Epilogue
“Easy, pup,” a man murmured, soothing the sea lion that was beginning to stir at his feet. “Trisha, you’re up.”
“Uncle Morgan, what—”
“Shh,” Morgan whispered from the boat where they were watching. “We have to be quiet if we want to be here for the tagging.”
Nicki nodded, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they watched the team of wildlife researchers insert subcutaneous tags into the thick layer of blubber at the back of the sea lions’ necks.
The animals were big enough that they had to be anaesthetized for the process, but they shook the effects off fast. Fast enough that these three big boys were already starting to rouse, in fact.
Once they were tagged, the researchers hopped into their own boat and pushed off the beach, joining them a dozen yards back. “Well, that was fun!” Trisha Reed said as she pulled alongside them. “I think it went well, don’t you?”
“Are they okay?” Nicki demanded.
“They’re going to wake up very soon and be perfectly fine,” she assured her. “But now we’ll be able to track their progress up and down the coast and get a better idea of where their territory is these days.”
“Because of Uncle Morgan’s trackers,” Nicki said proudly.
“A lot of people worked hard to make these,” he told her.
They were the latest evolution in biotracking tech, with a vastly improved lifespan, thanks to repurposing his NovaChem research on how to make components last longer while handling the rigors of being inside a person …
or animal, in this case. He’d partnered with this new enterprise two years ago, and these sea lions were part of their testing.
The researchers liked it because they got to use them for free and because it gave them access to Parrish Island for the first time.
And Ty liked it because now he’d have a far more specific idea of where the colony was, all the better to help him avoid them.
Morgan and Nicki said their goodbyes, then he began piloting them back around to the lighthouse dock.
The team would head straight back into town—no one other than his family and Ty stayed on the island.
Nicki chattered excitedly about what they’d seen and how she definitely wanted to be a marine biologist now even though just last week she’d been convinced she would become a professional skydiver because it “looks so cool.”
Morgan listened, humming confirmation from time to time but mostly keeping his attention on the water.
He’d been handling the boat successfully for four years now, but the memory of their crash stuck with him.
It had been bad enough when he’d been with Ty; he wasn’t about to take any risks with his niece in the boat.
They docked ten minutes later, and Nicki was out of the boat before he had a chance to offer to help, running up the path to where her mom was sunbathing on the porch.
Morgan smiled at the sight of her. This was the second time Katie and Nicki had come to visit Parrish Island, and they were only one week into their two-week stay.
Morgan was thrilled to have them, and so was Ty, for that matter—he and Katie got alone with an ease that he hadn’t expected—but sharing the lighthouse for two whole weeks was going to be harder than he’d thought, given that he and Ty were bunking in the living room so the girls could have the bedroom.
Luckily, they were going to be staying in town tonight as a change of pace. Morgan loved them, but he was glad to get a little alone-time too. The lack of privacy was …
“Your cheeks are red.”
Morgan turned away from where he was tying up the boat with a grin. “Are they?”
“Mmm.” Ty walked the rest of the way down the short pier and leaned in so they were shoulder to shoulder.
“I was thinking about you,” Morgan confessed.
“Good thoughts?”
“The sort of thoughts that require us being alone for a while.”
Ty grinned. Morgan loved how easily the expression came to his face these days. “Maybe we can spend the night in my cabin.” It was mostly abandoned now since Ty had started living with him at the lighthouse over three years ago, but they kept it functional just in case.
Actually … “That could be fun.” And probably more comfortable than the couch. “Let’s see if the girls are ready to go, huh?”
“Mmm, maybe in five minutes? They’re talking to your mother right now.”
“Ah.” Yeah, better that Morgan avoided that. He and his mother were only just starting to talk again after their Christmas blowout four years earlier. She’d called him every name under the sun, hurled abuse after abuse at him for embarrassing her and “worrying me sick, you little bastard!”
Morgan hadn’t taken it lying down, though. Even Bentley had pulled back as word of the ensuing explosion got out.
Now Bentley was off living his best life in Miami after stepping down from his role with the hedge fund, and Morgan and his mom had gotten as far as emailing.
It was slow progress, but they were still moving forward.
That was all he could ask for. He had his new venture, one that didn’t require much hands-on time from him but that made him feel good for contributing.
He had his sister and niece, who loved Parrish Island and Ty.
And he had Ty, who held him tight every night and kissed him awake every morning, and occasionally, wrapped him up in tentacles like a Christmas present while he had his way with him.
Come to think of it … “Let’s hurry things along.”
A few busy hours later and they were alone at last in Ty’s old cabin.
Morgan looked around the front room and was momentarily overwhelmed with nostalgia.
This was the first place he’d gotten to know Ty.
It was hard to believe they’d come so far together, and yet he couldn’t imagine building a life with anyone else.
Ty wrapped his arms tightly around Morgan’s waist. “What are you thinking about?”
Morgan kissed Ty’s cheek and watched with delight as it bloomed pink. “How happy I am that I came to Parrish Island in the first place.”
Ty didn’t say anything in response, but he didn’t have to. His skin spoke for him, red and rippling, much freer than he let himself be where the girls could see. The hand around Morgan’s waist elongated for a moment, five tentacles gripping firmly.
Fuck, yes! Morgan’s cock hardened so quickly, he was almost dizzy from it.
God, he was so ready to see all of his lover.
A week shouldn’t have felt like a long time, but when they were used to spending every evening literally wrapped up in each other, the loss was stark.
“I, uh, I spent a while getting ready for you before we left.”
