Chapter Nine
Spiro
Panic.
Kaos was dying in front of me.
He gasped in a lungful of air, then coughed, looking at me with teary eyes and an apologetic smile.
“Fuck fuck fuck, I’m so sorry, Kaos! Are you okay? Is it over?” My hands shook as I clutched him by the shoulders with such uncertainty, as if he were about to spill through my fingers like sand.
“I’m sorry. And thanks for saving my life.” Kaos’s cheeks were slowly losing their bright red tinge and going back to a healthy flush.
“After I almost killed you.” My words came out in a whisper. The reality of what might have happened hit me hard, and a woozy feeling fogged my head.
He offered me a sheepish smile. “But you didn’t. This happens sometimes if I don’t read the ingredients properly or a server lies to me to get me out of their hair. It’s no big deal.”
I levelled a stern gaze at him. “Like hell it isn’t. I need a written list of what you’re allergic to.”
“I’m sorry. I got distracted, I wasn’t thinking. Fuck. I should have given you one. But now, I don’t want to ruin your time here. I should just leave—”
I pulled him into a hug and felt him trembling. With gentle movements, I stroked his back till I felt his breathing calm down..
“You’ve given me a near triple-heart attack, but you’re not ruining anything.” I pulled away so I could meet his gaze. “My plan was to do some experimental cooking. I wasn’t expecting to have anyone to eat it.”
“I can be your tester.” He grinned like he hadn’t just died in my arms.
“You’re insane.”
“That cake was delicious, even if it was deadly. And if I give you a list of my allergies, it will be safe. I saw you clean with four tentacles and two hands, so I wouldn’t worry about cross-contamination once we get that jam far away from me.
” He put his hands on his hips while still sitting with his legs curled under him.
“Besides, didn’t you tell me you’re a chef at a popular restaurant?
I’m sure you know your stuff in the kitchen. ”
How could I say no to him?
“How about this: I’ll make food you can eat, and you’ll let me know if it’s any good. I hate that not many places include a menu for people who can’t have the standard dishes.”
“Oh, I feel this. I have a whole blog about it.”
“You what?” I sat cross-legged and let my tentacles rest at my sides.
“It’s nothing. You’ll laugh. Everyone does.” Even as Kaos said it, he wiggled closer and put my lower tentacle around his waist.
“Try me.”
“I post my opinions about food places I go to, how easy it is to get alternative dishes, whether I have to ask several times and feel like an idiot, or whether it's considered normal.”
“Sounds very useful and informative to me.” One of my tentacles inched toward Kaos, and I let it, watching it caterpillar its way to his knee.
“I posted about going to Chicago, and I promised I’d report about the food, so people commented with names of places to check out.”
“But you’re stuck here.” With me.
“Yeah.” He took my tentacle off his leg and played with it absent-mindedly, stroking the delicate skin between suckers.
He was as far from afraid or repulsed by my tentacles as possible. A phenomenon I haven’t experienced with a non-tentacled person before. Not to that extent. “I’ll be your cook, and this house will be our restaurant until the end of the storm.”
“Really?” His ears perked up. “Will you let me take pics and videos of the food?”
“Sure, why not.”
“I can keep you anonymous if you’d like.” He hugged my tentacle like it was a fluffy toy he’d just received as a gift.
“Yeah, I’d rather not show my face.”
“When can we start?”
I chuckled. “Come here.” I hoisted him up in my tentacles, using the permission he’d given me to carry him around. “You good?”
“Mmhmm.” He released a happy giggle and rested his head on my shoulder.
I nuzzled the furry shell of his ear as I transported him in a bridal carry to the living room and deposited him on the couch. He sprang from it and rummaged through the bookshelves and cabinets on both sides of the TV like a raccoon in a trash can.
“What are you looking for? I crossed my arms, but left the amused smile on my face. He must have cast some kind of spell on me, because there was no way I ever found anyone so adorable so quickly.
“This!” He thrust a box in the air in triumph. If it was a movie, a sun-blinding aura would surround him.
