“But I’m a human woman, and you’re a male…”
“I am a creature of tentacle and shadow. My language is visual.”
“Okay.” I make a mental note to ask his alternate self if I’m ever unfortunate to meet him again. He seems a little less sensitive about his nature than my monster. I mean creature. Mate.
The silence between us continues for a few more heartbeats until he finally asks, “Am I so monstrous?”
“Ummm…” I bite down on my bottom lip. “You have a nice personality and you seem caring and easy to talk to, but in our world, there aren’t many creatures with tentacles. At least not any that can talk.”
When he doesn’t respond, I blurt, “I keep imagining you as a talking octopus.”
“I see.”
My heart plummets. I’ve said the wrong thing. “Why does it bother you so much?”
“Our kind are shaped as we are for survival,” he says in a voice that fills the room. “It pains me to think that you might find any part of me revolting.”
I gulp. “Never, and if I did, I’d scream for help. Besides, some humans might call you very beautiful.”
“It only matters what you think,” the monster says, sounding grave.
“That time the light was on, I’d never seen a man so handsome,” I say, because that was the truth. “When I saw you in the light, I wondered if you were an angel.”
“Yet, you call me a monster.”
“You drank my tears.”
“But?”
“Well.” I shift uncomfortably on the mattress. “Whipping a woman until she cries isn’t very gentlemanly.”
Moonlight shines into the apartment through the window, highlighting his solemn nod. “I will do what I can to hold back on my more base desires.”
Something in my heart lightens. Perhaps it’s the prospect of being able to enjoy my shadow mate both in the light and the dark. I feel special, knowing he would hold back his wickedness just for me.
“Thank you,” I murmur. “But would you be able to be nice with the lights on?”
“The more time we spend together, the more my darker half will understand the need to be kind.”
“Is it like taming you?” I ask with a smile.
“I suppose so.”
“May I touch your body?” I ask.
He pauses for a second. “You would offer me pleasure?”
“It would only be fair, considering you’ve given me so much,” I reply.
“My skin is cool and damp in the dark,” he replies. “You might enjoy it better in the light.”
My stomach tightens, and the pulse between my legs pounds. Even though my shadow mate has gone to great lengths to comfort me, I haven’t made too much of an effort to put him at ease. There’s no way to assure him that I won’t reject him if I knew what he looks like in the dark because I won’t know how I’ll act until I see him.
Now, I understand why he remains at the foot of the bed when he pleasures me with his tentacles, and why he sometimes lies at my side without so much as reaching a hand across the bed.
“Maybe I can touch you later, then?” I ask.
“Would you like to try urethral intercourse?”