He had made sure of that.
“Come.”Relaxing back on his seat, he lifted one hand and beckoned her forward.“One way or the other, you will do as you’re told.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kristina
This isn’t happening.
The panicked statement bounded around Kris’ mind, echoing again as she tried to think.But flattened against the strange effervescent wall, she realized that, unless she was the one suffering from a psychotic break, everything she was witnessing was, in fact, taking place.
The room she’d woken up in, without any windows and doors, was some type of cell, designed to confine her.The binds that had been at her limbs until recently had held her in place, and then there was Kronos…
The man before her, who claimed to be some preternatural power and insisted she call himMasterwas like no one else she’d ever encountered.Physically more like a mountain than a man, he had released her binds with little more than a wave of his hand,andhe appeared to be threatening her with physical force.
Her throat dried.She didn’t know how any of it was transpiring, but unless she was hallucinating the entire affair, itwastaking place, and she needed to wrap her head around that.
“But you said!”Her voice rang out with recrimination as her heart pounded faster.He hadn’t moved from his seat, but she believed in his threat.There was a dangerous glint in his eyes.“You said you wouldn’t hurt me!”
“I said I wouldn’tharmyou,” he reiterated slowly.“And I stand by that vow.I will care for you, feed you, and make sure you rest when it’s required.All of your needs will be met.”
“But you’ll spank me?”She heard the indignation in her voice, but even then, her head couldn’t keep up with the unravelling reality.
“And I will,” he confirmed in an absurdly calm tone.“Spanking you will not cause you permanent harm.It will, however, remind you what happens the next time you ignore one of my instructions.”His smile stretched into a grin.“And of course, you’ll now be receiving additional swats for repeatedly refusing to refer to me correctly.”
“But…” Her head was fuzzy, almost as though she’d had one too many drinks the night before and couldn’t think straight, except she’d only been drinking herbal tea before she’d gone out for pizza.Not a drop of alcohol had passed her lips.“This isn’t fair, Master!”
How dare he belittle her with talk of physical reprimands?Kris was a grown woman, not a child.It was awful enough that he was insisting she call him her master, a demand she was adhering to avoid escalating her predicament.She didn’t merit being snatched from her own street, let alone spanked like a wayward infant.
For the hundredth time since she’d stirred, she was at a loss to understand how she’d ended up there.He’d said he brought her after dealing with the men who’d attacked her, but she only had hazy recollections of that time, a vague memory of curling up in his arms coming to mind as her gaze flitted to his.
“Fair?”He tilted his head, his lips twitching as though she was the most amusing thing he’d ever seen.That expression only irritated her, amplifying her angry denial as he went on.“You don’t know anything about fairness, little one, so do not speak to me of it.Concentrate on impressing me.You shall only suffer more if you fail to please.”
“No.”
She hadn’t meant to say the word out loud, but staring at his imperious expression, how could she help it?She could scarcely grasp his temerity.Had he brought her there so he could hurt her?She shuddered at the thought, ignoring the low thrumming panic in the pit of her chest that reminded her what men usually wanted when they snatched women.
Sex.
He wanted sex.That was why he’d stripped her.That was why he made no bones about manhandling her.He saw her as nothing more than an object; a female to use and abuse at will.
She wrapped her arms around her legs and rocked herself on the bed, trying to assuage her spiraling anxiety and make sense of her competing feelings.It had been relatively easy to placate her sense of doom when she’d woken up, yet sitting there, her plight was all too evident.Naked and trapped, she had no chance against a hulk like Kronos, and worse still was the lingering reality that she might not want to resist him.
“Even now you tell me no.”Scoffing at her response, the giant shook his head, but she was relieved to see her reply didn’t seem to have angered him.“And you do so without acknowledging that I am your master.”
“But you’re not!”she contended, surprised at the tears blurring in her eyes.Fury was mingling with her fear, and she hoped, with enough impetus, the two emotions could erase any doubt that she was anything but outraged.“Taking me and making me say it doesn’t make it true.”
An edgy hush filled the space, an unhurried silence that brought with it its own perils.Clutching at her knees, she found she missed the relief of their banter.The quiet offered nothing but menace.As if to confirm the point, he glowered in her direction, his eyes narrowing when he spoke again.
“You will come to me for your spanking.”He didn’t shout, but his voice boomed around the room with the resonant power of thunder.
“I will not,” she whispered, dismayed at the comparative weakness of her response.
Still, she had responded.There was no way she was getting up and ceding to his ridiculous request.She’d done nothing wrong.How was she supposed to know that the messages she’d received the prior day had come from Kronos, and even if she’d upset him, inflicting pain on her was not the answer.She would not give in to his lunacy.
“You have made your choice, then.”Disappointment hardened in his stare, and something about that dark look in his hazel eyes tightened the knot of tension in her tummy.“I want you to remember that.”
“What choice, Master?”
