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.
