Page 9 of Entranced By the Nakken (Freedom, Love, Monsters #4)

Casey

Tsunis was gone long enough for Casey to catch his breath.

Too long. Long enough for Casey to spiral.

He’d never acted like that before, almost whipping his dick out like some kind of exhibitionist. Not that he wouldn’t love to touch himself while Tsunis watched like a starving dragon staring down a tasty, meaty morsel, but he’d get fucking consent first.

He wasn’t the only one that’d gotten carried away. Whatever the fuck happened, it was proof Tsunis wanted him. No matter the species, no one licks someone’s abs if they’re not down to fuck, at the very least.

By the time he reached their meeting spot at the secluded brookside, Casey had managed to wrangle himself back into an air of cool confidence. There was no massive, serpent-like dragon this time. Two bright blue eyes like stage lights followed Casey’s every movement.

Tsunis watched from below the surface as he set down his keyboard and draped his wet shirt over a branch. Pretending his pulse wasn’t drowning out the peaceful sound of the cascade, he opened the case, extracted his keys and notebook, and played a commercially pleasing sound.

Tsunis despised when he played anything too disingenuous—they had expensive taste—so Casey played notes found in every pop rock song.

A staple, really. He paired it with old lyrics.

Front-of-the-notebook lyrics that he wrote after his one and only serious relationship ended. Trent, from the dorm across the hall.

“Never,” Casey went for the chorus with all he had, performing his little heart out. Eyes closed, he tuned out the sound of splashing to concentrate on not smirking. “I’ll never—”

“Enough.”

Tsunis’ icy tone was close. Casey opened his eyes to find them glaring at him like they were ready snap back into a vociferous dragon and eat him whole for his insolence. It took everything in him not to gloat. He’d play that stupid song a million times if it brought their body closer to his.

“Problem?” Casey dusted the leaves that’d gathered on the blanket overnight.

Tsunis growled, the sound equally as menacing as it’d been in their dragon form. The reminder of that encounter sent a shockwave through Casey’s senses, and all of a sudden, his body was ready to be slammed against a tree and mauled by the most dangerous predator in the woods.

“That,” Tsunis ground out through bared teeth, “is not your song.”

“I wrote it.”

Casey wasn’t sure who was the brat anymore, but watching Tsunis get all riled up was quickly becoming his favorite past time.

The dark indigo that flushed their cheeks, the husky timbre of their voice.

But most of all, the way they leaned closer, smelling of spring days post-rain.

Everything about Tsunis was intoxicating, but that they natural smelled of petrichor and lily pads was high on Casey’s list of reasons why he was falling.

“Music is more than language said in a rhythmic fashion,” Tsunis argued.

They’d climbed further onto the shore, one knee on the blanket, the other leg trailing behind in the water. Casey swore he could see shimmering lines pulsing like veins from how hard they pressed their palm into the blanket below his leg.

If he were smart, Casey would stop pushing their buttons.

His college degree would argue that he was, indeed, smart, but the organ in his chest had the mic, and the appendage filling with blood in his damp cargo shorts was co-singer.

Equal parts heart and dick, and all of him wanted to push Tsunis until they were forced to climb on top of Casey to shut him up.

“You’re right,” Casey conceded, pausing to let Tsunis relax a fraction. “The words need to be pretty.” He looked down and picked at his shoestrings. “And a melody, that’s a must.”

Tsunis went preternaturally still. Casey peeked at them askance, head dipped low, as waves and waves of indignation reverberated through the diminishing space between them.

Casey’s chest thundered like the organ inside was trying to punch its way out.

Laughter and a hint of fear bubbled in his gut.

It was possible Tsunis would swim off, never to return, for real this time.

Casey feared that outcome worse than being swallowed whole or drowning in his favorite slice of the river.

“Casimir.”

One word. Three syllables. The name he’d scorned all his life, and all his fear and amusement washed away in a flood of hot, insistent desire.

His gaze shot up, snagging on the heat in Tsunis’ crystal pools, which were so much closer than before.

He could feel their breath coming out in soft gusts along his jaw.

Their hand fisted the blanket, thumb brushing the knob of Casey’s knee.

“Tsunis,” Casey breathed, leaning in, tugged by an invisible string, until their noses brushed.

“I want to hear your song.” Tsunis released the blanket from their death grip to place their palm on Casey’s chest. Violin-calloused fingertips grazed his pec, reminding Casey that he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

Casey wasn’t the type to fluster easily.

He’d keptt love out of his love life for years.

When Tsunis touched him with their bare hand, it was like the first strike of the strings when the bass is plugged into an amplifier, and the electric currents zoom through every neuron of Casey’s body.

There was no universe in which he wouldn’t crave this ravishing creature’s touch now that he’d felt it on his skin.

The pause went on too long, and he could see the looming threat of Tsunis’ retreat. He covered the small, almost dainty, blue hand with his own, and closed the distance between them entirely, pressing his mouth to the soft curve where Tsunis’ lips met.

They didn’t pull away. Nails like claws sank into Casey’s flesh. Breath like the steam of a boiling pot ghosted over the shell of his ear. Casey rested his cheek against theirs, giving them the power, the fear of watching their fin disappear below the spume kicking back in.

The two of them remained frozen on the shore, the cascade babbling happily in the background for more breaths than Casey could count.

Finally, he squeezed Tsunis’ hand and broke away, bringing their knuckles to his lips and kissing each one before letting go.

Tsunis looked at their hand a moment before using it to tuck a stray silver strand behind their ear.

A splash of deep midnight blue colored the tips of their fin to the divot of their neck, the darkest shade of blue Casey had seen on them yet.

Casey cleared his throat, awkwardly resituating the keyboard to cover his lap.

He had no way of knowing if Tsunis was affected by this…

thing between them by physical glance, though he was ashamed to say he’d glanced at the smooth space genitals usually were on a person at least a few times when his dick was running the show.

“I’ve been working on something I was hoping to run by you.” A heavy weight lingered in his chest, but Casey forced a playful grin. “I promise it’s worth your time.”

“Hmm.”

Even their dismayed grunt sounded like music. They gave Casey a look that expressed their doubt, but, to his delight and relief, they didn’t move away. They moved closer, until their arm extended behind him, both legs curled up and under them as they lingered over his shoulder.

Deep breath. It was no different than playing with Sophie in her living room. With Tsunis’ breath ghosting over the sensitive hairs of his nape, Casey sang.