4. Chapter 4 #3
“Daren,” Lilo moaned—moaned with a gasp against Daren’s lips.
“S-sorry.” Daren paused his exploration. He was fully clothed after all, while Lilo was effectively naked all the time. It was uneven. Unfair. Impossible to know if Lilo even knew what this was doing to Daren.
And he still didn’t know what Lilo’s naughty bits looked like.
“Daren no sorry! Feelzzz nice,” Lilo said, panting as he pressed his forehead to Daren’s and kissed him again with a light nibble.
Nibble.
Nipple.
Even if Lilo’s species was mammal-like, they didn’t appear to have nipples.
Lilo didn’t, something Daren had tried to not put too much focus on once he realized it during their first few days together, but now he couldn’t stop wondering if Lilo’s suckers being fondled was similar to a human having their nipples played with.
“I’m glad,” Daren said, daring to return his hand to the inside of one of Lilo’s tentacles, purposely feathering his fingers across one sucker to another. Another.
Another.
Lilo moaned again, more nonverbally this time, and with a nuzzle against Daren’s cheek. He may have also been nuzzling the scarf again, but Daren didn’t mind.
“We are, um… very different.” Daren circled a finger around the edge of one of Lilo’s larger suckers, high up near what was basically his hips, or maybe more accurately, between his non-existent legs.
Lilo’s tentacles flailed around them, the ones still wrapped around Daren gyrating again and further rubbing between Daren’s thighs. Whatever Lilo had hidden between his tentacles might be a mystery, but there was no denying what was clamoring for attention in Daren’s pants.
Lilo must have felt it this time, because he lifted with that curious tilt of his head, looking down the length of Daren’s body.
He couldn't have seen much of human anatomy before.
Even on the warmest days, when it was pleasant enough temperatures to swim, people didn't skinny dip in this water, and it would have been dangerous for Lilo to get close enough to spy on anyone.
Daren was the first person he had ever been this close to, certainly while straining with arousal.
“Shit, uh…”
“Very different,” Lilo repeated, head tilting further as he scrutinized the growing bulge and began to reach for it.
“Maybe we should slow down.”
Lilo’s eyes snapped to his. It was panic speaking and so much uncertainty on Daren’s part, but a pout couldn’t begin to describe Lilo’s look of disappointment. “Slow? Daren mean stop? Then… Daren not show Lilo?”
Fuck. It was such an earnest, innocent question.
Well, maybe not innocent. But how could they possibly go beyond this?
Everything about Lilo felt so strangely alluring, but there wasn’t a manual for interspecies relations that Daren could bone up on, much as that would have been helpful about now.
“Part of me would really like to, Lilo, but, um… I’m not sure I can.
Not outside!” Which was an honest enough answer if not the entire truth.
“Outside?” Lilo questioned.
“Out here.” Daren gestured around them. “You make me feel warmer, but it’s cold under the sky like this. I need the layers I wear. I need the warmth, or I could get sick.”
While the disappointment remained in Lilo’s expression, he slowly unwound his tentacles from Daren’s body. “Lilo understand.”
The regret that flooded Daren was excruciating. He wasn’t lying, his concerns were entirely valid, the spoken and unspoken ones, but the moment those tentacles were no longer around him, he wanted them back. “Lilo—”
Shadow covered them and both looked up toward the cliffside, where the sun was already dipping below it. Where had the day gone? It was so easy to get lost in Lilo. In his company and his kisses and his touch.
When Lilo looked back down at Daren, sudden excitement banished his displeasure like an epiphany. “Try again? Tomorrow?”
“Wh-what?” Daren sputtered. “Tomorrow? How? What would be different?”
Lilo’s tentacles returned around Daren, not quite as winding, more like a nest of soft squishy pillows hugging the perimeter of Daren’s body. “Lilo know how. Lilo show. When more time. Tomorrow. Today… Daren stay longer? A little longer?”
Usually, once the sun dipped low like that, Daren started to head back, but he technically could stay out closer to dark.
The weather was mild despite the cold, he had lights on the boat, and once he crested back out from behind the estuary, there were plenty of lights on shore to lead him home.
“Sure, Lilo. I can stay longer.” He settled into the bed Lilo had made for him.
He didn’t really feel that cold, but getting naked out here, at least before summertime, would legitimately be insane.
He still might be a little insane if he was willing to see what Lilo had planned for tomorrow.
For the time being, Lilo seemed satisfied, however curious about the now dwindling presence in Daren’s pants. Daren was satisfied too, lying with Lilo under the sinking sun, and wondering just what tomorrow might bring.