Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Kristina
What was happening to her?
Staring into Kronos’ mesmerizing eyes, the query bounced around Kris’ mind.
She was completely naked and painfully aware of how close she was to the flimsy towel covering him.
She should have been fighting him off, or struggling to be free at least, yet what was she doing?
Gazing into his fucking eyes like he was her lover.
She clenched the muscles between her legs, conscious that, despite everything, she would have been more than happy to take him to bed.
Even after everything he’d done to her. She’d been searching for a man who could make a tangible impression on her life, and then, in the blur of an attack on the freezing street she lived on, the answer had revealed himself.
But instead of taking her in his arms, Kronos had taken her for himself.
Her gaze lowered to watch his long fingers tracing circles on her upper thigh.
She suppressed the shiver that threatened to rise at the intimate gesture.
He had no right to touch her there, but then, he had no right to inflict any of the predicament on her, but there she was, hypnotized by his tender caresses.
Worse, the bugger actually had the temerity to spank her, her smarting skin a constant reminder whenever she squirmed.
She should have fought him off, should never have permitted the outrageous deed, but then, how could she have stopped him?
How could a woman who lived on one decent meal a day have any chance against a wall of muscle like Kronos?
Her throat dried at the thought of him, and staring at his muscular frame, she was disconcerted to realize that same unnerving sense of tranquility that had haunted her early minutes alone in the cell washed over her again.
It wasn’t logical to be calm in the face of such adversity, but somehow, in the pit of her churning stomach, she knew that she would be all right.
That’s crazy! He just spanked me!
There was no denying that the repeated brunt of his palm had hurt, yet sitting astride his giant frame, she finally understood the distinction he’d tried to explain. Her ass stung, but the only real damage done had been to her pride.
“And so?”
She tensed at the deep resonance of his voice, certain she sensed it traveling through her body, collecting at the tiny bundle of nerves grazing against his towel.
It wasn’t right that she should have such a visceral reaction to her captor, but she couldn’t deny the shot of energy his tone ignited along her spine, or how comfortable she was being naked around him.
She’d have preferred to be clothed, but if she had to be nude and incarcerated, at least it was with an enigmatic giant like him.
She bit down on the inappropriate thought. She shouldn’t have thought about him that way, should have pushed all thoughts of her attraction to him to the back of her frazzled mind, but whenever she tried, he just crept right back inside.
There was nowhere to hide.
“Do you want to vent your anger?” His hazel orbs suggested he was serious, but she couldn’t believe he was actually giving her permission to attack him.
Sure, she couldn’t outsprint him or hope to break free of his grasp if he intended to hold her, but she was sure her nails could do some damage to his exposed flesh.
Whoever he was, he was flesh and bones, wasn’t he?
Her focus flitted to that vast expanse of muscles, as if to confirm the point.
“Why do you keep calling me a mortal?” Puzzled, her gaze rose to his, and the dark flicker there instantly reminded her of her mistake. “Master.”
She added the final word in haste, hoping it would earn her a reprieve. Having just been turned the right way up, the last thing she wanted to do was to provoke the bear of a man into another round of so-called punishment.
“Just in time, little one.” His timbre spoke of warnings she should adhere to, but the way his lips curled reassured her that the amnesty had been granted.
“I’m sorry, Master.”
Her brow creased as she tried to decide whether she was actually remorseful. There were no good reasons she should have to call Kronos her master, yet she enjoyed the way the subservience pooled arousal at the apex of her thighs.
She’d chased boys who’d pretended to be men for too long, when all along there was a specimen like him out there, just waiting for her.
Kris might not have chosen to be there, at his mercy, but aside from the humiliating way he took control of her body and demanded she call him Master, she wasn’t blind to the obvious benefits he could provide.
His authority and strength were tangibly alluring.
“Are you not mortal?” he fired back at her.
“Well, yes, but…” Kris searched his face, looking for any sign of humor.
Kronos had implied that he was more than human, but she had never genuinely taken those assertions seriously.
She understood biology, and she knew there was no superior species to humanity on the planet.
But she knew physics, too, and that knowledge made comprehending his capabilities all the more difficult to reconcile.
There should have been no way Kronos could have done the things he had, yet she’d seen them with her own eyes, and if he’d drugged her, wouldn’t she have experienced other side-effects by then? “Aren’t you?”
She couldn’t believe she was asking.
“I do not think you are ready to hear that answer yet.” His free hand rose to her face, brushing past her right breast en route to take her chin between his fingers. She swore her heart stopped beating as he held her in place.
“So, you’re saying you’re not?” Her pulse quickened at the intensity in his eyes, her mind battling to comprehend what she was hearing. “That doesn’t make sense, Master.”
“Perhaps not.” His smile widened. “But we are not here to discuss the meaning of our existence, Kristina. At least, not today. What is your answer? Do you intend to vent, or shall I put you back to bed?”
Back to bed?
She could hardly keep up. One moment, he was talking about her understandable anger, and the next, he was speaking about her as though she was five years old.
