Page 83 of Kneel Before Me

His eyes raked over her. His answer was a whisper. “More than I have ever wanted anything.”

A chill ran down her spine. She couldn’t comprehend the way he was looking at her. A hundred unsaid words lingered between them. Daphne wasn’t ready to say that she loved him. She wasn’t even sure she did love him or if she was just enamored with him. But she knew how he made her feel: safe. And no man had ever made her feel safe before. Perhaps it wasn’t love quite yet. But one day it could be. Either way, she knew that Kronos was right to stop her from taking this any further. It wasn’t the right time for them. No matter how badly she wished it were.

“When do we stop?” Daphne whispered.

Kronos met her eye. “What do you mean?”

“How will we know when to stop if we aren’t going to go all the way?”

He brushed a curl from her face, just as he had done before, tracing his fingers down her cheek and resting them gently under her chin. Daphne wondered if he understood what she was really asking. Could she trust Kronos? Any other man would take advantage of the situation. Daphne was naked in the bed of a powerful creature—there was no one she could call to for help. She was placing her safety completely in his hands.

“We will stop when I make you come.”

Daphne frowned. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Aren’t you going to come too?”

He shook his head. “Tonight is not about me.”

Daphne stared at him, hardly believing that she’d heard him correctly.

When the silence dragged on, he frowned and said, “Unless you do not wish to come. We can kiss all night if that is what you wish. I will not let it go any further. You have my word.”

Kronos was missing the point, she realized. He thought she was upset, that they’d gone too far already. In reality, she was in shock. Daphne had never in her entire life had a man offer to make her come without the expectation that she would return the favor.

When she still didn’t respond, he said, “Daphne, you must talk to me. I cannot read your mind.”

She shifted in his arms. “You’re…sure you don’t want to come?”

A small smile tilted his lips. “I would not say that.”

“I mean, you’re sure that you don’t want to come tonight?”

He nodded. “I am sure I do not want that tonight.”

“But doesn’t that bother you?”

“Why would it bother me?”

“Won’t you feel…angry…at me?”

Kronos frowned. “No,” he said simply.

It was just a single word, yet Daphne believed him. Basilisks could not lie, and there could be nothing more straightforward than the word no. The man before her was not angry. He had displayed nothing but restraint and kindness in her presence. Before tonight, she might have considered his behavior an anomaly. Perhaps it was time she accepted it as his true nature. She felt as if she were unlearning years’ worth of behavior that she’d experienced with all the boys before him. She couldn’t imagine how much self-control Kronos was exhibiting when her own desire was so debilitating. Surely, for him it was far worse. If the hardness of his cock was any indication, he was just as turned on as she was, if not more.

“But isn’t it difficult for you?” she whispered. “To resist?”

Kronos sighed. His fingers were still inside her, though they had stilled. Even thinking about coming made her wetter than she already was. She wondered if he could feel it.

“Of course it is difficult,” he said quietly. “But you are worth the wait.”

Daphne could barely comprehend his words. “How can you know that?”

“I just know.”

“But—”