Ty smirked at him. It was an unfairly attractive expression on his face. “I know you did.” He held out a hand, and Morgan took it immediately, leaning in toward him like a flower toward the sun. Ty stood up and pulled him in close until there was barely an inch of space between them.
“I want to hold every part of you,” Ty whispered between cool, slick kisses. “I want to touch you everywhere. I want to be so deep inside you that you never stop feeling me.”
That sounded perfect. “Mmm, let’s do that.
” Ty cupped his face with both hands and kissed him, open-mouthed and seeking entrance.
Morgan let him in, trading languid kisses that quickly turned hot and eager.
He was sure he wasn’t imagining those fingers crawling well past where they would naturally stop on a regular person, through his hair and along his neck, but the sensation just made him groan.
They stumbled back to the bedroom and quickly shed their clothes.
Morgan pulled a bottle of small lube out of his jacket’s pocket—ha, he could have been a boy scout he was so prepared—and laid it down in easy grabbing distance for Ty before he let himself lie back.
Ty crouched between his legs, totally nude and finally unbothered by it.
His skin was shifting color rapidly, all shades of red and pink and orange bleeding into the white, and the skin of his hips and thighs was changing from smooth to something textured, a bit rougher.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” Morgan said hoarsely. “Touch me, please, just--ah!” Ty’s mouth was always cold at first but soon warmed up from the heat of Morgan’s skin and the steady motion of Ty’s tongue and lips, licking and sucking him even as his arms reached up to hold Morgan in place.
Morgan shivered as Ty’s arms suddenly split from two to four, losing their humanoid appearance as they wrapped steadily around his forearms and waist. It was dizzyingly strange to see and stranger to feel even though it wasn’t the first time, but he loved it.
Morgan watched as they split again, becoming thinner and more flexible but still strong enough to hold him in place, wrap around his shoulders and chest, up past his neck, and—
He moaned as one tentacle traced the outline of his mouth, then delicately slipped inside.
Morgan closed his eyes and gave into sensation, sucking on the tip of the tentacle as more wrapped around his legs, spreading his thighs apart and lifting his hips.
Ty was full-on fucking his own throat with Morgan’s cock now, a hungry click emanating from the back of his throat every time he took Morgan deep.
Morgan barely registered the sound of the lube opening, but there was no hiding or pulling back from the feeling of a hard, blunt tip smoothing over the furled skin of his hole.
Ty didn’t try to enter him yet, though, just petted and stroked with his slippery tip as Morgan gradually relaxed.
By the time the tentacle began to slide inside of him, Morgan was so wrapped up that he could barely move of his own accord, which was good.
Otherwise, he’d probably fuck himself down onto Ty so hard and fast that he came immediately, and he didn’t want to come yet.
He wanted this to last, wanted this sweet bondage to ground him as the tentacle pressed deeper inside his body in little waves, bunching and sliding until he felt so full he had to stop sucking and take a moment to breathe.
“Fuck,” Morgan whined—a full-on whine, there was no help for it.
He couldn’t have forced his voice into some semblance of normalcy if his life depended on it.
“Oh my God, oh fuck, you’re—fuck, you’re so deep.
” It felt like if he looked down right now, he’d see the imprint of Ty’s tentacle moving inside of him.
He sometimes wished he could. “Please … please, just—"
“I know,” Ty said, finally pulling back. His pupils were huge and dark, completely consuming the whites of his eyes. He’d never looked more other, human limbs vanished into more tentacles than any normal octopus would have.
Damn, he was perfect. Morgan wanted to tell Ty how gorgeous he was, but he could do right then was tremble in his lover’s grasp, fucked so full he could almost taste it.
The pressure on his prostate was a perfect torment, just enough to tantalize.
Even though Ty wasn’t putting more of the tentacle inside of him, he was still able to move it as though he was thrusting even deeper.
“You feel so good,” Ty murmured, bright red across his lips and cheeks. “Morgan …” He closed his beautiful eyes for a moment. “I need to fill you up.”
“Nnhh, yeah. Do it.” Morgan nodded eagerly, and then …
The feeling was like nothing he’d ever experienced before Ty.
This wasn’t a hard thrust and a brief sensation of warmth if he felt anything at all.
This was being stuffed with something, something round and bulging that just seemed to go on and on.
Fuck, now he was bulging, just a little, and Ty was panting, and all his tentacles were writhing where they were wrapped around Morgan’s body as he planted his seed deep inside of him.
One hard brush against Morgan’s prostate as Ty pressed in more and more was enough to tip Morgan over the edge.
He came with a gasp that turned quickly into a scream as one of Ty’s tentacles wrapped around his cock, giving him the perfect amount of pressure.
More tentacles stroked across his chest and throat, squirming with shared pleasure.
It was a sensory overload, every muscle tensing so hard he thought he might snap something as his high finally peaked.
Then he went lax, and Ty finished implanting him and pulled the last of his tentacle back, leaving Morgan a satisfied, fucked-out mess.
When Ty shifted back into his humanoid form and laid next to him on the bed, stroking one hand over his abdomen while he kissed the side of his neck, Morgan turned toward him and pulled him into an embrace.
“Worth the wait,” he murmured. “I love it, I love you so much.”
Ty smiled at him. “I love you too,” he said with simple honesty.
Morgan knew he did; he trusted Ty more than anyone in his life.
He closed his eyes and settled his head over Ty’s chest. He could hear his lover’s heartbeat, smell the ocean on his skin, taste his sweat.
There was no rush to clean up, no dash to move onto the next thing.
There was just the two of them, being together.
It didn’t get better than this.