“I don’t want to go back to bed.” She flinched, appreciating how petulant she sounded, lending weight to his patronizing tone.
One of those dark eyebrows cocked at her reply, the gesture sending her heart rate hammering even faster while the fingers at her chin tightened a fraction.
“Master, please. I’m not a child.”
She corrected herself quickly, exasperated that he required the title every time she opened her mouth. It was bad enough calling him her master, but having to say so after every sentence was going to be exhausting.
“No.” His eyes were hungry as his gaze took in the length of her body. “You are most certainly no child.”
The hand at her jaw withdrew, falling slowly before cradling the mound of her breast. She inhaled at his audacity, her attention falling to watch him enjoy the weight of the tissue.
Holding her breast was his boldest sexual advance yet, and even though her brain screamed at her to protest, she just couldn’t bring herself to stop him.
His huge palm was warm, and while her assets were far from small, his hand easily dwarfed the size of her breast, allowing his long fingers to skim over her budding nipple.
She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to watch the way her body responded.
Instead of telling him to leave her alone, or at least trying to push his hand away, she remained frozen, while her groaning body betrayed her.
Kronos had terrified her at times, appearing out of thin air and taking control of her body, but she could already tell he was more than only a monster.
A monster wouldn’t have given a damn about her fate at the hands of the street thugs, and he wouldn’t have waited to take what he so clearly wanted.
What we both want.
Her tingling clitoris assured her it was what she wanted too.
His hand shifted, permitting his fingers to gently grasp her erect nipple.
She lurched forward at the caress, an embarrassing moan escaping her throat as her eyes fluttered open.
Breath catching, red flags were waving in her head like a parade.
She shouldn’t have been permitting him to touch her, but all she could muster was another mortifying mewl.
His touch was better than it had any right to be.
She’d fancied the look of Kronos from that first glimpse on the street, and even though she didn’t understand who he was or how he was managing any of her surroundings, she did comprehend her body’s instinctual reflexes.
That was why she hadn’t balked when he’d righted her, leaving her legs astride his strapping thighs.
She couldn’t say so aloud, but she longed to discover what he was hiding beneath that towel.
As if the organ had heard her thoughts and sought to offer its own explanation, she sensed his cock pushing the towel against her inner thigh. Throat drying, her attention dropped to acknowledge its effort.
“Your breasts are glorious.” Raspy desire laced his usual baritone, and suspended in ecstatic torment, she watched as his second hand rose to mirror the actions of the first.
“Oh, God.” Her head fell back at the sensations, all thoughts of resistance lost to the frenzy of her growing lust.
She shouldn’t have wanted him, but she fucking did.
“Master will do.” His fingers tightened into hard pinches, and she let out a pained yelp. “Yes, these wonderful buds will do very nicely, little one. I want to take them in my mouth and worship them.”
Breaths laboring, her gaze flitted back to his handsome face. Had he really just said that out loud?
“You like that idea.” His grin was a little self-satisfied for her liking, but her thoughts were lost rapidly when she noticed her body was slowly moving.
Peering around him, she realized her body was elevating, rising a few inches until her ass had left his thighs and her breasts were perfectly aligned with his mouth. Looking up, she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror, barely recognizing the red-faced woman blinking back.
Heart thundering faster, she reached for his shoulders to steady herself. Instead of panic, there was only excited anticipation. She wanted to know what his lips would feel like on her nipples.
“Come here.”
His fingers released her nipples, and she floated an inch or two nearer to his body until the edge of her left bud was close enough to feel the heat of his breath.
“Master.”
The word was reflexive. She had no idea whether she was urging him to halt or imploring him to carry on. Not that it mattered. Kronos was going to have his way, and she couldn’t recall ever being more thrilled at a prospect.
Watching his mouth part, she held her breath as his lips closed around her teat, her own mouth stretching wide when his tongue whipped over her bud.
“Oh my…” she started, but whatever she was about to say next was splintered when his lips closed and his hot mouth suckled at her.
Her fingers stiffened at his huge shoulders, a strangled noise leaving her lips as she grappled with the intensity of sensation. Kris had always adored having her breasts played with, but enjoying the full focus of Kronos’ mouth was something else entirely.
Gazing down at his work, she scanned the look of his dark hair, wishing she had the nerve to bury her fingers between the strands.
“Delicious,” he purred, his concentration flying back to her face as, somehow, he maneuvered her body so that her other breast hovered before him.
She couldn’t say how it felt to be suspended in a state of such bliss, only that, as he captured her, she knew she went willingly.
Need bloomed between her legs, a wave more potent than any she’d ever felt with Shaun, and she knew that she yearned for Kronos.
She needed him to remind her what it was like to be a woman.
Like a fly drawn into a spider’s web, she was going to be eaten up, and she knew it.
She should have been flying away as fast as she could, crawling out of that web and seeking freedom, yet already it was too late.
Her fate was sealed.
When his lips closed around her second beading nipple, the sensation splintered all conceivable need to even wonder why.