Chapter Fifteen #2
“Your ass is a wonderful shade of dark pink,” he purred, clipping the underside of her right cheek. “I think it’s going to smart when you sit down.”
The noise of the impact resounded around her, taunting her ears with her inevitable defenselessness. Small and human and helpless, she had no option but to tolerate his goading analysis.
“Yes, Master.” Depressingly, she was also convinced that he was right. Her backside had never known attention like it.
“I don’t want to spank you like this, little one.”
His voice boomed over her, and she scowled, struggling to believe what he was saying. Kronos had made no secret of his love for punishing her, so even if she’d handed him the perfect excuse to do so, she couldn’t accept that he’d had to tussle with the idea.
“I would much rather reward you with indulgence than penalize you with pain.” He pressed the underside of his hand against her no doubt swollen cheeks. “And I know you’d prefer that, too.”
“Yes, Master,” she sighed, absurdly relieved for the unexpected amnesty.
“But when you break my rules, you leave me with no choice.” His hand vanished again, replaced a moment later by another hard smack to the same cheek.
Scowling at the sting, her hands balled again.
“Especially when you put yourself in danger.” He squeezed the other cheek, his thumb stroking her heated skin. “I can’t have that, Kristina.”
“I know, Master.”
The strain was there in her voice, the pain melding with his words to make the entire thing seem unbearable. It was awful enough enduring, but having to listen to his reasoning was somehow even worse.
“When you walked out on me, you harmed yourself, but you also created harm when you didn’t tell me about your fears about being trapped in your room.
” He patted her rump, alternating the less painful strikes with the occasional more intentional swat.
“How can I look after you when I don’t know what you’re feeling? ”
She swallowed at the question. The truth was, she hadn’t considered him to be ‘looking after her’ when she’d kept that information to herself.
To her, at that point, Kronos was the insanely attractive man who’d taken her, not some dark protector.
But she’d learned a lot about him since then.
Namely, that he’d literally breathed the life back into her, and sprawled over him, she knew better.
He did want to take care of her, even if sometimes the demonstration of those concerns was a little heavy-handed.
“Kristina!” he barked her name, her heart rate spiking even before the latest swat smarted.
“You can’t, Master,” she blurted. “I know that now.”
“Then I hope this lesson helps to remind you, little one.” His hand was on the move again, and that time when it landed, it caught the underside of her cheeks, aided by his right leg, which rose slightly beneath her.
“I am powerful, but not all-knowing. When I permit you the freedom, I need you to talk to me.”
“I won’t forget!” she cried breathlessly.
“I will make sure you don’t.” His answer was nearly drowned out by the flurry of swats that erupted, the smacks echoing around her ears in the wood-paneled space. “I will ensure you never even contemplate harming yourself again.”
“I won’t,” she squealed, her hips dancing in an attempt to try and avoid his insistent palm, but of course, the attempts were futile. His free hand shifted, settling on the small of her back and demanding that she stay put. “Please, Master. I promise I won’t.”
However she had thought the spanking was going to go, she hadn’t reckoned on him continuing for so long.
She thought he’d make an example of her, pushing her to her breaking point and possibly pressing past it, but writhing over his hard body, she acknowledged the punishment was much worse than that.
The swats were hard, and still they came at a perturbing rate.
She’d resolved not to give him the satisfaction of her surrender, especially since he’d explicitly told her not to plead, but at the rate he was smacking her, she soon might not have a choice.
Pulling in a breath, she grappled for composure.
Her ass felt huge, at least three times its normal size, and worse was the complicated knot of feelings his rebukes and explanations had provoked.
She knew she was culpable, at least in part.
It had been her rash decision that had seen her run out of air, but she’d made that choice in the haze of a different mindset.
That had been before she’d tried to reconcile her feelings for him, and before she’d accepted that, in his own domineering way, Kronos was trying to look after her.
It had also been before she’d fully comprehended who, or what, he was, and that there was no getting away from him.
