Page 23 of The Baker and the Kraken

Calder glanced at the living room. “Definitely not.”

Right. Because there was no water here. Adam was ridiculous.

“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 how about sexy times.”