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I’m not really sure why I’m getting such flutters since we’ve been acting like a mated pair since that first date all those months ago. Only this is big for him. My heart has been committed for a long time. Longer than I’ve probably even admitted to myself. For Noah to make this step—well, it means a lot. I know it’s not conventional in terms of human customs, but he’s told me how much this means for kraken.

When we arrive at the tiny bay, there’s no one around. It’s late afternoon and the sun is at its hottest. The sand is scorching. Weleave everything in the truck and dash to the cool relief of the water, hopping in the shallow waves to pull off our clothes and toss them as far back on the beach as we can manage. Daringly, I toss my bikini onto the pile, leaving myself completely naked. I could have pulled it to the side I guess, but it’s much more fun this way, and if I’m going to be part kraken, I might as well embrace the kraken way of swimming!

Noah is still struggling with his shorts over his shifted tentacles as I dive into the water, sighing at the kiss of cool and the floaty lift of the waves. There’s a splash beside me as he dives in too, and I twist in the water to watch him move.

I will never get over the way he propels and turns in the water. It’s effortless. Joyful. I love the way he smiles in the water. It’s the same unforced smile that flirts on his lips after he’s had a really big orgasm, and I imagine shifting must feel something like that.

We swim together into deeper water, but too soon I have to come up for air. My head breaks the surface, and I float there for a moment, the sun warm on my breasts and belly and the water surrounding me cool in contrast.

Then Noah’s warm arm slides around my middle and I drag in a quick breath before he pulls me under again. A muffled laugh escapes me in a flurry of bubbles as he rolls us. I draw air from his lips as he leans in to breathe for me. Perhaps one of the last times.

I think I’ll miss it when he no longer has to feed me air this way, but I’m looking forward to the transformation.

Our lazy embrace turns to unhurried coupling after Noah works my pussy slowly to readiness with his fingers and tentacles. When he slips inside me at last, I moan, muscles automatically tightening and releasing, pleasure rising like our bodies toward a warm, languid release that seems to last forever. For a while, though, he fucks me like that, my favorite way. I’mheld in his arms and filled with him, drifting on rolling tides of pleasure as he gently pumps into my body. To complete the ritual, I’ll need to take his cock in my mouth and drink his cum. Doing it beneath the waves activates what Noah claims must be latent genes, but I like to think of as latent magic. But neither of us is in a rush. Instead, we savor each other. I relish the feel of floating in his arms, held close and loved.

Finally, his muscles tighten and it seems like he’s nearing the end of his control. When his speed increases, he pulls out, giving me one final breath. I twist into position and take his thick cock between my lips, sliding my mouth over him as he draws me close with a hand on the back of my head.

As I suckle him, he lifts us toward the surface of the ocean so as his pleasure explodes in my mouth, we burst through into the air and I can pull back and suck in a breath through my nose as I swallow.

For a few moments, he holds me close and we wait, floating limp and spent on the surface of the water. The sun has slid beneath the horizon enough to paint pink and orange bands across the sky, and I smile at how perfect it looks. Who needs flowers when the coastal sunset is more beautiful than an entire bouquet? Who needs a white dress when little puffy clouds float in the sky dipped in pastel shades that match the sunset?

I’m so relaxed it takes me a moment to notice the change in my body.

“Can you feel it?” Noah runs a knuckle along my neck, and I gasp at the feeling of him brushing a sensitive spot, then almost swallow water as I try to figure out how to breathe through my nose and gills at once.

“Oh my god! It worked!” I flounder into an upright position, treading water and grinning at Noah.

He laughs at me. “Did you think I was lying? Of course it worked.”

Tentatively, I lift a hand and brush over the raised skin, feeling three slits that weren’t there before. I snatch my hand away. “That feels so weird.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Noah assures me.

“Why didn’t it work all the other times we did that?” I giggle.

“You have to be in the water too.”

I guess that seems reasonable enough. I laugh to myself at how simple it seems while we float some more hand in hand.

While I would love to stay in the water all night with Noah, after a few hours I’m starting to tremble. By this time we’ve swum around the bay, exploring the fascinating undersea world in a way I’ve never been able to before. Eventually he drags me away from a beautiful orange starfish and towels me off on the beach, wrapping me in a blanket and insisting that I sit in the car while he puts up the tent.

It doesn’t take long snuggled up inside the tent for me to stop shivering and fall into a deep, peaceful sleep.

Noah wakes me with bacon and egg rolls cooked over a small camping stove and a hot mug of coffee. I’m still wondering what on earth he packed in the other three bags we never opened when he stands and collects them from the truck.

“What’s in those?”

Noah just smiles. “Finish your breakfast. All will be revealed soon, I promise.”

OK, he’s definitely up to something. That coy smile is so charming I can’t help but laugh. I hunt down my phone and check the time, suddenly remembering we have an appointment at Town Hall today. “Noah, have you checked the time?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He’s rooting around for something in the back of the truck.

We still have to pack up the whole campsite and dress. I’m starting to worry that I’ll be getting married with my hair a wild tangle of knots when I hear the sound of a car.

I’m definitely not expecting Luke, Mia, and Noah’s parents, Joanne and Rob, who all pull up in Joanne and Rob’s old station wagon. “Good morning!” Luke calls.

“Hey!” Mia gives me a wave. “I hope we’re not too early, but there’s a lot to do before ten.”