Her expression crumpled at his answer.“It’s hard to go with you here.”
Her voice was still strained, though, whether it was her embarrassed awkwardness inspiring the sound or actual pain she was feeling, he couldn’t know for sure.
There was quite a gulf between the two.Shame was an emotion he would wield against her until she came to accept there was truly nothing for her to be ashamed about.Any disgrace she felt about her body, its natural functions, or her sexuality had been taught to her by a society obsessed with oppressing her gender.Kronos did not approve of the objective.
Realizing that for a being hellbent on capturing and conditioning women, that might seem like a hypocritical thought, his lips twitched.To him, though, the distinction was clear.The world Kristina had grown up in wanted to keep her small and blinkered, whereas he intended to nurture her until she was ready to fly.His binds and control would wane as she grew, until one day, just like Shelley, she would be ready to spread her wings.
There was an odd pride in the accomplishment.To take a woman who was so needy for male approval and give her more than she could contend with seemed like a strange remedy, but experience had taught him that it worked.By the time she was ready to truly surrender to him, she would also be ready to stand in her own power.
Until then, she was his.
She would swallow her pride and empty her bladder, and that was the end of it.
“You need to relax,” he told her.“Tell me something about yourself that I do not know.”
He wandered to the tub and perched on the edge of it, intentionally averting his eyes from her predicament.He hoped the gesture would ease her mortification enough to expedite the task she needed to achieve.
“Like what, Master?”
He loved her frantic tone and the way she appeared to have settled into a rhythm with his honorific, but her accelerating heart rate still concerned him.If she could not assuage her anxiety, his magic would insist she calm.
“What do you normally do to relax?”His gaze remained straight ahead, but he could see her reflection in the corner of the hefty mirror.With her eyes shut and her head lowered, however, she seemed not to have noticed.
“I…” Another pause where she consciously drew in and blew out a breath.“I see my friends, I listen to music… Sometimes, I like to drink.”
Ah, yes, alcohol.
He wanted to shake his head.He hadn’t known she’d been drinking until he’d overheard Kristina talking with the female who’d cooked her dinner.Standing in the ether, he’d heard how she’d deflected her friend’s question about her alcohol intake, and suddenly, the way she’d insulted him in that initial message made sense.It was the alcohol that had insisted she reach out with her drunken slurs, and alcohol that had likely lubricated the wheels in her mind and made her message in the first place.
He wasn’t sure if he should rebuke the drug or be thankful for it.
“What kind of music do you like?”
Perhaps he’d address the matter of her drinking, but that was a decision for another day.At any rate, there would be no such indulgences while she was under his protection.Her diet would be clean and created to provide all the nutrition her body needed.There would be no inebriation.
“Erm…” She shrugged, and as her shoulders fell, she was finally able to relieve the pressure on her bladder.
Watching the relief on her face in the mirror, he bit back on his smile.“Well done, little one.”
Her body straightened at his condescending praise, and all at once, her gaze met his in the mirror.She hadn’t answered his question about music, but the way shock and embarrassment were etched into her features was compensation enough.
“I can’t believe you watched me, Master.”Her tone was scathing, but rather than aggravate him, he only smirked at the spike of defiance.
“I am your divine protector, Kristina.”Pushing away from the tub, he spun to face her, realizing how much his words chimed.He was used to taking and taming women, used to having his own way and wielding his power to further his pleasure, but in her, he sensed something more; a lingering desire to nurture as well as sculpt her into a person of his pleasing.The burgeoning feeling was as disconcerting as it was unfamiliar.“Whether you see me or not, little one,” he went on, “you should know I willalwaysbe watching you.”
Chapter Three
Kris
Kris’ head throbbed with an incessant pounding, anguish and frustration rising as she turned to flush the system.
What the hell had she done to provoke Kronos and his relentless, unwarranted attention?Leaning on the edge of the pristine-looking toilet, the answers came to her.
She’d got drunk and sent a message, and after her housemates had left, she’d gone out for a pizza.
Those were the grand total of her crimes.
Being out in the evening was the reason she’d been attacked by the disgusting thugs, who she had no doubt Kronos had protected her from, but it was also why she was there in the shiny white bathroom.Even though she could rationally deconstruct the timeline of events, still, none of what had happened to her made sense.
