Chapter 7 Adam
SEVEN
ADAM
Here was Calder, once again accepting Adam exactly as he was, while Adam still wasn’t doing a very good job of the reverse.
“Could I see your tentacles?” he blurted out. “Are they called tentacles?”
Calder pulled back to look at him. “Are you certain?”
Adam nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry I reacted so badly.” His eyes went wide. “And I didn’t even thank you for saving me! Goddess, thank you!”
He flung himself at Calder, bashing his nose into Calder’s chin, but this just made Calder laugh and wrap his arms around Adam.
“You’re a thousand times welcome.”
Adam had thought he’d trained himself to pay careful attention when crossing the street, but apparently not always.
Pulling back, Calder said, “A squid has eight arms and two tentacles. The tentacles are longer. In this form, that translates to four squid arms, two tentacles, two human arms, and two legs. For the sake of expediency, you’re welcome to call all my squid appendages tentacles.”
“I guess you can’t turn into your full squid form here?”
Calder glanced at the living room. “Definitely not.”
Right. Because there was no water here. Adam was an idiot.
“But you could show me your partial shift?” Adam made sure to keep his voice as open and eager as possible.
He was a little uneasy, though he wasn’t even sure about what. But this was a part of his boyfriend, and he wanted to accept it the same way Calder accepted him.
“With or without my shirt?” Calder asked.
He looked a bit nervous, and Adam didn’t like that. He should never be nervous about showing Adam any part of himself.
“Without.” Adam winked. “I should really get the full effect, shouldn’t I?”
Calder grinned, and a moment later, he tugged his shirt off and dropped it onto the coffee table.
Adam tried not to drool. As had been evident from every shirt that Calder wore, he was built.
His shoulders, arms, pecs, and abs were clearly defined.
Adam wondered idly if he needed the greater muscle mass to support all his arms and tentacles—except that wasn’t how magic worked.
Calder scooted back a bit on the couch, putting some space between them, which Adam didn’t understand until, between one blink and the next, the arms and tentacles unfurled.
Adam still startled, despite the fact that he’d been expecting it.
It was… a lot. Shifters could come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but wolf and big cat shifters were some of the most common.
Sea creatures were very rare. And people just… usually didn’t have so many appendages.
But Calder held perfectly still to let Adam get used to the sight of him—and he’d already used these tentacles to save Adam’s life. Adam couldn’t even remember now if there’d been bystanders at the time of his near-accident. Thankfully, the World Spell must have been functioning.
The tentacles—arms—were about the width of a human arm—not quite as beefy as Calder’s very defined biceps, maybe more like Adam’s arms, and then tapering in size as they got down to the tips.
The two tentacles were longer. They were sucker-free except at the ends, where they widened in an ovoid shape that was covered in suckers.
Adam knew about octopuses and squid generally, but he definitely had a lot to learn.
“Can I touch them?”
“Of course.”
Adam reached out and ran a finger down the closest tentacles. It wriggled and wrapped around his arm.
“Er, sorry,” Calder said, looking faintly embarrassed. “They don’t exactly have a mind of their own, but they don’t not have a mind of their own.”
Adam stroked the soft skin. It was a little bit rubbery, but not like—Adam blanched.
Calder tried to pull the tentacle back, but Adam clamped his other hand down on it.
“I’ve eaten calamari!” he blurted.
Calder looked shocked for a moment, and then he laughed, a big, booming laugh that had Adam grinning even as he tried to battle his horror.
“Adam, sweetheart, I hate to break this to you, but most cephalopods are cannibals when the circumstances call for it. I’ve eaten calamari, too.”
Adam deflated. “You don’t mind? You’re sure?”
“Not at all,” Calder assured him, expression fond. “I hope that we’ll get to enjoy a lot more seafood together in the future.”
Adam went back to stroking the tentacle.
Several others nudged at his hands so that he’d stroke all of them.
He flipped one over and ran his fingers down the underside and across the suckers.
It was surprisingly soft. Calder shuddered.
Adam’s eyes snapped up to his face, ready to snatch his hand away.
Oh. Oh. With a grin, Adam stroked more deliberately.
“Feel good?” he asked innocently.
Calder shot him a look, but he didn’t seem all that upset. “So good. In my natural form, the suckers are ringed with chitin, the better to grapple my prey. In partial shift, I can control how they appear and how hard they, uh, suck.”
Adam snorted, which made Calder laugh softly.
