’s hand. “Do you need help with food?”
Hating to admit it but needing their help, Kit nodded. “I tried fishing last night, but the line slipped right through my fingers and was gone before I could do anything about it.”
