Page 105 of The Long Game

Grady’s eyes met his. “Yeah?”

Jack smiled. “Yes. If you want to.”

“I want to know everything there is to know about you, Jack.”

And there Grady went, making Jack’s heart stutter again. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so alive.Wantingso much.

Grady’s broad palm and long fingers settled over the head of the octopus. “So smooth,” he murmured. “The ink is so detailed you expect to feel the textures.” His hand slid down the body until the tentacles branched off over Jack’s waist and under his belly button.

Grady traced the top of Jack’s briefs with one finger. “They match,” he observed.

Jack grimaced. “It’s probably vain but—”

“You’re the least vain person I know,” Grady stated. “And you have more cause to be than most.”

Jack stared at the wall, never sure what to say at moments like this.

“And it’s not vanity to want to showcase all this hard work,” Grady added.

“Well, you’re the only one who’s going to see it,” Jack said.

Grady seemed to like that, gifting Jack with a kiss while he hooked the tip of his finger in Jack’s briefs and gave them a playful tug. When Grady leaned back, a storm of butterflies launched in Jack’s stomach at his flirtatious smile.

He pulled his finger free and let the elastic snap back into place. “We’ll get to this,” he murmured, a wealth of promise in his voice.

Jack shivered.

Grady turned his attention to the tentacle that ran up Jack’s ribs and ended in a curl on his left pec.

“Over the heart,” Grady observed, his finger swirling over Jack’s skin as it followed the path of the ink all the way to its end.

Grady leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the tip, and Jack’s eyes fluttered closed. He’d never dared to dream this moment when he’d had that tentacle put just there. Grady liked him to talk. To say what he wanted and how he felt, but he didn’t have the words, the vocabulary, for how Grady made him feel.

Grady traced the two tentacles that wrapped around Jack’s left side, circling until he stood behind Jack. “My god,” he said, his voice reverent. “It’s stunning.”

The ends of several tentacles appeared to wrap Jack in their embrace. Of the two Grady had followed, one ran up his ribs under his arm and ended on his shoulder blade, and the other slithered over his hip to coil on his ass. The artist had made the long arcs and swirls work with and complement the natural curves and angles of Jack’s body.

Grady’s fingers followed the higher tentacle to the end and pressed a kiss to Jack’s shoulder blade. Then he stroked over Jack’s hip, hesitating where the ink disappeared beneath the briefs.

“You can look,” Jack said, proud when his voice didn’t shake.

Grady hooked a finger in the waistband and drew it down, slowly, while his other hand traced the coiled tentacle. He tucked the elastic beneath Jack’s cheeks, his cock the only thing holding them up in front. A constant, gentle tug on his erection.

When Grady pressed a kiss to the tip of the tentacle centered on his ass, Jack shuddered and clutched the footboard of his bed for support.

“Gorgeous,” Grady murmured, his lips and nose nuzzling Jack’s cheek. Grady stood and walked around Jack, dragging his hand over Jack’s hip and skimming his fingertips along the smooth blue skin above his cock. “Is this why you shave?”

“I don’t have a lot of body hair, but yes.” Jack shrugged. “It would hide the ink.” Also, he liked how it felt, so silky smooth and hairless.

Grady nodded, distracted by the tentacles descending into Jack’s briefs on either side of his cock. Warm fingers strayed achingly close before sliding away to the three tentacles that disappeared over Jack’s right hip and ribs.

Grady followed the top tentacle around and kissed just beneath Jack’s shoulder blade where it ended. Then he dropped to his knees to examine with touches and kisses the one that ran over Jack’s hip, undulated low across his back, and ended just before it would wrap around front again.

The kisses along the tentacle that brushed the top of his ass and on his side tickled, making Jack shiver and squirm.

Grady hummed, giving all his attention to the tentacle that slithered over Jack’s hip and coiled down the side of his leg. Only this time Grady traced it with his lips and tongue, using his hands to steady Jack. God knew Jack needed the help.

Grady worshipped the ink, shifting the taut band of Jack’s briefs to reach every inch before trailing down his leg and leaving one last, long kiss just above Jack’s knee.

---