“Puzzles?”
“Yup.” He popped the p. “Don’t you like them?”
“I do.”
“When was the last time you put one together?”
He got me there. “Probably when I was a kid.”
“Care to join me and crack this bad boy?”
I chuckled. “Sure.”
“You can’t cook all day.”
“Yes I can. And half of the night too. Then sleep and repeat.”
His face fell. “That sounds exhausting.”
“It is. But I love what I do. And I can get lost in it and not think of anything else.”
“What about family, friends, a partner?” He removed the candles and books off the low coffee table in front of the TV and placed the puzzle box on it.
“The restaurant I work at is my parents’, so I spend time with my family often.
And as far as friends are concerned, they tend to come and go.
Most are married or have moved away. Any attempt at a relationship ends with the other party resenting my job and my working hours.
So I gave up on that.” I focused on Kaos spilling the puzzles on the table to avoid his gaze.
His openness and wonder pushed me to reveal too much about myself too fast, and I didn’t need to see the judgement in his eyes that was surely there.
“Sounds harsh. But at least they’re rejecting you because of your hardworking qualities, so it’s on them. My relationships end because I’m a disaster.” Kaos spread the pieces and began turning them color side up.
“That can’t be true.” As I said it, I recalled my reaction to his mistake in booking this house for next year. Fuck. I’d been such an ass. My tentacles travelled toward the sweet kitten, and I grazed his legs with the barest of touches.
“I’m too clingy, too enthusiastic, too clumsy, too chaotic.
” He counted it all on his fingers. “And worst of all: na?ve. I remained friends with my ex-boyfriend and convinced my girlfriend that we could all hang out. She dumped me for him last week.” Ah, so he was bisexual.
I appreciated that he talked so freely about it around me.
He grabbed my tentacle under the table and placed it on his lap, stroking it with one hand, as he continued with the puzzles.
It had been nearly two days and I still couldn’t get used to Kaos’s casual acceptance of my appendages.
They yearned to touch him as if all of this was…
normal. “They’re assholes and don’t deserve you.
” Did I? Whoa, nope. I’d had my heart broken before, but this adorable kitten could shatter it beyond repair if I let him. I won’t.
“The fucked-up thing is that I miss them. They look so happy in pictures on social media; I wish the best for them. If only I could be as strong as you and decide that love is not for me and move on. But I can’t.
I dream of a forever person who would get me, and not try to change me to fit some mold, and meet some arbitrary expectations.
” He poked at the puzzles with his finger.
“I’m hopeless. I was a ball of sadness when I booked this trip after the breakup.
Then I threw myself into content creating even more.
At least it’s a fun way to earn extra income. ”
“But your main job is mourning at funerals?” My puzzle corner was growing, all looking like Lake Michigan, confirming that it was the bottom of the picture of the Chicago skyline.
“Yeah. My blog and affiliations bring in some money, but not enough to quit my job. And my family keeps telling me it’s stupid, so I’m losing faith in why I should even bother.” The negativity was so unlike him, it broke my heart.
“Do you enjoy it?” I grazed my knuckles over his cheek, and he leaned into my touch.
“Yeah.”
“Then fuck the naysayers. What’s your handle?” I snatched my phone from the couch and gave him a pointed look. “Unless you don’t wanna share.”
He held my tentacle with both hands now, stroking, which sent ripples of comfort, but the prolonged contact was getting me horny too.
“I’m on GlobeShack under kaotic_picky_eater with a k.”
I unlocked my phone. “Is that how you spell your name?”
“Yup.”
I popped open GlobeShack. Pretty much all of us nonhuman-presenting creatures were on it. It was the only platform that fully embraced us and our lifestyles. and we were thrilled to finally have a voice. I liked that it allowed for the use of mixed media too.
Kaos’s profile picture showed his face in a theatrical thinking pose with his eyes gleaming with a smile.
He was such a ray of sunshine; it was clear even in a quick snapshot of his features.
