“That’s right.”His voice was softer when he spoke again, and he leaned closer, his huge body approaching her.“You came with me after that, and you have slept ever since.”
Her brows knitted at the confusing news, but yet again, she was reticent to ask too many questions.One query, though, plagued her for an answer.
“Where am I, Kronos?”
It seemed preposterous using that name to address him, but she noted the way his chin rose when she did, his lips curling into the smile he had previously denied.Her gaze lingered on his face, admiring his features; his knowing eyes and those chiseled cheekbones, which were lit up by the gesture.
Who the hell was this guy, and why did he have her bound to the bed?
A part of her suspected she knew the answer to the latter question, apprehension twisting in her tummy as she tried to decide how she felt about the likelihood.Someone as strong as Kronos clearly didn’t need restraints to take what he wanted.His performance on the street proved that.If he was going to force himself on her, then there wasn’t much she could do to stop him, even if her hands and feet had magically been freed.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the whole predicament, though, was the other aspect of her that wasn’t even sure she’d want to fight him off.He was gorgeous, after all, and despite the growing ache in her shoulders, she wasn’t opposed to the idea of being closer to him.
“You shall know soon.”His voice vibrated over her as though it were an erotic lullaby.“I must continue to convey what matters most.”
She gulped back the urge to repeat his words.As far as she was concerned, not many things mattered more than where the hell she was.
“Your arms are aching.”His words were less a question and more of a statement.
“Er, y-yes,” she replied, bewildered at how he could have read her thoughts on the subject.
He didn’t,she assured herself.He just deduced as much from the amount of time he’s held me here.
If he released her from her fetters, that had to be a promising sign.However strong he was, if a man could be reasoned with, there was hope.
“I shall release you, little one, but do not think to defy me.”One of his dark eyebrows arched as though challenging her to disobey.
Whether Kristina was pinioned into surrender by fear alone, she couldn’t be sure.Lust circled her body, collecting between her legs and goading her.Staring at his foreboding expression, though, she hoped the giant couldn’t sense her admiration.
“I won’t.”Her voice was hardly a whisper when she finally replied.
“Master.”His tone was hard, his glare unforgiving as it bored down at her.“You shall refer to me hereafter as your master.”
Master?
Kristina’s lips parted.She wanted to tell him no, that he had no right to bind her or insist she call him anything of the sort, but the words refused to form.Instead, her brain whirred into action, analyzing her situation and calibrating how she should best react.
The man who’d taken her, presumably drugged her, and subsequently tethered her, demanded that she call him Master.She should have been enduring one of her worst nightmares, yet still, an unnerving veil of calm descended over her, convincing her not to give in to panic.
She didn’t understand the compulsion, but meeting Kronos’ determined gaze, she was grateful for it.Unravelling into hysteria wouldn’t help her at that most pivotal of moments.Better that she relinquished as he suggested.Give her abductor what he wanted and keep him as amenable as possible.Sooner or later, there would be an opportunity to escape, and once she was freed and in a position to take that chance, she would flee.Until then, she’d have to swallow back her outrage at the idea of submitting to the virtual stranger.
“Kristina.”The muscles of her body tightened at the terse sound of her name.“Comply, please.”He scowled, folding his muscular arms across his chest.“You will do well not to make me wait.”
“Master.”She forced out the word, finding it was easier to say than she’d feared.No one was her true master, but he needn’t know that.
The word was said, the giant appeased.
“I’ll be good, I promise.”
“You promise?”His lips tugged into a smirk.“Human promises are like your bodies; weak and easily broken.”
He cast a glower in her direction, the thrumming anxiety in her belly knotting in response.Had he just talked about breaking bodies?Her toes curled, her mind unable to keep up with her contrasting emotions.One moment, she imagined being with him, and the next, he said something ugly like that.
“I’ll be good,” she repeated, trying to collect her thoughts.
It wasn’t the first time Kronos had referred to ‘humans,’ a premise Kris found utterly confusing.Did he think he was superhuman?Her focus flitted over his Adonis-like body again.Perhaps all that physical strength had led him to believe he was some sort of god.
The theory made sense.If Kronos was suffering from a type of psychotic breakdown, he could have persuaded himself of an alternative reality, possibly taking pharmaceuticals to reinforce the delusion.
