CHAPTER FORTY-THREE #2
Daphne splayed her palms on his chest, adjusting her posture so that she could control her rhythm.
Then she rode him in earnest, no longer going slow.
The moment she began to move, Kronos moved too, thrusting from below so they were locked in perfect rhythm, working together the way only two people who loved each other could.
Sweat pooled between his abs. Scales spread over his chest.
“Let me—” he gasped. “Please let me—”
Daphne barely heard him. She was too focused on her own pleasure, which was building in her relentlessly, starting in her core and reaching all the way to the tips of her fingers.
“Daphne,” Kronos moaned as he thrust. “Daphne, Daphne, Daphne—”
And just like that, she was coming.
Daphne threw her head back in triumph, crying out just as Kronos cried out too.
She felt his cum release inside her, and she wondered if he could feel hers too.
Without prompting, she leaned forward, dragging herself deliberately up and down his cock so she could enjoy every single inch, working her clitoris against his stomach, shuddering as she did so.
When she had finally drawn every bit of pleasure she could, she leaned forward, pressing herself against his torso.
Kronos’s arms wrapped around her, drawing her even closer. He was still inside her.
“Daphne,” he whispered. “How do you feel?”
There was nothing to say but the truth. “Incredible.”
The difference was extraordinary. Before they’d had sex, it was as if the world were going dark, the color drained from her surroundings.
Now she felt alive. Even Kronos looked more beautiful than he usually did—his skin was luminous, his eyes bright.
Daphne was suddenly struck by an urge to cry.
They had been through so much together, and now they were finally here, intertwined, safe in each other’s arms.
Daphne pressed her lips to his shoulder, murmuring against his skin, “I can’t believe how much I love you.”
Somehow it was easier to say it without looking him directly in the eye. But Kronos took her chin in his hand, pulling her face to his. “However much you love me,” he whispered, “it is but a fraction of what I feel for you.”
Perhaps a couple weeks ago she wouldn’t have believed him.
But Kronos was someone whose word meant something.
He did not speak rashly. He’d known long ago what she had only recently been willing to admit: They were made for each other.
Kronos had given his heart to her, and now Daphne had given him hers in return.
“It hurts,” she whispered.
He frowned. “What does?”
“The way I feel for you. It…almost feels like pain.”
Kronos sighed. “I am in pain too. But only when you are not around. Only when I think about what life would be like without you by my side. Love is not pain. The absence of the person you love is.”
Daphne nodded. She knew exactly what he meant. Whenever she thought about losing Kronos, an abyss opened in her chest. If she knew him at all, she knew he felt the same.
“I can’t lose you,” she whispered.
“You never will.”
He kissed her. They kissed for a long time, losing themselves in each other. Eventually, Daphne realized his cock was hard inside her. She sat up.
“You’re ready to go again?”
Kronos smiled up at her. “I am always ready.”
“That’s…extraordinary.”
“It is hardly an accolade.” He was sitting up too, pressing his lips to her neck. “All basilisks are capable of it.”
“Still,” Daphne muttered. She’d certainly been with her share of excitable village boys.
It hardly took a moment to get them in the mood.
But they were usually only good for one round.
After that they fell asleep, if they even stuck around at all.
Something else occurred to Daphne—something Kronos had told her the first night of the Ranking.
“Kronos,” she said as he kissed up her neck. “You said you had an ability that you’d show me when I was ready.”
She felt him smile. Then without warning, he rolled so he was on top of her, pulling out of her center and replacing his cock with his fingers. He touched her already tender clitoris.
“And you think you are ready?”
Daphne giggled as he nipped her ear. “Yes.”
“Mmm.” He was still fingering her, his body covering hers. “Is what we have already done not enough?”
Daphne pushed him back, looking him in the eye. She knew he was making fun of her, using a teasing tone. But she was eager to know this part of him—every part of him.
“I want to see,” she insisted.
The corner of his mouth turned up. “You do not even know what it is.”
“So show me.”
Kronos’s smile faded, replaced by an expression of absolute hunger.
If Daphne didn’t know he meant her no harm, it would have scared her.
She watched as he sat up straight. Daphne remained where she was, her body relaxed, every part of her exposed.