The pinned posts had several million views and focused on Kaos visiting restaurants and smaller food venues in San Francisco.
I immediately clicked the follow button.
“Your page looks amazing, and you've got so many followers. Why would anyone laugh at you for it?”
He shrugged. “It’s just what they do, I guess. I was born small and weak. My parents, and five siblings are all tall and strong, so I always felt like the odd one out. My family is strict about rules, but they’re not all bad.”
“So they can’t appreciate your creative side?”
“They could if it matched their idea of what it should look like.” He hesitated, pulled on his ear, and sat back.
“Both of my sisters work as Doms after hours for fun, and all three of my brothers are the dominant parties in their D/S relationships. So I’m the freak in the family on all accounts, you see.
The weak, needy bottom. They say stuff as jokes, but I know they mean some of it. I just don’t belong.”
Kaos had the uncanny ability to smack me upside the head with his honesty.
He freely gave me the kind of information that not many would throw out there so easily.
Clearly, he wasn’t the only one in his family who was familiar with a D/S lifestyle.
I held onto my neutral expression as I focused on the other part he mentioned.
“I’m sorry they don’t understand you. It’s on them.” I had an intense need to hug him, as much for his own comfort as mine.
Kaos shrugged, shuffling the puzzle pieces and connecting the pieces of the only red building on the skyline.
“Thanks for letting me rant. I feel like I’m already such a burden on you, and it’s only been two days.”
“You’re not. Even if I wanted to spank you more than once in this short time.”
“I’m sorr—What?” Kaos blushed, squeezing my tentacle under the table.
Was that too far? “You’re an accidental brat. You don’t want to misbehave, but it just happens.”
“Would the spanking hurt?” He glanced up at me with eyes full of wonder, his beautiful face taking my breath away.
I swallowed hard. “Enough to make you think about what you’ve done for a few hours. I’d never do it out of anger, and I’d never hurt you.”
He bit his bottom lip and wiggled his tail. “I’d like to try that. My safeword would be strawberry.” He smirked. “But don’t ask next time. Just do it. Or it loses its charm.”
I shook my head. He was impossibly adorable. “Only you’d call spanking ‘charming’.”
He scooted closer to me and wrapped my tentacle around his waist. “You’re taking care of me. It would be one more thing. You’re such a people-pleaser. So pleasure domming suits you.”
I frowned, tightening my grip on him. “Why would you say that?”
“You spoke about cooking for others and how you liked it when they were happy. You’re doing the same with me, but sexier.”
I snorted a laugh. “Very observant of you. I guess you’re right. I never thought of it that way.”
His wicked little smile showed that he wasn’t a newbie to BDSM and was not afraid to show it. “So I’ll be yours and you’ll be mine for a month?”
“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate.
“At least I know it will be over on my terms, and I won’t hope for something I can’t have. No expectations means no heartbreak.” Kaos nodded once and extended his hand.
Who had hurt this sweet man before? The very thought filled me with an urge to tighten my tentacles around some necks. For now, he was mine, and I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him on my watch. Not again. I took his hand and shook it.
“That’s the deal.” Did I really believe that?
I’d never had a big meltdown after a partner had broken up with me, so if I went into a short-term housemates-with-benefits arrangement it shouldn’t be too hard to say goodbye when it was over.
“We found our way to spend the month, so let’s make the best of it. ”
He tapped his chin with the tip of my tentacle. “I like my orgasms often. Just throwing it out there.”
“For now, you need to prove to me you’re okay and will live. My hearts will never be the same after today.”
“Hearts?”
“I have three.”
His hands over his cheeks. “Can I listen to your heartbeats?”
“Sure.”
Like a jack in the box, he sprang up, climbed on my lap, and put his ear against my chest.
I ran my fingers through his hair in delicate strokes. It was so soft under my fingers, and its scent was rich with notes of blueberries and oranges.
“I can hear them!” He wiggled excitedly, swinging his tail around so hard that he sent the puzzles we put together hurling to the floor.
I gasped. “Kaos!”