CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO #2
“No.” He shook his head. “You are indebted to your mentor. They are the one who will teach you everything you need to know about sex. Without them, you cannot become a proper member of basilisk society. If they do not teach you well, you will be at a disadvantage from the start.”
Daphne processed this information in silent awe. Perhaps it was mundane to Kronos, but it was all quite magical to her. “Is your mentor…still around?”
Daphne was trying to gauge whether or not she needed to be jealous of someone who had taught Kronos everything he knew.
“No,” he said. “She lives by the sea.”
Daphne nodded. Good. “Do you go there often?”
“I do not. It is a long journey, and my duty is here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Only basilisks who live underneath the mountain can compete to become Serpent King. If I leave for too long, I will lose my opportunity to rule.”
His words only reminded Daphne of the decision she had to make tomorrow. Rather than dwell on it, she said, “Do basilisks get married?”
“We do, although it is rare.”
“Why?”
“Most basilisks do not wish to tether themselves to one person.”
“When you put it that way, it doesn’t sound very romantic.”
Kronos smiled. “We do not view marriage as the humans do. Papers and legality mean nothing to us. Basilisks care only that you are loyal with your heart.”
“So even if someone is married…”
“They may sleep with anyone they wish as long as their heart does not stray.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That’s alarming.”
Kronos laughed. “That is the basilisk way.”
Eventually, Daphne ran out of questions. In the silence Kronos leaned in slowly, closing the space between them inch by inch until his lips were on hers. The kiss deepened. Normally Daphne would have been ready for it to go further. But now, she felt like a raw nerve. So she pulled away.
“Kronos,” she whispered, “would you mind if we…don’t do anything tonight?”
He drew away too, looking at her for the briefest of moments before pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. “I do not mind, Daphne.”
He nestled her deeper into his arms, curling his body around hers.
Daphne thought about the events of the evening—of the drastic difference between the way Maximus and Kronos handled rejection.
When Daphne had refused the prince’s advances, he’d reacted in anger.
When she’d refused Kronos’s, he’d reacted with nothing but understanding and kindness.
It was a marked difference, and one that was not lost on her.
It was exactly the type of behavior she wanted in a partner—in a man.
Even if Kronos wasn’t a man, he acted like a better one than Maximus would ever be.
By anyone else’s account, Kronos was a monster.
Perhaps the prince was more deserving of that moniker.
Utterly at peace, Daphne fell asleep in Kronos’s arms.
When she woke, he was still asleep. She took the opportunity to study his face, admiring every stunning angle.
His burnished hair was long, thrown over his shoulders like a waterfall.
It had a natural wave to it, but not quite enough to be curly.
His mouth was relaxed, his lips forming a perfect arch in the middle.
Eventually, her gaze traveled lower. She studied his neck, sculpted as if from marble.
Her eyes traced the great slope of his shoulders, following them down to his biceps.
Kronos’s hand was splayed on the bed between them, and without thinking, Daphne set hers gently next to it, comparing their sizes.
His pinkie finger was longer than her middle one.
She stared at his abs, which were devastatingly chiseled.
Daphne wondered if he had to work for them or if all basilisks were built this way.
His beauty was already unfair enough—it didn’t seem right that he didn’t expend some sort of effort to look like this.
There was a prominent vein that ran from his lower abdomen all the way to the head of his cock.
Daphne flushed at the sight. The urge to touch it—to run her fingertip gently down that undulating ridge—was so strong she could hardly resist it.
She was actually considering doing it when Kronos opened his eyes.
“Daphne,” he said quietly, his voice a rumble in the darkness.
“Sorry,” she said quickly. “I was just—”
“Looking at my cock while I was asleep.”
Daphne blushed immediately. It was exactly what she’d been doing.
“You may look as much as you like,” Kronos said with a smile. Her blush only deepened. This seemed to amuse Kronos, and he tilted his knee open, revealing himself even more.
“Well?” he said. “Is it acceptable to you?”
It was far more than acceptable. Kronos had the most beautiful cock Daphne had ever seen. “Don’t pretend you don’t know you have a perfect cock,” she snapped.
Kronos let out a bark of laughter. “Says the woman with the perfect cunt.”
Daphne’s mouth fell open.
At her expression, Kronos only smiled wider. “Am I the first to tell you that?”
“Yes,” Daphne said. “You are.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Well, it’s true. And you don’t know that it’s perfect. You haven’t even been inside it yet.”
Kronos raised an eyebrow. “Yet?”
Daphne shook her head, trying to dispel the moment. “I just mean that—”
“Daphne,” he cut her off, placing his hand on her knee. “I am only teasing you. You know I am in no rush.”
Daphne did know that. Kronos showed her every day, through his actions, that he was not interested in pressuring her to do anything she didn’t want to do. His patience was, quite frankly, astounding at this point. Silence fell as Daphne tried and failed to stop looking at his cock.
Kronos smiled. “You may also touch it, if you wish. You do not need to ask.”
She blushed. “I was only looking at it because you were asleep.”
“You may touch it even if I am asleep. Every part of me is available to you.”
Daphne stared at him. She couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. “You’d let me…touch you while you’re asleep?”
He was watching her calmly. “Of course.”
“But why?”
“Because while I may be waiting for you, you may do whatever you wish to me. I trust you with my body whether I am conscious or not. And I can assure you, I would not be asleep for long.”
Daphne stared at him in disbelief.
Kronos sat up, pressing a slow kiss to her lips.
“My cock is yours, Daphne,” he murmured.
He took her hand in his, wrapping it around his shaft.
“This is yours.” He guided her fingers down until they reached the base.
“And this.” He cupped his balls in her palm, squeezing their hands together.
“Whenever you want it. You do not have to ask. It all belongs to you.”
This entire conversation was making her quite warm.
Daphne understood that Kronos was saying this in order to encourage her to trust him.
If he disarmed himself before her, she would feel comfortable enough to disarm herself in return.
To her surprise, it was working. So when Kronos guided her hand back to his shaft, she let him.
And when he moved so they were stroking his cock together, she moved with him.
Up and down. A motion Daphne knew well. But with Kronos, it was sacred.
His cock was the only one she wanted to stroke—his lips the only ones she wanted to kiss.
This was a man she trusted. This was a real man.
The air around them filled with smoke. Daphne ran her tongue over his shoulder, tasting his skin.
Kronos slipped his fingers between her legs.
She gasped as he touched her, sliding only his fingertips back and forth over her clitoris.
No one she had ever been with understood her body like Kronos did. No one else cared to understand.
“So wet,” he murmured. “Every time I touch you.”
“You’re the one who makes me that way.”
“It is easy to do so.”
Daphne didn’t bother being offended. It was not an insult anyway.
She just stroked faster, and Kronos did too.
If his other hand hadn’t been grasping hers, she would have lost her rhythm.
Instead Kronos pumped their hands along his cock while pumping his fingers inside her, pushing them both toward their climax.
Daphne reached hers first, arching her neck as Kronos angled his hand so that his entire palm rubbed against her clitoris.
She thrashed against it desperately, grinding herself into oblivion.
Kronos came next, his cum spilling over both their hands.
Without thinking, Daphne dipped down to taste it, licking it first from the head of his cock and then from his fingers, savoring it as if it were sugar.
The moment she straightened, Kronos kissed her.
When they finally pulled apart, he smiled.
Daphne had only one thing left to say, and she did not need to wait until morning to say it. She’d seen the way two men had acted tonight, and she understood the difference between them. Daphne may no longer be in the running to be queen, but she could still help the one person she trusted to rule.
She looked Kronos in the eye and whispered, “I will do the Ranking.”