The Holly and the Tentacles (Tinsel and Tentacles 2.0)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

S omewhere in the future…

“Aeryn. You did not just subscribe to Sucker for You?”

Aeryn Lewis flushed, his face going hot in an instant as his roommate entered the common room, tablet in hand. He showed Aeryn the readout, which bore a receipt for the pornalicious tentacle fetish site. Under their shared bill pay credit account.

Dammit.

“Whoops. Sorry, buddy. Let me transfer the balance from my personal account. I just forgot to switch.”

“Uh-huh.” Legacy’s lips kicked up at one corner, emphasizing the scar there that had come from an accident with an electric drill. Some new kid on the crew had lost control and almost taken Legacy’s head off.

More than once, Aeryn had seen that scar and A) been glad he was in admin for the mining company, and B) wondered what it would be like to feel that scar while Legacy kissed him.

“What? You watch porn.” Sweaty, grunting, bouncing porn from the sounds of it.

“Shit, Aeryn, what guy up here doesn’t?”

His cheeks went even hotter, because he never had, but he’d seen an ad in passing for this site, and the model in the ad looked like a miner. Who looked like Legacy. And tentacles had always fascinated him in a weird way, so on a whim, Aeryn had subscribed.

But he hadn’t even opened the site since to look at it.

“Right.” But Legacy did have a point. They were on a mining substation orbiting a planet that their company had a contract with to extract certain minerals. It wasn’t as if anyone had their significant others with them. And while fraternizing wasn’t unheard of, there weren’t many omegas on the station, so most of the guys used porn to blow off steam.

Which meant Aeryn should have been in high demand. Too bad he was a skinny redheaded omega with ugly freckles and a bad limp. The miners tended to want more robust partners, not omegas who had been defective since birth…

“Anyway, I just wanted to let you know you used the wrong account.”

“Thanks.” Aeryn was lucky. Legacy was really a good roommate, and super kind about his being a little weird. Okay, a lot weird in the scheme of miners and engineers, but not so much for admin types who kept all the computers running, that in turn kept the station afloat.

“No problem.” Legacy stood there, kind of grinning, his dark brown eyes shining.

“What?” Aeryn finally asked, feeling pinned down.

“Why tentacles?”

Oh, stars and planets. “Why not? They’re cool and wiggly and go all sorts of places.” He brazened it out, feeling super brave.

“True enough. I just kinda took you for, you know?—”

“Asexual?” He sighed.

“Uh, no.” Legacy gave him an odd look. “More the vanilla type.”

“Well, that just shows you what you know.” Aaand now his hot alpha roommate, Legacy, knew what he liked to do in his spare time. With one hand. While his other hand was busy.

“I guess it does. Hey, I’m on a two-day. Wanna get a pizza and watch movies?”

Aeryn blinked. Legacy did spend some time at home when he was off duty for a few days, but it was a rare and wonderful thing for him to volunteer to hang out and have quality time with Aeryn.

“Sure. I’d love that.” He really would. Aeryn had a terrible crush on Legacy. Always had. He liked Legacy’s scarred-up smile. His big capable hands. He loved the way Legacy smelled.

So hot and musky and male, with an undertone of drill oil and what he thought of as green soap. The stuff the station filled in their bathing areas.

“Cool.” Legacy put the tablet on the table in front of the couch. “I’m gonna shower, and then I’ll go make some popcorn so we can munch while we wait for pizza. You pay for that, and we’ll call it even.”

“Oh, okay. Sausage and onion for you?” He knew pretty much every food order Legacy would make.

“Yep. Thanks, man.” Legacy headed off to the back of their suite to the bathing area, and he had a full-on light and sound daydream for a moment about Legacy. God. That was enough to leave him sweating and panting, so he grabbed the tablet Legacy had left behind.

His fingers hovered over the tentacle site, but he needed to order the pizza. So he didn’t open it, opting to order the food instead. On his personal credits.

He had plenty of time to explore his new subscription when he was alone. There was no way he was going to risk time spent with Legacy, a real, living, breathing man, for a bad fantasy.

No way at all.