At first Kronos did nothing but look at her, and she looked back at him.
Then he leaned forward, taking her hand and placing her fingers right above his cock.
His skin was so warm it nearly burned her.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then Daphne felt something pressing against her skin.
She sat up. Without a doubt she knew she was about to witness something unthinkable.
Kronos kept her hand in place, holding her against him as his anatomy changed beneath her fingers.
Daphne was too shocked to speak. She was too shocked to breathe.
She could do nothing but stay stock-still as something grew into her hand, as rigid and thick and unyielding as its twin below it. There could be no doubt whatsoever.
Kronos had two cocks.
They were the exact same width and length, one directly on top of the other.
Daphne’s hand was already wrapped around the top one, and on pure instinct alone, she began to stroke.
Kronos let out an anguished moan as soon as she did so.
Without thinking, she took her other hand and placed it around the other cock.
At first she stroked them in tandem, then in opposing cadences, one slow and the other fast. Her mind was overwhelmed by the sheer possibility of what could be done with two cocks.
Everything, really. But there was only one thing Daphne truly wanted to do.
Without a word, she released him before lying back on the bed. She spread her legs.
Not a single thing was said, yet she knew Kronos understood what she wanted him to do. Now that Daphne had seen what he had to offer her, she was eager to experience it.
“Daphne,” he whispered, “are you certain?”
The same question he’d asked her at the beginning of the evening. Her answer was the same as it had been before: “Yes.”
Still, Kronos hesitated. “I have never done this with a human,” he said. “Only basilisks.”
If Daphne was not secure in their relationship, such a statement would have made her jealous. Instead she knew what he was saying: that he could not guarantee this would be pleasurable for her—that this was something a human might not be able to withstand.
“I understand.”
Time seemed to slow as Kronos reached for her. “It may hurt,” he whispered.
“I trust you.”
Daphne did not care if it hurt; she wanted to try it. There was nothing she wanted more.
Kronos shifted closer, adjusting her legs so they were wrapped around his waist. He positioned himself between them but did not enter her.
Instead he slid his fingers deep into her center, coating them with her wetness before slipping them lower, testing her gently, coaxing her open.
Daphne was trying very hard simply to breathe.
“I will go slow,” Kronos said, his voice strained with anticipation. “But I cannot read your mind. If you wish for me to stop, you must tell me.”
Daphne nodded. It was all she could manage.
She understood this was a reciprocal act of trust, that they were both being vulnerable with the other.
Carefully, Kronos aligned one cock with her center and the other with her asshole.
There was a pause as they both braced themselves for the inevitable. Then he began to push.
To be penetrated in two places at once—to be so full of cock—was an entirely unfamiliar sensation.
Had it been anyone else, Daphne would have hated it.
But this was Kronos. She wanted to be filled by him—to be fucked by him.
She wanted him to take her and claim her and mark her in any way he pleased.
She wanted to belong to him—only him—for as long as he would have her. Eternity, preferably, if not longer.
Kronos worked his way in slowly, at times pushing the lower cock in farther before switching to the upper one.
Back and forth, alternating so that neither stretched her too much at once.
Daphne breathed through it all, concentrating on nothing but the beautiful, caring man inside her.
On the next thrust, Daphne couldn’t help but wince.
Immediately, Kronos pulled back. “Do you wish for me to stop?”
Daphne shook her head.
He still didn’t move. “Are you in pain?”
Daphne shook her head again.
“Daphne,” Kronos whispered. “I do not want to hurt you.”
Even now, in the middle of the thing he wanted more than anything, he was only thinking of her. “I want to keep going.”
“But you are in pain.” Kronos began to pull out.
“No,” Daphne said, grabbing his waist and holding him against her. “Don’t.”
“Why? We have already consummated the crest. We do not need to do this.”
They stared at each other in the darkness. The moment felt so heavy—so significant—that Daphne was nearly suffocating beneath it. She looked defiantly up into his eyes, which were entirely consumed by blackness.
“I want all of you,” she whispered. “All of you, Kronos.”
What was worth doing if not this? Daphne had not come this far only to have half of him. She wanted everything he had to offer her—she wanted everything.
“I want all of you too,” Kronos said quietly. “But not if it hurts you.”