He pressed his lips into a hard line at the amusing thought.There should have been no possibility that the diminutive woman beside him was a match for the king of the Titans, but there she was—apparently sent to taunt him with her science and her ceaseless questions.
“Master, I…” She swallowed, retreating to the wall when he approached.
“Come now,” he teased, aware of his cock stirring beneath his tunic.“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”
Her gaze flitted past his shoulder as though she was desperately trying to think, and ignoring the gesture, he pressed gently against her.
“Kristina.”Her name was an intentional sigh on his voice, her gaze widening as it darted back to him.
“I’m sorry, Master.”Her focus crawled over his pectorals en route to his face.“I’m flustered, and I can’t think.”
He liked the way she admitted her reasoning, at least.
“When I fucked your ass by the fire.”Taking her chin in one hand, he stroked the soft skin of her jaw and tugged the blanket from her shoulders with the other hand.“What did I tell you that you were?”
Emotion flickered in her deep blue eyes.“You said I belonged to you, Master.”Her throaty plea spoke directly to his cock.
“That’s right,” he purred, pleased that, in the end, she had remembered.“You aremine.”
He lowered with the final word, discarding the blanket entirely and lifting her from the ground until they stared directly into each other’s gazes.
“Yes.”Her attention flitted to her feet as far as his fingers allowed as she realized she was levitating, but she didn’t question the deed.“I’m yours.”
“So whatever troubles you, troubles me, little one.”Pinning her against the wall, he ensured there was nowhere for her focus to be except on him.“Tell me why you were crying.”
He wanted to kiss her again, wanted to press her against the wall and make her take every inch of him, but he knew Shelley was waiting to advance, and time was of the essence.Once his brunette was safely delivered back to her timeline, there would no longer be any restraints on the time he could spend with Kristina.Her physical limitations would then become his only constraint.
Pulling in a pained breath, Kristina gulped.“Master, if I tell you why, you might be angry with me.”
“I will not,” he assured her.“Remember rule four, little one.What might encourage my fury is not your truth, but your reticence to reveal it.”
He watched as a solitary tear made a track along her face.Tears had long been a source of such intrigue for him.Not specific to mortals, he had witnessed them over the centuries and still hadn’t comprehended their meaning.As someone who’d never knowingly shed a single one, the tears he’d seen had often seemed motivated more by frustration than melancholy.
“When I woke and you were gone, I panicked.”She blew out a breath.“The room got smaller somehow, and then I was thinking...”Her eyes fluttered closed, and again, he sensed she was holding back the truth from him.“I realized I can’t do this.”
Caressing her cheek, he tried to follow her logic.She’d decided that she couldn’t stay there with him, although he was sure there was more to the story.
“Kristina.”His tone was harder that time, the timbre drawing her eyes open in an instant.“There is no escaping me.You know that, don’t you?”
Her lips parted, shock shining in her blue eyes.“But I have to, Master.”A sob caught in the back of her throat.“I can’t stay here anymore.”Her gaze flitted around her cell in dismay.
“Tell me.”His gaze drilled into her.“Wereyou thinking about leaving?”
Hadn’t he made her happy since she’d woken?Hadn’t he made sure she was looked after and gratified?The idea that she—the most aligned woman to his needs that he’d ever found—would consider fleeing from him was like a knife to his heart.
He had to make her understand; she had to stay.
Blowing out a breath, she lifted her chin.“Yes, Master.”The glint in her eyes was colder at the confession.“I’m thankful for everything you’ve done for me, but I have to get out of here.”
Chapter Seventeen
Kris
Kris had no other choice.The smothering panic that had gripped at her esophagus had decided for her.It didn’t matter how good it was to be held, commanded, and pleasured by him, she could never again wake up in the suffocating white room.
Of course, she couldn’t tell him that, though, couldn’t share the way the space had grown tinier with every frantic breath.A man as mighty as Kronos would surely think her even weaker and more pathetic than he likely already did, and staring into his compelling eyes, she couldn’t accept that disapproval.He was already in charge, and he was obviously stronger than her.She needed to retain dominion over her own mind, block out his voice in her head, and ensure she didn’t cede to the insidious terror of her claustrophobia for a second time.
“Oh, little one.”He sighed, the dark clouds in his eyes returning.“You are mistaken.”