As the strikes landed on her vulnerable skin, she was forced to finally accept the truth.
If Kronos wanted her, then he would have her, and the best that she could do was to find some satisfaction in the outcome.
Not that pleasure was usually so difficult to achieve with a god like him.
Despite the pain swelling at her backside, she smiled at the realization. A few days before, she hadn’t believed in anything except science, but since Kronos had demonstrated the extent of his power, she was prepared to accept that he was a god; an ancient power that had thrived for centuries.
He’s my god.
She held onto the comforting thought as he caught the bottom of her ass again, remembering how fortunate she’d been.
He’d saved her life, and when she’d appealed for help about her claustrophobia, he’d responded to help her.
Kronos might have had a large, unmerciful palm and a list of rules, but he really did seem to have her best interests at heart.
It was a strange conclusion to draw when she was still prone over his lap, but she couldn’t deny the point. Somehow, she’d captured the attention of a being far more interesting than any man she’d ever met, and while the strikes continued to sting at her behind, that idea struck her even harder.
Never mind her studies or the paper exercises her professors had insisted she participate in.
What were those things worth compared to Kronos; a being she could hardly even categorize, let alone quantify?
It was true, his attention sometimes took some getting used to, but his presence offered her a unique opportunity to study something no scientist had ever theorized about before.
If he would allow it, Kronos could become the thesis she’d struggled to move forward with.
The thought bloomed, its vigor muting the swats still landing on her ass. She could feel them, could have numbered them if required, but mentally, she’d moved on from the trial, her head already planning how she could bring her idea to life.
There was passion blossoming between her and Kronos.
A visceral chemistry that neither of them had made a secret about, but it had been the thought of leaving her scientific studies behind that had quelled her ardor for the union.
If she could persuade him to let her research him, though, she might have conceived a way to have the best of both worlds.
“Okay.” His palm stilled on her behind, and she turned her head at the sudden silent stillness. “That’s enough.”
She exhaled, allowing the tears that had threatened for so long to finally fill up her eyes. It was as if she’d been holding her breath for the entirety of the ordeal and was ultimately allowed to take her first breath. The release that washed over her when the first tears fell was breathtaking.
“You took your spanking well, little one,” he praised, apparently unaware of her tears. “You were stoic. I’m impressed.”
She sniffed back her emotion. No part of her wanted to answer him and reveal that she was crying. She yearned for a moment of privacy, but she worried that not answering might antagonize her only recently satiated god.
“Thank you, Master.” She pushed out the words somehow but was painfully aware of the feeling in her voice. He would know she was crying.
“Hey.” His right leg lowered, and his left hand shifted to her chest to coax her up from where she’d been sprawled. “It’s okay.”
Her head whirled when he tugged her upright, her ass cheeks tender as she shifted on the blanket still covering him.
“It’s okay,” he told her again as both of his arms snaked around her. “You got through it.”
“Yes,” she agreed, feeling dazed.
She had got through it, though goodness only knew how.
More disconcerting, though, was the cause of her tears.
There was relief that the ordeal had ended naturally, but more than that, she wondered if they were the product of her wrestling emotions and her proposal on how to reconcile their collision.
Being trapped with Kronos and his enticing demands had been downright tantalizing, but she wasn’t sure how sustainable that allure was.
Eventually, her real life, and her desire to get back to it, were going to intervene in their carefully curated utopia.
If he gave her leave to investigate him, then perhaps everything could be different.
It would mean she could give in to those dark erotic impulses he inspired, while still stimulating her brain. Kris would be complete in the most sublime ways. But how was she going to persuade the muscular god enveloping her to go along with her plan?
“I’m proud of you, Kristina.” He planted a kiss on the side of her head, the caress lulling her. “And I meant what I said before. I care about you, little one. I want you to be happy here.”
The flickering heat of the fire was a blur as she turned toward it, and staring into the flames, she knew what she had to say even before the words left her lips.