Page 230 of Kneel Before Me

A thousand previous interactions flashed through her mind: whispered words underneath the bridge. Orders. Demands. Daphne had never been in a position of power—never had any true say in what happened to her—for her.

“Just…kiss me. For now.”

Rather than the disappointment she expected, relief flashed over his face, followed by a hunger she knew quite well. And then he kissed her. True to his word, Kronos went slowly, and Daphne luxuriated in the intimacy of it. He waited until she trailed her fingers down his torso to trail his own down hers. He was the second man who’d unlaced her corset tonight. Unlike the way Maximus had done it—with feverish intensity—Kronos did so gently, loosening the lacing one grommet at a time until it fell from her body. Her dress followed and then her underclothing.

Daphne reached for his cock, and they touched each other at the same time, gently, in no hurry despite their circumstances. With every moment they spent together, Daphne felt better, as if someone were slowly turning the lights back on. She could breathe properly again. It was like the clouds were opening up and allowing in the sun. Kronos kissed tenderly down her neck, over her breasts, then back up her neck again. He returned always to her lips, paying special attention where he knew she needed it the most.

Slowly, Kronos slid his knee between her thighs, coaxing them open. Daphne completed the motion, tilting her legs so he could nestle between them. She was already wet; the foreplay had made her so. His cock was hard against her center, and even just that amount of contact made her even wetter. In a way they had been building toward this moment since the very first night they met—when they had stood in the cave and she’d told him she wouldn’t have sex with him.

How things had changed since then.

Now she knew Kronos’s character, and it was far beyond what she ever thought she deserved in a partner—far beyond what most men were even capable of. Yet Kronos was not a man at all. He was so much more; he was her protector. Her rock. He was the one who wiped her tears and healed her wounds and carried her when she could not walk. He defended her from danger, whether it be other basilisks, humans, or even when he was a threat to her himself. He had waited and waited and waited for her, far beyond the length of time any rational person should have to wait. The truth was that Daphne had loved him since the moment she met him. She just hadn’t been able to admit it until now. She knew without asking that it was the same for Kronos, that what they shared was special and real.

Eventually, their breathing became short and shallow. The air was thick with smoke; sweat shone on their skin. His eyes met hers.

“Are you ready?” Kronos whispered.

Daphne nodded.

“Are you certain?”

Daphne nodded again. She had never been more certain of anything in her life. It was time, finally, to let him in. “Are you?” she whispered back.

Kronos smiled. “Daphne,” he said so quietly she could barely hear it. “There is nowhere I would rather be. It is the privilege of my lifetime to do this with you.”

Daphne smiled.

Kronos cradled the back of her head with one hand while lifting her hips with the other. She surrendered to him completely, relaxing beneath his touch.

“Daphne,” he whispered as the head of his cock slid inside her. “Daphne.”

She’d had his cock down her throat more times than she could count, but it was another thing entirely to have it inside her center. She was not prepared for the way it stretched her, opening her up as he slid in inch after unrelenting inch. It did not matter how carefully he went; it was still a process. But Kronos was a patient man. She had asked him to go slow, and slow he went, sliding out, then in, then out again—going just a little bit farther every time. Daphne breathed through it, at peace in the arms of the man who loved her.

Kronos whispered to her the entire time, murmuring praise against her lips: “You do not understand how good you feel.”

Out.

“I cannot believe I have you at last.”

In.

“Your cunt is perfect. You are even more so.”

Out.

“I love you like this.”

At last, he was all the way in.

Daphne gasped as he filled her completely. Kronos gasped too, his grip tightening on the back of her head as he let out a groan of utter satisfaction—a noise Daphne wished to hear every day for the rest of her life.

“Daphne.”

Her name was his beacon—his light in the darkness.

“You cannot imagine… You do not understand…”

Yet Daphne understood quite well. She knew how it felt to finally connect with him physically after letting their emotional bond build. It felt like heaven, like absolution, like everything in her life had been leading to this. There was no before; there was only after. Daphne would never be the same after this—never again look at a man and desire him the way she desired Kronos. Maximus paled in comparison. Everyone paled in comparison.