CHAPTER FIFTEEN #3
Smoke was rising from his shoulders. Daphne knew it held some connection to the way he felt—that the basilisks experienced arousal in ways that differed from humans.
If it were a different moment, she would ask about it.
Instead, she leaned in to kiss him. When their lips met, they moved slowly, savoring the way each other tasted.
One of his hands went to her head, his fingers lacing into her hair, pulling her closer.
The other cupped her breast, his thumb brushing gently over her nipple.
Daphne didn’t let her hands wander again, not trusting herself to behave now that she was naked.
Instead she held his jaw, cradling his face in her palms as she kissed him.
This was nothing like what she’d done with the village boys.
Those nights under the bridge were rushed, sloppy fumbles in the dark.
This was intimate and slow and meaningful.
This felt like the moment when the sun emerged after a rainstorm.
Daphne was completely at ease, completely free.
The kiss deepened. A strange sound filled the air—a hiss—and Daphne realized it was coming from Kronos.
Eventually, he slid his fingers between her legs.
“Tell me if you like this,” he murmured against her lips.
But she could not speak. He touched her with such patience—such intention—sliding first one finger inside her, then another, going so slowly she was weak with anticipation.
She knew now that she had been wrong—that there was a great deal she did not know—that he could teach her.
Touching someone else was not merely an act of physical connection but an emotional one.
She’d never felt like the person touching her genuinely cared.
Now she could not imagine being touched any other way.
Kronos laid her down slowly so he was on top of her, still touching her at the same unhurried pace. “Daphne,” he whispered. “Talk to me.”
“It’s hard to talk,” she said.
He smiled. “Does that mean you like this?”
She managed to nod. “Yes.”
“Good.”
He said nothing else. Instead he rubbed her clitoris with his thumb at the same time his other fingers moved inside her.
The combination was lethal; Daphne couldn’t help but moan.
At the sound, Kronos dropped his face to the crook of her neck and kissed along her throat.
She wrapped her legs around him, holding his body to hers.
She never wanted this to end. She wanted to live in this exact moment, here beneath him, forever.
Suddenly nothing seemed so bad. The past was irrelevant; there was only this. Only them.
Her hands slid to his trousers. She began to untie them.
Kronos caught her hand gently, holding her in place. “No, Daphne.”
“Why not?”
“You know why not.”
Of course she did. It was the exact same reason he’d given her earlier, and it was her reason in the first place. “But I want to.”
Kronos let out a soft laugh. “I know you do.”
“Don’t you?”
His eyes raked over her. His answer was a whisper. “More than I have ever wanted anything.”
A chill ran down her spine. She couldn’t comprehend the way he was looking at her.
A hundred unsaid words lingered between them.
Daphne wasn’t ready to say that she loved him.
She wasn’t even sure she did love him or if she was just enamored with him.
But she knew how he made her feel: safe.
And no man had ever made her feel safe before.
Perhaps it wasn’t love quite yet. But one day it could be.
Either way, she knew that Kronos was right to stop her from taking this any further.
It wasn’t the right time for them. No matter how badly she wished it were.
“When do we stop?” Daphne whispered.
Kronos met her eye. “What do you mean?”
“How will we know when to stop if we aren’t going to go all the way?”
He brushed a curl from her face, just as he had done before, tracing his fingers down her cheek and resting them gently under her chin.
Daphne wondered if he understood what she was really asking.
Could she trust Kronos? Any other man would take advantage of the situation.
Daphne was naked in the bed of a powerful creature—there was no one she could call to for help.
She was placing her safety completely in his hands.
“We will stop when I make you come.”
Daphne frowned. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Aren’t you going to come too?”
He shook his head. “Tonight is not about me.”
Daphne stared at him, hardly believing that she’d heard him correctly.
When the silence dragged on, he frowned and said, “Unless you do not wish to come. We can kiss all night if that is what you wish. I will not let it go any further. You have my word.”
Kronos was missing the point, she realized. He thought she was upset, that they’d gone too far already. In reality, she was in shock. Daphne had never in her entire life had a man offer to make her come without the expectation that she would return the favor.
When she still didn’t respond, he said, “Daphne, you must talk to me. I cannot read your mind.”
She shifted in his arms. “You’re…sure you don’t want to come?”
A small smile tilted his lips. “I would not say that.”
“I mean, you’re sure that you don’t want to come tonight?”
He nodded. “I am sure I do not want that tonight.”
“But doesn’t that bother you?”
“Why would it bother me?”
“Won’t you feel…angry…at me?”
Kronos frowned. “No,” he said simply.
It was just a single word, yet Daphne believed him.
Basilisks could not lie, and there could be nothing more straightforward than the word no.
The man before her was not angry. He had displayed nothing but restraint and kindness in her presence.
Before tonight, she might have considered his behavior an anomaly.
Perhaps it was time she accepted it as his true nature.
She felt as if she were unlearning years’ worth of behavior that she’d experienced with all the boys before him.
She couldn’t imagine how much self-control Kronos was exhibiting when her own desire was so debilitating.
Surely, for him it was far worse. If the hardness of his cock was any indication, he was just as turned on as she was, if not more.
“But isn’t it difficult for you?” she whispered. “To resist?”
Kronos sighed. His fingers were still inside her, though they had stilled. Even thinking about coming made her wetter than she already was. She wondered if he could feel it.
“Of course it is difficult,” he said quietly. “But you are worth the wait.”
Daphne could barely comprehend his words. “How can you know that?”
“I just know.”
“But—”
“Daphne.” He raised his other finger to her lips. “Enough. Will you let me make you come?”
It was hard to say no to that. So Daphne said, “Yes.”
Kronos’s fingers began to move again. He stroked her slowly, building a rhythm, adjusting his motions based on the noises she made.
She could not believe how intuitive he was.
His touch was nothing like the way the men from the village touched her.
They usually didn’t touch her at all—foreplay was hardly something she was used to.
Now she savored it, and she wasn’t the only one.
It was clear that bestowing pleasure was something Kronos was skilled at and that he enjoyed.
He pressed kisses everywhere on her body, inhaling her skin.
He swept his thumbs over her nipples, hardening them before palming her breasts.
He was already shirtless, so Daphne touched him too, brushing her hands over the planes of his abs, feeling every dip and ridge of his muscles as they flexed beneath his skin.
Every part of him was hard. Time no longer existed.
They simply kissed and touched each other as slowly as they pleased, until finally Daphne felt something beginning to build. She needed it faster now. Harder.
“More,” she gasped.
Kronos turned her over so she was facing the mattress, positioning her so she was on her hands and knees.
He kept two fingers inside her while his other hand wrapped around, dipping between her thighs.
He pumped his fingers in and out as he rubbed her clitoris, drawing another moan from Daphne.
It felt like sex even though it wasn’t. He was only using his fingers—pushing her there with nothing but his hands.
She was soaking wet. It was simultaneously the most calm and feral she had ever felt.
Daphne articulated her pleasure without fear, gasping and crying out as he brought her closer and closer to the edge.
“Don’t stop,” she moaned. “Please don’t stop.”