Adam was just about to suggest they try something more fun when he yawned—dammit. He knew exactly how Calder was going to react to that.
Sure enough, he said, “I think it’s time for bed.”
Pouting—because that was attractive—Adam said, “Or now’s the chance for sexy times.”
Calder smiled softly at him. “There’ll be plenty of time for that. I’d prefer that you be awake for everything we do together.”
Adam huffed a breath, because it wasn’t like he could argue with that. With ill grace, he said, “Fine.”
With effortless ease, Calder climbed to his feet—and his tentacles carried Adam with him, setting him on his feet. Adam actually had to snap his jaw shut.
“Did you just—did they just…? Wow.”
Calder grinned, his tentacles squeezing and releasing rhythmically around Adam’s arms and legs before they let him go.
It had never occurred to Adam to wonder if he might have a thing for tentacles, but apparently, it was time to investigate that. He tripped on the way to the bedroom, but the tentacles steadied him almost before he realized he’d stumbled.
They petted him, and then one of them gave him a little smack on the bottom, and Adam couldn’t help but laugh.
He brushed his teeth and pulled on his PJs on automatic, then crawled into bed.
He could already feel sleep luring him in, but Calder was standing at the side of the bed not getting in.
Adam was confused for a moment, and then he saw all those tentacles.
“C’mere,” he murmured. “You look like you give good hugs.”
Calder drew in an audible breath, and then he was under the covers with Adam, various limbs wrapping around him.
A small part of Adam had wondered if he might find it uncomfortable, but no, the secure bands around him assured him that Calder wasn’t about to leave him, and it was easier than ever to fall asleep.
Valentine’s Day was its usual non-stop chaos, fulfilling the many, many orders that had already been placed, the many, many drop-ins—and the variety of orders that hadn’t been placed but the customer could have sworn they’d made.
The ovens were on non-stop, Simon, Evie, and Maggie had helped with the unbreakable charms because there was just too much chaos and not enough time for Adam to be as careful as he should, and Adam was streaked in flour, icing sugar, and icing in a variety of shades of pink—some of which he’d gotten on his coworkers, too.
He wasn’t even the only one who’d dropped some of the baked goods, that’s how busy they were.
But it was all worth it for the moment when Calder showed up with his lunch, insisted against Adam’s protests that he take at least five minutes to eat it, and drew him outside long enough that he could murmur, “This brings back memories,” and kiss him senseless.
Adam had zero objections. None. Nada. He could kiss Calder forever, and he didn’t even mind the pink icing.
In the early afternoon, Simon had to help Joseph invent a girlfriend so that he would stop getting quite so delayed making his deliveries. Liv, the fabulous goth girl Maggie had recently hired to drive the second van part time, didn’t have nearly as many problems.
Joseph wanted to know why they left her alone. “Aren’t you single?”
Her dark lips flashed in a smile. “I just tell them about the last revenge ritual I performed on my ex.”
Yeah, that wasn’t going to work for Joseph. Liv was actually a black cat shifter and couldn’t perform any spells—but that was obviously not the point. Joseph gazed at her with hearts in his eyes. Adam didn’t see them as a natural match—but what did he know?
By the end of the evening—they stayed open extra late for all the last-minute idiots who suddenly remembered they should take something home to their loved one in a vain attempt to show they cared—even Simon was grouchy and ready to be done.
“They get more rabid every year,” he grumbled. “You swear you don’t put anything addictive in the cake and cookies?”
Adam laughed. “Butter, sugar, and chocolate.”
Simon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Maggie, we all need a raise!”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she told him, voice a little scratchy with fatigue. She’d been up front or on the phone all day.
Simon hugged her. “Hey, you know we’re all happy to help.”
“It’s the single most successful day of the year,” Maggie said with a smile, looking both proud and extremely tired. “And I couldn’t do it without all of you.”
Adam was proud, too—but he was also exhausted.
Calder had shown up to walk him home, greeting everyone and praising them for all their efforts, wishing them a happy Valentine’s Day, and then whisking Adam away. And despite the fact that Adam was exhausted to his very bones and was pretty sure he had icing in his hair, he’d never been happier.
At home, Calder got some water into him and tucked him into bed. There were no surprise chocolates, no baked goods, not even any flowers. Calder was the same awesome guy he was every day, and he didn’t try to demand that Adam do anything extraordinary on a day that had drained him to the max.