If you can understand the section about octopus reproduction in Wikipedia, you're better than I am! However, the BBC has a much more approachable article.
The male octopus has a specialised mating arm, which has a groove to deliver the sperm to the female. Sperm is placed inside the mantle (the large bulbous part) and remains there, separate from the eggs for anything between 2 and 10 months depending on the species. When the female is ready to deposit the eggs they pass over this 'holding area' and become fertilised.
She may lay anything up to 200K eggs at a time (in a protected location) and will spend the next month or so looking after them. She doesn't eat during this time being on constant guard duty. When they hatch, the baby octopuses are on their own. Around 2/3rds are eaten within the first few weeks of life but they grow very fast. Very few adult octopuses are eaten by predators.
Mating is a dangerous time for both parents. The female dies shortly after her eggs hatch and the males die within a month of mating - or less, if the female decides to eat them during the process!
Octopuses only ever mate once.
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Image courtesy of BBC Earth - A beginner's guide to octopus sex (Credit: Pierangelo Pirak)
